Life lessons from the garden.
~Is he your enemy or your ally?
Story:
We all avoid living or being around wasps because 1. they’re creepy and 2. their sting hurts for days.
This season, my community feels as though we’re being over taken by paper wasps. Their nests are everywhere! I have 4 large nests alone a 20 foot strip of sidewalk leading to my front door & another small nest in my vegetable garden.
As I went out to pick my fresh greens each morning I’ve been greeted by wasps buzzing in & around my greens.
Honestly, it made me upset to share my veggies with these nasty bugs. I kept thinking, here I am trying to enjoy the product of my labor and I have to work around these nasty wasps that are looking as if they’re the culprit to the brown spots on my leaves. I would ruminate about how hard I worked to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, weed, water, & tend each plant. Now these wasps are taking over, eating my plants, scaring me each time I try to pick my kale, lettuce, or chard.
Not knowing much about wasps, and not seeing any other reason for the leaf damage, I assumed it was the wasps sucking MY chard’s leaf juice. I was sure they were going to kill my plants.
In frustration, I put up a wasp trap, knocked down their nest & even sprayed the remaining queen wasps with poison as they were trying to rebuild the nest.
For a few blissful days, my garden problems were solved.
To ensure this problem wouldn’t come back I did some google research for poisons that would keep them away all summer.
What I found shocked me. I saw that their favorite food was leaf eating bugs!
What had I just done!? I had just killed my garden’s greatest ally.
It’s been a couple weeks since I killed my garden ally.
This morning, my fear of a sudden aphid infestation came true.
I found aphids and other leaf eating bugs on my kale, lettuce, and chard.
Oh, sad day…. I killed the very thing that was saving my garden.
Life Lesson:
As I lamented over my loss of bug free greens, the thought came to me, how have you done this intentionally or unintentionally in other areas of your life?
Ouch!!! I realized there have been times that I’ve pushed away the very thing or person that could have helped me in my times of need.
Real Life Examples:
Maybe it’s was a parent, teacher, boss, co-worker or friend who’s advice we didn’t take. Maybe we’ve gotten mad at them for saying or thinking something that felt like a punch in the stomach. We perhaps even refused to speak to them for a time. Only to later discover we wished we would have followed their advice.
Maybe it’s a health program. Being a junk food addict makes us feel like crap. But the first couple weeks of a healthy diet & exercise program tough!!! It’s easy to allow ourselves to be consumed with negative thoughts. Perhaps you look at a beautiful healthy person with some jealousy. Maybe thinking “they can eat whatever they want & not gain a pound, it just isn’t fair!” Do these thoughts sting? Yep, they’re painful!
Other times it might be connecting to God. We may want to avoid feeling his disapproval of past actions or attitudes. Wanting to not feel this sting, we may avoid praying, attending church, or reading our scriptures.
So, if these things are good for us, how can overcome our aversion to them?
Application:
Think of a way you’ve pushed against something that is good for you.
How can you let go of pride & do the uncomfortable, and sometimes difficult things that will eventually bring you positive results?
How can you practice accept the truth & good advice without fear or anger?
In our quest to be a little better each day, I hope we decide to learn, accept, love & even run toward the things that will bring us lasting joy no matter what the cost.
As always, I love to read your comments! So my question for you today is “What have your “wasp” experiences taught you?”