It’s summer! That means time for grilling, campouts, and visits to the pool. But there is one thing that tends to put a damper on the fun in the Dunn household, and that is the issue of WEEDS! We long for a mini version of the Garden of Eden on our little suburban tract of land but, unfortunately, we do not seem to have the green thumbs required to grow perfectly manicured lawns and flowerbeds.

After hearing the kids complain of having nothing to do, it became clear that we had a solution for both issues in this untapped labor force!  As co-leader of the family, I decreed that we would each spend an hour every day pulling the offending blights until the weeds were vanquished!

Instead of praising me for my brilliant plan, the subjects greeted my declaration with apparent involuntary eye rolls and sighing. The youngest, however, actually whined to the point of tears! Usually this kind of drama brings out strains of the familiar motherly response: “I’ll give you something to cry about!” Thankfully, instead, the Lord intervened on our behalf.

In a flash of God-breathed brilliance I said, “You need to pull weeds because God is going to teach you about sin!” This was met with apparent skepticism so I explained further: “Just like sin, weeds will take over your garden if we aren’t diligent to stay on top of them. The longer you let them grow, the more difficult they are to pull out. We must not be content to just trim the tops off to make it look better on the surface. We have to dig down deep to pull out the roots or they will just grow back.”

Matthew Chapter 13 is a stern illustration of the seriousness of dealing with sin:

 “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.” NIV 

I have continued to ponder this idea and remember how much easier the task becomes when the ground becomes softened by heavenly rains. Likewise, I pray the ground of our hearts will remain soft before the Lord, and then when He points to areas that need to be dealt with, we will be ready to remove the offending part before it chokes out the things that need to flourish.

It’s not quite joy that I see when the kids don their garden gloves, but they are making steady progress with looks of determination!