I have thought many times of why gardening with children is necessary and useful and have come up with many reasons as to why. My list would look something like :
food security, knowledge of the natural world,spending time outdoors, learning of the importance of growing crop and know exactly where food comes from etc. What really made me want to do this was when a friend upon returning from a trip asked me "How come Adventists are so healthy and health conscious? When we were in Jamaica all the vegan/vegetarian stores were SDA... Why is that?" I realized how amazing of a story we have to share with our health message. So I dived into my reading ...
"If the land is cultivated, it will ... supply our necessities.We should work the soil cheerfully, hopefully, gratefully, believing that the earth holds in her bosom rich stores for the faithful worker to garner, stores richer than gold or silver. With proper, intelligent cultivation the earth will yield its treasures for the benefit of man."- E.G. White Country Living 17:4
We are given land to cultivate and if we treat it with love and care it will return our investment. I had this thought 'If people everywhere are realizing the importance of growing their own food, taking part in community gardens, investing in the earth... well then why aren't we? Especially since we have this direction to do so...' There is pride and beauty in gardening from start to finish. Seeing your seed sprout and then grow into something so extremely beautiful, tasty and just so much healthier than any other option.
"A return to simpler methods will be appreciated by the children and youth. Work in the garden and field will be an agreeable change from the wearisome routine of abstract lessons, to which their young minds should never be confined. To the nervous child, who finds lessons from books exhausting and hard to remember, it will be especially valuable. There is health and happiness for him in the study of nature; and the impressions made will not fade out of his mind, for they will be associated with objects that are continually before his eyes."
- E.G. White Testimonies to the Church 6:178,179
The truth of the matter is that children spend so much time in indoor organized settings that we never take into consideration that it might be important to give them this type of activity to challenge them in other ways. Giving them ownership over something that is outside their regular routine in a safe and comfortable environment will allow any child to flourish.Sunny skies, Fresh air, hands deep in soil, getting dirty with friends all around sounds to me like a wonderful escape from the ordinary.
In this neighbourhood there is a large tract of unoccupied land. Some of our people who are living in cities might profitably secure a few acres of this land. They could support themselves by raising fruit and vegetables and poultry. The Sanitarium would gladly buy eggs and vegetables from them. I wish that some such enterprise as this might be started. A great blessing would come to parents and to children, if they would leave the cities, and go into the country".
—Letter 63, 1904. Country Living 18:4
So this was a little insight as to what we are commissioned to do, and it has to start somewhere. Children are wonderful beings full of beauty and simplicity and what better time to start then now. Every adult that is in acquaintance with a child plays an important role in the growth of that child and the future of the earth, and treating both with patience, care and love will only bear a positive and fruitful outcome.
Even the smallest landscape can offer pride of ownership not only to its inhabitants but to its neighbours. The world delights in a garden...
Creating any garden, big or small, is, in the end, all about joy.
- Julie Moir Messervy
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