Wisdom From Weeding

The month of July has me at my grandparents house in Oklahoma, where I have the task of helping them reclaim their lovely gardens from the weeds that have over-run the many different beds. This means long stretches (3-4 hours each morning) with nothing for my hands to do but pull weeds and my mind to wander (dangerous I know). I am finding that there is a good reason God placed his children in a garden to begin with, much can be learned from a garden. It is also interesting that the heart is referred to as a garden. Most of what follows will be loose analogies about the heart as a garden and sin as the weeds in them.

1. The earlier you start pulling weeds the less heat is in the day.
2. It is easier to work one area at a time, instead of jumping around.
3. To get the roots you have to grab right at the very bottom of the weed and pull hard.
4. Most of the weeds are the same ones you pulled last week, and the week before.... and the ones you'll pull next week, and the week after....
5. It helps to have the right tools for weeding (trowels, rakes, etc) (ie the tool of humility against the weed of pride).
6. Ground soaked with tears of repentance and streams of grace and mercy are easier to weed.
7. It is easier to start on the outside edges and work your way to the center of the garden.
8. You fight more than weeds when you garden (bugs, the sun, sweat, dirt, sometimes other plants).
9. You should weed your garden before you try to prune the plants.
10. Even good plants need trimmed back a bit from time to time.
11. A nice breeze and some shade helps a lot.
12. You can't ignore all the little weeds to work on the big ones, because then the little ones become big ones too.
13. The longer you ignore the weeds the bigger they get and the deeper their roots go.
14. It's a good idea to take a break from time to time and see how much you have already done.
15. Dirt reminds us where we've come from.
16. No matter how dirty you get all it takes is a lot of water to be clean again.
17. We tend to keep the front gardens clean and ignore the ones in the back yard.
18. Some times flowers grow in the "wrong" bed, you can either pull them and throw them away or transplant them back where they belong.
19. Be careful working around thorns.
20. What you didn't finish today will still be there tomorrow.