Manure Stinks, but it Sure Brings a Good Harvest!

This morning I spent time in my garden, with help from my handsome older son, digging compost and manure into the soil in preparation for planting veggies.  I've been anticipating planting and harvest, so it was gratifying to shape and prep the beds, then watering the newly tilled soil.  Doing this will give me a better yield, nicer veggies for my fam to eat.  But you know, manure stinks.  When I purchased the bags of it, it filled my van with an....odor.  When I watered the garden today, it stunk. 

Sometimes it is exactly the stink that happens in our day, week, year, that is the foundational enriching amendment our lives are needing to kickstart a new, bountiful, beautiful harvest that we've been longing for. 

So, even if things around you are stinking, praise God!  Let Him work in your heart and use the stink to bring the needed change in the soil of your life.  It may not be pleasant or comfortable - we may even think we prefer to remain hard, dry, cracked and infertile - but deep down I believe we all yearn for better.

Here's to a new season, a fresh beginning, the hope of harvest.  I believe it's in you!