This winter and spring we have been able to get more work done in the yard on some things that we wanted to do. We cut up a few downed trees in the backyard and cleaned up our wooded area that we like to keep cut and as clean as possible. If we have downed limbs or the weeds start growing, we clean it up. We don’t like it snaky looking and definitely don’t want it overgrown. We changed our flower bed up a bit and added more rock. We put out about 2000 lbs more rock and cut back on the mulch portion of our flower bed. We then put down about 35 bags of black mulch in our flower bad.
We have a hill in front of and on the side of our house. Mulch will not hold on that hill and I don’t really want to try to get grass to take on that hill. In light of that we put pine straw down the first year we moved in, and we have to do that at least once every year to keep it looking good. This year we expanded the pine straw area to cover more of the hill and we put down 45 bails of pine straw. It looked good for a while but after a while I realized there were spots showing up from the old pine straw and weeds were growing through it. I decided to get more pine straw to thicken it up and make it cover better. I put down 30 more bails of pine straw. So, in total I have put down 75 bails of pine straw this winter/spring.
Just a few days after putting down the second round of pine straw I noticed weeds peeking back through the fresh pine straw. I then loaded up my sprayer with weed killer and went and sprayed my weeds. As you know this will be an ongoing battle through the growing season. I will have to continue to spray for weeds if I want it to look good. I must be intentional and vigilant to keep the weeds out of my pine straw so that it looks nice.
If we are going to live lives that honor God, we must be vigilant about sin. Sin can be so subtle and slip in. Like some weeds it can have a pretty flower and even look really neat. In the end it is still a weed and ultimately sin can destroy us. God promises to forgive our sins but we must confess them, so we experience His forgiveness and maintain fellowship with Him. Remember what John says in 1 John?
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Don’t let the weeds of sin overtake your life. Those weeds will choke out your fellowship with God. Deal with sin as soon as you see it for what it is.
