When You Know It’s Time to Yank Spiritual Weeds

Posted on Apr 16, 2019 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Jean E. Jones

On a sunny Saturday, I donned blue gardening gloves, grabbed my tools, and headed to the backyard. I found that the variegated nasturtiums I’d sown around the now-gone annuals had sprouted nicely, but so had clumps of dark red oxalis, thick sprigs of mint, and sprays of asparagus fern.

These are all attractive, but they’re also invasive intruders that send underground runners that twist around other plants’ roots, often killing them. They’d have to go, but to detangle each from the nasturtiums would require too much time.

I called my husband, Clay, over to show him my dilemma. He grabbed his mattock and, after five minutes of hacking, sent every plant flying… including nasturtiums. With fingers and hoe, I carefully sifted the soil, removing every bit of root and tuber hiding beneath the surface. When we finished, we planted a strong-rooted, blue-flowered potato bush.

Some parts of our spiritual lives are like flower beds that need to have everything pulled so we can plant afresh with joy.

One day while thinking over “Do everything without grumbling or arguing” (Philippians 2:14), I realized I’d grumbled a lot recently. I knew I needed a big change.

Some things we call complaints are legitimate: sending back an undercooked restaurant rib eye or carrying out Jesus’s directives to talk to those who’ve wronged us. Yet, I knew if I tried to stop just the “bad” complaining, in the nanosecond of deciding whether to speak, I’d make mistakes.

So I decided to do a 24-hour fast from all complaining, good or bad. Fasting is temporarily giving up something legitimate as a discipline and offering.

I discovered some things:

I wasn’t dealing with just a few little sprouts, but deep-running roots trying to push out shoots much more often than I thought.
Ninety-five percent of the complaints I yanked needed yanking.
It was harder than I expected. So, I extended the fast one extra day for more soil sifting. That cleared my plot so I could plant more joy.
For weeks after the fast, I was keenly aware of when I was about to be negative, allowing me to think before speaking. And when I did address something negative after the fast, I sounded less cranky.
The 24-hour complaining fast definitely cleared out grumble weeds.

Take a moment to read Philippians 2:3-18. It is describing gospel-worthy conduct and invites us to become shining stars in a world that desperately needs light. When we look at how to take on Christ’s attitude and imitate his obedience, we will learn how to end complaining for good.