Is it just me, or is mowing the absolute best household chore? From the fresh-cut-aroma, to my hand-picked playlist for lawn trimming, I truly enjoy just about everything that comes along with task of tediously walking back and forth over each square inch of the yard. And yet still, all of that is just icing on the cake that is the satisfaction of a well-groomed turf.
As it turns out, Kelly shares my enthusiasm for said chore, although I’m pretty sure his reasoning has more to do with having an excuse to operate a small engine.
One might think that with two home-owners who enjoy mowing as much as we do, our lawn would be perfectly maintained at all times. Even so, sometimes life gets in the way of our ability to properly care for this humble piece of land that has our names on the mortgage. There are days when a small rabbit could find refuge from a beagle [a very cute beagle, that is] amongst the overgrown forest of green. Other times, just when we think our yard looks beautiful, the neighbor’s grass is suddenly shorter and ours doesn’t look so great by comparison.
It’s amazing, to me, how easy it can be to feel frustrated or even ashamed by the condition of our yard at times, simply because I don’t feel like it meets the standards of those around us. Which turns mowing – something we take pleasure in – into work. It becomes a burden and occasionally even makes us feel inadequate.
And then there’s Wednesday. The day that the entire neighborhood places their lawn clippings by the curb, and we are reminded that we aren’t alone in the fact that our yard requires constant upkeep.
It can be tempting to overlook those brown paper bags, especially in a world of social media, and live our lives confronted only with beautiful yards that appear to be perfect all of the time. We’ve mentioned the tendency to compare our outtakes with the highlight reels of others a time or two, and for that to cause a comparative way of looking at our lives, our marriages, and even ourselves.
I, for one, am guilty of that myself. It’s a daily struggle to deafen the loud whispers in my ear that I’m not matching up to those around me. It requires many reminders and constant intentionality to keep my focus on being the very best version of who God created me to be. To live and serve to the best of our abilities in the life that God has called us to live.
Thankfully, there are a few lessons that we can learn from the lawn clippings…
- Proper watering and fertilization may seem as though it just ends up causing the need for additional maintenance. Yet if the grass isn’t growing, it falls dormant.
- Neighbors may have automatic sprinklers, or use the clippings to cover their garden; perhaps the weeds were pulled when we weren’t looking. Even so, we can rest assured that we are not missing out a magical solution that is effortless and perfect at all times.
- Cutting away the excess allows for the beauty of what remains to shine. Only then can we experience the joy it was meant to bring.
I love that there are so many marriage/life applications we can take away from something as simple as yard work. Please feel free to share your own in the comments below!
-m
PS… In case you’re wondering, we really do both enjoy mowing. Of course it helps that our yard is nice and flat for the most part, and our mower is self-propelled. ;)
