Eine Kleine Garden Musing
This morning while Josh and Noah were at a church work day, Seth wanted to watch "George Muh'mee" (George the Monkey). I'm trying to keep him from turning into a couch potato at the early age of two, so we wandered out into our yard instead to see what we could do with ourselves. It's been hotter than I like November to be, but I remind myself that we live in Florida and we do have some gorgeous winters, even if summer does last 9 months. :)
After a while, I glanced down at the base of our lamp post and saw that it was surrounded by weeds. I focused my attention from there to the whole yard, and was astonished to see weeds everywhere. I've seen them before I guess; every day in fact, as I go and come from our various busyness. But I've ignored them, let them grow, seen them as synonymous with grass (they're both green!), until now they're almost choking out the grass that is trying to grow. I took a deep breath and knelt down to begin pulling up the weeds from around the light pole, when I heard it; the outdoor spigot on the side of the house was spewing water.
Seth.
I had just told him 10 minutes before when I'd found him at that spigot, "No more water." And now there was definitely water. Lots and lots.
I clenched my lips together and shut my eyes. Breathed in and out. Prayed. I was staring down another discipline opportunity. I thought about ignoring it. "Let him play! At least I know where he is and he's not hurting anything," said Lazy Jo. But Spiritual Jo said, "But you've been letting these kinds of things go a lot lately, and you're reaping the consequences. Seth doesn't listen to you at all! He didn't obey you." By the grace of God, Spiritual Jo won that one. Seth and I went inside and then came back out several minutes later. Seth joined me in the weed pile, and I went on trying to free the grass of so many weeds.
When it dawned on me, isn't that what I'm doing in real life everyday? With parenting, I mean. I began to reflect on my parenting and realized that I have just as many "weeds" that I've let creep in. The attitudes. The whining. The refusal to accept "no" for an answer. Letting them run the show. I've been lazy and let it escape from me and now these abominable things are starting to choke out any good grass I may have had to begin with. So I began praying. With each pull of a physical weed, I prayed that God would bring to light times when I need to pull weeds in my kids' lives, times when I should instruct, and to please help me get this thing under control. Because if I would just weed a little each day, I wouldn't have such a daunting problem!
This is the goodness of God to give me a parable for real life in the weeds.
After a while, I glanced down at the base of our lamp post and saw that it was surrounded by weeds. I focused my attention from there to the whole yard, and was astonished to see weeds everywhere. I've seen them before I guess; every day in fact, as I go and come from our various busyness. But I've ignored them, let them grow, seen them as synonymous with grass (they're both green!), until now they're almost choking out the grass that is trying to grow. I took a deep breath and knelt down to begin pulling up the weeds from around the light pole, when I heard it; the outdoor spigot on the side of the house was spewing water.
Seth.
I had just told him 10 minutes before when I'd found him at that spigot, "No more water." And now there was definitely water. Lots and lots.
I clenched my lips together and shut my eyes. Breathed in and out. Prayed. I was staring down another discipline opportunity. I thought about ignoring it. "Let him play! At least I know where he is and he's not hurting anything," said Lazy Jo. But Spiritual Jo said, "But you've been letting these kinds of things go a lot lately, and you're reaping the consequences. Seth doesn't listen to you at all! He didn't obey you." By the grace of God, Spiritual Jo won that one. Seth and I went inside and then came back out several minutes later. Seth joined me in the weed pile, and I went on trying to free the grass of so many weeds.
When it dawned on me, isn't that what I'm doing in real life everyday? With parenting, I mean. I began to reflect on my parenting and realized that I have just as many "weeds" that I've let creep in. The attitudes. The whining. The refusal to accept "no" for an answer. Letting them run the show. I've been lazy and let it escape from me and now these abominable things are starting to choke out any good grass I may have had to begin with. So I began praying. With each pull of a physical weed, I prayed that God would bring to light times when I need to pull weeds in my kids' lives, times when I should instruct, and to please help me get this thing under control. Because if I would just weed a little each day, I wouldn't have such a daunting problem!
This is the goodness of God to give me a parable for real life in the weeds.
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