My husband and I almost never use our front door entrance. We drive into the attached garage, and enter the house through the kitchen. We rarely have company, and when we do, they often enter through the garage. I can go months without walking the front sidewalk. I wasn't totally unaware that the front landscaping needed attention. I just didn't want to deal with the problem. I am 47 years old, 100 pounds overweight, and out of shape. Weed pulling is hard work. I didn't care enough to make the effort (i.e. I was lazy). Some people care too much about what others think. I probably don't care enough!
Eventually, the weeds were so tall that you didn't have to walk the sidewalk to see them...you could see them from the highway! I mean they truly looked like tall ornamental grass, only ugly. Is there such a thing as "ornamental weeds"? By this time, they were so overwhelming that I... continued to ignore the problem for awhile longer!
Finally, I knew I had to do something and so I hired my nephew to help me. I wasn't completely unwilling to do the work, but I had let it get beyond my ability to accomplish in a reasonable time frame.
Some of the weeds were really hard to uproot, just as I expected. In those cases, it took some hefty tools and quite a bit of time to dig them up. But some of the weeds came up very easily because they had shallow roots. As he and I were working on a section where that was the case, I was even more ashamed of myself than before for letting the bed get so out of control. Had I tried to work on that section, I could have resolved at least part of the problem much sooner.
Because there were so many weeds, the job wasn't accomplished while my nephew was here to help me. One flower bed still has weeds that I will tackle a little at a time as my body is able. Now, you may think this is crazy, but I felt like God suggested that I get on my knees and pull some weeds while it was cool this morning. Not just a suggestion that I go get started pulling the remaining weeds, but a suggestion that I do it "on my knees".
So, I go out and begin. I got my kneeling pad and began to pull. After a small section was done, I tried to get up. When you are terribly out of shape, it is HARD to get up from a kneeling position without something to hold on to. For a moment, I thought the highway department workers (who were working directly in front of our house) would have to come get me up! If any of them had taken video of me getting up, it could probably be a YouTube hit because it was so ridiculously embarrasingly awkward.
After a brief rest, I began again, but I didn't want to get back on my knees. I had so much difficulty getting up the first time, I didn't want to risk it again. So I tried pulling the weeds from a standing position. Oh my hurting back! Then I tried pulling from a sitting position and that wasn't effective at all. Finally, I got back on my knees. Amazingly the weeds were so much easier to pull from a kneeling position.... That's when God gave me the object lesson. Janet, if you will get on your knees, the weeds that need to be pulled in your life will come up a whole lot easier!
If I consider the whole weed pulling experience, there are more object lessons to be drawn. When I use the term "weeds", think of anxiety, fears, improper desires, bad attitudes, selfishness, etc. Most of us know what our weeds are...
- Ignoring weeds just avoids the problem until it is much harder to address.
- Eventually your weeds will become visible to all.
- New weeds, without time to establish their roots, are much easier to pull.
- Out of control weeds take some powerful tools (God's Word & Holy Spirit) to uproot.
- Sometimes we need to ask for help when a weed problem has become overwhelming.
- It will take perseverance to pull a large well established bed of weeds.
- Weeds are a whole lot easier to pull on our knees.
Do you have any weeds to be pulled? Are you resisting a humble, on your knees, position before God? Join me on my knees...
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