Excerpt from ‘Why Miley Cyrus Eclipses Suffering Orphans’ by Stephen Palmer, Life Manifestos Inspiration Newsletter:

…  I ponder on whether my energy expenditures reflect my deepest values and purest desires.

I want my relationship with God to take first priority in my life.   But how much energy do I spend cultivating that relationship in prayer, meditation, scripture study, and service?

I want my family to take precedence over my career.   But on which do I spend more energy?

There’s a corollary to the Law of Energy:  That which we neglect decays.

In the negative sense, that can mean that marriages dissolve when we neglect the relationship.

But there’s a positive side to it as well: We can consciously choose what we want to shrivel and disappear from our lives.

We’re taught to starve our problems and feed our solutions. Likewise, I say:

• Starve your fears and feed your faith. Scared of public speaking? Envision yourself smiling confidently at your audience and delivering a powerful message. Focus your thoughts and energy on the needs of your audience and how you can transform them.

• Starve your temptations and feed your virtue. Don’t put yourself in situations where you will cave to temptation. Cultivate your relationship with God through daily prayer, meditation, and scripture study. Find ways to serve others.

• Starve your pride and feed your humility. Actively seek ways to get outside your comfort zone. Periodically leave the confines of your own life and see how other people live.

• Starve your time-wasters and feed your purpose. Cancel your cable subscription and read good books instead. Limit your Facebook time and maximize your most productive activities. Stop rubber-necking pop culture train wrecks and keep your eye on the prize.

• Starve your wounds and feed your forgiveness. Pray for empathy toward those who have wronged you. Strive to see through their eyes and feel their pain.

Want to change the world? Want to live in a world where suffering orphans in Africa are given more time, attention, money, and energy than salacious, degenerate pop stars? Want to be more faithful, courageous, virtuous, valiant, forgiving, and loving?

It’s simple:  Change what you give your energy to. …