When the weeds take over

Saturday's for us during the school year tend to be full of things that are not tended to during the week. Since I now have Friday's off I tend to get a lot of the errands, bill paying, etc done but the boys have now taken on helping with the yard work. Now don't get me wrong I love doing the yard work but it is important for me to allow them to help and the outside yardwork is one way they do. Why? They are 12. I have very years to prime them, teach them, and lead them in learning how to eventually live and make it on their own one day. They do have football schedules that keep them busy at school from early in the morning so when they come home they do their homework and have a bit of free time before dinner. Could they do the yard work during the week? Of course they could. But in their learning I want them to the true act of balance as well. On school days they indeed work hard at school. At home, I get them to make sure they pick up their  messes from snack and coming in from the day (both after school and after play time) so that we leave our "living areas" picked up and ready for the next day. They get to put laundry away daily and sometimes I ask them to tend to the cat's needs but that's about it.

So, this Saturday was one of those days we had no where to go, nothing to do outside of the home and it was a good morning to get that yard-work knocked out before the day got too hot. One twin mowed the back yard while the other started cleaning their room and then they switched so the other twin could mow the front. I was going to do the edging. As I began the edging I realized our flowerbed had really been taken over by weeds. Just like my life!

Yep. God began to spill out His heart to me as I worked on those weeds. See it wasn't just the few that tend to spring up quickly and can be plucked out of the ground. These were pesky, deeply rooted, and were taking OVER!

Weeds.... they grow quick. If left unattended they do spread quickly and can squash out any plant that is growing that should be. Some of them even look pleasing to the eye and could easily be considered a beautiful flower.

Our flowerbed has a rock border around it. Well it was there. At first glance you couldn't see it anymore but it was there. Buried. Under weeds and grass that was growing over it.

God has spoken to me before about that flowerbed and that rock border. He used it before to tell me about boundaries and how easy it is to let things spill over the boundaries He has given us (me) if we allow it to happen. He won't stop it... sometimes that is how we learn. The boundaries that we allow in our lives must be solid and well maintained otherwise they will be skewed and sadly lost.

People in our lives become weeds. Work loads in our lives can also become weeds. Wasted time... yep you guessed it weeds. So many of us don't even see the weeds until they completely take over. I had to spend a bit of time pulling and gathering weeds that were deep into the ground. I was just amazed at how I didn't notice during the week how bad they had become. I walk by our flowerbed every single day in and out of our home yet I had no clue how the boundaries had been covered. Other's could see it I am sure, but me? Nope. Not until today when I was purposely out there edging did it even come to my attention.

That is how it is in life. We get going and sometimes we are so busy that we do not see the weeds we are allowing to invade our lives. The weeds that keep us from living the life God has given us to live. The weeds that keep us from a relationship with God. The weeds that just grow with the only intention of destruction and death.

I know I have some weeds in my life .. and I am desperately seeking God on how exactly to deal with them in a way that will bring LIFE into the life that I am living and allow me to uproot the weeds that try to steal, kill, and destroy.