Getting Rid of the Dead Pieces

I enjoy working in my flower beds. My merigolds have been thriving in this Mississippi heat! They are as big as bushes and add so much color to the landscape. A trick I learned a few years ago in growing healthy merigolds is to snap off the dead flower heads. Now, I'm no horticulturalist, but apparently when dead flowers remain on the plant, it expends some of it's energy and growth on trying to sustain those dead flowers. But when the dead flowers are removed from the plant, the plant can then use it's energy to produce more buds which will then become beautiful orange and yellow merigolds. Every few days, I walk around my flower beds and look for those dead flowers to snip off and throw them away. Having dead flowers mixed in with bountiful flowers just doesn't look pretty anyway!

Our life is like that. Over time, you and I have parts of our lives that become dead and unfruitful. Someone may have broken your spirit with an unkind comment or discouraged you or spoken untruths about you. Maybe those dead parts of your life are an attitude toward someone else or unforgiveness. Those dead parts of our life begin to suck out the hope and growth we once had and the love of Christ can't be shown because it is all being wasted on the parts of you that aren't producing fruit.

Jesus admonished the religions leaders at the time who were so consumed with how things looked in their lives. These men were caught up in appearances, yet had no clue they had parts of their lives that weren't showing Jesus. Matthew 23:27 says, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean." It is obvious to me what Christ thinks when we say one thing about our life but act another way.

It's time to snip off the dead flower heads so the rest of you can bloom!

Will and Lilly Faith watch as I pull off the dead flowers in the merigolds.