Weeds - Part 2

So, yesterday I told you why I was weeding.  While I was weeding God was working on my soul again.
We've all heard the weeding analogy, remove the bad stuff in our hearts to make room for the good stuff.
Well, you know what?  That's really hard to do.  It's really, stinkin' hard.
I was amazed at my hoe that I was working with.  It's not your typical hoe, this one is shaped like a razor blade - very thin and skinny and beveled at one end.  It's called a collinear hoe.  It's just for weeding, not breaking up soil or mixing or anything, just weeding. (There's a whole other blog post on choosing the right tool, but we'll skip over that one for now)  This particular hoe is designed to shave off the weed just under the soil surface.  The idea is that if the root can never get any food from the leaves it will die.  It does take more passes to actually kill the weed, but it is much faster than weeding by hand.
I was thinking about our thoughts and actions.  What if, instead of simply focusing on totally pulling a 'weed' from our lives - which is time consuming, painful, and focused - what if we simply shaved off the outward expressions of those 'weeds.'
Here is an example to illustrate: I have a problem having a bad attitude towards my kids.  They get on my nerves, they get into my stuff, and I just can't seem to model grace and compassion to them.  Rather than digging deep and pulling that weed out by the root, I can simply shave off the outward expression.  Focus on catching myself before I snap at my kids or before I say something I'll regret.  Eventually, the root of my attitude problem will whither because I'm not allowing it to feed and grow.  I may sound sacrilegious to some long time church members, but hear me out.
I can freely admit that I don't simply have one fault.  I have more than I'd care to mention and focusing on one single issue tends to allow the others to grow and prosper since I'm not focusing on them.  I might be able to get my attitude problem fixed, but in the meantime, my pride, greed and selfish ambition has grown to massive heights.  And since I was working so hard on this one area, new 'weeds' have popped up, like a grumbling spirit.  Because let's face it, who hasn't had a grumbling spirit while weeding?
But, if we're doing daily maintenance on our hearts and minds, and we're simply watching our actions and words, those weeds can't prosper.  You can't be prideful if you can't act on it.  You can't be greedy if you never let your actions be anything but generous.  It seems superficial at first, but over time I think you'll find that your heart and mind have become more fertile soil and less weedy path.