superstitions: is it controlling your life?

Well deriellevc, ervryhuman being is afraid of something and to get rid of that afraid, He/she belives in superstition, I am really amused to see the list of Supersitions you gave,and the one reading whom I almost laughed out is SINGING WHILE COOKING WILL MAKE YOU MARRY SOMEONE OLDER TO YOU. Well I am already 34 and still single and I cook most of the time in my home and I sing and dance a lot while watching programes on T.V at the same time.Now I am wonder that will i get married and if yes then will she be elder than me., Thanks a lot have a nice day

If superstitions are a deciding factor in your life, then what kind of life will you have? One based on chance and luck, rather than determination and hard work. While that may sound easier and even fun, allowing superstition to influence our lives would be letting ourselves be controlled by unknown forces. Do we really want to give our allegiance to an anonymous force asking for obedience? If you give credit to a lucky rabbit’s foot, horseshoe or four leaf clover, then you’re giving power to an inanimate object, not to your own effort, ability or intelligence. Who hasn’t tried something like wishing on a star, carrying something that you think brings you luck or wearing something old, new, borrowed and blue on their wedding day? But if we truly think about it, does wearing those things make for a good marriage? We all know it does not-trust, love, kindness, honesty and putting the other person first are what make marriage work. The cricket player who wears the shirt he wore when he won his first penant still gets out and eventually leaves the sport not at the pinnacle of triumph but usually in the agony of perennial defeat. Superstitions like these are accepted by the culture as harmless. Perhaps they are because they don’t touch on deeper issues and guide our important decisions but what about when we do bow to superstition for life decisions? What about when we wear that lucky shirt, the one we had on when we aced the test or met our last “significant other.” Then what do we think when we make a “C” on the next test or have a one night stand with someone we would never have dated except for the feeling that he was the one because we were wearing “the shirt.” The problem with superstition is credit is given when they succeed but you are blamed when they do not. We are the ones who “missed the signs” when the relationship fails or the career peters out. We are the ones making the decisions and the talismans are not taking the blame when we make mistakes. A deeper problem with superstition is that when we make major decisions based on superstitions, we are yielding to unknown forces that can mask deeper, darker origins. Many treatments for disease come from voodoo superstition. While sometimes they are effective, they just as often are not, but credit is given when they succeed and the patient is seen as too sick to be cured when they aren’t. Louisiana voodoo combines Catholic principles with dark magic, thereby making some feel it has a connection to God and therefore is good. So what is the difference between superstition and religion? After all, the religious don’t always get what they want either when they ask God for something. Some would say that Christianity is superstition. The difference is in the person of Jesus, who is God. Looking at the nature and character of Jesus, we don’t see chance, we see a plan. We see that He played out his destiny without bowing to others, not to the Romans, not to the Pharisees, not to his disciples or those who wanted Him to be a warrior king. Another difference is openness and clarity. He said who He was—Lord—and gave His life for others. If you examine His life, you see love, kindness, honesty—the things that make a good relationship mentioned above. It’s what you find in a person who wants the best for you, not just the expedient or what you want. Many people see Jesus as a great man, but not God incarnate. They don’t realize that He would have to have been a lunatic if He was not God, because He told his disciples He was. He told them He would die and be raised again. If you had a friend who told you that, wouldn’t you be a little concerned about him? But He was more than just a friend. Superstition seems rootless, though it isn’t. People will be superstitious based on a feeling, without knowing why. Jesus doesn’t ask you to rely on Him based on feelings, but on over thousands of years of proof. This proof includes things that were foretold that came to pass hundreds of years later. It includes people like Paul about two thousand years ago and people today who vilify Jesus until He proves to them that He really is Lord. Another proof are the followers of Jesus, again both when He came to Earth and now, who give their lives for Him, teaching that he came to save everyone despite the oppression and danger they live in because of their love for Him. Though this isn’t a debate on Christianity, it is a question of whether superstition should rule our lives. We should let Christianity influence our decisions but not faceless superstition.

I try not to allow any superstitions control my life. when we do, all we are concentrating on is the superstition that put us there. We miss out on the finer things of life out of fear.

I probably am one of the least superstitious people in the world.