I’m feeling lazy today, like I just want to sit here with my
coffee and listen to summer coming on.
Summer is the season for laziness, isn’t it? The neighborhood pool is open, the shade
trees are full and picnic-ready, and the birds are singing to each other.
Man of the House has been diligently working on our
flowerbeds, redoing the stone around each one.
We were very blessed to move into a beautifully landscaped yard. Most of the plants are succulents, too, so we
haven’t had to worry about upkeep too much. The trees in the backyard are out
on the edge of the property, which gives us a big empty yard full of grass for
the kids and dogs to enjoy.
As beautiful as it looks from the road, up close we found some
issues that needed attention. The felt liner under the ground cover was torn
and showing through in all four beds and around the side yards. There were
weeds amongst the ground cover and areas that had once had clean edges were now
a mix of weeds, grass, and ground cover.
The hostas needed thinning, as well as the irises. Missouri rock that
was once a stone path for rain run-off needed to be bulked up. English Ivy had taken over one corner of the
house, which looks beautiful but can bring unwanted guests and hide any
problems that need attention in that area.
Oh so diligently and purposeful, Man of the House made his
plan and has worked on it a little each weekend as he can. We’ve also received a little help from some
of “our kids,” which is more than appreciated.
People walk by and remark how nice it looks, even though it was so
pretty before.
I think sometimes in life we have this same experience. We go along daily, doing our thing, whatever
that may be. We take care of ourselves,
we engage in our community, we take care of our responsibilities. People might praise us and tell us how great
we are doing and how nice our life looks.
We take pride in our accomplishments, as we should. We get busy in doing the big stuff and forget
the maintenance involved in keeping up with the little things. Attitudes creep
in and we may become hardened to the soft answer. A closer look would take time, and that is a
commodity we just don’t have in abundance.
And so, as we found with our yard, the “moles” come in. First just one mole, maybe someone said
something negative about a project you helped with at work, and you decide you
aren’t going to try that hard next time just to be criticized. That mole tells his friends, and soon you
have a “mole party” in your yard. You
begin to see everything at work through that first offense and now everything at
work looks criticized and you begin to gossip about the motives of your bosses
or coworkers. You realize you may have a
poor attitude so you decide to look for the good and just do your best. However, you still harbor those feelings of
criticism deep inside. You fight the
complacency that wants to set in until you just can’t fight it anymore. The situation
has become too overwhelming.
We treated the mole problem in our yard with a home remedy
that seemed to work for a few weeks. But
then, Mr. Mole and his friends came by, just to check on things, and found that
the yard was yummy once again. Someone
in your community or family asks a question and that insecurity comes rising up
in you and feels criticized once again.
Only now, you feel worse than you did before because you never really
took care of the issue the first time.
You only delayed correction.
We had to get a professional involved. He was kind not to laugh when I told him of
the home remedy we tried. He acknowledged
that it could work in some instances, but we had evidence of twelve or more
moles tearing up our yard. (I know,
right!) They were having way too much fun at our expense. I had visions of them all coming out in the
dark of night and snickering at us as they dug new trenches for us to find in
the morning. Perhaps they even sat
around the fire pit and put their feet up.
The professional mole guy finished his treatment
yesterday. Now the moles just have to take
the bait, all the while snickering at us, until they find they can’t make it
back home. Muahaha! And that, Mr. Mole, is the circle of
life.
In life, we must ask for help as the deep hurt that sin or something
someone has said or done continues to haunt us.
Many times, we may even have to pay a professional to do the deep, hard
work with us.
What I have found that is a much less expensive solution is
to keep up with the gardening daily.
Pull a weed when I see it instead of thinking I will do it later. The first sign of a mole and the pro is
called in. If I read my Bible intentionally
each day, talk to God and admit that I need His help and expertise, I can usually
fend off the weeds of bad attitudes and wearing my emotions on my sleeve. With His Word in my heart, I see things
differently. With God’s grace as an
example, I am more prepared to give grace to others.
It’s a matter of diligence. Due diligence. Stay ahead of the weeds and moles and look at
your bad attitudes and say, “Be gone! In
the name of Jesus, you are not a part of MY circle of life!”
