The 10 Commandments of Common Sense

Commandment 1
Don't be seduced by popular culture
It prevents you from thinking for yourself
Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the ways of understanding (Prov 9:6)
Do not model your behaviour on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you (Romans 12:2)
Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking

Commandment 2
Don't fall in love with money and possessions
It will make you greedy and shallow
For a man's real life in no way depends upon the number of his possessions (Luke 12:15)
Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied wit his income. (Ecc 5:10)
For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world at the price of his own soul? (Matt 16:26)
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth... but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven (Matt 6:19)
We think we need more than we really do

Commandment 3
Don't use destructive language. It hurts others as well as yourself.
He who guards his lips guards his life but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin.
Words can not only create emotions, they create actions and from our actions flow the results of our lives.
The tongue has the power of life and death.
Reckless words pierce like a sword but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Speech is the mirror of the soul.
He who holds his tongue is wise.
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life but violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Commandment 4

Don’t judge other people. It’s better to work on your own faults

Our success in life will be determined by how we choose to handle our pride, to what degree we conquer it.

What we don’t like about other people is usually what we don’t like about ourselves.

If we only see faults, we can’t see the good.

It isn’t the act of judging that’s wrong but the attitude with which it’s done.

It is not for us to say who is or is not close to the spirit of Christ. We do not see into men’s hearts. We cannot judge and we are forbidden to judge. It would be wicked arrogance for us to say that any man is or is not a Chrisitan.

God does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

If you judge people you have no time to love them.

Commandment 5
Don't let anger get out of control. It can wreck relationships and ruin lives.
Anyone can be angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not easy.
The Scriptures don't tell us to eliminate anger; they tell us to control it.
Being patient, kind and gentle so that we can avoid the consequences of uncontrolled anger.
There's nothing wrong with anger provided you use it constructively.
Once you fully understand that your anger is both self-centred and self-destructive behaviour, you'll want to do whatever's necessary to get it under control.
Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.

Commandment 6
Keep a positive outlook on life. It's the first step toward Joy.
A good attitude is the starting place for both being good and doing good.
Joy comes from within, not from circumstances. It's a feeling of deep satisfaction with life. It's also an outlook on life that's closely related to thankfulness. Joyful people look at what's right with the world and with people instead of what's wrong. They have a special appreciation for all the good they see around them.
It's not how much we have, but how much we enjoy.
There's more to be thankful about than to complain about. Accept life as it is and make the most of it in all circumstances insterad of grumbling about the way things ought to be.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional.
We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string that we have, our attitude. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. We are in charge of our attitudes.

Commandment 7
Bring out the best in other people. It's better to build up than to tear down.
Abraham Lincoln was able to form friendships with men who had previously him; repair injured feelings that, left untended, might have escalated into permanent hostility; assume responsibility for the failures of subordinates; share credit with ease and learn from mistakes.
Show genuine interest
Listen with your heart
Teach and mentor
Affirm and praise
Encourage and inspire
Be a source of comfort
Celebrate life
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong; when he's cheerful, everything seems right. 

i seriously need to do classroom management.
and also, pray for favour.. so that ppl will stop bad mouthing.. maybe it's just they need to do that to make themselves feel better.

Oh man...

I can't believe something small can blow up so big.. u mean u can't handle it on ur own, u have to give this kind of feedback to ED?
I already told u it's nt a school event right?
And my sharing of personal choices is not alright with u? I said I'm happy is my own sharing.. I never force her to be like me what. U as a parent don't know how to process and teach her to make choices. How's she gonna enter teenage years? How's she gonna grow up? Or maybe u'd rather she doesn't grow up.

Note to self.. make it a point to communicate with parent/guardian first and not believe all that the child says.

Can talk to me directly or not..

Haiyo, can feedback to me direct or not.. instead of through XX.. make me look so inept at what I'm doing.. come on.. I'm trying here.. You don't expect me to be like you right? I have my own style.. please respect that.

You can chose to dislike me. I can chose to dislike you.
I'm perfectly comfortable with that. I don't seek to have everyone like me. I don't seek to be popular.
Before you ask why I don't talk to you, reflect and think why you are not popular.

Choices That Change Lives

Chapter 1:
Humility
Life is a lesson in Humility. Be Humble.. or be humbled.
If pride turned some of the angels into demons, then humility can doubtless make angels out of demons.
If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.
When we become aware of our humility, we've lost it.
Life is a long lesson in humility.
Humble people don't think they know everything, don't think they're always right, don't brag, don't judge others.
Humble people treat others with respect, are thankful, are genuine, want to learn and become better.

Chapter 2:
Patience
Think before you act. Patience is the first step toward understanding and peacefulness.
Patience is quiet hope and trust, expecting things to turn out all right. Patience is being calm and tolerant when difficult things happen.
For the more we cultivate patience, the happier and more peaceful we are, even if things don't always turn out the way we want.
Patience is the companion of wisdom.

Chapter 3:
Empathy
Sensitivity toward others take the spotlight off ourselves.
Be caring and compassionate
Empathy is the ability to read and understand people and be in tune with or resonate with others.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood
If we were supposed to talk more than we listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.

Chapter 4:
Giving
It is more blessed to give than to receive.
In helping others, you are helping yourself
Perhaps above all else it is the gift of our time - the most perishable commodity we have - that means the most.
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
It is not how much we give but how much love we put into giving
For it is in giving that we receive
He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.

Chapter 5:
Forgiveness
Learn to forgive. It's incredibly hard, but worth the effort - and essential to mental health
It is the foregoing of resentment or revenge when the wrongdoer's actions deserve it and giving the gifts of mercy, generosity and love when the wrondoer does not deserve them.
Forgiveness is a choice. It is a process.
Forgiveness is letting go of the past. It is a form of healing.
Forgiveness is a sign of strength.
To withhold forgiveness is to choose to continue to remain the victim. You always have the choice.
Pain is inevitable. Misery is optional.
Life may not be perfect but you can learn to suffer less. You can learn to forgive and learn to heal.
Forgiveness is a gift that you give to yourself.

Chapter 6:
Thinking
The mind is like a garden. Feed it and weed it with care
The care and feeding of the mind is just as important as the care and feeding of the body. The mind unfed weakens just as the body does. The mind not sustained by the continual intake of something that is capable of filling it well or nourishing it shrinks and shrivels.
Just as the gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless and impure thoughts and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thougts.
The mind grows by what it feeds on.
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
Positive thinking won't let you do anything, but it will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thougts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.

Chapter 7:
Possibilities
Always think in terms of what's possible. It's how every achievement begins.
Opportunity. Potential. Imagination.
Opportunity is all around us. If we seek it, we will find it.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized.
No matter what the level of your ability, you have more potnetial than you can ever develop in a lifetime.
Imagination is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand.
Our aspirations are our possibilities.
If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.
Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.

Chapter 8:
Renewal
It's never too late to learn to change or to grow. Make all of them lifelong pursuits.
To develop skills, attitudes, habits of mind and the kinds of knowledge and understanding that will be the instruments of continuous change and growth.
4 kinds of renewal: Physical, Mental, Social, Spiritual.
We should be able to look forward not only to growing up but also to continued growth in all human dimensions throughout life. All should aspire to make as much of their powers as they can.
The process of keeping the mind alive and growing is as perpetual and continual a process as that of keeping the human body alive. But whereas there are limits to the body's growth, the mind, unlike the body, can grow every year of our lives. The only condition of it's growth is that it be fed and exercised.

Chapter 9:
Courage
It takes courage to say "yes" to life. Make it a daily commitment.
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
The real tests of courage are inner tests, like remaining faithful when no one's looking, enduring pain when the room is empty, standing alone when you're misunderstood.
Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.
Life is hard and life is often unfair and we can expect trouble. But that doesn't mean we have to let it degeat us. Digging down, finding strength and standing up to hardship can be one of the great rewards and joys of life. It takes courage - the everyday kind.
It takes courage to see in the reality around us and in us something ultimately positive and meaningful and live with it, even love it. Loving life is perhaps the highest form of the courage to be.
Help me to stand for the hard right against the easy wrong.
You'll never grow until you take some steps outside your comfort zone.
We fail far more often by timidity than by over-daring.
Whether you be a man or a woman you will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honour.

Chapter 10:
Excellence
Real success comes from having high standards. Always give your best.
Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Set high personal standards.
Live up to those standards regardless of circumstances.
Excellence in: character and honesty, how we treat others, work ethic, personal growth and development.
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so weel that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, "Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

Chapter 11:
Mission
Life is richer with meaning and purpose. Have a cause greater than yourself.
Your personal mission in life is all your roles and values distilled into a sentence or two that describe what you want to be and accomplish in your life.
Your purpose is intertwined with your vision and values.
What's the meaning of your life?
Values, Goals, Mission - A life with purpose.
When you heed the calling of your heart, you are following your purpose. Having purpose in your life gives you the courage to do things you are meant to do.

Chapter 12:
Scripture
The Scriptures are a source of strength and comfort. Use them to enrich your life.
Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.
When you read God's Word, you must constantly be saying to yourself, "It is talking to me and about me."
The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and centre of their hearts.

Chapter 13:
Prayer
Every prayer is answered. Pray until something happens!
Prayer is our way of communicating with God - we need to listen.
Listening and waiting.
Worship and adoratation.
Confession and repentance.
Praise and thanksgiving.
Petition and supplication.
Intercession for self and others.
Dealing with the devil.
The first challenge - pray for your enemies.
Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you - it is part of the process of forgiveness.
The second challenge - pray all the time
We should be aware of God's presence in our daily lives at all times and be in constant communion with Him.
Prayer is a sense of God's presence.
To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.... The more we pray, the more we come to the heartbeat of God.

Chapter 14:
Wisdom
Deep understanding, keen discernment and a capacity for sound judgment.
Wisdom does not automatically come with age it comes as the result of hard work.
Wisdom does not come from intelligence. The world is full of geniuses without a lick of common sense or understanding of what's going on around them.
Wisdom does not come from education and knowledge. It is using the knowledge to the benefit of the world, others and yourself.
Wisdom does not come from experience. Experience gives us the opportunity to learn and increase in wisdom.
Wise people:
learn for a lifetime.
teach others.
maintain balance.
are honest.
are reverent.
choose a good attitude.
find a purpose.
work hard.
build good relationships.
show common sense.
Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

Chapter 15
Joy
There's something to celebrate every day. Look for the good - You'll find it.
Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.
Develop and maintain a positive attitude. Look for the good, find it and celebrate it. Always be thankful.
Treat other people with respect and kindness. Always have something good to say.
Enjoy life. Remember your need to play and have fun. Even more important, remember your need to laugh.
Think with an open mind. Use your imagination to see the opportunities and the possibilities all around you.
There are no secrets and there are no shortcuts that will lead us to wisdom and joy. They still have to be earned the hard way. That's what makes them so rewarding.