Even The Good Weeds

If you've read my blog before, you know that the title is in jest. I am not, nor will I ever be, Super Mom. I do try, however, to be a mom first and foremost. So that is why I have not blogged in THREE WHOLE MONTHS. *gasp* I've been a little busy. (That, of course, is an understatement.) So I've taken some time off. But beware, I am working toward a different season in which I may have a tad more time to myself. You know I'll spend some of my 'me' time with my kids and my husband but I bet that you'll also catch me blogging more. Fair warning.

And now...on to my actual reason for writing today...



Blogging is not the only thing I haven't done for three months. This morning I spent a couple of hours cleaning out a smelly garage and a very weedy flower bed. I'm not finished, but it was time well spent and it looks far better than it did. I don't remember there being this many weeds in my front flower bed in the four year history of living in our home. My husband had even tried to spray weed killer on the weeds and it had merely yellowed them a bit. They continued to grow.

Weeding is a love/hate relationship for me for a couple of reasons. I hate it because it's time consuming and it makes my hands hurt. I love it because I'm one of those people who loves immediate gratification. Within an hour I can turn an ugly patch of mess into a pretty mulch bed. The results are easily seen in a relatively short amount of time. Weeding also allows me time to think. Nobody really wants to help with the weeds so I tend to chop and pull all by my lonesome. Once in awhile, lonesome is a good thing. Especially lately.

So God and I had a bit of a chat, which we haven't done quite so much lately. Not the good kind of chat at least. I've prayed and prayed like I always do but I haven't really been listening. Or, maybe I've been listening but I haven't really heard. You know what I mean.

So as we were talking, I noticed that the weeds were much easier to pull than usual because of the rain that we'd had last night. That certainly made things go faster. In addition to the aforementioned variety of hearty, yellowing, poison-treated weeds, there were many others. There was one that looked like a little sycamore tree, one with tiny dandilion looking tufts on it, and one with thorns that I am still suffering a bit from. They were all easy enough to pull, place in my lawn bag, and get rid of.

But then....there were the morning glories...

I love morning glories. They're like a gorgeous little surprise gift each morning from August through the beginning of October or so. They come in such happy vivid hues, different sizes, and they are generally quite hearty. I certainly consider them a beautiful flower. But some gardeners and farmers consider them a weed because truly, they are so invasive. If they are not tended they will simply take over. And sometimes even if they are tended, they take over anyway.

Morning glories are tenacious as well. They come back year after year after year. There is a petite little variety of tiny, white, wild morning glory that comes back in one of my backyard flowerbeds each year. It somehow survived the year that we had the whole backyard(which was nothing but clay anyway) pulverized and covered in sod. It simply won't give up. I love the morning glories dearly, and I don't want to pull them.

So this morning glory is much like my life right now. There are SO many morning glories, or beautiful things, in my life that are just growing and thriving. I'm so pleased! So thankful! It's a wonderful time to watch God's work and I have been so blessed to be a part of such extraordinary grace. But, as you might guess, sometimes even the morning glories have to be tamed, to be 'weeded' if you will. Because otherwise, the healthy plants and earth below will only be healthy for so long.

Today I met many little earthworms as I dug out weeds and fluffed the mulch. They were not there four years ago. After careful ammending to the soil, it is now a good place for both plants and worms to live happily. Simply put, it's like ME. I've been tending myself carefully. I'm healthy, I'm richly blessed, and I continue to receive God's amazing love. But I have to take care. Sometimes even the good weeds have to be pulled in order to keep your heart healthy.

So I will. I promise.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

¹ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.