Puncture Vines

I mowed my lawn this morning, the first time I have had to do that in about a month. We haven't had much rain this month. As I was mowing, I noticed that the puncture vines (I called these sticker patches when I was a kid) were doing well. I was reminded of Matthew 13:7 the parable of the sower "Other seeds fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants". Now I love my grass. I have 2 vacant lots beside the lot my house sits on. It's has a really good stand of buffalo grass that I'm very proud of. It doesn't need mowing that much, and when it is green and growing, it looks clean. But the puncture vines still thrive. I have to stay on my toes to keep them killed out. What I noticed today was that even with little rain, they are thriving. Growing and making seed (stickers!). And their roots are deep and large. Then I got to thinking about life and exactly what was Jesus' message in the parable. You see, as pretty as my yard is, and as hard as I work to keep the "weeds" out, they keep coming. That's like satan. Just when you get comfortable in life with your faith, satan throws something in your path to trip you up. Like these puncture vines. They're persistent. They make lots of seed. And they hurt when you get them in your feet (the stickers). They grow even when conditions aren't good for your grass to grow. My grass is basically dead form lack of water, but the good thing about buffalo grass, it doesn't take much int the way of moisture to "green" back up. That's just like us. We live life, take things for granted, like our faith, and satan jumps up at us luring us a way. The Gospel is like moisture to us. It helps us to grow in our faith. When we don't get "watered" by the Gospel, we just invite satan in and he grows on us. He's persistent, he makes lots of seed, and he hurts us. Be sure to "water" your self today!











I added some pictures here of the demolition of the high school. Looks like there's progress finally!