In the cool early morning hours of spring, you can often find me in my flower gardens—weeding. One particular morning, I was thanking the Lord for my lovely phlox bloom when I noticed… oh! those awful weeds poking through the tops of the flowers! I reached down deep to find the roots of those weeds when my 15-year-old son came to mind. On my knees already, I began praying for him. Now why, I thought to myself, did the Lord bring this particular child to mind? Return to the Table of Contents
Ah! I had been dealing with a certain issue in this son’s life for a few years. That’s when I noticed that the weeds that were popping up were not really “weeds” but rather a “weed” with one root. Metaphorically, that one-root weed represented the one issue I was dealing with in my son’s life. “But,” the Lord gently spoke (not audibly) to my heart, “look at the beauty of that phlox. That’s a representation of your son’s life too. Tell him about the beauty you see in his life.”
After lunch, I asked my precious teen to join me outside for a few minutes. I took him to the phlox and spoke these words to him, “Darlin’, I know I can be hard on you sometimes when I see weeds popping up in your life. But, you know, I was praying for you here by the phlox this morning.” “Why?” “Because the Lord brought you to mind so I could show you a picture of your life and encourage you. Do you see those weeds sticking out of the phlox?” “Yeah.” “Sometimes I see those yucky weeds in your life and that’s all I address.” I bent down and pulled one weed out by the roots and tossed it. “Your life looks very much like this beautiful phlox to me.” Crying, I kissed him. “Today I want you to know that I see beauty in your life too, and your life is very much like this beautiful phlox to me.” I hugged him and named his beautiful qualities one by one.
Return to the Table of Contents Later as I shared this simple event with my 19-year-old daughter, she encouraged me, “You know, Mom, it’s important to encourage for no reason. It wasn’t like you were dealing with an issue in his life and then decided to encourage. You just obeyed God at that moment and encouraged for no reason. I love you!” Thank You for the visual metaphors of life through which you speak to us if we have ears to hear.
and the building up of one another. ~Romans 14:19
Other articles for the Christian woman in this series:
Return to the top of this Christian woman article Return to Spiritual Growth Articles Page
|
