As a child, I remember soon as the snow melted and robins began chirping, my Mother would plant our family flower garden. Eagerly, I’d watch the ground, waiting for the first petal to break through the soil. My Mom always chose seeds that bloomed throughout the summer. At first, I thought her smart to plant beauty that sprang forth all season. Eventually, I realized my “smart” Mom was so much more. She was “wise” and determined to plant seeds of “wisdom” in her children.
Come summer heat, our garden not only radiated colorful flowers but also drab weeds. The weeds were fast spreading and threatening to chokehold and cutoff the life of our blooms. Mom and her band of little gardeners would set out to uproot the deadly weeds. As an army, we attacked the enemy and saved our precious family-garden flowers. With the last weed rooted out, our mission was accomplished, but Mom’s lesson just begining.
Once inside, hands washed, and our glasses filled with lemonade, my Mother began pouring into her children. Between sips of lemonade, my Mother declared many good seeds would be planted and flower in our lives. However, just as in our family garden, weeds would endeavor to grow and cutoff the flowers in the bouquet of our lives. Constantly, we would need to weed our lives of destructive, invasive and undesirable growth. If we became too lazy to pull our weeds or too oblivious to recognize weeds overtaking the garden of our being, then our hearts and souls would turn from the reflection of Heaven’s vibrant beauty to the parched vision of scorched and lifeless worldly vegetation.
As a child, this lesson was seeded in my heart and soul. As a teenager, I needed this lesson to pull me through so many weeded patches of life. As an adult, I heeded this lesson to grow in whatever soil God planted me. As a gray-haired Grammy, I pray I deed this lesson unto the hearts and souls of all my grandchildren, just as my Mother did unto me.
Uplifted in a Broken Down World 