Yesterday I took the girls out for a day at the park, but first we went for a walk along the Leon Creek Greenway. I brought the camera along just in case we found water so that I could photograph the girls playing in the creek. Unfortunately the water was dried up and the area it should have been in was quite stinky. As we were walking back I saw this thistle bush along the path. It got me thinking, so I turned around and took it's portrait. When I was able to put the picture on the computer and really zoom in on it I was amazed by what I saw. The flower is so very frail, almost the thickness of a tissue. The outer edges that are exposed to the elements are damaged from the briers that stab at it, turning it a shade of brown, staining it's petals. The center, the heart of the flower is filled with tiny pollen covered pieces that have covered the inner flower with it's debris.
How does this relate to me? What pokes and nags at me from the outside world? What pain and scars am I causing to my own body? Is my heart clean and pure or am I letting it taint my mind? Am I letting the negativity, and doom and gloom of the world get to me and stain who I am? When I, this thistle, look around me do I see the huge tower of pain that I sit at the top of, or can I look around me and see the beauty that surrounds me? What do you see in your life, the moment, or eternity? Where is your focus? Could this flower be the person that is always in pain and so they come across as cold and prickly but really they are fragile and beautiful, something God created perfectly? Or could it be the person that tries to hide behind their beauty but are truly cold and prickly underneath?
Do we notice the beauty in the trials of our every day, or do we focus on the pain of the situation? We hear people asking "If there is a God why does he let so much bad happen?" But then you see things like this. Beauty in the brambles, a pinpoint of light in the darkness, something bad that had to happen for something amazing to come to be. God provides us with these little reminders in our day to "Stop and smell the roses." Although I wouldn't recommend smelling the prickly ones.
An innocent child will notice the beauty and pick the flower so that they can carry it with them and enjoy every minute of it. As an adult tainted by years of knowledge we know that if we pick that flower it's life will soon be over, so we tend to discourage the picking of flowers. But just this day I said okay. You may pick all the flowers that you want to pick, enjoy them and make a beautiful bouquet. Then I looked beside her and saw one that God and already created.
We enjoyed the beauty that was all around us, taking in the smells of the wild flowers.
This walk showed me that no matter what ugly thing is in my life there is something so much more beautiful beside it. All I need to do is open my eyes and see it. I pray you will do the same!
From now on I will try to remember to see the beauty despite my pain. I will focus more on the beauty than the things that annoy me. I will focus my attention on the things that are good, and pure and genuine as I am instructed in Philippians 4:8 whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is
any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Do we notice the beauty in the trials of our every day, or do we focus on the pain of the situation? We hear people asking "If there is a God why does he let so much bad happen?" But then you see things like this. Beauty in the brambles, a pinpoint of light in the darkness, something bad that had to happen for something amazing to come to be. God provides us with these little reminders in our day to "Stop and smell the roses." Although I wouldn't recommend smelling the prickly ones.
An innocent child will notice the beauty and pick the flower so that they can carry it with them and enjoy every minute of it. As an adult tainted by years of knowledge we know that if we pick that flower it's life will soon be over, so we tend to discourage the picking of flowers. But just this day I said okay. You may pick all the flowers that you want to pick, enjoy them and make a beautiful bouquet. Then I looked beside her and saw one that God and already created.
We enjoyed the beauty that was all around us, taking in the smells of the wild flowers. 
