Weeds

A couple weekends ago I pulled some weeds in my backyard. I've only been a homeowner for two years, and we usually have a gardener come to do our yard work. But our weeds had gotten so out of control, and the gardener was just weed-whacking them down to the roots, not pulling them all the way out. I always hear that you have to pull weeds out by the roots or else they'll just keep coming back, so I took it upon myself to pull my own weeds.

It looked like a daunting task. They were covering about 40% of the yard. But when I actually got down on my hands and knees to take care of them, I found that they were spreading weeds. Each weed was spreading out to cover about 3 square feet, but I could actually just sweep around and collect all those sprawling tendrils that were all connected to one root, pull them out by the root, and in this way I was able to clear the lawn pretty quickly. I noticed that when I pulled them out, I would feel the roots start to give, and then the whole plant would come up out of the ground whole. It was actually really satisfying! And then underneath those weeds, all my grass was still there, growing and perfect.

It made me think about "weeds" in our spiritual lives. We might think it's too hard to pull them out, but when we really address it, there might be just one root sin we can pull out and then a bunch of others will go with it. Underneath we'll find our healthy soul, still green and growing, just waiting to be exposed to the sun again after the weeds are cleared away. Is there gardening that you can do in your own spiritual life today?

Jill Addison
Online Video Producer
www.JillAddison.com