Cultivating Weeds?

Lately, every time I start to write a post I'm struck by the word cultivate, not that I know what it is about the word cultivate has captured me. I only know that it is important to my spiritual life. Fleshing that out is why I'm writing.

Cultivate
  1. to prepare and work on (land) in order to raise crops; till.
  2. to use a cultivator on.
  3. to promote or improve the growth of (a plant, crop, etc.) by labor and attention.
  4. to produce by culture: to cultivate a strain of bacteria.
  5. to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine: to cultivate a singing voice. (here)

Notice number three in Dictionary.com's definitions: to promote or improve the growth of (plant, crop, ect.) by labor and attention. Gardeners take this step of cultivation very seriously. Labor, attention, sweat, care, devotion are given to produce a crop.

An important step in garden maintenance is to cultivate the soil. Cultivating a garden involves removing weeds and rearranging the crust of the soil to promote nutrition, as well as water and air penetration to plants. You can cultivate the soil using different tools, working every two weeks and adding fertilizer at the same time (here)
 
Why am I telling you all this?
 
Because you and I are also about the business of cultivating, but most times it goes unnoticed, specifically by us. From birth we have cultivated things in the soil of our hearts- some good things, some not so good things. We bend over, figuratively speaking, the gardens of our hearts laboring to grow or protect the seeds sleeping underneath the soil.
 
The problem is some of the "seeds" we are cultivating are in fact weeds of fear, resentment, bitterness. In cultivating these weeds, we allow seeds of hope, mercy, joy, and peace to be choked out by the weeds taking root. We're tending carefully to our wounds, and forsaking truth.
 
A healthy crop is in turning the tables. Look at the soil for what it is. Are seeds of truth dying in your unhealthy, weed ridden heart? Is it time to pull weeds, or to rearrange the crust of the soil to promote nutrition, as well as water and air penetration to plants? As a garden labors to grow a healthy crop, we should labor to produce fruit of healthy soil. What are you tending?
 
Ultimately, a gardener can only do so much. There are aspects that are out of his hands. We too have so much that is beyond our control. These factors are what should bring us to our knees praying for rain.
 
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43:19).

This is me pulling out the tiller, and looking heavenward, praying for rain.
 
In His Name,
Jennifer