A Weed in My Flowers

This is what I see when I wake up in the morning and head to the deck for my private quiet time. I LOVE this time and I LOVE this place. As my daughter-in-law would say this is my "happy place!"

My routine would be to roll out of bed, put on some clothes, make my instant hazelnut coffee and oatmeal and head to the deck with my basket of quiet time essentials. Usually before sitting down I will deadhead and weed the pots. Since I do this several times a week it only takes a minute or two to get the job done. So when it's done I head to my chair to relish in the quietness and read God's word, try to soak in what it says and pray.
However I am often so surprised to sit down and look over at my flowers only to see I've missed a weed. It's amazing. I take time to purposefully "weed" them and yet when I see them from a different angle there it is, a WEED in MY flowers! :)  Can you see it?

Right there between the pretty pink and white petunias is a weed. It's been there long enough that it is even taller than the flowers and I still missed it!

I sat there and looked at it and was struck how life is a lot like that. We can do the same things on a regular basis, sometimes just going through the motions without really thinking or watching what is going on and all of the sudden you see it - a WEED! How did that distraction, interruption, issue get there? You didn't see it yesterday and today all of the sudden there is something growing taller than the rest of your life, sucking your time and attention away from the important stuff of life. I hear the words of the old song "Open the eyes of my heart Lord, Open the eyes of my heart. We want to see Jesus..."

Recently a co-worker, the person I job-share with, quit rather suddenly. That threw the schedule at work "out the window".  On top of that the physician I work had a family emergency and had to be out of the office unexpectedly now things were really chaotic at work. Without realizing it I began to take on more responsibility there. I filled in time that I wasn't originally scheduled, wrote some policies for our manager (yep we have a manager) and did a lot of public relations type work with an upset staff. While helpful, that is not my job and it took up time and energy, a lot of it. That time and energy could have been spent preparing for the ministry opportunities we have on our calendar this summer. Instead we are now under a month from teaching time and we're just really getting to the core of our lessons. Will it get done? YES! But, could it have been done easier, with more time to soak in so we really know our material well? YES!

Does this remind you of a time you got surprised by a "weed" growing in your life? I'd love to hear about it. We can all learn from each other and challenge each other to live what we learn.