Friday, February 08, 2008

Are you creating a Masterpiece?



Are you creating a masterpiece with your life? Every action or inaction we take directly effects what it is we create. The legacy we leave not only in our family’s memories of us, but with the faceless number of individuals whose lives we affect by our behavior.
Those smiles you offer to a stranger or the grumble and one finger wave you may give. The choices we make in the everyday are effecting the history we make. Not just for ourselves, but the world around us. Will you be the one to create a masterpiece? The definition of a masterpiece is the greatest work done by a person. Our world lacks these great works. Whether they are of great mind, as Albert Einstein or great painters as Michelangelo, great poets such as Robert Frost or those who lead great lives such as Mother Teresa. This becomes most challenging when we live in a world that does not appreciate the value of all persons. I think that is why our time is lacking these great works, these masterpieces for today. We do not foster an environment that upholds the dignity of everyone. In many respects, we have set the bar so low that we have not given our children a reason to achieve greatness with their lives, to reach for the stars. It is a challenge to wake-up each day and view every human being as a creation of God. This becomes most challenging when we are tired, annoyed, or too self involved to notice the humanity in mankind. We all need to be more conscience of the human spirit. Everyone has a spirit that is lifted up by us or broken down. How do you treat these everyday Spirits, Souls, Human beings that you encounter? We need to begin to try to view the world and those in it as God views them. We need to get back to what is holy and sacred. Not just in our day to day but in the history, we are creating through our actions. Enter your day with a firm purpose to see the world as God sees it. Not just in the lives, we touch directly…our family, friends, co-workers, but the many faces of God that we effect by our actions. Make your life an example of the great masterpieces this world lacks.
How do you vote? Do you vote based on the economy or based on how mankind is treated? The economy will always be changing, but how we treat each other should never change. It should always be with love, respect and dignity…no matter what! People we do not know still deserve our love and respect. Our founding fathers knew the value of this…"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" (Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776).
When did we forget that? Once in March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States. By God’s grace, and brave individuals like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our nation realized that our founding fathers had it right…"all men are created equal that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." Not learning from this previous misconduct, it happened again on January 22, 1973. The day our United States Supreme Court ordered a woman had the Right to choose to terminate the life of her child. How did we lose sight of the child’s Right…among these Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness? There was good reason the authors of the Declaration of Independence indicated our Right to Life as our first Right. They knew without this Right, the other Rights could not subsist. We can not have Liberty or the pursuit of Happiness without this first Right to Life. All our Rights are dependent upon this first Right.
Our nation is educating itself right out of common sense. We are making a mess instead of creating a masterpiece with our lives, and our nation, by the decisions we make. When our government says something is legal, many people, especially our young, believe it is moral. After all, all laws that govern society are laws that dictate the morality of a society. For example, we have deemed as a society that stealing is immoral, and thus illegal. So then we ask, how is it mankind is able to know what is right and what is wrong to begin with? It is by natural law. Natural law is the law written on the heart of every individual. The one that prevents us from destroying each other, received by our Creator at the moment of our conception. As a nation, we are sending the message that abortion is the "right thing to do", because we have made it the law of the land, and all laws that govern the land are based on the societies moral objectives. We are responsible for governing the conscience of the past three generations of children who have grown up with legal abortion. We have sent them the message that not everyone deserves this Right to Life, which is endowed by their Creator. We must never forget, if we are not the one who created that life, then we have no right to destroy it.
Next the question is raised how do we differentiate between a child growing in its mother’s womb versus a child growing outside the mother’s womb? Asking ourselves these questions easily does this. What is the child growing outside the womb? A human being. What is the child growing inside the mother’s womb? A human being. Science has accepted that a baby has its own distinct DNA and thus being a separate being, and in turn having its own set of Rights. By 12 days from conception this child growing inside the mother has a heartbeat (the mother would not even know she is pregnant by now.) By 12 weeks, this child is only different from the child growing outside the womb, as a toddler would be to a teenager. It only needs time to grow, it has every organ and tissue it needs for survival, if allowed to mature.
We have a responsibility to each other by the laws we enact and the politicians we vote into office. How do we handle this awesome responsibility? Are we creating a masterpiece? How do you want our world to remember you, what kind of legacy will you leave for the generations of people which will come after you? Not just in the day to day, but in the history you make by your actions in voting for those who are committed to preserving these rights handed down to us by our founding fathers?
If you believe there is a God who created everyone in His image and likeness, how do you embrace the accountability you will have to Him? We will not be judged on how strong we made the economy. We will not be judged by how much money we have or the amount of "toys" we have accumulated. We will all be judged on how we treated mankind. Is your history going to remember you for creating a Masterpiece? Now is the time to make those spiritual connections that will give that gift, that masterpiece for the ages. We are accountable for our actions. Let this be the time to resolve to hold "these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

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