Heart Mulch

Friends for your soul soil

Welcome back to The Workbox I am incredibly glad you made it back. If you are here for the first time, I hope you find what you are looking for and are satisfied by what you read! I would recommend checking out my previous post about this year's Spring. You can find it by following through this link here!

Photo by Maddy Baker on Unsplash

Today's topic is heart mulch. One of the main ways that I create my posts is by thinking of the title first. Usually, it hits as a moment of inspiration, maybe a single line or the title, and from there it grows and develops as I begin thinking about it and what I want to say. I keep a running list of ideas, either titles or phrases that I have thought about. 

Heart mulch is one of those such phrases. I work in landscaping and I deal with a ton of mulch, literally tons of it. But working the mulch uses very little mental energy. I generally use that time to think about a vast variety of subjects. Some of which end up on here, others on the list, and others still in the junk drawer of the mind. (which happens to be a subject I will write about one day.)

Mulch is an essential part of landscaping. A brief search on Google provides a great definition via the USDA. They define mulch as the following: 

Mulch helps conserve and extend available water, protects the soil from erosion, reduces competition by suppressing weeds, moderates temperature extremes, and acts as a barrier or visible marker of gardening beds to limit damage by landscape maintenance equipment.

I agree with this definition. And I believe that our hearts need mulch. I am not talking about vitamins and minerals (though those are useful.) Or exercise (useful too). But I am talking about friends. Good friends. Best friends. A good friend is like mulch for the heart. 

Our friends should help us, hold us accountable, moderate our extremes by keeping us steady, and bring out the good qualities in us. Friends can also keep us from making poor decisions. And friends are also visible markers for others. As the saying goes, "If you want to know what someone is like, look at his friends." Or as the other saying goes "you are who you hang around with." 

Unlike mulch, which loses its color as it gets older, a good friend grows better with age. We are like mulch for our friends. Which suddenly becomes a challenge for us. Are we good for our friends? Are we keeping the good nutrients and water in and suppressing the weeds in their lives? We want to be good for others, providing wisdom and joy, a pleasure to be around, like a garden in full swing. In other words, we are to be Christ-like. 

Being challenged is good because it causes us to grow. Or at least it should if we respond correctly. Friends also give us opportunities to respond correctly. Since I am not perfect I will sin against others, that gives me a chance to reconcile with them and they with me. A good friend hears you and loves you through it. The mulch on your heart suppresses a weed in that moment. 

Mulch takes time to place, and you always need a lot of it. It can be messy, it can be tedious, and it makes you tired (if you have to do lots of it). But in the end, it is always worth it. Seeing the landscape change with mulch done right is satisfying. The plants respond favorably. The grounds look good. And you know you put in a good day's work when all is said and done. 

Friends are similar. It takes time to develop a solid friendship. But in the end, it is always worth it. People are not perfect, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But through Christ, we have been redeemed. In Him, we have the Spirit of God, the Master Gardener. Who convicts us of sin, who restores us, and who guides us. He knows our needs and wants. Jesus himself called us his friends. 

Be mulch for someone today. Love them through it, and demonstrate the love of Christ to others. And in doing so, you will show that you love Christ. We all need mulch on our hearts. We all need the Master Gardener to work our soul soil. And the great thing is that he does. He is always at work. He has a plan that is a lifetime long and he is in no rush. Pruning here, trimming there. At the end of it all, a perfect garden that reflects its own beauty of a perfectly growing healthy garden, but also reflects the glory of a Master at work.