Honeysuckle

 

When I was in 7^th grade, I began working for an old lady in Glenville, Maryland.  Miss Vogel owned Westwood Manor, a fifty-acre sprawling property with a five-story stone mansion built in 1770 by one of the Maryland signers of the Declaration of Independence for his daughter.  The mansion was surrounded by seven acres of grass, beautiful trees, and flower gardens.  A formal boxwood garden with a Koi pond was in the front.  She had a paved drive from the road to the mansion bordered on each side by a low stone wall covered in honeysuckle.  In the spring, the drive was beautiful and fragrant, but the rest of the year, it was a challenge to maintain.  The honeysuckle entwined trees choking them while smothering boxwoods and overpowering dogwoods.  I could almost see the vines growing.  I had to trim back the honeysuckle on the stone wall every three weeks, and the drive was over a half mile long!  A neighboring farmer, Mr. Briney, helped me occasionally and lobbied Miss Vogel to exterminate the honeysuckle, but she wouldn’t hear of it.  She stubbornly had me fight the honeysuckle all year just to enjoy it for two weeks in the spring.  I worked for her 40 hours a week in the summer and spent much of my time cutting back her honeysuckle.  Hey, Mrs. Vogel’s honeysuckle reminds me of pet sins that we harbor.  Sins that relentlessly take over our lives.  We rationalize that they aren’t all that bad, but any sin is an affront to a Holy God.  James said in James 1:15, “Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  Hey, don’t let sin take over your life.  Root it out and get rid of it.  Like honeysuckle, sin is pleasurable for a brief season, but it is ultimately painful and destructive.  Let the Holy Spirit rid you of pet sins.  You’ll be glad that you did.