What’s a personal mantra or philosophy you live by?

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To be totally honest, if I were to still live by my personal mantra or philosophy, I would be dead.  

It was an utter calamity, driven by numerous factors spanning years of poor choices and uncharacteristic behavior driven by an absence of self-worth, value and understanding. It got to a point that if my number was called, I was ready to go.  Being a mess living in a mess made me an exhausted mess. 

Yet, in many respects, my life as it appeared from the outside and perhaps a few layers in, looked grand. No apparent disasters from the outside looking in.  Just a lifelong one from the inside out. So to employ my second favorite piece of business jargon,  I did a deeper dive.  

Then, reality set in. 

Wonder if the creator of that stellar nugget of office prose is being compensated with some PTO.  Alas, I have fallen into the clutches of a digression, and taken you with.

And since we are all family now, I can now use my single most favorite corporate colloquialism, and open the kimono. 

Sorry.  

My digression still gets the best of me.  I will forever be ensnared by my fatherly jocularity.  Perhaps that one will make bank some day. 

One day, going on eighteen months ago, I chose to ignore my self and listen to someone with far more wisdom than I. For once, my mantra became obsolete.  My philosophy? It simply passed.  I found fellowship.  And with it, healing found me.  

So to make this long story somewhat shorter, here is what I try to live by now.  

“God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time.
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as he did, the sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it.
Trusting that he will make all things right
if I surrender to His will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever.”

—Reinhold Niebuhr, 1892-1971

Thank you for your loving and inspiring words Pastor Niebuhr.  

So to close the loop on the idea of a personal mantra, how ’bout we do this and remove the “man” component of it. Considering that being the one I was intended to be has been a stumbling block for so long, my focus needs to reflect what was changed and redirected.  From above. 

Save for one more action item, featuring some truly lame dad humor. 

I now live by my personal Godtra.  

Makes me smile.  

Maybe Him too.