Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 8, 25 September 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the AVhakat; SOWING AND REAPING A well-known e.lilor of a womiin's magazine invites her readers to write to her on any perplexing problem. Following is an extract I'rom one letter received: It seems to me a cruel law that what we sow we shall also reap, because we so often sow in ignorance. The Editor replied; "Two letters on this subject arrived for me about the same time ... 1 do not know whether all readers of the magazine are great minds, but in any ease they seem to thhvk alike, lor, almost invariably, two or three questions on the same subject arrive about the same period. I do not. think it is a cruel lav that we reap what we sow; oil tlit contrary it seems to me to be tin most beautiful and satisfying lav

lie Ministers' Association)

that there is. Fire burns lis, whether we know that it Avill burn or not. Wliat eonfusion there would lie if it burnt some people and not others! /] hen we might have good reason to complain. But we soon learn that fire not only burns, but burns every time, and so we leave it a l :one, or at any rate we leave oil poking out fingers into it. to see what it is like. Sin is like the (ire, we get burnt every time we meddle with it, and so at. last we learn one great lesson —if we want to be happy, we must be good. But it seems to me that people are apt to look on on'y one side of Lkis question. They are always connecting this law with sin and wrongdoing. It is just as though we all had gardens, and instead of happily drawing on our gardening gloves and getting out the rake and the hoe, we sat down mournfully to consider what weeds we might expect to come up supposing we sowed some groundsel, or a nice little corner of docks. Look on the cheerful side of the law, "Whatsoever ye sow,, that shall ye also reap." Think of all the lovely things you have sown that are just, as sure to spring up and give you 3"our reward as the silly things, and the sinful things. And if you cannot remember any particularly kind and good actions from Avliich you might expect to reap happiness, start off and get some 'in right away. . . . Seeds (good deeds) are such surprising things. The beauty and shining wonder that comes from some little seed we had thought nothing much of, absolutely takes our breath away and fills us with awe and love and gratitude to God, So start away, and soon you will

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

be gathering the (lowers and sharing with others the fruits that you have planted in your garden of life. " Another way oi slating this eteinal law is ".Life's evening will take its character from the day that proceeded it."' That is carrying the thought a little further, with special emphasis on the home. Unless the home life is right, sweet and wholesome and happy, Hie harvest will be a miserable one, no matter what seeds may have been sown in outside gardens. "I'm just waiting until my girls grow up. to leave my husband, a] middle-aged mother told me. She felt herself unduly tried by petty annoyances, yet she made little effort to keep step with her ordinary (very ordinary!) hard-working husband-

In one of liis books Borehnm says, "Hali' the art ol' life lies in learning to keep step. Conversly, half the tragedy of life consists in our failure to do so." An old copy of the Sunday at Home has an article- on Making Home Happy. The writer distributes the responsibility for this to all members of the family. "The happiness of tlie home depends upon the folk who are in it: and the young man or woman who is helping to destroy the comfort and happiness of the home in which he is growing up, is fairly certain to do exactly the same Avhen he establishes a home of his own. The key to the situation lies chiefly in the parents, as a matter of course, but the children also have to contribute their share . . . "In all matters love and. not self should rule. What one likes should not be forgotten, and yet it should never be remembered to the exclusion of what others like . . . Home is a place where we get our first lessons in co-operation and learning to get along with others, and we should learn the lesson well. It. was never intended that one will should dominate all, whether that will belongs to parent or child. Love makes this accommodation easy if love be allowed its perfect work. Love tries to understand, and aims to please. And when love rules in one family the members of that, family, when they go into homes of their own will carry the light of love with them to make other homes just as happy as their own early home happened to be." All tlvrough the seasons of sowing and reaping, All through the harvests of and tears, Hold us safe in Thy tender keeping, O Lord of the passing years.