8.07.2013

Weeds

This summer I decided to try my hand at gardening. I grew up on a farm, but never learned how to garden. Let's just say this has been quite an experience for me. My garden is small, and it is surrounded by many others who have decided to garden as well. Our plots are marked by a mere piece of twine that is tied to a post. Each gardener has chosen to plant different things, and they each have their own unique style of planting and tending their garden. For example, the person next to me has apparently never touched it, and others have tended theirs each day. How can you tell? Weeds!

To say I am great at gardening would be a lie. I check on my garden once or twice a week and pull out the weeds that I feel are making the greatest threat to my plants. I went out a week ago to check on my slowly growing watermelon plant. I had to plant it twice, since the first set of seeds refused to grow. I carefully examined my beautiful plant to find about 6 baby watermelons growing. There weren't many weeds, and they were looking lovely! I waited a week and went back to check it to find weeds galore! A nasty vine, that although has beautiful flowers and appears harmless, is completely wrapping itself around my watermelon leaves. I slowly, and carefully began to pull this winding vine. As I began to remove the weeds, I noticed that my once large looking watermelon plant was about the third of the size! The weeds had grown so fast and taken over, that I now only had 4 baby watermelons. What looked so grand and beautiful, had been overcome by destruction in merely a week!

I began to think about the weeds that consume our life. We are like plants in the fact that we grow if we are watered and taken care of, but can shrivel and die when the weeds of this life take over. I looked at my beautiful watermelon only a week ago! Within a short week, it went from overflowing with beauty to having a false sense of life. Sure, the weeds look beautiful, they have these cute little flowers, and they appear to make the plant look like it is flourishing. But, when you get closer and begin to pull it away, you realize it has wrapped itself around the healthy plant and is slowly killing it.

What are the weeds in your life? What is tearing you down and wrapping itself around you to the point where you don't even realize it is killing the healthy parts of you? Have you read your Bible each day, or taken those moments to pray? Within a week my plant was overcome with weeds. If each day I had taken the time to check on my plants, I could have quickly removed the weeds before they took over. The slight pull to remove it would have been easy. Once left, the weeds become so entwined, and the roots so deep, that it becomes harder and harder to remove.

Let us be reminded to tend to our personal gardens daily. Reading God's word and praying is God's way of feeding us and tending to us. We become strong, and when those weeds of life try to wind their way around us and overtake us, God carefully removes those roots before they become so deep that it affects our spiritual growth. Be open to let God work in you and remove those hindrances in your life...those nasty, winding, weeds!