7 Spiritual Skills that are Super Important Right Now
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Stand up for absolute truth
The world is on a mission to neutralize all “truth” as being equal—to create a world in which we all can believe whatever we want and we can call all of it true. The Bible tells us that Jesus is “the way, and the truth, and the life” and that He is the ultimate manifestation of truth and the only way one can get to heaven (John 14:6).We must understand that truth, by its own nature, is exclusive. Otherwise, truth is nonexistent.
“if you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything”
Walk personally with God.
I believe that living a life of dependence upon God is not a sign of weakness but a sign of true manliness. We were created by Go walk with him.
The New International Version Chapter 6
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly j with your God.
Be responsible and dependable
As a man we need to take 100% responsibility of our lives.
We need to be accountable for our words, actions, and commitments. We can’t make excuses or blame others.
You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.
Manage your time wisely.
Some boys who’ve become grown men are still spending more time playing video games than investing in their own families. This is a problem, regardless of what the time-stealing culprit is. A wise man recognizes that he is a steward of the time he has been given and he most likely learned that lesson young.
Make a to do list, follow through. You don’t want to look back and wonder where the time went. Use your time wisely.
Strive to have healthy relationships.
Nothing will affect us more than our closest relationships. And nothing has the ability to make or break us more than how we handle those relationships. But we live in a society that is so broken when it comes to relationships.
Who are letting into your life?
Every man needs someone who knows the good, the bad and the ugly.
Forgive
In the book Why Forgive?, a young New York police officer in 1986 is shot by a teenager in Central Park. In response to the incident that left him paralyzed, he said, “I forgave him because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart.”
There are two guarantees in life—you will get hurt by others and others will get hurt by you. Because of this, the power of forgiveness is needed in every close relationship that we have. Choosing forgiveness is optional, but suffering the consequences of unforgiveness is not.
“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Lewis B. Smedes
Forget
Be a man who refuses to be defined by your past. Allow the past to stay there.
Not because you can ever truly forget what has happened in the past, but because you as a man have chosen to allow yourself to focus on the rest of your life, to live again, to love again, and to trust again, despite the pains of the past.
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” – Paul Lewis Boese
Let Go
Be a man who is willing to give second chances.
A great example of this is a man named Chris Williams. In February 2007, Chris and his family were hit by a 17-year-old drunk driver. His 11 & 9-year-old son and daughter were killed instantly, and he watched as his pregnant wife took her final breath. Chris was himself badly injured and barely able to move. But before help had even arrived to rescue him, he said that he had this thought, “Whoever has done this to us, I forgive them. I don’t care what the circumstances were; I forgive them.” And now to this day, he has publicly forgiven the young man who killed his family and even developed a relationship with him.
Those who are willing to let go relinquish their desire to punish the other person. They refuse to hold a grudge or bring up past hurts. This is the person who has found the freedom in forgiveness. Because letting go through forgiveness is us at our best when others have been at their worst.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” – Jesus
No man is happy and successful simply because they’ve had an easy or problem-free life. In fact, the people who’ve been most terribly hurt can also be the most genuinely happy. Why? Because they’ve made a choice. Hurts are a part of life, especially within the family. But happiness can also be a part of life if you choose to live by these spiritual skills.