Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Personal Ideals

Good Morning, Dear Friends and Prayer Partners! This is the cloudy day that the Lord has made and we will rejoice and be glad in it!

Due to a squeaky mouse that would not do anything this morning, I shut the PC off and made breakfast, and now the PC works!

From the book Quiet Moments:

Micah 6:8 "He has shown you, O man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."

What do you hold to be your personal ideals--the qualities you consider to be foremost in defining good character?

This is what Sir William Osler once said about his own ideals.

"I have three personal ideals. One, to do the day's work well and not to bother about tomorrow...The second ideal has been to act the Golden Rule, as far as in me lay, toward my professional brethren and toward the patients committed to my care. And the third has been to cultivate such a measure of equanimity as would enable me to bear success with humility, the affection of my friends without pride, and to be ready when the day of sorrow and grief come to meet it with the courage befitting a man."

A speech teacher once assigned her students to give a one sentence speech, entitled "What I Would Like My Tombstone to Read". The class told her later that the assignment was one of the most challenging assignments they had ever received. In virtually every case, the students saw a great discrepancy between the way they lived their lives and the way they desired their lives to be perceived by others.

This morning, give some thought to what you hold to be the characteristics of a respected life. What do you aspire to in your own character?

As you identify these traits, you can then see more clearly how you desire to live your life and what must change in order to live up to your ideals.

Fame is vapor.
Popularity an accident.
Riches take wings.
Only one thing endures
and that is character.
Horace Greeley

I always give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers with thanksgiving, joy and love!

Love and hugs,
Amaryllis (16 and counting)