It's time to give up on the okra and tomatoes.  For me, it's hard to pull up the stalks that have served me so well all summer long.  It's like saying farewell to an old friend.  But the okra has made seed that will get planted again in the spring.  And the tomatoes were so prolific that I have been begging my neighbors to take them.

When I was very young, my dad once told me  that if there weren't any yellow blooms on the okra, there wouldn't be any okra. And if there wasn't any rain, there wouldn't be any blooms.  I wasn't very big, and had never known anything about growing things, but I understood what he was saying.  You have to have rain.  So in Oklahoma, we always pray for rain.

James 4: 17 "…the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy."

My dad was all of those things.  Pure.  Peaceable.  Gentle.  Easy to be Entreated.  Merciful.  Full of good works.  Without partiality.  Totally without hypocrisy.  I was  truly blessed.

He gave me the wisdom that he had without making me feel stupid.  Now, when I pick okra, I always look to see how many yellow blooms are there.  So I know how much more okra is coming.  And I always think of my dad.  Maybe that is why I like to garden.

How do you pass wisdom along?  Maybe the reason that the younger generation doesn't listen to us like they should is because we don't have the qualities needed to pass wisdom along.  They need it.  We have it.  So maybe those 8 qualities James talked about God having, are qualities we need in our own lives.

Bloom where you are planted.