“Let each morn be better than its eve and each morrow richer than its yesterday.”– Baha’i Writings
Excellence is tricky business. It can easily be confused with competition. Excellence means to excel. On one dimension, we push to achieve personal and team goals. Digging deeper, however, we find that excellence has a spiritual component. It is a daily process of making each day better than the last, of working toward the greater good. The altruistic goal is the progress of humankind. Through our deeds and sacrifice, we can acquire qualities of perfection. This is true excellence.
The Baha’i Faith inspires “excellence in all things”.
“Strain every nerve to acquire both inner and outer perfections, for the fruit of the human tree hath ever been and will ever be perfections both within and without. It is not desirable that a man be left without knowledge or skills, for he is then but a barren tree. Then, so much as capacity and capability allow, ye needs must deck the tree of being with fruits such as knowledge, wisdom, spiritual perception and eloquent speech.” – From a Persian Tablet
Show forth the excellent gifts and blessings of the Lord
“O true companions! All humankind are as children in a school, and the Dawning-Points of Light, the Sources of divine revelation, are the teachers, wondrous and without peer. In the school of realities they educate these sons and daughters, according to teachings from God, and foster them in the bosom of grace, so that they may develop along every line, show forth the excellent gifts and blessings of the Lord, and combine human perfections; that they may advance in all aspects of human endeavor, whether outward or inward, hidden or visible, material or spiritual, until they make of this mortal world a widespread mirror, to reflect that other world which dieth not.”—Selections from the Writings of `Abdu’l-Bahá
Distinguished and brilliant with the help of our Creator
O army of God! Through the protection and help vouchsafed by the Blessed Beauty—may my life be a sacrifice to His loved ones—ye must conduct yourselves in such a manner that ye may stand out distinguished and brilliant as the sun among other souls. Should any one of you enter a city, he should become a canter of attraction by reason of his sincerity, his faithfulness and love, his honesty and fidelity, his truthfulness and loving-kindness towards all the peoples of the world, so that the people of that city may cry out and say: This man is unquestionably a Bahá’í, for his manners, his behavioral, his conduct, his morals, his nature, and disposition reflect the attributes of the Bahá’ís’. —Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Bahá
Excellence and children
The education and training of children is among the most meritorious acts of humankind and draweth down the grace and favor of the All-Merciful, for education is the indispensable foundation of all human excellence and alloweth man to work his way to the heights of abiding glory. —Selections from the Writings of `Abdu’l-Bahá
By Susan Peterson, member of the Highland Park Baha’i community | January, 2024
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