Instructions for Black Teens, and Young Adults

RIGHTEOUS LIVING FOR YOUTH

[Instructions of Right Living for Youth]

THIRTEEN FIRSTS

[A Good Beginning for Youth]

1. Love self first: First know yourself, love and respect yourself, then you can know, love and respect others.
2. African first: First love your own as you would love yourself, and then you can genuinely love others.
3. Family first: First fulfill family responsibilities, and then you can take on other responsibilities.
4. Ma'at first: First make your heart perfect, and then you can develop your mind and body.
5. Deeds first: First deeds, then words. What you do determines your worth.
6. Simplicity first: First value the basics, then more complex things.
7. Strong first: First strength, goodness, those who are dedicated, the very best, then the weak.
8. Small first: First the small, then the vast.
9. Self-correction first: First criticize and correct yourself, then others.
10. Self-reliance first: First rely on and defend self, then others.
11. Wisdom first: First knowledge, then spiritually guided scientific action.
12. Study first: First understanding through inquiry, then decision and action.
13. Learn first: Master the fundamentals, then practice before showing others.

MORNING DECLARATIONS

[Morning Declarations]

1. Today I will make good decisions.
2. Today I will put my family first.
3. Today I will complete my daily assignments.
4. Today I will bravely deal with all matters.
5. Today I will be honest and direct with myself and my family.
6. Today I will behave honorably.
7. Today I will demonstrate love and respect for myself.
8. Today I will complete the things that my parents instruct immediately.
9. Today I will eat healthy.
10. Today I will demonstrate my self-value.
11. Today I will maintain high moral standards.
12. Today I will speak truthfully or maintain silence.
13. Today I will be honest and forthcoming with myself and my family about who I am and what I want.
14. Today I will correct my mistakes.
15. Today I will not speak on things that I do not understand.
16. Today I will work hard.
17. Today I will give my best.
18. Today I will accept the consequences for my actions.
19. Today I will be patient and deliberate.
20. Today I will be brave.
21. Today I will be strong.

FORTY TWO DECLARATIONS OF INNOCENCE

[Utterances of the Pure Heart]

1. Today I have understood that my salvation lay within me. Our best is within.
2. Today I hold the keys to my own destiny, for I have the power to decide what I do with my life, good or bad. We march inevitably toward our end, but the goodness of our deeds will never end.
3. Today I have honored all agreements, kept all promises, worked hard with precision, and have been fair, just, and true. Promises are always to be kept or not made at all.
4. Today I have lived righteously before marriage with my family and my own kind. For when I am not living righteously, it is my responsibility to change-without excuses, without regrets.
5. Today I have honored my family. For only in family can one be rich even with nothing.
6. Today I have worked hard and spoken little, taking special care to investigate reality for myself. I have made my own decisions based on the best information available.
7. Today as I would that one should do to me, I have done also to them likewise. What could possibly be the measure of one's life than one's earthly deeds? For we all come into and go out of the world the same; what we do in between separates us.
8. Today I have made spiritually guided scientific action the heart of my being. For, after it is all said and done, we are our own Saviors.
9. Today I have practiced winning by planning and preparing all that I do and relying first and foremost on my family, my own kind, and myself. For only in planning and preparation can we succeed.
10. Today after completing my responsibilities, I have assisted those in need.
11. Today I have only sided with the good of my own kind. So with no regrets, I side with the just against the unjust.
12. Today I have not knowingly aided those who harm us, but helped causes that help us.
13. Today I have done good for good's sake, always staying away from those who desire to parade in long robes, and seek expensive things in life's markets and take the highest seats in high places. For my heart is not of their world, and where my heart is, there will my treasure be also.
14. Today the wrong I have condemned in others, I have not practiced myself. For when I remove the stone out of my own eye, then I will see well enough to take the pebble out of the eyes of another.
15. Today I have lived plainly, dressed plainly, eaten plainly, spoken plainly, taught plainly, and led plainly-unselfishly working to fulfill my life's purpose. For those who are greatest among us will assist others less fortunate.
16. Today I have quietly gone about my life's work, humbly sought wisdom, studied, honored the laws of nature, meditated, and retired within myself to receive inner revelations before speaking.
17. Today I have eaten fresh plants and their juices, bread, and fresh fish. For the body is the storehouse of the soul, which is the source of power.
18. Today I have practiced only the highest respect for my elders, and ancestors.
19. Today I have carefully read books, for wisdom is a brave warrior that leads us into the sun, reaching for the light continually.
20. Today I have planned, prepared, fought and won victories that I had earlier made certain. For I am an initiator of a new history written on indestructible pages with pens of steel.
21. Today I have studied my own faults, and examined my own self before criticizing faults in others.
22. Today I have returned to those who harm us what belongs to them. For our freedom lays in not wanting or needing anything that they can deprive us of.
23. Today I have assisted the oppressed against their oppressors and have not favored the rich over the poor; instead all that is mine is for the common good so that there is neither abject poverty nor distinction of wealth among my own kind.
24. Today I sought and worked alongside only the pure of heart, mind, and body. For the wise cannot associate with the fool because for the fool, good and evil are one and the same. Many may be called, but few are chosen.
25. Today I have carefully prepared little by little, building from small to large, from simple to complex, from nothing to something. For if we give our word to something we must believe in it; if we believe we must work daily for it; if we work daily for it we must be willing to work weeks, months, years and our entire lives for it.
26. Today I have judged the goodness of a person on her/his morality-the heart-which is the greatest measure of a human. It is written, "beware of false prophets who come in sheep's clothing with false promises of things to come, but inwardly they are wolves." For you will know them by their deeds.
27. Today I have prepared myself precisely then helped to prepare others.
28. Today I have been humble in asking advice on things I do not know about and relentless in carrying out all daily tasks.
29. Today I have told the truth. Truth is always to be told or silence is to be kept.
30. Today I have completed all agreed upon tasks on time and with precision. I have given my best. I have finished strong.
31. Today I have treated my family members with the honor and respect due them.
32. Today I have improved my surroundings, keeping them neat, clean, ordered, and honorable.
33. Today I have taken special care to eat healthy, live honorably, work long and hard, work quietly, practice good hygiene, exercise, rest properly, practice martial arts, practice African culture, study, and meditate daily on how to solve our problems.
34. Today I have worked with persistence, commitment, and precision, keeping all my words in lines with my actions.
35. Today I have humbly raised moral ethics, scientific truth, and material deeds as sacred guides to daily living.
36. Today I have been courageous in all that I did.
37. Today I have been disciplined and focused on fulfilling my tasks.
38. Today I have won what was lost and replenished that which was depleted.
39. Today I have done what was just to do.
40. Today I have made right my wrongs.
41. Today I have started every effort with my own resources---relying on my own internal will, tenacity, courage, intelligence, and persistence to make myself the difference between success and failure. I have been resilient, optimistic and determined to overcome all difficulties.
42. Today I have worked even harder as conditions toughened knowing that those who are most committed, whether for a good or a bad cause, will always win in the end. I am a survivor, a fighter, a winner.