Take Time To Pull The Weeds

This has been a busy summer. I chose not to plant a vegetable garden because I knew I wouldn't have time to take care of it. My last post was about what I choose to cultivate, well it has also been a very hot and wet summer and because of the weather and my inaction weeds have overtaken my flower bed in front of my house. I didn't choose to cultivate those weeds, I actually planted some bulbs this spring. But because of my neglect the weeds have cultivated themselves, leaving little room for the beauty that I wanted to grow.

These weeds with the one lone flower trying to survive among them are so symbolic of our lives. There are many weeds in our lives that try to choke out the beauty, in order to battle them we must be diligent and stay on top of it. I have tried to pull weeds off and on this summer but haven't put much effort into it and this is now the result. Like these weeds, there may be things in our lives that we know shouldn't be there and we may casually confront them but if we don't get in there and pull up the whole root it will return with a vengeance.

I noticed a few thing about the  circumstances in which these weeds have prospered. First I have been busy. I didn't stop and take the time to pull them when they were few and small because I thought other things were more important. Now the weeds are screaming at me every time I pull in the driveway. It is much easier to deal with issues and "weeds" in our lives before they take over the entire garden. Eventually they have to get pulled, better to stop and take the time early than putting it off.

Second, I didn't put more mulch down this year. I didn't, for various reasons, update my protective barrier against the weeds. How many times do we let the barriers in our lives go outdated. "I mulched a couple of years ago, it can wait one more year." or so I told myself. Now I have a mess to clean up because I didn't protect things in the first place.  Proverbs 13:6 says "Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner." We need to make sure we renew our "mulch" of righteousness so that the weeds cannot overthrow  us.

Third, the weeds are more relentless this year than I have ever seen. I can only assume that the rain and heat that we have had this year have contributed to the problem. Rains come in life, sometimes they are rains of blessing but often times they are the rains of troubles and trials. If we do not stay on top of our thoughts and our actions the weeds of worry and stress can overtake us. Add to the rains the heat and it may be unbearable to try to clear them out, but we must persevere or be overtaken.

Now as I attempt to tackle this undertaking of pulling up each weed up by the root I am reminded how I need to be on guard in my own life. Making sure my "mulch is at an adequate depth for protection. And when a weed does pop back up because I may not have gotten the root I need to be quick to pull it up so that beauty may once again be the focus of my garden and not the weeds.