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I thought of a garden as a place to grow vegetables and flowers. I love flowers. I never thought of the garden more than it was a love for the outdoors and joy of seeing fruit produced from my efforts. I have changed my thinking of a garden since I met my husband. A garden has become a place to be at peace. A garden is a place to be refreshed and excited. Not only is a garden a physical place, but now I believe it is my spiritual place. This garden became my place to be still and know God.

I want to tell you of my time before my garden revelation. I had no peace. I had three children from a horrible marriage with a man addicted to drugs and self. Durring our divorce the children and I went through pain and suffering that I considered worse than a literal hurricane storm. My house was blown apart, our lives were shattered, and we were homeless. I remember going through such grief as if this man had died. I had images of his ghostly figure returning to haunt and torment me. I had come to believe that pain was the norm of my relationships.

With this hardship I decided that I would dedicate my life to Jesus Christ and the local church. This life giving church helped me, and the Lord's presence comforted my soul. This is the time that I started learning the value of reading the Bible. Reading my Bible had given me peace in different trials, and I had come to see it as my secret garden of rest. I craved this rest from the Lord and knew others were hurting too. So I opened my home to the study of the "Prayer of Jabez". Located in 1Chronicles 4: it says, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying OH that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"

My home study was peaceful and refreshing. I had mostly invited women to come study with me, but men came too.

Scott was one of the guests in my home that came to study. I met him at our church several times and knew some of his story. He was in a car accident that ended in brain injury. His speech was mostly fragmented sentences. If he was able to speak at all it would be tedious and slow. He was also a divorcee and had children to take care of some weekends. We finished the study and Scott disappeared.

One day I seen him in church again, and he wanted to have another Bible study with me on Psalm 23. Scott had explained what he was going through. His disappearance from church was because of the burden of going to

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