By Megan Clark
The four of us stood there staring down at the beaten up patch of earth we had called our garden last summer.
The boys had fond memories of picking sweet pea pods and vines bursting with fat cucumbers. Now they stood numbly taking in the hard, cracked soil overrun with the healthiest crop of weeds in existence.
I explained to my row of boys beside me that we needed to rid this patch of these nasty weeds and make the soil healthy again so we could plant our new garden. One by one they attacked the stubborn green clusters—tugging, ripping, and falling back hard when the weed would partially give way.
Next, they tried coming at the unsightly plants with shovels and rakes only to come away with handfuls of leaves and barely denting the packed soil around the root. And then just as they had begun, one by one they started giving up, declaring it impossible.
Their tired, dirty hands hung low by their sides. Once again we stood there staring at that patch of earth overgrown by oppressive weeds, and they wondered aloud if the garden would ever exist again. I told them all to sit down and rest beside our garden for a few minutes.
As they watched, I began to dig away around a particularly stubborn weed. I explained how Satan wants our hearts to be like this. He takes the rich ground we have in Jesus and sows his seeds that grow into thick, ugly, stubborn weeds. The soil loses its value, becomes hard, and the sinful weeds take deep root.
The only way to get rid of the weeds—the lies, bad habits, selfishness, pride—is to pull out the whole thing, by the root. I explained how just pulling off the top leaves or the part you can see, would leave a hidden root that would grow again and strangle our good seeds. I dug and clawed until I could pull out the whole ugly root, and the boys marveled at how deep it had been inside the soil.
We looked at the blisters on our hands and talked about how removing weeds from our lives might even be painful, but the healthy soil we leave behind in our hearts will grow sweet and delicious fruit. One by one the boys got to work again, now naming each weed they attacked with something they wanted to work on in their lives. The garden became a discipleship ground they could visualize as their hearts. That day as healthy seeds were sown in our backyard, godly seeds were sown in little hearts. They learned that keeping our hearts fertile for growing in God requires constant weeding of the whole root. And now every day as we water our garden, rid it of weeds, and watch our plants grow, my little men talk about the healthy things God is growing in them and weeding their hearts, so good things have room to grow.
Megan Clark is a homeschooling mom to three boys and a girl, who keep her pediatric nursing skills sharp. She is married to Matthew Clark, an attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice. Living in Washington D.C. has given their family daily opportunities to explore and learn. Between hiking, running, baking, making messes, photography, and blogging, Megan and Matthew keep Christ the head of their household as they grow alongside their kids in becoming more like Him.
Volume 8 Issue 1 - The Renewanation Review
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