Cheery Countenance

Ah, Spring!

 

“So when the plants came up…then the weeds appeared also.” Matthew 13:26 (ESV)

 

Weeds! What’s a gardener to do? Every year, I fight the battle of the weeds in both my vegetable garden and my lawn. In the garden, I get on my hands and knees, pulling them up by the roots and carefully putting down ground treatments that will help control the weeds but will not kill the produce. To treat the lawn, I put “weed and feed” granules in a rolling dispenser and push it across the entire lawn.

 

Well, a few years ago I had just spent the entire day tying to kill the newly budding dandelions in my yard. Usually, when I do this I notice a reaction to the treatment fairly quickly. By the next day, if not sooner, the dandelions begin to bend their heads down in a wilting motion. But this particular year, I saw now such reaction.

 

I pulled my car out of the garage that morning on my way to take my son to school, like I did every morning. At that time my son was too young to sit in the front seat. He always sat on the passenger side of the back seat so as to be closer to the curb when I dropped him off. That morning as I pulled out of my driveway I noticed the dandelions still standing up right; perky as ever. Then as I crossed the front section of my yard, I looked over my shoulders pondering why my weed treatment from the day before had not worked. This gave the effect of me looking back at my son in the backseat, though I wasn’t – I was looking at the weeds. Then I murmured to myself in frustration, “Why aren’t you dead yet!”

 

My son reacted in horror by exclaiming, “MOM!! WHY DID YOU SAY THAT?!”

 

Be careful what you say. It might be misunderstood by others! Of course, I apologized and explained to him that I was talking to the weeds, not him…and my weeds did die in a few days.