Those stripes in my lawn aren’t shadows. The darker green areas just had a better application of fertilizer. And the lighter green areas? They were missed, neglected, or given short shrift.

In this I think there may well be a correspondence to life. I find these analogies to spiritual growth instructive. I’m sure you can think of more! Please share them with me.

• Like this lawn, some areas of our lives receive better care and attention than others.
• Like our yards, given some time, the sections that were overlooked become quite evident. Often to our chagrin.
• A striped lawn is not a life-sentence; we can go back and correct it.
• Like grass, our souls don’t have to be coaxed into luxuriousness. They just naturally respond to good nutrients.
• The right kind of food produces rich color and growth in a lawn. Are we consuming the right kind of food?
• Hit and miss is easy, but a more disciplined care in applying “food” to our lives will produce a more uniformly healthy crop.
• Over time the impact of the fertilizer fades and the richer green areas will turn lighter. We, too, need regular applications of “food” to stay healthy.