Weeds

I'm so excited to have a yard with flower gardens now that we have our own home. I haven't done much gardening before but I'm willing to learn. In the spring I planted a few plants in the yard but didn't do very much with it. Now it's midsummer and I haven't had much time to tend to the flower garden. When I do have time it's been to hot and humid to do anything outside. So I've discovered I am very good at growing weeds. Lots of them!! My flower garden has been overtaken by them so much that I can't see the few plants I did plant. My sweet daughter wanted to surprise me and her and her friend pulled weeds in half of my flower garden for me. So now half of my garden has short weeds and the other half has tall weeds. Almost as tall as me.

I decided I'm going to tackle these weeds and went out in the morning before it got hot. I was focused on the tall weeds because it's such an eye soar for me. When I looked at them it seemed overwhelming. I couldn't even see the boundary of the flower bed. Where would I start? Finally I started grabbing whatever was in front of me and started pulling. Even if I didn't get the roots at least I could get it short enough to see where the weeds were growing out of the ground. To my amazement, some of the weeds came out easily. I began to see why. The excessive heat and lack of rain caused the plants to start to turn brown close to the ground. With the stubborn weeds I got a shovel and broke their roots under them, then pulled them out.

As I was working it made me think about the Christian walk. When we start on our journey to become set apart for the Lord it can look overwhelming or even scary. We may give some or parts of ourselves to the Lord, like having a half tended flower garden, but when He asks us for the rest we just don't want to go there. Who knows what's lurking in those tall weeds.

Other things we hold onto to tight. We don't want to give them up, just like those stubborn weeds. We think we'll be losing out by giving up whatever God is asking us to give up. Really those weeds are hurting us, not helping. In order to blossom and be fruitful for the Lord we must let the weeds of self die. He may dig to break the root but He'll get it out of there… if we let Him.

Have you ever felt like you dealt with an issue only to find yourself dealing with it again months or years down the road? Perhaps that is like when I started to pull the weeds. Even if I didn't get to the root, cutting it down was a step in the right direction but you must come back and deal with it on a more thorough level to get the roots. Without getting the roots you'll just be growing those weeds back. God wants us to get to an even ground that can be tilled and made fertile so the right things can be planted and grow to be beautiful, fragrant flowers. It's not always easy to die to what we want and do what God wants but it is necessary. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. John 12:25-26 We must die to ourselves and follow Jesus.