Friday, June 12, 2009

Pulling out the Roots

This week I FINALLY spent some time in our garden.
We were so blessed last year to move into a house with flower beds all around the fence in the backyard. Thankfully the previous owners had planted quite a few perennials, so I didn't really have all that much work to do. I just wanted to add a few pretty flowers in-between to add some color.
But before I could enjoy the fun of planting our new flowers I needed to do some serious weeding.


When I was young weeding was my least favorite part about gardening. My dad would do the lawn and plant the garden and us kids would weed the flower beds. We were each given one that we would be in charge of for the summer.
It wasn't so much the actual chore of weeding that bothered me, but instead the time it took to get it done. It seemed to take forever....especially when there were sprinklers to run through, and bike rides to go on. Weeding was at the bottom of my childhood priority list!

I remember rushing through just pulling lightly at the weeds, removing any evidence of them ever being there, but ultimately leaving the roots. My dad caught me doing this and explained the importance of weeding right down to the root.

He said "You need to get the roots, because otherwise they will grow back and you will have to deal with them all over again. It is not until the roots are completely removed that you will notice a difference in the time it takes you to weed. The first time might take really long but if you get all the roots out the next time won't be as long."

Today when I was out there pulling out all the weeds I thought of that conversation we had had, and I realized that I was actually enjoying myself.

God was stirring my heart.

I started to think about how much weeding is a reflection of what God does in our hearts. It's true isn't it? We have all sorts of weeds that grow and if we don't allow God to continually "weed our hearts" they will ultimately take over.
If we don't allow the roots to be completely removed, we will always find ourselves dealing with the same issues.


I couldn't help but think about how many weeds I had in my heart. I can identify some easy ones where the roots can be pulled out with ease and without pain. Then there are the ones that you really need to dig deep for.

After a little while my son asked me why we can't just plant the new flowers first. He was getting a little impatient and just wanted to help plant the flowers.

"Why do you have to take out all the weeds?" he asked

"Well" I explained "because we want the flowers to grow up healthy and not be affected by the weeds. The weeds like to soak up the same food and sunlight and we want our flowers to do the growing, not the weeds"

(How's that for scientific?!)

How many times have I just cut off the tips myself to try and hide the fact that the roots were still growing deep within my heart? When is the last time that I have allowed God to do some real weeding in my heart. There are things I am sure that are stealing the "nutrients and sunlight" that my "flowers" need to grow in.

So, together, my son and I pulled a garbage bag full of weeds from our garden. As we worked I thought about what I had allowed in my heart that was unhealthy and choking the life out of me. I thought about the fact that once I allow God to removed them I can truly grow and flourish. Things like bitterness and anger and unforgiveness. Things like gossip and jealousy. Where have I allowed room for these weeds to grow....are there deep roots to some of these that I need God to really dig at?

What about you? Have you allowed God to do some gardening in your heart??
:)

11 comments:

  1. Beautiful post!!! and yes, I just did some long needed weeding (all with God's grace of course!)
    Have a Blessed weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, it's a painful but necessary process! Loved this post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love pansys..they are so easy to grow and keep!
    sandy toe

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful post! And so true - I will reflect on your thoughts as I garden today. There are certainly some areas in desperate need of weeding.

    Have a wonderful weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "give weeds and inch and they'll take your yard."

    the weeding is necessary, but good.

    ReplyDelete
  6. weeding can sometimes be a painful process, but the freshness after the rain is irreplaceable in my heart. thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm behind on my comments! Loved reading this. Definitely could relate and it's got my mind and heart going. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  8. I'm behind on my comments! Loved reading this. Definitely could relate and it's got my mind and heart going. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  9. "give weeds and inch and they'll take your yard."

    the weeding is necessary, but good.

    ReplyDelete
  10. weeding can sometimes be a painful process, but the freshness after the rain is irreplaceable in my heart. thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving your comments. I absolutely love hearing from you :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails