One Saturday last fall, my husband Rick and I took a walk through the woods behind our house. The leaves were just beginning to change, and the sky, unbelievably blue. As soon as we got into the woods, Rick found a big stick. He waved it around in front of us like a sword, as though fighting an imaginary enemy.
“What are you doing?”
“Knocking down spiderwebs.”
“I don’t see any.”
He smiled.
“Oh.”
This past Saturday, Clyde, our Lab, and I walked through the same woods.
I remembered that day last fall.
The stick.
The spiderweb discussion.
The imaginary enemy.
Are there really spiderwebs back here?
Just in case, I grabbed a stick and twirled it in front of me.
Pretty soon, I decided I really didn’t need the stick.
It was a lot of work.
And I looked silly.
Rick was probably teasing me. If I see any spiderwebs, I’ll knock them down.
I dropped my stick and kept walking.
It wasn’t long before I felt a sticky spiderweb all over my face–yuck!–and a black spider in my hair.
I never saw it coming.
I walked smack-dab in the middle of it.
Finding another stick, I had an aha moment.
All spiderwebs begin the same way–
With a barely visible thread.
Then the spider spins her web and sets the trap.
Soon her unsuspecting prey is gobbled up.
The same way one tiny thought can spin a web of destruction in my life.
Fear.
Envy.
Lust.
Doubt.
Bitterness.
Wrong-thinking has taken me down too many times.
Waving my stick is like guarding my mind.
“Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life.” Proverbs 4:23 CEV
Do you carry a big stick and guard your thoughts too?
Love,
Julie