20×40 yard. Every spring my grandparents would till that land. They’d carefully make rows and then plant what seemed to be 100’s of seeds, one at a time. As the garden began to grow, we would all chip in pulling the weeds. In fact, pulling the weeds became a saying around their house. Don’t ever say you are bored and there is nothing to do in the summer at grandma’s house, for there were always weeds that could be pulled!
One thing we learned about weeds was that if you didn’t pull it out when it was small, the roots of a weed would go deeper into the ground and eventually pop up in a different location… now stronger rooted and much harder to pull out. When this happened, what would have been just a quick pull, now requires a tool, some elbow grease, and the dirtiest fingernails ever! You see, unchecked weeds and weeds that were only partially removed would eventually be way more destructive and much more difficult to uproot than the ones which we took care of as they were just beginning to grow.
Our life is like a garden
We plant rows and rows of thoughts that begin to grow and produce fruit in our life. Let’s say I plant the truth from God’s Word, “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” Ephesians 6:1
“Okay God, I’m going to teach my kiddos that obeying mom and dad is right. We are going to plant that in our garden of life and it is going to grow.”
So you plant it by teaching it to your kids. You as a family believe it, and live it out. The greatness is that this truth works (as does ALL of God’s promises) and when the kids obey the parents they are joy-filled and living well and the parents are peace-filled and living well. You have some amazing fruit growing.
Then year fourteen or fifteen comes along. The child starts trying to move away from the pace you as a family has set. That my friend is the weeds. It doesn’t mean the child is evil, the doctrine was wrong, or that we have to pull out the entire plant.
I think Galatians 6:9 says it best, “Let us not be weary in well-doing.”
This is the time we go into that garden of life and see where the weeds need to be pulled. For this scenario the weeds took root due to outside influence, “Your parents are so strict. I can do whatever I want to do, you don’t have to listen to them.” {Corinthians 15:33}. Or it could be internal influences such as, “I am 15, this is my life, I get to decide all of it. They don’t even understand anything.” {Philippians 2:14}.
No matter what direction the “weed” is growing from, we simply get into that garden and pull out that weed. We don’t leave these thoughts or words unchecked as unchecked thoughts can grow into those weeds that require a whole lot of strength, instead we uproot them. It does take some doing on our part, maybe even some “taking back the ground” at times; but, when we do this and then fertilize the ground again, it gets strengthened.
You can replace the Ephesians 6:1 scenario with any verse that you want to believe and grow in life and the process will be the same: Plant it, water it, feed it nutrition, and then continue to maintain it.
We don’t allow weeds to grow in our life, we simply remove them.
Galatians 6:9 concludes with “for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” That is the promise we look to. If we maintain this beautiful garden, we will reap the benefits of our, “well-doing”.
Every Summer we would reap the bounty from the garden my grandparents cultivated. You have never really had corn on the cob until you have had it fresh from the garden. The best corn on the cob I have ever eaten came from my grandparent’s garden; the garden that they sowed into, watered, fertilized, and pulled weeds away from grew!
You see, the reaping from the gardens we build in well-doing is always the sweetest.
