Ya’ Gotta Get the Root Too, Momma

This weekend, our family tended to the flowerbeds which had gained their fair-share of weeds in the previous two weeks. It was wonderful to have the entire family chipping in, to have many hands making light work. And, it was also wonderful to have some unscripted chat time. That unscripted chat time often leads to teachable moments, and this time was no different, except that I keep smiling at the teachable moment my daughter had for me.

We were weeding the marigold bed, next to the vegetable garden, a bed whose primary purpose is to help bring good bugs to the vegetables and help ward off bad bugs from the vegetables. It looks nice enough, but it is there for function rather than beauty, per se.

The sun was setting, and the chicken was nearing perfection on the grill, so I began to pick up the pace on my weed pulling in this bed.

This changed pace was not lost on my daughter, who promptly rebuked me. She said, “You aren’t getting deep enough, mom! You’re just picking up the tops of the weeds! That’s not going to do ANY good!”

I continued to pry at the weeds with increased fervor (though I KNEW she was correct in her assessment and rebuke), and replied, “I just want to get this done before dark and dinner–it’s just the marigold bed! I just don’t want to SEE the weeds anymore right now.”

She looked at me with her cute little scrunched up face–that one that’s getting so much more mature over the last year–and said, “But, ya’ gotta get the root, too, momma, or else it doesn’t do ANY good! The weeds will just come back!”

Who taught her this, anyway?! 😉

It seems that years of weeding the flowerbeds together had seen the roles reverse this year–it was I who was hurrying through, and it was she who was insisting on a job well done the FIRST time! 😉

She was right, and I knew it.

Those words keep rolling over and over in my mind the past couple of days. “Ya gotta get the root, too, momma.” Profound truth in those words!

How many times in our lives do we try to “clean up” the outside, trying to hurry with a “quick fix” or some other “cosmetic” fix, to remove the unsightly “weeds” quickly, only to have to “fix” it again soon thereafter?

It may look good to the naked eye, but what’s left behind that allows for festering regrowth or even (gulp) worsening problems?

If we don’t take the careful time and diligence to “dig” deeper, to actually address the root, to work at prying it from its bed in the soil of our hearts, we are only giving a superficial help to the problem–it may look acceptable, it may seem to be made better, but the very thing that fed the problem (weed), that which gave it sustenance, which allowed it to crowd out the healthy life around it, is still there, able to grow again into a weed, into a life-choking pestulence, an ugliness in our lives.

How many times have I experienced this? How many times have those I love experienced this?

Oh, such pain to watch someone we love (or ourselves) hastily pick at the tops of the weeds, only to have the roots nourish regrowth of those same weeds (sometimes bigger than before) in a short matter of time.

This morning, I returned to the marigold bed, and I took the careful time to diligently remove the roots from the weeds I had hastily pulled this weekend. It was very telling to see the portion of the bed my daughter had slowly, diligently weeded….no traces of weeds left…and then to see the portion of the bed I had hastily cleared—small evidences of new growth already appearing!!

I prayed for God’s forgiveness as I pulled those roots…asking Him to help me to remove the roots in my life that are not rooted in Him…that do not give TRUE life, that bring about the weeds in my life, that bring about choking to myself and to others, and that crowd out His purpose and plan in my life.

Ya’ gotta get the root, too, momma. Yes, child, ya’ do.