Kill the Weeds—Save Your Harvest - Spiritual Nugget 36
The world in which we live exposes our ears and eyes to a variety of circumstances and events. It is almost impossible to escape the bombardment of visions and thoughts around us. Technology has given us access to a full-scale mainstream of cinema, radio, television, video, and computers. Any one of these channels is capable of bombarding our emotional and mental senses with thoughts of doom and gloom.
Daily focus on these things can lead to a habit or, even worse, an addiction. Our thoughts can become like weeds in our minds that thrive on the dark events or circumstances. Like weeds, our thoughts sprout and germinate when we focus on the day-to-day situations. The nearly constant alerts of disaster and doom intensify with each message we hear through the different channels, including information from other persons or even family members.
Weeds are like squatters who occupy land without paying anything for the space they are using. Weeds are invasive. They compete with flowers, grasses, vegetables, and fruit plants for water, sunlight, nutrients, and space. If not destroyed, they will kill healthy plants.
If we keep our attention on the circumstances around us, our life journey will be filled with feelings of depression, sadness, hopelessness, and a “no way out mentality.” These types of feelings are parasites and drain our energy, our health, and our joy.
There are some steps you can take to reduce these parasitic thoughts:
Do not focus on what you see or hear; focus on creating your mind to bring forth good seed/thoughts. (Romans 12:2)
Do not become comfortable with anything you see or hear concerning situations, events, or other life experiences—they are subject to change, certainly not etched in stone, and temporary, at best. (2 Corinthians 4:18)
Avoid debates. Some persons thrive on engaging in controversial discussions that are destructive and lead to arguments and disunity. (Romans 16:17; 2 Timothy 2:23; Titus 3:9)
Practice seeking the truth, focusing on truth, striving for excellence, appreciating virtue, and committing to seeing people the way God sees them (love them unconditionally). (Philippians 4:8)
Weeds are capable of growing into plants and leaving seeds behind. They will stubbornly grow back time after time. Getting rid of weeds permanently is a difficult task. Gardeners recommend several strategies that involve commercial chemicals and natural products. But the best all-around solution for permanently eliminating weeds is prevention.
It will take discipline to create the right conditions to prevent destructive weeds from attempting to return to our minds. We may have to retreat from our daily technological outlets, which support our listening and watching habits. We will need a commitment to build our platform of truth by relying on faith in what God says, rather than on what streams through technology.
A weed has been described as “any plant you don’t want to keep in the place it’s growing.”¹ That about sums up the importance of preventing weeds, and especially those trying to grow in our minds.