Yesterday I talked about how I tend to overthink everything (yeah, me, really) and sometimes I’ll end up in a tailspin over issues everyone else resolves easily. Combine that trait with my tendency to muse about all things spiritual and you can see where I could get myself all tied in knots.
I don’t consider myself as having revelations or anything like that, but I think my guardian angel gave me a few rules last week. At least, in my head I’ve been calling them “my guardian’s rules” even though they’re not rules and I’m not sure they came from my guardian.
Angel: “Since that’s the case, you might as well call them a fish sandwich.”
I’ll bounce this fish sandwich out to you guys, and you can tell me what you think, because it seems to work.
My guardian angel’s rules for my life
- Love God
- Do the work God wants me to do
- Forgive my enemies
- Find the image of God in everyone around me, and love that part of them
You can see why I’m hesitant to call that revelation. You just read all four of them and said, “You needed that explained to you? And you’re over age seven?”
Numbers 1 and 2 would seem to fit every human being. Number 3 is a specifically Christian commandment. Number 4 would look to be the most difficult of all four of them.
Ah, but number two, that’s where it becomes sticky. Because how do I recognize and define “the work God wants me to do”? Wars have been fought over that.
Some will try to take the easy way out by saying, “Well, it’s about the relationship,” but then what are the ground rules of the relationship? Every relationship needs ground rules, so what are the “house rules” for living in God’s house as his daughter?
Well, in my case, they’re the regulations of the Catholic Church. Others have their own different “work God gave them.” (And you’ll note the relationship is covered in Rule One.)
Primarily the work God gave me is the work of a wife and mother, and a writer, in that order. And no, there aren’t regulations for being a wife and mother either.
I like my guardian’s rules (or the fish sandwich, whatever those four statements are) and I find they simultaneously simplify matters and raise the bar.
Number 2 is my stumbling block. Number 4 is the one that makes other people look at me strangely and call me naive. Perhaps (and I’ll wait for independent confirmation) number 4 is my number 2, or at least part of it.
Number 4 is also the key to number 3. It’s like writing balanced characters, good and bad. People are a mix of good and evil, as are their actions.
I think #3 is actually the key to #4. #3 puts you in touch with the person’s humanity, and from there it’s easier to step-stone your way to seeing Divinity’s fingerprint in the person.
1. Love God
Do the work God wants me to do
Forgive my enemies
Find the image of God in everyone around me, and love that part of them
I can identify with CricketB concerning Rule 2 because I don’t know what talents or skills I have to serve in His name. Volunteering at the animal shelters doesn’t seem like enough to me, but maybe it’s the beginning of something else.
Rule 3: I can forgive my enemies, after a bit of time has passed, but I can’t seem to forget. Is that wrong? It’s like the cat who has been burned on the hot stove and will never sit on a cold stove again. I don’t want to get burned again.
On Rule 4, I on the same page with CricketB. There are some people out there, however, who will never have the image of God in them, they don’t want it, and that’s where my Guardian Angel has protected me so many times. But that’s another story for another time.
Thank you, Jane, for your thought-provoking post. Again, it came at an appropriate time.
{{{hugs}}} to you and I hope you are feeling MUCH BETTER! Get well!!!!
I need to write about the work God wants us to do, because that’s the hardest part of this whole thing. It’s figuring out where God wants our efforts directed. But each of us has a role.
You said, “some people will never have the image of God in them,” but I don’t believe that’s true. I believe the real tragedy is that everyone started with the image of God in them (as babies, if you have to go back that far), but over time through harshness, cruelty, desire to control, and self-serving behavior, they’ve whittled away at that image of God until it’s nearly (or perhaps entirely) eradicated. The tragedy is in the loss of the people they could have become as well as the people they harmed en route to becoming who they did. Maybe that’s what Hell is.
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These are beautiful! Perfect! In a nutshell, this is what God is asking of us. I read a bunch of your older posts. Couldn’t resist, you’ve got quite the sense of humor. The dog post had me in stitches 🙂 I guess God is giving us a bunch of “holy cheats”. That’s what I call them at least. You have a beautiful writing gift…a great mixture of truth, humor, and an openness to things of the Spirit. The four rules are great. Isn’t that precisely what the Lord is asking of us? I agree about rule three being the key to rule four, too. I’m going to go flit around your site a bit 🙂