Saturday, March 9, 2013

My FOUR RULES OF LIFE

You may not believe it, but people often tell me that I look 5, 10, sometimes even 15 years younger than I actually am, and I'll admit that it does my ego good to hear that. I try to smile and sound sincerely surprised and incredulous when I respond, "Really? Well, thank you."

Then My Body speaks to me: "Don't you believe that crap, you idiot. You're old --- and don't you forget it!" Just to make sure that I get the point, that I don't fool myself into thinking I'm younger than my 71 years, Body'll cause something else to hurt. 

71 years old. SEVENTY-ONE, did you hear me? Yes, that's OLD in anybody's book. And I don't think that I've learned very much in all those decades; they're kind of like, as the Old Testament writer termed it, "The years the locusts have eaten." I'll never get those years back; I have to go on from here. But, as I have diligently practiced my Seven Periods of Prayer as a big part of my Lenten discipline this year, I have had certain things revealed to me which I think will help me live out the rest of my life purposefully. I'm tempted to lament that this revelation didn't come to me earlier, but I have to remind myself that, when we're ready to receive revelations from God, they come when they're supposed to come. Maybe I wouldn't have been ready to receive any of this before now --- I don't know; all I do know is that I very strongly believe that I did not come up with these simple Four Rules on my own, so they must have come from Someone Higher, and I need them now

By the way, I will outline the specifics of my Seven Periods of Prayer in a later post; all I'll say now is that the Periods are: Immediately upon arising in the morning; immediately before going to bed at night; before each of my three daily meals; mid-morning; and mid-afternoon. I have pretty specific wording that I use in each Period, but as I said, I'll go into all of that in greater detail in a later post. The only other thing I'll say is that underlying at least the First Period is the instruction given by the brother of Our Lord in my favorite passage of Scripture, James 1:5. No, I won't tell you what it says; find your Bible, dust it off, and read it for yourself!

Anyway, here are my Four Rules of Life:

  1. Love, trust, and obey God;
  2. Lead an orderly, balanced life;
  3. Work hard; and
  4. Share with others.
Whenever I've looked back over my life, I've found that it's worked to the degree that I've practiced those four Rules, and vice versa. As I said before, I'd never consciously tried to practice those things, but my life seemed to work better to the degree that I did so, albeit unconsciously. My task going forward will be to try to incorporate those Four Rules or principles into the very fabric of my life, and I'm sure that however long I have left on this plane will be the happiest, most fruitful of all.

Over the next few days, I'll post ideas that have come to me regarding these four principles or Rules. I am not suggesting that anyone else should abide by them, just that they are what I am going to try to use to govern and direct the rest of my life, with God's help.

1 comment:

  1. SPOILER ALERT


    James 1:5 NKJV

    If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

    ReplyDelete

I welcome comments expressing opinions markedly different from mine. However, I must insist that all comments must be civil and respectful, and should contain little or no profanity; foul language is not a sign of spiritual growth or maturity.