Slug Keeping

 Over the next few days, I will share things my grand kids have said or done that the Lord has used to make me think about the way I live, think, and even deceive myself. I have many stories to share.  Since these are so dear to my heart, they are easy and fun to tell.  Please be patient if it takes awhile for me to move into the story of the past four years. They are hard stories and, at times, painful to tell. They are also filled with awe, praise and joy.  Those stories will come.  I promise

In a previous blog it was probably noted that I did not use names.  Because of my family's situation it is not a good idea to use them. So I will not use  names nor will I post photos of family members or myself. Because I live in a rather small community and the kids attend small schools, I need to be careful to protect their identities.

So, without mentioning names, one of my granddaughters found a beautiful slug in my flowerbed while helping me pull weeds many years ago. Well, around six years ago if anyone is counting.  If you have ever seen a slug  you will understand that the terms slug and beautiful just don't go together. But to this child, the slug, a slimy banana slug, was the most beautiful one she had ever seen, and it needed to live with her.  After obtaining a baggie from my kitchen, grass and dandelions from my yard, and  a few drops of water for good measure, the now happy kid popped the slug, grass, dandelions, and water drops into the plastic bag and zipped it up. She was ready to take her new pet home.

Home is not where Mom and Dad wanted the gooey pet to be.  "Slugs destroy gardens!" Mom exclaimed. "Get rid of it."
"Its slimy, its icky and its yellow" squealed a sister. "Yuck."
"It's not coming home with me!" Dad firmly stated. "Toss it."
"But its beautiful." gushed my granddaughter.  "I love it." And you guessed it,  home it went.

Over the next weeks that beautiful, slimy, banana slug lived in its grass and dandelion filled plastic mansion which become gooier all the time.  It traveled wherever the happy child went.  It rode with her on lawn mowers and on top of hay bales headed out to feed the cows. It slept in a bedroom and even came back to visit my garden. Not only did that little slimy thing go everywhere with it's little girl, it was looked at, examined and exclaimed over by anyone who would oblige.

I don't know what finally happened to the exotic pet and neither does my granddaughter.  But this is what happened to me as I watched this whole saga unfold.  God spoke--not audibly, but in his still-small-voice. He reminded me of how I strive to keep the slugs out of my garden because I don't want the iris buds nibbled away during the night.  I don't want the red-hot-poker leaves slimed and munched on in the cool of the morning. I certainly don't want to step on one in the dark, or even the daylight for that matter. And there is no way I display my garden slugs in plastic bags. I get rid of those destructive pests.

But do I get rid of the destructive habits, the slugs, in my own life or do I round them up when I find them and put them away in a baggie where I think they are under control, then bring them out to either look at or share with other slug collectors? Take the gossip slug for example.  I try very hard not to share information, even if true, if it does not build up or bless the conversation. Usually the desire to gossip is controlled-- zipped into a baggie.  But there are times when I am around other people with collections of gossip slugs too. In no time at all we are having a real slug-fest. The slugs are out of their bags and we are all getting covered with slime that is almost impossible to get off.  All the while we are saying to ourselves, "My slug is not as ugly as theirs." Afterwards, while doing a mental damage control, I wonder not only how in the world this whole mess happened, but also why.

Let's be honest and not deceive ourselves.  Let's call it what it really is--Sin. The gossip sin, an uncontrolled tongue, is just one of many slugs sins that nibble, bite, and chew away at the beautiful tender shoots and buds in our lives--shoots and buds that are meant to explode into leaves and beautiful blossoms that glorify God . As long as we keep trying to control the sins ourselves and not  get rid of them, they will continue destroying what would and should have been beautiful. The still-small-voice, the voice of the Master Gardener, says, "Give me your sins.  I'll get rid of them for you. You don't even have to pay disposal fees.  My son already paid them."  I John 1:8-2:2

So, I try to give God all my sins when I find them, even though more keep showing up.  I don't always succeed. Some are so small I can't even see them.  Others are small enough I tend to ignore them. After awhile they can't be ignored any longer, especially when I see the damage they are beginning to do. Let's not even talk about when others see them too.The funny part is that God can always see them.  He knows where every one hides itself.  He will even point them out to me, show me how to recognize them, and destroy them if I let him.

Isn't God wonderful.  Who would believe that he would chose a precious little girl's slug-in-a-bag to teach Grandma that if I want my life to be the beautiful garden God intends it to be, I need to let him be the Master Gardener.

==============================================================

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."  Ephesians 3:29

"With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth came praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."  James 3:9-10

The NIV translation is used here.