So I was out in the yard gardening with my children this morning and I was thinking about God and sin.  It is an easy path to go on while pulling weeds!  Last year, we dumped a TON of mulch on our flower beds and we had a lot less weeds through the entire season than we have already had up to now.  The mulch just made it impossible for the weeds to even start to grow.  Isn't the word of God just like that?  The more time we spend in it, the less likely sin is going to take root.  I have talked before about how I want my house to drip with Jesus, now I am thinking that I need to smother sin with a thick blanket of God's word!  I also noticed that some of the weeds were really easy to pull out, their roots were shallow and with just a tiny tug, they were gone.  There were a few, though, that were much harder to get out.  if I just tugged on the top, the roots would remain - just like those deeply rooted sins in my life - if I do not get in there with a shovel and dig it out, that sin will just grow back. 

Bowden was helping me pulls weeds today.  My children have played a large roll in helping me see and get rid of the weeds in my life.  They are the flowers and the weeds of sin will choke them out if I do not get rid of them!  At one point, Bowden pulled up a rather large "weed"" and asked me what it was.  I told him it was a tree seedling.  Oh the tears that spilled down his precious cheeks!  I tried to explain to him that even though it technically was not a weed, we still needed to pull it from the garden.  If we let it stay, it would grow too big and choke out everything else.  This has been a big issue in my life lately.  There are a lot of good things in my life that maybe no longer have a place in my garden.  If I let them remain, they will overwhlem and kill all the other things.

At one point, Bowden and I noticed a plant that had a sort of grassy weed growing up through it.  As I pulled the weeds out from the plant, I realized that some of the plant was going to have to come up with it.  How many times in my life have I allowed sin to crop up in my life and it ends up hurting those around me?  Getting rid of the sin took time and left those I care about hurt in the wake of it.

As I moved from the front side of the flower beds to the back I noticed a very telling sign about me - I tend to really just work on the part of the beds that people can most readily see.  There were a lot more weeds in the backside (and our backyard gets even less attention).  How true is this in my life as a whole?  How often do I take care of things on the surface so people think I have it together?  I tell myself I will get to the backside or the backyard later - when I have time - but as long as what most people can see looks good that is all that matters.  Maybe that is why God makes it clear that we are to live in close community with others- it is in this close community that people really see what is going on in your life.  They see your weeds and this makes you more likely to pulls them!

There is nothing too deep or profound here.  Just a morning in the garden reminding me that if I sit back for even a day, not spending time in God's word, not pulling the sin out of my life as soon as I see it, my garden will soon be overwhelmed and the things I care about will suffer!