Four Legs of the Stool: Using the Four Aspects of Our Humanity to Balance a Christian Life

By L. Renee Franklin and L. Sue Boggler

After losing her mother and her youngest daughter within three months of each other, author Sue

Boggler began using the lessons she had learned as a Christian nurse, wife, and mother to help her through this difficult and painful time in her life. She found herself asking such questions as Why me?

Does God still love me? How can I survive this? In the midst of her sorrow, she learned that these questions are common among those who grieve or are facing troubles; more than that, how we answer them has a great impact on our growth and development as human beings.

Personal growth is challenging, especially by todays standards. In Four Legs of the Stool, Sue shares the lessons she learned and demonstrates how to apply them to our daily lives, offering thoughts, insights, and strategies for understanding these life lessons and striving to achieve personal development. She considers suffering, dying, healing, and joy; she explores how to survive when your world has changed irrevocably.

If you have ever felt alone, wondered if God was still with you during trials in your life, or wondered how youd be able to go on after drastic changes in your life, Four Legs of the Stool will provide you with the thought-provoking answers that you need to carry on.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Oct 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781458200624

L. Renee Franklin

L. SUE BOGGLER is a Christian wife, mother, grandmother, and registered nurse. She is a nationally certified infection preventionist and a member of St. Germaine Catholic Church. She currently resides in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

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Copyright © 2012 L. Sue Boggler

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ISBN: 978-1-4582-0063-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0064-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0062-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011918642

Printed in the United States of America

Abbott Press rev. date: 2/9/2011

Contents

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

PHYSICAL, MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL

OBSERVATIONS ON

CHRISTIAN IDENTITY

SUFFERING

HEALING

JOY

DYING

THE SOUL

LOVE

BALANCE

THE GARDEN OF THE SOUL

SUFFERING SOULS

MERCY AND FAITH

PRAYER AND COMMUNICATION

WITH GOD

OFFER IT UP

CARE PLAN

WHAT LIES BEYOND…

THE NEW AGE

BE NOT AFRAID…

SIN

THE SACRED

THE 4 WALLS OF THE CHURCH

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

This work is dedicated to my loved ones, my husband Earl, my children and grandchildren, and my little sis, Tink.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I WOULD LIKE TO acknowledge Reverend Michael L. Diskin, Assistant Chancellor for the Diocese of Phoenix for his assistance in the editing and review of this work; and,

Fathers Gray Bean, Dan Vollmer and Daryl Olds who continue to shepherd my spirit.

I also would like to acknowledge my beloved husband Earl whose love has given me wings and my mother Mary Alyce Carpenter and my mother-in-law Mildred Hess who have both shared their guidance and wisdom over the years.

L. Sue Boggler

INTRODUCTION

IN A SPAN OF 3 months in 2010, I lost my mother to cancer and my 33 year old daughter to suicide; I transferred across country to a new job and bought a home in a new community. I also waited for the nervous breakdown that should accompany all of the stress but it never came. Friends have asked me how I have been able to get through all of these changes without cracking up and how I have been able to survive. I began to write down things that I believed or knew to be truths and this little book evolved from those writings.

I think survival for anyone is dependent upon whether or not they have nurtured the 4 basic aspects of what makes us human. There is a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspect to being human and these 4 aspects have everything to do with how successfully we weather the changes of our lives. They also help us in our journey to becoming more than what we were yesterday or the day before.

One of the greatest challenges we face on our journey through life is change. Change is inevitable and how we plan for, and cope with, becoming who, and what, we are can be simplified by knowing the aspects of our humanity and what we can do to nurture and support the 4 aspects. Change itself can be good or it can be bad; constructive or destructive. We have the ability to mitigate the destructive aspects of change by using our humanness to lessen the negative effects of change. Christians have a unique perspective on change and faith must be incorporated into the identity of the individual for successful and complete change to occur. Without faith, the individual is like a rudderless ship tossed on a stormy sea with no compass to guide the way home to port.

I approach things from a perspective that incorporates both science and faith; and, as I have aged, I have learned that science does not have all the answers.

Water is composed of two elements or aspects, Hydrogen and Oxygen. Each is unique and yet complements the other. When combined they make up one of the basic requirements of life. Our humanness is also composed of elements or aspects, the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Together, they are the basic requirement for a human being and they each complement each other.

There is an old saying, As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.¹ This quote is relevant in that the way we care for the 4 aspects of what makes us human dictates how we grow and develop as humans. When we bend ourselves, and our natures, to good, it follows that growth and development resulting from that effort is good. The manner in which we live our lives is also what determines our identity. When we care for, and nurture, the 4 aspects of what makes us human and ensure they are balanced, we find stability, strength and harmony. We are created human and the world recognizes our humanity through the management of those 4 aspects of our humanity. Individually and collectively these 4 human aspects are essential for survival. While human is what we are, Christian is who we are. We are Christians by how we choose to live our existence as humans. Humans of other faiths would describe themselves the same way except who they are would be identified with their faith, such as Buddhists, Jews, or Muslims. Their beliefs and the daily expression of those beliefs through living is their identity. I can only share my perspective as a Christian.

This book is designed to share with others some thoughts on our common journey as humans to find the answers and become that which we are meant to be. One of the basic problems for Christians today is that we don’t seem to always know who we are. If we don’t know who we are, how can we expect the rest of the world to recognize us as Christians? Our identities can be found in how we choose to live our daily lives and there are elements to those lives that must be nurtured to be healthy.

PHYSICAL, MENTAL, EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL

THERE ARE 4 ASPECTS to our humanity that have been identified in text books, journals and writings by authors in past years. These 4 aspects make up every human. They are like 4 legs of a stool on which we sit. The 4 legs are a support and provide stability. When I lecture, I use the idea of a 4 legged stool to illustrate these aspects of our humanity. I tell my students, when you are born, you are given by your creator, a stool on which to rest your entire life. The stool has 4 legs and each leg has a name. The names are Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual. These 4 aspects of our humanness are common to each and every human being including those who may be physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually challenged in some way.

The 4 legs of the stool are the foundations on which we rest our lives; and, combined, they constitute the groundwork for all relationships we will establish in our life time. The 4 legs of the stool represent what it is that makes us unique and human; the 4 aspects of our humanity distinguish us from the rest of creation.

A lot has been written about what makes us human. Our humanness is the vessel that carries us on the journey of life. This journey is like a trek through a vast wilderness with obstacles and challenges that enable us to change or become something different than what we are; it is self-discovery. Just as a baby is born and becomes a toddler then a school age child then an adolescent and later an adult; we all become something different through each phase of our lives. Our humanness is comprised of the characteristics that make us human and are the resources we take with us to sustain us on life’s journey.

Animals possess some of the qualities of humanity. For example, birds seek out their own food and build nests for their eggs, some have the mental acuity to know of approaching storms and they may huddle together for warmth when it is cold. They even have the ability to learn a new trick or to mimic words. However, they do not possess a sense of consciousness or self-awareness or responsibility for more than their immediate needs. Their brains are simply not complex enough to understand their uniqueness or their dependency on another. Certainly they do not express a relationship with their creator and they do not possess a sense of consciousness of self or of right versus wrong. It is only in humans that all 4 aspects are fully integrated to holistically define what is fully human.

Imagine someone who, through illness or accident, finds himself with a physical disability such as blindness. Physically, he is unable to see but his fingers become more sensitive to touch and his hearing develops a higher acuity. Mentally he learns how to read Braille and use a cane; emotionally he learns to accept his disability and begins to see himself as more than his blindness. Three of the four legs on his stool are in good shape, they are strong and sturdy. The last leg of his stool is the spiritual aspect of his humanity. It is this aspect that he must strengthen through interaction with God. He must understand that overcoming his disability and developing the ability to live with his blindness is as much his own work as it is that of God. When the blind man can acknowledge a dependence on God, who is a force far greater than the blindness, he has reached the first step in having a stable stool on which to base his life. The blind man can fully integrate all aspects of his humanness to not only cope with his disability but to also thrive in spite of it. His journey then becomes no more challenging to him than anyone else because he has become fully human and fully integrated. The suffering