It just so happens I was reading Mathew 13 and the parable of the sower this morning. I prayed and thanked God that His word had found good soil in my heart and asked Him to lead me to good soil to share His word with.
Now I've spent the morning digging in my flower beds. Letting the word seep deep into my heart. I've wrestled with grass and weeds and worms. I'm muddy and dirty and gritty and hot and sweaty and I'm realizing I'm not the good soil I thought I was. "Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them," keeps playing on repeat through my mind. It's a verse that got caught in my throat like an annoying chicken bone. Some scripture just isn't easy to swallow!!
The side of my house has a very big, very overgrown, rose bush. It is quite honestly an eyes sore, nothing more than a tangled mess of thorns. I've come to realize this bush represents my life much more accurately than the bag of rich potting soil full of miracle grow.
Now I've spent the morning digging in my flower beds. Letting the word seep deep into my heart. I've wrestled with grass and weeds and worms. I'm muddy and dirty and gritty and hot and sweaty and I'm realizing I'm not the good soil I thought I was. "Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them," keeps playing on repeat through my mind. It's a verse that got caught in my throat like an annoying chicken bone. Some scripture just isn't easy to swallow!!
The side of my house has a very big, very overgrown, rose bush. It is quite honestly an eyes sore, nothing more than a tangled mess of thorns. I've come to realize this bush represents my life much more accurately than the bag of rich potting soil full of miracle grow.
I've had a lot {a lot!} going on and some of these things are good and beautiful things in my life. They produce, from time to time, exquisite roses that bring pleasure and beauty and enjoyment to my life. Unfortunately, they come attached to a big thorny mess of time and effort and obligations that are choking out the other beautiful blooms in the garden of my heart.
Even as a stay-at-home, work-from-home, homeschooling Momma committed 100% to my children and family and the role God has for me in these places I let my most prized flowers, { my relationship with God, my husband, and my precious children } get neglected and choked out by the thorns. In need of watering, fertilizing and space to grow and bloom.
While a rose bush is ok to have, it must be diligently, frequently, {even mercilessly} pruned to keep it from growing wildly out of control!
I'm working hard to pinpoint the over grown rose bushes in my life. Some are easy to trim back. {Laundry, oh yes!, prune that baby back to practically nothing. Everything else is donated and my time and garden space is way less thorny!}
Other's... not so much! {Cutting back my photography to only personal photo's was WAY harder!} Fortunately, God is oh so faithful and once I took the first step and said 'no,' to my selfish desires and 'yes' to what God was asking of me He completely restored my heart. I have no desire whatsoever to be a "professional" photographer any longer. Funny how God gives the necessary peace to do exactly whatever it is He is calling you to once you step out in faith with that first tiny baby step!
Gardening. It is hard, grueling, stinky, work. Whether in literal flower beds out front or the figurative ones that comprise my day to day life, and my inner heart. Thankfully, it is oh so worth the effort when the result is a pretty space where flowers bloom and weeds are easily spotted and plucked out.
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