THREE GREAT PRINCIPLES TO
LIVE BY
Jane told me a great story
about a 98-year-old yoga teacher—the oldest in the world. She’s been teaching
yoga for 58 years and at age 80 she decided she wanted to do something else as
well, so she took up ballroom dancing. The woman is healthy, flexible,
energetic and delightful. She said she lives by three main principles:
1. Never be negative
2. Don’t judge
3. Every day say: “This is going to be the best day of my
life.”
I started practicing these
the first week of April. At first it was really hard, especially the last one:
Every day say: “This is going to be the best day of my life.” I felt like I was
being a hypocrite. My heart wasn’t into it. But I did it. Then I did it the
next couple days and really amazing things happened: 1. I got to talk to my niece
about spiritual things for the first time. 2. I got to pray for a friend’s
mother. They thought she’d had a stroke, but it turned out to be something else
and she was okay. 3. I got a new revelation about humility. Every day something
happened.
On Saturday of the first
week, I didn’t feel like getting up. I had some bad dreams and was feeling some
dread about the day. But before I got out of bed, I made myself say: “I’m going
to have a great day, the best day of my life.” Honestly I said it more out of
hope than really believing it. I went on to say I wasn’t going to be negative
and I wasn’t going to judge. Then I got up. That was the day I got to rescue a young
German shepherd dog and return him to his very happy owners. This stuff is
amazing! I did have a great day.
These three life-giving principles
are documented in God’s Word. One place the first principle (Never be negative)
is found, is in Romans 8:28, where it says: “And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose.” How can ALL things work together for good?
The context of this verse is talking about
speaking in tongues: “making intercession for the saints according to the will
of God” (Rom. 8:27). When we speak in tongues, we can always know that we are
doing a positive thing and it is always for good. We can’t speak negative about
people when we are speaking in tongues, because the Spirit of God Himself is
directing the words.
God may show us something that seems negative
about a person but it’s not so that we start gossiping about them or
bad-mouthing their actions. The reason the Lord makes us aware of bad things is
so that we will pray for His intervention. And if we know how to speak in
tongues, the Bible says it’s perfect prayer (Romans 8:26), so we don’t even
have to know exactly what to pray for, just that we can pray and God hears and
answers.
To choose to take the high road and never be
negative has certainly worked for this 98-year-old yoga teacher. Since it’s one
of those eternal truths from God’s Word, it will work for us as well, no matter
how hard it may be at first and then also to maintain it. But we can do it.
The second principle this woman lives by is: Don’t
judge. Simply put, the Lord Jesus said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matt. 7:1). Only God really knows the heart of a
man or a woman, so we don’t need to guess and we certainly shouldn’t be
judging. It takes us down the rabbit hole to a bad place. We just aren’t smart
enough to know all the factors in any person’s life, so we need to let the
judging stay with God. Again, this is one that takes practice, but it will help
us to live a much happier and longer life.
The third
principle is: Every day say: “This is going to be the best day of my life.” Psalm
118:24 says: “This is the day which the Lord hath made;
we will rejoice and be glad in it.” This is what God says, so we need to
start saying the same. God knows what He’s talking about. God is telling us we
can rejoice and be glad every single day.
For most people,
these three principles will take true discipline. If we really want to be
disciples of the Lord, we need to start practicing these three things daily. They
will first become a habit and if we continue, a true life style, the style of
life that is richly fulfilling, the way God intended.
Take the challenge
with me. See you at 98!
Here’s a link, if
you want to see more about this oldest yoga teacher on record. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u76yQEdflVM
Love, Carolyn
Buy my first WINGS book if you haven’t
read it yet. IT WILL BLESS YOU AND ME TOO!
No comments:
Post a Comment