Garden of Weedin' -- life lessons learned in a garden by Mary Folkerts

 

From the fresh days of spring through the hot sticky heat of summer to the golden hues of fall, you can find me outside in my gardens. I combat mosquitoes, heat, and wind in the short but intense months of gardening, but my biggest nemesis is weeds. Most summer days, you can find me kneeling in my flower beds, slathered in bug spray, pulling weeds. It seems as soon as I finish one bed, I start the process again. The job is unending!

They say an author should research or become familiar with the topic they want to write about. Perhaps another way of thinking would be to write about what you are already immersed in. In my case, it’s gardening and, in particular, removing weeds!

To me, weeds depict all the things in life that slip us up or hinder our spiritual growth, otherwise known as sin. 

Here are some things I’ve learned about weeds. 

1. You have to remove weeds for a garden to flourish.

If you have neighbours that can see over the fence into your garden, you may want to remove the weeds for the sake of appearance. A weed-free garden is much more pleasing to the eye, but we wouldn’t be removing them for others, would we? (Check!) True gardeners keep a clean garden for the health of the plants they nurture. Weeds can quickly choke out the young bean plants as they vie for nutrients. 

So it is with our spiritual life. Sin left unchecked chokes out the health of our life in Christ. It’s hard to pray when sin stands between me and God. 

2. Waiting too long to pull the weed can lead to a plethora of more weeds.

Weeds are unwanted plants that also produce flowers if left unchecked. And when that flower dies, its seeds scatter across the garden, creating more of its kind! 

Sin left unchecked leads to more sin. We get comfortable in our state, not even realizing that sin is taking over the soil of our soul. 

3. You need to get the root. 

Cutting off the top of a weed will disrupt its growth for a while, but it will come back as the root is still intact. To ensure its proper removal, you must get the root.

Sin has deep roots, wrapping itself around the heart. It’s hard to eradicate, and only with the help of our Saviour Jesus, can we find strength and wisdom to do the hard work of deep digging necessary for removal. Behaviour modification is not the same as deep digging. 

4. You need to create barriers to keep weeds from establishing. 

Barriers, such as landscape fabric or mulch, inhibit weeds from being able to sprout.

We need boundaries and systems in place to help us in our spiritual life. We can never be too confident in our own abilities to keep sin at bay. Sin is deceptive, and Satan cunning. It is essential to have a Christian community and friends that hold us accountable. We cannot let the seed of sin germinate, or before we know it, it has established itself in our garden.  

5. Sometimes, quick action is better than perfect technique. 

Waiting for enough time to do a job correctly isn’t always the right thing to do. Sometimes that flowering weed just needs to be snipped so it doesn’t shed its seeds. True, you didn’t get the root, and the plant isn’t gone, but at least the seeds can’t do further damage. 

There may be things that need a quick removal from our life. You may need to return for deeper root digging at some point, but the quick snipping of the flowering sin is most important at the present. 

And these are some things I think as I push my knife into the dirt, loosen the soil around the roots, and throw another weed into my bucket. 

What are you currently immersed in? How can God use it to reveal Himself to you as He paints word pictures for you from your everyday life? 

Mary Folkerts is mom to four kids and wife to a farmer, living on the southern prairies of Alberta, where the skies are large and the sunsets stunning. She is a Proverbs 31 ministries COMPEL Writers Training member and is involved in church ministries and music. Mary’s personal blog aims to encourage and inspire women and advocate for those with Down Syndrome, as their youngest child introduced them to this extraordinary new world. For more inspiration, check out Joy in the small things https://maryfolkerts.com/