Loving God When No One Is Watching

Loving God When No One Is Watching

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

Luke 6:45

I visited my grandmother Mama Farley just after I earned my master’s degree, a monumental accomplishment for me, as the oldest child in a large family.

The first morning, I awoke to sounds from the kitchen and hurriedly dressed. Mama’s hearing had gotten worse, so she didn’t notice me standing in the kitchen archway. As I watched her, I remembered long-ago scenes when she rolled out gingerbread cookies or snapped beans as she told stories. Occasionally she’d lament she had been kept home from school to plow, which resulted in her never learning to read or write. Predictably, she would insist I get all the education I could.

As I watched Mama, I noticed her back was more stooped and her hair whiter. But everything else was the same—even the wood-burning stove. The modern range her adult children had purchased sat in the corner, used only to warm leftovers. Mama insisted she couldn’t regulate the heat in the new oven.

As I watched, she pulled a skillet of beautiful biscuits from her trusty old stove. I was determined to learn to make biscuits like that. Thinking of the compliments I would receive, I watched her scrutinize the golden crusts. I would have placed them on the serving plate with a self-satisfied sigh. But Mama set them in the center of the table and whispered, “Thank you, Lord.”

Her gentle words hit me like a sharp rebuke. I backed into the hallway, tears filling my eyes. I had achieved an education Mama could never dream of, but it had not occurred to me to thank God for it. Right there in the hallway, I whispered my gratitude before hurrying into the kitchen to give Mama a hug.

Today her habit of thanking God for even the little things has become a part of my life too. Now, whether paying bills, planting spring flowers, or pulling a pan of golden biscuits out of my own oven, I think of Mama as I whisper my own “Thank you, Lord.”

All of us behave differently when we think we’re being watched. Usually, we are on our best behavior when we know someone else is around. The funny thing is, somebody is always with us: God. Is he pleased when he sees the way we act when we’re alone? —SANDRA

Ouch, Lord. Help me to remember to try to please you with my actions rather than try to impress onlookers.

God will help us be the people we are meant to be, if only we will ask. No one is more deserving of our best behavior than God.

—HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (1832–1911), QUAKER LAY SPEAKER AND AUTHOR