The Honeysuckle Vines

Honeysuckle

THE HONEYSUCKLE VINE

We kids loved to play around in our yard. Our mama had a variety of flowers and plants.

We had a rose bush right outside the back door that we called the Edward rosebush named for our little brother. With tiny red roses and thousands of tiny sharp thorns, it was hazardous, but we learned how to get close enough to pick the tiny rose. Pulling each little petal, we licked our little fingernails and put the petal on, to pretend our fingernails were painted red.

The clover was all around the yard, soft and sweet, so we lay in the yard going through the clover, looking for that lucky four-leaf clover. We picked the white flowers from the clover, split the stem, and linked them together to make a necklace.

Mother had honeysuckle vines too. I think she probably planted it on purpose, but soon found that it tried to take over the fence row. I can remember her working in the heat of the summer trying to chop out the honeysuckle to keep it from breaking down the fence. Once the honeysuckle took over, it tended to kill out the bush it was growing on.

We kids loved the honeysuckle too. We picked the little flower and sucked the nectar out of the neck of the flower, and sometimes wondered why Mama was working so hard to get rid of such a pretty flowering vine.
 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,  choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.” Hebrews 11:24-25 NKJV. Yes, sin does have pleasure for a season, but after a while sin breaks everything down and then kills.

When we make the choice that Moses made, we will become the person God intends for us to be. Moses first refused to enjoy the pleasures of sin and then he chose to join the people of God as their deliverer, even if it meant giving up all the things he could have had in Egypt.

What a good way to live. Refusing sin and choosing to follow God.