Welcome to My People Garden: A Look at Relationships Through the Perspective of the Parable of the Sower

By Eva Fulton

Welcome to My People Garden will introduce you to the parable of the sower in a different light where you find the applicability in today’s world. You will learn to explore and develop your relationship with in your own backyard, grow your relationship with yourself, with God, to develop better relationships with other people. When you work your people garden with intention of growth and harvest while working the ground, then you will discover that your relationships will be bountiful in ways you would never imagine. You too will find yourself saying, Welcome to my People Garden with pure unconditional joy and love in your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973632351

Eva Fulton

Eva Fulton is a native Texan, U.S. Army combat veteran where she served in Desert Shield/Storm during the Gulf War. Eva is a faithful servant seeking to motivate and inspire others in their life journeys. Ms. Fulton founded North Texas Women Veterans and North Texas Veterans, and works with many veteran groups in Texas. She has many published articles, featured in U.S. Veterans Magazine, newspaper articles and a radio interview. She received her Bachelors and MBA degrees from Dallas Baptist University. Welcome to My People Garden is Ms. Fulton’s first book and already has plans for People Gardening@Work and People Gardening with My Partner. She is also writing and producing a documentary called Faithful Warriors. www.evafulton.com

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Copyright © 2018 Eva Fulton.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3234-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3233-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-3235-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018907571

WestBow Press rev. date: 7/19/2018

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 Preparation

Chapter 2 God’s Fields

Chapter 3 Tools in the Shed

Chapter 4 Ground Choices

Chapter 5 Tending the Garden

Chapter 6 Planters, Waterers, and Weeds

Chapter 7 Bugs and Pests

Chapter 8 Seasons and Storms

Chapter 9 Gardeners

Chapter 10 Rest and Growth

Chapter 11 Produce and Aromas

Chapter 12 Grow Your Garden

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my children, Jordan, Joshua, Cody, and Carrie. Without your support, enduring love, and kind patience with me, this book would not have been possible. We have been through so much together.

To my family, friends, and coworkers and anyone who came across my people garden, you have all been such a blessing and inspiration. For without you, your love, your support, and your tender gardening skills with me, I know I would not have had the inspiration to write all that needs to be written. Thank you for your unconditional love always.

To Mom and Dad, thank you for teaching me to be stronger than I knew I could be.

Special thanks to Mark and Rick (rest in peace). Thank you for the gift of our children. You are in a much better place—always looking over their shoulders.

Thank you, Jesus, for walking beside me in this journey. I pray this book is worthy.

Preface

Approximately thirty years ago, I first felt the calling to write a book. Back then, the subject would have been totally different. I was in a different place in my life. Suffice it to say that the book then would have been a pitiful woe is me book compared to the growth I have found since then. Though I certainly wanted to write, I just did not take the time and energy to follow through. I was not disciplined, I had not learned what I needed to learn in order to write about anything special. As far as the subject matter in this book, suffice to say it has been an interesting journey the last few years to get to this point. It began with a seed that was planted in me some years ago.

In the summer of 2006, I felt an urge to complete my education and get my bachelor’s degree that I’d started in 1986. You see, I did not make the grade so long ago. My path in life took various courses before the opportunity came back where I could finish my degree, and thus, many blessings have resulted. During my first semester as a returning adult student in the spring of 2007, one of my professors noticed something in me and proceeded to communicate that I should consider getting my master’s in business administration degree (MBA). The email conversation went something like this:

Prof: You bring a lot of interesting points and views to the class in your discussions and in your assignments. Have you ever considered getting your MBA?

Me: No, I have not. I’m self-employed and don’t see how an MBA would do anything for me.

Prof: You don’t understand. It’s not what an MBA will do for you but rather what you with an MBA will do for others.

Me: Okay. I’ll consider it.

My first thought after that conversation was that I had no idea what he meant. I received his words as a seed, perhaps even some professor’s sales tactic, but I didn’t truly consider that I could possibly have any type of impact on someone else’s life if I had an MBA. The concept just did not sink in. My second thought was how in the world I could make that happen if I were meant to go further in my educational pursuit. You see, I thought if this was something that really could come true then I had no spiritual or financial understanding as to how I would afford another two years of school.

What slowly became clear was that it was going to take a small miracle for me to continue going to school. I would need something close to a financial miracle, and I didn’t know how I was going to make this occur by myself. That, however, was the flaw in my thinking—that I was to do this by myself. Instead, I started a small conversation with God. God, if this is Your will, then You must make some miracles happen because I honestly don’t know how I can afford this. Can You move this mountain too? The seed was planted. I gave it to God, and He answered. I like to think that He saw how hard I worked to achieve my first degree. Somehow, over the course of the year, I reconciled myself that I had to have faith that this was the path to take. After all, God found me a way to finish my bachelor’s degree, so who was I to question God’s ability to help me get my MBA?

With forty-five semester hours under my belt, I graduated in December 2007, just one short year after I began this first leg of the journey. The interesting part about the opportunity for me to even go back to school comes from a long and painful situation in my life that turned into a blessing. While serving in the military on my birthday in 1992, I was in a serious car accident that was so severe that even the wrecker asked, Who died in this? The blessing is that not only did I survive (as I aptly call one of my angel occurrences) but because of the many physical difficulties, the accident later provided a way for me to get my education.

When I got out of the Army, life was an adjustment. I worked in a few civilian jobs and learned that the culture was vastly different. I did not feel prepared to endure the culture change of which I had grown so accustomed, even with my physical issues.

Due to the injuries I received in the military and then as an Army Veteran, I was given the opportunity to continue my education in a Vocational Rehabilitation program through the Department of Veterans Affairs. I could have qualified for a different education program but my children and I were not in a good place financially. I was broke. I was broke physically, spiritually, and financially. Then a blessing happened. I was truly blessed with an education counselor who gave me the opportunity not only to complete my bachelor’s degree but to also achieve an MBA.

After I completed my bachelor’s, during my exit interview with my wonderful counselor to transition from the student phase to the job search phase, she offered to send me to back to school to get my MBA. My jaw dropped to the floor right then and there! I felt God answering that initial question, that yes, Oh, yes! He can move mountains without a doubt! It started out as just a small seed, but He moved mountains for me! He knew that I had the will to do what He wanted, but He was the one who guided me through all of my studies. God is the only one who can make things happen. My initial response, of course, was that I needed to consult with my family. After getting their approval, I was on my way to starting my MBA the following spring semester. I was also in search of a job, another task I gave to God to handle.

Not only did I start my MBA, but I was also blessed to begin working full time after submitting only eight resumes. Now the odds of getting any interviews at all with so few resume submissions in these days would be thought of as not exactly playing good odds. However, I am no gambler. Even so, each resume submission was a calculation or a leap of faith. I knew people who had submitted hundreds of resumes with only a few calls for interviews. I even had a few people who asked how my job hunt was going. I simply replied, I have faith that it is going. I would shrug my shoulders to show that I felt it was not in my hands. No matter how crazy it seemed, I just kept the