"You can live well with sorrow, you cannot live well with sin". I was considering this quote today, and it served to shift my perspective. We often get tied up in weighing our decisions in close-term pragmatism. That every rightly ordered decision we make must also be accompanied with some sort of elation, release, or comfort. In reality, the opposite is often the case. But I propose that must actually be neccessary. Just as virtues hold their value in almost direct proportion to their ease of integration, so must decisions of great importance be understood to be accompanied by emotions that will push us to act in the contrary. It is in these, and in Christ, that the value of rightly ordered acts of the will are found. This is why personal relationship and experience with God is essential. My prayer for today is that Christ no longer allows my passions to serve as a methodology and paradigm with which to make choices, but as the Saints say, that my sights would be set on the heavens. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner. Salvation IS our struggle.