New Year Resolution 2015: Speak Life to . . . Yourself

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

Most people for the New Year make "health" related resolutions. This is good because to be healthy is to be whole, or "holy".

Health: the general condition of the body or mind with reference to soundness and vigor: before 1000; Middle English helthe, Old English hǣlth. See hale1, whole, -th1 

Holy: devout, godly or virtuous: before 900; Middle English holi, Old English hālig, variant of hāl e.g.  equivalent to hāl whole + -eg -y1; cognate with Dutch, German heilig, OldNorse heilagr

One way to gauge our mental, emotional and spiritual health is to look at the quality of conversations in our relationships.  How much positive and how much negative do we deliberately speak to another?

The way we relate to others goes back to a further more causal internal motion: the dialogue we have with ourselves. 

Are we kind to ourselves or do we beat ourselves up?  

Do we love ourself in our most secret rawness?

Do we consider our own soul to be beautiful? 

Do we distract ourselves by our external accomplishments?

Do we call ourselves names?

Do we encourage ourselves?
Are we even mindful of what is in our vocabulary? 

Our thoughts are heard by God. Are we praising or damning His creation by patterns of words that go around and around?

Can we change our thoughts?

YES!!!

Watch your thoughts.
Think about the depth of your words.

SLOTH vs DILIGENCE

Grrr... one of my email accounts got hacked into over the weekend. It is stressful for me to try to minimize the damage.  I am also frustrated with all the time and energy that needs to be spent in re-securing my identity.  Without this invasion, I could be doing more things that are actually on my to do list, such as finishing my Devote Life Series.

However, this experience has provided me with two benefits:

1) It has given me immediate motivation to organize and minimize everything I have online.
2) It gives me an opportunity to extend mercy to the perpetrator via praying for his/her/their conversion/s. "Forgive us our tresspasses as we forgive those tresspasses against us" (Before you continue, I invite you to offer up a Glory Be or other preferred prayer for whoever did this.)

... thank you for your prayer.

When I get angry, it is easy for me to feel justified in remaining in my anger. Something unfair was done to me after all!!! However, I am learning more and more that anger just makes the bad situation last longer. Are these frustrating moments going to effect me two years from now? No.  So I am not going to spend another second more on a situation now out of my hands. Instead, I am going to consider sloth and it's virtue.

SLOTH:

Sloth is a sin associated with laziness.  It is apathy for both physical and spiritual duties.

Sloth is "sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds." (2,35, ad 1) - St. Thomas Aquinas

What is it's corresponding virtue?  Diligence. 

"Diligence seems to be the same as solicitude*, because the more we love[diligimus] a thing the more solicitous are we about it. Hence diligence, no less than solicitude, is required for every virtue, in so far as due acts of reason are requisite for every virtue." (1,54, ad 1) - St. Thomas Aquinas

*Solicitude is an attitude expressing excessive attentiveness: to show great solicitude about his wife's health. 

January is a great time to learn (and keep) the habit of diligence as every one seems to be focused on it to some level -- New Year's resolutions and all.

Since St.Thomas believes that it is easier to be attentive to the things we love, I am trying a new approach to tackling laziness this year. If say, I want to shed some pounds, instead of scheduling exercise times for the sake of exercising, I will instead find an activity or a goal that will require me to meet the desired level of activity.  It will be a subplot to the story of my life.

Try turning your resolutions into stories too! How? 

Take five and pray. Ask God to inspire you.  Then write down the main goals you want to accomplish before 2014. Then rewrite the goals as individual events/stories:

1st draft:  I will lose weight.

vs.

2nd draft: I will run in a marathon on (date) to raise money for (cause) that will benefit (person I know).

Because your goal is now a subplot in your life, it is easier to avoid the temptations of laziness, and it gives you a purpose beyond a mere item on an overwhelming list. 

Your Life Story - What Does It Say About You?

I just saw Les Miserables in the theaters. Shamefully, I have never read the book nor was I very familiar with the content. Entering with no bias, I walked out satisfied and inspired. 

Coupled with this short clip, 

and the advent of New Years, I have decided that I must do better. 

In Les Miserables each character was unique in his/her individual purpose, but none was devoid of suffering. In sorting through the sadness and injustices of life, each life became more defined by choices made in moments of desperation, love, hate, purposeless, and mercy. Each longed for something external to his/herself and gave oneself entirely to it.

It moved me to ponder what it is that I have dedicated my life to? What is it that I serve? Am I serving it well? What truth do I seek? And in loving others do I see the face of God?

My now and my tomorrow resolution is to do better on two accounts: 1) To treat every person in my presence as the most important person.This will require patience and much charity. 2) To learn how to recognize God everywhere and learn how to consciously untie all my moments with Him; now is all I have. If I don't give Him my nows, when will I ever? This will require silence.

My life is a story that God has put into motion according to His Goodness and Mercy. Do I freely chose to partake in it well or do I rebel? Will I hear those coveted words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant"?

Already There -- Casting Crowns

Too Inconvenient

      I do not know who wrote the following story, but it seemed appropriate as just recently, a woman who I know indirectly, despite offers of adoption, terminated the life of her child simply because pregnancy was inconvenient. 

      A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his parents from San Francisco. “Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me.” 

“Sure,” they replied, “we’d love to meet him.”

“There’s something you should know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.” 

“I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.” 

“No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”

“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.” 

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The police believed it was suicide. The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg. 

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking, or fun to have around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are. 

"180" Movie

Spiritually adopt an unborn child

     "Jesus, Mary, Joseph, I love you very much. I beg of you to spare the life of the unborn child I have spiritually adopted, who is in danger of abortion." - Archbishop Fulton Sheen

    Say this prayer every day for 9 months to save a baby’s life! http://www.spiritualadoption.org/index.html

 
"A person's a person, no matter how small." -- Dr. Seuss

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