Those darn weeds

I'm pretty sure our neighbors cringe when they look at our yard. While theirs are neatly manicured and filled with beautiful flowers and neatly trimmed plants, ours is filled with large plastic toys and the occasional broken piece of furniture we're too lazy to deal with at the moment. If it wasn't for the house across the street that looks like the local carnival set up shop, we'd be the shame of the neighborhood, I'm sure.

My parents weren't really 'yard people' when I was growing up. As long as the grass was mowed and the weeds weren't too out of control, we were all happy. Now that I'm a home owner myself, I take pride in our house, but the yard often seems to get away from us. I was outside pulling some gigantic weeks around our house the other day, and I was amazed at how fast they had grown. It had been a couple of weeks, but some of them were three feet tall! How is that even possible?

I couldn't help but think of the parallel between these nasty weeds in our landscaping and the weeds that easily pop up in my life. I try my hardest to read the Word most days and to pray a bit, but it's a constant struggle. When I let this important part of my life go, even for a couple of weeks, those ugly weeds I try to pull away grow tall and strong. Most of the time my husband and son feel the full prickly effect of these nasty weeds. Other times it's just my own self worth that is affected. I start to get negative and critical, mostly towards myself, but also towards others.

I've been trying to read the Bible in a year. Even though I'm a couple of days behind right now (okay, maybe seven or eights days behind), it's been a really good spiritual discipline for me. Sometimes it feels like I'm just trying to check it off the list (I LOVE checklists!), but I've honestly read parts of the Bible I've never read before. And reading it all in order puts certain things into context that I've never before realized.

I'm glad I serve a God who doesn't check my Bible reading off of a list, and who is merciful enough to love me even when I'm surrounded by weeds, especially those reoccuring ones. I wish I could just pick all of the weeds in my life and they'd be gone forever, but then I guess I wouldn't really have the need for a Savior.

I think from now on when I'm outside pulling those nasty weeds in the landscaping (and the neighbors are shaking their heads in disappointment), I'll be evaluating the weeds in my life and asking the Lord to continually uproot them.