TALKING
TO FLOWERS

Topics: Confession; Counsel

References: Psalm 32:8; Matthew 13:24–43

I dragged my teenage son Matt outside to help me pull weeds one sunny morning, even though he snickers when he catches me talking to my plants.

“Be careful; the weeds are so thick here you could easily uproot a flower,” I told him. “If you do, stick it back in the ground and tell it you’re sorry.”

My son sighed. “Mom,” he said, “I just weed the plants. I don’t counsel them.”

—Marsha Gubser, “Lite Fare,” Christian Reader (July–August 2000)