In spite of various limitations mature people make the effort to control and direct their own actions to meet a specific goal. Thus the goal governs and transforms a person as long as she pursues it.
Starting the process to be fully human require a person to follow these steps:
- Choose a goal of worth
- Gain a conviction for the goal
- Let the goal fill your aspirations
- So that the goal sets the criteria for action
- And it becomes A WAY OF LIFE
Everyone has a goal in life, whether they have thought about it or not. This goal governs the way that they live. The goal that each person is struggling to reach is their IDEAL.
My grandfather was a person with a strong sense of his ideal. He grew up in a background of ignorance and rural poverty. His mother was illiterate. Her husband did not respect her –she was treated like a servant in her own home. The children remembered their father as a mean man who whipped first and asked questions later. They subsisted on the bare necessities of life — sometimes lunch was a lard sandwich. There were no presents at Christmas time, except some hard candy or an orange. My grandfather only went to school through the sixth grade because his labor was needed to bring income into the home. He was married by 18 with his own child to support.
Circumstances like that can cause you to grow bitter, or cause you to grow better. My grandfather decided to grow better. His ideal was to have a better life than the one his family knew. He was not discouraged by his limited education or lack of a good role model. He spent most of his working life in factories, but he was not content to learn only his assigned task. He would watch what other people were doing, especially those with more difficult jobs. He would ask to be taught something new. In this way, he continually advanced himself, and ended his career as a foreman and skilled machinist. Even that was not enough. He wanted to own his own business. For years, he and my grandmother both worked and saved their money. During the evening and weekends he built the structure that became his grocery store and gas station.
A better life, to my grandfather, meant more than more money, a good job, or even becoming a small businessman. He learned to treat people in a different way than his father did. He and my grandmother were always partners in their little store–when he took some spending money from their profits, she took the same. He always gave his mother $100 on her birthday and Mother’s Day–he said she never had any money of her own when he was growing up. He was a kind and gentle father and grandfather. I never saw him whip anybody. He was generous to everyone, not only his immediate family. He often gave my cousins a free fill up from the gas pumps when they stopped by. He allowed neighbors to charge their groceries and pay him on payday. He contributed to the local fire company and donated food for church suppers. He was respected in the community.
My grandfather followed an ideal and it changed his life. It became his way of life.
Coming next … what is an ideal….
Lutheran Ladies Connection 