Thirty One Days to Shine: Raccoons

The weather is absolutely GORGEOUS right now! Warm, sunny, breezy.....makes me look forward to planting my garden again this year. There is nothing better than delicious homegrown tomatoes! Unless maybe some crisp, sweet snow peas....or juicy strawberries...or sweet golden corn....Well, I think you get the idea, LOL. Anything fresh from the garden will be amazing. Unless the raccoons get it. Or the rabbits. Or the slugs, deer, and any other garden pest you can think of.

Every year I start my garden with the same frame of mind. I look forward with expectation to all the rewards I will get from my efforts. And every year I have to do my best to deter the pests that visit my garden. I'll never forget the first year I had planted some corn. It was beautiful. Tall, green stalks, with leaves waving in the wind. I couldn't help but feel like I had an amazing success of a garden with those majestic corn plants all lined up in rows. The ears were looking good, filling out nicely with juicy kernels and it wouldn't be long before harvest time. Finally, the day arrived and I headed outside to reap the rewards of my hard work. But instead I was greeted with what looked like a war zone! Corn stalks ripped from the ground, others laying on their sides, half eaten ears strewn about! What had happened? I was so angry and disappointed! All that hard work for nothing! I salvaged what I could and when I was done I had one measly little bucket of corn.

Experience is a good teacher and I definitely learned a few things. First, either put up an electric fence to keep the raccoons out or plant twice as much corn in hopes they will leave some for you when they are done. Honestly! That is the advice I found online when I went looking for answers. I have to tell you I have not planted corn again since that time because I haven't had the time to put in the fence, and I haven't felt friendly enough towards the raccoons to offer them a free dinner!

Everyone knows that when you till the ground, plant the seeds, water and feed them, you will have a harvest. But what I didn't realize until that day is that you had better plant enough seed to account for the raccoons.

Isn't that the same in every area of our lives? Whether it be business, ministry, or relationships, we can't sow our seeds sparingly because we never know when an unexpected event or pest will come along and if we want to be successful we have to be generous in our sowing and never give up.

So this spring, I will be ordering some extra seed, planting a bigger garden...and I might even plant some corn :)

Jerri James

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 2 Corinthians 9:6

A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25