What you Nurture Grows

 

Every time we welcomed a new baby into our family, my world changed. Newborns have a special way of capturing a mother’s heart. I experienced firsthand how easy it is for a mom to get so focused on nurturing her new baby that she might unintentionally overlook her husband and other children. This is probably why so many fathers often report that having a new baby sometimes puts a strain on their marriage and intimate bond.

There’s a common saying: “What you nurture grows, and what you neglect fades.” 

When we give something our attention and care, it grows stronger, but what we ignore eventually fades and withers away.  

This principle also applies to our relationships with the flesh and the Spirit. We cannot simply resist the flesh's desires. But by focusing on nurturing the Spirit, those desires die on their own.

There is an Old Testament story of a woman named Abigail that vividly illustrates this principle.  

Abigail was married to Nabal, a foolish, self-centered, greedy man.  Sounds much like our flesh.  She was bound to him by marriage, just as we are bound to our flesh. 

But just because she was married to him didn't mean she lived by his standards or agreed with his views.  

When David, a Godly man, asked them for help, Nabal refused. Abigail, however, acted differently and did so privately, without consulting Nabal. She lived by a different standard.  She was more concerned with pleasing David than following Nabal’s foolish ways.  

In this story, David represents the Spirit. Abigail chose to please the Spirit over the flesh she was bound to. In time, God removed Nabal, though she couldn't, he died by his own folly.

We cannot silence our flesh, but when we focus our hearts on pleasing the Spirit, God Himself deals with the power the flesh holds over us.

The story ends with David, the godly man, taking Abigail as his wife. No longer was she bound to the foolish man—the flesh—but instead, she came under the care and authority of the godly man—the Spirit. In the same way, when we set our hearts on pleasing the Spirit, our relationship to the flesh will naturally diminish.