How can you be your own person?

[JakeTKD]

Ok... bare with me here.

I was talking about this with my sister, and a thought came to mind. We were talking about what teaches people, and how they learn throughout life.

Now most people learn by parents, family members, friends, TV, radio, school teachers, books and all this is aspired by man.

Well... her argument was if you don't learn by what the Bible says, then you arn't in the right place and you are looking for the wrong things, wrong people and the wrong kind of fun.

NOW I AM NOT TRYING TO OPEN UP A RELIGUS THING HERE, MY MAIN POINT IS THAT... WELL CAN PEOPLE LEARN BY NOTHING?

Take away all the influences being, parents, family members, friends, TV, radio, school teachers and books.

Now what?

How else can we learn?

I don't want to be like people around me, so do I not accept what they teach me? Or friends and so forth?


How can you really be your OWN PERSON without taking 1000 different point of views. So does that make you 1000 different people?

So what difines a man to be his own man? His/Her own life expieriences?

Now I have learned that there is a fine line between knowledge and wisdom.

The dictionary states...

Knowledge: The state or fact of knowing. Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study.

Wisdom: The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.

Either way you have to learn through life experiences.

So to me, knowladge is knowing facts

Wisdom is knowing how to use those facts accordingly.

So yeah, my main point is again... how do you really know that YOU are YOU and no one else, just YOU.

[Mauser 98K]

experience shapes personality.

what you do defines who you are.

being ya own self is the ability to figure things out for yourself, being independent from others.

only other way i see to learn when there is no parents freinds books and soforth is by trial and error.

but it is best to observe and learn from others so ya dont have to go thru those mistakes, but what you do with that knowledge is what defines who you are.

ya can use the experiences and knowledge that you learn from your parents, freinds and thru books as a foundation for building a lifestyle all your own.

i asked myself a question a few years back, Who am I?

now with all i have learned from others and thru books and other things i can answer that question.

Who i am is what i know,and what i do with what i know.

with knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge makes for infinate possabilities to the outcome of life, and what i do shapes the future.

i can choose to shape the future for the best or for the worst.

so who am i?

anything i want to be.

and chosing the path is up to every1 and the path we chose defines who we are.

[Sal UK]

Well I did'nt read all your post it was way long...lol

But the bible wasnt around when the CaveMan was, so who did he/woman learn from? After all if it wasnt for the caveman a wheel would be a big joke still today...

[.DareDevil.]

For one JakeTKD to answer some things for you!

You cant be learn something you can only be taught which then its your job to learn it if you are interested in knowing it.

Everything known to day was learned from either someone,something,or someones self.You everyday teach yourself how to learn to become a better person and what choices to make!

As for the BIBLE GOD did not mean to live everything by the bible in my point of view!He meant live life to the fullest and ask for forgiveness when you sin cause no one is perfect!Everyone Sins 24/7 lol!No one can be fully perfect by the BIBLE!GOD forgave the man who killed jesus!

I have taught myself most of what i know about computers.The computer didnt teach me unless i asked it to so therefore if im thinking and looking around(observing) i can learn how to do what i want if i try and use all my possible choices.If it comes to me trying my hardest i will do it and if i dotn succed i can ask the computer.

Therefore everyone leanrs from someone even if that someone is yourself!

Did you do bad at some point in your life?Learn from your mistakes and start over!

[JakeTKD]

I guess I can relate to teaching my self. After all I have been home schooled for 11 years.

But thanks you guys, that really makes things clear. It seems like observing life is a better way to learn rather then to learn it in a class room in a way. It's like learning 2+2=4, we are told it 2+2=4, but that is it, never why.

[zza1pqx]

My Grandmother told me before she died that lifes purpose was to find out who you are.
My mother, older and wiser now is a life coach, and she professionaly helps people to define themselves.
She says that in becaoming a life coach she has better been able to define who she is but that she is by no means absolutley clear on the specifics of her own personality.

The spiritual significance of this theory is that you are predefined and that Gods tools of The Bible, lifes struggles and pleasures and above all, other people are there to help you to achieve the peace that comes with finally knowing, and more importantly accepting who you are.

As to guaranteeing your uniqueness, I am afraid that to the degree that you seem to be looking for that you can't.
I'm guessing you are early to mid teens in age.
I may be wrong and if I am then forgive me but it is absolutley normal for people of this age to ask exactly the questions you are asking.
Behavioural experts would argue that at this age you fight to define yourself as adult and independent from parental influence and control.
It's a difficult time and can be frustrating, especially as you may find that a lot of older 'wiser' people abandon these intellectual pursuits and as such can seem peculiarly disinterested in what you rightly feel are important queries about the essence of self.

I hope you find your answers. But more than that. I hope you don't abandon your search for them as youthful interrogation of your environment gives way to dogged adult acceptance that it doesn't matter because Tax day is coming.

Remind your sister that God gave us The Bible as a tool to help us find the answers. He did NOT give it to us as a replacement to the lessons of life. If He did then there would be no need to interact with other humans at all.
What is the greater spiritual lesson?
Revelations or the first sunrise your first born son points and smiles at. God gave us great gifts. The Bible helps us appreciate and respect them, nothing more.

[Lakie]

I think your influences make you who you are, you are the only person who has had those exact influences (parents, firends, weather, news ... just about everything) on you and even more so you are made even more unique by the way you interprate those influences, you can not be not influenced by anything, its impossible, its how you use them that make you who you are...

[zza1pqx]

Point of order Mr Chairman it may be somantics but 'to be influenced' by it's very definition demands a third person.
The multi-billion dollar advertising industry would disagree with you on that single point I would wager.

[JakeTKD]

It seems like a lot of people would argue that everyone should be politically correct in their life and understanding of life. Of corse I am far, far, far from being colitically correct. It seems to me the world really is black and white, but to be politically correct is to see the world in gray with out the truth of what black and white really is.

But yes zza1pqx, I am still a teen. It seems going into college, you start to see the world differently. I am leaving the home soon, and going to an environment totaly different from what I am use to. But now, I don't even know what NORMAL is anymore.

My biggest problem is that I fight to be in control of my own life, and I hate the idea of anyone else being in control of it. Parents, family, friends and sometimes even God.

"I hope you don't abandon your search for them as youthful interrogation of your environment"

I don't think I will ever abandon observing this world, and something tells me it's only the beginning.

[zza1pqx]

Good. See that you don't.
You'll end up like StevieB

[.DareDevil.]

Originally posted by zza1pqx
Good. See that you don't.
You'll end up like StevieB

Now whats that comment suppose to mean?

[milk]

wow! that actually made me think
the way you can be your own person is by doing actions that have concequences that are either right or wrong baised on how you feel at that moument in time.

i just usually do what ever i want with out any pre thought of concequences

[zza1pqx]

Originally posted by Visor*CP*/visor_dflw
Now whats that comment suppose to mean?

What?