Tend Your Garden

Each of us has a garden to tend for the Lord. Some of us have very small gardens; some of us have larger ones. Some of us are given a farm. And to some of us the Lord entrusts acres & acres of fields to tend. It's not the size of our garden that matters. The Lord only expects each of us to tend the area which we have been given. Let us do our best to look after the area we have been given.

Prayer of Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself; and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you; and I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me; and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (from Thoughts in Solitude)

Principle for Living

Principle for living: You can choose to obey God and receive His blessings, or disobey God and suffer the consequences.

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live. Deuteronomy 30:19

Do we really love God or is it just words?

"If you would know the measure of your love for God, just observe your love for your fellowman. Our compassion for others is an accurate gauge of our devotion to God." Rev. Billy Graham Let us love one another; for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.... And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God loves his brother also. 1 John 4:7,21

Whatever you did to the least of my brothers...

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me. Matthew 25:35-36.

I have read these words of Jesus many times. Each time I would question myself to see if I am doing any of these works of mercy. When I read a fleshing out of these works, it helped me to expand my understanding of ways to serve Jesus through serving others. The first are spiritual works of mercy: instructing, advising, consoling, comforting; forgiving, bearing wrongs patiently. Second are corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, burying the dead, giving to the poor. When I look at it in those ways, it helps me see what I am already doing, as well as other ways I can serve Jesus.