Gardening

Uproot: 1. To tear or remove (a plant and its roots) from the ground. 2. To destroy or remove completely; eradicate. 3. To force to leave an accustomed or native location. (American Heritage Dictionary)

From the time I went through a Bible Study known as Breaking Free, I have, from time to time, asked God to uproot things from my life, or my heart, or my mind. To remove a habit or a thought or a feeling that's there that shouldn't be. Remove it so that no trace of it remains. And then, of course, I ask Him to replant the area with something that will bear only His fruit, the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control (Gal 5:22). If you don't replant, you're just inviting those weeds back.

Today is a nice day in Southeastern Michigan, so I am outside doing yardwork with the hubby. (Well, at the moment, I am inside with Bailey to ensure he is not run over by the lawn mower or whipped with the weed wacker.) I was pulling weeds of different sizes and I noticed that sometimes I can pull the thing up myself, easily or with effort, but in a matter of seconds. Other times, the leaves and/or stems of the unwanted growth come off as I pull and it looks gone but I realize later I didn't get the roots out when it grows back. Other times I have no success at all, and I need to go get a tool. But it has to be the right tool for the weed in question. Sometimes that might be a spade or a rake or sometimes it might be the thing that I have no name for, but it looks like a snake's tongue, long and forked at the end. But it works beautifully.

As I go through this process every couple of weeks I can't help but think of the things I ask God to uproot for me. Habits, beliefs, thoughts - some of which I willingly nurtured, thinking them harmless, and some that were planted there by someone else and I just didn't recognize them as weeds. I find that I have to ask God to specifically pull something; blanket statements don't work for me. Maybe it's an important part of the process for me to know what He's getting rid of so I don't let it grow again.

But how wonderful,the knowledge that He knows, unlike me, what He's doing. He knows the garden that is my life well and all the things that grow there. He knows what should stay and what should go, and has the tools to do what's needed - fertilizer for the good stuff, weed killer for the bad. I thank God that he allows me to have a part in it all. He reveals to me what's beautiful and what's not and moves me to get rid of what shouldn't be there.

"The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58:11

I want to be that well-watered garden, that ever-flowing spring, beautiful to God, and a reflection of God's beauty that others can see.