Part I

Good Seed, Good Soil, Good Plant

Raising children can be compared to the growing of a garden, both beginning with seed and nurtured through its cultivation. The seedlings first stages of development are planted by man, sheltered (incubated) within the womb by a body of earth or a woman’s body. Upon birth (sprouting) it is the godly duty of the parents or gardeners to sow, to implant what is needed to and for the plantlet to grow strong and sturdy. In the raising of a child it is the duty of the parent (gardener) to sow   the truth and the light of God into the heart of the child. The seed of faith must be sown or it will not germinate to the full potential of its sanctified destiny.

 So it is our mothers and our fathers who minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to the child, attributing all glory to God. It is their daily assignment to cultivate the soil. They plow the ground with teaching and godly example. It is their duty-bound undertaking to rid the mind, heart and soul of canker worms that would attempt to destroy these tender plants (children) of their godly destiny. It is a task of caring and loving, pulling weeds and pruning. They surrender their raising of the child to biblical instructions, for they know God will give the increase.  It is the benevolent watering of God’s word, teaching and order into the child’s life that produces beneficial growth.

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Colossians 3:21 ESV

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 ESV

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother. Proverbs 29:15 ESV

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Psalm 127:3 ESV

Musical Dedication - In honor of mothers and womanhood

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6 KJV

The astounding performance below “This is a Man’s World” was dedicated from American Idol contestant and singer Joshua Ledet to his mother. Ledet’s also honored his father with song* “You Lift Me Up”.  Ledet stated “I know that without my mom my dad would not be the man he is today.”

Joshua Ledet from Westlake, Louisiana notes his mother influences his musical style and he has had no formal singing training. He grew up singing in his family church and writes songs and lyrics for and attends the House of Prayer Holiness Church.

Throughout the competition Joshua’s gospel influence has been evident in his performances. After this performance Jennifer Lopez one of the American Idol judges said she finally  had experienced what the saying “Taking You to Church” meant!  

 Ledet’s Dedication to Parents

Dedication to Mother - Joshua Ledet - Full Video - It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World - 3D

http://youtu.be/9j2knMX0z0U

*Dedication to Father- Joshua Ledet- You Raise Me Up - Full Video - 3D

http://youtu.be/uYQ4Z-5koXY

Part II

Sowing Your Creativity and God’s Power 

I have always been an avid fan of author Alice Walker’s works, her writings have always spoken to the reader, the dreamer, the writer, the woman and yes even the little girl that still dwells inside of me.  Below are excerpts from an article written by Marina Del Vecchio reflecting her thoughts of Walker’s most poignant book, In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens.

I would like to add that as women of God we are creative and nurturing beings. We intuitively mother each other as well as our male counterparts. Whether natural or spiritual, family or friends, we more than not, give what the Father gave so freely to us “love”.  If we can only learn to love one another as the Heavenly Father has loved us how beautiful would our garden grow. Then we would possess a garden full of “different and unique” vibrant flowers, a people not lacking in tolerance, understanding, compassion and forgiveness; treating others as we would want to be treated. Then we would be a garden pollinating our godly-given gift of beauty and creativity one to another. Sending forth one to another God’s peace, joy and love, sowing good seed into good soil.

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see: or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”(Alice Walker/ In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: The Creativity of Black Women in the South /1974)

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice; and I am persuaded in you also.2 Timothy 1:5 KJV

Alice Walker, Creativity, and Her Mother’s Garden by Marina DelVecchio

In 1973, Alice Walker wrote the inspirational “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” for a Radcliffe Symposium on Black women and the myths that surrounded them. Recalling Jean Toomer’s visit to the south in the 20’s and her observations on the vacant, lost, and physically abused forms of black women, Walker focuses on the artistic value of these women. Whether they were saints or sinners, matriarchs…

Walker writes her mother was overworked, but she found places within her domestic life to allow creativity to thrive. She “fed her creativity” by telling stories—stories that Alice Walker focuses on in her own work. Stories that need telling and recording; verbal witnesses that burst from her lips with an urgency that Walker heard and understood, even as a child. Her mother’s stories became Walker’s stories, and through her, Walker’s mother lives—her creativity thrives and lives on in her own daughter.

According to Walker, the basis of art is dependent upon its “Creators, who lived lives of spiritual waste, because they were so rich in spirituality” (354). Interestingly, when she considers the empty and decaying lives of these abused women …. Walker sees strong women who have learned to find power in silence, in spirituality, in waiting for the world to recognize them, and God to embrace them. She doesn’t see waste or surrender; she sees artists, pained and heroic, who find escape in their storytelling, their piety, and their songs.

“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” posits the question, “How was the creativity of Black women kept alive” when life oppressed her and crushed her to silence, to inferiority? To answer this, she addresses her mother’s garden of creativity. Her mother ran off to marry her father, had countless kids, and sewed everything the family wore and slept in, including sheets and blankets. She never showed anger or impatience. She had no time between taking care of the kids, the home, canning vegetables, and working beside her husband in the fields. It is to her mother, because of her mother, that she searches for the creativity of black women, attempting to find where her mother hid hers:

“I went in search of the secret of what has fed that muzzled and often mutilated, but vibrant , creative spirit that the Black woman has inherited, and that pops out in wild and unlikely places to this day.” (357)

What do you search for in your mother’s gardens? And what have you discovered about her?

My prayer today as it is always is that you reside in God’s love, peace and everlasting joy.

Prophetess Sandra Dukes