Lessons from the Garden #1

I am a newbie at gardening...well, at vegetable gardening.  I have always grown lots of plants and flowers, but not veggies and fruits.  One thing I have always grown well is WEEDS!  I can grow tall, magnificent, well-rooted weeds with very little work.  Amazingly, they just come up wherever, whenever! I hate pulling weeds!  I find them highly irritating. It is hard work to get rid of them, and requires care so I don't uproot my young plants. What is worse, now that I am growing new things, I don't know (especially in the early stages of growth) which is the plant and which are the weeds. Some of my weeds even look very pretty.  (However, you may look closer and find some really nasty thorns!)
This is a great parallel to life, isn't it?  We have to be very discerning, or weeds can pop up and look like the real thing. They can look lovely, enticing, and worth feeding. They can be so deceptive that we may cultivate, pamper, and encourage their growth. If we are not careful, we can cultivate and encourage the wrong things to grow and thrive in our lives.
Thoughts and feelings of jealousy, envy, anger, resentment, ungratefulness, bitterness, self-centeredness, self-pity, arrogance, pride, etc., can be growing just under the surface. When we begin feeding them, suddenly, they grow into full-blown sins and become huge!  God doesn't want those ugly traits to characterize the life of His children.  Unfortunately, they are pretty easy to grow, and don't even require a lot of nurturing.  They can even take over, if left unchecked. They can surprise us by springing up in odd places...
 In Colossians 3:12 it says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."
It is interesting to me that God chose to tell us to clothe ourselves with those traits -- clothing is worn on the outside of the body.  Other people see it easily. It is always on display. So, too, these important character qualities should be clearly evident to all who see us and know us. We can disguise the weeds in our hearts and minds for a while, but if we do not work hard to remove them, they can choke out and take over the growth and fruit-bearing, and even work their way to the outside -- to our countenance, our attitude, our speech, etc. Not a pretty sight. 
So, I must continually kill those pesky weeds! In my vegetable garden, I have to work hard to yank them out by the roots or they come back quickly. I must carefully prepare and nurture the soil so my good plants can grow and thrive.
In my life, I use the Word of God as my weed killer, and meditating on Scripture can work as a good preventative for future weed growth! Even after all these years, it is still hard work and a never-ending task.

But keeping my gardens growing well (minus the weeds) and bearing fruit, is well worth the effort!

Have a good week!  :D