I’ve been super thankful for the April showers this year because of how quickly it has helped things to green up this month! I actually mowed the lawn for the first time today and that got me thinking about green grass.
“The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” That’s one well-known proverb about green grass. Our covetous and jealous hearts often look around at everyone else and come to the conclusion that other people have it better than we do.
But a few years ago I heard a wiser take on that old adage:
“The grass is greener where you water it.”
In other words, conditions tend to improve where there’s intentional effort toward care and improvement.
If you notice yours is the only brown and withered lawn on the block, maybe it’s time to pull the sprinklers out and give it some love.
Similarly, if there’s an area of your life that feels particularly dry or trending in a negative direction, it’s never too late to exert intentional care and attention toward helping it improve or heal.
That’s a big mental shift from getting stuck in a comparison trap thinking others have it so much easier than we do. Thinking they just magically got the greener grass over there on that side of the fence. Not realizing that they’ve worked for hours with one of those dandelion-pulling-contraptions, faithfully digging them up one by one.
What’s an area of your life that could use a little sprinkling of care and attention? Maybe it’s your marriage, your relationship with one of your kids, or something else important. Take some time this week to think of one small way you could “water the grass.”
And best of all, if we tend to the things that matter most, spiritual and soul-level things, we don’t need to worry about the outcomes. Because we are not the ones who ultimately make things grow.
In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul writes, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
Our role is to be faithful—to show up, to invest and care. And as we do, we trust that God is at work in ways we cannot see, bringing life, healing, and growth in His time.