I think it’s rather sad that people forsake deeds that please God due to their love of comfort, vice, passions, and overall worldliness. It breaks my heart to the point of tears that even those who look upon others as filthy succumb to the same sins, yet see themselves as superior. With Christians like these, it’s no wonder that degeneracy runs rampant in our culture, spiraling us further into the abyss of vice and nihilism. We’re supposed to be set apart, yet we do not lead by example. We are not as serious as we ought to be, and spend too much time being idle: this includes myself.
In a time of extreme scarcity of clergymen, nuns, sisters, healthy families, and saints; we really ought to hold ourselves more accountable, and aspire to go above our own expectations. The great men and women in our church did not become saints without significant sacrifice, self denial, and steadfast love of God. (And an abundance of grace of course.) None of us are incapable of becoming saints, so long as we don’t hold ourselves back from receiving graces and trials. Anyway, this has been on my mind for awhile. Thank you for reading my silly rant.
I have been confessing of sloth lately, and I think the whole lockdown thing is contributing towards it, but luckily I’m grumpy enough to care about it.
Anyways, the vices I see more commonly amoung our community (and similar ones) are alcoholism, sometimes indulging in outright vulgar language, and some people who, as mentioned, do not put effort into participating with a certain level of seriousness in conversations. I can kind of see how some of those can creep in considering the state of the world and how many people have really tiring work days and are not in the mood for caring too much about serious business, but it certainly needs to be kept in check.
The world is going to ruin for sure and we can decide to be slobs or marble statues. The outside should reflect the inside and vice versa. Be good, act good, and look good. That’s the best way to change the world
I think that a good way to go is for eveyrone to have at the very least one hobby that requires a certain level of effort and passion. There are creative ones like the ones we mentioned in the last days (knitting, painting miniatures, gem-making), chants, or even some strict gym routines.
All those prevent people form becoming pure soy monstrosities.
Men, especially, need hobbies. If you have a garden, work in it; if you have chisels and such, consider wood-working; if you are more technically minded, electronics or programming. Whatever your bent, get yourself a hobby.
Further to this, stop swearing unnecessarily and/or excessively and being vulgar in language or behaviour. Not only is such behaviour sinful, it’s a sign of laziness in the mind regarding discipline of the tongue (James 3:3-9) and sets a poor example both for younger men and for your prospective wife.
Ah, regarding that I would also like to point out that it is usually easy to somehow orient those hobbies towards Christ and the development of discipline and wholesomeness. One develops an appreciation of beauty and excellence that sets people apart.