The Guiding Principle That Ensures You're Always Doing The Next Right Thing

John said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tell our parents we're going shopping at Rich's department store, but we're going to an X rated movie. Now. When I was growing up, they didn't have triple X, they just had single X. And X meant it was really going to be bad. It was going to be probably very risque and there was probably going to be involved some people who would not have their clothes on. Well, you know, growing up, everybody's curious. Maybe I was more curious than the average person, but I thought, man, this sounds like a great deal to me.

Welcome to becoming Wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rome. For more information or products by Dr. Rome, please visit personalityinsights.com use coupon code podcast10 to receive 10% off eligible products and personality assessments. Thank you for joining us today. And now, Dr. Robert A. Rohm.

What if you knew you could get away with something and no one would ever find out? I mean, your mom or your dad or your son or your daughter or your brother or your sister, nobody would ever know. You could completely get away with it and no one would ever find out about it. The only two people that would ever know would be you and God. That's what we're going to talk about today.

Welcome to becoming wiser with Dr. Robert A. Rohm, author and world renowned public speaker, as he shares stories involving his experiences and lessons learned in a good, spirited, positive and fun way. Here's Dr. Robert A. Rome.

Hi, I'm Dr. Robert Rome, and today I want to share with you what I consider to be one of the guiding lights of my life. I want to share with you something that affects every decision I make. I want to share with you something today that is so real to me. I use it on a daily basis. It is practical, it is applicable. It is fervently real because it's always right there, just a few inches ahead of my eyes. Today I'm going to talk to you about a concept that I learned when I was 12 years old. When I was growing up, my mom, I don't know where she went to school, but she went to Mom's school and must have majored in knowing how to raise a boy. I'm an only child. I'm the only product of my mom and dad's marriage. And even though I'm a grown man, I have no brothers and sisters. Sometimes I wish I did. And from some of the stories I've heard, from many others, maybe I'm glad I I don't have any brothers and sisters. I'm not sure. But the bottom line of everything is my mother knew how to make a fundamental shift in the way I thought about things. And she didn't try to beat this into me or guilt this into me. She just sort of led me into this reality that has guided my life. Starting at about 12 years old, I will be 75 on my next birthday. And what she did for me and what she taught to me has been one of the most important concepts that I have ever been taught in my life. So around 12 years old one day my mom and I are talking and I said, hey mama, Friday night a whole bunch of my friends are going to go roller skating. Would it be okay if I went? Of course. Back in the day you ask your parents, especially since you, if you didn't have a car and you had to have somebody take you somewhere. But I grew up in the day and age where you were supposed to ask your parents about things. They're still your parents. They're not perfect. But they do love you and they do watch out for you and they do provide you with food to eat and a roof over your head and clothes to wear and education and a lot of other things. So I said, mama, can I go skating Friday night? And my mother looked at me and she said, well, why don't you pray about that and ask your heavenly father? Well, being 12 year old kid, being a 12 year old high I type personality and I didn't know what that was back in those days, but being a 12 year old. Hi, I, I had something to say about everything. I still do for the most part. I said, mama, wait a minute. You, you want me to ask God if I can go skating Friday night? Is that what you, is that what you said? Now I'll never forget, my mother with a straight face looked at me and said, well, would there be anything wrong with that? And all of a sudden I realized she's serious. She wants me to ask God if I can go roller skating Friday night. Well, I thought this was the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my whole life. But hey, what can it hurt? So I went in my bedroom, 12 year old kid, got on my knees, I said, dear God, can I go skating Friday night? And you know what? It sounded like a resounding yes to me. So I got up, that was probably one of the shortest prayers in history. And I said, hey mom, I talked to God and I asked him if I could go skating Friday night. And he said, yes. She said, well, that's wonderful. Have a great time. And then I thought, you know, this could turn out to be a lot better than I first realized, because God always agrees with me and he's always going to want to do everything I want to do. Well, a few weeks passed and some of my buddies going to go to the Imperial Theater in Griffin. We had one little dinky theater there in Griffin, and they asked if I could go. And I said, well, let me ask my mama. So I said, mama can go movie Saturday afternoon, and a whole bunch of us going to go. And she said, well, why don't you pray about it? I thought, hot dog, I already know the answer to this. So I ran to my bedroom, got on my knees and say, God, can I go to a movie Saturday afternoon, my friends? Yes, thank you, God. I said, mama, God said, yes. She said, well, have a good time. I didn't realize that I was sort of being led. I was being guided. I was being taught something that would go with me the rest of my life. I'm not even a hundred percent sure that my own mother knew how vital this lesson would become in my life as time passed. Well, anyway, a couple of months passed and a friend of mine up the street, his name was John, John called and said, hey, a bunch of us are going to ride the train. There was a train that went from Griffin to Atlanta and it went to Rich's department store, which eventually I think became Macy's, but you could ride. It was called the Nancy Hanks. The train even had a name. And the train named the Nancy Hanks, that was Abraham Lincoln's mother. And. And so I didn't know that then. I didn't know who in the world Nancy Hanks was. John said, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tell our parents we're going shopping at Rich's department store, but we're going to an X rated movie. Now, when I was growing up, they didn't have triple X, they just had single X. And X meant it was really going to be bad. It was going to be probably very risque. And there was probably going to be involved some people who would not have their clothes on. Well, you know, growing up, everybody's curious. Maybe I was more curious than the average person. But I thought, man, this sounds like a great deal to me. And even though I never got into very much trouble, something inside of me wanted to go with John and everybody else. So I said, boy, oh boy, yeah, John, I want to go I'll let you know. So he's calling all of his friends so they could make plans so we could all meet and ride the train. This is back in the 50s, okay? This is like. It was so safe. We go to the Griffin train depot. I think it costs like a quarter or something to drive. Ride the train all the way to Atlanta. And then we were going to go shopping at Riches. Except we weren't even going to see riches department store. We were going to go to this movie. John knew all about it. And then we're going to be riding the train back. So I went and asked my mother. I said, hey, mama, John wants to know if a group of us are going to go shopping at Rich's department store. We're going to ride the train together. We'll all be together. It'll be safe. And I was just wondering if I was. Could. Could I go? And my mother said, well, why don't you pray about it, you know? And I thought, all right, here we go again. And I went in my bedroom and I got down on my knees and I thought. I said, dear God, John wants to know if I can.

John called and wanted to know if a group of us could go to.

Some of my friends wanted to go shopping at Rich's department store.

Never mind. I never even finished my prayer that day. I went and picked up the phone, I called John and I said, john, my mama said I can't go now. I lied as fast as I could talk. I had even told my mother. And I knew, of course, if she knew what was up, she would have said no. But here's the point. Don't miss it. This is life transforming stuff, and I'll tell you why in just a minute. My mother did something for me that I would have paid money for. She taught me to quit trying to finagle and slip and slide and connive around and snark around and do what I want to do and be careful not to get caught. She taught me that the two most important people that would ever be in my life would be myself and my heavenly father. My relationship to almighty God, you know, you can fool some of the people some of the time. You can even fool all of the people some of the time. But you can't ever fool yourself and you can't ever fool God. Well, that began to churn inside of me. And as I grew older, many, many times I. I got ready to do something, and my friends were, hey, come on, let's all do this. And something inside of me Said, well, what would my heavenly father think about this? My senior year in high school, a guy named Bobby, I'll never forget. Bobby went around, we were all seniors, and he had a piece of paper, and he was going to go to Atlanta to buy a fifth of liquor for every one of us. And, I mean, people were giving him money and he was going to go buy it. And there was something inside of me. I. It's hard to put into words that said, do you think this is a good idea? Do you think this is what your heavenly father would want you to do? And I listen, I was pretty popular. I was usually, you know, right in the middle of whatever was going on. And I just. Once again, I didn't have much courage. But I lied and I said, bobby, I don't have any money. I can't do that. The real truth was I didn't think that's what my heavenly father wanted me to do. Well, Bobby went to Atlanta. He bought all the liquor for everybody. And. And, you know, when you're 17 or 18, you think you're smart and you don't know how stupid you really are. And so where do you think he distributed? In the school parking lot. Everybody got caught. I didn't get caught. You know why I didn't get involved in that? Well, where it really paid off the most is when I went off to college. And I went off to college. And one day, you can either look back on your college experience or you will have this experience one day. What does everybody do? And. And, you know, college, where I went to college on the weekends, Fridays and Saturdays. Even though it was a military school, Saturdays and Sundays were very lax. Friday was kind of the end of the week. They slacked off a little bit. But Saturday, I mean, Saturday you were off, you could kind of do whatever you wanted to. And Sunday as well. And Sunday morning came, they had absolutely. There were no rules. You could sleep in. Sometimes on Saturday, we would have an inspection, like a surprise inspection. But Sunday was always the same, 100% guaranteed, you're off, you can sleep in. Well, I'll remember that first Sunday I woke up and I put my head out the door to see if there was anybody stirring in the hall in the dorm I was living in. And, I mean, it was quieter than a mouse. Everybody was asleep on Sunday morning. And I asked myself one question. What. What do I think my heavenly Father wants me to do? Does he want me to sleep, or does he want me to go to church where I can learn about God and try my best to learn how to follow him. I love what Zig Ziglar used to say. Zig said, you're going to be dead a lot longer than you're going to be alive. It might be a good idea to consider what's going to happen to you. Well, I guess you already know what happened. I decided I need to go to church. So I got dressed and I walked. I didn't have a car. I walked to church. I remember walking all the way down the end the street towards town, then turning and walking all the way and going to church. I didn't do that because my mother was there making me. I did that because I thought that's what my Heavenly Father would want me to do. So here's the summation of everything I've shared with you today. When I get ready to do something, I don't have a committee meeting and ask all my friends and my family and everybody who's around me, or even everybody in my immediate circles. Although there's some wonderful, wonderful people in my immediate circles. I just ask my Heavenly Father. I start there. God, is this something you want me to do? Is this something you want me to get involved in? Is this something you want me to be a part of? I cannot tell you how many times I've heard, sure, that'd be great. Why don't you be involved in that? It's good, it's pure, it's positive, it'll help a lot of people. But I have to admit, sometimes I hear, do you really think that's a good idea? Is that something you really want to be involved in? What if everybody finds out about this? Is this something you're going to be proud of? Is this something you're wanting your children or your grandchildren to know that you're doing? But even in spite of all that, if you could do it and get away with it and nobody would know, you would know and God would know. And brother, those are the last two people you ever want to fool in your entire life. One of my all time favorite boxers was a guy named Joe Frazier. Smoking Joe Frazier. I read an article, he was the first person ever knock out Muhammad Ali to become the heavyweight champion of the world. The article I read said the mornings Joe would get up at five o' clock and run five miles. Every morning in training, five miles at five o' clock in the morning. He said it was amazing to him how many times he'd be out running. It'd be cold in Philadelphia, the wind would be blowing, sometimes it'd be raining. It'd be snowing, he said. I'd run four, four and a half miles and I'd hear a little voice inside that would say to me, hey, Joe, why don't you quit? Nobody would know but you, he said. I would always speak to that voice and I'd say, brother, you are the last person I'm trying to fool. I hope you'll remember that. I hope you will be the last person you will ever want to fool. I hope that you will not try to do things so you won't get caught. I hope you will think about the fact that you are going to be your best friend your whole life. Wherever you go, there you are. You and your Heavenly Father will always know what's going on in your life. So I hope this has been helpful. And in the days to come, you don't have to worry about your mom or dad or brother or sister or teacher or coach. Just ask yourself, am I doing the next right thing? Because if you do the next right thing, you will always be glad you did. You will never fool yourself. You will never fool God. And you will be the winner for it. I'm Dr. Robert Rome. I hope this podcast has been helpful. I know it helps me. And between now and the time I talk to you again, if something comes along in my life, I'm going to be thinking, I wonder what my Heavenly Father wants me to do. I'll ask him and I'll find out. And I'm sure you will, too. Thanks so much for listening. I'll talk to you next time. God bless you.

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