The word cultivate has particular significance and beauty to me. It not only represents the deep love that I hold for gardening but also in a single word it describes the deepest value of how I choose to live: affirming, nurturing and defending what is Good, True and Beautiful.
To cultivate with deliberate intention is an act of choice, courage and creative hope. It is an act of love and a step of faith. By definition it means to break up hard ground, to prepare for planting, to nurture. By practice it means to choose what I focus on, what I invest my life, energy, heart and strength in, and what I then to pass on to others. It also means guarding against those elements that threaten what I have chosen to nurture.
I cultivate as an offering of worship to our Creator and obedience to Him as my God and King. Essential tenets of what I believe are that good will always overcome evil — even when we do not live to see that in this world; Light overcomes the darkness and the darkness will NEVER put it out; Beauty triumphs over destruction; He Who is Life has prevailed over death, and this great Story in which we are privileged to play a part has the very best of endings.
I am inspired by Philippians 4:8 ~
“For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].”
And grounded on Deuteronomy 30:19 ~
“I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live …”
Life is good. Cultivate it!
The image above is copyright of Lancia E. Smith.
White geraniums and Creme Brûlée petunias are among my favourite flowers
and these are grown with love in our gardens at House on the Way.
Lancia E. Smith is an author, photographer, teacher, and business owner. A grateful lover of the Triune God, Lancia is passionate about the disciple making. Reflecting that calling, she is the Founder and Executive Director of Cultivating Good | True | Beautiful, and of The Cultivating Project, a discipling initiative for Christians engaged in the arts, with a special emphasis on writers. Lancia is a board member and patron of the Anselm Society, and Regional Representative of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. She is President and CEO of a thriving environmental consulting and construction firm based in northern Colorado which she runs with her husband Peter. They are parents to seven children, and are grandparents to a beloved flock of grandchildren. Lancia loves strong coffee with cinnamon, writing, website design, David Austin roses, Marvel movies, road trips with Peter, and nearly every book she ever read by C.S. Lewis, J.R. R. Tolkien, and George MacDonald.
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