I have been reflecting on the "ideals" of character-building. Principles which we strive for that are opposite of our go-to passionate instincts (if you will, sins).
With writing being my first real talent, I am in love with words (which incidentally is entirely unrelated to actually being able to pronounce them). I generally don't write a piece without my thesaurus tab being open. The Spirit has been leading me to do what I maybe should have done long ago, though that probably isn't really true. I am confident that God places in our hearts to be where He wants when He wants and all is in His due time.
After encouragement over the past couple of months, I am now diligently looking at the major obstacles in my character that prevent a full life. In checking on words to denote ideals I would like to practice, a word I came upon was "Calm". I then of course dug in a little deeper to find synonyms for calm, especially since I intuitively knew that wasn't the word that best described the noun that I would like to turn into a verb.
Lo and behold I came across the word "cheer", and immediately recalled one of Jesus' most famous and beautiful saying, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." (John 16.33). I immediately visited the online interlinear Bible and saw that the original word used in Greek is "Courage". A little more digging (this one took a bit more work), I saw that a synonym for "cheer" is "encourage". I thus concluded that the ideal I am seeking is to be courageous.
I don't believe that we can ever really change for the better without identifying the point of corruption in our beings that cause systemic collapse. I knew there were factors in my life that were unacceptable and I with all earnestness addressed them but only at opportune moments. It is rather in the silence of the heart and the mundanity of living where we really transform. Now that I have an ideal which I have identified and understand, I expect a growth spurt from new seeds.
With writing being my first real talent, I am in love with words (which incidentally is entirely unrelated to actually being able to pronounce them). I generally don't write a piece without my thesaurus tab being open. The Spirit has been leading me to do what I maybe should have done long ago, though that probably isn't really true. I am confident that God places in our hearts to be where He wants when He wants and all is in His due time.
After encouragement over the past couple of months, I am now diligently looking at the major obstacles in my character that prevent a full life. In checking on words to denote ideals I would like to practice, a word I came upon was "Calm". I then of course dug in a little deeper to find synonyms for calm, especially since I intuitively knew that wasn't the word that best described the noun that I would like to turn into a verb.
Lo and behold I came across the word "cheer", and immediately recalled one of Jesus' most famous and beautiful saying, "Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world." (John 16.33). I immediately visited the online interlinear Bible and saw that the original word used in Greek is "Courage". A little more digging (this one took a bit more work), I saw that a synonym for "cheer" is "encourage". I thus concluded that the ideal I am seeking is to be courageous.
I don't believe that we can ever really change for the better without identifying the point of corruption in our beings that cause systemic collapse. I knew there were factors in my life that were unacceptable and I with all earnestness addressed them but only at opportune moments. It is rather in the silence of the heart and the mundanity of living where we really transform. Now that I have an ideal which I have identified and understand, I expect a growth spurt from new seeds.
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