For what am I training?

For what am I training?

 

My body is 65 years old and will probably never run another marathon. My mind is slowing, too. My memory seems like a sieve.

  

But, whether I have twenty hours or twenty years left, I still have contributions to make. Just the opportunities for courtesy, encouragement and kindness are unlimited.  In addition to health, it is well worth staying in training for those opportunities.

Thinking before speaking

Is what I would like to say going to put an unjust burden on the person to whom I would like to say it?

August 17, 2014

The fruit of the tree of the perception of good and evil tastes different to every person.

When love is greater than our perceptions of good and evil, understanding and reconciling our different perceptions becomes possible.

August 10, 2014

We meet for worship: praise, thanks, prayers for forgiveness, pledges of devotion and obedience.

Praise, thanks, prayers for forgiveness, pledges of devotion and obedience.

Today I imagine the Holy Spirit saying, 
“Oh, will you please shut up?”

“Listen.”

“Ask me good questions and take the answers out into your life.”

Good living

The relationship between money and good living and the relationship between status and good living are shallow and deceptive. 
The relationship between a good reputation, based upon real integrity, and good living is deep and true.
The private relationship between inner peace and good living is the most direct, profound and desirable.

Choosing love over wishes

"Love one another."
In what way is love to be expressed?
Not, surely, in any way possible. Then judgment asks "what is possible?"  Desire can turn that question into a search for - even an obsession with - how to make the desired expression possible.
Love is best expressed in the way in which it will most clearly and completely be experienced by the other - partner or child, friend or stranger - as unconditional love. While we must be true to ourselves at all times, when love calls for compromising, or even giving up, our wishes in the moment - when it calls for choosing love over wishes - the compensation for choosing love is growth and the peace that comes from being true to our deepest values.

Commitment and temptation

In a relationship, especially marriage, what temptations do I commit to resist for the sake of the relationship?  All but the ones that are really, really hard to resist?

One way temptation clouds judgment

A great temptation comes when the approval or love of another is accompanied by the invitation to do - or even appears conditioned on one's doing - something one wishes were appropriate.

Though we see the future dimly, we can be bright about the present.

For me, it's not possible to act unselfishly.
It's not possible to act without error.
It is possible to act with love, intelligence, perseverance and the best balance of goals - our own, individual others', and society's - we can discern in the moment.