Last evening, while my son Aidan was playing in the sandbox, I sat looking at a wildflower patch that I had planted a couple of years ago by our back door.  I have walked by this patch of beautiful flowers hundreds of times.  At a glance, I have always enjoyed their beauty.  But, last evening, I took a longer look and did not like what I saw.

Weeds!  In the middle of this beautul patch.  Weeds!  So, I began to pull these weeds.  Carefully.  But, not careful enough.  You see, pulling weeds in the middle of beautiful flowers means you will sometimes pull the pretty with the ugly.

Glancing over our lives we too can tend to overlook the weeds that have spouted up without our knowing.  As I pulled these weeds and flowers together, I began to remember the parable of the wheat and tares as told by Jesus in God's Holy Book, the Bible, in the New Testament book of Matthew, chapter 13.

Not only can this happen in our personal lives, it can also happen in our families.  The companies we work for.  Our communities.  Our government.  Good seeds can be overcome by weeds, if overlooked and allowed to continue their goal of overtaking your garden.  Or workplace.  Or school.  Or government.

How do we overlook these weeds?  Maybe we overlook them because, at first, they look like any other flower?  They look green and can even be pretty.  In glancing at them, they look to have the hope of something good.  Unfortunatly, these weeds can take over your garden and eventually steal the much needed nutrients and water from the soil.  Flowers die.  The fruit of the vine shrivers.  Production is halted ... except for these weeds.

It is a good thing to stop, sit down, and look at our lives, our families, our schools, our workplace, and our government, to see if weeds have sprouted up in the middle of what we were trying to accomplish.  Remember, weeds drink the same water as the flowers.  Looking closely at those around us, we may see a few weeds that need to be removed, as they are threatening the growth of your garden.

As Jesus told His disciples, "The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares (weeds) are the sons of the wicked one."

What kind of weeds have slowly invaded your garden?  Evil thoughts?  Sin?  Situation ethics?  People who proclaim good, but are actually weeds? 

Maybe it is time to take a closer look at your garden?