About 10 years ago, I worked in the bookstore at the church we were attending once every month. They also carried a few gifts and I’ll never forget the wall plaque that said “Love God, Serve Others, Live Simply”. (Pictured above). It has always stayed with me as a great reminder of how to live.
Sometimes it can feel as if I put way too many tasks on my plate, but if I stop and focus on these 3 daily, it should definitely help me to focus on what is important.
The two greatest commandments in the Bible are to “love God with all your heart, soul and mind” and “to love others as yourself”. The first one is covered and serving others is definitely loving them as yourself. Living simply is what Jesus demonstrated for us. He lived with very little belongings, if any, and was attached to nothing other than loving and communicating with God and serving others. Shouldn’t I live my life in a similar way?
1. Love God. This is obviously the most important thing we will ever do in our lives. Without God as my focus my life would be nothing, literally. I experienced living without God, and trust me it’s so much more fulfilling when you have a relationship with the One who created you. No one on Earth knows you better or will always be there like He will. He is what fills me up inside, nothing else in this world can do that. Nothing. When I love God with all my heart, soul and mind, I don’t have as much time to focus on the negative things in my life. If I focus above, all things below seem much more manageable. Nothing can come second to God.
2. Serve Others. Serving others keeps me from focusing on myself. Focusing on myself doesn’t help me in any way and that is not where God ever intended my focus to be. He wants me out serving others. One way he has shown me I can do this is by helping those that are in situations I have been in and can help with. God wants us to live our lives focused on others more than ourselves, and when I am doing this well, I’m more joyful and less stressed. When we focus on ourselves we tend to become stressed and anxious and even depressed. When we focus on others all of that falls away and in many cases I feel as if I gain more benefit from serving others than the people I’m serving.
3. Live Simply. This is something I’ve been working on for many years. Living with less. Less attachments, less stress, less commitments, and less clutter. We need so much less than we think we do. We should be too busy with our relationships to worry about stuff. Who has time to be tied down to “stuff” when you are busy loving God and serving others all the time?