Article May 15, 2000 Issue

Clipping, trimming, and cultivating

By Candace Lynch

Having put off some gardening chores for a while, I told myself that this was the day to take care of them. As I gathered my tools, I decided to use my time in the garden to pray. The word cultivate came to mind. It means to improve and prepare, to grow or tend, to promote the growth of. It can also mean to seek the acquaintance of or make friends with. Certainly prayer prepares and improves our thought as we focus on what's spiritually true. Prayer also helps us get better acquainted with God.

Jesus gave an example of the need to cultivate thought in his parable of the sower and the seed (see Matt. 13:1–23). The seeds that fell on poor ground didn't come to fruition. But those that fell on good ground—cultivated soil—"brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold." In his explanation of the parable, Jesus said, "He that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it." I saw that I could use this time to cultivate, or improve, the condition of my thoughts, to be sure that I was receptive to God's word and ever aware of my oneness with my Father-Mother.

I decided to start at one end of the flower border and work my way to some potted plants at the other end that were waiting to be planted. As I worked, I would be weeding out plants that I didn't want among the flowers and getting rid of the wrong kinds of growth. I saw that I could do a similar weeding of my thoughts by getting rid of those that were ungodlike.

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