What do naysayers, toxic people, and insensitive people have in common with weeds?

Answer: They choke the life out of living things.

“Just make her comfortable,” the cold, emotionless doctor said to us in front of my 83 year old step-mom after giving her only about 5 minutes of his time. “She won’t get any better you know. She’ll never be like she used to be.  She’s got kidney problems and her heart is operating only at 10%.  I don’t know what you expect me to do.”

He didn’t even look or speak directly to her, instead focused his remarks to my sister and I.  I looked over at my step mom and watched as her spirit dropped.  She looked so sad… and hopeless!

You see, she still believed whatever the doctors told her.  For the next few days she barely ate.  This culminated into a trip to the emergency room two days before her 84^th birthday. We tried to cheer her up while waiting for the test results by talking about her birthday to come.  “If I make it,” she replied doubtfully.  “Of course you’ll make it,” I said encouragingly.

The emergency room doctor was different.  He told her she would be fine and that she could go home.  “Everything looks good,” he said cheerfully.  “Nothing has changed from your earlier records.  You haven’t gotten any better, but you haven’t gotten any worse.” He patted her on her shoulders attentively while looking directly at her and said, “Take care of yourself now.” She smiled happily and said, “I will!”

Now her heart was still functioning at 10%.  She still had a bad cold and she is still on dialysis.  But, she perked up.  It was all in the presentation.  This doctor seemed to care.  She now had hope.  We celebrated her 84th birthday on May 24, 2010.  She made it!

The following timeless quote of John Maxwell reinforces the importance of caring, “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

We’re talking about a human life here.  And hope is just as important for dreamers with vision.  Haven’t we been told that without a vision, the people perish?   Vision and hope keep people going.  They keep people alive.  They keep the seeds of your dreams alive.  Seeds are your ideas, dreams, or wishes that spark a desire in you to act and give you hope, purpose, and joy.  Weeds are the people in your life that purposefully or unknowingly douse the fire of your dreams.  Protect your dreams, for they only have you to depend on.

In conclusion, I’d like to end with some words from one of Yolanda Adam’s songs, Don’t Give Up. “Keep the dream alive don’t let it die.  If something deep inside keeps inspiring you to try, don’t stop.  And never give up.  Don’t ever give up on you.  No, don’t give up!”