Tomatoes Please

I purchased 4 cherry tomato plants about eight weeks ago and today I
noticed 4 cherry tomatoes on one of them. Weeks of watering, directing
it's growth pattern and waiting finally showed the fruit of my labor. I
felt as thrilled as a kid just learning to ride a bicycle without
training wheels or a parent holding the seat.

Seeing the tiny tomatoes made me want to be more diligent in my watering,
directing and waiting. It was only a couple of days ago that I looked
from my kitchen window and saw what looked like at least 50 tiny yellow
flower buds offering hope of what was to come. Come, albeit very slow.
So slow that I said to myself, "Why bother". Why bother because the
process seemed so slow.

But, today is a different story. I have all forgotten my earlier disappointment of not seeing the actual tomato and am now feeling like Farmer Brown. In the next few days I'll do more watering, redirecting, organic fertilizing and debugging along with waiting. Hopeful waiting - because I've seen the fruit.

In parenting, though, the fruit does not always show up so soon. I mean, I wished
that I could see my children bearing fruit after only eight weeks of feeding, both physically and spiritually and directing their growth. Truth is, sometimes we don't see their fruit for years to come. But as with the yellow flowers on the tomato plant, holding promises yet to come, I do have God's promise of Proverbs 22:6 that says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it". NASB

So, I'll keep watering, redirecting and waiting for both the tomatoes and my children to show fruit because in both, I have been given hope.