This blog comes to you straight from my backyard garden. I even delayed showering in order for you to feel my pain. Sweat is pouring down my brow, my t-shirt is drenched all the way through and my jeans are stuck to my legs. My hair, in a high ponytail, has developed Cindy Brady ringlets around all perimeters and my lower back…has a heartbeat.

It’s August in DC and if you plan to do yard work you better get yourself out first thing in the morning or you are begging for heat stroke. The weeding with which I am engaged is not for the faint of heart, the lackadaisical, and definitely not for the impatient! By putting off this task for virtually the whole summer I knew I was in for a battle. A battle which must be fought for the sake of the beautiful flowers and shrubs that live there?

Let’s face it, weeding is pure and utter drudgery. We all know the weeds mission is not coexistence and they will joyfully take the good guys down with them! In order for my plants to thrive, the weeds must be yanked down to their nasty roots! A simple weed whacker does not deal with the root of the problem. (No pun intended!)

There is no getting around the need to weed in a healthy garden. Do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you, but it must be done. The more I ponder my morning steeped in weeds, the more I see its benefits. Maybe we can extract something positive out of all this mess. It gives you time to think, you get to see the fruits of your labor and you can lose weight! This morning I probably lost 3 pounds sweating while pulling up our vine-like weeds from hell and then found this quote by William Wordsworth…“Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.”

Weeds are a problem, a very obvious visual problem. Our human problems are not always noticeable, but they are as rooted and grounded as weeds. No one can weed out our problems for us. Sure they can help but unless they are “us” they can’t completely know how deep and in how many directions our deeply seeded weed roots actually grow. They grow right alongside of all that is beautiful and good using up the same fertile ground and limiting us where we could be soaring upward.

While we can’t stop sharing our rich soil with our personal weeds we can get down and dirty with ourselves and ask God to remove our weeds so that we can thrive. The Bible is our plant food and Jesus the living water that quenches our thirst. Let’s grab our weeds by their very roots and yank! Prayer, digging in scripture and fellowship are sure to work as a substantive weed killer! Start this week out with your gloves on!

“Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.” Pope Francis

“I do some of my best thinking while pulling weeds.” Martha Smith

“A man of words and not deeds, is like a garden full of weeds.” Benjamin Franklin

“Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.” Gordon B. Hinckley

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has neem sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately falls away. And the one on whom seed was sown among thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Matthew 13:18-23

Must see Monday: (Don’t miss the amazing tree in this video!)
“Thrive” Casting Crowns