Don’t pray or meditate as a duty. Realize that prayer is a visit with God and should be joyous.
Neither must you pursue your secular activities as necessary duties to be gotten over, that you may return to your prayer. In the light of Truth, there are no secular activities.
You must have regular recreation or you will become stale. Recreation, also, is to be enjoyed – as an expression of God – and not as a task to prepare yourself to pray better. An understanding joy in living is the highest prayer of all.
…in thy presence is fullness of joy… (Psalm 16:11).
Just think about that; joy is the highest form of prayer and communion with God. Anything that separates us from joy therefore blocks our communion with God. Yes, we get hurt, get sick and ultimately die. Yes, we get thrown bad deals and unbearable pain from senseless tragedies. And, yes, we get down, grumpy, frustrated, angry and can feel alienated, ashamed or unworthy. Yet through all the travails of human existence, we are consistently instructed by our faith to be glad and joyful in life.
One gateway to that joyful life is through gratitude. We are to “be grateful in all things”. That is a tall order. But a grateful heart combined with daily forgiveness for those who hurt us, provides us a compass to find our path to joy, regardless. So, when we pray, recreate, work and live, let us be ever-mindful of our blessings and forgiving of others so that we may walk in the fullness of joy, surrounded by the garden created just for us.
Gratefully,
Stan
Good Morning Garden 
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