Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives

My wife is re-reading the book “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: The Life and Teachings of Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica” for the 3rd time. It is inspiring to watch her work through it again.

The book is a testimony to learning to live in the spirit, free of worldly influence. It is an aspirational work for our spiritual journey as we draw closer to God. It also offers a clear picture of why we suffer and cannot find peace.

More than a few passages from the book have impacted me over the years since reading it, but two stand out, one on humility and the other on the type of life we will choose to live:

“Until you have suffered much in your heart, you cannot learn humility.”

“Our life depends on the kind of thoughts we nurture. If our thoughts are peaceful, calm, meek, and kind, then that is what our life is like. If our attention is turned to the circumstances in which we live, we are drawn into a whirlpool of thoughts and can have neither peace nor tranquility.”

Have you suffered? Did it cause despair, or did it lead you to humility?

What draws your attention? Worldly, temporal things, or peaceful, kind, important things?

We all will suffer, and we all will have plenty of distractions put in front of us. How will we respond? What will we focus our thoughts, and ultimately our actions upon?