Meditations on God

Loving Behavior
The feeling of love, like all feelings, is something that comes and goes, but we can act with love forever if we so choose.

We can choose to behave in a loving way toward others regardless of how we feel.

Our feelings are unreliable anyway.

They are tied into a variety of factors, many of which are entirely out of our control.

Our actions, on the other hand, are ours to choose.

We get to decide what we will do, how we will do it, and who we will do it for.

From moment to moment, day to day, we get to decide how we are going to behave.

Our feelings and our actions need not align.

We can act in a way that is loving, caring, and compassionate even if our feelings are something altogether different.

This does not mean that we are disingenuous.

It simply means that we are generous.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
April 30, 2021

actions, behavior, compassion, feelings, love
With What We Have
We may never be the best at what we do.

There will likely always be others who do it better.

There are a lot of people in this world and many are born more gifted, more privileged, or simply more driven than ourselves.

This is a fact of life.

Ignoring it, denying it, or pushing back against it will not change the truth of it.

Still, even with this being the case, there is no excuse for not trying our best, for not pushing ourselves to do better, and for not striving for steady, incremental improvement every day.

Others may be better at what we do than we are, but no one else can be who we are.

We must, therefore, make the most of our opportunity in this life and do the best we can with what we have to work with.

Anything less is a life wasted.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
April 29, 2021

improvement, opportunity
Patience With Progress
There is no use in beating ourselves up for our flaws and shortcomings.

Being forced to live with them and with the knowledge of them is punishment enough, especially considering the fact that, much of the time, they are beyond our control anyway.

Certain things about who we are, certain characteristics, behaviors, and thought processes simply are what they are.

Perhaps they were born into us or maybe our life’s circumstances made us the way we are, but much of what makes us who we are was not consciously chosen by us.

Of course, we will want to change, we will want to improve, and we will want to outgrow our flaws and shortcomings, but this is a slow, difficult process and we must be patient with ourselves along the way.

We did not become who we are overnight.

Likewise, we will we not transcend who we have become overnight either.

Being overly hard on ourselves for slow progress or setbacks does not move us forward.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
April 28, 2021

flaws, growth, progress, shortcomings
A Balanced Stance
There will be times when we must be rigid in our stance toward life’s circumstances.

Other times, we must be yielding.

Both of these attributes must be available to us if we are to be successful.

They must exist inside of us to be called upon as necessary, to be used when needed.

We have to move between these two sides of ourselves while simultaneously maintaining our integrity.

We need not be rigid at the cost of kindness.

Nor should we be yielding at the cost of our principles.

We must balance our strength with softness and our softness with strength so that, no matter what stance we take, we are always true to ourselves, our calling, and our path.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
April 27, 2021

balance, integrity
Freedom From Expectations
We sometimes mistakenly associate our freedom with freedom from expectations.

We tell ourselves that their expectations are holding us back from being free, from doing what we want, and from being who we want because what they want from us and who they expect us to be limits our ability to have things utterly and uninhibitedly our way.

If only they knew who we are, how special we are, and how entitled we are, they would stop getting in our way, the seas would part for us, and we would proceed forth in righteousness and glory to what is rightfully ours.

Not only is this a deludedly childish and selfish way to view ourselves and the world, but it is also an extremely unrealistic way to think about life.

Just like we have expectations for other, others will inevitably have expectations for us and, if we want something from them, if we want something they have, or if they stand in between us and what we want, we are going to have to meet those expectations.

There is no way around this.

No matter how important, wealthy, or powerful we become, we will always have to face and deal with the expectations of others.

Freedom, then, is accepting this and aligning our attitude, our will, and our intentions in the direction of living up to these expectations in such a way that we are not fighting everyone and everything along the way.

As long as the expectations that others have for us are reasonable, moral, and just, we are not losing anything along the way, least of all our freedom or our integrity.

In fact, what we gain in experience and in relationships along the way will probably make our lives infinitely better in the long run anyway.
Share this:
X
Facebook
Like Loading…
April 26, 2021

expectations, freedom

Loving Behavior

Share this:

With What We Have

Share this:

Patience With Progress

Share this:

A Balanced Stance

Share this:

Freedom From Expectations

Share this: