"Pretty Weeds"

I am normally pretty adamant about keeping the lawn as weed-free as possible.  This year, for whatever reason, I have not treated it, and am just letting it grow as it grows.  My youngest child is loving it, because we have those really cool, pretty-yellow-and-then-turning-puffy flowers, that I never let him pick and blow from the neighbors' yards in years past.  Yep, dandelions.  I actually remember back to first getting the house, and the first thing I did was to spread weed-killer over the yard, and my oldest child could not believe the horror of my killing all those "flowers."

Maybe I've softened, or maybe I've realized that weeds stay greener longer, and if you cut them short, the green is pretty.  Maybe I've given up the battle, I'm still working through this.  I did pull a few by hand this morning on my way out, but I didn't get the root, so they'll be back.

It did make me think though of the Christian life today, and we could get judgmental and liken the story of the wheat and the tares, all the weeds growing up in the midst of the good crop, and how that parallels to Christianity today.  There is indeed much contamination in the church.

But rather, today, let's examine our own lives.  What "weedy" activities are we involved in, which might look good but are actually quite damaging?  See, my child does not know that that flower is actually a weed, and the bane of existence of those caring for lawns.  To him, they look great, so why harm them?  He does not know that, if allowed, they will take over, and be ten-fold in number next year, choking out good grass along the way. 

Much that we do in our lives is all about us, and not about God.  To those around us, it looks really good.  Who am I kidding?  To us it looks great, and only when we let bad habits grow, and multiply, just like the many seeds that we playfully blow around, do we see how destructive those habits have become.  We look back and see how much of a fruitful Christian life we have choked out, but have looked good along the way.

So, fellow believer, time to do some weeding?  And no fair blowing the seeds to the neighbors' yards.  That's just mean!  Let's let God show us what needs weeding out of our lives, in order to be more pleasing to the ultimate Gardener.  Point is, unlike me and my lawn so far, let's not give up the battle.  God tells us He's fighting it for us, with us, and He's very good that way!

Holding Fast to the Name of our Creator.