Garden Lessons

By Debra J. Vaughn

A collection of short stories from new author Debra J. Vaughn, Garden Lessons: Listening for Gods Voice will delight the reader with its personal and profound observations. Whether pondering plants, squirrels, butterflies or birds, all nature provides Debra with fresh perspectives on biblical principles. As she listens for Gods voice and shares what shes learned, the author invites you to come and meet with God in his creation. A result of journaling over the course of several years, these lessons of encouragement and hope were refined in order to share them with groups to whom Debra was asked to speak. From single parents to mothers of disabled children to Bible study groups, Debras garden lessons became favorites to all who heard them. Now compiled in book form with lovely pictures to inspire, Garden Lessons: Listening for Gods Voice can be read, remembered and shared with others for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 6, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469144580

Debra J. Vaughn

Debra J. Vaughn has been known as a vocalist and worship leader for many years. The first album that featured Debra as a solo artist, Neal Joseph’s “Come Celebrate Jesus,” won the 1985 Dove Award for “Musical of the Year.” Although passionate about music, Debra also counts writing and gardening among her great loves. She’s found it’s possible to combine all three as she shares her garden lessons to prepare hearts to worship God. GARDEN LESSONS: Listening for God’s Voice is Debra’s first book

Book preview

GARDEN LESSONS: LISTENING FOR GOD’S VOICE

DEBRA J. VAUGHN

Garden Lessons: Listening For God’s Voice

Copyright © 2012 by Debra J. Vaughn.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover illustration and chapter flower motif by Sue Ellen Cooper.

Author image: Photography by Jen Disney

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Make Me Like You by Ross Lehman. © 1987 & 2000 Ross Lehman Music. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All photographs used by permission.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

107987

Contents

Acknowledgments and Thanks

Welcome to the Garden

The Baby Hummingbird

The Pumpkin Patch

The Parched Path

Uniquely and Wonderfully Made

The Entangled Rose

The Oriole

The Milkweed Seeds

Hawks, Spiders, Emerging Monarchs

Follow the Son

The Squirrel

The Vine

The Absent Gardener

Abundant Life

On a Winter’s Day

Mama Duck

The Young Hawk

The Weed

The Kitty

Nut Grass

The Cucu-melon

He Won’t Forget

The Crow

The Blue Belly

Preparing for Winter

Distractions

The Wren

Summary

About the Author

Acknowledgments and Thanks

First and foremost, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Master Gardener who is my very life. Thank you for speaking your love into my heart and opening my eyes to see these precious lessons.

Jenni Key for sacrificially and skillfully editing my work and encouraging me. Thank you for being the first to publish many of these lessons. How can I thank you enough?

Sue Ellen Cooper for the lovely illustration to grace the Garden Lessons cover. I’m so grateful the Lord brought us together in Community Bible Study.

For providing their inspirational photographs: Jen Disney, Adrian Mulyadi, Gary Richmond, and Irwan Tanujaya.

Our single parents group, Friends Becoming Family, for whom the first lesson was given in December 2006.

The women at Community Bible Study for listening week after week to new garden observations. Your support and encouragement helped me keep my eyes open and ears tuned to hear God’s voice.

Connie Hutchinson and the moms of disabled kids for whom many of these lessons were written and shared.

My extended family for enjoying and listening as I read these stories, even though you were a captive audience.

Kole, my precious stepson, for the critical thinking that helped change my words so they could communicate more clearly to a new generation.

Keith, my beloved husband, soul mate, and fellow gardener, whose love and encouragement lets me be exactly who God created me to be. Thank you for being in awe along with me at what God caused to pour out of this pen.

Welcome to the Garden

flower%20illustration.jpg

In the garden my husband Keith and I have, I feel God’s presence and hear him whisper to me as I walk and work in his creation. It amazes me to think that he made all of it, yet he lives in my heart! May I share with you some of the things he’s taught me in this place?

There’s one part of the garden that’s waving with purple Russian sage. The hummingbirds love that area and have totally claimed it as theirs, feeding there all day long. One day, I needed to water some new seedlings close to the sage, so out I went with the hose to water these plants that would also feed the hummingbirds. But were they happy I was doing that? No way! They dive-bombed my head and chattered at me angrily. They had no idea that what I was doing was really for their good.

I thought about how much like those hummingbirds we can be when God comes to work in the gardens of our lives. We, too, don’t see the good that he has in mind, so we get angry and yell at him to leave us alone. He’s upsetting our routine! We like things just the way they are, thank you! But he loves us anyway and continues to do what’s best for us.

There’s another place in our garden that birds love, especially goldfinches. We’ve put up some long tube-shaped bird feeders that we can see from our kitchen window. Keith and I love to look out and watch the different finches eat and interact with each other. But when their feeders run low, these little guys get noisy.

Now, their favorite seed is thistle or Nijer seed, which happens to be the most expensive seed in the stores. When Keith sees that they’re out of seed again, he looks at me and says, Man, they’re eating me out of house and home! But he disregards the cost and heads out to fill their feeders because he knows they need it.

It’s interesting that when he approaches, they scatter! Some fly completely away. But those who’ve been around a while, those who know him and trust him, go to the nearby trees and wait for him to finish. They know he’s providing for them.

I see God and us in this situation too. When God comes near, some of us fly completely away. But those of us who’ve learned he has our best interests in mind will trust and wait patiently to see how he’ll provide for us. And how does God provide? He also disregarded the cost and gave us the most expensive thing he had—his one and only Son. God knew Jesus was just what we needed.

There’s one more