green

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The Grass Isn’t Much Greener On The Other Side

We arrived at our cottage last night, just before dusk, and I noticed the grass had not grown very much. The grass was long but it wasn’t any thicker than it was when we were here the last time … and we had seeded it then. 

We don’t get up to our cottage all that frequently, just a couple of days in each of the months leading up to our vacation.

We do the same thing after our vacation as well. That means there is not a lot of time to really take care of our lawn and encourage its growth.

Last year we put in an underground sprinkler system on a timer to make sure the lawn gets the water it needs.

If you’re asking, “WHO put in an underground sprinkler?”, well, we did it ourselves and it’s more like we McGyver’d a system together on the cheap.

Anyway, I thought this would make sure our grass was green and lush.

We do have a rather sandy base to work with, so a beach volleyball court would probably have been easier to achieve than thick, green grass.

All that aside, I really thought that when we arrived yesterday there would be new grass growing and we wouldn’t be able to see the ground in between the individual blades.

It’s not like that at all.

It’s been a good three weeks – maybe even four weeks – since we’ve been up. (My brother cuts the grass in between our visits.)

But I thought the grass would be greener and thicker and newer.

We put grass seed down before we left last time, but what a disappointment.

It’s in the same scraggly state as when we left it. Neither Lily nor I have a particularly green thumb, but how green does your thumb need to be to grow grass?

There are only a few things that are needed to grow grass. You need dirt, water and sun. My dad proved that you don’t need anything else.

Before I was born, my dad and mom moved into their first home in the late fall.

They decided to wait until the spring to deal with their non-existent, all dirt lawn. In the spring they noticed little green shoots coming up, so they let them grow and later went on their summer vacation.

By the end of the summer they had a lawn. It was green and that’s all they cared about … though they were afraid that it was 100% weeds.

The next spring the back yard was a sea of yellow dandelions. But when the yellow was gone, it was green again.

For years my dad was afraid to have the weed man spray our lawn for fear that it would kill it all.

The bottom line is, I know it doesn’t take much to get a green lawn.

So during this visit, I’m scheduling our sprinkler system to come on more often and we are going to lay down a heavy layer of seed.

By my vacation, I better need a swather to cut my lawn!

Here’s the thing: Sometimes when things don’t work, we just give up. When God is developing you, urging you deeper into relationship with Him, sometimes it doesn’t seem to be working. Don’t give up; just keep allowing God to finish His work in you because what He has in store will be well worth it all.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What’s growing in your life right now? Leave your comments below.

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The Grass Is Not Greener Over There

We are having a pretty dry summer so far and that has good and bad side effects.

brown grass lawn

On the good side, there are not many days my outdoor activities get rained out.

I can get my golf game in and my mountain bike rides in without worrying if I’m picking the best weather days; most days of the week the sun is shining.

In the spring, when it was raining a lot, the soaked mountain biking trails would often be closed so we wouldn’t destroy them. Now if it rains, the trails are so dry that they suck up the rain and we never have to miss a day of biking.

Another good side is I don’t have to cut the grass that often. With the little rain we’ve had in the last month, my grass is not really growing; it’s turning brown … except for the part where they installed a fibre optics cable junction!

Last fall Bell Canada made a mess on my front lawn doing their installation. They finally re-sodded the little area this spring and have been faithful watering it ever since. That’s the only really green part of my lawn now.

… Which leads me to the downside of not having any rain. The grass doesn’t grow but the weeds are in fine form! They seem to be able to stay green and flourish under these drought-like conditions.

While I may not have to cut my grass every week, I still need to cut the weeds if I want to keep the lawn looking even.

So we’ve been thinking maybe we should look into putting a sprinkler system in our yard so that we can give the grass a fighting chance against the weeds. (One year we came home from vacation and our lawn looked completely brown except for thriving, foot high cactus-like weeds, spastically placed all over it!)

 

If we were getting a decent amount of rain, I’m sure we wouldn’t be looking into underground sprinklers at all. But in order for the weeds to not completely take over, we did a little investigation.

After we completed the online planning guide from one company, we looked at their end cost and started wondering if a green lawn was worth taking out a second mortgage on the house!

I’m leaning towards considering that brown is the new green.

We’ve already had to make adjustments like that. When they banned the use of chemical weed control in our city, dandelions became a beautiful yellow flower of spring.

Almost every home sports them and they’re cheap – you don’t have to buy them and they come up every year.

Maybe I just need to look at that brown grass and think of how nice it looks that way. Maybe I just have to ignore the green weeds.

For sure, I can embrace brown grass if it means more time in the sun and less interruptions from my outside activities.

Here’s the thing: You can get used to allowing a certain sin in your life. If you live with it long enough, you may even get to the place where you think it is perfectly fine. But don’t fool yourself! Grass is supposed to be green and you are to confess your sin and turn from it. There’s no other way of looking at it.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What in your life have you come to accept but instead should cut out? Leave your comments below.

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Do You Want A Lush Yard With Little Effort?

It’s the middle of September, and the grass in my yard keeps growing like in the spring.

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By now I should only have to cut it about every two weeks. Actually, most summers when I come back from our vacation, the only things that have grown on the lawn are the weeds – about a foot high, green and lush – while all the grass around them is stubble and brown as sand.

This week I knew the lawn needed cutting. Since my neighbour was looking at his, I thought I better get out there and join him. He’d cut my grass while we were on vacation and, though it would be nice to have a handy guy next door who cut my lawn, I didn’t want to take advantage of his generous nature.

I started with my front yard and cut the part of his lawn that connects with mine before he got to it. Then I started on the back. I couldn’t believe how long the grass was. It was thicker than I’d seen it all year and still so green.

I chalked that up to the fact that we had record amounts of rain this summer – it never had a chance to dry out.

It was tough getting the lawn mower through it. I have a 5 horse power mower but it’s older and I think it’s starting to fade away.

By the time I’d finished cutting the back lawn, I had almost burnt the engine out. Three times it started to smoke and I had to pull it back so it wouldn’t stall out. But it was done.

Then I attacked the edges with the whipper snipper. I have to say that it was looking pretty good by the time I finished. In between cutting and snipping, I had a conversation with my neighbour about the strip of grass that is on the other side of our fences.

I’m not sure if we’re responsible for it or if it’s the city’s job, but my neighbour is the one who cuts it the most. In fact, he cuts his portion, mine and the guy’s on the other side of me.

When I finished the snipping, I kind of felt guilty about not doing my share on the other side of the fence, so I cut that too.

I was tired but happy when it was all done. I was thinking I wouldn’t have to cut the lawn again for maybe two weeks. I had even lowered the blade to shave the grass a little shorter.

But four days later I was looking at the lawn thinking it really needed to be cut again. I couldn’t believe it! … That’s when Lily told me she’s been fertilizing it!

No wonder my lawn is getting thicker and longer. No wonder my lawn mower is about to give up. I’m ready to give up too.

Give me back the burnt grass and tall weeds – I need a break!

Here’s the thing: I like my lawn to look good, but to look good it takes more than just cutting it every couple of weeks. It takes fertilizing to help it grow long and green, which in turn means more lawn maintenance. Your relationship with God is the same. It takes the fertilization of reading God’s Word and the maintenance of spending time with God in prayer. That kind of work will produce a good, growing relationship. But you’ve got to put in the effort.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: How much effort do you put into your relationship with God? Leave your comments below.