putterings 554 < 555 > 556 index
active by puttering around until the day is ended ₁
just puttering around doing chores. Why ? ₂
majoring only in minor purposes; small ₃
spasmodic exercise; instead of planning ₄
puttering... without a sustained purpose; idling his spiritual muscles ₅
a double loss; they are not moving ₆
see now how the puttering ₇
little self-image and his spiritual puttering is not fulfilling ₈
in The Power of High Purpose, by William H. Mikesell, Ph.D.
Author of Mental Hygiene, eight volumes of Psychology and Life, How to Study, and Techniques of Living.
Co-author of The Psychology of Adjustment.
Editor of Modern Abnormal Psychology.
(The Warner Press, Anderson, Indiana; copyright 1961 by Gospel Trumpet Company)
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
- But the great thing for society to realize, and especially the church, is that old people want more than mere activity. Most of them keep active by puttering around until the day is ended. They do the chores around the house, help wipe the dishes and even cook, dig up a few feet of ground for a vegetable garden, and get out the old saw and hammer and patch up the old garage.... / 33
- Dr. Leo W. Simmons, a professor of sociology at Yale University, in a study of old age says, “People have aged most successfully when they have discovered or created [note the word] for themselves effective positions and roles in the very societies of which they are a part.” This does not mean a thing unless it means that a person grows old successfully when he has something to look forward to, more than just puttering around doing chores. Why should society be so constituted that man channels his energy into purpose for years and then suddenly is forced to sit in his rocker and look at the ceiling?... / 34
- Their participation in church activities and thought is at a low minimum. They do not have much of a forward look. They are majoring only in minor purposes. This religious puttering indicates small spiritual growth. Such persons fail to realize that we grow spiritually according to the height of our spiritual aims. If our aims are low, exercise is poor, and if exercise is poor, growth is poor.... /59
- If I am generous only when everybody else is, instead of planning generosity as a regular program, I do not develop much generosity. If I try to understand a person who is thrown right across my path only because I have no other choice, I don’t develop much understanding. These puttering Christians need to prepare for a long spiritual journey. Just as spasmodic exercise is of little worth to the body, [60] so spasmodic exercise is of little use to the spirit./ 59
- Thus it is that sustained purpose is the most valuable to the spirit, for it primes far into the future, girding up feelings, desires, cravings, dreams, hopes, prayers, emotions, and actions, and providing constant and thrilling exercise. The puttering individual without a sustained purpose is, therefore, idling his spiritual muscles. We also know that the more we exercise a quality, the more we have of it.... / 60
- If the marvelous spiritual law of exercise means that through usage we can gain more and more of a quality, the obverse must be true, namely that the less we exercise a quality, the less we have of it. Therefore, puttering Christians sustain a double loss; they are not moving into a richness of Christian living and, in the second place, they are losing what little ground they have gained.... / 60
- Thus we see that this is a great deal more than swapping compliments or favors. We grow individuals in service by nourishing them. We see now how the puttering Christian can raise his spiritual sights in respect to others. He can move out of his limited spiritual sphere and adopt a fine purpose in regard to people and thereby build up others, embracing all of the previously discussed characteristics of an objective.... / 67
- There is not enough of the warm lure of God, our third principle of purpose, to make him an objective. We see, therefore, that the individual with his little self-image and his spiritual puttering is not fulfilling very much of these eight great teeming urges of mankind. In his Christian living, he does not make God an all-inclusive purpose to grant a glorious fulfillment of these basic wants.... / 81
William Henry Mikesell (1887-1969), psychologist and ordained minister
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puttering as activity without purpose, thus ennervating
8 September 2025