They Must Be Rich: Seeing the Dandelions for the Flowers

Earlier this year, I was walking in our neighborhood with my niece. who is 5 years old. We walked by several houses, some of which had beautiful flowers in flower beds. Others had dandelions and morning glory growing in their lawns. My niece admired the lawns.

Her Flower Attitude

Before long, my niece said, “Can you believe that some people think that dandelions are weeds? They are beautiful flowers.”

She then admired every lawn that had dandelions and/or morning glory growing in it. Seeing her attitude made me think about how dandelions might look appealing and even beautiful to a child.

As we came to a lawn that was more dandelions and morning glory than grass, my niece pointed to the lawn and said, “They must be rich.”

She did this several times. Instead of seeing these lawns as being overcome by weeds, my niece saw them as beautiful. She figured if people could have that many flowers, they must have a lot of money. I definitely didn’t see the lawns the same way as my niece saw them.

Are We Seeing the Weeds or the Flowers?

Sometimes we see people and we judge them right away. Maybe, they look a little dirty, or they don’t seem to be dressed appropriately for the situation. Perhaps, they don’t act the way that we think they should act, or they say something that we don’t like. We may see them as weeds, people we don’t want in our lives.

Instead of being so quick to judge people, assuming that they are the weeds of the world, let’s be better about seeing the good in others. See the flowers instead of the weeds around us. After all, none of us are perfect.

Instead of focusing on how she smells a bit like body odor because she doesn’t bathe often enough, think about how she’s the first to volunteer to help others. Instead of judging him because a swear word slips out once in a while, focus on how he gives a pure testimony every fast Sunday and how he gave up a lot to join the church.

Think of how much better and less judgmental our world would be if we could all see the dandelions and morning glory people of the world as flowers rather than weeds. I know that I’m not perfect, and I’m sure people judge me for that. If we expect others to not judge us, we need to offer them the same treatment.