Weeds are vain plants.

Weeds take on many different faces: flowering dandelions, creeping crabgrass, lambsquarter, mint. There are around 8,000 plants that are considered to be weeds.

While most people don’t think of weeds as having any value, they often do.

Dandelions, for example, are completely edible. They are so full of antioxidants that they make a prolific medicine for all sorts of aliments.

Lambsquarter leaves can be chewed into a poultice for skin ailments like sunburn and insect bites.

Hearty crabgrass survives winter cold and desert heat with little water and because of this, it is a replenishing food source for livestock and a faithful ground cover for homeowners.

Mint offers a remedy for cold symptoms with its unique ability to open the nasal passages.

Weeds do have value. The problem with them is their vanity, so to speak. Their benefits are often completely overlooked because of their bulldozing selfishness. They relentlessly push other plants out of their way, hogging sunlight, devouring nutrition, stunting and starving surrounding plants.

We don’t want to be human weeds. Preoccupation with our own lives can leave those near us hungry for encouragement, for our listening ear, for our positive perspective, for our prayers. Let us pray to be medicine, nutrition, and life-giving support for others.