Part 1, Chapter 24
I jokingly say sometimes, “I am my father’s son,” or “like father, like son.” Both of these sayings point to the fact that I do some things because I learned them from my father. Yes, it is true I have learned a lot of things from my parents, good or bad or neutral. Some of these things are so natural for me that I don’t even think about them, I just do them. And yet, I have a choice if I am going to continue to do these things. “Now, although they be natural and instinctive in each person, they may be remedied and corrected, or even eradicated, by cultivating the reverse disposition” (Introduction to the Devout Life, 35). Some of them have become a part of my character which means they are more ingrained into me and so only with the grace of God can I work on changing them. It could take months or years to work on, but they can be worked on.
Should they be worked on? YES!!!! Our lives should reflect our belief in Christ. If something we do naturally is not helping us to grow closer to Christ, we need to work on getting rid of it. Our lives are to reflect our belief in God. Part of believing in God is living His teachings, and working on loving Him with our whole being. Some character flaws do not reflect this and as St. Francis De Sales says, we need to eradicate it. If we long for the devout life, working on these ingrained qualities of our lives is going to be needed.
Today is the last of chapters from Part 1 of the Introduction to the Devout Life. Tomorrow we begin to go deeper in working on getting rid of affections to sin, character flaws and anything else that is not allowing us to love God as we should. The journey has begun, “keep swimming, digging out those Dandelion roots and getting rid of those rotten eggs. As the saying going, “if something is worth doing, it is worth doing it well.”