Have a Little Faith...

Need a good book to read? I finished one this summer that I truly enjoyed by the author, Mitch Albom, who also wrote, “Tuesdays with Morie.” I picked it up at my parents’ house…thank you to my sister-n-law, who does not even know that I have it, for letting me borrow it. I am really enjoying it. Probably a good book to read at this phase of my life. 

It is not often that I want to highlight a book as I read it..this is one that I am jotting down all of my favorite phrases as I read…here are a few…

Faith is about doing. You are how you act, not just how you believe.

Mom, you're not listening with your eyes.

Jesus - 

He lifts me up.

He rearranges me. 

He repositions me. 

By myself, I’m no good…

But he makes all the difference.

That kind of love - the kind you realize you already have by the life you created together, that’s the kind that lasts. 

Because the word commitment has lost its meaning. 

I’m old enough to remember when it use to be a positive. 

A committed person was someone to be admired. He was loyal and steady. 

Now a commitment is something you avoid. You don’t want to tie yourself down. 

It’s the same with faith, by the way. We don’t want to get stuck having to go to services all the time, or having to follow all the rules.We don’t want to commit to God. 

We’ll take Him when we need Him, or when things are going good. 

But real commitment? 

That requires staying power - in faith and in marriage. 

But we do have a home, we just don’t have a house to put it in. 

God and the decision he renders is correct. 

God doesn’t punish anyone out of the blue. 

God knows what he is doing. 

“What profits a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?” - Jesus

We can take nothing with us.

The secret to happiness:

Be Satisfied,

Be Grateful,

For what you have. 

For the love you receive.

And for what God has given you.

Why are you here? 

To give to others,

To celebrate God,

and enjoy and honor the world I was put in. 

Prayer for mornings…Thank you, Lord for returning my soul to me. 

Our faith tells us to do charitable acts and to aid the poor in the community, that is being righteous, no matter who you help.

The genius of life is its variety. 

When you give, you get. 

I believe there is goodness in man.

Because one thing God gave us - and I’m afraid it’s at times a little too much - is free will. Freedom to choose. I believe he gave us everything we needed to build a beautiful world, if we choose wisely. 

The same things in life can be good or evil, depending on what, with free will, we do with them.

Speech can bless or curse.

Money can save or destroy.

Science can heal or kill.

Even nature can work for you or against you:

Fire can warm or burn;

Water cans sustain life or flood it away.

But nowhere in the story of Creation do we read the word ‘bad.’ God did not create bad things. 

Because, from the beginning, God said, ‘I’m gonna put this world into your hands. If I run everything, then that’s not you.’ So we were created with a piece of divinity inside of us, but with this thing called free will, and I think God watches us every day, lovingly, praying we will make the right choices.

The story of my recent life…because we get so many lives between birth and death. 

A life to be a child.

A life to come of age. 

A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality - and, in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization. 

Maybe all you get are chances to do good, and what little bad you do ain’t much bad at all. But because God has put you in the position where you can always do good, when you do something bad - it’s like you let God down. 

What is there that forgiveness cannot achieve? - Vidura

You know what I have found over the years? When I had a disagreement with someone, and they came to talk to me, I always began by saying, ‘I’ve thought about it. And in some ways maybe you’re right. 

Which is why our sages tell us to repent exactly one day before we die.

But how do you know it’s the day before you die?

Exactly.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Where do you go from God? He’s everywhere.