gardening is like my heart

It has been awhile since I have taken the time on the computer as I have been so busy... (finally the sun came out here in WI and we broke 70 degrees a few days!!)...yard and garden work. Cleaning gravel out of the grass from snow removal, cleaning leaves off of flower beds from fall, and pulling weeds out of the garden that seemed to grow all winter. How is it that the weeds multiply in the winter?

The weeds remind me of sin. Something that never goes dormant is at work in the members of my body waging war against my mind (Romans 7:23)...like those nasty weeds-trying to choke out my beautiful flowers! I actually lose perennials if I don't tend to the weeds in the fall because they get choked out.

Tending the garden of my heart is something I have to be just as diligent at. Most of us look at sin (first glance) as the behaviors we exhibit at times, but sin really is more our attitudes that then manifest in behaviors. Attitudes like unforgiveness, pride, selfish ambition, manipulation, comparison, inferiority or superiority. Oh my, the list goes on and on.

So every spring, I attack the gardens and give them a good cleaning. Then I simply must maintain them on a regular basis. Giving the plants plenty of water, and fertilizing them from time to time.

I also like to go to a confrence once a year, and take inventory of my heart, see what God is wanting to pull out and clear away that is not pleasing to Him. Then as I meet with him daily, and spend time in His Presence hearing Him, I am transformed by the renewing of my mind (Romans 12:2).

I have noticed, after maintaining my flower beds for the past 6 years diligently, that they are a bit easier to maintain each year because I have tended to them. There is one that I have not been so diligent with, that is still more work than others in the spring. I also have one flower bed that has a stubborn, deep-rooted root system-weed that I have to truly vigorously attack every year. Honestly, sometimes I think I should just plow that one up and plant grass and be done with it.

God had to do that with sin in my life too-the sin of self-reliance/unbelief. He had to "afflict me that I might learn His decrees" Psalm 119:75. He plowed up the ground with the stubborn weed and cleared it away to make room for the flowers (or maybe grass) He is planting in my life. He is the perfect Master Gardner!! I am so glad that He tends my soul.

Like tending my gardens becomes enjoyable when it is maintainance, so is my time with the Lord tending my heart.

If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have preserved my life. Psalm 119: 92,93