Living Honorably

Opening Reflections:

Better than a thousand hollow words, 

is one word that brings peace.

-The Buddha

• The only real failure in life is not be true 
• to the best one knows.
• -The Buddha
• Surely goodness and mercy
• shall follow me all the days of my life:
• and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
• -Bible, Psalm 23:6
• The Prophet Muhammad said: “None of you
• truly believes until he wishes for his 
• brother what he wishes for himself.”
• -Sahih Al Bukhari 8: Hadith 47

Scripture Reading:

““When we contemplate the duration of the universe, we see it limited to the present moment, which is nothing more but the point which separates two infinities of time. The past and the future are as meaningless as if they did not exist. Is anyone more misguided than the man who barters an eternal future for a moment which passes quicker than the blink of an eye?”.”
——— Ibn Hazm Al Andalousi (994-1064 A.D., Al Akhlaq wa’l Siyar

Moment of Reflection: 

(moment of quiet reflection)

Scripture Reading:

Lord, I do not puff myself up or stare about,

  or walk among the great or seek wonders beyond me.

Truly calm and quiet I have made my spirit:

  quiet as a weaned child in its mother’s arms –

  like an infant is my soul.

Let Israel hope in the Lord, now and for all time.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,

  as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,

  world without end.

Amen.

(Bible, Psalm 130)

Moment of Reflection

(moment of quiet reflection)

Sermon

“Our opportunities to give of ourselves are indeed limitless, but they are also perishable. There are hearts to gladden. There are kind words to say. There are gifts to be given. There are deeds to be done. There are souls to be saved.

As we remember that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God,” (Mosiah 2:17) we will not find ourselves in the unenviable position of Jacob Marley’s ghost, who spoke to Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s immortal "Christmas Carol." Marley spoke sadly of opportunities lost. Said he: 'Not to know that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere, whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!'

Marley added: 'Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? 

Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!'

Fortunately, as we know, Ebenezer Scrooge changed his life for the better. 

I love his line, 'I am not the man I was.

-Thomas Monson, 16th President of the

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Memory Verse:

Three Things Cannot be long hidden:

the Sun, the Moon, and the Truth

-The Buddha

Closing Prayer:

Grant O merciful God, that I may ardently desire, carefully examine, truly know and perfectly fulfill those things that are pleasing to You and to the praise and glory of Your holy name.

Direct my life, O my God, and grant that I might know what you would have me to do and for me to fulfill it as is necessary and profitable to my soul.

Grant to me, O Lord my God, that I may not be found wanting in prosperity or in adversity and that I may not be lifted up by one nor cast down by the other.

May I find joy in nothing but what leads to You and sorrow in nothing but what leads away from You.

May I seek to please no one or fear to displease anyone save only You.

St. Thomas Aquinas