April 29, 2009
On April 24th, I remember looking outside and seeing the first dandelions of the season in my yard. I have been thinking about them since then. They look like bright yellow flowers, but are in fact weeds. As I set out to cut our grass on Saturday, I noticed lots of them while I was on the riding lawn mower. For some reason, I was running over them but many were not being cut down by the blades. I thought maybe I was going too fast over them, but even when I would slow down, some would still survive the blade. We think of a nicely manicured lawn to be trimmed green grass, free of these weeds. I thought back to last year. My niece, Olivia, is 6 years old now. She is such a sweet little girl, and God continues to use her to teach me things. Last year, Olivia was devastated when Tommy was going out to cut the grass. Looking out over a yard full of dandelions, she did not want her daddy to go out and cut all of the flowers down. He explained to her that they would grow back, but to her, these weeds were beautiful flowers. The other day, my mom took her to the park, and again, when she saw all of the dandelions in the field she said "Wow Grandma, that would be a great place to pick flowers!". I guess that it all depends on the eyes through which things are seen. To most, they are annoying weeds. But to Olivia, they are something beautiful. I can learn a thing or two about my own situation because of this. It all depends on how I see it. I may see my situation as weeds, but God is trying to show me that there can be beautiful flowers in place of weeds it if I am willing too see it with a different perspective.