Tom and I have had projects on our to-do list for years that we simply haven’t made or had the time to accomplish well. Things that living in the same home for 32 years demand, e.g. cleaning out and organizing the garage, decluttering drawers and closets and our latest—prepping the yard for new sod. The latter was on our schedule for this past week.

In Florida we can only do this in the spring when it is the driest and sunniest. We hired a friend to prep and lay the sod, but due to unforeseen circumstances, he needed our help.

We spent most of two days pulling weeds and tilling the soil. It was back-breaking work, but together we made it happen. We had the same goal in mind—a beautiful lawn—and we work well together which is the fruit of years of practice.

Weeds, crab grass and sedge grass were our nemesis. Invasive to Florida lawns; we were determined to give our new sod the best chance to thrive.

Kneeling together in the dirt I couldn’t help but apply this necessary work to our marriage.

Many times situations have brought us to our knees. In our early years it seemed there would be no end to the dirt we raked up in every area of our relationship—communication, confession, repentance, disagreements and so on.

We were young and thought we knew each other well, but we had no idea what we didn’t know. Until we did, and that’s when marriage became hard work.

We hit the ground on our knees working together to pull out weeds of misunderstanding.

Digging up hidden sins that needed to be confessed and brought together to God.

Chopping up buried roots of our sinful nature that would threaten to stifle any growth in our marriage.

Marriage is hard and messy work for those who pay attention. If the mess is ignored it allows the invasive weeds to not only grow but also go to seed and reproduce.

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.

John Owen, The Mortification Of Sin

Mortify is an uncommon word that means: To subdue; to abase; to humble; to reduce; to restrain.

Talking about sin is not a popular topic these days. But like weeds in a garden, sin won’t go away by simply ignoring it. I believe this is a ploy of the enemy of our souls as well as to our marriage.

What weeds is your marriage facing today? Are you working together to eradicate them? Or are you ignoring them hoping they’ll go away?

Maybe it’s time to kneel in the dirt and get to work.

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Thank you for taking the time to visit today. Our goal is to be a positive influence for your marriage and remind you of ways to keep growing closer to God and each other.

Blessings,

Tom and Debi ❤️❤️