What is over taking your life?

This afternoon God gave me a fresh way to look at modern day idols. 
If you have a garden, don't you want it to look beautiful?  I want mine to look beautiful, so I have been out in the yard pulling weeds today.  I figured I needed the fresh air and the kids were out playing.  It seems to never fail that God ALWAYS speaks to me when I am pulling weeds.  I am not sure if that is where God likes to meet me or if that is the time and place I am more prone to listen.  It is an unusual place to talk with God, but it works for me!
 
When I noticed the weeds this afternoon, they seemed to multiply overnight.  I began to pull the weeds and push back the mulch and what did I see...MORE WEEDS!  Have you ever noticed that weeds never come alone?  After 30 minutes I had conquered half of those pesky weeds.  I was determined to finish.

Now stop for a minute and try to picture me on my hands and knees.  Okay, do you have the mental picture?  I was trying to reach way back behind my bushes to grab those sneaky weeds that crept up.  I was doing great...pulling and praying...all the sudden I heard buzzzzzzing.  I slowly looked up and was face to face with several bees.  I immediately jumped back.  I was stung as a child and had no desire to revisit the pain of being stung by a bee.

Isn't that like our day to day life.  "We" want to look beautiful, but if we take a closer look and push back the mask we are hiding behind, we may be surprised what we find.  (Now is where God gave me the application for the study.)  We may find our everyday idols slowly creeping in and maybe we find more than one.  They slowly begin to overtake our lives and push God out.  God is our true beauty!  My prayer is that we find those idols in our life now!  It can be anything that replaces God in your life...TV, Music, Books, work, exercise, your children.... 

When we find the idols in our life, we should immediately cut them out!  During the process of getting rid of our idols, we become face to face with a distraction that may cause fear in letting go of those idols.    Just like the bees caused me fear at first sight and I reacted by jumping back away from the weeds.  I could have easily walked away and said I would finish later, but I regained my purpose and focused on those weeds.
I cautiously began to pull weeds again, while keeping an eye on those bees.  Remember I did not want to revisit the childhood memory of being stung. 

The funny thing is I began to talk to the weeds, inside my head of course.  I felt like I was in a battle with the weeds and I was going to conquer them all and win!  I pulled weed after weed.  Some of the weeds would come out, root and all...that was a win in the battle.  Other times I was only able to pull the top of the weed off...that was a loss in the battle.  I knew those weeds would eventually grow back since I was not able to get to the root.  When we are getting rid of our modern day idols...make sure you are getting rid of it ALL!  That prevents them from slowly creeping back into our lives. 

I completed the front yard today!  Now I am sitting here with blistered fingers.  That is pretty normal when you pull weeds without gloves.  The pain and blisteres are only temperary and now my yard is beautiful again.  When we get rid of our idols, it will be hard and it may be painful to get rid of them.  That is only temperary!  The outcome of getting rid of the idols is worth being uncomfortable!  God loves you and wants to fill your ENTIRE heart and life!

Make room for God and conquer your idols.  As you grow in Christ, keep checking for "weeds" that may be growing in your life.  Stay "beautiful" in Gods eyes!!!