Carrots & Weeds
Rikki Permenter, MAMFC, Th. M.
And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.
― Luke 8:8
The parsonage my husband and I live in is very close to our church. When the men come to cut the church’s grass they just scoot on over and cut our grass, too. It had been quite a while since the last time it was cut since our yard turns into a small swamp when it rains as much as it has been lately. The grass cutting was probably quite a task for them this time. They used the riding mower and did quite a bit of weed eating. The weeds in our backyard swamp were getting a little crazy. They had grown on to the patio and they had grown all through our above ground gardening boxes choking out everything that was left over from our winter garden.
Honestly, the garden was pretty much a failure this season. The deer got to it before it could really get going. We kind of gave up on it - hoping to just start over in the spring. The grass cutting men just took a weed eater to all of it. When I came home later in the day our yard looked brand new. Everything thing was cleaned up and the grass was even. When I walked to our garden boxes in the back yard I noticed something funny. When the yard guy used the weedeater in the boxes he uncovered a whole crop of carrots I didn’t even know were there. He lopped off the tops of the carrots along with the weeds uncovering dozens of little orange circles budding up out of the soil. This whole time I was looking at the disaster on the surface I didn’t even notice what was going on under the soil.
I think this happens with our lives, too. We get so focused on the chaos of our lives and the weeds we see weaving their way through that we forget about the things God is doing under the surface. What good things is God growing up in you under the surface even when things look chaotic on the outside? In Christians, times of trial are when God grows the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. Take time to metaphorically look past the weeds in your life - what is God growing up under them? What are you missing that God is doing because you're so distracted by the chaos?
Author Bio
Rikki Permenter, MAMFC, Th.M., is the owner of Bent Tree Counseling in Clinton, La. She is currently a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in the state of Louisiana. She is the wife of Cole Permenter, pastor of Bluff Creek Baptist and a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Interested in counseling or have questions? Check out her website www.benttreecounseling.com.
This article can be found in print in the monthly Baptist Association of Southeast Louisiana newsletter.
