How does your garden grow?

I've been in the garden alot these past few weeks. Let me tell you about my garden, it has not been touched in about 3ish years. 8 very large raised beds FULL of weeds, it's a nasty, nasty business.

Saturday I was out moving some sweet (but suffocated) strawberry plants from one bed another. I would gingerly shovel the plant out from admits the buttercup, carefully pick all of the weeds from the roots, then dig a nice hole in the clean bed and place the newly weed free plant in the ground. I did this over and over again ( I have lots). But I gotta tell you..

After I patted the new earth around the strawberry plant I would sigh really deep and smile.
I could not help but think how much better that must have strawberry felt.
For the first time in years, that strawberry could breath deep, drink till quenched and stretch its roots wide and deep.

I thought about my heart..

I thought about what types of weeds I might be letting slowly creep in.

I bet the strawberry had forgotten what life was like before it had to fight for every breath. I'm sure when the weed was just a baby weed the strawberry thought..

"No biggie, it's just a small little weed, I can stop it.."

When I loose empathy for a person..it's just this once..I can stop it..when I become jealous..it's just this once I can stop it..when I fall out of communion with my Maker..it's just this once I can stop it..when I let anger take over..it's just this once..I can stop it..oh and don't even get me started on bitterness..but I'm sure I can control that one as well..

When I started working in the strawberry bed, I only saw weeds.
I had to really dig down to see the strawberry plant.

There is no way that plant could have ever bared fruit..

Which is of course it's sole purpose.

So I'm thinking it might be time to weed my life.

Bummer part is, with a few of those plants I had to break little sick limbs off.

Weeding can hurt, but leaving a heart unattended hurts far worse..

When the harvest comes, I crave bounty. Not weeds.

I need to thrive, not fight.

This is how my garden grows..