God
Faith
While I was praying a couple of nights ago, the Holy Spirit told me to study the virtues. So I hopped over to my laptop, did some research, and wrote up the below reference sheet:
This has already helped me a ton! I was frustrated by something very recently, and a church friend told me the same thing my friend Jim has been saying, just in different words: her way of putting it was to let the Holy Spirit guide me, and if I'm allowing that to happen then I needn't worry beyond that.
As I was putting the above sheet together, I realized that I was lacking in all of these to varying degrees, but in some far more than others. And it's those shortfalls which are causing me to, for instance, exhibit anger after a frustrating experience rather than meekness. That's just one example, there are others.
Also as I was praying that night, words rapidly formed in my head. I reached for the pencil as quickly as I could and jotted them down, unsure if they meant anything meaningful or not.
Most of these seem self-explanatory, but I was confused by a couple of them. Number 6, be a parent to all? I suppose that's some variance of helping shepherd people towards God? Number 9, the seeking death one is interesting, I took that metaphorically-- replace "death" with "sin".
But the last one, number 11, totally stumped me-- I might ask my priest friend if it means anything to him. I may have also written it down backwards: maybe it was "prophecy over tradition"? That one came very fleetingly, not sure if I "heard" it properly. It may just be gibberish too.
This has already helped me a ton! I was frustrated by something very recently, and a church friend told me the same thing my friend Jim has been saying, just in different words: her way of putting it was to let the Holy Spirit guide me, and if I'm allowing that to happen then I needn't worry beyond that.
As I was putting the above sheet together, I realized that I was lacking in all of these to varying degrees, but in some far more than others. And it's those shortfalls which are causing me to, for instance, exhibit anger after a frustrating experience rather than meekness. That's just one example, there are others.
Also as I was praying that night, words rapidly formed in my head. I reached for the pencil as quickly as I could and jotted them down, unsure if they meant anything meaningful or not.
- Condemn those who lie.
- Pursue truth and light.
- Exhort others to sin no more.
- Wield God as sword and shield.
- Pursue virtue as the path to righteousness.
- Be a parent to all but with the humility of a child.
- Love the sinner.
- Strive for reconciliation.
- Woe to those who seek death.
- Experience rebirth into new light.
- The foolhardy value tradition over prophecy.
Most of these seem self-explanatory, but I was confused by a couple of them. Number 6, be a parent to all? I suppose that's some variance of helping shepherd people towards God? Number 9, the seeking death one is interesting, I took that metaphorically-- replace "death" with "sin".
But the last one, number 11, totally stumped me-- I might ask my priest friend if it means anything to him. I may have also written it down backwards: maybe it was "prophecy over tradition"? That one came very fleetingly, not sure if I "heard" it properly. It may just be gibberish too.