Getting Into The Weeds

I realized tonight why I enjoy weeding my garden.

Don’t get me wrong- I used to hate weeding as much as the next person, more even because I was a lazy kid.

As a kid we had a huge garden and depended on its success to help feed our family all winter. My parents, my eight siblings and I all tended the garden all summer long, and the most time consuming thing we did was pulling out the weeds. 

There were deep rooted weeds like prickly plants that always seemed to leave a little of themselves behind, or the creeping vines that strangled the life out of the other plants. We had to keep up with them or they would take over.

I was not a fan of this daily chore, but we saw how the earth yielded the crop and what weeds could do if they took hold.

Last year I planted my first garden in a long time. Planting the flowers and vegetables, tending them, and watching them grow was rewarding, it was exciting. I started to see the weeds come up and I felt this overwhelming urge to pull them out. How dare they try to take over my babies?

So weeding became my nightly ritual; I came home from work, changed and got my garden gloves on. The work was exhausting, but well worth the effort. 

It took a long time, but I finally enjoy weeding. Here are the three reasons why:

1. Quiet Time - You want quiet time? Go weed. I can guarantee no help will arrive. No one will offer to assist. Instant quiet time.
2. Restful Sleep - You want to have restful sleep? Go weed.  After crawling around on your hands and knees in the garden digging and pulling weeds, you work your muscles and use your physical energy for the day.
3. Stress Relief - You want to relieve worry and stress? Go weed. Once the crawling and pulling begin, my mind starts working the issues of the day.  I call it my “talking to God time”.  We talk over all the events. He may let me know where I could have done better, why I shouldn’t be worrying about such and such, and which verse reminds of that very thing I was thinking about today. Sometimes I may hum a song for him. But mostly I feel like I am yanking out all the weeds from my soul just like I am out of the garden.  It is really quite beautiful how he teaches me these things. 

I can’t weed my entire garden in a day. I do a little each day. It’s the same with my life, I can’t let all that junk built up in me either. When I am weeding my mind takes me all over the place, that is not an accident. God knows where the weeds are, I just have to let him show me, so we can pull them.  Want to give it a try?