10 December 2023
Two-Minute Features | 17 December 2023 | 03 December 2023

Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 3 (TMF:2245)

Friday, December 15, 2023
Peace to Live By: Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 3 (TMF:2245) - Daniel Litton
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       We give love toward our neighbors from the love we already have for ourselves. We know how to love ourselves; we know how we would want to be treated in a given circumstance. So, in following that, we do that for our neighbor. Wasn’t it Fred Rogers that had this imbedded into his wonderful TV show, ‘Mister Roger’s Neighborhood’? It was my favorite TV show as a child. I use to watch it all the time. What did Mr. Rogers always ask? “Won’t you be my neighbor?” is what he would ask the millions of children watching his show. Gee, I wonder where he got that from? We know where he got it from. We do this for others around us because we understand that we ourselves want to be included. So, if we love others, we seek to include them because we know it is what we would want. And if Mr. Rogers hadn’t taken care of himself first, taken care of his house, adorned himself with those classic sweaters, then he wouldn’t of felt like inviting anyone in, right?

Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 2 (TMF:2244)

Thursday, December 14, 2023
Peace to Live By: Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 2 (TMF:2244) - Daniel Litton
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       The reality is, though, that Jesus told us to love our neighbors ‘as’ ourselves. That is quite different than ‘instead’ of ourselves. ‘As’ versus ‘instead.’ When we love our neighbors as ourselves, this is what we do: we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Remember that saying? Indeed, the Golden Rule shows us the true meaning behind loving our neighbors ‘as’ ourselves. Really, we have to love ourselves first in order to even love our neighbors. If we were to ask any practicing psychologist today, or a person with a degree in psychology, he or she will probably tell us that this is the case. To put it another way, we can only give when we have, right? I mean, if we don’t have, we can’t give. That’s only common sense. Well, so it is with loving our neighbors. We give love toward our neighbors from the love we already have for ourselves. We know how to love ourselves; we know how we would want to be treated in a given circumstance. So, in following that, we do that for our neighbor.

Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 1 (TMF:2243)

Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Peace to Live By: Loving Our Neighbors Instead of Ourselves, Part 1 (TMF:2243) - Daniel Litton
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        Awhile back, I had a friend of whom I noticed it seemed like she spent most of her timing helping others. “What’s wrong with that? Aren’t we supposed to love others?” Certainly, we want to be of some service to others in our lives because service makes us happy and always comes back to us. We really aren’t fulfilled in life if we don’t serve in some way. But, my friend was doing it too much, at least that’s what I felt, and I told her that one day via text message. I told her I felt she was spending too much time helping others and not taking care of herself. I said to her, “Jesus said, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, not instead of ourselves.” In my opinion, this is one of the core things that helps us in our lives when we come to understand it. If you go to certain churches around the city, you will leave that church feeling like the whole point of life is to love your neighbor instead of yourself. In fact, it would seem in some places that if you’re not doing that, you're not making God happy. The reality is, though, that Jesus told us to love our neighbors ‘as’ ourselves. That is quite different than ‘instead’ of ourselves.'

Lowering the Bar of Accomplishment (TMF:2242)

Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Peace to Live By: Lowering the Bar of Accomplishment (TMF:2242) - Daniel Litton
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       When we have our bar set too high, we just make our lives miserable. We add a lot of unnecessary struggle to them. We all have different levels of accomplishment as pertains to what we feel is a finished product. Those who struggle with perfectionism are really going to have a difficult time because they like everything to be as perfect as possible. They want every ‘i’ dotted; ’t’ crossed. No room for even the slightest hint of a mistake. Any sign of a mistake means the whole is ruined for the perfectionist. But by allowing myself to deliver a sermon without going through multiple drafts, I am able to get much more accomplished with time. Sure, there may be a few spelling and grammar errors that get posted with my sermon. That’s worth it because making it near perfect would mean less sermons would get written, or less resting time for me so I am in a place where I can write better sermons! The truth is, there is usually going to be at least one error, no matter how hard you try. So, why not two, three, or four spelling or grammar errors. What’s the difference? It’s not worth an extra hour of work to get rid of those. And most people aren’t even going to notice them.

God Isn’t Limited on Resources, Part 2 (TMF:2241)

Monday, December 11, 2023
Peace to Live By: God Isn’t Limited on Resources, Part 2 (TMF:2241) - Daniel Litton
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       It used to be, in this kind of situation, that I would have put my head down, figured I’d lost an opportunity at something great, and that any other job opening that came along would never match it. The reality is, though, that even though we didn’t get this job, there is a better one out there still yet to come. As with we anything, there is always one better. The thing is, when we become too attached to something—that new job—we can build up the idea in our minds so much that we think that nothing else matches or compares to it. In effect, we deceive ourselves. That’s what strong attachment does—it deceives. The truth of the matter is that when we are not too attached to anything or anyone we can see things on their proper level of importance or glamour. We can also see that if this particular idea doesn’t come to pass as we hope, there is nothing to worry about because another new opportunity will come to us in due time. Attachment blocks new opportunity. Letting go allows new opportunity to come.