Purple flowers

She brought them as table decorations for a dinner and they were lovely.  I was new to Kansas and unfamiliar with the purple flower. She said they grew in her garden and if I wanted some she could give them to me, as she had plenty.

  Most of the plants in my garden came from other people’s gardens.

 I carried the Hostas
and lilies back from my brother’s garden in Pennsylvania

and they’ve thrived in my Kansas garden.

The Iris and Peonies I dug up from Mother’s garden in Pennsylvania remind me

 how much she loved flowers.

I told my friend that I would love to add her flowers to my garden. She warned me that they were very hardy. “Plant them where nothing else is growing,” she said, “Because they will spread and take over.” I said I would plant just a few, and I found them a space in my garden.

She was RIGHT! The purple flowers were pretty in the front garden, but each year there were MORE of them. They spread and took over, refusing to stay confined to their neat little corner of the garden. I pulled out the errant ones, to no avail. No matter how many I ripped out of the ground, new leaves poked up through the dirt - MASSES of them in ever-increasing number! And they TOOK OVER, squeezing out anything else bold enough to fight for space in the garden.  In early spring when they first bloom, they were beautiful. But for most of the summer my garden looked unkempt and over-run with green weeds.

Drastic Measures were required.  This year I am taking no chances!  My strategy is to pull them out by the roots, spray weed killer, and apply an extra thick blanket of mulch to smother any late hangers-on. Time will tell if my efforts pay off.

Maybe sin is a little like those purple flowers. Attractive at first, but over time relentlessly invading other areas of life – thoughts – attitudes – behavior, until righteous living is crowded out by unruly sinful habits. 

Those times call for Drastic Measures!

1. Saying the same thing about sin that God says, that’s CONFESSION 

2. Turning away from the sinful behavior and turning toward God, that’s REPENTANCE.

3.  Asking God for help to overcome the habit, that’s DEPENDENCE.

4.  Trusting in the power of God to enable changed behavior, that’s FAITH.

5. Following through on what God says to do, that’s OBEDIENCE.

CONFESSION.  REPENTANCE.  DEPENDENCE.  FAITH.  OBEDIENCE.  If applied liberally and regularly this five point strategy will help root out sins before they become deeply imbedded in the garden of our souls.

And the purple flowers?  I’ll keep you posted.