I am aware of only two ways of living...Fear based and Faith based. Some people will argue that there are other choices, I'm not aware of them. I also believe that Faith can be in science, self, or God. Another way of writing this is negative based or positive based living. In Fear based life everything is centered around, "Do this or else......." Be good or else you will get no presents of Christmas. Obey the speed limit or else you'll get a ticket. Do your homework or else you will flunk the class. I do believe that understanding consequences is part of living either way but let me rephrase each of these as Faith based or positive statements. Be good to return to your Heavenly Father. Be good because it feels good. Follow the speed limit because I want myself and fellow drivers to enjoy the experience of sharing the roadway. Do my homework because what I am learning is so interesting I can't wait to learn more. Whenever I find a list of things not to do, I turn it around to make it a list of things to do. When I taught swimming I learned that if I hollered "Don't Run." The only message the runner heard was "RUN." However, if I hollered "WALK" they knew exactly what I expected them to do. I debated with someone one as to why the 10 commandments mostly lead with "thou shalt not." My argument is it was a shorter list. There are many many things to do right so the Lord gave the shorter list. Later the positives are given "Love the lord your God and Love thy neighbor as thyself." Positive messages to live by. In the Old Testament long before Christ was born is the following scripture:
Deuteronomy 6:5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Christ knew the Old Testament very well. He taught what was important.
I am also combing this with what I am learning from Froglogic. The popular 'feel good' positive thinking preaches "no fear exists." Froglogic
http://www.teamfroglogic.com/navy-seal-blog/do-you-embrace-your-fear/ encourages anyone to embrace their fear and use it to power their determination to over come any challenge. I am fascinated by this concept. I'll probably have a few more post on embracing your fear to use it to improve life.
3 comments:
How many parents tell their toddler "Do this..." in proportion to "Don't do that!"? The Bible is a whole life experience. Learning what not to do is part of childhood, and as one grows the focus turns to what to do.
This is so true, I find myself saying the 'not' version of something rather than saying what I expect. I think trying to phrase it so and think about what we are saying also forces a process of really understanding what we expect from ourselves and others. Great post!
Thanks Judy and TR.
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