Weeding

Today after an amazing worship service, I came home and decided to pull the weeds out of our flower beds. Wow, what a daunting task that can be!! I was amazed at how many weeds had just overtaken what just last fall was full of flowers and blooms. Even the pots on my porch had tons of weeds growing in them!

I admit, once winter starts hitting, I don't do too much with my flowers. I kind of figure, what's the point? Nothing is going to last through the winter anyway. But as I continued to pull more and more and still more weeds I began to realize, if I would pull even just a few weeds each day, even through the winter, when spring gets here my flower beds & pots would be in much better shape! Especially since there were a few flowers already blooming among the weeds!

And then I realized, isn't that the way we sometimes are in our walk with God? We go through stages of really trying to be more intentional about our walk with God. We pray more, we read more, we praise more... we just generally put more focus on God, we are more intentional. But then we let ourselves get comfortable, or we get busy, or you fill in the blank. And before you know you it, we suddenly have lots of "weeds" that need to be pulled. What would our walk with God look like if we were more intentional about keeping "the weeds" out all year long? What if we didn't wait for special times (like Christmas or Easter for example) to read more, study more, sit in quietness with God, etc.

My guess is, if we "weeded" all year long it would profoundly change who we are! Just like my flower beds would change if I pulled the weeds all year round instead of slacking off in the winter. We all have "weeds" that pop up from time to time... just like those flower beds. But, if we will take the time to take care of the weeds as soon as they start popping up instead of ignoring them hoping they will go away, it will cause us to grow more deeply and intimately with Christ. It will cause us to grow in ways that will help drown out the weeds. It will cause us to bloom more and wither less.

God wants us to keep our spiritual garden weeded so that there is room for Him to bloom in us! Now that spring is upon us, maybe it's time for some spiritual weeding as well as physical weeding. Even though God can still bloom amongst the weeds, just think of how beautiful the blooms will be if we actually do a little spiritual weeding! I say... let the weeding begin!!

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;
planted in the house of the LORD,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green

Psalm 92: 12-14

^Blessings!!