Friends are like flowers:

They only grow in good, well prepared and cared for soil.
They have to be planted, watered, fertilized, and nurtured in good measure.
We take great joy in watching them grow, and finally bloom after much toil.
When they bloom they are beautiful to behold and bring us great pleasure.

 

Some are annuals, and so they are only with us for a short season.
Others are perennials and keep coming back year after year, as is our prayer.
Some are wild flowers and are always there, without us knowing the reason.
They can be easily hurt and damaged if we don’t handle them with care.

 

In fact, some have thorns and can hurt us, if we handle them the wrong way.
Sometimes we selfishly pick them and use them to try to win prizes.
When we treat them like this, they only live a short while and then go away.
They are each unique and come in many different colors, shapes and sizes.

 

Friends are a great treasure and are to be highly prized and sought after.
God tells us to love our friends as much as we do ourselves.
If we do as he says, we can be sure of where we will spend the hereafter!

Enemies are like weeds:

They grow almost anywhere, even in poor, rocky soil.
They plant themselves, most often just where we don’t want them to be.
They put down deep roots, and often can’t be controlled even with great toil.
We pull them up by the roots, but a small piece remains, so back they come you see.

 

We spray them with poison, but it only seems to give them more gusto.
They seem to laugh and take pleasure at our vain efforts to follow current trends.
They creep, they climb, they shoot up into the air; they do seem to irritate us so.
Some even grow flowers to try to fool us into thinking that they are our friends.

 

Many have thorns and poisons designed to cause us enduring suffering and pain.
In our efforts to control them we only end up with itchy bumps and rises.
No matter what we do to them we can’t seem to stop this steam rolling train.
Like our lovely flowers, they come in many different colors, shapes and sizes.

 

They are so varied and strong; our efforts seem fruitless when dealing with weeds.
But God gave us the answer when he said to love and pray for our enemies.
Love and prayer are God’s perfect prescription for controlling their seeds!