Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday June 29, 2011

Richard Hugus has been a close friend for over 21 years. He is an outstanding Christian and a good man in the old fashioned sense. He plants a garden every year and maintains the garden with the zeal of an old bootlegger building his still. I don't think Richard was ever a bootlegger.

The other evening his wife requested prayer for him as he wasn’t feeling well. One of the wags in the group mentioned that, "Yes, he had noticed that Richard's garden appeared to have at least three, maybe four weeds this year." We all laughed. Richard shares the harvest with the church and gets a real kick out of doing this.

Of course there are those who think Richard's garden is too large for his place. I admit the garden is more like a truck farm than a small family vegetable plot. Still others, lament the garden is altogether too small. Add to this number, the cadre who are putout due to his lack of judgment in his selection, which is way too heavy on sweet corn.

Richard just plants his garden and babies it along through the summer and is content. I thought about Richard and his garden the other day when my longtime friend, April Williams whom I have known since she was a mere child noted this:

"Criticizing the gardens of others doesn't keep the weeds out of your own."

Preachers, including yours truly, while we must preach the truth, must also keep a close watch on the criticism button, lest our own "garden" become full of weeds.

As I get farther along in years I find that I have less and less time for professional critics. Editors are different in that they are employed by writers to improve our writing. Of course some editors are overly critical to be sure.

As the garden planting season was in full swing a dear man (not the wag) began his annual rant about Richard's garden and how he hoped to God that the man would exercise Holy Spirit control and keep it in sensible bounds this year. Over the years I have been learning the value of using an attack of questions.

I launched a frontal attack and asked the Pro-Critic, "How big is your garden this year?" No answer was given. He is not planting a garden this year or any year and the fact is he has never in his life planted a garden. I suppose if he did plant a garden he would spend so much time criticizing Richard’s garden that his own would yield a large harvest of weeds, and I don't mean the smoking kind.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:3:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

The weed in his/her garden is better than the wondrous garden you do not have.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit

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