Down the Garden Path…

When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it.  If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant. 

~Author Unknown

I have been trying to bring my thoughts into alignment with what pleases God and His Word.  I am sure that for most of my adult life I never understood that what I think on affects my words and my actions.  When  thoughts would come I would just mull them over and over in my mind.  You know, think on them.  The trouble is that thoughts left unchecked can make me grouchy, proud, critical, discontent….the list goes on and on.  I would wake up and everything would be just fine in my life.  But by the time I finished getting a shower, my world could be falling apart aided by those wayward thoughts.  It has taken me a long time to connect the two.  But now that I am aware I ask the Lord to help me recognize those thoughts as soon as they begin so I can pluck them right out of my brain!

I thought of that this week while I was weeding my flowerbeds.  Have you ever noticed that if you pull weeds while they are small, they come up pretty easily?  But if you let them go, they put down some pretty strong roots and it is hard to pull them up.  I learned this of course because I had not weeded my garden in….well, awhile! And even though the weeds were kind of big and easy to grab, they were hard to remove…I had to get that weed poppin’ tool and dig at the root in order to remove it. 

It is the same with those thoughts.  Left unchecked they put down some pretty strong roots.  Thankfully I have a weed poppin’ tool for them also.  It is repentance and God’s Word.  I must confess those ugly thoughts as the sins they are.  If I do that when the thought first comes it is pretty easy to remove them.   When I am particularly plagued or worried by thoughts, I have some memorized scripture I pray.  Just like an application of “weed-b-gone”, they wither and dry up! 

My number one weed poppin’ verse:

Psalm 56:9  “When I cry out to You, then my enemies ( my thoughts) will turn back; this I know because God is for me.”

I actually have hung that one on my bathroom mirror so when those shower moments get me, I just stick my head out the curtain and I am reminded of the truth!

Also very helpful to me:

II Corinthians 10:3-5  “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,  but mighty through God to the  pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God; and bringing into captivity, every thought to the obedience of Christ,”

Psalm 19:14  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”

The daisies have been absolutely beautiful this year and seemed to bloom longer that I remember.  So sad for me to have to cut them back this week as their blooms were spent.