Andy Crouch nails it in this essay,
“We often seem incapable of seeing ourselves first as gardeners:
people whose first cultural calling is to keep good
what is, by the common grace of God, already good.
A gardener does not pull out weeds because she hates weeds;
she pulls out weeds because she loves the garden,
and because (hopefully) there are more vegetables or flowers in it than weeds.
people whose first cultural calling is to keep good
what is, by the common grace of God, already good.
A gardener does not pull out weeds because she hates weeds;
she pulls out weeds because she loves the garden,
and because (hopefully) there are more vegetables or flowers in it than weeds.
This kind of love of the garden
—loving our broken, beautiful cultures
for what they are at their best—
is the precondition, I am coming to believe,
for any serious cultural creativity or influence.
When weeds infest the garden,
the gardener does not take the opportunity
to decry the corruption of the garden as a whole.
She gets patiently, discerningly, to work
keeping the garden good.”
A Living Pencil 
So, so wise...”when weeds infest the garden, the gardener does not take the opportunity to decry the corruption of the garden as a whole”This hit me as I read your post…How often have I seen the weeds of my own actions glaring up at me and want to tear out the whole mess, including the growing, thriving parts because ridding the garden of the weeds seems overwhelming. Thanks for this prompting to consider gardening my own life more effectively. RYC: Thank you so much for your prayers/hugs! Blessings, Laurie