The Sunday Mail
Peter Kasinamunda
My Perspective
IS it not amazing how quickly gardens can be overtaken with weeds? Imagine you walk out, tools in hand, energy ripe and seeds ready but you realise that you have a whole bagful of weeds that needs pulling before you can plant anything.
A “weed” is an unprofitable, troublesome, or noxious growth. Weeds are considered undesirable in a particular situation, for it is “a plant in the wrong place”.
They are plants that have absolutely no redeeming value as far as food, nutrition or medicine are concerned.
They have accelerated growth patterns and often leave seeds to perpetuate their kind. Weeds are often poisonous if eaten, taste bad, have thorns or other physical features, thereby making them difficult to remove.
Our hearts, like gardens, continually get overgrown by false and bad ideas, demanding priorities, exhausting desires, or worrying concerns. We begin to view the tasks before us as “mere tasks” to be done instead of as opportunities to praise and serve our Creator.
We fret and worry instead of resting in our Father’s provisions. We get consumed with projects and plans instead of being still before our Creator. We put our eyes on those around us, making others our audience instead of the Lord.
We view the difficulties that come into our lives as obstacles instead of blessings in disguise. We base decisions regarding our futures, jobs, days, and basic interactions with others on our own worldly thinking, forgetting that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways His ways (Isaiah 55:9).
When weeds are present in one’s life, philosophies will obstruct opportunities and divert the attention of the mind “in the wrong place” while they have no value. These weed-thoughts are poisonous to our lives and will try to perpetuate, further clouding our judgment in everything, in the process making it difficult to get rid of them. (2Corinthians 10:5)
But praise God! We have a Heavenly Father who lovingly keeps tugging on our weeds, urging us to let Him pull them and bring us back to Himself. Every day, we have the opportunity to come before our Everlasting Father and ask Him to takeaway our thoughts and feelings and give us His instead.
To the Heavenly Gardener, the weeds are taken captive to leave room for full use of nutrients for growth in the conversation of difficult situations into blessing opportunities.
As you go about life, I would encourage you to stop yourself frequently and take a “weed” check. Continually bring your thoughts and feelings about issues before God and ask Him to transform them and give you His. Remember that our hearts, like gardens, continually need weeding, (Romans 12:2).
