Guiding Principles

What is the main source of your guiding principles?

  • My family

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • My religion

    Votes: 1 5.6%

  • Personal Study

    Votes: 4 22.2%

  • Personal Experience and Reflection

    Votes: 11 61.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 1 5.6%
  • Total voters
    18
lunamoth

lunamoth

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Do you feel that you have one or a few guiding principles in your life?

What are they?

Have they changed over time?

Where do they come from? (see poll)

Do you have a routine practice such as daily reading, meditation or prayer?


feeling curious today,
lunamoth
 
i think they have changed over time or should say the impact of each has changed depending on the period in my life. i am still influenced by them all but i think the greater lately is personal study & experience in the Holy Ghost- the latter never changes & it is awesome:) .

i suppose i am a rare case & i was blessed with some very good, caring teachers & i paid attention to them. my founding principals in Jesus & the Bible have not changed for my entire life except for maybe 1% for a margin to allow for adjustments through trial & error in my life & that comes in segments.

i have had routines in the past & then there have been years where every extra minute is devoted to prayer & topic bible study.

i think my greatest guiding prinicipal as of lately is when i have all my questions written down ( i get up a nice long list) then take them to my Pastor for some kind of guidance or answer. sometimes he gives some real good answers that add up & sometimes he does not know the answer & i just get multiple choice answers or possibilities.

the gutt feeling in situations, if it is strong enough can also be a good source of guidance.
 
Really for me, it's a combonations of personal study, personal experience, and my religious orientation. In my young naive years, spiritually I was primarly influenced my the teachings of my church (fundamental Baptist), but over the years my views have evolved redically through personal study and personal exerience/meditation. I have definitely felt a stronger presence of the Lord over the years (off and on). I visited and became a member of several churches somewhat off the vein of the mainline Baptist circles. Through study of biblical and extrabiblical sources, I have expanded my understanding of God and my spiritual perspective have been modified. Suffice to say, I don't think I would be allowed to preach at a Baptist church if given free rein of speech. My view with other religions has changed as well. I find my self more tolerant and free from the burden of trying to "save" everyone not of the same faith, for i believe God hears all who call upon Him. I think God wants us to try and save those who aren't particularly seeking God (of any persuasion) or whose lives need help here in day to day matters.
 
Thank you Bandit and Dondi for being brave enough to jump into this thread. After posing my questions I realized how difficult it is to answer them, especially the poll since there is so much overlap in where we get our principles. Having thought about it for a few hours now I realize that I can say a few things that tend to guide my life these days, some that I've held for a long time and some that are more recent.

Try to accept and love people the way they are, including myself.

Pray daily.

Show up (be physically and mentally present for everything I commit to), and listen more than I speak (hard to do!).

Leave it better than I find it.

Education is never wasted because knowledge is one thing no one can ever take from you.

Be patient.

That's more than a few and of course it is hardly all. I guess it is just too difficult to put everything into a bumper sticker slogan, although I've always liked the saying "Truth and Honor." Gets at integrity, which is a trait I value highly.

I think that my guiding principles have changed over time, become less focused on self. I think that this is due to the event in my life when I decided to turn back to God and religion. But, looking over the principles I chose I have to say that I think most of them came from my family and personal experience and reflection. Since the poll only lets me pick one I'm going to say experience and reflection.

I try to keep a daily prayer routine that includes some time for meditation/contemplation. It's about 45 minutes or so in the evening after the girls go to bed and I'm pretty good at sticking to it unless major things come up that drain my time during the day. Then I'm just too tired and distracted at night to meditate.

peace,
lunamoth
 
I think the do onto others/golden rule discussions were embedded by my parents.... and they are quite valuable today and try to discuss same with my children and others..

Also finding out these lessons are about me...not needing to foist them on others...that personal responsibility and mirror issue...tis me that needs to grow is painful sometimes....wouldn't it be nice to blame again?

I gotta say since I only get to pick one it is parents...they were the examples, they provided the spring board, they insisted we think for ourselves...

the rest, personal experience, church, readings, revelations...all would be so different without that foundation.

Namaste Lunamoth, thanx for asking the introspection is valuable.
 
I'm very impressed with the way this pole is looking, Personal Experience and Reflection winning and no votes for religion!

I suppose that most people (myself certainly included) choose a religion to suit his/her moral beliefs rather than adjusting moral beliefs to blindly follow a religion.

Fantastic!

Peace
@5
 
i have to give my family credit as well. through the years, especially my parents, brothers, grandparents & all the family on my moms side actually all believe the same things & we see it all eye to eye. i cant really think of too much as far as the bible where there are any disagreements on... & that is neat to me because it show a tight family with some unity.

i cant really claim religion that way because my church is an independant free standing church not attached to an institution. so i guess that is why i would always say Jesus & the bible is my religion & i am proud & thankful to say so.

as for the golden rule, i never really heard it taught that way until the last few years, (not sure how i missed that) but i must have gotten it from the scripture in different ways & it has just always been a part of me since i can remember, without thinking twice.

i have to give myself some credit here for reading & studying on my own & listening to others. i dont think i would have graduated to the experiences with the Lord without my own personal studies. it took those studies (for me from the scriptures) then apply them, to get to know how to pray & what to pray for, learn how good obedience is, & how to walk by faith, thus enabling the reality of all this.

it is interesting to see how they intertwine at different times in life & are all always there!:)
 
I selected 'other'.

I would have picked 'all of the above' if that option was present. Even 'my religion' since I was raised a Roman Catholic. The old 'do unto others...' stuck with me, as did Jesus' fight for the poor, weak, and dispossesed.

My parents certainly shaped my 'guiding principles' most strongly as a child. I try to treat all people with respect because I was taught that I should. I was taught that colour, sex, sexuality, and belief made people different, but still the same and no better or worse and deserving of equal treatment. Why? Because I would like the same.

I was taught not to belief everything I was told by people and to ask questions. I think this may have been the precursor for my political and philisophical skepticism.

Reflection, of course, plays a big part in modifying my convictions from day to day and study help me introduce new ones.
 
I too must echo what Wil has said. The foundations, that first line of build, determines to a large extent all that follows. But they are not the whole structure and its what every person should cherish the most that makes me what I am....the ability to question.

I've been absent a few weeks, can only say its wonderful to be back and reading your thoughts once more :)

Regards

TE
 
Tao_Equus said:
I too must echo what Wil has said. The foundations, that first line of build, determines to a large extent all that follows. But they are not the whole structure and its what every person should cherish the most that makes me what I am....the ability to question.

I've been absent a few weeks, can only say its wonderful to be back and reading your thoughts once more :)

Regards

TE
Click to expand...

Noticed your absence, TE. Glad you are back!

lunamoth
 
It took me a while to figure out what I thought--more specifically, to reconcile science and spirit--but I have my thoughts set now.

I believe that God is the force of creation, the force leading to life in the universe. It is perfectly compatible with the laws of physics, and I refrain from believing anything that contradicts the laws of the physical universe itself.

The soul does exist. Heaven and hell do not exist per se, but the soul continues to cycle.

Life and progress are good, destruction and lack of life are evil. God is the force against entropy. By aiding that struggle, we do good.

A reader's digest version of my beliefs.
 
Jaiket said:
I would have picked 'all of the above' if that option was present.
Click to expand...

Hi Jaiket,

From your and others' comments I think that an 'all of the above' catagory would have won the poll. It is interesting to see people's responses when forced to choose! I am interested that experience seems to be winning out over study. We are hardly cool and impartial when it comes to setting our personal ethics!

cheers,
lunamoth
 
newdeism said:
It took me a while to figure out what I thought--more specifically, to reconcile science and spirit--but I have my thoughts set now.

I believe that God is the force of creation, the force leading to life in the universe. It is perfectly compatible with the laws of physics, and I refrain from believing anything that contradicts the laws of the physical universe itself.

The soul does exist. Heaven and hell do not exist per se, but the soul continues to cycle.

Life and progress are good, destruction and lack of life are evil. God is the force against entropy. By aiding that struggle, we do good.

A reader's digest version of my beliefs.
Click to expand...

Hi Newdeism, welcome to CR. :)

Interesting set of beliefs--how did you decide upon these?

peace,
lunamoth
 
lunamoth--ty for the welcome, I'll try to explain.

I try to use Occam's razor when thinking about major things like this.
The most simple explanation, the one that makes sense, that's rational, seems like it'll be the right one.

Does it seem more likely that there is a complicated set of ethics governing the morality of every form of life in the universe (10 commandments, 5 pillars, etc), or a more simple code? I would say that God could be cut out of the loop entirely, except that there's the issue of free thought. There has to be something more than physical matter when the matter of thought is involved.

In terms of a Godhead, is it more likely that God is a manifested being, as a physical being that manifested itself and died for us, or as a force, a fundamental force. Not only does God not exist per se, it can affect everything.

A God that existed in a set form, or even with an at all-complicated set of ethics, would be a totally unbalanced concept--why, of all the life on all the worlds, would a Godhead take the shape of a human male? It wouldn't fit.

My evidence for a God of this form is just anecdotal. Life exists. Life perpetuates itself. Entropy exists, entropy is balanced by the force towards life--life in the sense of order, not just of life as a biological matter.

It makes sense to me--and I can believe it, not just have faith in it. For me, that is the key.
 
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