Me: That is a mighty pretty quilt!

Prodigal: It is nice to look at.

This is from the book Saint Augustine Confessions

The eye is attracted by beautiful objects, by gold and silver and all such things. There is great pleasure, too, in feeling something agreeable to the touch, and material things have various qualities to please each of the other senses. Again, it is gratifying to be held in esteem by other men and to have the power of giving them orders and gaining the mastery over them. This is also the reason why revenge is sweet. But our ambition to obtain all these things must not lead us astray from you, O Lord, nor must we depart from what your law allows. The life we live on earth has it own attractions a well, because it has a certain beauty of its own harmony with all the rest of this world’s beauty. Friendship among men, too, is a delightful bond, uniting many souls in one. All these things and their like can be occasions of sin because, good though they are, they are of the lowest order of good, and if we are too much tempted by them we abandon those higher and better things, your truth, your law, and you yourself, O Lord our God. For these earthly things, too, can give joy, though not such joy as my God, who made them all, can give, because honest men will rejoice in the Lord; upright hearts will not boast in vain.

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. Lamentations 3:32

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org