Today, following on with our "Spiritual lessons from Spring", we are going to look at that nasty old subject of WEEDING! The Lord really spoke to my heart as I worked on this tedious job, last weekend. I trust what I learnt will challenge your heart as it did mine.
When I got out into my garden at the weekend, I spent most of my time sorting out things that were not "right". Due to unavoidable neglect, there were plants that needed to be trimmed back, and weeds EVERYWHERE.
Yup, it's the basics of gardening. Weeding, weeding, weeding - pruning, pruning, pruning.
It's not the relaxing time you have, when sit out in the garden surrounded by tidy borders, flourishing plants, and general beauty. Unfortunately, you will not get to do that if you DON'T do the "mundane" jobs. A garden will not grow when it's overrun with weeds.
Weeding is NOT easy, though. The amount of times, the other day, when I audibly sighed, because I didn't get all the root of a weed dug out, are many. Those big, nasty weeds, with long, deep roots. More often than not, I would manage to snap the root and not get it all out. I KNOW that weed will be back, because if you don't get all the root, then it will regrow. Many of the weeds were easy to pull up, as the root hadn't got deep enough. Those types of weeds were numerous, though.
Oh, how this reminded me of my sin! If you don't get it dug out, and dealt with quickly, the roots go down, and it makes it harder and harder to dig back out of your life! When you *DO* start attacking it, and trying to get rid of it, if you don't get right down to all the root of it, it will just sneak back up again. The sighing I did over my weeds, is far less than the sighing I do over my sin.
The little weeds of sin also easily crop up, and equally need pulling up and getting rid of. It's a constant thing, and I am reminded that I need to keep going into my garden to pull those weeds up, all through the year, just like I need to go the Lord every day, confessing my sins, and pulling them up out of my life before they take root.
It also serves to remind me of how child-training should be. It's all about a constant work that we must do, in order to train up our children in the way they should go. We need to nip wrong behaviour in the bud - consistently and constantly ensuring that we reinforce the truths that we are teaching them. Like those little weeds, that are everywhere, it's time consuming but vital. It's a hard job for us mothers, in particular. SO often we feel like we spend the whole day reprimanding our children, and Daddy comes in at the end of the day and gets the "fun" part. Don't be weary in well doing, for in due season we SHALL reap if we faint not!!! WE MUST BE CONSISTENT! Trust me, I speak to my own heart first, here. Our job is a privileged one - the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. We have an important job to do, and the Lord is pleased when we spend time getting those "weeds" pulled up in the lives of our precious children.
Like the deep rooted weeds, there are certain sins that must be sorted very particularly whilst they are young. Disobedience and disrespect, lying, stealing - these all cause major problems as they grow older, because once they take root, they are harder to sort out.
I need to just mention something here, which often seem sot be neglected in many websites, articles and blogs I read - particularly in America. We can NOT save our children, but we still have a serious responsibility to teach them what is right and wrong - disciplining for the wrong and praising the right - because that is that pattern God has set for us. Obviously, unless the Lord works in the hearts of our children, these things will only be done out of respect and obedience to us as parents, and moral duty, rather than being spiritually motivated. If we DO train them, before they are saved, it will make things far easier for them once the Lord works in their hearts, and the Lord can use our faithfulness to challenge them of their need of salvation. I will deal with this more on Day 5.
Also in my garden, as well as the weeds, there are the dead and straggly shoots which need to be cut back. Ideally, I should have done this job at the end of the growing season, rather than being at the beginning of the new - needs must!
Some of my plants, due to the warm winter, had carried on growing when they normally would die off. As the winter is colder, though, they were simply straggly, rather than bushy and strong. If I want good growth this year, I needed to cut it all back, to allow for new growth. Other plants simply had dead stems and flowers, which had to be removed.
Spiritually speaking, there can be things in our life that we need to cut back on, in order for growth to happen. If we look at our life carefully, we may have things that are taking up too much time, or are not a wise use of our time. Maybe it's the company we keep - it may be stopping us from growing closer to the Lord. Perhaps it's even things that are good, but they are just not providing nourishment spiritually, and they need to go. Maybe there are things that are stopping us from fulfilling the duties that we have, and we need to be wiser about how much time we devote to them. Each of us will have a totally different perspective on this, because our lives are so varied, so I won't give specific examples. We just need to prayerfully consider our lives, and see if anything needs "pruning". Just like the plants in the garden, often when we cut back on certain things, we will find we grow so much stronger spiritually, and produce more fruit in out lives, as a result.
The same applies to our children. Are we allowing them to spend too much time doing certain activities, which aren't actually doing them much good? Perhaps too much screen time, or too many games - too much reading poor book choices, or the company they keep? They can also have too much "free" time, without enough focus and management of time, leading to bad behaviour. Cutting back can produce a "stronger" child, in their character and behaviour.
It is my desire to take a good hard look at my life and our family, and see if there is some weeding and cutting back that we need to do, to help us all grow. Digging out those roots, and cutting back the shoots.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yup, it's the basics of gardening. Weeding, weeding, weeding - pruning, pruning, pruning.
It's not the relaxing time you have, when sit out in the garden surrounded by tidy borders, flourishing plants, and general beauty. Unfortunately, you will not get to do that if you DON'T do the "mundane" jobs. A garden will not grow when it's overrun with weeds.
Weeding is NOT easy, though. The amount of times, the other day, when I audibly sighed, because I didn't get all the root of a weed dug out, are many. Those big, nasty weeds, with long, deep roots. More often than not, I would manage to snap the root and not get it all out. I KNOW that weed will be back, because if you don't get all the root, then it will regrow. Many of the weeds were easy to pull up, as the root hadn't got deep enough. Those types of weeds were numerous, though.
Oh, how this reminded me of my sin! If you don't get it dug out, and dealt with quickly, the roots go down, and it makes it harder and harder to dig back out of your life! When you *DO* start attacking it, and trying to get rid of it, if you don't get right down to all the root of it, it will just sneak back up again. The sighing I did over my weeds, is far less than the sighing I do over my sin.
The little weeds of sin also easily crop up, and equally need pulling up and getting rid of. It's a constant thing, and I am reminded that I need to keep going into my garden to pull those weeds up, all through the year, just like I need to go the Lord every day, confessing my sins, and pulling them up out of my life before they take root.
It also serves to remind me of how child-training should be. It's all about a constant work that we must do, in order to train up our children in the way they should go. We need to nip wrong behaviour in the bud - consistently and constantly ensuring that we reinforce the truths that we are teaching them. Like those little weeds, that are everywhere, it's time consuming but vital. It's a hard job for us mothers, in particular. SO often we feel like we spend the whole day reprimanding our children, and Daddy comes in at the end of the day and gets the "fun" part. Don't be weary in well doing, for in due season we SHALL reap if we faint not!!! WE MUST BE CONSISTENT! Trust me, I speak to my own heart first, here. Our job is a privileged one - the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. We have an important job to do, and the Lord is pleased when we spend time getting those "weeds" pulled up in the lives of our precious children.
Like the deep rooted weeds, there are certain sins that must be sorted very particularly whilst they are young. Disobedience and disrespect, lying, stealing - these all cause major problems as they grow older, because once they take root, they are harder to sort out.
I need to just mention something here, which often seem sot be neglected in many websites, articles and blogs I read - particularly in America. We can NOT save our children, but we still have a serious responsibility to teach them what is right and wrong - disciplining for the wrong and praising the right - because that is that pattern God has set for us. Obviously, unless the Lord works in the hearts of our children, these things will only be done out of respect and obedience to us as parents, and moral duty, rather than being spiritually motivated. If we DO train them, before they are saved, it will make things far easier for them once the Lord works in their hearts, and the Lord can use our faithfulness to challenge them of their need of salvation. I will deal with this more on Day 5.
Also in my garden, as well as the weeds, there are the dead and straggly shoots which need to be cut back. Ideally, I should have done this job at the end of the growing season, rather than being at the beginning of the new - needs must!
Some of my plants, due to the warm winter, had carried on growing when they normally would die off. As the winter is colder, though, they were simply straggly, rather than bushy and strong. If I want good growth this year, I needed to cut it all back, to allow for new growth. Other plants simply had dead stems and flowers, which had to be removed.
Spiritually speaking, there can be things in our life that we need to cut back on, in order for growth to happen. If we look at our life carefully, we may have things that are taking up too much time, or are not a wise use of our time. Maybe it's the company we keep - it may be stopping us from growing closer to the Lord. Perhaps it's even things that are good, but they are just not providing nourishment spiritually, and they need to go. Maybe there are things that are stopping us from fulfilling the duties that we have, and we need to be wiser about how much time we devote to them. Each of us will have a totally different perspective on this, because our lives are so varied, so I won't give specific examples. We just need to prayerfully consider our lives, and see if anything needs "pruning". Just like the plants in the garden, often when we cut back on certain things, we will find we grow so much stronger spiritually, and produce more fruit in out lives, as a result.
The same applies to our children. Are we allowing them to spend too much time doing certain activities, which aren't actually doing them much good? Perhaps too much screen time, or too many games - too much reading poor book choices, or the company they keep? They can also have too much "free" time, without enough focus and management of time, leading to bad behaviour. Cutting back can produce a "stronger" child, in their character and behaviour.
It is my desire to take a good hard look at my life and our family, and see if there is some weeding and cutting back that we need to do, to help us all grow. Digging out those roots, and cutting back the shoots.
