Several weeks ago my wife worked hard to get the weeds pulled in the flower beds. My job was to get the pine needles and to put them down so the weeds would stay better in check. I stopped and picked up pine needles after work. It seemed no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get those needles down. There was always something else to do. Several weeks passed.
When I finally found the time to get them down, you know what I discovered? More weeds! Before I could put down the nice, fresh pine needles I had to deal with the weeds again.
The most difficult weed to deal with is joint grass or Bermuda grass. It is almost impossible to get rid of Bermuda. I once sprayed it with weed killer and I later saw stripes on the Bermuda; any place that didn’t get the weed killer on the leaves continued to live on. I believe it you took some Bermuda, Kudzu, and honeysuckle seeds to the moon within a year the moon would appear green to us here on earth.
Well, the battle was fierce over the weekend, but the weeds took some serious damage. Notice I didn’t say that the weeds were defeated because I know they will be back. I put the pine needles down and the flower beds look so much nicer…for the time being! I even took the weeds down a notch in the vegetable garden. It’is a temporary victory, but it feels good.
Last time I wrote about God doing some pruning on us to make us grow stronger. When it comes to weeds, God allows us to deal with them in our lives. He doesn’t pull them for us; in fact, He will allow us to get buried in weeds. It is our responsibility to decide what is growing in our lives. If we allow spiritual weeds, then we will forgo our potential harvest.
There are all kinds of weeds that stunt our spiritual growth. One of them is time wasters. I am not suggesting that we have to be productive every minute of every day. We all need down time to relax and decompress from a stressful world. I don’t want to point to any one bad time waster, but anything that takes up way too much time and distracts us from the important things in life like our families and pursuing spiritual growth could be spiritual weeds.
As a guy, I live by my routines, but there are habits that get into my life that can be weeds. We all need to be in the habit of taking good care of our teeth. A good night’s sleep is also a good habit to maintain. But then there are habits that can lead us down the path to sin, which are akin to weeds.
There are also bad habits that can result in bad health or could negatively affect our relationships within our families. These weeds need to be pulled.
Weeds are anything that can get in the way of our relationship with God or our family and friends. Sometimes pride keeps us from saying, “I am sorry” when we are in the wrong. Sometimes our pursuits are selfish, which are weeds that need attention. Sometimes we want to lift ourselves up rather than build others up. These are weeds.
The problem with weeds is that they zap us of the energy we need to fulfill our God-ordained purposes. We spend our time and effort on doing things — good things — but if they aren’t “God things” they could be potential weeds. God wants us to take the responsibility to get those things out of our lives so His spirit can infuse us with His power to make a positive difference in the lives of our families and friends.
I want to encourage you to consider how you are using the gift of time. Are there weeds keeping you from fulfilling God’s purpose in your life? Don’t condemn yourself for resting and relaxing, because we all need that. But consider what weeds have been keeping you occupied and distracted from God, your family, and your friends. Pull them! Then allow God to guide you into better uses of your time and energy. With the weeds out of the way and a fresh refilling, imagine what God can do through you!

Doug Creamer teaches Marketing at East Davidson High School. His website is located at www.dougcreamer.com