NormsMilfordBlog

“You must make the world better by making yourself better.”  (Father Basil), as seen on the Jack’s Winning Words blog.

There are all sorts of inspirational messages that tout the positive impact of one small effort, especially if enough people make the one small effort. Web sites like Go Fund Me and Crowd Rise also make the point that enough people giving just a small amount can make a huge difference.

So, today’s saying by Father Basil, one of two Detroit guys who started a monastery in a remote spot in Michigan’s U.P. that was recently featured in a Detroit Free Press feature article, may provide us all with a small starting point to making a better world for everyone. If each of us resolved to become a better person – kinder, gentler and more caring for others – perhaps a tsunami of goodness would sweep across the world and it woud become a better place for us all.

When you think about it, our own actions are the only thing that we are really in control of anyway. We may throw money into a collection plate or mail in a donation to a worthy cause, but we don’t really have any idea how that money is used or for what good it went. If we stop and help someone who needs help because we care, we have an immediate sense of well-being from having made the effort. That effort starts with making the effort to become a better person ourselves.

In Father Basil’s world the monks become better people through a life of simplicity and prayer. Not all of us can just get up and go live in a monastery in the U.P.; however, all of us can take some time to pray each day.  Perhaps if we focused out prayer not on things or needs and upon asking for God to make us better people our worlds would become better places. Maybe if instead of asking for God to give you this or that, you could ask him to help you make better decisions in your life and do the right things. I’ve occasionally prayed when I bought a lotto ticket not that God let me win, but that if I should win that God help me do the right things with the money. So far, I guess I haven’t change enough to be given that responsibility.

So, today, before you start out on another day at work or just in your life; ask God for His help at becoming a better person and then trust in Him when he provides you with the opportunities to actually be a better person as your day goes on. Don’t hesitate in front of the man on the sidewalk who is obviously down on his luck; stop and ask how you can help. And, if you reach in your pocket and give him the money that you had set aside for your latte or perhaps your lunch; keep in mind that you may be providing him with the means to buy the only meal that he may get today. You were a better person and the world is better for it.

Do your part today to make the world a better place by being a better you.