Not Today!

I wasn't feeling well today, but was tired of laying around being a bum. I decided that the best cure was to go and work on the blanket of weeds that was growing in the backyard due to all the rains we've been having. I had just been to the chiropractor yesterday and working this strenuously is not a good idea, but I'm stubborn. The kids and hubby got back from lunch and the first thing my youngest did was come out and chastise me for ruining my back. She said "you are in sooo much trouble!" The weeds still have to be taken care of even if my body can't handle it very well and my soul needs to work hard.

Jordyn decided that she was going to help me. She was cracking me up with her methods. At one point I mentioned that she may want to hold the scraping tool farther back, but she said that her method of choking up down at the bottom was better because: "you've got to put your back into it." she said. A little later she was looking for some more validation and showed me how she was getting the weeds out good with her 2 short scrapes followed by a long one to get the weeds. I told her that I really liked what she was doing and she said something to the effect "look and learn, look and learn." hahaha I let her take the victory of "teaching me" something.

We went about our work and she was talking about how hard pulling weeds is and that I had better enjoy her being out there because "this is my last time- I'm getting these good and gone, and don't forget I did this of my own will." I thought for a minute and decided to go where I always take things and it garners lots of eye rolls. I reminded her that weeds are never gone, just like satan is never gone and never not tempting us to sin. As soon as you pluck one out the next one is already growing. You have to stay strong and not give up. You have to say "you're not winning! Not today, not today!" If you start thinking about how the fight is never over you can become overwhelmed and decided it's not even worth the effort to try. Why bother, there will be more tomorrow. You have to take the fight one day at a time and say you're not winning, not today! Not today!

Jordyn connected with this analogy and decided to go with it. She was like " you have to hit hard and keep on hitting. Satan wants us to be sad about all the weeds (sin), but we've got to be happy. He thinks he can make us sad with all the weeds, but we need to by happy." She was so right. We kept this analogy going and she was getting excited to move on to the next really big patch because she knew how good it would feel to clear so much. That is exactly how we have to look at fighting off evil. Is it possible to get excited about clearing a large patch? Boy I'm sure going to have to try hard, but I've got a new way to see things now. And it's all thanks to my 12 year old daughter. We put on some music and were happy about clearing weeds for the rest of the afternoon. The best part? We did it together!