EP 49: 12 Characteristics of True Principles, Part 1

We live in a world of relativism--my truth and your truth, rather than THE truth. Yet, as mission driven moms, we are striving to build principle-centered hearts and homes. This is no easy task, especially when we've been given almost no clear instruction or direction in the skills of discovering and applying true principles in our lives.  Among other tools we offer at The Mission Driven Mom is this invaluable one--The 12 Characteristics of True Principles! Armed with this simple list of attributes, we can now see principles more clearly. In this podcast you'll be introduced to the first 12 characteristics, with the last 6 coming next week! Listen to stories, quotes and explanations of each in order to better understand the nature of true principles. 

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast.  4:11  How the 12 Characteristics came about 5:55  1- Foundational idea 8:55  2- True for all people, all the time 13:30  3- Increase freedom 17:47  4- Expand the mind 21:32  5- Enlighten the heart   25:05  6- Enlarge the soul

Quotes from this episode:

"But things have been so admirably arranged by the divine Inventor fo the social order that in this, as in everything, political economy and morality, far from clashing, are in harmony, so that the wisdom of Ariste [the brother who saves] is not only more worthy, but even more profitable, than the follow of Mondor [the brother who spends]." ~ Frederic Bastiat

"It is not without actual physical pain that I see such contradictions appear between the great laws of Nature. If mankind were reduced to choosing between the two sides, one of which hurts its interests and the other its conscience, we should have to despair for its future. Happily this is not so. To see Ariste regain his economic as well as his moral superiority, we need only understand this consoling axiom, which is not the less true for having a paradoxical appearance: To save is to spend." ~ Frederic Bastiat

"They were standing a little straighter, and working a little more smartly. It did things to a man, Nat thought, to find out he had a brain." ~ Jean Lee Latham

"It was not that my hygiene lessons had yet made that much difference, nor that I had grown accustomed to the smells because in other situations my crazy nose bothered me as much as always. It was rather that as I came to know the children and to think of them as persons rather that names in my grade book, I forgot my reactions and began to love them. I suppose the principle was that the higher affection will always expel the lower whenever we give the higher affection sway. For me, it was letting love for the mountain children come in the front door while my preoccupation with bad smells crept out the rathole." ~ Catherine Marshall

"The nervous agitation of Alexey Alexandrovitch kept increasing, and had by now reached such a point that he ceased to struggle with it. He suddenly felt that what he had regarded as nervous agitation was on the contrary a blissful spiritual condition that gave him all at once a new happiness he had never known. He did not think that the Christian law that he had been all his life trying to follow, enjoined on him to forgive and love his enemies; but a glad feeling of love and forgiveness for his enemies filled his heart." ~ Leo Tolstoy

"'But I saw her and forgave her. And the happiness of forgiveness has revealed to me my duty. I forgive completely. I would offer the other cheek, I would give my cloak if my coat be taken. I pray to God only not to take from me the bless of forgiveness.'" ~Alexey Alexandrovitch, Anna Karenina

Books from this episode: 

What is Seen, What is Not Seen ~ Frederic Bastiat

Anna Karenina ~ Let Tolstoy 

Christy ~ Catherine Marshall