{"id":1362,"date":"2017-08-18T08:57:07","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T13:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2017-08-21T14:45:55","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T19:45:55","slug":"the-neglectful-gardner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/18\/the-neglectful-gardner\/","title":{"rendered":"The Neglectful Gardner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was late when I walked into the garden\u2026<\/h6>\n
Weeds had grown around the flower-beds and the dirt was cracked and dry\u2026<\/h6>\n
Neglect had shown its ugly head and in disbelief I cried\u2026<\/h6>\n
Lord, I\u2019m sorry for not tending the garden the one you sent me too<\/h6>\n
I was tired and lonely in the garden I wasn\u2019t thinking of you\u2026<\/h6>\n
I didn\u2019t want to take the time to water and fertilize, to prune and love<\/h6>\n
the precious earth that you said was mine\u2026<\/h6>\n
Little creatures of every kind have taken its toll on the beautiful vines<\/h6>\n
What once was tended with loving care,<\/h6>\n
Has become weeds and tares\u2026<\/h6>\n
Forgive me Lord; I\u2019ve been selfish and unkind, living my life my way, not thinking of<\/h6>\n
The garden that needed my time\u2026<\/h6>\n
The ones who will never bloom, because I decided, to walk on too soon\u2026<\/h6>\n
The ones who died of thirst, because I didn\u2019t want to care for their wounds\u2026<\/h6>\n
The ones who were young and the ones that were old\u2026left all alone with no care,<\/h6>\n
They withered beneath the scorching sun, you had chosen me, but all I did was run\u2026<\/h6>\n
I\u2019m sorry Lord, for all I\u2019ve done\u2026<\/h6>\n
I bow on crumbling ground and ask you to forgive me\u2026<\/h6>\n
I will take up this task once more, to tend the garden where you sent me\u2026<\/h6>\n
I\u2019ll work and plow and dig in the dirt, with hand and sweating brow\u2026<\/h6>\n
For this garden is yours after all\u2026I won\u2019t ever again let you down\u2026<\/h6>\n
The roses they will bloom again, and the honeysuckles scent, will rise in fragrant adoration to the one who gives them life\u2026<\/h6>\n
The fruit trees and honey bees will awaken at the sound<\/h6>\n
Of little birds singing, in their branches will be found\u2026<\/h6>\n
New life will spring up and the sun will warm the flowers\u2026<\/h6>\n
I\u2019ll give to you, my all, dear Lord, and in every waking hour\u2026<\/h6>\n
This garden will flourish and come alive\u2026I promise they will survive<\/h6>\n
I\u2019ll take my place in the garden Lord; the harvest will be many\u2026<\/h6>\n
And you will walk among the grounds of a Garden where there won\u2019t be any\u2026<\/h6>\n
Briars or tares or weeds, oh no\u2026just beautiful flowers from tiny seeds<\/h6>\n
Springing up to you, in glorious deeds, of fragrant lasting love\u2026for thee!<\/h6>\n
~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill August 18, 2017<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was late when I walked into the garden\u2026 Weeds had grown around the flower-beds and the dirt was cracked and dry\u2026 Neglect had shown its ugly head and in disbelief I cried\u2026 Lord, I\u2019m sorry for not tending the garden the one you sent me too I was tired and lonely in the garden…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-lY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}