BITTERWEEDS

Written by Luz Leigh

23 September 2007

      Growing up in east Texas, I learned early in life that the weed that we called “bitterweed” was not something we wanted growing in the pasture. Especially in the pasture where the family milk cow would be grazing. I can still remember my grandmother chastising my uncle who was in charge of the milk cows, “Jesse, I told you to watch for the bitterweeds. This milk ain’t fit for drinking.”

      According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, one definition of the word bitterweed states that it is “an erect composite herb of the southwestern U.S. that has yellow terminal flowerheads and is poisonous to livestock.” This sounds like the weed to which I have been referring, except I never knew it to be poisonous to livestock. Well, I suppose it was poisonous, just not fatal.

      If the milk cow (proper term is milch cow, but folks think I have misspelled the word when I use it), happened to graze on the bitterweed, the milk would have a distinctive bitter taste. As a kid, we drank milk at meal time, but when it was bitter, I just could not stand the taste. During the height of the bitterweed season, the hogs got more than their fair share of the milk.

      When one looked out over the pasture when the bitterweed was in full bloom, it was a pretty sight. Just a sea of yellow blossoms on the dark green foliage of the plant. I only remember them as being maybe eighteen inches tall at the height of their growing season which I thought was in the spring. But this week I noticed a couple of the weeds growing at the side of my driveway. Maybe their growing season was in the fall. Or maybe these are just some renegade weeds that have chosen to bloom now.

      For those who have read enough of my writings, you are probably thinking ahead to what I am leading up to. No matter how pretty the “sea of yellow” was, that did not keep the milk from being almost unusable. So it is with sins in our lives. They look so inviting….so pretty from a distance, but once we have tasted them, we get an entirely different picture. The acrid taste of the bitterweed would make you shudder as you took that first sip of milk from the cow that had partaken of the weed. 

      Sin can leave a bitter taste in our mouth (life). As with the weed, sin must be avoided at all costs. Most of the time we see the sin before we have “tasted” it. Stay alert to the “bitterweeds of sin” that tempt us. Spew it from your mouth (life) and seek out some refreshing water in its place. Refreshing water can come from Bible study, church attendance, fellowship with Christians and prayer to our Father. Just as the rancher mows down the bitterwood in his pasture, so the Father can “mow” down sin in our lives if we open our hearts to him.