Fail Big

This year I set out to put all of my Pinterest inspired plans and acreage to good use. Measure out my dimensions, buy the seeds, till the soil, fence it in, plant, water and repeat until it’s ready to harvest. How hard could this gardening thing be, anyway? (says the millennial)..

I didn’t get my seeds started in time so I had to purchase started plants in late May (I tried to with my strawberry seeds…they didn’t turn out like I had hoped). I dug my holes at 2:00 in the scorching hot afternoon because I was too lazy to do it in the crisp morning hours. I forgot to water for a few days in a row…more than once…and almost lost the entire garden multiple times. Half of the tilled soil was a garden of weeds and the cucumbers were just about suffocating the other half of it. And for the love of all things gardening- I didn’t even get to put up the tomato cages.

Through it all, I still somehow managed to carry in baskets full of tomato and cucumber plants over the last six weeks. God probably felt sorry for me and sprinkled His miracles over my weed garden 😉

I’m a failure at pretty much everything I try to do in life.

And so are you.

If that sounds harsh, I’m sorry but, you are. We all are.

I’ve learned something before that I’ll never forget- that even on our best days…our best days when everything in our world seems to be going right…we still don’t measure up to the only perfect human that ever existed: Jesus. So, why do I think I can do anything completely on my own? Why do I feel a need to anyway?

{Insert pride here}

The source of my strength comes entirely from my Savior and the good news is that His strength never fails- even though I do daily. As a believer, this is what I hold my hope in. This is where my anchor lies.

It’s not that I didn’t try my best to avoid these mistakes. I just knew from the beginning that mistakes were bound to happen (does anything ever go as planned?). Instead of letting the inevitable discourage me, I kept pushing through and had a harvest that equaled the intentional effort I gave. I also think the land we live on here in southern Ohio is super fertile and will be my greatest advantage in the future years to come. I can only imagine what the produce will be when I apply what I’ve learned from this year to next year’s garden…and next year’s mistakes to the following year….and so forth 🙂

My failures amount up to nothing short of a learning experience for anything in my future that will go right. How do we know what success is, or what blessings are, or what glory feels like…if things don’t ever go wrong? The bigger my mistake is, the more He seems to use it better for His glory later on.

Keep showing up. Keep learning, growing, investing into and expanding your knowledge. Keep failing and keep pushing through the trials.

Another important lesson through this failure/learning experience: networking is key, no matter what you’re trying to build. After an unexpected visit with our elderly neighbors a few weeks ago (we were helping my friend look for her runaway dog), I marveled over their abundance in produce and well thought out garden layout. It was obvious that they have had decades of experience in this area. I decided then that helping them with their garden next year is going to be one of the best ways I can help my own garden. Even more than that it’s a great way to build a closer relationship with them. I also realized in that moment that I had several close friends offer to help me through this process and I let my pride get in the way instead of taking them up on their offers. It was almost like God was saying to me right in that moment, “The answer was in front of you all along. You have help- look around you.” Quite literally…200 yards to my right! All I had to do was, “love my neighbor” (Mark 12:31).

“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:11-13.

Yours Truly,

Kelsey