Weeding Through the Trials and Tribulations

I recently started gardening. I was inspired by a neighbor and decided I needed to commit to making our home look more welcoming. The area I chose to start a garden in had a small tree growing out of it along with every weed in the book. I was determined to make this area work, it has the perfect amount of sunlight and has a brick border outlining it.

While gardening today, I was trying to meditate on the scripture passage of James 1. If any of you have read James 1, it starts out talking about trials and tribulations. It is one of my favorite passages because it reminds me of the good of learning through trials and tribulations that come my way throughout life. As I approached the area that I wanted to garden, I was reminded how completely uneducated my expectations were of this garden. I expected it to be perfect and stay perfect. I had dug out the tree which was my main obstacle. I had turned over the dirt to expose the plants to the nutrients underneath, and I had watered my plants and flowers daily. Why did my garden look like a jungle? As I started to dig out the weeds that had made themselves at home in my garden, I was reminded how trials in our lives continually pop up just like these weeds in my garden had sprung up in days. We can dig out the big trees that come between us and our goals, but we can never stop the weeds from popping up. Life is never going to be perfect and neither am I. I cannot weed out every single weed from my garden at once. I have to continually go back to my garden and dig up more weeds. In my life, I am going to be continually hit by trials and tribulations. Things are not going to go as planned, accidents are going to happen, children are going to get sick, people are not going to be perfect. As I stopped gardening to get my son from his nap, I realized that I am not going to fix everything in my life at once and all my problems aren't going to come all at one time. As trials and tribulations come my way, I have to continually weed them away by dealing with them through prayer, listening, patience, understanding, and sometimes by letting them get the best of me. But each time I have to dig deeper and pull a little harder at the weeds that fill up my life when I least expect them.

James 1: 2-4
"Consider it pure joy my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.