I love Susanna Wesley’s last phrase here, “And let the world go which way it will.” It reminds me that my first and most important task is the gardening of my heart, cultivating a soft and fertile place for God. Not worrying about crises that I have no control over.
She rightly begins this prayer, “to know myself,” for it is my heart that I must control. I must be willing to see the weeds that grow so naturally in the soil of my life and ruthlessly uproot them.
Then, to know those with whom I have to do in my family, or the plots beyond my own, is to guide those tender shoots in conformity to Christ.
Nurturing is an essential female quality necessary in training ourselves, our children, and beyond, all the way to those we encounter in the grocery store, Zumba class, or even our kids’ school. As Susanna prayed, may we, too, petition the King for His likeness to grow in the soil of our hearts and those whose lives we influence.
*Taken from The Prayers of Susanna Wesley by W.L. Doughty Copyright 1984 by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan. www.zondervan.com, 1-2.
