Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him. ALDOUS HUXLEY
Do we experience a situation or do we get experience from a situation? Or do we do both? Can we experience something and not have it affect what we do? Most of the time when I write this small paragraph I write from experience, and I find myself using the word experience over and over. So this morning when I came across this quote it opened up a whole new avenue of thought about what experience is. I am learning one thing about experiencing different situations. I will reap what I sow. Its how I react to a situation that sows the seeds of the harvest to come. If I get uptight, you can bet I will harvest a crop of big-time uptightness. If I am passive I will harvest a crop apathy and indifference. If I accept the situation as being part of Gods creation and pray, I harvest serenity, wisdom, direction, and peace with my fellow man. Knowing where the peace and serenity come from in my life, I wonder why at times I still get uptight? Its the little ole me pushing aside Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and saying, look at me, look how big I am. The truth when it comes to God is, I cant even walk without holding His hand. God is still doing for me what I could not do for myself JRE
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WORDS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL AND JESUS
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, MY GRACE IS MADE SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christs power may rest on me. That is why, for Christs sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10 NIV
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Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations of Max and other people are, the lower is my serenity. I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But when my rights try to move in, and they too can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my rights, as well as my expectations, by asking myself, How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety? And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than anything else. I can maintain them at a higher level, at least for the time being.
Dr. Paul, from his story in Alcoholics Anonymous page, 420.
Do we experience a situation or do we get experience from a situation? Or do we do both? Can we experience something and not have it affect what we do? Most of the time when I write this small paragraph I write from experience, and I find myself using the word experience over and over. So this morning when I came across this quote it opened up a whole new avenue of thought about what experience is. I am learning one thing about experiencing different situations. I will reap what I sow. Its how I react to a situation that sows the seeds of the harvest to come. If I get uptight, you can bet I will harvest a crop of big-time uptightness. If I am passive I will harvest a crop apathy and indifference. If I accept the situation as being part of Gods creation and pray, I harvest serenity, wisdom, direction, and peace with my fellow man. Knowing where the peace and serenity come from in my life, I wonder why at times I still get uptight? Its the little ole me pushing aside Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and saying, look at me, look how big I am. The truth when it comes to God is, I cant even walk without holding His hand. God is still doing for me what I could not do for myself JRE
***********************
WORDS OF THE APOSTLE PAUL AND JESUS
To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, MY GRACE IS MADE SUFFICIENT FOR YOU, FOR MY POWER IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christs power may rest on me. That is why, for Christs sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-10 NIV
***********************
Perhaps the best thing of all for me is to remember that my serenity is inversely proportional to my expectations. The higher my expectations of Max and other people are, the lower is my serenity. I can watch my serenity level rise when I discard my expectations. But when my rights try to move in, and they too can force my serenity level down. I have to discard my rights, as well as my expectations, by asking myself, How important is it, really? How important is it compared to my serenity, my emotional sobriety? And when I place more value on my serenity and sobriety than anything else. I can maintain them at a higher level, at least for the time being.
Dr. Paul, from his story in Alcoholics Anonymous page, 420.
