In previous years, our vegetable garden has been quickly swamped with weeds. It never ceased to amaze me how little time it took to turn a freshly-tilled garden into one covered in weeds from which the occasional plant protruded. They grew so quickly that anything other than a full-time weeding effort was futile. Until this year: horses have come to the rescue! No, there haven't been horses in that part of the garden since the dairy closed decades ago, but the evidence of them has resurfaced in the form of horse manure! After planting this year, a generous layer of horse manure was spread over the garden as mulch, with the resultant decrease in the number of weeds. It has been an abject lesson in how things fill spaces left for them. Much less time is needed to maintain the garden than previously.

Last week I posed the question about how well the garden of your soul is growing. Common is the testimony about recurring struggles and being overwhelmed by sinful habits, which draw away precious space and energy which could be put into more productive and godly pursuits. It is time to discover the value of covering.

As a covering of mulch keeps weeds in the garden to a minimum; so too a covering of prayer can reduce the "weeds" which grow within. If we examine the garden of our soul, and discover it to be filled with many undesirable things, then we need to expend the effort not only to remove the weeds, but to cover it with prayer in order to reduce the chances of these habits returning. Covering our lives with prayer also makes the weeds more obvious, and thereby enables our attention to be focused on them, as well as giving more time to developing what is meant to grow.

Keep watch over the garden of your soul, covering it with prayer; for God wants to grow some beautiful fruit in it.