Lessons from my garden

 

Weeds

I’ve just spent much of the day digging up weeds from the garden. It’s been raining solidly for a few days, and today’s lull has enabled me to do so more easily than usual. As I worked away, I contemplated how the things in nature can often reflect or symbolise spiritual characteristics. Jesus is very often in my thoughts, but never more so than when I’m in the garden, enjoying God’s creation.

Weeds are like sin. They’re persistent. They are always present. They spoil things, threaten the health of a plant and in the worst-case scenario, they can kill it.

My mother taught me to weed when I was a little girl. You have to be able to identify weeds from flower shoots or seedlings. You have to firmly pull or dig out the whole weed, roots included. You have to shake off the soil, the good stuff, from around the roots. Finally, you have to dispose of the weed where it can’t shed any seeds or take root again.

So it is with sin. Weeds are usually the first thing to appear on empty ground. Give space for sin in your life and the temptations will come thick and fast, shedding their seeds of further temptation.

^“Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.” (Proverbs 16:27). Empty spaces in our lives e.g. having little to do, having lots of time, not connecting with others, can lead to wrong ways of thinking and wrong actions.

If you just pull the foliage off a weed and leave the roots, the area will look fine for a while, but it doesn’t take long for the weeds to reappear. Pull a weed out with the roots and it will soon be dead. Persistent sins need to be rooted out. Don’t just take a couple of corrective steps, acknowledge your problem and seek deep cleansing and healing. This might involve drastic changes. It might need you to seek someone to whom you can be accountable. It may require therapy.

“…If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into the eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.” (Matthew 18:8,9)

Mulching is a good way to tackle weeds or prevent them. My garden mulcher is one of my favourite tools.  I mulch with shredded cardboard and shredded clippings. I see the Bible as a ready source of spiritual mulch. That little, sneaky tempting voice of Satan is no match for the mighty word of God. It can be a great covering in times of temptation. As the psalmist says:

“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.” (Psalm 119:11-16)

Another way of tackling weeds is to ensure that the healthy plants that you want in your garden crowd them out. Ground covers and lots of plantings are an excellent way of doing this. Satan is not so happy or effective when a Christian’s life in the spirit is flourishing. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” – Paul writes to the believers in Colossae (Colossians 3:23). Let the focus of your mind and deeds be on God: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Prayer and Christian fellowship, as well as studying God’s word will help our faith to grow.

We all sin and fall short. Sin and temptation are always with us. Praise God that through Christ we have a Saviour who has set us free from the bondage of sin and death and daily invites us to share a new life, the best life with Him.

 

 

 

 

Little prayers

 "Father, lead me day by day

Ever in Your own sweet way

Teach me to be pure and true

Show me what I ought to do. Amen

 

 

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild

Look upon this little child

Pity my simplicity

Teach me Lord, to come to Thee. Amen

I was fortunate as a child to have parents that believed in God, who attended church and who taught me to pray. These two little prayers are ones that my earthly Father taught me at a young age. After saying them at bedtime I would also ask God to bless by name my family members and more generally my "little friends and animals."We were a family that loved animals, our pets and the wild creatures that lived around us. 

These little prayers have stayed with me all my life, well into adult years. Whilst they are not the basis of my prayer life now, they remind me of the love that God feels for little children and how we must come to Him not with the intellect and accomplishments of our lives, but with the simple faith and love of a child.

Sometimes when I cannot sleep, when the worries and cares of this life surround me, I will pray again the words that my Dad taught me, and God replies with comfort and peace.