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- Mar 5, 2024
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I wanted a place with more organization than posts on my own profile (which is how I've previously written such things on here) to write down interesting occurrences in my days or noteworthy thoughts that come to my head, and so I will use this thread to do that. I do not figure that this will be a "here's all of what happened in my day" type of "journal," but much rather, a place for sharing minute happenings of my life or little things that I find interesting.
Today, I read some online, translated excerpts from Saint Paisios' spiritual counseling text Family Life. Before today, I did not know that Paisios wrote with such an engrossing style of explanation. His analogies remind me of ones I employ in my own writing, yet his are clearly superior with how straightforward their exposition is, I'd say. One paragraph that fascinated me greatly within these excerpts was this one:
>Little differences in the characters or personalities of spouses actually help couples to create a harmonious family, for the one completes the other. In a car it is necessary to use the gas pedal to go forward, but also the brake pedal to stop. If the car only had brakes it wouldn’t go anywhere; and if it only had gears, it wouldn’t be able to stop. Do you know what I said to one couple? “Because you are similar, you don’t match!” They are both sensitive. If something happens at home, both of them lose it and start-up: The one, “Oh, what we suffer!” The other, “Oh, what we suffer!” In other words, the one causes the other to lose hope even more! Neither is able to comfort the other a little by saying, “Hold on, our situation is not that serious”. I’ve seen this in many couples.
This above paragraph, regarding the topic of those "little differences" reminded me a bit of my own romantic relationship. In the love that my girlfriend and I have, there's enough of a common appreciation of our interests to where we can bond easily with one another, yet in our relations comes a difference in temperament that still provides this healthy, harmonious contrast Paisios writes of (I do not know how to very accurately describe that temperamental difference right now, however, since I am writing this at a later hour of the night, and so my head has emptied itself of good adjectives).
One other excerpt that I found insightful was this one, on the topic of the blessings of struggle:
>Many men, however, after asking God to give them opportunities to practice the virtues, grumble when they are faced with a certain difficulty. For example, sometimes the Good God, in His boundless love, and in order to provide practice in humility and patience, will take away his Grace from the wife, and she will begin acting outlandishly and treating the husband inconsiderately. Then the husband should not complain, but rather rejoice and thank God for the opportunity to struggle which He has given him. Or, a mother asks God to grant her patience. Her little child then comes in, and as soon as she has the table set for dinner, he pulls on the table cloth and everything spills on the floor. At such times it’s as if the child is saying to his mother: “Mama, be patient!”
These are encouraging words that the Saint writes for us here. These paining struggles in life will come forth by God's will so that you may find in overcoming them a blessed result of spiritual improvement. This fact gives every issue you will ever toil through in your life a reason for that toiling. It is for your growth. To try my hand at an analogy in imitation of Saint Paisios', just like how children must grow to a certain height to ride on roller coasters, we all must grow to the spiritual height God wills us to amount to through the "growing pains" of our existence.
Finally, on an unrelated note, here is a foreign tune that I like.
Today, I read some online, translated excerpts from Saint Paisios' spiritual counseling text Family Life. Before today, I did not know that Paisios wrote with such an engrossing style of explanation. His analogies remind me of ones I employ in my own writing, yet his are clearly superior with how straightforward their exposition is, I'd say. One paragraph that fascinated me greatly within these excerpts was this one:
>Little differences in the characters or personalities of spouses actually help couples to create a harmonious family, for the one completes the other. In a car it is necessary to use the gas pedal to go forward, but also the brake pedal to stop. If the car only had brakes it wouldn’t go anywhere; and if it only had gears, it wouldn’t be able to stop. Do you know what I said to one couple? “Because you are similar, you don’t match!” They are both sensitive. If something happens at home, both of them lose it and start-up: The one, “Oh, what we suffer!” The other, “Oh, what we suffer!” In other words, the one causes the other to lose hope even more! Neither is able to comfort the other a little by saying, “Hold on, our situation is not that serious”. I’ve seen this in many couples.
This above paragraph, regarding the topic of those "little differences" reminded me a bit of my own romantic relationship. In the love that my girlfriend and I have, there's enough of a common appreciation of our interests to where we can bond easily with one another, yet in our relations comes a difference in temperament that still provides this healthy, harmonious contrast Paisios writes of (I do not know how to very accurately describe that temperamental difference right now, however, since I am writing this at a later hour of the night, and so my head has emptied itself of good adjectives).
One other excerpt that I found insightful was this one, on the topic of the blessings of struggle:
>Many men, however, after asking God to give them opportunities to practice the virtues, grumble when they are faced with a certain difficulty. For example, sometimes the Good God, in His boundless love, and in order to provide practice in humility and patience, will take away his Grace from the wife, and she will begin acting outlandishly and treating the husband inconsiderately. Then the husband should not complain, but rather rejoice and thank God for the opportunity to struggle which He has given him. Or, a mother asks God to grant her patience. Her little child then comes in, and as soon as she has the table set for dinner, he pulls on the table cloth and everything spills on the floor. At such times it’s as if the child is saying to his mother: “Mama, be patient!”
These are encouraging words that the Saint writes for us here. These paining struggles in life will come forth by God's will so that you may find in overcoming them a blessed result of spiritual improvement. This fact gives every issue you will ever toil through in your life a reason for that toiling. It is for your growth. To try my hand at an analogy in imitation of Saint Paisios', just like how children must grow to a certain height to ride on roller coasters, we all must grow to the spiritual height God wills us to amount to through the "growing pains" of our existence.
Finally, on an unrelated note, here is a foreign tune that I like.
