A very large bunch of weeds fills a vase on my kitchen table tonight. When I took my littles to a park the other day, the two oldest came running up to me with their hands overflowing with these WEEDS.
"Momma, look what we found growing all over?! FLOWERS!!! We picked some for you and some for Daddy!"
Momma's response: "Oh, how lovely! Thank you! Why don't you keep them for me?" (What mother hasn't tried this one before? :))
"Oh, no, Momma! They're too beautiful! You HAVE to take them home and put them in a vase so we can show Daddy!!! Here. Hold them for us."
And with that, I was left sitting with my lap OVERFLOWING with
I never did have the heart to tell them the truth.
That it's really a vase full of WEEDS.
But you know what? Sometimes we grown-ups try too hard. We're almost LOOKING for the weeds. When life hits us, as it so often does, we're expecting weeds, we see the weeds, we GET weeds. The baby cries for the 100th time today, and we see weeds. Older child won't pay attention in school, and we see weeds. Husband doesn't react the way WE think he should, and there are those ugly old weeds again. Friends let us down, family disappoints us, and all we can see is the weeds.
One by one, the trials of life (whether big or small) come our way, and instead of embracing gratefulness, instead of thanking God for loving us enough to allow us to be tested, instead of LOOKING FOR THE GOOD and counting our sweet blessings, we're too busy with our head in the weeds.
This week, I learned a lesson from the vase of weeds on my kitchen table. I'm determined, by God's grace, to see the flowers in life....
When the laundry must be folded, I'm using the time to pray for each person as I fold their clothes.
When the messy areas in my home encompass more floor space than the clean areas, I'm praising the Lord there are children to make the messes.
When the pressures of life (money, job, family, friends, ministries) seem to overwhelm me, and I feel I can't do it ALL......I'm looking for the flowers.
We got home from the park that day, and the littles ran off to play outside. A few minutes later, they ran into the house with some GREAT news:
"Momma, you'll NEVER guess!! We have tons of those same BEAUTIFUL flowers IN OUR OWN YARD!!!"
Yep, I'll be seeing the
