4.17- Many of these principles I have seen lived out in the families I know.

 4.17-

Many of these principles I have seen lived out in the families I know.

1.       Private, secret, between you and your Father in heaven is the best kind of prayer.

2.       Do not worry. Do not let your heart be troubled. Control your thinking and your emotions.

3.       Do not pursue money, pursue serving with excellence.  We are born with a longing in our hearts for a beautiful world.  A wisdom writer about 3,000 years ago wrote that we are born with eternity in our hearts.

Art stops us in our tracks because of our attraction to beauty.  I had a friend return from Israel and one of the things that captured him the most was a giant mural in a chapel which captured the moment when a woman needed Jesus’ help and reached out and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment.  The artist, Daniel Cariola had captured and shared this beauty.  Beauty reminds us of the difference between the world we live in and the one we can imagine and envision on a good day.

We should pay attention to the places that deeply move us.  Emotionally full moments.  I live in the suburbs of Fort Worth but thankfully I am surrounded by small farms near me with horses, cows and sheep.  As I drive I see these pastoral scenes and I am transfixed.

We had downpours in Denver when our grandsons were visiting us in the summer and they would launch ice cream sticks in the water filled streets and watch them go down the river. I was mesmerized.

Children are trigger points of joy and enchantment.

These are moments of communion with the creator of the universe.

Older people feel this often because life is so fragile.

We have become so afraid of bittersweet moments that we miss the reception of joy in times of deep loss.  Facing times of big transition gets us into the frame of mind to look beyond this vale of tears to the joy on the other side of death.

We became calloused when use a moment of sadness and loss to label people as losers instead of using the moment to embrace them and feel their sense of loss and mourning.

We have a failure to connect with each other in times of need.  We might have students going to great schools where there is some picture given of effortless perfection that others seem to have.  The right body type, the right skin color the right hair and the right mind and heart and emotions and the right house and car and the next thing you know that person you thought was perfect is having thoughts of suicide.  We can feel so alone when we are in a state of mourning and loss.

We can connect to transcendent moments by writing.  Jesus wrote in the dirt once when a person was being attacked by other people.  Could it be that it was to help himself to think deeply about how to connect with the situation and respond correctly in the most loving way.  Social media smiles have multiplied this problem among youth.

4. Do not judge others. Work on developing your own best life.

5.       Focus giving your heart and soul to those who will handle it with interest and respect.

6.       Ask, seek and knock.

7.       Sow the seeds of what you want to happen by making these things happen for others.

8.       Take the road less traveled.

9.       Look at the life of those whose children love them and follow them and their ways.  These are the  more healthy, honest, secure and loving people.

10.   Teachers reproduce what they are.

11.   It is not what people say that counts, but what they do. Jesus Matthew 6,7