Weeding the garden

There are a lot of weeds in our garden.

Our little introduction to home owning has blessed us with the chance to maintain several little 

garden spaces.  I have been excited to try out my green thumb and take care of these spaces in hopes of making our home and backyard a beautiful, welcoming place for our family and neighbors.  

But the weeds, oh the weeds, how they crop up and constantly threaten to take over.

There are weeds in the grass,

weeds in the vegetable beds, 

weeds in the shade,

weeds in the sun,

weeds under weeds!

There are so many ways that gardening is similar to parenting.

During the summer, when we are all spending our days together, I more easily notice weeds creeping into our lives as well.  These weeds, too, are always threatening to take over, but they have different names than the weeds in my gardens.  They are:

selfishness,

ungratefulness,

pride,

envy,

disobedience, 

distain,

anger,

impatience.

Somedays, I see the mess of weeds outside and want to throw up my arms in despair.  Where will I find the time and energy to tackle the weeding?  As a parent, somedays I want to throw up my hands in despair over the weeds crowding our lives.  Is there hope for us?  Where will I ever get the time and energy to weed out these behaviors?

It takes a lot of time to weed the gardens, whether the gardens outside or the gardens of our souls.  But weeding is worth it.  At the end of a day of weeding, everything looks fresher, our flowers and vegetables are growing more vigorously.  We see the same rewards when we tackle our sinfulness  and help our children grow in holiness.  Our family life feels fresher, our lives grow more vigorous as weeds are replaced by virtue.

I am more and more aware, however, that no day of weeding is complete without examining the weeds in my own life at the end of each day.  A nightly and weekly examination of conscience is a powerful weeding tool.   Confession avails my soul to the merciful hands of the Perfect Gardener.  Christ is able to uproot even the most persistent, threatening weeds from my soul and fill up remaining holes with the rich, healing soil of His grace.

Indeed, this is hard, worthwhile work.

Our gardens are a beautiful, fruitful blessing this summer.

My Little Flowers are even more precious, and their souls are eternal.

May we all bear fruit that lasts and blesses.