Where Corn [Doesn't] Grow

The other day, my beautiful Sam was standing in the backyard by the woodpile. He was the same height as the tall weeds that surround it, and the picture he made brought a country song to mind. The words that laced through my mind: "the weeds are high / where corn don't grow." Poor grammar aside, the lyrics pressed in on my heart in the particular way in which God speaks when He is getting my attention.

I'm no gardener - it's no exaggeration to say I have a brown thumb - but when it come to rearing children, I need to be one. Like fields, my kids need to be tended and intentionally filled with the seeds of good things. I need to cultivate their appetite and ability to learn, think, communicate, perceive, and understand layers of meaning. These things don't just appear in a life. They need to be planted, and like any good crop, they will yield nourishment and satisfaction in days to come.  Where good things are already growing, there is less room for junk to take root. But where there's no corn ... the weeds are high.

I know my kids are young, but I think the weeds are high, already ... there are gaps in my rows, areas I've neglected and allowed weeds to grow because it's easier than uprooting the stubborn invaders of laziness and ingrained bad habits.

So I'm going to focus on intentional gardening. I'm pretty easily distracted and find myself letting goals slide.  I think I need to make a firm change in my habits so I can be a more deliberate mama.  They say it takes three weeks to form new habits - so for three weeks I'm going to take a break from Facebook, cut down my distractions, and pull some weeds.

Because I've got some really lovely fields to tend :).