Sunday, March 26, 2006

Sunday Reading

...from a Christian classic--Talking With God, by Francois Fenelon:

If you wish to become meek, you must humble yourself. Make yourself little in the depths of your heart. A humble heart is always gentle and capable of being easily led in its center, even if on the surface it may seem rough through unexpected outbursts of a sharp and irritable temper. Watch, pray, and work at this. Bear with yourself without flattering yourself.

My Lenten disciplines are going okay, but I can't seem to keep a permanent lid on my "sharp and irritable temper." The lines I printed in bold are especially encouraging and helpful, I thought.

And here is an expansion of that last thought:

We must bear with ourselves without either flattery or discouragement, although we seldom achieve this happy median. We either expect great things of ourselves and of our good intentions, or else we wholly despair. We must hope for nothing from self, but wait for everything from God. Convicted of our helplessness, we have no confidence in ourselves, and yet we have unbounded confidence in God. These are the true foundations of the spiritual edifice.

Great words for Lent!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good words. Thanks! My main struggle this lent in addition to the "sharp and irritable temper" thing, is judgmentalism. I am such a verbal processor, that I have a hard time with that. Michelle

Anonymous said...

convicted of our helplessness...


yes. I am much aware of that these days! Thank God for His strength in our weakness.

Hope your "bird flu" is almost gone. :)