Tom Landry, Purple Sage, Roses and a Ford F-150

Last Monday, we had the 33rd Annual Tom Landry Open. What a day! We had right at 284 golfers out at Stonebriar Country Club in Frisco, TX. It was awesome! I was stationed at one of the holes on the Country Club Course with Long Drive Champion Nyle Pruitt aka The Nyleator! He can crush the ball…over 400+ yds per drive. He spent the day trying to catch up to my drive that I put out there…okay, that is a stretch…no, really I am just dreaming. The course was in great shape. One of the things I noticed was the Azaleas. I used to live in South Louisiana and had them in my flower bed. Can’t grow them up here without a lot of work and $$$...

This weekend, I was slated to do some flowerbed work. My whole list was given to me by my wife, Shannon. She told me to dig up the Purple Sage bushes…she said she didn’t like them. So, off to get the shovel and put in some sweat equity to get rid of them. After digging a while on the first one and knowing I still had 3 left, I decided to go and get a rope and my trusty F-150 pickup. I was already tired and decided to just pull them out of the ground. That was a decision that I will never regret!

One of the rules of our gardening at the house is...when you take something out, put something else in that requires little to no attention and will come back each year. Shannon told me to make it pretty...So, I planted roses. I told her I planted 3 rose bushes...one for her, Madison and Katie. She was flattered and I got some much needed brownie points.

Here is where it got interesting. I was digging in the bed to plant the roses when my shovel hit something that sounded like a rock or metal. So, I did what every good shovel operator does and dug down again to see if I would hit it a second time and I did. Come to find out, it was a huge piece of concrete that was down deep in the soil. All I could do was think, I added the majority of this soil a few years ago. How did this get here?

That is when God dropped this little nugget in my thoughts. I began to think, even though the flowers are blooming and everything looks great on the surface, below the topsoil and mulch, down deep, there are rocks. In order to have the best growing conditions possible, you have to get all the rocks out. I was reminded of the passage of Scripture found in...

Matthew 13:5 (NIV)
5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.

Prayer: God, help us to get all the rocks out of our lives that are below the surface and unseen. They may be rocks that only you and each of us know about. Help us to dig deep so that we can be the most fertile soil for You and Your Word. Amen.