Practice what you preach?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Practice what you preach?
22
Sat, 12-30-2006 - 4:06pm

I spent several hours last night reading up on Pantheism--the idea that 'God' is an impersonal universal force, within all things, both living and not, versus a separate sentient being--and came across the phrase "God is a verb, not a noun" more than once.  For Pantheists, there is no set doctrine, no sacred texts... for them, all of Creation is sacred, and they worship by how they treat the rest of Creation.  It's a lifestyle more than a religion.  It got me really thinking about what I do versus what I believe... so often we tend to talk in the abstract:  "I believe..."  Yet religion is supposed to be a guideline for living. 


So I thought it'd be interesting to compare some of the ways we live what we believe.  What are some of the ways you act out your spiritual beliefs?


 






iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-03-2007 - 11:29am

I smile because a smile can unknowingly mean a lot to someone and it's free to give.


That can be huge Poppy.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-05-2004
Wed, 01-03-2007 - 5:14pm

Hi Jodi, I like how you worded your question. I am a person of Faith, yet don't think of myself as a *religious* person, although some people might say that I am based on the fact that I go to church. But it's just as you said. I believe something and I do my best to act that belief out in my everyday life.


I read my Bible, attend a church where they teach me the Bible in the way that I can




iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2003
Wed, 01-03-2007 - 7:51pm
I try to treat people the way I would want to be treated and how I feel God would want me to treat them.





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Vickie

Co cl of the Dog Training and Behavior Board

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Thu, 01-04-2007 - 1:03pm

"Yet religion is supposed to be a guideline for living. "

"So I thought it'd be interesting to compare some of the ways we live what we believe. What are some of the ways you act out your spiritual beliefs?"

On my solitary path, I have been learning how to make my spiritual path my LIFESTYLE, my daily, moment by moment, life focus. I thank trees for their beauty and shelter from the hot sun of summer. I thank the rain for cleaning the outdoors up and nourishing the trees and plants. I thank Mama Moon for being full and teaching me that life comes in phases, some more empowering or powerful, than another. I thank the seasons of the year for teaching me that life ebbs and flows, and to take the time to BE the seasons in my own Spirit.

Everyday I stand before my altar on the mantelpiece of the living room, before leaving, asking for protections and blessings, harmony and peace, healings for those who need it, prosperity, guidance for those I know who are struggling in some way. I thank the Goddess and God, too, for all that I have and experience, and the wisdom they have sent me, the guidance. Wherever I am, I feel Their presence beside me. They are only a thought away, an awareness away. They come to me all through the day. They are bubbling beneath the surface of my fluttering mind. ;))

I am learning to live from my intuition and inner perspective, less sucked into others' views or ideas. Finding myself trusting my own truth rather than assuming I am always lacking, always less than, what someone else seems to be, is or believes. I am learning not to seek validity in others, but in myself, and trusting the answers I find there. After a lifetime of being conditioned to distrust myself and my own instincts and insights, by our society and culture, and the religion I was raised within, I am making some progress, as I reach my Crone years. Perhaps that has been what this lifetime is all about for me? Learning and accepting that the truth is within me, not without in someone's teachings or philosophy or system of belief.

Practicing what I preach to me means body, mind, spirit united in focus and effort. It means BEING who I truly AM. Reflecting that out to all whom I encounter. Being true to my own Spirit.

Gypsy
)O(



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2001
Thu, 01-04-2007 - 1:09pm

"I believe that every movement, thought, word and deed effects everything else. And I'm a believer that what we concentrate on, we draw to ourselves."

VERY WISE WORDS. And I have proved this so many times in my own life, usually as to attracting the negative. ACK! A lesson I struggle with. Hmmm... I have to contradict just what I said, LOL! :D I have much good in my life, a wonderful DD, a wonderful DH of 30 years, family and friends, my MIka dog... So perhaps I have learned SOME of the lesson, eh? ;))

Gypsy
)O(



Blessings,

Gypsy

)O(



iVillage Member
Registered: 02-09-2000
Thu, 01-04-2007 - 11:58pm

Great question!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 01-05-2007 - 11:24am

I could be wrong, but I kind of had the impression that the whole helping-one-another thing is part of a lot of religions, not just Christianity


That is true Jackie... The book I'm reading right now (The Book of Hiram by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, which I highly recommend) listed the 'Golden Rule' worded 3 or 4 different ways and attributed to different religions.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-10-2004
Fri, 01-05-2007 - 5:27pm
Yeah, it's one of those "easier said than done" sort of theories!
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Registered: 02-09-2000
Fri, 01-05-2007 - 10:23pm

It's good to hear that I haven't (yet) lost my mind

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2006
Mon, 01-08-2007 - 5:09pm

I see that you practice pagan, when people sees that they automatically thinks it's a bad religion. I'm into spirituality, wicca and pagan but I don't read much and I don't practice it, it comes naturally sometime.

I want to learn more, if you have any books for me I'm open to suggestions.