Article March 4, 1985 Issue

Praying for the world begins at home

MARK RUBLE

We hear much these days about working or praying for the world—and indeed we should. The very heart of Christianity is unselfed love and a broader vision. And there's no question that the world needs our support and spiritual uplifting. But we can sometimes get so busy focusing on the world and thinking about others' problems that we inadvertently neglect our own necessary prayerful work for ourselves, and our responsibilities to those closest to us, especially our families.

In order to help in solving the world's problems we must always match our focus on others with our own gaining of self-knowledge and self-control. If we fail to do this, much of our work may simply be counterproductive or wasted.

Do other people's sins bother us more than our own?—or at least grab more of our attention? If so, that is a sure sign of being out of focus. Each individual's primary responsibility to God necessarily begins with himself and his own actions. Our interaction with others, even our responsibilities to family, are really a function or extension of our own demonstration of spiritual self-knowledge and self-control.

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