Oh That Weed! UGH!

Spring has always been my favorite home school season because it allows me so many practical opportunities to instruct my children.  There has never been a spring where I didn't take one of my children outside to pull weeds from the yard.  Each time we would examine the root system... the length, width and depth of the weed we were trying to remove from our yard.  There would always be those weeds whose roots had burrowed down deep, making a gentle pull impossible for their removal.  We would water to help loosen their grip in the soil.  I would begin to instruct.  "See how easy it is to pull this small weed with the small roots? See how much work it takes to remove these large weeds with the roots holding fast and deep in the soil?  Do you see how this is like sin in our lives?  It is so much easier to remove the sin before the roots have expanded down deep and intermingled with the soil of our lives?"

Each child would nod in agreement as God would always speak to me personally about a weed He needed to address in my life.  This year wasn't any different, except He brought His truth to me through two examples of lives that I observed:

Lady #1 - She recently had a injury that has left her in a wheel chair with months of rehabilitation in order to walk again.  It will be close to a year or more before she is able to return to her former self.

Lady #2 - Her husband just recently received a promotion, giving them the ability to achieve a higher level of the American dream....new house, private schools for the her children... and more freedom for her.

One lady just voiced all of God's goodness and blessings.  She has seen Him through her life at so many turns.  She was giving God the glory. I was ministered to through this woman, instead of me ministering to her.

The other lady was upset about the inconvenience in her life.  The change isn't something she wanted. I prayed that God would transform her heart and for her to have a new joy.

Which reaction went with each lady?  Can you guess?
Lady #1 was the one giving God all the glory.  At the age of 71 she could only speak of God's faithfulness, while she held herself up with a cane and asked me if I was okay. She just glowed with the Glory of God. Her many years of trials have produced refined silver.  She sees her trials as blessings.

Lady #2 has years ahead of her.  She was trying to see how God was going to use this change in her life. She was very distraught.  Her years in ministry hadn't prepared her to receive the blessing she now sees as a challenge.  The American dream doesn't always create in us refined silver.

MY WEED!!!  God so gently bent down to start the removal of the large grown weed, whose roots have gone too deep.  "Janette, which one are you?  Have you taken my blessings, which so many times come disguised as trials, and called them curses?  You say you want to spiritually walk like Lady #1, but aren't you walking like Lady #2?  When was the last time you didn't complain about the road of blessing I have you traveling?  Don't you believe that the plans I have for you are for your good and not for evil?"

It is time to 'YANK'....I am not feeling too comfortable right now, the watering of His word and spirit are allowing the soil to loosen it's grip on my deeply-held roots of sin.  I know it is His timing.  Spring looks wonderful....it is time to weed!