Thoughtful Thursday--More Philosophical Jogging

I've spoken before about how conversation can get kind of philosophical between mom and I on our daily jogs. Well, lately, it's just been too darn hot to think and jog at the same time. But this morning it was cool(er) and breezy. 

Mom had done a little weeding while she waited for me to get my shoes on, so I guess weeds were on her mind. On the jog, we came to an area that is particularly grown up with weeds and she said, "You know, this is all the result of the Fall." My brain was someplace else, so I said, "What is?". "The weeds. The work required to tend good plants for food. It's all because of the Fall." I agreed. Before the Fall, man was given the job to tend the Garden. But the punishment for disobeying, besides being banished from the Garden and spiritual death, was that there would be thorns and thistles and man would eat by the sweat of his brow.

 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:17-19

But also, now we have spiritual weeds to deal with. Sins. All the different manifestations of the wickedness bound up in our human hearts. You know them-- Pride, Hate, Greed, Lust, Jealousy, and the list goes on. 

With the Holy Spirit helping us by revealing these things and convicting us of them, we have got to continually be weeding them out. When you realize you are thinking better of yourself than you ought, it is time to pull that baby up. Admit your pride, repent of it, and ask for forgiveness.

But, it goes farther than that. Weeding is only half the job. The other half is tending to the plants which you want to stay there. They can start growing kind of wild if left on their own while you're busy with weeding. Once you pull that weed of Pride up (yet again) it's time to tend to your Humility. To humble yourself and make sure you have a proper view of yourself.

Now, I'm focusing on Pride because I feel like that is the one I'm dealing with the most often. I don't make a habit of bragging about myself, but often I find myself thinking I know better, and I have the answers, and I'm doing it all right. Then I do something, or say something, or something happens and I'm reminded that I'm no better than anyone else. I'm simply forgiven and the only reason I know anything is because of what Christ did for me. 

It's humbling just admitting that.  : }

So, I did kind of get off topic for this week, but it's what I was thoughtful about today.