Greener Grass

      The lawn is starting to grow again and while looking around the neighborhood, the yard just did not look as green as the neighbors yards.  I called the landscaper and he came out, applied some weed-killer and some fertilizer, to help jump start the natural look of the yard.  He also left special instruction on what to do weekly to ensure its growth and beauty.

      Years ago while working many hours every day, my wife was complaining (concerned) about how much greener the grass was across the street than ours.  I had always heard the statement, “The grass is always greener on the other side,” so I decided to see if the statement was true.  So I took a walk down and across the street and looked back at my yard.  To my surprise, my yard looked better than the yards of my neighbors.  I could hardly wait to take my wife for a walk that evening.  Of course, I would never tell her that my intention was to stop and look around at the beauty of the neighborhood yards and especially ours.        

      I heard the story of one driving by a large parcel of land with a wooden fence all around the property.  He could not help but notice how beautiful the green grass was on the land.  However, there was something strange about the setting.  Two horses had managed to stick their heads out of small openings in the fence grazing on grass outside.  They too, must have thought the grass was greener on the other side.

      This seems to be a natural tendency to compare what we have to those around us.  Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but the statement, “the grass is always greener on the other side,” should be the exception and not the rule.  Concentrating on what is on the other side of the street will often cause us to live in another world where life is no longer anything but a dream.  There is nothing wrong with dreaming but we must walk through reality to reach that dream. 

       We often think to ourselves, “If I only had this, or if I only had that, life would be better.”  It is like the horse that strains his head through the fence in an effort to graze somewhere else. We think the “grass is always greener on the other side.” The result of such activities is that the peace and grace of God is diminished from our soul and life is pulled right out of us.

      Perhaps it is time to stop looking across the street and stop straining our head through the fence in an effort to graze somewhere else.  As a child living in Kentucky, we had a large family and our yard was our playground.  There was not much grass but we had the cleanest dirt around.  I still remember hearing that familiar voice of my mother saying, “Go out and sweep the yard.”  The Scripture tells us is Psalms 23, “God, my shepherd!  I don’t need a thing.  You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.  True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction” Message Bible.  God has a plan for us and we may not have grass in our own yard but we can have the most beautiful dirt in the neighborhood.

      The grass is not always greener on the other side!