Fear wants your courage.
Doubt wants your confidence.
Vanity wants your humility.
Insecurity wants your peace.
But here’s the important part:
NONE OF THEM GETS TO EAT UNLESS YOU FEED THEM.
Everything in the title of this posting—FEAR, DOUBT, VANITY and INSECURITY—was not included, as I see it, in the purity of our original creation.
They arrive later.
They invade our inner sovereign territory like parasites looking for somewhere to live.
And when we become aware of these intruders, an old teaching comes to mind: the story of two wolves within us—one representing what destroys and the other what strengthens.
Which one becomes stronger?
THE ONE YOU FEED.
MMMMM?
Then perhaps we’ve been asking the wrong question.
Instead of constantly asking how to defeat the bad wolf…
WHAT IF WE STOPPED FEEDING IT?
INTRUDER DYNAMICS
Whether you believe it or not, there is an outer you and an inner you.
The outer body is magnificent in its own right.
It has needs.
Food.
Shelter.
Rest.
Safety.
Touch.
Movement.
All legitimate.
But the outer was never meant to become master of the inner.
Something deeper must captain the ship.
Character.
Conscience.
Truth.
Love.
Humility.
The SOUL.
EXCEPTION TO THE ABOVE?
Fear pushes.
Doubt questions.
Vanity flatters.
Insecurity compares.
And they can make plenty of noise.
But notice something important:
They cannot MAKE the final decision.
They can knock.
They can yell.
They can intimidate.
They can tempt.
But somebody still has to open the door.
YOU.
That means the very existence of the struggle reveals something encouraging:
There is still someone inside capable of saying NO.
THE CATCH?
You have to agree with what is right.
I don’t believe the Creator made a mistake when He created you.
We may lose our way.
We may disappoint.
We may become confused.
We may wander into places that don’t belong to us.
But becoming whole again—reclaiming ourselves—is part of this extraordinary earthly journey.
Every time you deliberately choose what is good over what is destructive, something inside you strengthens.
Keep doing it.
Eventually doing the right thing becomes more than behavior.
It becomes character.
Continue long enough and character becomes a wordless worship proceeding continuously from the heart.
A HEART-DRIVEN LIFE?
Now that is a prize of prizes.
WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU…
Hardship is a strange teacher.
Nobody volunteers for every lesson it offers.
Yet some of life’s deepest education arrives disguised as something we desperately wanted to avoid.
Loss.
Failure.
Rejection.
Disappointment.
Hard times.
Two steps backward.
And yet…
when we apply ourselves correctly, adversity can reveal strength we didn’t know we possessed.
The premise?
WE WERE NOT PUT HERE MERELY TO BE DEFEATED.
A problem is not always the end of something.
Sometimes it is the introduction of the answer.
WORTHY NOTE
Problems exist so answers and solutions can eventually have their turn.
When the answer presents itself…
GIVE IT A TURN.
Stop giving the problem all the stage time.
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
We don’t know…
until we do.
And that’s perfectly all right.
Not knowing is often the beginning of knowing.
Trial.
Error.
Adjustment.
Observation.
Experience.
Then that famous scorecard:
SO FAR, SO GOOD.
If something repeatedly produces misery, perhaps stop feeding it.
If something produces peace, growth, truth, love and sound character…
MMMMM?
Perhaps we have discovered something worth feeding.
THE CHILD KNOWS MORE
I speak here of the inner child.
YOUR inner child.
Remember that kid?
The child arrived before the adult.
Before titles.
Before status.
Before comparison.
Before mortgages.
Before resumes.
Before worrying what everybody thought.
Children naturally wonder.
Explore.
Laugh.
Forgive.
Ask.
Receive.
Trust.
Then adulthood arrives and we somehow convince ourselves that complication equals maturity.
It doesn’t always.
Perhaps life would indeed be grand with a little less adulthood and a little more childhood.
Not childishness.
CHILD-LIKENESS.
There is a difference.
YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER
If you believe in your Heavenly Father, then consider what a child represents.
A child trusts.
A child receives.
A child expects to be cared for.
A child reaches upward when help is needed.
Children don’t spend every waking moment calculating how the universe will continue operating.
They live.
Maybe there is something there for us adults to rediscover.
Trust does not mean doing nothing.
It means doing our part without pretending we control everything else.
WORTHY NOTE
If you do nothing “right”…
you will do nothing wrong.
There is something deceptively deep in that.
Sometimes we complicate righteousness when the next right thing is already standing directly in front of us.
WHO IS NOT WELCOME?
Fear that paralyzes.
Doubt that destroys.
Vanity that consumes.
Insecurity that tells you everyone else has something you lack.
Hatred.
Deception.
Cruelty.
Anything deliberately seeking to turn us away from goodness deserves examination before admission.
Your inner territory has a door.
YOU are allowed to decide what receives hospitality there.
NOT TO WORRY
For those sincerely trying to do the right thing…
GO FOR IT.
We possess an extraordinary inner warning system called conscience.
It doesn’t need a billboard.
Often it simply whispers:
DON’T GO THERE.
Something doesn’t sit right.
Something bothers you.
Something inside says:
NO.
Listen.
And when your conscience is quiet, your intentions are sound and you have done your reasonable part…
REST.
You don’t have to manufacture another problem simply because there isn’t one currently available.
FORGET THE WEEDS
Weeds get their turn too.
Interesting, isn’t it?
A gardener doesn’t spend the entire day screaming at weeds.
He tends the garden.
He waters what he wants to grow.
He protects it.
Nourishes it.
And removes what interferes.
There’s our lesson.
Stop spending your whole life staring at your weeds.
FEED THE GARDEN.
WHAT ARE YOU FEEDING?
Feed fear and eventually everything looks dangerous.
Feed doubt and eventually nothing feels certain enough to begin.
Feed vanity and eventually nothing satisfies unless somebody notices.
Feed insecurity and eventually somebody else’s life becomes the measuring stick for yours.
But…
Feed courage and watch what happens.
Feed truth.
Feed humility.
Feed gratitude.
Feed curiosity.
Feed compassion.
Feed wonder.
Feed love.
Feed faith.
Feed the SOUL.
Now something entirely different begins growing inside you.
FINAL THOUGHT
Maybe defeating every darkness within us isn’t nearly as complicated as we’ve made it.
Stop feeding what you don’t want to become.
Feed what you DO.
Your attention is food.
Your repetition is food.
Your choices are food.
Your time is food.
Your agreement is food.
Choose carefully what receives your nourishment.
Because eventually…
WHAT YOU FEED, FEEDS YOU BACK.
And perhaps the Creator’s calling card hidden inside this mysterious earthly life has always been inviting us toward the same destination:
TO MORE LIFE.
— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com
Been expecting you