Friday, November 18, 2011

Succeeding in Academia through Spiritual discipline

This is one of my shortest reflection, and is based on my meditation of how my faith has played a role in my academic endeavours. I want it to be used to encourage other students and prospective students of the importance of not neglecting the spiritual disciplines of your faith. I also want to challenge you students to pursue your dream of a university education by applying your spiritual discipline to assist in your secular studies. The same habits formed from these spiritual exercises are those that will help you succeed in academia.

Studying - the mental habits of memorizing Bible verses/committing scriptures and text to memory and reflecting on the meaning of particular passages, messages or concepts - is a very useful habit for academia.

Reading - the at least weekly act of reading the scriptures brings familiarity with words and going through text. This habit is also useful for the times in getting someone used to weekly or daily reading practices, that are useful in academic studies, since most information conveyed in education is done through information transfer from text.

Prayer habits - Those who practice the daily or less regular routine of getting up in the middle of the night or early morning to pray to or petition G-d or to have devotion/quiet time with G-d, develop a habit that will help one to complete assignments or prepare for examinations. Countless time, one will have to forsake sleep to study or complete an assignment. Even those who practice prayer vigils, will be use to conducting an all night exercise that might be quite a useful habit when a paper is due the next day.

Fasting - Sometimes going without food for a period of time in order to get some work done to meet a deadline is important. Those used to fasting will not find it a strange habit to do so when necessary.

Listening to Sermons/Messages - Weekly sermons and messages from the pulpit are like lectures and the way that a lot of academic professors deliver information in class. The Christian/Jewish student will always be accustomed to sitting still for a length of time to listen keenly to the delivery of information, which will help them grasp what they ought to learn. They will have the habit of focusing their attention on a speaker for important information for a length of time.

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