There’re different ways of living life in this
forever-changing world. They all come from the different thinking minds of
different individuals with different experiences in different phases of life.
1. Living by Wants
Many
live according to what they want in life. Wants can come from basic
needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter, or from other things desired in
life, such as comfort, health, love, pleasures, success, wealth, and many other
things in daily life.
Living by wants requires the means, that is, the money or the earnings
to make a living, without which it’s impossible to get the wants.
Unfortunately, many even without their means yet demand their wants, and thus
ending up in crimes, such as stealing and robbing.
In life and living, there’re many wants,
including the following: wanting alcohol may result in AUD (Alcohol Use
Disorder); wanting gambling can happen to anyone from any walk of life,
due to the fun that often turns into an unhealthy obsession with many serious
financial and relationship consequences; wanting sex can lead to
pornography, adultery, infidelity, and extra-marital affairs; wanting money
can cause greed and attachments to material things; wanting hobbies can
make life more interesting, such as dancing, drawing, and singing; wanting sports
can increase physical and mental skills in competitive sports, such
as football and soccer, while wanting non-competitive sports, such as running
and swimming, can be exercises for physical health; wanting success in
any endeavor, such as careers and businesses, love and relationships, health
and healing, can set goals and objectives in life and living.
2. Living by Personality
An ego
is self-identity. Many may have an inflated ego that gives them a
distinguished personality to live by. They believe they’re not only much better
but also totally different from others. Accordingly, others must succumb to
their demands and desires. They’ve become so self-centered that they’ll
continuously inflate their own ego with higher expectations while controlling
and demanding others to do what they want them to do for them.
On the other side of those with an inflated
ego are those living with a deflated ego. They often feel inadequate,
incompetent, insecure, and even unloved. Their perceived low self-esteem often
originates from an unhappy childhood with extremely critical and demanding
parents, as well as from their own ongoing life events, such as career and
relationship failures and problems.
3. Living by Examples
Humans are all born to parents. While
growing up, some live with their parents, while others live with their
stepparents or foster parents.
Children learn to live by examples—the
examples of those they’ve been living with while growing up. Positive parental
love, characterized by affection, care, comfort, and concern, can be positively
experienced by children in hugging, kissing, praising, and saying nice things
to others.
But, instead of parental love, some other children
may have experienced only abuse, aggression, control, demand, hostility, and
rejection from their parents throughout their development phases. They’ll then
learn how to live by the examples of their parents in developing their own low
self-esteem and self-worth, academic and social incompetence, as well as mental
and physical health problems. According to a study by Harward University, those who didn’t
experience their parent-child love were more than twice as
likely to develop physical illnesses 35 years later.
4. Living by Conscience
Everybody has a conscience, which provides
not only the ability to determine between right and wrong, but also the restraint
to keep away from some basic urges and desires in the flesh. Conscience can give
an individual guilt when doing something bad, or joy when doing something
gracious.
Conscience comes from beliefs and core
values, as well as from perceptions of past life experiences and upbringings.
But conscience not only changes over time but may also compromise considerably.
For example, in everyday life, those in authority may require others under them
to do something in conflict with human conscience. Living in a world of
compromise, many do consciously or subconsciously compromise their own conscience
to the demands of their superiors.
According to the Bible, the human
conscience is a gift from God, who has placed His standards of right and wrong
in the mind of every person. So, when the person is on the right path, a good
conscience will always be at peace (Colossians 3:15). But when the
person is tempted to go down the wrong path, that person will then hear the
warning, but still has the freedom of choice in doing the right or the wrong.
The problem of living by conscience is
that conscience can easily be contaminated by sins in the flesh.
5. Living by Faith
Living
by faith is living according to the will of God. Living by faith is a tall
order even for a true believer in God. The explanation is that everybody wants
to do certain things his or her own way, instead of following God’s way.
Becoming
a believer in God is usually a long and difficult journey. Why? It’s because
humans are now living in a secular society where science is the dominant
religion.
Living
by faith, one must first become a believer in God. To do that, one must have the
intent to believe, which begins with the thinking mind to believe the
unbelievable—the Creator becomes a human being; the Infinite becomes finite;
the Eternal One enters limited time; and death is the only way to eternal life.
Believing
in God comes with many free gifts—eternal life, hope, joy, and peace—and the free
will, which is the freedom of choice to receive or not to receive those
free gifts from God. The freedom of will is based on three essentials:
· Faith: Believing in the existence and the presence of
God is obeying His Commandments with accountability to Him.
· Trust: Trusting God is believing in the veracity of His
Word.
· Obedience: Obedience is doing all the right and the righteous things in everyday life. This daily task is most difficult, if not impossible, while living in the flesh, already corrupted by sins. But God provides a Helper, the Holy Spirit, to guide humans along the difficult journey of obedience.
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