Pathway Blooms

I'm surprised how often I learn or am reminded of something important when I spend time in my garden. My thoughts often wander when I'm doing things like weeding, and that’s what happened the other day. As I pulled one weed after another, I realised just how many there were … so, so many! What’s worse, even though I pulled them all, new ones will take their place within days. No garden stays weed-free. We have to keep at it.

It’s crazy, I nurture and care for my special plants - the ones I paid for, was given or perhaps grew from seed. I water them regularly, feed them, sometimes I even train them or stake them. However unlike my special plants, weeds in my garden receive no special treatment…but they thrive! They are often the finest specimens in a garden bed; the greenest, the healthiest and sometimes even the tallest! I won’t lie, that really annoys me! It seems so unfair!

Even as I removed those unwelcome tenants from my front garden the other day, I realised we can learn something from them, something I need to keep reminding myself of…over and over.

Have you ever noticed the negative aspects of our personality take root, grow and ever thrive without any care or cultivation? On the other hand, our positive habits and attributes often need attention and nurture in order to thrive and grow. It’s strange isn't it?

When our girls were little ones, we spent a good deal of time encouraging the positive and discouraging the negative aspects of their behaviour, sometimes having to employ quite drastic measures! I remember once when our two oldest girls had done something very wrong, their father sent them to bed with crusts of bread instead of the healthy meal I’d prepared for them! I cried….but it proved to be wisdom. That drastic measure served as helpful discouragement and they never did it again.

Our oldest grandson, like many other little boys his age, doesn't seem to need any encouragement to occasionally try his hand at wrong-doing or disobedience. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very good little man, but I've noticed we don’t need to explain or show him how to do wrong. It seems to come quite naturally.

It’s true to say every child is different in his or her inclination towards wrong-doing, but it’s also interesting to note that one of the first words most children speak, is the word, “No”. Our bent towards wrong seems hard-wired into us.

I wonder if you can see where I'm going with this.

Like the weeds in my garden, the negative, undesirable aspects of my thinking and actions will thrive unless I invest time and energy on their removal, and it seems when I ‘pull’ one, another often appears. It’s a constant task that I mustn't neglect or things can get ugly.

I often quote from a book that has stood the test of time, because it offers wisdom for people of all ages and circumstances. I found some really good advice and it reads like this… 

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.”

Actions follow thinking, so it stands to reason our thinking is pretty important, and we should be nurturing the kind of thinking that leads to the actions we know are right and good. I need to remind myself often, to be watering and feeding the kind of thinking that is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, and if I do, all those around me benefit and so do I.