Fighting Groundhogs & Slaying Negativity
I’ve been fighting a groundhog lately. It’s a literal, real-life groundhog. In reality, it's probably multiple groundhogs, in a little groundhog family, I see one at a time.
Above mentioned groundhogs have found my garden. Casually, they have crept in and devoured most of what I had worked so hard to nurture and grow. I even went back to plant more green beans and the pesky groundhogs returned and ate them. ALL of them.
Pretty sunflowers… gone.
Green beans x2 rounds… gone.
Cucumbers… gone.
Tomatoes… slowly starting to go.
This particular family doesn’t seem to care for squash or green peppers because they haven’t been touched. At least not yet anyway. I’m sure they’ve been eyeing them.
We’ve been doing all the things to try and keep these nosy critters out of our garden. We have a fence. Doesn’t matter, they dig holes under the fence. We stuff big rocks or bricks in said holes, doesn’t matter. They dig right next to it! I’ve even run full force across the yard in my Crocs to chase them out. Sorry to my neighbors!
All that to say it’s still a daily battle!
These groundhogs have been a menace in my life. I get it, animals have to eat too, but why my garden? All the hard work put into gardening, to have very little to show right now.
Such is with life, huh? We put in the work in various areas of life, and sometimes it seems to go unnoticed. I’ve been reminded that I have my own groundhogs to fight daily. And not just the ones wreaking havoc in my garden. I’m referring to all of the ways we must show up to battle daily to stay on track.
I’m not sure about you, but every day brings with it a new set of challenges. It doesn’t take much for the enemy to get under our skin. Subtle changes to our plans, coming in a close second to our rival and being left out of plans we thought we should have been included. Just a few of the ways the enemy likes to steer us off course. Away from trusting in God’s plans for our lives.
I’ve been reminded how real the daily spiritual battle is, and the toll it can take on us. Fighting my real-life groundhog nemeses I’ve compared to slaying negativity. It’s everywhere.
Of course, you see it. Some days I just want to blare my favorite music and tune out everything else. It’s hard to stay focused on the good when we are constantly thrown flaming arrows.
I want to challenge you to stand firm in this season. Do not be easily swayed. Don’t be alarmed when the enemy keeps digging new holes, introducing more and more negativity into your life. Be a light in a dark world and stand with deep joy even when everything is in complete shambles around you. Your life matters. The world is waiting to see it. Groundhogs, you will not win.
1 Peter 1:6-7, NLT
So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
