More Excerpts from Our Life on the Farm

We were up at six this morning so that we could weed the corn before it gets to hot. It's funny how the weeds that we passed over last week are now a foot and a half high, neck and neck with the corn. But I was speaking with a friend yesterday who is a farmer's wife. And she was telling me that while many crops can endure some weeds, corn will NOT yield a harvest if the weeds are bad.

It's not unlike our faith really. The "weeds" of sin tend to choke our faith, making us fruitless. The things we "pass over" while purging our lives of sin can quickly spring up and become huge contenders for our souls. Sin that seems small and insignificant can very soon begin to consume our thoughts making it impossible to "rise above". The only remedy is to rip those "weeds" out. That is why it is important to root out the things that cause us and others to stumble while they are still small. And it is a continual task.

With so many who are farmers and gardeners in the world, it is no wonder that Jesus used the parable of the seed to communicate these lessons in life.

Still, there are those of us who love to garden, who sometimes fail to grasp the importance of weeding our spiritual lives of sin that will threaten to choke us and rob us of our very worth. Because in our pride it can seem small, and insignificant in our minds and we fail to care about the damage it could do.

Imagine how beautiful we would be if we would just rid ourselves of the "life sucking weeds" of our faith, those little sins that grow up unnoticed until one day, they overtake us and we are no longer seen as children of God but a "patch of weeds" that needs to be dealt with immediately lest they go to seed and spread to the rest of the garden and destroy it's beauty.

I don't know about you, but this image makes me cry.
It is sad to think that the faith of a child of God could become so corrupted by the weeds of sin that others would have difficulty discerning wether he/she is actually a child of God or not.

I want to be clearly and easily distinguishable as a Christian. I do not ever want to allow sin to hide or hinder the fruit of my faith. And I never want to allow those sneaky weeds of sin to creep up and overtake me.

God help me, because I am flesh. And like in a garden those weeds of sin tend to grow faster than my faith. But if I can put my roots down deep in my Savior and drink deeply from the source of life itself, my faith will endure and being indistinguishable will not be an issue. And maybe one day, I will be a beautiful and fragrant flower to behold in the garden of God's children and my seeds of faith will spring up in the lives of others. :)