Gardens of Peace

Today I have enjoyed finding pictures of cottage gardens, as you see here. The style of a flower garden filled with color and shapes is what I am aiming for in my own flower garden.

As I was going through these pictures I wondered what the owners of the beautiful gardens would think of someone deliberately planting thistles or noxious weeds (which are injurious to a garden), claiming that the weeds needed to be accepted and understood, even if it ruined the lovely appearance of the garden.

I imagine the gardeners would keep busy keeping the weeds at bay, since so many of the noxious weeds actually hinder the healthy proliferation of the flowers. I can walk past any front flower garden on my road and view what other people have done in their gardens but if I do not like what they are doing, I never would say anything. It is their business, even though the garden is in the public eye. I do compliment the ones I like.

This is the way I feel about the influence of the homemaker. Her house and home may be visible to the public and therefore be an influence, but it does not give others the right to destroy her property, steal her plants or plant voracious weeds that destroy her setting. A woman is an influence but being in the public eye when she is out, or having her house on view from the road, does not give people the right to throw stones at it.

There is an old saying, that "some people will knock happiness off a post if they see it sitting there." The old McGuffeys Readers had stories in it about the occasional naughty child who would destroy property or tell a fantastic falsehood about a neighbor, and the ultimate consequences. The stories always ended with a warning that sounded something like: "Boys and girls, you must never cause harm to anyone's property or reputation. You do not know the harm that can come of it, both for them and for you." Nonetheless,some people have practiced being contradictory and negative so long that they are comfortable being that way, no matter what discomfort they cause others.

The Bible says to seek after the things that create peace: Rom 14:19   " Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another."


When we are young we have to learn not to contradict and argue all the time. At first it might seem very entertaining to be objectionable at every turn, but as we mature, we find it is foolish and unprofitable and very non-edifying. It starts to create personal tension and stress, both which are very unhealthy. In later years, ladies prefer peace.


Many ladies look back on a youth of constant debating and arguing and regret it. They wish instead that they had been guided to be wise and not to engage in arguing, contradicting, objecting, setting people straight, bossing people, or cross-examining every little thing anyone says. This habit is a way of trying to make things "interesting" and also showing that you are smart or intelligent. Constant arguing is not a sign of maturity or refinement. The Lord says he values a quiet and gentle spirit in a woman, which is precious in his sight. (IPeter 3:4). This is a hard thing to learn, because our culture teaches us to let out every feeling, every anxiety and every hatred. Restraint has to be practiced, until it becomes natural.



There have been, in the past, young ladies who were taught a different way of speaking, who learned the art of pleasant, refined conversation, so it is possible to learn a different way.


Argumentive people attract other argumentive people, and that is one reason I do not publish every single comment that comes to my blog. If the person has an email, I will discuss it with them first and I try not to air our differences in public. A rude comment is like a weed. It seems to say "come over here" to other weed seeds that are flying around, looking for somewhere to land.



I am no fan of the new marriage and child-training books or some of the homeschooling books that are going around, (even though I was a homeschooler), so I have not mentioned them on my blog. Instead, I write about what I believe, like and observe. There is no need for me to write that on someone else's blog, since they can read it on my blog, so that is why I do not go to other blogs to raise an objection about something a homemaker wrote.



Like a garden that I do not particularly care to see, I do not have to pass by it or look at it. I do not go to their blogs to object and if their false teachings have effected me personally I will try to find an email so I can contact them personally, as I do not want to leave comments on people's blogs that will bring misgivings. To confront them means I will have to bring up the extra adrenalin needed to prove my point or debate. If you have ever looked up the purpose for adrenalin in your body, you will understand the value of it and why it is important to conserve it.




As we ladies get older, we have to retain composure and peace in our lives. Arguments and confrontations can cause ill health and depression. The Bible warns about deliberately creating disturbances when it says it is foolish to take a dog by its ears: "Pro 26:17    He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears." In other words, it is better to let a sleeping dog lie.




There is wisdom in reserving your energy for your home. If you get upset by something, it becomes next to impossible to concentrate on the tiniest thing that needs to be done at home. Christ freed Christian ladies to be devoted to home things, as indicated in Titus 2.




For centuries, women have been glad to let the men fight the world while they stayed home to create a refuge from the world. Ladies must return to that. There was even a time in the 1800's when young women were warned by their mothers and teachers to avoid reading the papers too much, with all the scandal and war reports. It was known that a woman's heart, mind, soul and body was very precious and that she needed to have a "quiet and gentle spirit." (I Peter 3:4). It would be impossible to cultivate a meek and gentle spirit if one was constantly upset by the goings-on of everything around them. People today make a mockery of the old ways, but they have not found any peace in their lives or any better solutions.

I have covered this subject because I wanted other bloggers to know they have a right to keep their homes and gardens free from harmful things that destroy peace. Just because a blog is being shared with the public, it does not give anyone a "right" to hound the writer and continually monitor her or post negative comments. A person may see a house and a garden from where they are standing but they still have no "right" to destroy it just because "it is in the public eye." A Christian lady should not adopt this popular worldly attitude.

Bloggers have a right to delete a comment if it is disturbing the peace. In Victorian times, if a guest who was invited to a home began to insult the hostess, he was never invited back. For members of the New Testament church, instructions are given to "mark" (take note of) those who cause division, and avoid them. (Romans 16:17). I realize many troll-type comments are not from people living by the Biblical laws, but these rules are good enough for them.

Finally, one photograph of a section of my own garden. I hope to show more, later. I have a visitor who has become my temporary gardener, and so I am enjoying the transformation.

Bicycle planter given to me by a friend, who got it at Costco.

Here is a multi-colored rose bush I saw at the coast a few days ago.

I welcome your comments about the subject of seeking after things that make for peace.

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