Furry Faith...Found Are you looking for flowers or weeds?
My brother and I are great friends. But we have had a small amount of mutual competition about some areas of our lives.
Case in point, our gardens.
While my boys and I were visiting my brother’s family one afternoon, we all walked out to look at his garden. Immediately I noticed that although the weeds between each row had been plowed, there were weeds around each plant that would need to be pulled by hand.
I almost pointed the weeds out to him, but since I hadn’t seen him in a month, I decided to wait a few minutes before offering my criticism.
We began our tour of the garden. And as we reached the row of sugar-snap peas, one of the children noticed the vines were loaded with pea pods just right for picking.
After wiping a couple on our shirt sleeves, we tentatively took our first bite. Were they bitter and tough or sweet, crisp and juicy?
They were delicious!
As I savored the crunchy sweetness of that delicious yet healthy sugar-snap, I suddenly felt ashamed.
Why am I so quick to notice and point out the weeds in other’s gardens instead of looking for fruit? The whole point of a garden is not to be weed-free but to produce fruit.
In life, I find similar circumstances. All too often, I am so busy focusing on the weeds I see in a friend’s life, that I miss the fact that their vines are loaded with good things like kindness, patience and generosity.
I’ve learned that we usually find what we are looking for.
After that moment in my brother’s garden, I made a conscious effort to notice and enjoy the positive fruit in the lives of my friends and family.
Instead of pointing to the weeds, it’s better to point to the fruit, which in turn will make our friendships and our community a positive place to grow.
