For the past month or so, a portion of my lawn has been slowly turning brown and a few small patches even dying. I’ve been putting a lot of work into having a nice green lawn for the kids to enjoy over the summer so it’s been very frustrating to watch. I started watering the lawn a second time later in the day because it was acting like it wasn’t getting enough water, but that still wasn’t doing the trick. I fertilized it, put grub killer on it, and spent far too much time racking my brain as to why the grass hasn’t been flourishing. This morning, Elijah told me that when he went to adjust the automatic sprinkler last night he noticed that the sprinkler had been programmed to only turn on for 6 minutes in the morning, which was enough water for a portion of our lawn that gets lots of shade, but not the portion exposed to the sun most of the day. The extra water I was giving the lawn later in the day wasn’t enough to overcome for the lack of water early in the day before the grass would get blasted by the sun all day. It’s very important that the grass get enough water early in the day before the day’s heat. It’s such a good illustration for our often dried out souls. We need to spend time in the Bible every day, which is our living water as Jesus puts it, or our souls will start being impacted. It’s not even enough to just go to church on Sunday’s, just as as drinking water or eating food once a week isn’t enough. Also, I had delegated the sprinkler system programming to my son, but I had not double checked that it was doing what it was supposed to be doing, which is on me. The same goes for our souls. We often delegate the well-being of our souls to our pastors or churches, both of which are very important. But ultimately, we are responsible for taking care of our souls and we’ve been given God’s word and should spend time in it every day. Lastly, like many problems in life, things are often more simple than they seem. If we aren’t noticing the fruits of the spirit coming out of our lives, we probably aren’t getting enough water, or time in the Word. It’s just that simple.