A few weeks ago, my wonderful, industrious husband made a rain-barrel out of an old garbage can to help us save a little bit of money when it comes to watering the garden. I decided to put my unused trellis in front of it and transplant some flowering sweet-peas. We have a patch of them that grows along the fence in the back yard. I went back to the patch and sure enough, little green shoots were starting to poke up! I knew they would be just the thing to climb the trellis and hide the unsightly, although thrifty, rain-barrel.
I carefully tended my little shoots for a whole week, watering them when it was dry, checking their progress, shooing the kids away, and coaxing them up the trellis. I was quite happy with how well they were doing! One day, I went back to see how the big patch of sweet-peas was coming along. As I got a little closer I burst out with a belly-laugh. What I had thought were sweet-pea sprouts were in fact a climbing WEED! My real sweet-peas were just starting to show themselves! My husband also enjoyed a good laugh at my expense...apparently he had discovered my blunder that morning. I wonder how long he would have waited to tell me!
It caused me to think of times in my younger years when I saw something (such as a friendship, or dating relationship) that I thought would be good. I thought of all the time and effort I spent cultivating those relationships which only served to suck my energy dry, drain my emotions and distract me from the things that were most important; like my walk with God, or pleasing my parents. There are other types of "weeds" I deal with, even now. "Weeds" called bad attitudes, discontentment, pride, and others. Sometimes I plant these weeds in my life on purpose; sometimes they blow in with the wind and catch me unawares. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit who whispers to me, "You need to pull the weeds!"
This is the type of weed I carefully tended for over a week!
