Despite the title of this site, I have no green thumb whatsoever.
But with my lack of gardening skills, I can appreciate our God and His level of complete mastery that much more.
I couldn’t keep lavender alive, but the Lord sustains everything in creation. Companion planting? I don’t understand the first thing about how it works. But our God weaves everything — the good and the “bad” — together with such intricacy and detail that our minds can’t begin to take it in. (For more on that, see Job).
With each of my gardening failures (and pretty much any other brand of failure), I’m reminded even more of the awesome nature of our God who cannot fail. (And who teaches me through my failures.)
So in a nutshell, that’s what this space is about. The growth of life orchestrated by our awe-inspiring God.
I’ll be prayerful about the things I post and do my best to only go where the Spirit leads me. And I ask that you also be prayerful while reading. We can meet down in the comment sections of each post or privately through email and talk about it all some more!
A NOTE: Please be loving and respectful of any comments (from others or myself) that you may not agree with. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that none of us have every detail figured out. On this earth, we can only see in part.
But we can all agree on this: Jesus is Lord, and none of us can live without His breath in our lungs. We are nothing apart from Him. We’re all on the same plane while He is high exalted above it all. Yet, He humbled Himself to walk this earth and serve others — especially the broken — in perfect love.
Stay humble and treat one another as sisters. We can disagree without biting at one another. (See Galatians 5:15)
A Bit About Me
I fill the roles of wife and momma in a family of 6 (you can check out our family blog here). My husband, Chris, is the exemplification of patience and an immeasurable blessing to me. Our 4 kids are loud, hilarious, and full of personality (which is a contrast to my quiet, introverted self). We’re blessed to spend our days together; I homeschool our babes, and Chris works from home.
I’m living a life I’ve dreamed of since I was a little girl.
And WOW, is it a challenge! But all the best things in life are challenging, and there’s so much joy in it.
I couldn’t say that I’ve always lived in joy, though.
Like you (and anyone else), I’ve faced pain, struggle, and heartache — sometimes of my own doing.
It’s a comfort to know that suffering wasn’t unknown by Jesus. That He felt despair. That My God came as a man to lay His life down for dust like me.
I could go into further detail about who I am and where I came from. But it’s truly not important. What is important is this: I’m a wretch. You’re a wretch. God loves us in spite of that and gave up Himself as our salvation BECAUSE of that. My life really doesn’t matter in comparison with Him.
This site won’t be about me. It’ll be about Jesus.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus!
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of this earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
Why “Planting Vineyards”?
She considers a field and buys it;
Proverbs 31:16 (NKJV)
From her profits she plants a vineyard.
In a particularly dark period of my life, God led me to Proverbs 31 and used it to speak to me. One minute I was okay, and the next, I was sobbing uncontrollably while my babies napped peacefully beside me. At that point in my life, I hadn’t read my Bible much. But God used that day to draw me near and remind me of my first Love.
Ever since, He’s continued to bring me back to that passage during different seasons of my life and used it to edify, correct, and encourage me.
The 16th verse never really struck me as anything important until almost a year after starting this blog. I used a different name for it at the time — a Life so Sweet. It was an okay name, but it felt like something was missing. Like that wasn’t really the final name.
Then while studying in Proverbs 31, the Holy Spirit made this verse come alive for me.
Without going into the meaning of every original Hebrew word, I’ll give you the abridged version. When it says “she considers” the field, in Hebrew, it’s more like she’s fixing her thought on the field to obtain it.
And the “field” isn’t just some piece of ground. I mean, it could be if she didn’t do anything with it. But she doesn’t let it lie dormant. She plants a vineyard — a place where fruit is grown for pressing into wine. In scripture, wine symbolizes the new covenant and the Holy Spirit (which was poured out, signifying the new covenant).
That’s what this blog is to me. Getting it started wasn’t easy, and every step along the way has been rocky. There have been months in a row where I’ve put it away. Times when I knew I couldn’t write because I wasn’t sure about things myself.
But I’ve fixed my thought on this space. This is a platform for me to point to Jesus and submit to His giftings on my life. This is my field.
And my hope for Planting Vineyards is to plant seeds in the hearts of my readers that lead to fruit and spiritual understanding in their own lives.
If it sounds like this is the place for you, stick around! You can follow the social media pages for Planting Vineyards with the buttons at the very top of your screen, and you can join the email list by giving your name and email address here (I won’t pass it along to anyone and promise not to SPAM your inbox):
@import url(https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:400,400italic,700,700italic); @import url(‘https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Raleway:400,400i,700,700i&subset=latin-ext’); /* LOADER */ .ml-form-embedSubmitLoad { display: inline-block; width: 20px; height: 20px; } .ml-form-embedSubmitLoad:after { content: ” “; display: block; width: 11px; height: 11px; margin: 1px; border-radius: 50%; border: 4px solid #fff; border-color: #f6f6f6 #f6f6f6 #f6f6f6 transparent; animation: ml-form-embedSubmitLoad 1.2s linear infinite; } @keyframes ml-form-embedSubmitLoad { 0% { transform: rotate(0deg); } 100% { transform: rotate(360deg); } } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer { box-sizing: border-box; display: table; height: 99.99%; margin: 0 auto; position: static; width: 100% !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer h4, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer p, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer span, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer button { text-transform: none !important; letter-spacing: normal !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper { background-color: #89a57d; border-width: 0px; border-color: transparent; border-radius: 4px; border-style: solid; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block !important; margin: 0; padding: 0; position: relative; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper.embedPopup, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper.embedDefault { width: 400px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper.embedForm { max-width: 400px; width: 100%; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-align-left { text-align: left; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-align-center { text-align: center; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-align-default { display: table-cell !important; vertical-align: middle !important; text-align: center !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-align-right { text-align: right; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedHeader img { border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; height: auto; margin: 0 auto !important; max-width: 100%; width: undefinedpx; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody { padding: 20px 20px 0 20px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody.ml-form-embedBodyHorizontal { padding-bottom: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent { margin: 0 0 20px 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent h4, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent h4 { color: #ffffff; font-family: ‘Raleway’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0 0 10px 0; text-align: center; word-break: break-word; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent p, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent p { color: #ffffff; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 0 10px 0; text-align: center; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent ul, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent ol, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent ul, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent ol { color: #ffffff; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent p a, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent p a { color: #000000; text-decoration: underline; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedContent p:last-child, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-successBody .ml-form-successContent p:last-child { margin: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody form { margin: 0; width: 100%; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-formContent, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow { margin: 0 0 20px 0; width: 100%; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow { float: left; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 20px 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow { margin: 0 0 10px 0; width: 100%; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow.ml-last-item { margin: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow.ml-formfieldHorizintal { margin: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow input { background-color: #ffffff !important; color: #333333 !important; border-color: #cccccc !important; border-radius: 4px !important; border-style: solid !important; border-width: 1px !important; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px !important; height: 40px; line-height: 20px !important; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 0; padding: 10px 10px !important; width: 100% !important; box-sizing: border-box !important; max-width: 100% !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow input::-webkit-input-placeholder, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow input::-webkit-input-placeholder { color: #333333; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow input::-moz-placeholder, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow input::-moz-placeholder { color: #333333; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow input:-ms-input-placeholder, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow input:-ms-input-placeholder { color: #333333; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-fieldRow input:-moz-placeholder, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow input:-moz-placeholder { color: #333333; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow { height: 42px; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow .ml-input-horizontal { width: 70%; float: left; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow .ml-button-horizontal { width: 30%; float: left; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow .horizontal-fields { box-sizing: border-box; float: left; padding-right: 10px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow input { background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; border-color: #cccccc; border-radius: 4px; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding: 10px 10px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-y: initial; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow button { background-color: #667762 !important; border-color: #667762; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; border-radius: 4px; box-shadow: none; color: #f6f6f6 !important; cursor: pointer; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: 700; line-height: 20px; margin: 0 !important; padding: 10px !important; width: 100%; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-horizontalRow button:hover { background-color: #333333 !important; border-color: #333333 !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow input[type=”checkbox”] { display: inline-block; float: left; margin: 1px 0 0 0; left: 0; top: 0; opacity: 1; visibility: visible; appearance: checkbox !important; -moz-appearance: checkbox !important; -webkit-appearance: checkbox !important; position: relative; height: 14px; width: 14px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow .label-description { color: #000000; display: block; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; text-align: left; padding-left: 25px; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow label { font-weight: normal; margin: 0; padding: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow label a { color: #000000; text-decoration: underline; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow label p { color: #000000 !important; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 12px !important; font-weight: normal !important; line-height: 18px !important; padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 5px 0 0 !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow label p:last-child { margin: 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedSubmit { margin: 0 0 20px 0; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedSubmit button { background-color: #667762 !important; border: none !important; border-radius: 4px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: #f6f6f6 !important; cursor: pointer; font-family: ‘Open Sans’, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif !important; font-size: 14px !important; font-weight: 700 !important; line-height: 20px !important; height: 40px; padding: 10px !important; width: 100% !important; box-sizing: border-box !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedSubmit button.loading { display: none; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-embedSubmit button:hover { background-color: #333333 !important; } .ml-subscribe-close { width: 30px; height: 30px; background: url(https://bucket.mlcdn.com/images/default/modal_close.png) no-repeat; background-size: 30px; cursor: pointer; margin-top: -10px; margin-right: -10px; position: absolute; top: 0; right: 0; } .ml-error input { background: url(https://bucket.mlcdn.com/images/default/error-icon.png) 98% center no-repeat #ffffff !important; background-size: 24px 24px !important; } .ml-error .label-description { color: #ff0000 !important; } .ml-error .label-description p, .ml-error .label-description p a { color: #ff0000 !important; } #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow.ml-error .label-description p, #mlb2-1574860.ml-form-embedContainer .ml-form-embedWrapper .ml-form-embedBody .ml-form-checkboxRow.ml-error .label-description p:first-letter { color: #ff0000 !important; } @media only screen and (max-width: 400px){ .ml-form-embedWrapper.embedDefault, .ml-form-embedWrapper.embedPopup { width: 100%!important; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm { float: left!important; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow { height: auto!important; width: 100%!important; float: left!important; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow .ml-input-horizontal { width: 100%!important; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-form-horizontalRow .ml-input-horizontal > div { padding-right: 0px!important; padding-bottom: 10px; } .ml-form-formContent.horozintalForm .ml-button-horizontal { width: 100%!important; } } function ml_webform_success_1574860() { var $ = ml_jQuery || jQuery; $(‘.ml-subscribe-form-1574860 .row-success’).show(); $(‘.ml-subscribe-form-1574860 .row-form’).hide(); } https://static.mailerlite.com/js/w/webforms.min.js?v253251d9ecd93b8e74c12a37f72e896fBy joining this email list, you’ll get The Vine, my version of a newsletter with excerpts of the Word for your edification.
If you read through all of that and made it here, you deserve a cookie! Seriously, kuddos.
Grace and peace,
New here? Check out this page next!
Planting Vineyards 
