This time of year is full of God-breathed lessons of new birth and fresh starts. I think God is trying to teach me something through dandelions this year. Ah, those pesky, populous, perpetually persistent puffballs. Our lawn is full of them. No matter that we mow them down a couple times a week. They just keep popping back up. Even the act of chopping off those stems seems to spread their cottony seeds and create more havoc in our yard. You just can’t deal with dandelions at the surface level. You’ve got to go deep and get at the root.

Now I don’t plan to go out in the front yard and dig up all my dandelions. But I have heard there is such a thing as weed killer that actually seeps down below the surface and kills the taproot without harming the grass. Cool. Maybe we’ll try that. Next year.

I like to think of God’s Word as that powerful force that seeps down into the root of my being. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is living and active (potent stuff), sharper than any double-edged sword (or garden trowel), it penetrates (goes deep) even to dividing joints and marrow (gets the bad stuff, leaves the good stuff).

It’s always a struggle to stay intentional about being in the Word. I’ve tried many, many devotionals, Bible reading plans and memory verse techniques. Finding that it doesn’t really matter what I do, as long as I do something, I change it up every so often. I’ve also found that if there is no plan, there’s not much motivation. So putting my open Bible out on the couch before I go to bed at night seems to make me feel that Someone is out there waiting for me in the morning, so I’d better get out of bed.  As my “roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love” (Eph. 4:17) the weeds will have a tougher time surviving.

How about you? How do you keep it fresh?