Keys to Living - Pearls: Part 1 © By JT Morris

We will not be on this earth forever.

Every day above ground is a blessing and you should live it like it's your last.

There are some people out there who’ve chosen to live a life of anger, frustration, pain, jealousy, and/or dishonesty. For those individuals there will be a day of accountability, reckoning and hopefully atonement. All of these things WILL come to pass when our time here on this little blue marble is over.

Let that last statement marinate for a sec.

Your mental foundation is rooted in either triumph or tragedy. Your mind and heart anchors itself in either your greatest victory, your soundest defeat or your most resounding failure.

One day, we will not have to worry about going to work or how we will make that next loan payment. We will not have to fret on where our next meal will come from or how we're gonna pay for that house or car.

At any time the Most High could take us from this earth. 

That being said, you should appreciate today and not worry about tomorrow, for nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. When you wake up each morning, thank the Most High for waking you up. When you lie down to sleep at night, thank the Lord for blessing you with another wonderfully blessed day.

Sometimes the Most High presents us with issues that will test our faith, but you have to be strong enough to believe that God will do exactly what He says. His word does not return unto Him void. The message for today is to praise the Most High, have faith in the Lord, give thanks to the Lord, and live every day like it is your last. Theoretically speaking, if the Lord never does anything else for us, other than wake us up each day, put food in our mouths and clothes on our backs, we should thank Him. That doesn't mean settle or be complacent. God definitely honors effort. No......I'm simply saying be grateful for the blessings bestowed upon you, but never stop searching for your divine purpose or the gift that the Most High has placed within you.

Always remember that life isn’t nearly as complicated as we make it. Life is simple……. It’s us humans that have this pesky knack of making things difficult for ourselves based on our life choices. In my humble opinion, the quality of the life lead basically comes down to the actions that we take and the decisions that we make (or don’t take and/ or refuse to make). You make choices, you act on said choices and don’t you don’t look back.

As the Good Book reminds us: 

• Psalms 118:24 - This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
• Psalms 118:29 - Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his love endures forever.
• Proverbs 10:22 -The blessings of the Lord maketh rich, and he addedth no Sorrow with it  
• Ecclesiastes 3:1 - To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

With the aforementioned Good Book verses in mind, I figured I’d share some of my keys to living a fruitful and serene life. Below are a few pearls of wisdom that have been shared with me over years from a variety of sources. Some are mine gifted to me from living a life of observation and having an evolutionary mindset. This life is full of teachable moments. We just have to be open to receiving the lessons regardless of how they are taught or how they make us feel. I was raised to believe that anything that the Most High blesses us with should be Paid Forward.

So, without further ado I present to you a collection of my Keys to Living or as I like to refer to them:

Light Bulb Moments

Pray and ask the Lord for guidance. Be sincere, for God knows whether or not we mean it from the heart.

Help those in need as a gift from your heart, and not so you can get a pat on the back.

Put forth extra effort in everything that you do. Go after what you want in life and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals. No matter how perfect you think you are there is always room for improvement, and an opportunity for you to do better.

If you are depressed, cry if you need to. However once you're done, hold your head up and know that the Most High will help you through. Pray and ask the Lord to deliver you from your state of depression, then go talk to someone about it (Preferably a Licensed professional). Whatever it is that you are depressed about; God will take that pain from your heart. It may not be at that moment, or that next hour, or maybe not even the next day, but He WILL do it if for you. All He asks is for you to trust Him. As my folks always say.....God may not show up when YOU want Him to, but He's ALWAYS right on time. God will not give us more than we can bear and if He allows it, it is to force us to course correct.

Check on your "strong" friends every once and a while. They're probably just as tired and frustrated as you are. Difference is they are usually the ones you go to to vent. They may need to "drop some weight too". Be there for them like they're there for you. You can’t draw water from an empty well.

Don't waste your life trying to fix something that's meant to stay broken.

Master your Energy:

• FOCUS – Face Obstacles Causing Ur Stagnation
• SEX - Sacred Energy Exchange (Soul Ties)
• GPS – God’s Peace Sustains
• EASE – Evaluate it, Accept it, Survive it, Evolve from it/ Excel because of it

Peace +Serenity+ Positivity +Happiness+ Joy – Negativity – Toxic Life Situations = Wholeness

God and the Ego cannot exist in the same space. Ego is confidence absent humility.

True love is rare. Solid connections are priceless. Losing both is heartbreaking. What do you do when the people you love that actually made you feel loved are taken away? They are in a better place, yes. Mine not so much. However, I do take comfort in that one day – Lord Willing – that I will one day be reunited with the ones I dearly love that have passed on.

 Just because people don't understand your worth or appreciate your value doesn't make you any less valuable or worthless.

People of questionable character do exactly what they want to, how they want to do it, when they want to do it and as many times as they want to do it......... unapologetically. Quit acting like you don't see and/ or understand that. You're only frustrating and hurting yourself.

God is a God of order. Even the Chaos in the universe has structure to it. Have you ever looked at the images of an Asteroid field or a meteor shower? Free floating chunks of ice or debris confined to a certain area of space. Our Solar System.... Our positioning in this Galaxy places us at just the right distance from the Sun in order for life not only to exist but to thrive. Only God can allow order and structure to exist in the midst of Chaos and Dysfunction.

There's nothing wrong with our youth. They just know how to call bullsh*t on what they see out here and are actually willing to do something about it. They just need to channel that energy into something constructive and productive. They are simply products of their environments. Change the environment, change the narrative, and you can and will change the future.

People spend a whole lot of money on designers that never intended for them to buy their gear to impress folks that could care less about them or what they're wearing.

Clothes don't make the man but damn it it's ok to be stylish.

Stay ready so you won’t have to get ready. Opportunity doesn’t wait for us to prepare. You have to be ready to move when it reveals itself.

Failure has never been and must not ever be an option.... not just by choice, but out of necessity. For necessity is not only the mother of invention, it’s also the catalyst for audacity.

Being a great steward of all the Most High has blessed us with is a 24 hour a day, 365 day a year responsibility.

It is what it is.  Accept it, learn from it, and grow from it.  It doesn’t matter what you’ve done; what truly matters is what you decide to do right now. Now is all that you have. Live in the moment.

Sometimes it’s okay to go off the grid for a minute and sort some stuff out. No Social Media, no phone, no email, no texts…. Nothing. If anything goes down guess what? It’s going to go down whether you’re available or not. Love you. Take Care of you. At the end of the day, you’re all you’ve got. The first rule of survival is self-preservation. Always be kind to yourself and be easy out there.

Hope + No Action = Wishes

Faith + Works = Action

You can hope and wish as much as you want for something, but you must have faith in order to activate the blessing.

The Blessing of the Most High enriches your life and he adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). The beautiful thing about the Most High’s blessings is that typically there's always enough to share.

Loss isn't to be feared. It's the natural order of things. It signifies that a season is over. It initiates a new beginning. HE makes all things new. GOD in HIS infinite wisdom gave us stillness. Treasure it.... for that's where your growth is and therein is where true freedom lies.

It's ok to be insistent and persistent, but you never have to beg for anything that you need or want. For Believers, what's destined for them is freely given and readily provided by the Most High. It's the timing that tends to make us anxious. That's why it pays to have the proper perspective about your situation. Having the proper perspective on people, events and things is the key to maintaining YOUR sanity and retaining YOUR peace.... For it is truthfully the ONLY thing in this life that we can actually control.

If you have a job, thank the Lord for your place of employment (Even if you would much rather be working some place else). Ask Him to give you the knowledge and the wisdom to do your job. If you hate your job, ask Him to direct you to the job that is right for you (...or ask him for the resources to start your own business). 

If you don't have a job, thank him anyway but ask Him to order your steps to the gig that's right for you. 

Ask the Most High to order your steps and bless you in everything that you do. Be thankful for what you have, and the life that God has bestowed upon you. 

When you are eating breakfast, lunch or dinner, say a prayer thanking the Lord for providing food and nourishment for your body. There are folks out there that have no idea where their next meal is coming from.

If you are healthy, thank the Lord for your health and strength. If you aren't as healthy or as fit as you would like to be, thank Him anyway. Ask Him to heal your body and then get busy putting in the work necessary to obtain your desired fitness and wellness level (God Honors Effort). Life is truly sweetest when you take time out to express gratitude for the "little" things.


The next time that you get mad or feel yourself becoming ungrateful remember that just as quickly as you have been blessed with it, you can lose it.

Next time you want to know if something you did or said upset or offended someone, honestly ask yourself this: If the roles were reversed, would it offend or upset me? The answer may surprise you…. or not.

Your beliefs shape your experiences.... your experiences shape your perception.

Reminiscing is good but not at the expense of living in the moment.

Most of your stress comes from the way you respond, not the way life is. When you adjust your thinking, all that extra stress disappears.

There is a real opportunity in every difficult situation to understand yourself more deeply, and also to improve your life.

A stunningly beautiful woman is only to be admired but never desired.

Genuinely loving the wrong woman is costly on so many levels.  Life has taught me that truly loving yourself draws to you the kind of love that you desire and deserve.

Symmetry and order are beautiful to behold. Unseemly things are things that have no order, function or balance to them.

Forgiveness is the ointment that heals the heart, mind and soul....

Yet most of the time the people that hurt you don't deserve your forgiveness. Forgive them anyway. It's not for them.... it’s for you. Just never forget how they made you feel....and promise yourself to never let anyone make you feel that way ever again.

Never allow people who can't even chew gun and walk at the same time to tell you what you can't do.

When someone shows you their true nature, accept it for what it is. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck....it's not a rhinoceros.

People have normalized the exception to the point that the exception is now the norm.

Mediocrity is now celebrated as Extraordinary. Once upon a time becoming and being truly exceptional meant "paying your dues". Now ...not so much.

It's okay to be a tad bit selfish and fall back on being so nice all time. THIS world doesn't truly respect that sh*t anyway.

You could spend all day poking all kinds of holes in the "advice" and commentary you get from cynical and pessimistic people, but it's not even worth the amount of the brain cells you'd use trying to. Folks believe what they want to believe and roll the way they want to roll. Let ‘em ball. Let them say what the feel like they need to say as long as it’s done in a civil and respectful manner. However, there is a line and no amount of money, manner of privilege or faux entitlement will prevent you from reaping the consequences of your actions if you cross it.

Only an insecure person or an idiot claims to know everything. The truly wise and intelligent person understands to observe more than they speak. Cease speaking on matters you clearly know nothing about. People rarely share "pearls of wisdom" with people who claim to know it all. More times than not, silence is truly golden.

People can't tell you whether what you're doing is either right or wrong......but your consequences will. Your conscience will. Your Karma most definitely will. If they haven't yet.... Just keep living. That bill always comes due.

To be continued ....