So There You Have It

So there you have it. A seven step plan for seeking after and hopefully, obtaining good gifts in this life.

1) Gratitude
2) Forgiveness
3) Divine Purpose
4) Goal Setting with Congruence
5) Faith
6) The Sisters (Persistence and Patience)
7) Generosity

This series is something I hope you found of value. It began life as a letter of encouragement to an acquaintance in Hawaii who wanted to buy a home. By the way, that mission was accomplished. I thought I was on to something and so shared the letter with a few others for feedback. Some of this feedback was obviously valuable. Some of it annoying, but I incorporated all of it, to varying degrees into my rewrite. Then I let it sit on my hard drive for a couple of years as I continued to occasionally tweak the titles and the order of the list on a dedicated page in my Franklin Planner.

I thought this would be a good time to pull it out, dust it off , and expand it in a more general way for a specifically Christian audience. I am happy with some of the results and less than happy with others. Generally I like the content but sometimes what I have written seems too “preachy.” For example, I think there is way too much scripture in the entry on Faith. I like the story but there isn’t enough substance there to justify its length. On the other hand, I was very pleased with the idea density in the section on Goal Setting with Congruence.

Upon reflection I have decided that what I have written would generally benefit from the use of the New International Version. It is just hard for me to get the language of the King James Version out of my head after so many years. In fact, I believe that if I rewrite this again at sometime in the future for another audience, I will still keep the King James for the Psalms. It is just impossible for me to imagine any version matching the beauty and cadence of the King James for Psalms.

This process is actually something I try to use in my own life with varying degrees of success and failure. Some of it is a reflection on my own experiences, some comes from a synthesis of an enormous volume of books and articles read over many years.

I guess I would only want to leave you with a brief conclusion. The process is never ending. As you grow closer to God, you will set better goals and have more faith to achieve them. Start small and start today. Pick an item off the list that speaks to your soul and create your own order for progress.

But do something today, God bless you all.

Henry