Weeds Grow Back Unless…

One of Celebrate Recovery’s analogies in particular has helped me better understand my hang-ups and habits; Celebrate Recovery compares our character defects to garden weeds.

My struggle was bulimia. Like the top of the weed poking through the soil, my habit of bingeing was anchored and nourished by its root. In my case, anxiety and low self-worth were the roots which fed bulimia.

Tackling the bingeing without also tackling my wrong self-worth kept me stuck in the struggle. Only when God corrected my view of myself and Him – through biblical truth and by His power – was I finally set free from that battle.

Once we’ve identified what’s going on under the surface, we then need to allow God, the Gardener, to dig up the weeds: I had to agree to believe what God says about me rather than what I felt about myself. 

Gardening always reminds me of God’s transforming work in us. He weeds and prunes until we’re tidied up and fruitful. However, weeds grow back unless they’re pulled up by their roots!

During a recent spot of gardening to tackle the ‘forest’ that my badly-neglected garden had become, I discovered that next door’s weeds had taken root in my garden too! What an important reminder that when, with God, our hurts are comforted, our hang-ups corrected, and our habits conquered, still new issues can appear. Like next door’s garden, our environment – people, pressures, and pains – can cause new struggles. Regular gardening keeps on top of weeds; regularly spending time with God, listening to what He says and choosing to live His ways keeps on top of struggles. 

Celebrate Recovery helps me keep on ‘gardening’ my recovery so that my old wrong beliefs don’t come back and trip me up. If there’s a group near you, why not give it a go!