In January 2016 Michele and I bought our first home. It was crazy experience! We picked out houses online for me to look at, and I literally had to FaceTime my wife as i toured places with our realtor. It was nuts, but also very exciting. We’re coming up to a year in our new home soon, and we love it!
After the relatively easy Winter passes Spring arrives and so does the need to cut the grass. We moved from North Georgia where most of the grass type bermuda sod. It’s a thick course grass that does well against weeds, because it’s of how dense it is. My new lawn in Kentucky is turf type tall fescue. The difference is a soft blade of grass that absolutely loves to get weeds in it. By late Summer I had infestation with weeds. (see pics)
Yeah, it was bad…and it was everywhere. To make matters worse, we’re on the main road, and we’re a corner lot in the most prominent intersection in the neighborhood (I know, first world problems). So I decided that I wanted to green this lawn up, and kill the weeds. It wasn’t long before I realized this is easier said than done. Apparently, we have an aggressive weed that has really hit the neighborhoods in our end of town hard. I ended up hiring a company that treats all kinds of weeds, and fertilizes existing grass. Between that company and a little DIY work I learned from youtube I had spend hundreds of dollars, put several hours into lawn care, and even had my yard aerated and over-seeded. I literally did everything possible that could be done here.
And my yard lived happily ever after! Right? No. It still has a lot of weeds. The lawn care representative told me that it will likely need the Fall treatment, and the early Spring treatment before we notice all the weeds gone. The aeration and overseeing required me to water the lawn each day for 2 weeks! My water bill went up that month, and I was having the move the sprinkler around for about an hour each day after work…and I don’t even get to see the results until Spring.
Ironically, some of my neighbors will look at my lawn this Spring and think “man, he’s got the greenest lawn on the block!” What I have learned is that the grass is always greener where you water it (and fertilize, aerate, over seed etc.). I put a lot of time, energy, and money into preparing my lawn. The toughest part is knowing that results won’t come immediately.
I wonder how many times we miss this concept in our lives? Green grass won’t just happen at my house. The same way a healthy marriage, finances, relationships, body, or career will. You will flourish wherever you water. Healthy marriages don’t just happen. They are healthy because time, energy and even money is consistently spend on them. Fit people don’t just wake up fit, and no one is ever going to just hand you a degree or knowledge. All of this stuff has to be obtained by hours and hours of work. Grass is inconsequential, but our relationship with God isn’t. It’s hard to know God when we never talk to him, read his word, or gather in worship. My challenge as we start to wind down the year 2016 is to water what you want to grow in 2017. Stop looking at other peoples highlight reel, and thinking they don’t have the blooper reel to go along with it. Go water what you want to grow. I pray you’ll take some time with week with God and ask him to show you what area(s) of your life need watering.
blessings,
Matt Beers
church with beers 
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