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Archive for April, 2012

A Smile Is An Investment

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Most people feel intuitively that the simplest things in life are the most important, or, if you prefer, that the most important things in life are found to be the simplest. This is a very profound discovery. What is more important to us than breathing, for instance?
 
Another simple thing that is of great moment is a smile. A smile affects your whole body from the skin right in to the skeleton, including all blood vessels, nerves, and muscles. It affects the functioning of every organ. It influences every gland. Even one smile often relaxes a number of muscles, and when the thing becomes a habit you can easily see how the effect will mount up. Last year’s smiles are paying you dividends today.
 
The effect of a smile on other people is no less remarkable. It disarms suspicion, melts away fear and anger, and brings forth the best in the other person – which best he immediately proceeds to give to you.
 
A smile is to personal contacts what oil is to machinery, and no intelligent engineer ever neglects lubrication.
 
Rejoice evermore (1 Thessalonians 5:16).
 
This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! The best way to share gladness and radiate joy is through smiling. So today, let us share our joy with ourselves and others by manifesting our love through our smiles.
 
Smile on,
Z gardener

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Foresight and Hindsight

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

When you have to make a decision or take a certain action, all that you can do is to do the best you know at that time, and if you do that you will have done your duty. In the light of after events it may turn out that you made a mistake, but that will not be your fault because you could not possibly do better that the best you know at the time.
Claim that the Christ is guiding you; and believe it, and the ultimate outcome will be favorable even if things seem to go wrong for a time.
And the Lord shall guide thee continually (Isaiah 58:11).
While the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray, God’s plans never do. They may seem at times that they have gone very wrong. If we trust God fully and keep to his commandments, all things will work for our best good.
In this week of Easter, please remember that the light of the world appeared to be extinguished by the shame of the cross. How wrong that appearance was!
So, trust God, love freely and give joyfully. It is God’s plan for us.
In God I trust,
Z gardener

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The Consecrated Life

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Of what does the consecrated life consist?
 
Your life is a consecrated one when you are ready at all times to do the will of God – when you are willing and anxious that God may be fully expressed through you, through your thoughts, words, and deeds, during every hour of the day.
 
You are not concerned with the question of results. Results belong to God.
 
Here am I; send me (Isaiah 6:8).
 
When we release the self, we open ourselves to God’s will manifesting itself through us. Our lives become sacred when God is at its center.
 
Being here to be sent,
Z gardener

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GOD’S WORK OF ART

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)           We are God’s masterpiece.
 
Over a hundred years ago, a group of fishermen were relaxing in a Scottish seaside inn. One of the men gestured widely and his arm struck the serving maid’s tea tray, sending the teapot flying into the whitewashed wall. The innkeeper surveyed the damage and sighed, “The whole wall will have to be replaced.” “Perhaps not,” offered a stranger. “Let me work with it”.
 
Having nothing to lose, the proprietor consented. The man pulled pencils, brushes, and pigment out of an art box. . . . In time an image began to emerge: a stag with a great rack of antlers. the man inscribed his signature at the bottom, paid for his meal, and left. His name: Sir Edwin Landseer, famous painter of wildlife.
 
In his hands, a mistake became a masterpiece. God’s hands do the same, over and over. He draws together the disjointed blotches in our life and renders them an expression of His love.
 

Each day Lord, give us the faith to truly believe that the mistakes we make can become miracles if we let you render them.

 

Render me,

Z gardener

 

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Praying With A Feather

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on April 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
 
Years ago many devoted preachers and Sunday School teachers were fond of telling people to “pray hard.” Well-meaning as this advice was, it was mistaken. I often tell people to pray “soft,” which of course, means gently.
 
I do this because I know that the more quietly and gently we pray, the better results we get. In prayer, as in many other activities, effort defeats itself. More than once I have said to my congregation, “Pray with a feather – not with a pickax.”
 
Always pray gently, and especially if you have a good deal of fear, or if your difficulty seems to be a very important one.
 
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee (Psalm 86:5).
 
A gentle prayer is a sign of strong faith. It is like the calm confidence of a child who quietly asks their Father for help with a project, knowing that help will come as surely as the sunrise. Granted, there are times we pray when we are not calm ourselves. In such times it is very hard to say a calm prayer. But what one will find is that when we do exert the confidence of calmness, even a chaotic environment can become peaceful when our faith conquers our fear or hurt.
 
Praying with gentleness,
Z gardener

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Shack or Palace?

Posted in Good Morning on April 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 There is no use in merely saying that everything will be all right. Thinking rightly, of course, means putting God into all your affairs and expecting him to change them. For example, if you are living in a shack it is not any good pretending that it is a palace. Cheap optimism is never spiritual. Realize that you are living in a shack, but claim the Presence of God to guide you to something better.
 
Teach me the way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path … (Psalm 27:11).
 
The first step to changing our reality is to face the truth about the good and the bad. Until we have excavated the truth from under our rationalizations and fears we are doomed to repeat those things that limit and hurt us.
 
There is no better time than Holy week to dig deep, survey our reality and visualize our best future. Then, whether we see a shack or a palace, we will see clearly and can then navigate to that abode built by God for us. The first step is to say, Teach me the way, Lord and show me the plain truth.
 
Seeing clearly,
Z gardener

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