Satan is in my weeds

It is late and I should be in bed. But I just got home from seeing some friends who I don't get to see very often and my mind is occupied. Makes me not want to move anymore because I doni't like having friends spread out far!

After a nice baby shower, treats and lots of girl talk, on my drive home there is one theme to all our lives. Life is hard. It helps to share stories... A few months ago, this really smart girl told me its not that the road of life is smooth and then there are bumps, life is a bumpy road! But the key is to realize that HIS plan for you is greater than anything you could have come up with on your own. Have faith. Miracles are real and happen all the time. Thankfully we have someone really awesome on our team. The Savior. I must get churchy at night.

I love a good analogy. No really I do. Maybe cause they tend to smack me in the face.

Oftentimes while I am going about my seemingly mundane day (which is wrong cause its totally awesome and exciting), I think of analogies between what I'm doing and bigger things in life. Which is easy. Because I'm a parent and immediately BAM! you realize first how your parents felt about you and then BAM! more how the Savior feels about you....like when you 3 year old is throwing a tantrum about not getting her way and then you realize, oh wait, that's kinda like what HE must think I'm like when I'm throwing a tantrum about not getting things how I think I want them....and He loves me still and I love her in spite of her tantrum. See? Easy peasy....

So today while I pulled weeds for ten minutes while looking over my shoulder at my baby on the grass and the girls riding bikes, I realized, Satan is in my weeds. My weeds are Satan. I should say I am not speaking for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this is just one girls opinion.

Because in life, there are two directions we are trying to be pulled. Anything good is towards Jesus and anything selfish, crabby or insecure is planted from Satan. Here comes the weeds part.

So EVERYONE'S garden there are weeds. (even if you are in an apartment, work with me people!) No seriously I think it might be a scientific fact. There can't be a weedless garden. We are in an imperfect world and we are imperfect people. The weeds representing Satan's influence in our lives (aka our short comings and temptations, anything negative....).

Have you tried to pull weeds? Well some pull out easy and some are hard. I personally like to pull out all the easy ones first before I tackle the biggies. The nasty weeds have roots that are deep and interconnected and horrible. They scratch your hand when you touch them and feel like something Satan must have invented. Seriously. But then there are some weeds look sooo close to grass that my kids don't even know there weeds. Just like how Satan tries to counterfeit everything of the Saviors but he just can't seem to do it exactly.

Today I tried to pull out this stupid weed, Surely the devil was in it. This weed was locked in with the weed next to it, and it the more I grabbed and pulled, the more I realized it was like a giant web over my garden. It was so sneaky. (garden is a loose term. More like area of plants I am attempting to grow) Was it like holding hands with the other weeds? Seriously I could not dig it up. Hiding and suffocating the beautiful parts of my garden. From far away I did not realize it was so bad. If I just left the weed it would ruin my garden, make it ugly on the outside and also a crazy mess deep within the roots and soil. I can't grow flowers if weeds are infested it and crowding out the light. I can't grow my tomatoes or cabbage or anything nourish if my garden is over run by weeds.

So what do I do about the weeds? Maintenance. Regular maintenance. Sometimes with heavy duty weed killer. Sometimes with my own labor. Sometimes I ask my family to help. (ie: force children to fill their plastic grocery bags with weeds before they can play). Sometimes I work on my weeds for ten minutes a day, sometimes I spend two hours. Its hard to squeeze weed picking in with all these little kids running around.

Back to my analogy. What would represent the maintenance of our spiritual gardens? Those answers that we know but are sometimes harder to implement. Repentance. We have to be self evaluating. With the help of Church, Prayer, Scriptures. And as much as I'd love just to weed once a year and be done with it, that is not how weeds work. We are human. We constantly have to be working at it. Sometimes you live in denial and don't look at your garden and then go, "Dang, my weeds are like 2 feet high!". So then you have to put in some work, or buy some seriously potent weed killer. What would work for the weed killer in my analogy? (my idea is totally bunk if you have a gardener and someone is pulling your weeds for you, so maybe you should tell him to take a month off so you really understand how horrible weeds are. Seriously why did I not help my dad with those weeds when I was a teenager and he was bugging me to do it? I could have realized this so much sooner! Sorry Dad!)

Every garden has weeds. So don't be thinking only yours does. Or only stare at them all the time. Many times someone has come to my house and said, "I love the front of your house." and I reply..."uhhh! don't look at it, there are weeds everywhere!" Dude I totally do that in other ways too. So lets try not to stare at our weeds all the time either! Cause even the fancy houses have weeds somewhere in them....even if I can't see them. Satan probably loves when we just look at the spiritual weeds (ie: where we suck) in our life!

But if you don't believe me, read all about the difference between Christ's way and Satan's way HERE...with actual scriptures included as well. Way better put than I could. Do you think my Satan and weed theory is just crazy?

Life is not always so black and white as I write it. Read this really awesome talk about developing good judgement. Enjoyed the thoughts on Mary and Martha (cause I've always thought of myself as a Martha!)

Okay, that should be enough church for ya for one post. Here I'm going to be all cranky in the morning for staying up late. I best go to sleep, I'm sure I will wonder what I wrote in the morning. That happens a lot.