TITLE: If Only My Mom or Someone Had Told Me? #13 (c) By gene hudgens 09/03/07 |
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As a teen in junior and senior high school I often felt something was missing, but I could never put my finger on. I look back now and realize that my teachers were wonderful teachers and wonderful people, but they were near totally involved in teaching from the books, following polices from the principle, giving exams, grading papers, and counseling us when our grades were poor.
I don’t remember my teachers closing their books and just talking to us about life and the big cruel world that we would soon be moving into. I seemed to have adjusted to the fact that the main object was to graduate. I often heard others talk about how my life would change when I got my high school ‘diploma’ “things would change!” After graduation I returned to Safe Way and continued to stock the shelves for weeks, before I fully realized that something was still wrong. Nothing in my life was changing.
At that time I really didn’t want to go to college, but I really had no idea what I did want to do. I think it was out of desperation or confusion that I joined the military.
Now, as an older person, I look back and wish that my teachers had exposed me to just a few of the wonders of philosophy. I hope each of you will enjoy this article.
I feel certain God wants us all to get rich, because we can not help the poor if we are also poor. I also strongly believe that He wants us to use our will to compel ourselves to think and to always do the right things. We will succeed more rapidly when we keep our mind at home and avoid projecting our will on other things or other people. Dreams can motivate us, but it takes hard work to achieve success.
We need to strive to use our mind to form a mental image of what we want, and to hold that vision with faith and purpose as we keep our mind working in the Right Way.
The famous author, Wallace D. Wattles (who‘s works are in public domain), wrote and spoke philosophy to include:
“Since belief is all important, it behooves us to guard our thoughts; and as our beliefs will be shaped to a very great extent by the things we observe and think about, it is important that we maintain command of our attention. Our will determines upon what things our attention shall be fixed.
If we want to be rich, we must not make a study of poverty. Things are not brought into being by thinking about their opposites. Health is never attained by studying and thinking about disease; righteousness in not promoted by studying and thinking sin; people don’t get rich by studying poverty and thinking about poverty.
Medicine as a science of disease has increased disease; religion as a science of sin has promoted sin, and economics as a study of poverty will fill the world with wretchedness and want.
Do not waste time talking about poverty; do not investigate it, or concern ourselves with it. Never mind what its causes are; we have nothing to do with the causes.
We need only be concerned with the cure.”
We need to take an interest in and learn from philosophy. We need not be hard hearted or unkind and refuse to hear the cry of need, but we must consider that spending our time in charitable work will have little effect in eradicating poverty. The only real hope we (including each of you) have is to study and learn and “make good”.
The best way we can effectively help the poor is by getting rich “and” increasing the number of poor people with purpose and faith… that they too can get rich.
Poor people need inspiration and not charity. With inspiration they can rise out of their misery. Poor people need jobs not canned food and apples. This was recently proved when a man won the Nobel Peace Prize for giving hundreds of poor people in Africa a loan of a few hundred dollars. With few exceptions all of these borrowers became successful small business people.
© Gene Hudgens
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