What Does It Means to Live a Full Life?
Two of my daughters said it’s living, with failures and successes, without being concerned about what others think. My middle daughter said it’s “doing your boo.” My youngest said it’s “When you feel like you're living at your highest level... selfishly because it's all about that person.” The following is my lengthy response:
“My response is long, I had to write a little per day. Here goes: Never heard of "Do you boo." I guess at 75 I'm far removed from contemporary slang. But, I'd like to strike a balance between all three responses if I can. There was a song released in 1969 by the Isley Brothers entitled, "It's Your Thing," followed by the words, "Do what you wanna do." That was the mantra of the decade of the "roaring" 60's. I was 22 and in the military (2nd year). I was living my "full life" while being surrounded by sexy young women, drugs and alcohol, homosexuals, money lovers, cheaters, etc., but I didn't yield to temptation. My sister said she couldn't see how I could live without sex. My adopted mother thought I was homosexual because I wasn't sleeping with women. My close friends thought I had lost my mind because I had quit drinking and smoking. I was never on drugs. The best my mother could say about me is, "Bruce is really religious." Another friend, a female, wanted me to put the Bible down just for one night. A married woman wanted to "get with" me because her husband wasn't giving her attention. To be honest, I was tempted by all those things. I could have felt that engaging in those things was living my "full life" or doing "my boo," or doing my "thang,"
without anybody telling me "who to sock it to." Question: Are there consequences for such living, and will I be responsible for anything I do? If the answer is yes, then why?
If I'm selfish, it won't matter what people think or say. My freedom is for me to enjoy any way I want to regardless of what anybody thinks. If they don't like it, just bite the bullet (Wow! That's quite an independent attitude).
At this point, I'm going to relate to Missy's response. I like Vivi's response relating to the freedom to live your full life which all of us enjoy. I'll take Shanna's, "Doing your boo," to resonate with Vivi's response. Missy balanced the scale by adding a little more weight, pointing out that "living at your highest level" can be selfish because "it's all about that person." Had I yielded to temptation as a young man, I honestly believe my motive would have been selfishness and, living my full self/life or "doing my boo," I would not have lived long enough to marry Deborah Hammon and father three beautiful gorgeous daughters. In closing, I want to hasten to say that I feel that I have always lived my full life/self and/or was "doing my boo" (in a good sense) without being selfish. The following are two biblical principles, out of many, that I keep uppermost in mind:
(2) "All things are permitted for me, but not all things are of benefit. All things are permitted for me, but I will not be mastered by anything"
(1 Cor. 6:12). That means I'm free to do whatever ("all things") I want to do, but all things are not spiritually beneficial for me, even some things that are sinless, and whatever sinless thing I feel free to do, I will not become enslaved to it (e.g., any form of recreation, etc.).
(2) "But take care that this freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak" or immature (1 Cor. 8:9). That means I must be careful how my freedom influences others, especially immature believers who may sin because of the irresponsible way I use my freedom. If my freedom causes someone else to sin, the scripture says I "sin against Christ" (1 Cor. 8:22).
Okay. I'm all done. I love you ❤️”
Comments