Weed It and Reap - Hovsepian

Someone has said: “It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers; he must also hate weeds.”

When my grandfather died about 10 years ago, I took over the small garden outside my grandparents' home because my grandmother was physically unable to tend to it herself. New to gardening, I hated weeds with a passion! I would see my poor little flowers being choked and smothered and I just wanted to yank out those nasty intruders and shake them and… well, some of them were too hard so I just left them there. It was too much effort. I figured I’d have to settle for a less-than-perfect garden. Maybe if my flowers turned out really nice, people wouldn't notice my weeds!

I'm kidding, but sometimes it does seem easier to ignore weeds. When I wasn't strong enough to pull out huge weeds with deep roots, I had to break the soil around them and dig them out... or ask someone stronger than me to pull them out.

Our lives are like gardens in God’s kingdom, which He has given us to tend. The more beautiful His gardens are, the more attractive and inviting His kingdom will be to others. But if our gardens only grow weeds, the Bible says they're only good for being burned.

As we try to grow fragrant flowers and the fruit of the Spirit, Satan comes along and plants temptations and sin in our lives. What do we do about it? If we pull out weeds immediately by resisting temptation, we keep our gardens, our lives, pure. However, if we reason and say, “Aww, I’ll fix that up tomorrow or next week,” the weeds will grow taller and bigger and their roots will settle in deeper into the soil of our hearts.

Leave weeds in long enough and, when we finally decide it’s time to pull them out, they may be harder work than we thought, and either we’ll give up and leave them there or allow ourselves to be broken in order to extract them.

Weeding isn’t the only thing involved in gardening, though. Plants need sunlight and water. We need to spend time in the presence of our Heavenly Father and we also need to nourish ourselves spiritually by reading His Word.

Neglecting a flower garden is a shame. But it’s not nearly as horrible as how a life’s garden could turn out if neglected! Take a look at your spiritual garden. Weed it and you will reap!