I think what makes this problem more difficult is that most of the literature of the church is written by monastics for monastics... most of the stories of saints we hear are about monastics... unfortunately, i think those of us who live in the world have a hard time to understand HOW to live in the world, because all the hot-shots, so to speak, have been, and are, in monasteries.
just from patience on the matter.. not that I\'m a good prayer or anything like that... and clergy correct me if I\'m wrong... those of us outside of monasteries have LESS responsibilities - yes of course we follow the same commandments, pray, repent, etc etc. But we have not taken up moastic vows or vows of ordination which are a huge responsibility that we are free from... what are we left with? men are responsible for their wife and children... wives are responsible for the husband and children... young and unmarried are responsible for not screwing up too badly before getting married.
of course a monastery is a beautiful place as an outsider visiting there on vacation... but from what I understand, there is a lot of nuts and bolts hard work that goes into monasteries - a lot of grief, frustration, and exhaustive battling of temptations...
before I start talking myself in circles too much...
my goals are just such that I
-try to be a good christian prior to finding a spouse.
-try to work in a christian way (as a teacher) I try not to lead my kids astray - be they atheist, buddhist, protestant, whatever - commend them for wholesome things, cast doubt or criticism on unwholesome things.
-try to be a goo christian among my friends - like i said I took up music - so my friends are from my music school, mostly... we talk about music, dating, whatever - we don\'t go binge drinking or anything like that - just enjoy playing music, learning music, talking about music, going to concerts, etc.
-try to do my daily affairs in a christian way - be courteous and nice to the folks I interact with daily - it doesn\'t matter if they\'re orthodox or not, who cares? I shouldn\'t discriminate being nice to the convenient store guy - afterall he\'s super nice to me, so we exchange little bits of polite conversation occasionally... always polite to the cooks at the restaurant
I\'d say the HARDEST thing is when i come home - I can turn on the internet and click on all sorts of temptations... I guess I should pray... but I won\'t lie - I don\'t, until I go to bed... and when I wake up in the morning... or if i find myself facing some temptation or crisis of some sort
an as I said before... just keep going to church, it is your anchor in spiritual life... I technically could go twice a week (satuday vespers and sunday liturgy) but I\'m a little ashamed to say I only go sundays, as my \\"balance\\" of faith and the world has been to be a tourist on saturdays and a \\"christian\\" on sundays.
but anyways, I\'ll just keep rambling on and on... so i better stop myself
just my many many many 2 cents... from an inexperienced, minimally faithful guy..
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