Where the Grass Doesn’t Grow : Why I Don’t Mind One Part of Our Yard Being Trampled

We are not too particular about our yard. I’ve never seeded my lawn, and I always mow in the same pattern, which I know isn’t perfect for the grass. That said, we do try to keep our yard trimmed and we do care if it is presentable.

Well, most of it, that is.

You see, there is a small area of our yard where I’m not sure we will ever have grass. The space is only about 5 or 6 feet wide, but it contains two areas of nothing but compacted dirt. Looking across our back yard, it stands out like a sore thumb. Brown patches with no growth right in the middle of a green lawn.

But I don’t mind one bit.

Why? Because it’s where the feet of our children stomp, scrape, and trample when they are on the swing set. Countless mental images are burned into my mind where those two brown patches are, and those images are worth more to me than a perfect and lush lawn.

You may not care about your lawn very much (or even less than we do), but maybe for you it’s a favorite TV show, sporting event, flower bed, veggie garden, or something else. The kids can just ruin it for you, but you don’t mind. It’s okay to be interrupted during the game, isn’t it? That prize tomato may not grow back, but is it that important?

I don’t for a minute believe that kids should just have free reign and be able to destroy things with no consequences. But part of parenting is realizing that some things in our lives are not going to be as “perfect” or “in place” as we might like, because they just aren’t as important as our precious children.

Yes, they will get in the way at times, and our nerves are often frazzled. But that’s part of parenting.

One of these days, grass will grow in those brown spots. We will look out across that back yard and see nice, lush, green grass from the back of the house all the way to the planting beds and fence across the way. It will be beautiful.

But it won’t be the same.

God,

Thank you for the little spaces of compacted dirt where we see our children play. Help us to love them in spite of the times they cause something to not be as beautiful or nice as it could be, because they are far more valuable and beautiful.

In Jesus name,

Amen

QUESTION: What is something your children interrupt or “hurt,” but that you wouldn’t trade for anything?

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