Weedy or not, here they come!

"and the earth brought forth grass..."

Genesis 1:11

While I may occasionally enjoy sweeping, one thing I do not enjoy is weeding.  It calls for too much bending and stooping, and you gotta look out for spiders, worms and scurrying lizards.  Not to mention a myriad of beetle-y things...

But this year, weeding is more important than ever.  While we have lived in our house for several years, last year we had a variety of weeds we hadn't had before.  Some kind of tall grass that had needles on the end of it.  By the end of last summer, when the grasses had died, these needle tips broke off rather easily.  That meant that every time the dog went outside, she'd come back in wearing a few of these.  The annoying thing was, not that that they were sharp, but that they have more than one point, and these points face in opposite directions.  This means that when one pokes into your pants leg, or into your sock, you can't pull it through, and you can't pull it back.  You pretty much have to break the thing in half and pull from two different directions.   And if it's caught in the carpet, forget about it.  It would dig so far down you couldn't pull it up, but there would still be enough of it there to stab you if you stepped on it with bare feet.  Nuisance....

So this year I was determined to pull them out early ~ while they were still green, while the needle-y things were pliable, and before they got stabb-y.

{By the way, I adore the intricacies of the English language, and I respect the proper use of words, but I also think it can be very effective to turn a noun or verb into an adjective by adding a "y," like "beetle-y," "needle-y," and "stabb-y".   Don't you agree?  Thank you for your participation.}

The comparison between weeds and sin is very strong.   It's so much easier to rid our lives of a pattern of sin, before it takes hold.  The longer we wait, the more rooted and established sinful habits become, and the more pain they are going to cause.  I think sin can even trick us a little, looking harmless, as those weeds do when they are green.  Or it can seem inviting, as weeds do when they have lovely little flowers on them.  Sin can seem like "no big deal" as we justify it to ourselves.  A friend of mine used to call that "inviting sin in for a cup of coffee".  Don't be fooled.  It shows up uninvited, and in places where we can't even believe it will grow.  We might even have to remove it from our lives over and over again, as it has a tendency to return.  It's persistent and tough, but it's got to be removed or it's going to choke out what God is trying to grow in us.

~ "The seed that falls on good ground is he who, 

having heard the word 

with a good and noble heart, 

keeps it and bears fruit." ~

Luke 8:15