The Game of Life and How to Play It: Key Lessons to Transform Your Life

The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn is a book that encourages readers  to view life as a game – a game where whatever we let out be it in thoughts, actions or words is reflected back to us. It is a very short read, packed with tons of knowledge. Here are 5 key takeaways from the book;

GOD HAS A DIVINE PLAN FOR US ALL

Human beings are all perfect ideas in God’s mind. God didn’t put you here to suffer. There is a purpose for each of us, and the only way to find true fulfillment is to let God guide us to the life He has planned out for us. 

How do we do this though? Pray, ask Him for divine guidance on what He would like you to do. It can come to you in the most random ways—a dream, a random thought, or even a stranger telling it to you. Listen to your intuition. Just relax and trust in Him. Quit being self-reliant, rely on God, and watch everything fall into place.

Sometimes it feels like life is falling apart, and you have to grasp onto what you know. Grasping onto things just keeps you from receiving your desires though. God could be removing these things from your life so that He can place that which is truly meant for you. Holding onto the past only holds you back. You are the one creating your own suffering. Learn to trust God, let go, and let God.

Discover more insights from this life-changing book here!

WORDS & THOUGHTS HAVE POWER

Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). You should use your words to bless and send goodwill. Whatever you say or think of yourself or others impresses on your subconscious mind and comes to pass.

If you are always saying, “I am lovable,” your physical reality will prove to you that you are loved. But if you say, “I am unlovable,” your mind will work to prove just that to you. You can use your words to build or break your life. Whenever things go wrong, you can use your words to complain or use them to baptize the situation as a success as the author suggests. Remember, whichever words you choose will reflect back to you, so be wise.

Be careful of what you spend your time thinking about. Think of evil, and evil will manifest; think of good, and good will manifest. Play the game of life; make an art out of your thinking—use your thoughts and your words to draw up the life you desire for yourself.

Transform your thoughts with insights from the audiobook here!

LOVE ALL

Love is the greatest commandment of the Lord: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind and your neighbor as you love yourself. Real love is selfless and leads one to peace, joy, and fulfillment. When you wish another person evil, you wish yourself evil. Blessing your enemy robs them of their ammunition. In blessing an enemy, you find that they either change their ways toward you, or God removes them from your life altogether. So, in blessing others, you bless yourself.

Rather than hating and condemning people, we should learn to send them love. I know this can be quite hard, especially when personally wronged by a person. In such a situation, we are advised to salute the divinity in them. God is in every man, and sending love to the God in a person whenever they wrong you helps you soften your heart toward them. This will slowly but surely lead you to forgive them, therefore lightening the load of hatred and resentment you are carrying around.

Hatred and resentment are poisons that only harm our souls. Holding grudges against people could be the reason you just can’t seem to be truly happy. Play the game of life; learn to love people like God loves us—unconditionally—and God will send true love your way.

Explore the power of love further in this inspiring book here!

FAITH OVER FEAR

Fear keeps us from seeking what is ours by divine right. God created us as His best creation and has a great plan for each of us, but fear keeps us from seeing this. Fear holds us back from becoming our best self.

What fear is this I talk about? Fear of failing, fear of being judged, fear of looking foolish—all these feelings that hold us back from going after what we want. We hold ourselves back because we don’t know what is ahead and aren’t willing to step into new waters. This fear we use to “protect ourselves” is the only thing keeping us from growing.

You are not sure whether what you fear will come to pass. Remember all the times you were afraid in the past—how many times did what you were fearing happen? The book advises one to step up to our fears, look it in the face (as scary as this sounds), and it will disappear. In life, you will always achieve what you think is possible to achieve. You are the one who, by giving your fear power, sets limits for yourself and keeps yourself from living the perfect life God has set up for you.

Step into fearless faith with the help of this book. Discover the audiobook here!

  CASTING OUR BURDENS

Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you (Psalms 55:22). As much as one knows that anger, fear, resentment, and all other negative feelings hold us back from living a fulfilling life, these emotions still tend to take over us. It can be quite overwhelming because you know it’s not good for you, but despite that, you just can’t help feeling them.

In such moments, we should cultivate the habit of casting the burden on the Christ within us. God can always handle what you can’t. In the book, we are told to repeat the affirmation: I cast this burden on the Christ within me, and I go free.

This doesn’t mean that you cast the burden on Jesus and continue carrying on with the negativity. It means consciously allowing God to help you with your problems, to help you carry the weight, then doing what you can in the moment. Making changes to your subconscious beliefs can feel so hard and tiring, like you are being triggered and weighed down every single moment. In such situations, cast the burden on the Christ within you. Let Him help you, doing what you can do right now, and leaving the rest to Him to take care of.

Find peace in letting go with the help of this book. Learn more here!

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Once you learn that there is only one power, God, and affirm to yourself that this power works only for your good and not for your downfall, you start to win in The Game of Life. You start to live in the moment, doing all you can while blessing the past and the future knowing neither exists at the moment. You learn to live in fearless faith, non-resistance and love, not giving power to any negativity that arises in your life and seeing it as a passing thing that doesn’t define you. 

 Ready to dive deeper into these transformative insights? Get “The Game of Life and How to Play It” by Florence Scovel Shinn here!

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