January 07, 2011
by Colleen Swindoll Thompson
Imagine. Someone just offered you one of four ways to spend your day. Your choices are:
- Spa Day: Receive a massage, a facial, a manicure, and a pedicure; get lathered with lotion and cloaked with warm towels while listening to quiet music all day long.
- Sports Day: Spend the day with close friends watching sports; cheer on your favorite team while sitting in a reserved booth filled with food and drinks.
- Soul Day: Go to a favorite place—maybe a park, a secluded waterfall, the beach, or a mountain cabin—and take time to paint, read, write, go for a run, listen to quiet music, and maybe take a long nap.
- Sow Day: Get into your “grubbies,” mow, weed, amend, and feed your yard; replace droopy seasonal plants with fresh ones, spray weed killer, and water new, budding flowers.
Remember, it’s your choice. There is no right or wrong choice, not one more spiritual or less spiritual than another. You get to choose.
My choice would be Number 4—Sow Day. Yep, I’d choose to do yard work all day long. The Swindoll family has a heritage of working with our hands. Whether drawing or designing, painting or planting, writing or reflecting, our emotions and affections connect us to life. And the process teaches us valuable lessons.
On one of my yard days, my son Austin and I were out on weed patrol. The yard looked relatively weed-free until . . . until we pushed our tools into the ground and found beneath the surface an uninhibited, fused, aggressive root system of weeds. Similar to London’s underground subway, these carnivorous root systems, invisible, circuited the entire yard. And they could potentially ransack it.
Nature’s expanse overflows with abundant life. But it is also infused with life-killing elements. It is easy to forget that, like nature, people can appear manicured, stylish, and “on top of the world,” but we are all flawed. Regardless of externals, we must realize our sin nature secretly and aggressively entangles our souls, purposed to destroy us. Thankfully, the Lord God reaches in, cuts away the gangly weeds, and nourishes our lives.
Whatever kind of day you would choose, welcome the presence of Jesus and thank Him for creating in you a beautiful life.
Colleen Swindoll Thompson holds a bachelor of arts degree in Communication from Trinity International University as well as minors in psychology and education. Colleen serves as the director of Reframing Ministries at Insight for Living Ministries. From the personal challenges of raising a child with disabilities (her son Jonathan), Colleen offers help, hope, and a good dose of humor through speaking, writing, and counseling those affected by disability. Colleen and her husband, Toban, have five children and reside in Frisco, Texas.
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