One of the most deflating expectations in a young farm boy’s life was hoping you could put play before work.
Riding on the bus, on the way home from school, we would often organize activities with the neighbors: football, basketball, softball, etc. We would decide where we were going to play and when.
Excitedly, we’d get off the bus and dash 103 yards up our driveway to the house. We’d open the door into the kitchen and read a list of jobs my dad would write for us. We would be crushed! These lists would be very short. Sometimes just two words: “Hoe Tomatoes.” “Pick Corn.”
Well, the problem with hoeing tomatoes was that each row was about a quarter of a mile long. Twelve rows of them! That’s about three miles of tomatoes. Divide that by three boys, and that’s a mile of tomatoes to hoe each. Before football – or else!
If we really wanted to play ball we’d try to get one over on our dad and just whack the weeds off to ground level with the hoe. It looked like we got the job done. However, weeds are attached to roots. It always amazed me how fast the weeds grew back. Guess what we’d have to do? The whole job over again. The roots, too. Those roots actually get bigger –and harder to get out – the longer they are in the ground.
Numbers 32:23b says, “...be sure your sin will find you out.” All sin surfaces sometime. It’s best to root it out with God’s help. Get it rooted out of your life or it will grow back.
