Picking Flowers and Leaving the Weeds

Because someone cared enough to show concern…

I’m a reader. I always have been. Growing up, I spent endless hours with my nose in a book. I remember when I was about eight years old, my mom dug out a few of her old books. I started with the Bobbsey Twins, and then jumped into the Nancy Drew books. I was hooked. I collected and read every single Nancy Drew book written from #1 to #78. I remember going to flea markets with my parents and searching out inexpensive copies. When we found one or two for $.50 to $1.00 I thought we had found treasure, because $3.50 for new at the bookstore was a bit pricey for a collection that large.

I still read, though I have to limit my fiction reading to only a few times per year. I can get so engrossed in a novel that I ignore everyone around me and get annoyed when interrupted. That was fine as a pre-teen with little responsibility, but that is no way to behave as a wife and mom.

These days I spend most of my reading time with Christian non-fiction, and blogs on the internet. Actually most of what I read would fall into the category of hope giving. I like to fill my mind with the good stuff – words that build my faith and encourage my walk with the Lord.

I think I have a pretty solid grasp of the Word to recognize truth from falsehood, at least most of the time. And I am careful to stick primarily with authors and writers that teach sound doctrine.

Do I agree with everything written by every author or blogger I read? Certainly not.

I seek to read everything with discernment and I pick the flowers and leave the weeds.

There are times when I may choose to read a weedy book to become knowledgeable on a current trend; however, I am careful to not recommend these out of concern that a young believer who lacks the knowledge to have discernment would stumble in their faith. With any influence that God may choose to give me in this space, I can think of little else that would upset me more than to cause another to stumble.

So, while I may not agree with everything written, the books and bloggers that I recommend on my blog offer a lot of beautiful flowers. Many more flowers than weeds.

If you spot something that you think is a weed, I just might agree! And if you’re not sure if something is a weed, just ask! And we’ll try to figure it out together. {And if I get stuck, I’ll lean on my man. Have I ever told you what a botany geek he is? And he’s a pretty good Bible geek, too! 🙂 } And when we do find the weeds, we’ll let them be.

Only the flowers are worth picking.

In hope,
Shelli