weeds

It’s Worth the Effort to Pull the Weeds

~ Hope Surrendered ~ Leave a comment
CT.2-6
Photo and artwork belong to ComparisonTrap.org

This is the continuation of an earlier post about a Bible study in which I’m facilitating and participating.

We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,
and we take captive every thought
to make it obedient to Christ.
~ 2 Corinthians 10:5

The Comparison Trap:  Week Two, Day Six… Some of my reminders and my takeaways from the daily devotional include:

Sandra recaps the time when she first started a garden. It produced a great harvest, but she warns that “weeding was a constant part of the process.”

She reminds us that keeping our minds renewed is similar.

It is.

I’ve found great contentment in gardening over the years. When I did a search of my site for weeds, a few posts came up. One of my favorites, and the one I was looking for, was about learning to find patience through freshly picked greens. It reminded me of the Gardener. …the One who cares for us, lights our way, illuminates the path, is our living water, and is our source of growth.

We can plant great seeds into our heads and our hearts. We can produce a joy-filled outlook and make an impact on those around us. But if we’re serious about our walk with God, we will need to look closely for the weeds which have the potential to overtake and choke out His plans for our lives. The Gardener didn’t intend for these to be in the garden.

Sandra wrote in the book and excerpted in the photo above:

“When comparison, jealousy, and insecurity lodge thoughts in our minds, we can capture those thoughts.”

We can.

Sometimes we struggle, but we can.

These thoughts tie right into the Scripture for today because they are against the knowledge of God. We don’t have an oblivious God. We have the One who is all-knowing. These thoughts—comparison, jealousy, and insecurity—go against the very thing God has revealed as His truth, His will and His superior plan. They go against His intentions.

With Him, we can have confidence that we are capable of taking captive those thoughts and turning them around to make them obedient to Christ. Sandra’s encouragement closes out the day saying,

“We can identify them as lies and replace them with scriptural truth. Just like gardening, the harvest of a healthy mind and heart will be worth all the effort.”

Amen.
Pull those weeds.
It WILL be worth all the effort.

 

 

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Monday’s Musings, A New Week & Soapy Fingernails

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Fingernails Soapy - Copy

Welcome to a new week! Thanks for venturing into it with me!

Last weekend, I wrote about paddleboarding — you can read that here:  http://wp.me/p1oeLN-2I. I know the subject didn’t quite fit into the rest of the writings I’ve shared, but I was (and still am) looking for a way to throw in some tidbits outside of faith-based hope writings of the week. So…welcome to a new week!

Monday’s Musings? Wonderings from the Weekend? I need a title. Any suggestions?

My plan — my hope — is to start the week by offering up a lighter post that goes along with something I experienced, did, thought about, etc., at some point during the previous week or weekend. I don’t know it it’ll work out, but I’m going to try to get my hands dirty at trying it.

Speaking of getting my hands dirty…

The rains have been abundant in this part of the country, which has led to my garden being just a tad neglected. I’ve been behind in my weeding. With a break in the weather this past week, I decided to head out to the garden and take on the task of weeding.

I wear gardening gloves for planting and digging, but I feel like they hinder my ability to pull weeds, so I often don’t use them for this task. This presents a dilemma when it’s time to clean up.

Dirt under the fingernails.

So this week, I tried a little experiment. I got an old bar of soap, and I scratched my fingernails into it before venturing out to the garden. This bar of soap will stay with my gardening tools, as it’s not very pretty anymore.

For the most part, it worked. When I was finished, I used a nailbrush on my dirty fingernails, and the soap that had been under my nails made clean up easier.

The neglected garden gave me a lot more to think about. Friday’s post was a start — you can read that one here:  http://wp.me/p1oeLN-3W  — and you’ll probably see some more of those thoughts in the coming days.

Make it a point to find hope around you this week. It IS there! Enjoy your week!

Finding Patience in Fresh-picked Greens

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Freshly-picked Greens - Copy

The garden has been bursting forth with fresh, leafy lettuce! Salads are a popular meal around our table, but especially when lettuce from our organic garden can be enjoyed.

I don’t have a greenhouse, so where I live, lettuce is ready in the spring long before the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. By the time those are ready, the lettuce is often going to seed in the heat of the summer. By the time the fall lettuce is ready to eat, the tomatoes and cukes are finished.

I wish all of the garden’s delights could be ready at the same time. To solve my challenge, I could spend more time planning the planting schedule, or I could invest in a home greenhouse to have more control over harvest dates. For now, though, it’s enough for me to grow everything organically and to grow everything from organic seeds I started and tended to maturity.

I wonder if God wonders the same about me?

I am sure He beams with pride at His daughter bursting forth with seasons of good deeds and faith-based decisions she’s made after prayerful consideration for her Father’s will and ways. After all, he’s tended to her hopes and her needs as he’s pulled weeds and obstacles out of her path. He’s tenderly shown her how He’s spent time weaving her life together for His good and her good through the tear-filled lessons she’s had to endure.

He’s also lovingly waited on her stubbornness and her selfish bouts of anger and depression to teach her — yet again — that her ways are not His ways. He’s amended the lives of her family and brought about a bountiful harvest despite her hurtful attitude and words that have, at times, wilted their self-esteem.

He knows she’ll come around (he has that ability to see well into her future, you know). He knows He’ll water her life with his Living Water. He knows His Light will shine on her, illuminate her path and be a source of her growth. He knows there will be a day when He’ll be able to tell her she’s been a good and faithful servant.

But…He still has to wait until That Day when all of His pieces, all of His work and all of His pruning will fall together as He planned, allowed and intended. And…while He’s waiting, He knows He won’t be able to enjoy all of His delights in her at the same time — she’s just not capable of that kind of bounty — yet.

Oh, what He must think?  Oh, how patient is He?

The lettuce is ready, and I am thankful to be able to enjoy it. I am also thankful for His patience with me.