In my house I have those old fashioned door knobs and locks. You know the kind, the type that takes a skeleton key to operate. The knobs themselves are white porcelain. For them to close properly you have to turn the knob then release it to engage the catch. You can't just slam it shut ! Well, alright you can, but it requires quite a bit of effort and is noisy if you do. If was that that brought to mind this morning thoughts about being deliberate. I'm beginning to think it is something that we are becoming less of. I even heard a song on the radio about actions before becoming "automatic " I think maybe that song was referencing more taking things for granted than being deliberate but I haven't really listened that closely to the lyrics. Anyway, I am thinking about being deliberate in our actions. Being deliberate does require thought and just plain paying attention. Too ,many are failing to do either, in my opinion.
I'm thinking we have made too many things, too easy. We have removed the everyday little challenges that kept us interested. Take something as simple as writing a letter or a note to someone. Now we just " text " them. I remember a day when you actually wrote those things, on paper. It was a deliberate act and one you paid attention to. Depending upon the recipient you took care in your printing or cursive handwriting. You tried to pay attention to the proper form to use. Was the salutation appropriate ? Punctuation and capitalization reflected your degree of proficiency. These things were important. Seems like now we have abandoned that in favor of no form at all and using as many acronyms as possible. Also our choice of vocabulary words, especially adjectives, has become limited ! One word in particular seems to dominate the landscape.
There are many other examples. Take cooking for instance. Now we just zap something in the microwave or thaw a meal out. Meals come in boxes and cans now. Home cooking is a treat and something to brag about. I remember when that is what you had everyday. Mom deliberately cooked dinner, from scratch. Cakes didn't come out of a box and neither did pie crust ! Baking something was a deliberate process. Mending our clothes was another. Sewing was a deliberate thing done to save money and extend the useful life of our clothing. Some did it as a recreational thing but mostly to just show off their skills. Now we just buy new, too easy. Some buy " new " clothes that already look patched and worn !
What I'm trying to point here is that I don't think we pay as close attention to things as we used to. We are not as deliberate in our actions because we don't have to think about it anymore. Just swing the door shut, it'll latch. Our cameras are point and shoot. Things just move too fast. We just aren't paying attention to things like we used to. When we do start paying attention we call it crafting. Was a day when our craft was just getting through life as best as we could. We paid attention to things and how they worked. We took care of them as well. Now we don't care so much about how or why they work we just expect them to work. When they don't, we pay attention. Deliberate actions require thought and knowledge. Those things lead to caring. If we all were just a bit more deliberate in our actions things would be a lot nicer. Not necessarily easier, just nicer. Like a home cooked meal, not easy but a comfort. It is my belief that God made it that way, deliberately.
I'm thinking we have made too many things, too easy. We have removed the everyday little challenges that kept us interested. Take something as simple as writing a letter or a note to someone. Now we just " text " them. I remember a day when you actually wrote those things, on paper. It was a deliberate act and one you paid attention to. Depending upon the recipient you took care in your printing or cursive handwriting. You tried to pay attention to the proper form to use. Was the salutation appropriate ? Punctuation and capitalization reflected your degree of proficiency. These things were important. Seems like now we have abandoned that in favor of no form at all and using as many acronyms as possible. Also our choice of vocabulary words, especially adjectives, has become limited ! One word in particular seems to dominate the landscape.
There are many other examples. Take cooking for instance. Now we just zap something in the microwave or thaw a meal out. Meals come in boxes and cans now. Home cooking is a treat and something to brag about. I remember when that is what you had everyday. Mom deliberately cooked dinner, from scratch. Cakes didn't come out of a box and neither did pie crust ! Baking something was a deliberate process. Mending our clothes was another. Sewing was a deliberate thing done to save money and extend the useful life of our clothing. Some did it as a recreational thing but mostly to just show off their skills. Now we just buy new, too easy. Some buy " new " clothes that already look patched and worn !
What I'm trying to point here is that I don't think we pay as close attention to things as we used to. We are not as deliberate in our actions because we don't have to think about it anymore. Just swing the door shut, it'll latch. Our cameras are point and shoot. Things just move too fast. We just aren't paying attention to things like we used to. When we do start paying attention we call it crafting. Was a day when our craft was just getting through life as best as we could. We paid attention to things and how they worked. We took care of them as well. Now we don't care so much about how or why they work we just expect them to work. When they don't, we pay attention. Deliberate actions require thought and knowledge. Those things lead to caring. If we all were just a bit more deliberate in our actions things would be a lot nicer. Not necessarily easier, just nicer. Like a home cooked meal, not easy but a comfort. It is my belief that God made it that way, deliberately.
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