A Mom’s Example: Be Fresh and Fruitful  

Recently I took my eighty-seven-year-old mom grocery shopping. With her back problems and other physical limitations, she made her way slowly through the aisles of the store, sometimes pausing for a moment in order to rest. Even though I tried to do all the reaching for items on shelves and any heavy lifting, by the time we were finished I knew she was in pain and worn out. However, as we approached the check-out line, she took the opportunity to pull out a couple of devotional booklets and place them where she hoped someone might see them, pick one up, and be ministered to by its inspirational content. Then she proceeded to ignore her own physical discomfort long enough to interact with the cashier and the person bagging our groceries with a warm smile, a laugh, and kind words.

My mom is not perfect. And she’ll likely be embarrassed when she discovers I wrote this about her and will remind me of her faults. Certainly there are days when her ailments negatively affect her spirit and attitude. However, on this Mother’s Day weekend I’m thankful for a mom who still often seeks to be a witness for Christ and tries to positively touch the lives of others whom she encounters. It reminds me of a description given in one of the Psalms. “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; they shall be fresh and flourishing, to declare that the Lord is upright” (Psalm 92:12-15).

No matter what age we are, no matter our physical challenges, no matter how trying our current circumstances may be, we should hope to be “fresh and flourishing” spiritually. While some of us may be limited in the scope of our activities or in the opportunities we have to personally interact with others, we can still look for ways to bear fruit for the Lord and to be a witness for Him. How do we do that? How do we maintain a spirit of freshness? How do we flourish in spite of the obstacles which try to hold us back? How do we keep bearing Christlike fruit when there are so many reasons to give in to the tendency to just dry up and wither?

I believe Jesus pointed us to one of the key elements in the answer to those questions. He also used a plant analogy in conveying this truth, although using a vine as his teaching tool rather than one of those majestic cedars of Lebanon. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit” (John 15:5). The key to being fresh, flourishing, and fruitful is to abide in Christ. This means that we stay closely connected to Him. We don’t allow anything to come between us and our relationship with the Lord. Unlike King Solomon who allowed the influence of idol-worshiping wives to lead him astray from God in his latter years of life, we continue to maintain our love and loyalty to the Lord in spite of the forces of this world that try to pull us in a different direction. We continue to cultivate a growing fellowship with the Lord through prayer, listening to and obeying His Word, participating in corporate worship, and seeking for ways to serve Him and to point others to Him.

No matter what challenges and limitations we may face today, if we’ll keep pursuing a closer walk with Jesus, He can make us spiritually fresh and fruitful.