Weeds

Last spring my 8 year-old grandson Sam was helping me pull up weeds in my flower beds (a bane of my existence!). His 2 year-old brother Thomas was, of course, insistent on helping and started uprooting the pansies instead. Sam patiently explained to him the difference between the flowers and the weeds. To my surprise, he understood completely and got right to work. I watched as he squatted down, yanked a weed out, and threw it over his right shoulder while enthusiastically yelling “weed!” He used the same system every time as he moved down the flower bed. I laughed watching him then thought that looked like a great rhythm for believers … spotting the weeds, naming them, and throwing them out quickly and decisively.

Weeds in our hearts can be any hidden attitudes, distortions, hardness, fears, misbeliefs, painful messages, unwillingness, regrets, and sinful tendencies. Through ignorance, neglect, and delay the weeds grow higher, the roots stronger, and they multiply. By not declaring “weed” and tossing it away, we are cultivating what will harm and crowd out the beauty of the garden God so desires in and for us. But if we make a holy habit of quickly dispensing of these weeds then they won’t grow into something larger and harder to dislodge.

The Lord wants us to cultivate a well-kept heart, season after season pursuing Him and the things of His Spirit. Every time we respond to Him, we are creating a bountiful, well-watered garden (Jer. 31:12). When we take in His truth and implant His living words, we are rooting ourselves in Him and cultivating His life within so that the things planted can come to fullness. So, let’s quickly dispense of weeds and cultivate rich gardens reflecting light, truth, and beauty.