This morning, I walked by my flower garden and landscaping rocks and sat to finally pull the weeds that have been bothering me for weeks. As I sat quietly, feeling relief for the weeds to be away from my beautiful flowers, I noticed how easily the weeds push around and through the rocks and whatever obstacles stand in their way, sometimes with terribly hard sandy earth as their foundation. I realized that weeds do not need good soil to push through the boundaries. They are so strong and determined to take a foothold that it would take very diligent, daily weeding to keep them from taking over. I also find that even the smallest weed will take my eyes off of the beauty of the flowers. Therefore I was thinking once again how hard I must work to keep those weeds out of my flower garden.
Weeds in my life can be anything that takes my eyes off of the beauty that is Jesus Christ. I can get frustrated that things are not going my way. I can feel overwhelmed by the tasks that I feel required to accomplish. Even quality time with family can seem like a chore when we feel like there are too many things to do.
I find that my failure in daily weeding, however, is not always my intentionally avoiding pulling them because of time and effort. I think that sometimes I walk by the weeds too many times without thinking they are that big of a deal until I don't notice them as much. Then one day, I find they've taken over. In life, most often this is when my own reaction to someone or something catches me off guard. At this point however, it can be much more difficult to get to the root of the weed in order to get rid of it entirely. It's much easier to pull each weed as it comes up!
This takes a conscious intentional effort, but is vital to peace, patience, kindness, joy and all the other fruits of the Spirit that we so desperately want in our lives. In order to partake in these fruits, we must treat each little weed as though it is a thief in the night attempting to steal our most prized possession! As these weeds will cloud our vision and our opportunity for a closer relationship with our Saviour.
Peace is not defined by all good, all the time. Peace is experienced by knowing and trusting the creator of all things that His plan is for our good. Jeremiah 29:11 is well known, He has plans for us to have hope and a future. But Jeremiah 12 & 13 go on to say that this hope comes from keeping our eyes on Him. (Not on everything we think that future must include. ) "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Weeds are not always the ugly, scragly vines that are an eyesore. Sometimes weeds bloom into attractive flowers and we're tempted to let them grow. However, no matter how pretty and attractive things are, if they take our eyes off of Jesus, they must be pulled up by the root and immediately disposed of! Even our greatest intentions and well laid plans can take our eyes off of Jesus.
So, the moral of the story is stand guard! Be constantly watching for weeds and be quick to pull them out!
Even the pretty ones! Keep your focus on Jesus, His beauty is worth the weeding!
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