A Few Dandelions Here And There

I was looking at our yard and noticing the dandelions popping up here and there.  I like them.  They’re pretty — but they are also weeds.  If left on their own, they will quickly take over and choke out the good grass.  As pretty as they are to look at, they must be cut down.  The thing is, they keep coming back and have to be cut down all over again.  Even so, the continual cutting away of the weeds is worth the effort for the good health of the yard.

Our spiritual lives are just like good grass that gets cluttered up with the weeds of this world.  Before we come to know Jesus, who forgives our sins and makes us clean, we are certainly like a yard full of weeds.  How wonderful it is when Jesus, our Holy Gardener, cuts them all away, leaving us healthy and whole.

However, although we’ve been made clean, the temptations of this world can make us yield to the growing of the weeds.  Before we know it, they begin to pop up here and there.  We tell ourselves that they look pretty.  We tell ourselves that a few won’t matter — but they do.  They do matter because a few breeds more — always.  Thats’ a fact in both our physical and spiritual worlds.  Just a few weeds, left unattended, will always multiply.

So, are we doomed to weeds choking up our spiritual gardens because we all yield to temptations?  Wonderfully, no!  How amazing and loving are the forgiving words of hope that we find in I John 1:8-9, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.  But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  As soon as we detect a weed in our spiritual garden, let’s go ahead, confess it, and let our loving, Heavenly Father — our Spiritual Gardener — keep us clean, healthy, fruitful, and whole.

As pretty as some weeds are, a maintained yard is always the most beautiful.  It’s the maintained yard that keeps fruits of the Spirit growing, which are love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galations 5:22)

Let’s keep a daily check on our spiritual gardens — don’t let the weeds choke away the fruits of the Spirit — then enjoy your garden and the Gardener with the greatest of joy.