Weeding Our Personal Gardens
"The only thing you have to do to let weeds thrive in your life is nothing. And doing nothing is a choice."
~ Alicia Britt Chole
I have a friend who purchased a new home about two years ago. She bragged (and I mean bragged) about the beautifully manicured lawn and immaculate gardens. I must admit a twinge of jealousy the first time I made it over. The grass was the most beautiful green velvet I'd ever seen. The sidewalk to the front porch flanked with tiny white flowers (for some reason it made me think of Alice in Wonderland). The shrubbery was nicely clipped and sculpted. Tulips proudly stood in an arrays of bold colors. Everything just looked perfect!
I stopped by again near the end of this summer. The shrubs had limbs poking out all over, weeds grew up amongst the tulips, grass was growing in the sidewalk cracks: "What did you do to the lawn?" I blurted out. "Nothing," she answered.
Nothing. She chose to do nothing. Here she was given this beautiful precious gift and she chose to do nothing to maintain it or take care of it.
There is a much bigger sin than letting your garden get overrun with weeds... and that is letting your LIFE get overrun with weeds.
Take stock of your personal garden: Can you list the flowers? (Spouse, children, good friends, your job.) Can you name the weeds? (a bad relationship, jealousy, anger, weight, tiredness.)
We can choose to start weeding our personal gardens: put boundaries on toxic relationships (mother-in-law drives you crazy? Limit her daily phone conversations to five minutes by telling her, "Oh! We were just getting ready to ____ but I've got about five minutes to talk!"); get to bed early; start choosing a fruit or vegetable over a sweet; seek counseling for those really big issues.
The point is, we ALWAYS have a choice. God blessed us with reasoning and judgement and motivation. We can choose to start weeding out the things that block the beautiful flowers that grow up around us, or we can choose to do nothing.
Just remember... doing nothing is a choice, too.
~ Alicia Britt Chole
I have a friend who purchased a new home about two years ago. She bragged (and I mean bragged) about the beautifully manicured lawn and immaculate gardens. I must admit a twinge of jealousy the first time I made it over. The grass was the most beautiful green velvet I'd ever seen. The sidewalk to the front porch flanked with tiny white flowers (for some reason it made me think of Alice in Wonderland). The shrubbery was nicely clipped and sculpted. Tulips proudly stood in an arrays of bold colors. Everything just looked perfect!
I stopped by again near the end of this summer. The shrubs had limbs poking out all over, weeds grew up amongst the tulips, grass was growing in the sidewalk cracks: "What did you do to the lawn?" I blurted out. "Nothing," she answered.
Nothing. She chose to do nothing. Here she was given this beautiful precious gift and she chose to do nothing to maintain it or take care of it.
There is a much bigger sin than letting your garden get overrun with weeds... and that is letting your LIFE get overrun with weeds.
Take stock of your personal garden: Can you list the flowers? (Spouse, children, good friends, your job.) Can you name the weeds? (a bad relationship, jealousy, anger, weight, tiredness.)
We can choose to start weeding our personal gardens: put boundaries on toxic relationships (mother-in-law drives you crazy? Limit her daily phone conversations to five minutes by telling her, "Oh! We were just getting ready to ____ but I've got about five minutes to talk!"); get to bed early; start choosing a fruit or vegetable over a sweet; seek counseling for those really big issues.
The point is, we ALWAYS have a choice. God blessed us with reasoning and judgement and motivation. We can choose to start weeding out the things that block the beautiful flowers that grow up around us, or we can choose to do nothing.
Just remember... doing nothing is a choice, too.
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