At the beginning of May we decided to tackle a huge project and thatch the moss out of our lawn. We rented some equipment and my parents helped. It took about 6 hours of thatching, raking, and bagging the moss. When the day was done we had 32 huge contractor bags full of moss and miscellaneous lawn particles. We celebrated by going out to a yummy seafood dinner, and sleeping well that night. I had this idealized vision that now our yard would look so wonderful, the moss would be gone and I could run through the yard barefoot and sing like in “The Sound of Music.”

Yeah, that’s not what happened. The next week we realized we needed to reseed the bare spots (and there were a lot!), and that would involve first spreading topsoil and peat moss, throwing out some seed, then covering it again with soil. On top of that, it was really hot and we had to water all the time just to give the grass seed a fighting chance. It led to a few curt moments between me and my husband and our corporate enemy–the lawn. It was a lot of work. But now, two months later, the yard actually looks nice. There are still some patches of weeds and a few bare spots, but with time it will be so much better. And it’s certainly a lot healthier because the majority of the moss is gone.

Looking back, I wondered what the heck God was teaching me through this “trial.” It made me realize that the moss in our yard is like sin, it grows fast and covers well. To get rid of the moss in my life, sometimes God has to totally decimate me. This leaves me open and vulnerable, with lots of bare spots. God, like a gardener, will first tear me down and make me only reliant on Him to water me and give me nourishment, just like we had to do with the lawn. I wonder how frustrating I am to God like the lawn was frustrating to me? Like our lawn, He continually cultivates me and encourages me to grow healthily, as much as I may not want to sometimes. I’m glad that God has more patience with me than I have with my yard, because otherwise I’d be a total mess.