Gardening Moments with Gretel

The other evening I was in my front garden bed working on getting the weeds out. Gretel and I were having a tough day because she did not want to do her homework so she spent about an hour and a half crying. I was pretty fed up. . .in the most nurturing way possible, right?

She came up to me while I was de-weeding the flower bed and asked what I was doing. I started to say, "I am doing something I don't want to do, but doing it anyway," but I said "pulling up weeds." Gretel asked if she could help and I obliged. She started pulling the tops off of the weeds and I explained that she had to pull them up by the root so that they would not grow anymore. As I was explaining my own little parable I had a light bulb moment. . .if you watch Maya and Miguel. . .I had a SOS! :)

I explained to her that pulling weeds is much like life. There are lots of weeds in our life and if we want to get them out then we cannot just pull the tops off. The weeds will continue grow. BUT, if we pull the weeds up by the root, we will indeed be able to get rid of them. I could tell that she was getting the point in her six year old mind.

I inquired of her if she had any "weeds or bad habits" in her life that she needed to get rid of. She said very sweetly, "I whine a lot." I smiled and let her know that was something I struggle with as well. I told her that getting rid of the weeds by the root takes lots of prayer and friends (aka accountability) to help you pull up the roots. Later that night we prayed that God would help us to get rid of the weeds by pulling them up by the roots in our lives. As I was walking out the door she elaborated on the "parable" and said that if we got rid of the weeds then God could grow pretty flowers there instead. Ah, yes my dear. You got it!

What a sweet satisfaction it is to be a momma to Gretel.