Just flowers

It was on my mind during work, on the way home, cooking dinner. The most beautiful carpet that God's nature sows. Full soft purple mats of flowers singing the song announcing spring. And intertwined with this beauty,a noxious weed that I don't know the name of but am all too familiar with. For each spring, bursting forth among this gorgeous phlox carpet are thousands of sprigs of the nasty stuff. My daughter thought they were seedlings of phlox. The twirling, clinging fingerlings of the weed wrap around the plox and choke it, mimicking the flower but only for a brief time. For the weed will choke the flower, then wilt quickly in the sun and heat of the summer. Its roots barely touch the earth and it cannot cling to life with even the faintest hint of drought or overwatering or blistering sun or even dog paws running across it. And yet it continues to strive to strangle the phlox, whose roots are deeper, stronger, inter-connected, who faithfully carpets the floor of the garden with its beauty and fragrance; a gift to everyone and everything around it. Why do I tolerate these toxic weeds that are so opposed to the true flowers? Why do I let them have their season to drop their seeds to continue their battle against the phlox? Why do I let "little" sins choke out the truth and beauty of the Holy Spirit? Why do I allow bitterness and unforgiveness to drop their seeds in our family? Let me go get my garden gloves.........