The Need to Put Away All Inclination for Useless and Dangerous Things

"The harm lies, not in doing them, but in the degree to which you care for them. It is a pity to sow the seed of vain and foolish tastes in the soil of your heart, taking up the place of better things, and hindering the soul from cultivating good dispositions."
St. Francis of Sales

1. I must wean myself from the world. To be to enamoured with the things of this world can lead to sluggishness and sloth in devotion. Therefore, it is vital to not be so stuffed with the lesser things of the world that my appetite for the eternal things of God is diminished. "No one blames children for running after butterflies, because they are children, but is it not ridiculous and pitiful to see full-grown men eager about such worthless trifles as the worldly amusements before named, which are likely to throw them off their balance and disturb their spiritual life?" (62).

2. I must not forget what I look like when I gaze into the mirror of God's word (James 1:19-27). I have "certain natural inclinations" which are imperfections that take the shape of failings and deficiencies. "Thus Jerome says that Paula had so strong a tendency to excessive sorrow, that when she lost her husband and children she nearly died of grief: that was not a sin, but an imperfection, since it did not depend on her wish and will" (63).

All of us have these short-comings. Some are sensitive to what others think of them. Still others to being cross, and some to being overly affectionate while some to depression and introspection. These things must be remedied and corrected by the Spirit of God. "Gardners have found how to make the bitter almond tree bear fruit, by grafting the juice of the latter upon it, why should we not purge out our perverse dispositions and infuse such as are good? There is not a disposition so good but it may be made bad by dint of vicious habits, and neither is there any natural disposition so perverse but that it may be conquered and overcome by God's Grace primarily, and then by our earnest diligent endeavor" (63).