Some one is always watching

I mowed my grass today.

Earth shattering news, right? Aren’t you thankful that you took the time to stop in here today to read this? Stay with me for just a moment.

The truth is that I have been putting off this particular mowing for a little too long. Busy-ness, rain, procrastination… seems that there was always something that kept me from doing it. And if not for my wife’s little dog disappearing into the tall stuff every time she went out, I might have found reason to wait yet another day.

Still with me? Hang on, there is a point to this.

We share a property line with our next door neighbors… who doesn’t, right? While we share a border, we don’t share a fence, so our yard blends right into the next. Our neighbors are a very young couple who we know only slightly. We look for opportunities to talk with them, but there seems to be such an age gap that we don’t have much in common outside of our property line. What I’ve noticed lately is that my neighbor seems to hold out on mowing his grass until I do. Truly, I have no idea if he sits in his living room and waits to hear my mower fire up, but for several weeks now, he doesn’t seem to be motivated to do any landscaping until my side of the yard makes his side look bad.

I wrote recently about mentoring… and while I’m looking for opportunities to help people younger in faith/age than myself, I realize that I have more obscure chances all the time. I may not know my next door neighbor well enough to have a man-to-man talk about the importance of keeping a good yard maintenance schedule, but I can be a good example by doing mine right.

We have to understand that some one is always watching us. Our spouse, kids, co-workers, neighbors… we must be be mindful that even the smallest things show who we represent… I would much rather be an inspiration to mow grass than an excuse for putting it off another day.

In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:16 (NLT)

How does your yard look?