“… every one of us has sinned against all men, and I more than any.”

Mother positively smiled at that, smiled through her tears. “Why, how could you have sinned against all men, more than all? Robbers and murderers have done that, but what sin have you committed yet, that you hold yourself more guilty than all?”

“Mother, little heart of mine,” he said (he had begun using such strange caressing words at that time), “little heart of mine, my joy, believe me, everyone is really responsible to all men for all men and for everything. I don’t know how to explain it to you, but I feel it is so, painfully even. And how is it we went on then living, getting angry and not knowing?”

…And there was a great deal more I don’t remember. I remember I went once into his room when there was no one else there. It was a bright evening, the sun was setting, and the whole room was lighted up. He beckoned me, and I went up to him. He put his hands on my shoulders and looked into my face tenderly, lovingly; he said nothing for a minute, only looked at me like that.

“Well,” he said, “run and play now, enjoy life for me too.”

I went out then and ran to play. And many times in my life afterwards I remembered even with tears how he told me to enjoy life for him too.

Dear friends, our lives in this great vast humanity are as droplets in a pond. Every action ripples and affects those around us. We can never say that what we do impacts only ourselves – everyone is influenced. Once understood, this principle of “everyone is really responsible to all men for all men and everything” becomes empowering in our lives, because we know that we have not only the responsibility but the ability to enjoy life for ourselves and for others.

Your actions affect everyone! Fill them with love and kindness and enjoy life!

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.”

No matter how hard it might be to live the Golden Rule, do it anyway.

About ten minutes into the second quarter, the couple stood up to leave. The lady turned around and asked if we would watch her stuff while they went to the concessions. My friend assured her that it would be no problem, so they left their coats and things on their chairs. They returned five minutes later with their arms full of popcorn and drinks and nachos. It wasn’t long until they realized they were in a predicament with their arms full of food and their chairs full of everything else they had brought to the game.

My friend is always an example of Golden Rule living and is quicker than most to do a good deed for someone else. She jumped up before I even realized the couple’s predicament and grabbed the stuff out of their chairs so that they could sit and get situated.

I thought about how nice that was and how easy the act was. Even though the act was small, there was so much good that came from it.  My friend felt that she had done the right thing. The couple had been touched by the help and were extremely grateful to her. And everyone that watched somehow gained in a positive way. I personally had a greater desire to help people because of how I felt when I watched my friend help someone else.

Living the Golden Rule is crucial in our day. We need kindness. We need to give it. We need to receive it. And we need to be observers other people giving and receiving. Our world will be a better place because of our actions. Go live the Golden Rule today!

To answer, let’s look at a quote from “The Five People you Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom. Eddie is talking to his wife in heaven about how he thought she died early and left him alone. She shares with him a beautiful insight on love:

“Lost love is still love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food… but when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes you partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.”

Our actions of love to others are like this lost love Eddie was learning about. You may never see that person again but they will be or can be in our memory and the love we showed them will be in our memory, just in a different form. The best part of showing love to someone you don’t know or might never see again is that love is in their memory! So it now is in TWO different forms. Your memory and theirs.

Eddie thought his life was of no value to anyone. But one of the things I learned from Mitch Albom is that love shown to others will always be there in that form of a memory long after two people interact. Think of some act of kindness or love that you remember. Is it vivid in your mind? Can you still feel it?

Go out and create some memories with those you meet today! Thank them for the memories you will have as you Live The Golden Rule!

“A great many things make you angry lately.”

“For good reason,” said Doon.

“Maybe. The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren’t the master of yourself anymore. Anger is.”

Doon walked on silently. Inwardly, he groaned. He knew what his father was going to say, and he didn’t feel like hearing it.

“And when anger is the boss, you get—-”

“I know,” said Doon. “Unintended consequences.”

“That’s right. Like hitting your father in the ear with a shoe heel.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“That’s exactly my point.”

If we knew that unintended consequences would follow every time our anger took control, or became the boss, would we ever let our anger take the reins? Anger against our fellow man always leads to unintended hurt. Oh, don’t get me wrong. When we are angry at a person, we do want them hurt. But there is always unintended damage that we sometimes don’t even know about. What about the guy that cut you off? Are you are going to show him the finger after you cut the next guy off in your attempt to get up where he can see how mad he made you?! How many other guys are cut off because you kept this one person’s actions going? Not only that, who is going to yell or beat their children when they get home because the angry people on the road made them so mad (Maybe an extreme example… maybe not)?

What if you were cut off and you actually treated that person kindly by giving him more room? Think about the good consequences of that action.

There are unintended actions, for both good and bad behavior. Let us who live the Golden Rule intentionally spread good consequences.

The overall feel of the entire National little league organization was that the Giants need to be beat! Even as an 11 year old I was able to feel the competition between Giants’ parents and other team’s parents.

One of the main reasons that the Giants were so good this particular year was a 12 year old boy on our team named Shawn Thomas. The star hitter averaged one homerun a game. He intimidated every pitcher in the league with his big bat.

The final game of the season was the Giants vs. the Braves. The build up to this game was intense. Every coach and their teams were there to support the Braves, because everyone wanted to see the Giants go down. Over an entire season of winning so well we had gained very faithful enemies. The contempt for our team was real and we could feel it.

We started the game true to our reputation. By the end of the second inning we were up 6 to 1. We were confident to win and our opposition was increasing in their attempt to thwart us of victory.   Shawn Thomas, who had already hit a homerun for the game, stood up to bat. The feeling in the crowd was becoming hostile because their hopes of beating the Giants were being crushed. Parents were encouraging the pitcher to do mean things to Shawn, “Bean him!” “Break his arm!” Just as Shawn was stepping into the batters box, the head coach of the Braves stood up to give instructions to his outfielders.  He used his loudest yelling voice to be heard above the screaming parents as he yelled, “SHAWN DEFENSE!” Obedient to their coaches command, the three outfielders ran to the gate in the middle of center field to go take their positions on the other side of the fence.

The reaction throughout the park was something I’ll always remember. Parents who were over the top angry began to laugh. The hostile feeling in the crowd relaxed and a feeling of good sportsmanship overcame everyone.

That simple act from the coach of the Braves taught everyone there that day a lesson. It taught the boys and their parents that it was not acceptable to treat anyone the way they were treating Shawn and the Giants. He didn’t shrug it off like it didn’t matter. He didn’t demand a microphone to lecture the fans. He simply stood to show others how to live the Golden Rule.

Don’t be afraid to stand up and show people how to live the Golden Rule. Have a fantastic day!

“I fully realize that no wealth or position can long endure, unless built upon truth and justice; therefore, I will engage in no transaction which does not benefit all whom it affects. I will succeed by attracting to myself the forces I wish to use, and the cooperation of other people. I will induce others to serve me, because of my willingness to serve others. I will eliminate hatred, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and cynicism, by developing love for all humanity, because I know that a negative attitude toward others can never bring me success. I will cause others to believe in me, because I will believe in them, and in myself.”

What powerful reasoning! What goes around comes around is a true saying. As we are willing to serve others, we will attract those that are willing serve us. Imagine a community based on service and helping each other. Everyone giving and everyone receiving. The world will be a greater place when we all live The Golden Rule.

“And do you think Ember is the only light in the dark world?”

Clary sighed. “I don’t know.” She gave Lina a long look. Her eyes, Lina thought, looked a little sad. They were a deep brown, almost the color of the earth in the garden bed.

Clary put a hand in her pocket and drew something out. “Look,” she said. In the palm of her hand was a white bean. “Something in this seed knows how to make a bean plant. How does it know that?”

We live in a world where other people (sometimes meaning to, other times not) make decisions for us that they think is for our own good. If we truly understand the nature of the human seed inside each of us, we will not let others choose for us. We will listen to that knowledge inside of us and become the human, man or woman, that we know we can be.

I know that in a large part the “know how” in our own seed tells us to love each other, to treat each other justly and with kindness. Part of bringing out this knowledge is to feed our minds with good information. That is why we here at Life’s Golden Rule are always encouraging you to read from good books. Not only read for enjoyment but to think!

If you do get this book, think about the seed that is in you. Become the human “bean” that that seed already knows how to make.

Happy reading!

Three people were laying bricks. A passerby asked them what they were doing.

The first one replied, “Don’t you see I am making a living?”

The second one said, “Don’t you see I am laying bricks?”

The third one said, “I am building a beautiful monument.”

Here were three people doing the same thing who had totally different perspectives on what they were doing.

Like the third man, we need to see the big picture in all of our actions. Every thing that we do should be for a purpose. Imagine how your day might be different if you went to work thinking about the wonderful service you are providing people instead of making a living. Are you reading your kids a bedtime story or are you raising an educated moral man or woman? Are you going to class or are you learning skills to be a productive businessman?

Even the small things should be done with a purpose. Are you smiling? Or are you making someone’s day?

When we view life and its activities with a purpose we focus more on the desired result and we achieve it. Let’s go build monuments instead of making a living or laying bricks.

From Plato’s Republic we find the words:

“You know that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression is more than readily taken… Shall we just carelessly allow children to hear any casual tales which may be devised by casual persons, and to receive into their minds ideas for the most part the very opposite of those which we should wish them to have when they are grown up?

We cannot… Anything received into the mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts… Then will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid fair sights and sounds, and receive the good in everything; and beauty, the effluence of fair works, shall flow into the eye and ear, like a health-giving breeze from a purer region, and insensibly draw the soul from the earliest years into likeness and sympathy with the beauty of reason.

There can be no nobler training than that.”

Help make the world a better place by Living the Golden Rule. Do it for you. Do it for the people around you. And do it so that the children watching you will grow up to act the same way.