When you grow a garden, you grow some weeds! When you make a commitment to plant in the garden of life, you can expect some weeds to grow in that garden! I discovered, in 1983, that every God directed commitment that I have made to plant seeds in the garden of life brought on a spurt of weed growth in that same garden.

Weeds of doubt, weeds of fear, weeds of despair, weeds of worry, concern, failure, anger, resentment and so on!

Years ago, when I planted that first vegetable garden, the garden shop owner reminded me that I needed to treat for nematodes! "Toads? I got no toads in that garden!" I told him. Laughing, he told me that nematodes were so small that the naked eye couldn't see them. He called them " The unseen enemy." Wow! An unseen enemy, now I knew what he was talking about.

In the garden of life, we all have an unseen enemy, and when it comes to the Stewardship of Life, that "unseen enemy" is the devil who wants you to stop planting seeds of faith in the garden of life. He wants you to grow the "weeds" instead of the abundant crop!

My discovery came about because God directed me to plant a rather large "seed" in the building fund drive that was going on in our church. Well, I planted that check and I was really quite scared to see all those zeros in that check but, God had provided an abundant crop, so I just sent some of it along to the building fund.

Now, if you were to know the economic background of our family, you would know that this was a huge, huge commitment, an act of faith that He had been getting me prepared for ever since that day at age 13 when I had been taught to tithe. Well, this "new" commitment of faith made that unseen enemy jump right into the garden of my life.

I learned rather quickly that when you make any Godly commitment to become a better steward of your time, talents, treasures or testimony, the devil is going to attack that commitment with all of his strength and power. He will attack your every strength, your every resolve and your every belief as he attempts to make you back away from that commitment to the stewardship of your life.

In 1983, after writing that check, I discovered that our huge construction company couldn't correctly build a garage in my side yard, I found out that my self prepared tax return was wrong and I found out that my health wasn't as invincible as I thought it was! The devil attacked my strength and abilities as a builder, as a CPA and he also attacked my health.

In the coming months as I write about Christian Money Management, The Stewardship of Life and Godly Investing, many of you will feel God directing you to plant some seeds in the garden of your life. Maybe He will want you to start tithing, take a new job, commit to that building fund, start a new business, teach a Sunday school class, sing in the choir or witness to that neighbor. When God directs, please plant that seed but, be aware that the devil will attack those seed commitments. Whatever gift or strength that God is asking you to plant, the devil will attack that same strength or gift. As the devil attacks, do what I did in that hospital in 1983, start to laugh as you recall who the Master Gardener is! The nurse who walked in while I was holding my hurting side and laughing became another opportunity to plant a seed of testimony!

By the way, that check to the building fund? It was returned to me, within two years, pressed down and shaken together so as to make room for more (Luke 6:38). One thing that I believe God wants us to know, whatever measure we learn to plant with, will be the measure that is used to produce our abundant crop!