Ten Other Good Rules to Live by

We are now six days into the new year. Have you broken your New Year’s resolutions yet?

Many people make new goals for the new year. But more often than not, their good intentions are too grandiose to fulfill and wind up broken before January is over--maybe even before the first week in January is finished.

Instead of big goals, may I suggest 10 smaller daily goals? If practiced by people of faith, they would help us concentrate on the important things in life rather than being ruled by the urgent things.

Some ideas seem more spiritually based than others, but each has the potential to affect our lives from the spiritual to the physical.

1. Pray. No other significant relationship we have would survive if we gave it as little time as many of us give in prayer to God. When Jesus taught us to pray, he said we ought to ask for our “daily bread,” not our weekly or monthly bread. Like the manna in the wilderness, we can’t stock up on prayer. If we only pray for our daily bread, then we’ll need to pray again tomorrow for that day’s bread, and the next day and the day after that.

2. Read. One of the best ways to sharpen our hearts and minds is by a good intake of positive information. And the best way to do that is one of the oldest ways. Start by reading the Bible daily. (Three pages a day will get you through the whole Bible in a year.) Then read other good books that sharpen our minds and uplift our hearts and spirits.

3. Worship God through music. There’s something about music that cuts past the filters we set up in our brain and gets straight through to the heart. Singing in church on Sunday is a good start, but we need to use those CD and tape players in our cars and homes to soak ourselves in music that praises God and draws our attention to spiritual things all through the week. (By the way, if you sing along, you get bonus points, and if you can play an instrument, even better.)

4. Give something away. A generous heart is a happy heart. What can you give--of your time, money or material possessions--today that will bless someone else?

5. Live on a budget. Most of us spend our money as it comes in (or before it comes in). Taking the time to discipline ourselves with our money means more freedom in the long run. It allows us to give when we see a need, rather than just wishing we could do something.

6. Save something. After we have budgeted (actually, as we are budgeting), we need to save something. Even the smallest amounts, if saved consistently, can add up to great sums--and with it, great financial freedom.

7. Throw something away. We live in the only society in the world that keeps a $25,000 car in the driveway so we can fill our garage with useless junk. Simplifying our lives by reducing clutter is a good way to help us feel less busy, less confused and less reliant on our stuff. Virtually every great spiritual leader, from Jesus to John Wesley to Gandhi to Mother Teresa, lived and taught the importance of a more simplified life in regards to material possessions.

8. Write. Remember that book you’ve always dreamed of writing? It won’t get written unless you sit down and start typing. And if you do just a little every day, you’ll have a lot done before you know it. If you’re not a great writer, start a journal. Writing sharpens our minds by clarifying our thoughts. And it can be a great way to look back and see the progress we’ve made in our lives spiritually, emotionally and intellectually.

9. Write a thank-you note. Somebody did something today that deserves a thank-you. And few things will be remembered or appreciated as much as a hand-written thank-you note. A phone call or an e-mail is OK too, but only those hand-written notes get tacked onto bulletin boards or saved in scrapbooks.

10. Exercise. If we want to honor God, help others and live well, we need a healthy body in which to do it. Keeping our bodies moving is a great first step toward having a healthy body, heart, mind and spirit.

Karl Vaters is pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley.

On Faith is a forum for Orange County clergy and others to offer their views on religious topics of general interest. Submissions, which will be published at the discretion of The Times and are subject to editing, should be delivered to Orange County religion page editor William Lobdell.