Good Morning Garden

True salesmanship means finding out what your customer really needs, and supplying him with it; or if you cannot furnish it yourself, advising him to go elsewhere. Such a policy will not mean loss of business. On the contrary, working in this way you may lose one order but you will get half a dozen in its place – and you will have peace of mind. Any one particular sale does not matter; it is the annual turnover that counts.

The policy, the Golden Rule, was taught by Jesus, the wisest and most practical teacher who ever lived. Salesman, treat your customer exactly as you would like him to treat you if the positions were reversed. Tell him exactly what you would like to be told about the merchandise, if you were the purchaser; and if you will do this the whole universe will cooperate to make your business career an outstanding success.

Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God: thy spirit is good… (Psalm 143:10)

Many times doing the right thing may initially appear to cause us a loss. It has been said that the good guys finish last. While this writer does not believe that, the good guys often do take a beating in the short term. Certainly, telling a client or potential client that they need to hire someone else will likely cause that client to go elsewhere for that service. However, that client will also know that they are dealing with an honest person. In my experience, that client’s respect and trust is worth more business in the long run than the initial business that was lost. A good reputation is always more valuable than one contract, especially if it was a contract for which one was ill suited. Businesses that survive over the long run do so because of their reputation and performance, not because they got one more client they could not serve.

Finishing first,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Jesus has told us that we always demonstrate our consciousness. We always demonstrate what we habitually have in our mind. What sort of mind have you? Do not let anyone else tell you, because they do not know. People who like you will think your mentality is better than it is; those who do not like you will think is worse. Just examine your conditions and see what you are demonstrating. This method is scientific and infallible.

If an automobile engineer is working out a new design for an engine, for instance, he doesn’t, say: “I wonder what Smith thinks about this. I like Smith. If Smith is against this I won’t try it.” Nor does he say, “I won’t try this idea because it comes from France.” He is impersonal and unemotional about it. He says, “ I will test it out, and decide by the results I obtain.” All that anyone can do for you is to help you change your thought. You yourself must keep it changed. No one else can think for you. “No man can save his brother’s soul or pay his brother’s debt.”

…and I will put a new spirit within you… (Ezekiel 11:19).

Self-analysis is a tricky undertaking. To be successful it requires us to be objective about ourselves. That is tough. Our ability to rationalize, aversion to discomfort and desire to feel good about ourselves tends to undermine objective introspection. However, it is an essential part of living successfully in our gardens. If we ignore the weeds and bugs in our gardens, then we can not act to remove them and ensure the health of our garden. If we ignore, rationalize and deny the bugs and weeds in our lives, then we can not admit our wrongs, seek forgiveness for them and live in a wholesome condition.

Looking in,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

About the middle of the last century, a traveler was journeying along through what was then a remote part of South Africa. One day while smoking his pipe outside the hut in a native village, he noticed a group of little naked children playing what was evidently a native version of the time honored game of marbles. He watched the game idly for a while, and then something about the rough stones caught his attention. They were quite small pebbles, dull, but – here his pulse began to steeplechase. He spoke to the children’s father, with studied carelessness, and the Kaffir said, “Oh yes, the children like these little stones. They have some more in the hut, “and he brought forth a small basket containing several more.

Repressing his excitement, the traveler took out a large plug of tobacco, worth perhaps twenty or thirty cents in our money, and said, “I would like to take the stones home for my children. I will give you this tobacco for them. Are you willing?” The Kaffir laughed and said, “I am robbing you but if you insist, all right,” and the bargain was sealed – which not only enriched the stranger but led in time to the great discovery of the South African diamond fields.

The fate of the Kaffir is really the fate of most human beings. Man holds a fabulous treasure in his possession – the power of the Spoken Word – and yet, in most cases, he does not know it.

The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure … to bless all the work of thine hand… (Deuteronomy 28:12).

Words are powerful things. While they won’t stop a bullet, they are more powerful than an army. They may not stop cancer, but they can create cures. They can create or heal a thousand injuries. They can inspire great good or horrendous calamity. They can lift up or tear down; create or destroy, enlighten or darken.

Creating diamonds,
Stan

Read Full Post »

You all know the Great Law. One way of stating it is to say: Like produces like. What we sow in thought we reap in experience.

People know that these things are true, and yet in spite of this transcendent knowledge they constantly use the Great Law for their own destruction. They would not dream of pouring water in the gas tank of their car, or sand into their watch, or broken glass into their food; but they do something just as foolish every time they think, speak, or act negatively. One cannot help wondering what such people have inside their heads – brains or excelsior.

In the future, when you catch yourself thinking negatively, say to your self severely, “Brains or excelsior?” and immediately switch to what you know to be the Truth of Being.

Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord… (Ephesians 6:8).

Our gardens are the worldly manifestations of our thoughts, words and deeds. When we plant loving thoughts; water them with joy , tolerance, patience and hope; our gardens will be filled with fragrance, beauty and bounty. But just as any good gardener knows, we must also till the soil, pull the weeds and keep the bugs out for our gardens to thrive. Our attitudes are the soil which must be properly prepared. Negative thoughts, words and deeds are the bugs and weeds which degrade our gardens and rob them of fruit and flower.

Planting love,
Stan

Read Full Post »

God knows everything, at all times. The Bible sometimes speaks of God as having changed His mind or being disappointed. God is supposed to have tested Abraham’s obedience in the matter of Isaac. God is supposed to have had His plans upset by the misconduct of Adam and Eve, by the general wickedness of humanity before the flood, and, in fact, He is frequently represented as being disappointed and even frustrated by the conduct of mankind. In orthodox theology, the devil was continually upsetting God’s arrangements and bringing his plans to naught. Indeed, to listen to some preachers, one would have supposed that the devil was a good deal more powerful than God.

Of course, all this is nonsense. Such things could not be really true of God. It was Abraham’s idea of God that led him to prepare to kill Isaac. It was the wickedness of mankind in the antediluvian world that brought on the flood as a natural consequence, just as the fears, hatreds, jealousies, and greed of mankind over many years have brought on war.

We make an idolatrous image of ourselves and call it God. Let us destroy this image today and worship the true God who is infinite and unchanging Good.

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent … (Number 23:19).

The examples from the Bible cited above are among the most difficult to understand. We can not know what moved the writer of the Abraham story, what actually caused the great flood or whether God knew before hand that Adam and Eve would choose free will over obedience. What we do know is that we are physical beings, existing in a physical world, that is interpreted by us in terms of our limitations such as sight, sound, smell and touch. We know that we are also spiritual beings living in a non-physical existence that reveals itself to us through thought, intuition and understanding of God.

Leaning on God,
Stan

Read Full Post »

Do not dissect things too much. By the time you have dissected a living thing you have killed it, and you no longer have the thing that you began with. Take a rose out of the bowl, pull its petal apart, count them, weigh them, measure them, and then, while you will have certain interesting information, you no longer have a rose.

There is a place for analysis, but it is apt to be quite fatal in prayer and meditation. Do not dissect the love of God, but feel it. Do not dissect divine intelligence, but realize it. Do not wonder how God can possibly solve this problem, but just watch Him do it in His own way – and He will if you will give Him a chance.

You know that God is Love. So go ahead on that, and do not get theoretical about it.

Do you remember the old verse that says:

A centipede was happy quite,
Until a frog in fun
Said, “Pray, which leg comes after which?”
This raised her mind to such a pitch,
She lay distracted in the ditch,
Considering how to run.

The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him: and all the upright in heart shall glory (Psalm 64:10).

To any person who likes to think about things, figure them out and understand how they work, this may seem like strange advice. But we should be clear, this advice does say “do not think, ponder and analyze things” It is saying that we should not let our pondering and analyzing detract from the true experience of God’s love and power. The advice is pointing out that such over-thinking can cause us to miss the forest while looking at all the trees.

In the garden,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

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).

Brothers and sisters,

Smiling on,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

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).

Are we really willing and anxious to go where God sends us? For God to fully express his will through us, we must empty out the self and replace it with God’s spirit, will and consciousness. This is a very hard thing to accomplish, and it takes most of us all our lives to get there. To put God and others before ourselves turns every human instinct on its head. Turning the other cheek, forgiving the transgressor, serving instead of being served and giving away our treasures are all hard things to do. But the reward is priceless.

Being sent,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Man controls his own life. The Bible says that God has given him “dominion over all things,” and this is true when he understands the Truth; and the Truth is that our outer conditions – your environment – are not cause; they are effect. You are not happy because you are well. You are well because you are happy. You do not have faith because things are going well. They are going well because you have faith. You are not depressed because trouble has come to you, but trouble has come because your realization of the Truth had first fallen off.

The secret of life then is to control your mental states. To accept sickness, trouble, and failure as unavoidable, and perhaps inevitable, is folly, because it is this very acceptance by you that keeps these evils in existence. Man is not limited by his environment. He creates his environment by his beliefs and feelings. To suppose otherwise is like thinking that the tail can wag the dog.

If you have been thinking that outer conditions are stronger that you are, say to yourself: “Tail wags dog” and immediately reverse the belief.

… who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? (Galatians 5:7).

All we experience inwardly and outwardly is a result of our mental state. That is not to say that the death or illness of a friend is caused by our attitude. It does mean that how we react and respond to that death is purely a mental state, and that is what determines our environment. All “objective reality” is subject to our mental states, and most of it is created by some past decision, perspective or action. We are where we are, as a result of our thoughts and the words and deeds that flow from them, much more than the environment in which we operate.

Living the truth,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

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).

Thinking rightly is the gateway to positive change. That does not mean we can change things by thinking they are are changed. It does mean changing the way we think to reflect God’s will. When we alter the way we think in order to become loving, giving, patient, tolerant, faithful and the other traits required by our faith, then we can expect our circumstances to change for the better. Just saying we believe is not enough. We must change our thinking and our behavior so God can then lead us to our true garden.

Being taught,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »