Part One: 
I started writing this and it just kept getting longer and longer, so I’m going to divide it up into three parts.
I got my love for a beautiful yard from my dad and Grandma Campbell. My dad took yard work to a whole new level. In the summers when my sister and I were old enough to stay home by ourselves, we had a chore list every morning that had to be completed before we could go down the street and play. It was very common for this list to include picking a sack full of weeds. Thus began my disdain for dandelions. To this day, if I see a dandelion blooming in my yard, I quickly pluck the bloom or seed plume off to make sure I don’t end up with 100s more.
It was just this week when I was visiting a principal that I noticed a bundle of dandelions wrapped in a damp paper towel lying on her desk. They were clearly a gift from a student. It is obvious this kind-hearted student does not view dandelions the same way I do. It is all a matter of perspective or personal point of view. As I drove back to the office, I had three different thoughts concerning dandelions.
Thought number one, how do you view those around you? Do you look at the people in your life and see flowers or weeds? It is so easy to quickly see others as weeds. I once worked with a lady, aka Sally, that talked all of the time. I would catch myself stewing over how much talking she was doing and wondering how she ever got any work done. I felt that way until we did a stakeholder survey. The comments on the survey over and over again mentioned how friendly and welcoming our office was. Why? because Sally talked to everyone that came through the door and made them feel comfortable. This same action that was driving me crazy, was really what made our office a welcoming place. It was all how I chose to view it – weed or flower.
What about you? How do you view that co-worker who gets on your very last nerve, takes credit for everything, does nothing, or gossips and keeps drama stirred up all the time. Maybe there is a flower there that is perceived as a weed.
Even more importantly, what about your family? As a semi-perfectionist, I often only see what is wrong. I will notice (even obsess over) the shoes that are left out before I give any thought to the kind words that were spoken that morning.
Luke 7:36 begins with a sinful woman hearing that Jesus is having dinner with a Pharisee. She goes to the house and begins to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears and then anoints His feet with oil. The Pharisee immediately saw this woman as a weed. She was a sinner, she had wasted an expensive oil. While there are multiple points to this story such as forgiveness. The point I want to make is Jesus looked past the “weediness” of the woman and saw her as a flower. I will admit I often take the path of the Pharisee and get preoccupied with the faults of others. It takes a conscious effort to look for the flower in everyone.
What you see or think is what you will get. Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it.” If you think of those in your life as weeds, you will treat them as weed. It is what you are putting in your heart. Your family and friends deserve better. We need to be like the child who picked dandelions for her principal. We need to look for the flower in those around us.
View From My Shoes 
Words to water and grow. True flowers
Loved this
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Loved this in so many ways!
❤
Dayna
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