“What progress can there be for a person unconscious of their faults? Such a person has lost the fundamental element of growth, which is that there is something bigger, better, and more desirable than the condition in which they now find them self. In the soil of self-satisfaction, true growth has poor nourishment… Heaven pity the man who is unconscious of a fault! Pity them also who are ignorant of their ignorance!”~David O. MacKay (italicized to current verbiage)
I have found understanding of my own faults become more clear when interacting with others: seeing their ways (often ‘less than stellar’ ways). Seeing also habits of productive purpose for the Lord; doing good, thinking in elevated ways… all provide ready suggestions for why I am in this, my moment here of eternity. Why?… upward change towards Jesus Christ.
Another relevant saying ‘no man is an island’, suggests that to become so is to divorce myself from the very experiences I need that fit those purposes. Increasingly, I live as He did; to include becoming ‘my brother’s keeper’. Also, with such purposes in mind, I embrace Him when I embrace, without murmuring, life’s knocks (even the very hard ones we would prefer to ‘give back’) . I become closer to Him / more like Him in ways that He can elevate my thinking and discipline. I embrace more deeply true principles including covenants of faith (in Him), of repentance and more. Such God inspired self-control, elevates thinking and discipline, is where I find true joy and… life is sweet, filled with inner peace. kdm
