My 7-year-old grandson and I planted lettuce and spinach seed last week in 2 whiskey barrels and some big pots and we were so proud of ourselves. Then a friend told me I was already 2 weeks behind. Lettuce should have been planted in February.
At our other house, we “farmed.” My husband always plowed up half of the backyard for the garden and we planted at least a flat of tomatoes. For those of you who don’t know, a flat of tomatoes is about 36 tomato plants. We had tomatoes to give away and lots left over to can. Oh, and squash. We had so much squash that we couldn’t give it all away.
I read a joke once about a small town, where everyone locked their car doors, not to keep them from getting stolen, but to keep someone from filling up the backseat with squash.
A lady friend from church came to visit one day and I loaded her up with squash, something she didn’t grow in her garden. She said “I just pray that God will just bless you back abundantly for what you have given me.”
I said, “Oh, no, not more squash.” That week the squash bugs moved in and killed my plants almost overnight.
My mouth determined my destiny. I got what I said, “not more squash.” It opened the door to allow the “devourer” to come in and destroy my crop of squash.
In Malachi 3:11 God says, “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground.”
And the reason He will rebuke the devourer? Malachi 3:10 says, “‘Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may food in My house, and try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’”
This year, I will talk to my plants and tell them that God has blessed the fruit of my ground and rebuked the devourer, but I am not planning to plant squash this year.