“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and
whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be
like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river,
and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be
anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Jeremiah
17:7-8
These verses have been very special to me through the
years. When I was in my twenties I spent
a year in Costa Rica to attend a language institute for missionaries to learn
the Spanish language and Latin culture.
The Costa Rican family I lived with were awesome Christians and they
daily spoke into my life…or just listened to me speak in my budding Spanish
accent. One day my “Tica” mom gave me
these verses to help me through the crazy journey I was on – the journey of
Life.
A decade later I would hear my mother-in-law teach these
verses to her foster kids – no matter what their ages – so they would have this
truth embedded in their brains for life.
And now, I get to teach it to my children.
Just a few mornings ago, Jeremiah 17:7-8 popped up in my
devotional book and so I shared it with my kids – especially to the one we’ve
been having some hard moments with. The Holy
Spirit gave me a great analogy using a tree we have growing near our canal out
back. It was a tangible way to teach
about how we need to be firmly planted and rely on our water source, the Bible.
(However, after I thought we were really connecting in our
conversation, one of my kids said something so far off, like about the pretty
colors that are on the other bushes… Well, maybe some good nuggets sunk into
their sweet brains so we can revisit the conversation again another day. As Zerby Derby says, we
can just “try, try again”!)
