It’s a brand-new year. 2009. If you have not already made your important decisions about how to use this New Year then perhaps you will consider some of these thoughts as you do.
A wise old man who used to help the Tabernacle Choir do their weekly radio and TV broadcasts, called Richard L. Evans, made up a new word. He took the word “repentance” and he added just one letter, “p.” His new word was “prepentance.” Since no one had ever used this word before he used one of his broadcasts to explain it to everyone listening.
He said that everyone would have to make certain decisions about how they will live their lives. Then he said that some decisions are better than other decisions. For example, generally, quick decisions are not as good as, well thought out decisions. A quick decision, made under pressure is usually even worse. He said it is a whole lot easier to make a decision in advance than it is to wait for when someone offers you a drink of liquor or a cigarette to smoke or to do some illegal drugs.
He said prepentance could work for many other decisions too, including how you will use your new time this New Year. Although everyone has time because that is, what life is made up with. Few people understand time. Why is that? It is because time is merely a thought or an idea, a concept. Time only exists in the human mind.
It is convenient to think of time divided into three parts-past, present, and future. Until a few days ago the year 2009 was in the future. What do we know about our own individual future? We know practically nothing! It exists primarily in our imagination. In our imaginings of things to come, some of us have hopes of the way we would like them to be, but that’s not prepentance, is it? Those who are stronger have desires, but that’s not prepentance, either. Those who are stronger have intensions, and that’s not prepentense. Those who are stronger still have objectives and plans. Since objectives and plans come from decisions then they are a form of prepentance.
Objectives and plans for this year of 2009 can be based upon our knowledge of past events (our own or those of others). As humans, we feel that we can mold our future by what we think and do in each moment of the present. The “present” is a collection, an ever-flowing stream of thoughts and feelings in one’s mind. The “past” is only a multitude of thoughts and pictures stored up, usually in a disorderly fashion, in the mind and especially in the memory, about what happened to oneself and other people, to things, places and events. Your past is different from my past, and both of our pasts differ from those of every other being who ever lived, or will live.
“For of all sad of words tongue or pen
The saddest are these: It might have been.”
(Alexander Pope)
Prepentance is the pre-remedy. You’ll never have to feel as sad as Alexander Pope’s words describe if you choose to use prepentance as the way you think and do now or how you choose to make use of your time. We can manage ourselves this way, and not worry about how we spend our time. Where is our time leading us? Through prepenting, by choosing what we think and do, it can lead us progressively and surely towards the ends that we have selected for ourselves. Prepenting can bring us to the most enduring personal satisfaction and prevent pains due to unnecessary loss.
You are superior to the average person. You think and act continuously in a special way. You have made certain good habits (those that lead you to your goals) that have become second nature. You are altogether dropping certain bad habits (those that would lead you away from your goals). Yes, you are prepenting! Time is a series of opportunities to do the things you want to do, to move you toward the things you want.
If you aren’t going anywhere and don’t want anything, it doesn’t make much difference what you do with your time. Therefore, as much of your waking time as possible should be spent thinking about your goals and moving toward them. Only when that is your mode of operation will the future be overflowing with satisfaction, rather than regret. Use this basic thought as motivation to seek out and read many good books and surround yourself with people who can support your best objectives and plans for the New Year.
Remember that the precious gift of time can only improve based upon with the results we want to get out of it. We can decide how we shall spend (or if we are wise, invest) each minute and hour as it comes-as long as it keeps coming (we never know when it will run out). Wasted time cannot be recaptured. Adopt (if you haven’t already) an attitude of prepentance or, at least, choose to seek satisfaction bringing objectives and plans in your use of time.
Source by Doc Miller