I enjoyed reading Og Mandino’s seventeen rules for a better way of life.
Two favorites that jumped off the page:
Rule Six
Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance.
Rule Eight
Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!
I read rule eight as a friendly reminder to make space for spiritual progress in our schedule. We must not let opportunity to grow and expand as individual expressions of God get crowded out by the menial and mundane demands of materialism.
Life is not a to-do list. Life should be a spiritual experience that has us soaring through the heights of Mind bouncing from one glorious revelation of Truth to the next.
In the long run, it’s not how much money we make that counts or the people we impress. It’s our spirituality that matters. Spirituality is the one thing that stays with us as we trek down the road of Life, and it is the only thing we’ll have to show for our efforts when held accountable for our time. Everything else is as a shadow in the night.
You may enjoy reading Mandino’s 15 other rules for a better way of life.
Perfect timing. I came home from work last night feeling “cumbered about” with a long to-do list that included reading a huge stack of Sentinels and Journals that I hadn’t had time to look at.
That item was way down the list, but something told me to dive in and start reading anyway, so I curled up on my favorite chair and read for four hours. I’d been feeling anxious about the election, and — wouldn’t you know — one of those Sentinels was all about politics.
Normally, on an election night, I’d be watching returns come in and agonizing over the suspense. Last night, I read peacefully until 11:30 p.m. and then calmly got online to see how the election had turned out. For the most part, my favorite candidates had won.
I don’t know that I can spend four hours studying every night (that “Martha work” does have to be completed sometime!) but I am not inclined to put prayerful study so far down my to-do list again. Thanks for the timely reminder.
Thanks,Evan, for sharing Og Mandino’s Seventeen rules. I read them all and will keep them close by.