Showing posts with label Paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul. Show all posts

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Just Be Nice

As I go through life, I develop a list of things that I live by.  Some of them are quotes that have stuck out to me, others are learned from experience.  I call them my philosophies.  I always look for more and more each day.  One in particular I learned in High School.  I was asked how do you get through High School?  The question wasn't referring to the academic aspect of it, but the social.  My response was, "Just be nice."

Ever since then, that's been one of my philosophies: Just be nice.  It seems quite simple, but it really does work.  Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, addresses that same topic.  "Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying...And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another."  (Ephesians 29, 32).

Kindness is one of our greatest tools in life, and it's extremely contagious.  Acts of kindness are never wasted.  Keep corrupt communication stopped, and create the contagious kindness wherever you go.  Throughout all of my years, I have never once heard anyone say they wish they were a little less kind.  When you make kindness a priority, you will feel as King Benjamin's people did and "have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually."  (Mosiah 5:2).

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Greed Makes You Poorer

What's better than a great tasting Chinese Buffet?  I'll have to think pretty hard to come up with something.  I was privileged to go to a great tasting Chinese Buffet the other day.  The food was great, but of course, the finale is the fortune cookie.  More specifically, the fortune that it contains.  One fortune per customer is the usual rule of thumb, but one of the people that was with me decide to press his luck with two fortunes:  The first one had a good fortune.  The next one said, "Ignore previous cookie." 

This rather humorous experience teaches us a lot about being greedy.  When we are greedy, we shoot ourselves in the foot.  Greed is a part of all of us.  Our job is to overcome that.  We want to be able to keep our fortune that we receive. 

Paul, in a letter to the Corinthians, gives them advice as to what to be greedy for.  He writes, "But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way."  (1 Cor. 12:31).  We should be greedy for the best things.  Instead of always wanting money, or other temporal matters like that, we should always want to serve others, read our scriptures, and pray to our Father in Heaven.  We should strive to be greedy for the best gifts, and once we have them, we will have no more desire to do evil.