Rules for Life

Rules for Life

I read these "rules for life" written by Archbishop Edward White Benson a while back and they have stuck with me. Although written around 1882, they are timeless. I keep them in a frame on my desk and consult them daily as I sort out the important from the urgent. Parentheses are mine.

• Eagerly start the day's main work. (does your alarm have a snooze button like mine?)
• Do not murmur at your busyness or the shortness of time, but buy up the time all around.
• Never murmur when correspondence is brought in. (even though it contains bills)
• Never exaggerate duties by seeming to suffer under the load, but treat all responsibilities as liberty and gladness. (even mowing the yard)
• Never call attention to crowded work or trivial experiences.
• Before confrontation or censure, obtain from God a real love for the one at fault. Know the facts; be generous in your judgment. Otherwise, how ineffective, how unintelligible or perhaps provocative your well-intentioned censure may be.
• Do not believe everything you hear; do not spread gossip.
• Do not seek praise, gratitude, respect, or regard for past service.
• Avoid complaining when your advice or opinion is not consulted, or having been consulted, set aside.
• Never allow yourself to be placed in favorable contrast with anyone.
• Do not press conversation to your own needs and concerns.
• Seek no favors, nor sympathies; do not ask for tenderness, but receive what comes.
• Bear the blame; do not share or transfer it.
• Give thanks when credit for your own work or ideas is given to another. (ouch)

Spiritual Leadership, J. Oswald Sanders (Moody Press, 1994)