Gullregel nr. 1

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Pir Zias kommentar:
How easy it is to be kind and just and friendly when one is prosperous and surrounded by congenial circumstances and how challenging it is to be so when circumstances are difficult. When one finds one’s self stressed and strained, tired and weary, pushed to one’s limits, then comes the test. We might be tempted to compromise our own integrity, arguing to ourself that it is a matter of expediency. At such moments one’s principles are really needed. Can we uphold our code?

It is easy to be polite to someone who is polite to you. It comes naturally. It is not so easy to be polite to someone who is not polite to you. It is then that we are tested. And if we uphold our principles in adversity, then those principles are powerful, real, true, and meaningful.

And so we might consider this also when we find that we are facing behavior from others that is difficult to bear. We often forget that others are probably under some strain and it helps us to exercise understanding and compassion when we can remember that adversity challenges all of us in our ideals.

When it comes to ourselves we may make a resolution to notice when I am under pressure. Shall I rise to the challenge, knowing I am under strain; could I resist the temptation to compromise my ideals? Knowing when one is in adversity, one can strive precisely at that time to redouble one’s dedication to one’s ideals.

We are here on earth to be tested, because virtues are not so real in heaven. It is all too easy there. Virtues become real when tested and tried, when we are challenged. And so here we are on earth that we may face limitation, opposition, and all of the trials and tribulations of this world, and uphold what is true and good and beautiful so that it may be made real. We must hold ourselves to the highest standard of accountability and to see the challenges as God’s given opportunity. “Make God a reality, and God will make you the truth.”

My conscientious self, keep to your principles in prosperity as well as in adversity.