Crabgrass.

Sometimes God teaches me things in the oddest ways.

Using the oddest things.

Like crabgrass.

You know the stuff. Its annoying, invasive, and chokes your plants. It looks a lot like grass, so its kind of tricky. But if you let any of it grow, even a little bit... before you know it, your beautiful flower beds are completely invaded and your flowers are dying beyond recognition.

Hmm.

This past weekend, I spent about 10 hours in the yard. When I'm stressed out, I tend to garden. I blame my grandmother for this. Once, when I was in high school, I decided I was depressed and wasn't going to school any more. So I stayed home. And she came over and told me to get my tail out of bed, and at least plant some flowers or something if I wasn't going to go to school. So, we planted over 90 flowers that day together. So now, whenver I get stressed, I grab a shovel and hit up the local nursery and improve the look of the yard. Well, I've been a bit stressed lately, so my yard has gotten a makeover. So has my mom's. In the past few weeks, I've planted a vegetable garden, eight bushes, 36 perennials, had 23 boxwoods removed, mulched, and planted annuals in my mom's flower beds. I had some help along the way. But geez, Louise.

Anyway, I had a point. Crabgrass. There was a LOT of it in my flower beds this weekend. And whenever I pull weeds, I think about the parable Jesus told about weeds growing and choking up the seeds of truth He planted. And I started thinking about weeds [sin] and how invasive they can be. I thought about how much crabgrass there was in the flower beds, and what a mess it looked like. And I thought about how, if I'd stayed on top of it, and weeded it out the minute I saw it growing at first, it wouldn't be such a mess. And I thought about how fast it spreads. And how, the more it spreads and the longer it goes unattended, the harder it is to get rid of. And I thought about the holes it leaves when you finally do pull it out. And how much effort that takes. And how messed up the flower beds look afterward. And sometimes there's collateral damage. Like my shoulders, which are still sunburned. Man, it would've been easier to get rid of that crabgrass the first minute I saw it coming... even if I didn't want to.

Hmm.

Life is like that sometimes. We see some sin, and it looks like something we like [like crabgrass looks like normal grass], so we don't get rid of it, or avoid it. And it gradually creeps in. And its not so much of a problem at first. And you actually kind of like it. It fills up the holes in your flower beds. And you start to think it isn't so much of a problem at all. And then one day you stand back and... whoa. seriously. how did we get here?

Thank goodness I know a pretty awesome WeedKiller. Although, it sure isn't pleasant. It hurts. And there's collateral damage. And holes are left where the flower beds used to be pretty. And sometimes you think... I just can't do this. I can't get rid of all of this stuff. Its too hard. My flower beds have holes in them now. I don't like holes. But you keep pulling. And eventually, far down the road, with a lot of hard work, the flower beds might just look better than ever.

Hmm.


Yep, I'm the crazy lady who learns things about Jesus while digging in the dirt!