Smacked around by Lamott and à Kempis.

‘It’s good to be out where others can see you, so you can’t be your ghastly spoiled self.  It forces you to act slightly  more elegantly, and this improves your thoughts, and thereby the world.”
Anne Lamott, in ‘Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith’.

“Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know,
to love what I ought to love,
to praise what delights thee most,
to value what is precious in thy sight,
to hate what is offensive to thee.

Do not suffer me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,
nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant [people];
but to discern with a true judgement between things visible and spiritual,
and above all, always to inquire what is the good pleasure of Thy will.”
Thomas à Kempis

Ok, so they didn’t really exactly smack me.  Reading these two things– from different sources, in different settings– resulted in more of a gentle vice-like grip on my very soul.

How about you?  Anything jump out?