"They constantly forget... that they are animals and that whatever their bodies do affects their souls."... and then I have to get up and kneel down and do it the right way. :)
This idea from Mere Christianity often comes to mind:
What am I turning myself into with my choices?"We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort... In the next world... there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here. The point is not that God will refuse you admission to His eternal world if you have not got certain qualities of character: the point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a "Heaven" for them—that is, could make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us... Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself... Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other. We Christians think man lives for ever. Therefore, what really matters is those little marks or twists on the central, inside part of the soul which are going to turn it, in the long run, into a heavenly or a hellish creature."
One idea that has stuck with me is the "Law of Undulation" Lewis talks about in The Screwtape Letters, along with his definition of faith from Mere Christianity. I have to recognize that my moods change, but that the trough periods don't last forever, and to never give up what I do know to be true just because of something that I don't know, or for something temporary, or just because I'm having a bad week.
"It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be... He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles."~The Screwtape Letters
"Faith... is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods... One must train the habit of Faith. The first step is to recognise the fact that your moods change." ~Mere Christianity
I've been pondering over this line from The Great Divorce:
"We shall have no need for one another now: we can being to love truly"and thinking about what that means. I'll revisit this thought when I re-read The Four Loves.
One of my favourite truths from Mere Christianity is the reminder that "God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."
