Monday, April 1, 2013

Weeding life's garden

We have been experiencing unseasonably warmer temperatures across Oklahoma in the recent months and one thing that I love about warm weather is the ability to get outside and get my hands dirty in the flower bed.  I have also experienced a change in work status in the last couple of weeks....ok, I am now unemployed and on the job search.  Funny thing.  About 8 or 9 months ago I thought that I was really suffering in my job and things were not good.  Corporate buy out and take over, new company, new rules and regulations, you know, the whole she-bang.  I had what I thought was a great opportunity in front of me to work for someone I genuinely respected.  To make a long story short, about 8 months later, we both agreed that things were not playing out the way we had envisioned and hence, I am job hunting.  So, on one of the first afternoons of my newfound time freedom, I was sweeping off the front porch and admiring an absolutely gorgeous afternoon sky.  There was not a lick of wind blowing and the birds were singing and a few neighborhood dogs barking.  I glanced over to my very neglected flower beds and thought maybe I should clean them out.  So I gathered my supplies, plastic bags for all the dead leaves that had accumulated over the past 6 months, the hand rake, the garden hoe....you know all the goods to really get to work.  As I am deep in my work cleaning and cultivating, I realized that there are times in life when we have to get the weeds out.  We have to clean up our situations and our attitudes in order to prepare for new things to be planted and to grow.  One thing I had not done in quite some time is to clean out the weeds in my life.  So I began to pray and to ask God's forgiveness for various things I had let take over my life's flowerbed.  I had let other people infiltrate my thoughts about myself and therefore affect me as a person.  One thing I know for sure is that God loves each and every one of us and he wants us to be joyful.  God wants us to have good things in life.  He does not withold blessings from us, sometimes we have to clear the weeds out to see them.  God is love and He loves us.  Clean out the weeds in your life's flowerbed and enjoy the blessings that God has for you.  Love is one of the most important things that we can possess in life. And the great thing about love is that we are commanded to give it away.
In Colossians 3:12-15 we are told, "therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." Don't continue to carry bitterness and malice in your hearts toward those who you feel may have wronged you. Forgive them and show love since this is what we are commanded to do. When we are able to do this, God will give us peace in our hearts and lives. Who knows? You may be the example that someone else needed to see in order to help them weed out their life's garden.
Blessings to all,
Latasha

No comments:

Post a Comment