A very well known biblical saying with lots of meaning is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Such a practical life strategy because it gives us a reminder to take 100% responsibility for our actions so that the consequences will be a reward. The only difficulty is that denial is a human shortcoming which fools us into thinking that our behaviour is appropriate when sometimes it is not. Then we are surprised at the reactions we get from people and can feel victimised when that happens because we think we didn’t deserve what was dished out to us.
my adult children are my pride and joy
so at times when their behaviour is
what I consider somewhat dysfunctional
I mention my observations as carefully as possible
as I expect of them in return, should it be necessary
and then I reflect about what I had ever done
which role modelled such behaviour because
it is easy to think I hadn’t
maybe I did and maybe I didn’t
nevertheless as a parent I am reminded of
do unto others as you would
have them do unto you
and the consequences come back to
either bite or reward us
Thanks Paul, for the information where to find that saying because although I am not religious I do believe there are wise sayings in the bible and people would do well to use them. They are very practical suggestions which the 12 Step program uses, even though it is not a religious program it is a spiritual one instead, which also consists of eastern and western philosophy and psychology.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” — Jesus (ca. 5 BCE—33 CE) in the Gospels, Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31, Luke 10:25
which part of the bible says the quote you gave above?
Unfortunately, there is very little practical wisdom that is being taught in the christian faith nowadays. The emphasis appear to be on worship of God. And we become convince that belief is more important than our deeds. It runs contradictory to human experience that we get what we deserve and not what we desire. The bibilical teaching that ‘we reap what we sow’ should instead be emphasised. That we are responsible for our actions and that we will get good if we do good. This is not just confined to the idea that we go to heaven if we do good but also in the kind of life we end up living.We are living the kind of life of now because of our actions of the past and the actions we perform today will determine the kind of life we will be living in the future.And u are right, if we live a life trying to bite someone else, we will always end up with a fight. So the attitude(and thots) we choose to adopt and the actions we take from our attitude will determine if we will experience pain and suffering. More of this wisdom in my blog at http://www.selfwisdom.blogspot.com
Dear Affie!
Great thoughts about life strategy connected to bible saying. That seems to be very simple, but in real life…:-)
And thanks for leting me know to use my photo.
Your blog is very useful and also nicely designed.
Ales