"Some Advice on How to Live" Kathryn Kuhlman

You and I have been having some good heart -to -heart talks about, well, about how to live this day -by -day life. And it's just like that. The other day I gave you rules for a perfect day. Do you want to know something? The Christian way is the natural, the normal way of living. And all on earth that I'm trying to do in these little heart -to -heart talks is to try to teach you how to live the natural way of life. And it's just like that. Because it's important. It's vitally important that you and I should learn how to live life. It's one thing to know the facts of life. And I had begun to believe that we know almost everything that there is to know about life except how to live it. That's right. The telephone rings in the office. A woman is crying. This happens not just once a day. Sometimes I think I'm going to just stop and... Count up the number of telephone calls that we receive just in one week in the office with people saying, please tell Ms. Cooman to pray for me. I'm on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Oh, the prayer request for nerves. Will you have a nervous breakdown this year? Are you on the verge? of a nervous breakdown. Are you having trouble with your nerves? The possibility is not as remote as you may think. According to past trends, 600 ,000 people will suffer nervous breakdowns this year. Just one year. 160 ,000 people will be admitted to mental institutions. in this nation. As a result of nerves. This is something vitally important that I'm talking to you about. It concerns each of us. You know, I'm going to share something with you. It's one of those things that I picked up and I read every once in a while because it means an awful lot to me and Who wrote it, I'm not quite sure. But whoever did write it did a good job of it. And here it comes. Wipe that scowl off of your face, will you? I've seen you scrunch past a million times with your lips all clamped tight and your eyes like oncoming thunder, and you don't walk. You grind the pavements beneath your feet. You don't see people. You see potential pickpockets. You don't live. Not really live. You hate yourself into gritty dust. I've seen you in a hundred cities. I've seen you walking the streets. I've seen you in the stores. I've seen you at work. On the buses. Driving automobiles. Catching your little worries. Stroking your petty grievances into disasters. You rush all the time. You just keep rushing all the time. Even while you're eating, you're still rushing. The minute that you get up in the morning, you begin to rush. You rush all the time to destination nowhere. What's the hurry? Let me ask you. What is the hurry? The grave will claim you soon enough, and the grass will grow unhurried to cover you. Try... Start earlier and take longer. It pays off in the long run. Risk a smile now and then. It won't hurt you. It'll help you more than you think. Try joy, young man, with the clutched. Grief case. Little old gray -haired lady. You who are hoarding your purse. Ah. Try giving. Try loving. Try doing something for somebody else. I'll still be clutching. You'll still be hoarding that locked purse of yours when they put you in the grave. You'll leave it then. Happiness. Joy. Giving. Look them up in the dictionary if you have to. They are your rightful... Legacy. Take them. Use them. Start living. Okay? It's rainy. Sure it's rainy. But don't hunch your shoulders like a brooding hen. Walk in the rain. Strut in it. You're waterproof. You won't melt. Let it bathe you and soothe you, drench you and re -baptize you. The worst that can happen to you is a head cold and a dry cleaning job, and you'll recover from both. And you may discover or remember the meaning of purity. Slow down. Straighten up. This is your world. And you pass through it but once. Enjoy it. Don't look down your nose at strangers. They'll only look back at you. Glare at the world as I just saw you doing and it will snap at your heels. Take the world as it is with a grain of salt. and a lot of love, and the world will enfold you, pointing the way to heaven. Mm -hmm. What does life and living mean to you? What do people mean to you? We pass this way but once. It all... depends what you do with living and life. In the main, I would like to suggest three rules for a poised life. A happy life. A good life. First of all, get the right mental picture of your own life. Then scale down the demands you are making on other people. Then third, at any cost in effort, keep your world from growing small. Whatever you do, don't let your world get small. Now let's consider them together. First, get the right mental picture of your own life. Sometimes I think that most of us have a distorted view. Most of us think of ourselves as being hemmed in by a vicious circle of impossible demands. From every side we see tasks and burdens, problems and things that annoy us. Responsibilities rushing at us. Every moment we have a dozen things to do. I know. You see, I'm a human being, too. I'm a part of this rush. I, too, feel the tension that permeates the very atmosphere. Every moment that we live, we have a dozen things to do. And this cruel pressure never relaxes. Always we're overdriven. We're overburdened. We're overtired. Let's get the correct view. Pause a moment. Think of your life as an hourglass. Our problems march single file. And the Bible says, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. It's one day at a time. The past is history. There are those to whom I am speaking are still grieving over something in the past. Beloved, you'll never be a successful person living a successful life. If you continue to grieve about something that's happened in the past, the past is history now. You and I cannot relive it. Cover it with the blood. Don't worry about tomorrow, the future. Today is the day. And the Bible says sufficient... Unto the day is the evil thereof. Life is a book in volumes three. The past, the present, the yet to be. The first we've read and laid away. The second we're reading day by day. The third and last of volumes three is hidden from view. And God holds the key. I'm glad he holds that key. I wouldn't want the responsibility. And as long as I know that he holds the key to the future and knowing that he can make no mistake because he is absolute perfection, knowing that I am his child, I have confidence to believe that nothing can come into my life but what is for my good and his glory. I believe that. When the sorrow comes, I know he has a purpose in it. When disappointment comes, I believe with all of my heart because I have confidence in his judgment, in his perfection, that he has a reason for it. It's something for my own personal growth. I don't want to be a stinted person. I don't want... to live in a small world. I don't want to be a small person in my thinking, in my living, in my behaviors. I want to be as big as the world. I want my vision to be as big as the world. I mean that. I want to love like that. I want to give like that. I want to live like that. I want to be that kind of person. My legacy is great. My legacy is as big as God himself. He's my Heavenly Father. I'm his child. He has not planned for my defeat. My defeat is not in his thinking. He has planned that... you and I should be a success. That we should live largely. Mm -hmm. Sure. Oh, beloved, this thing of living is an important thing. I saw this sentence many years ago on a church bulletin board, and I never forgot it. Worry is just like a rocking horse. It keeps you going, but it gets you nowhere. And many of us have been on a rocking horse, not months, but years. You've been on that rocking horse so long that you don't really know what it's like to relax, to trust, to go to bed at night and really sleep and get a good night's sleep. It keeps you going, but it gets you nowhere. Keep your life orderly. Refuse to allow your mind or circumstances to become cluttered. Don't do it. That's something I've had to learn. And a wise person is the one who has learned not to get their lives all cluttered up. As surely as you live a cluttered life, you're going to find yourself in a mess. Then you'll wonder how you ever got into the mess. Don't blame God. Look at yourself. Go right to the mirror. And I can guarantee you that if you live a cluttered up life, sooner or later, you'll find yourself in a mess. If I've got a job to do it, Do it now. If it's one you wish were through, do it now. If you're sure the job's your own, do not hem and haw and groan. Do it now. Don't put it off. Do it now. It doesn't pay to shirk. If you want to fill a place and be useful to the race, just get up and take a brace. Do it now. Do not linger, by the way. Do it now. You will lose if you delay. Do it now. If the other people wait or postpone until it's late, you hit up a faster gate. Do it. All right? Scale down the demands that you're making on other people. What are these demands? Well, for instance, the demand for attention. I know. Children make this demand very openly, unblushingly. We make it in secret ways, but all of us make it. There's something about human nature we cannot... Endure being ignored. We wait for applause. Especially after we have done a difficult piece of work. We're anxious to know what people will say about it. We think that surely someone will observe how skillful we are. We live for approbation. We demand expressions of gratitude from the individuals that we help. We wonder how soon they'll write letters of thanks. Uh -huh. You know, if you do a thing to be seen, or you give a gift, and then wait for that one to write and thank you for it, and then when they do... Thank you for the gift. If you feel that they have not been graciousness personified in accepting the gift, if you expect greater gratitude, then there's something wrong on the inside of you. It would have been a thousand times better if you had never given the gift. Yeah? Are you getting hurt? You're not liking the things that are being said? When I was a kid, Mama used to give me castor oil. She said it was good for me. Well, I tell you, maybe it's just a little dose of castor oil. I'm trying to give it to you in orange juice so it won't taste so badly. But I promise you, it's good for you. Someone may come and say, you know, people are so cold and they're so unfriendly. Or maybe another will say, it's foolish to put so much effort into my work. And again, another person will say, from now on, we'll just stop doing so much for others until they begin doing a little for us. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? For sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? For sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good and lend, hoping for nothing. hoping for no gain. Your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest, for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. my friend, is God's way for living. And if you live according to His plan, His way for living, I'll promise you something. You'll never have to worry about a nervous breakdown. You'll finish this new year a stronger, better, bigger person living in a bigger and better world. I promise you.