By Doug Creamer
Fighting Back!
Last week I got out in the garden and harvested some rewards for my hard work. We dug up some nice potatoes, enjoyed some corn, and savored fresh tomatoes. I had space to plant some new crops so I put out some more corn, string beans, butter beans, and some sunflowers. I hope to plant a cherry tomato and maybe some squash this weekend.
I wrote about how the weeds were winning in my garden last week. The cooler temperatures last weekend gave me a chance to fight back. I pulled countless weeds, wheelbarrows full of them, out of my garden. I worked in both the vegetable and flower beds to clean those weeds out. Please don’t check behind me, there are still plenty more out there, but parts of the garden are looking better.
I feel good about the progress and look forward to attacking them even more this upcoming weekend. Weeds are a constant battle. If you don’t stay on them they will win and overtake any garden space. I pull weeds, spray them, and try to use mulch to keep them down. But no matter how hard I try, they seem to find a way to sneak in.
There are many weeds that creep into our lives. Often they are small and we barely notice them. A little doubt. Fear and worry. A small habit. A bit of laziness. Things that may seem inconsequential. Skipping prayer or reading the Bible…just for today. Allowing that negative thought an opportunity to stew. Weeds! We should stop them. Nip them in the bud, as Barney Fife would tell us. But we overlook or ignore them. We hope they won’t take root and find a home in our lives. But…they do.
I think the real problem is that they require effort to remove. We are tired. We’ve had a busy day. We’ll work on that tomorrow. We know better. Tomorrow will be another busy day. Pulling that weed, changing a negative habit, building good habits all require work, more effort, and I am already tired. We know we shouldn’t just let it go, but then we have to summon the energy to pull that little weed out of our life.
If we aren’t careful, the little weed will find a home. Removing it requires ME to change. I really don’t like change. Now the little weed begins to grow. It’s not so bad, right? Wrong! The little things that grab our attention can lead us away from the things that God has for us. God has great plans for our lives that will require us to be focused. Those weeds have distracted us and kept us from God’s best for our lives.
Let’s be honest… It’s hard to stop bad habits. It’s hard to build and maintain good habits. We simply do not like change. There is a part of us that wants to change. Consider all the diet and self-help books on the market. They work sometimes for some people. Why don’t they work all the time for all of us? I think it comes back to our desire to fight.
We need to look at the things in our life that need to change as weeds. We have to decide that we want to remove the weeds. It’s a fight to tell your flesh NO! Our spirit has to tell our flesh that the weeds have to go. We have to rise up and fight for the change. We have to decide. The decision is not easy because our flesh will fight back.
We have to remember that we have a great cloud of witnesses that are cheering us on. We may need help from friends, family, pastors, and even doctors to finally pull the weeds out of our lives. We will certainly need to pray, be in the Word of God, and depend on the power of the Spirit of God to help us succeed. We might fall down in the process, but we will learn to lean on those around us until we finally overcome!
I want to encourage you to fight back, to take those weeds out of your life. Whether they are little or big God wants you to get the weeds out of your spiritual gardens. He has things that He wants to grow in you but He needs the space to make them grow. It will take prayer, faith, and the power of the Spirit, but I believe you will see the victory. I don’t want you to miss one thing God has for you. Get ready to fight back and discover the great things He has for you.
Contact Doug Creamer at PO Box 777, Faith, NC 28041or doug@dougcreamer.com
