Good, good or good?

I have been thinking about the flower garden make-over. Last night, Cory and I planted some ground cover in the bare ugly spots.  Looking forward to seeing the area fill in with attractive plants and flowers.

I find it easier to pull out ugly weeds than pretty flowers.

 An easy word picture as well with weeds representing the bad or sinful things/attitudes in my life.

 NO question that those need to go or should not be present in my life. 

No one questions the harmfulness and ugly that enter our lives with sin. 

While it still may be hard to weed them out identifying them remains easy in the majority of cases.

But what if we change the word picture up a bit.

 To pull up pretty flowers can be hard. 

Much harder than pulling up ugly weeds.

While I thought about changing the flowers long and hard, the motivation to switch things up did not occur until I had new plants waiting for a place.

Life too can be crowed and overgrown with good things. 

So many positive, valid things that we do not have the time, energy or motivation to change. 

Change or should we say 'pruning' hurts. It causes ugly bare spots in our lives that take time to become pretty again. 

For a season things will look and feel strange, weird and or unsightly. 

We may not meet other's expectations, especially when we say 'no' to something we've done a long time or when folks know us to say 'yes', often. 

We may want to turn back the clock and return to the 'normal' feeling and looking old way.

Nevertheless, many times new is better.

Sometimes the 'normal, old way' no longer really fits our lives or goals.

Possibly we've out grown that job or task.

 Maybe we need a change to recapture joy and excitement in our lives.


Maybe by stepping out or jumping out of our comfort zones, we will experience the Lord in a new and powerful way.

 I know my prayer life gets stimulated when I'm facing unknowns and questions.

The bare ugly dirt can represent potential: potential for growth, capacity for improvement, the possiblety for beauty, capability to develop further the good parts of our lives that have been stunted due to overcrowding.

 Stripped, empty, exposed, unattractive dirt can also look like margin.

Margin means having bare dirt, empty time or space in your life to handle the unexpected in a excellent, healthy fashion.

Maintaining healthy, nourishing margins in your life takes work, takes self-care, takes saying no to decent things.

A book I return to every now and then to remind me about the importance of margin.

[Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives by Richard Swenson helped me in this area link to more information/reviews]

Pulling up flowers rarely happens accidentally or by mistake. To make a real difference one needs to be intentional. Deciding between good, good, and good can be hard. There's often a better choice, but we need the Lord to know what it looks like for us.

Courage my friend! The Lord gives direction and wisdom to those who ask Him and then listen carefully for His answer.