Thoughts and Cherry Trees

                                

A friend of a clergy brother of mine - Joy Corey - wrote a book entitled The Tools of Spiritual Warfare.  I was reminded recently of a passage in this book that explains why it is important to rid ourselves of sinful thoughts before they actually have time to settle in our heads.  Seeing as I came across this book on my shelves recently, I thought I would pass along the passage in mind:

However, it is much easier if we catch the passionate thought while it is still just a thought. [The previous paragraph spoke about how passions can take stir up our emotions and become very difficult to defeat - Averky] It is like pulling weeds.  I have a neighbor who has wild cherry trees that spring up around her house. The birds pick the wild cherries from around the neighborhood and drop the seeds everywhere. In the spring, the little cherry trees sprout up. If she gets out and pulls them up in the spring, she can do it easily with two fingers; but if she lets them grow through the summer, she has to grab them with two hands and pull with all her might. If she lets them grow a whole year, she needs a shovel to dig them out. Fighting against passionate thoughts is the same. We cannot stop the seeds of sin from landing in our minds (the demons are like birds, dropping seeds of sin everywhere). But we can pay attention, and as soon as an inappropriate thought comes to our mind, we can immediately call our to God for help and the thought flees with very little effort: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner.' But if we let the thought linger, it becomes more and more difficult - and sometimes more and more painful - to expel it." (126-127)