{"id":5257,"date":"2012-05-03T19:45:50","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T19:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=5257"},"modified":"2012-05-03T19:45:50","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T19:45:50","slug":"what-are-you-doing-and-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=5257","title":{"rendered":"What are you doing? And why?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What are you doing? \u00a0What are your goals? \u00a0Naturally, we all are working, raising a family, maintaining a marriage, keeping the house standing upright, and cutting the grass! \u00a0But aside from the maintenance side of life what are you focused on. I would dare say that for almost everyone it falls in several broad catagories;<\/p>\n

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1. \u00a0Getting what I want for myself. \u00a0Security, health, recognition, love, possessions.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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2. \u00a0Helping others get what they want. \u00a0Serving others, watching over others, attempting to protect others.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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3. \u00a0Doing what God has planned for me. \u00a0Listen and say yes!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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All of our lives are a combination of those categories. \u00a0 I think it is normal to have a little of each in your make up, however to have your life heavily weighted in the first category is very dangerous. \u00a0When we invest in just ourselves and our wants and needs, we build a wall around ourselves. \u00a0Eventually that wall becomes so think and tall that people can’t get in. \u00a0What we own will soon own us! \u00a0Long term peace and joy never comes from the physical weight of your possessions or toys.<\/p>\n

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Number two, serving others can be rewarding and to a certain level a very good thing, however we must always test our motives for why we are doing it. \u00a0Selfless service to others can be a wonderful way of blessing others, but if done with a strong motive of what I may get back, it can become destructive.<\/p>\n

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Only number three, serving Him, can lead to a joyful life filled with true contentment. \u00a0A heart that is truly turned over to God, will seek what is best for others and themselves. \u00a0It’s not wrong to want nice things, it’s a mistake to think, in the long view, they mean all that much!<\/p>\n

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Be blessed,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  What are you doing? \u00a0What are your goals? \u00a0Naturally, we all are working, raising a family, maintaining a marriage, keeping the house standing upright, and cutting the grass! \u00a0But aside from the maintenance side of life what are you focused on. I would dare say that for almost everyone it falls in several broad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5260,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5257\/revisions\/5260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}