Beautiful Purple Flowers

We have been enjoying a very mild winter this year with unseasonable warm temperatures.  I am really hoping that an unseasonably warm winter means that we will have an unseasonably cool summer, but I'm not holding my breath on that one!

The warm temperatures have brought with them the early blooming of trees and flowers, or in our case, lots and lots of weeds.  Many of our weeds are in the form of purple flowers.  They have overtaken both our front and back yards and it is quite overwhelming thinking about trying to get a handle on them.  Cory started spraying last week and we are hoping to make a small dent in them before summer. 

Last week, the kids were out playing and I told Parker that we needed to get rid of these weeds.  He quickly protested, "Mommy, you can't get rid of these BEAUTIFUL purple flowers!".

Oh, to see things through the eyes of a child.  It sure would make life so much easier if we could take the weeds that God has given us and turn them into beautiful flowers.  I've really been struggling lately with taking my biggest weed (MS) and finding the beauty in it.  Everywhere I look it seems that this weed is taking over another area of my life.  It is so unpredictable and you just never know what the next day will bring. 

Cory and I are really trying to work together and figure out how to work with MS in our lives rather than fight it, but some days it is just so hard.  I want so badly to go back to the way things used to be, back when we took so many things for granted.  I'm grieving what we've lost, things that we will never get back, and trying to accept our new "normal" with a smile on my face.  I'm not always good at it- there have been many tears- but the one thing that I know will never change is that God will always be right there, fighting alongside with me, giving me strength when I truly feel I can not battle this one more day.

I still see MS as a weed, but I pray that in time, I will be able to see it as one of the beautiful purple flowers in my life.  Until then, I will face each new day with the hope that one day there will be a cure for all of those courageous men and women who are battling this life changing disease.  What a wonderful day that will be!