I have never planted a garden in my life. I saw my dad do it when I was growing up and I saw how hard he worked in it. I saw the fruits of his labor too even though one year I was not so happy with our bountiful supply of brussel sprouts. I have had no real desire to "put one out". I have been known to ignore a plant or two and the people in my house might say on occasion that I am an herbicidal maniac, so it was kind of an unwritten rule that I should probably just stay away from them. Well, with all of the pandemic madness, I though it would be a good idea to become a farmer. (Along with everyone else....everywhere I think.) The time is at hand to grow and grow I have. I was so excited because things were growing and not dying. I had butternut squash growing and cucumbers. Oh, the joy!
In the last few days though, I have noticed my squash not looking so hot. Oh no! Not again! The case of the cursed green thumb was happening all over again. All around me, people were growing things and their plant stems were not looking like yellow withered vines. I was trying to do damage control on one of my squash babies, a whole stem just came right out of the soil like it had no roots at all. In the bottom of what was left of that stem, I saw what looked like a white caterpillar. So , I did what every good detective does these days. Yep, I you-tubed it. I found out about vine borers. These little creatures come from a moth that lays its eggs at the base of squash and zucchini plants. Then, when the eggs hatch, the caterpillar bores (hence the name) into the stem and lives in there and eats my stems all up. They cause the plant to wither and die.
Now that reminds me of our thought life. So many people walk around just letting their minds run all over the place. It runs over them, the people around them and anything in its path. Satan just has to lay some little eggs (we are going to use an analogy here...okay), let them hatch and bore into your thought life and wreak havoc on your stem...um life. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. You aren't supposed to be walking around thinking all kinds of ungodly crazy stuff about yourself or anybody else. Do you ever hear any of these? You're so ugly. Mom likes her better than me. I can't do anything right. I'm a horrible mother. I don't look like her. I want to look like her and then my life will be perfect. I hate her. I wish he would fall off the face of the earth. I will never be good enough. These are only a few grains of wrong thinking compared to the the millions of available ones out there. They will bore right in and alter and destroy your life.
I need some aluminum foil and the Word, quick! (okay...so maybe not the aluminum here unless you might need a bookmark.)
Sometimes, if the squash plant is not too far gone, you can actually cut into your stem and get that little devil out of there and then cover the stem up with dirt and pray that it stays healthy. Mine were too far gone for that, so I got new plants and I am going to protect the stems with some foil now that I know I need to. The same goes with God's Word and protecting our thought life. We need to know how God instructs us to think. We should be thinking on those things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, with any virtue, and praise worthy. It also says that we are to cast down every imagination that tries to acknowledge itself above God and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. Just in case you didn't notice, we are using all action verbs here and that means you have to act. You can't sit passively by and let your brain just bounce from one lie to another and think that you are going to stay in good shape. You won't. Sometimes, you'll have to get in there and dig those thoughts out that have already made a home, and then replace them with new ones. then.....PROTECT THEM!
