HONEYSUCKLE IN THE PINES – Slow Choking Beauty

Driving along the road to home this morning I noticed an evergreen in someone’s front yard. It caught my attention because laced throughout the branches all the way to the top was honeysuckle. The soft yellow and white petals against the dark green boughs made for a stunning spring sight. I bet those flowers scent the whole yard. Honeysuckle has such a subtle but alluring smell and it hangs in the air with a fragrance that speaks of the coming of summer.

Honeysuckle is also an invasive plant. The vines will creep into a garden or up a tree and lace itself through with those pretty flowers and wonderful fragrance and no one will even notices as the original plant withers and dies away while the vine chokes the life out of it. The pine in the front yard looks beautiful draped with the lovely flowers. If the owners do not take time to pull the vines out of the branches, though, the tree will eventually die as the vines tighten and overcome the limbs and even the trunk.

I have “honeysuckle” in my days right now. You probably do also. You know, those things in our days that seem sweet and are enjoyable, but if we don’t keep control of them they become vines that strangle the life out of our day. Yesterday, I had one phone call after another. They were friendly calls from people “checking in”. They were enjoyable and sweet, but I spent more time chatting on the phone than I did doing house chores or writing. Every call was a twenty minute conversation and that took time away from the things I needed to do. At the end of the day, I still had several things on my list that should have been crossed off. Things like my time to exercise, getting my Bible study completed for the day, getting the kitchen sprayed for ants, and finishing the laundry for the week. Those calls were wonderful; losing the time to accomplish necessary and needed things was not.

Being able to enjoy the sweet smell and discover the beauty of a pleasant thing that comes into our life is not a bad thing. I can enjoy the honeysuckle in my yard if I desire to leave it. The key is to control it and not allow it to control my yard. That allows me to enjoy the garden I want and planned. In the same way, enjoying those sweet and pleasant things that wind their way into our day is a good thing. I can enjoy the phone calls and other honeysuckle vines if I choose to. The key is to control them and not allow them to control my day. So today, phone calls are given a time limit and then I excuse myself from the call. I have flowers to plant, ants to spray, and some laundry to finish. So excuse me now; I need to run. Prov. 6:6-11.