But can you truly, always put others ahead of yourself?
This passage reveals a mindset we are to nurture: place other people higher than yourself.
An intriguing principle, and a virtue residing in the arena of a “matured” Faith, carrying a high degree of difficulty because to achieve God’s standard, you attach reigns to yourself.
But can you truly, always rank others ahead of yourself?
These 3 aspects of the Christian faith have been on my mind recently. So I will help us to be mindful about all 3.
We need to check ourselves every now and then to make sure what we are saying and doing have perception as loving acts. Sometimes in the way we treat other people we say things or do things and the other people don’t see, may not perceive this as a caring act. We can mean well but they may not take it that way.
To be thankful for everything is an overwhelming aspect of the Christian Faith. It’s difficult to be thankful when things are not going, or at least you perceive they’re not going well. In this world we suffer losses and setbacks, heart aches and failures, but move your attitude to a place where thankfulness arises.
And the third item, this morning: assuming, can catch us off guard. We know that other people think differently than I / we think: have different terminology, define words differently. But it is fairly easy for me to go through my daily life thinking that other people, since they’re doing the same things — get out of bed, eat breakfast, go to work, buy groceries, meet with friends or family, go to church, watch a movie, read a book — are gathering the same ideas that I am gathering. And as such, are forming the same opinions and attitudes as myself. But there is a good chance they are shaped differently by these same experiences.
Be mindful.
-Jeff
Saint Isaiah the Solitary
The First of 27 Texts
“There is among the passions an anger of the intellect, and this anger is in accordance with nature.
Without anger a man cannot attain purity: he has to feel angry with all that is sown in him by the enemy.
When Job felt this anger he reviled his enemies, calling them ‘dishonorable men of no repute, lacking everything good, whom I would not consider fit to live with the dogs that guard my flocks’ (Job 30:1-4).
He who wishes to acquire the anger that is in accordance with nature must uproot all self-will, until he establishes within himself the state natural to the intellect.” Continue reading “On Guarding the Intellect 1”
