From my vantage point in the middle of our backyard pool on these warm autumn mornings, I have been able to see, think, reflect and learn valuable lessons as I thrash about doing water aerobics. The water is still warm enough to tolerate, and the sky is the kind of blue that you only seem to see in the fall. It is peaceful, with only birds and butterflies around to keep me company.  Bliss.

My personal Silver Fox Gardener does a beautiful job of weeding, mowing, spraying for Japanese beetles, deheading the spent daylilies and pondering what he will plant next.  This man LOVES the outdoors and looks forward to perspiration.  He is blessed to have NO seasonal allergies.  I plan and prepare meals and do the laundry in the nice, air-conditioned house.  He maintains the yard.  We both write.  It works for us.

Yesterday while I was exercising in the water, I spotted a couple of plants that were in the wrong place, in spite of Steve’s very best efforts.  A very hearty dandelion WEED pushed past the fence and thrived in a hard-to-reach patch of earth where it was receiving plenty of water and sunshine.  Beside the foundation of the house, all alone amid the mulch where nothing had actually been planted, grew a perfect white impatien.  Only nature could have orchestrated the circumstances for its existence.  In both cases, the plants had been persistent in order to grow.

Dandelion weed thriving where it isn’t wanted.

White impatien growing alone where no one planted it.

First, that weed caused me to evaluate persistent SINS in my life — the ones that keep cropping up in spite of my repeated efforts to repent and get them out of my life.  Way too many times, the sins are more persistent than I am, and they crop up at the worst possible times causing me to stumble, even “crashing and burning” in my weakest moments.  I won’t confess them to you, but several immediately sprang to my mind.  Just as that dandelion needs and deserves to be pulled up vigorously and kicked to the curb, so do my very unsightly and pesky sins.

But then, there was that perfect flower.  What a picture of what I want to be!  I want to bring beauty and joy and life to those I meet — maybe even unexpectedly at times.  When those around me are mired in weeds, I want to be the flower. Even when the odds are against me, I want to thrive.

How about you? Has this post made you remember weeds in your life? Do you want to be “the flower” to people you encounter?

James 1:12 – “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

2 Timothy 2:12 – “If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us;”

Galatians 6:9 – “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”