I Hate It When My Neighbors Mow

I don’t know about you but I’m not a huge fan of mowing my lawn.  If you’ve been reading this blog long enough you know that it becomes a topic around this time almost every year.  I actually enjoy being outside and even doing some yard work; however, it seems like that darn lawn always looks horrible when I don’t have time to do anything about it.  Then to make matters worse, the neighbors on both sides of our house mow their lawns and now ours looks the worst of the three.  We can’t have that now, can we?  Of course not, so off I go to mow the lawn because I don’t have any choice, right?

So today I was thinking more about that lawn mowing and the comparison of our lawns in a different context.  (Go figure with me, right?)  What if those lawns were our spiritual lives instead. When they aren’t kept up, weeds will start to grow, and after enough time it’ll start to look pretty bad.  Then to make matters worse, the people around us start to clean up their spiritual lives and are doing better on the upkeep.  They start getting rid of the weeds when they first start to sprout instead of letting them go like I have.  Then it gets worse, as another person around us does the same, and now we look horrible in a spiritual context. 

You see, sometimes when we’re just focused on ourselves we don’t really see all the weeds in our spiritual lives .  We think we can just take it easy for a bit and not get to the upkeep that needs to be continually done on our spiritual lawns.  No need for fertilizer (examples:  prayer, Bible study) to be applied because we don’t think it looks that bad.  Those weeds don’t look so bad, so no need to apply any of that weed and feed (confession and rejection of sin and sinful influences) either, right?  Oh and those sticks and stuff (little habitual sins) sitting on the line are just fine as long as we don’t mow, right?

  

Instead of working hard on that lawn for a while then taking it easy for a bit only to go back to the hard work, why not be the person in the neighborhood who always has the nice lawn.  How do you do that, you ask.  First off, you have to have a firm foundation.  Start right away with feeding the lawn with things that will make it healthy.  Read your Bible and pray.  Then keep an eye on those around you and not only keep up your lawn, but help others keep theirs alive and vibrant as well.  Bible studies, accountability partners, attending church, and so much more are examples of how we can all work together to make the spiritual neighborhoods we live in to be healthy across the board. 

Keep in mind that from time to time, no matter how much work you put in a weed or two will probably show up in your lawn.  It’s how we react to those weeds that shows how strong we really are.  So, although I hate it when my neighbors mow in the real world, I don’t mind at all when it comes to the spiritual lawn I have…as it keeps me on my toes and aware when my lawn needs work.  I hope from now on it does for you as well.