Feed the Good Grass

Our little family just celebrated one year in our first house! It feels like we moved in just yesterday. It was our very first house, and we were very excited. We were so ready to start this new journey that we went ahead and grabbed our mattress and our son’s Pack N’ Play the night we closed so we could sleep in our new home – even though we didn’t have any furniture! Being without furniture was not going to keep us from enjoying our new place!

It was such a special night. Jackson loved having so much open space to run around inside. When our furniture arrived a few days later, his excitement for running in open spaces was replaced with excitement for climbing on/jumping off all of the new furniture!

It is amazing how much you have to learn when you become a first-time homeowner. Having a front and back yard to take care of was new territory for us. There was a lot my husband already knew, but not me. He had to learn a few things too, though!

For instance, we had a certain type of weed in our backyard that was getting out of control. Joseph spent a lot of time working on the yard and eventually went to our local Lowes for some guidance.

That is where someone gave him advice that I will never forget. He said, “If you want the weeds to die, you have to be intentional in feeding the good grass around them.” He explained how if the good grass became healthy and strong enough, it would eventually choke out the weeds.

Who would have thought? I had no idea that you could get rid of weeds by focusing on the health of the good grass.

How true can this be for our own lives as well? When we are focused on getting the weeds out of our yard by yanking them out, they would just keep growing back more powerful than before. Sometimes, when we try to rid the weeds (sin) of our lives, they also grow back more powerful than before. This is because we unintentionally allow that sin to overcome our thoughts while we are trying so hard to get rid of it.

It would be no different than telling a child to not think of a purple elephant with polka dots. That is like asking them to immediately disobey directions! Just as the elephant becomes the child’s focus, the weed-like sin can become ours and begin to consume our minds. We get so focused on the battle with that particular weed that we become distracted from the overall war.

If we instead focus on the good grass (such as prayer, godly relationships, digging into God’s Word, or anything else that draws us closer to God) the worldly weeds of sin will be choked out by default.

Think about this with me for a minute. Let’s take healthy, godly relationships as an example. Proverbs 27:17 says,

“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”

Godly relationships help refine us by getting rid of those rough edges.

If we surround our lives with solid men and women of God, our rough edges become refined. In other words, good grass is starting to grow and weed-like sin is beginning to be choked out.

We can say the same with prayer, studying our Bibles, listening to worship music, praising God’s name, etc. All of these things can be used to feed the good grass so that there is no more room for weeds to take control. And what is the good grass, you ask? The good grass can be summed up by the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-25:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Worldly weeds become deprived where the fruit of the Spirit is cultivated to thrive.

It may take time and even be inconvenient, but investing the time to feed the good grass in our lives can make an enormous difference. The work and endurance will be worth it. Just take a look at our yard and you will see how much better it looks since we have taken the time to feed the good grass!