Time to Weed

 

I was weeding this evening, and I want to tell you why. 
 
We have a flower bed in our front yard, and when we first moved into our house, it was empty.  So, we bought a palm tree and flowers, and it looked great. We were so excited because we finally had a pretty flower bed. 
 
A couple years have gone by.  We sometimes weed.  We take care of it every once and a while. For the most part though, we did pretty good and it stayed nice. 
 
But then this summer hit. It’s so hot outside.
 
I honestly can’t remember the last time the full flower bed was weeded.  I would walk by it multiple times a day, thinking I needed to take care of it.  But the weeds just kept growing bigger. I tried to convince my daughter that this could be a chore and that she could make money.  Even that didn’t convince her.  I tried to tell my family we could make it a family event.  Not happening.  It’s just too hot.
 
I couldn’t take it anymore.  So - I finally went outside and started weeding. I put on my workout clothes. I knew it was going to be uncomfortable and knew I was going to sweat. I knew I would be covered in dirt, which I was. But I weeded and it looks a lot better. 
 
Is it perfect? No. But it was such an event that both my neighbors came out to ask how it was going. One asked if I was winning. And I said “I don’t know, but it’s better than it was so we are going to call that winning.” The other one cheered me on. (I know – I have nice neighbors.)
 
While I weeded, the thought occurred to me: So many times in our lives, stuff comes up and we just allow things into our lives because we are apathetic and we just don’t feel like dealing with the hassle of getting rid of it. Or maybe we don’t want to deal with the hassle of addressing it.
 
Sometimes those things in our lives are so obvious that even neighbors – maybe our family or friends or co-workers - are probably noticing and probably paying attention to our apathy and the result of it.  But since we don’t care, many just let us live our lives, as the flower bed gets covered in weeds. 
 
BUT we have to address those things.  We have to actually take the time to talk to God about them and weed the bad things out of our lives that tend to just pop up because we are apathetic.  Whether it’s bad attitudes or sin or whatever – and listen, I just get it – it’s messy, it’s uncomfortable, and sometimes there is pain involved.  
I had a little bit of pain when I went to reach for a weed today and I got a sandspur instead.
 
It’s worth it though. It’s worth cleaning up the garbage that is in our lives. You’re your heart a beautiful garden for God. Make your mind, your marriage, your family, a beautiful garden. Take the time to weed.
 
It is worth investing the work and time into pulling the junk out of our lives that don’t need to be there.
 
I encourage all of us to not only address the flower bed or what needs to be weeded in our physical lives, but also look into our lives in terms of our family and our spiritual walk with God, our attitudes, or whatever it might be.
 
Figure out what those things are that might have just popped up because of your apathy and take care of it.