Here’s a little trick I use. I figured I’d share it just in case anyone else finds it useful.

Whenever I need to decide whether something is good, whether I support it or I don’t, it all comes together in one simple question. In the ideal world that I want to live in — the ideal, peaceful, happy, loving, accepting world — would this thing be or would it not be?

Once you start putting things into that perspective, everything becomes quite straightforward. Whatever the issue or thing is, all you have to do is ask that one simple question, and then the correct path of action often becomes quite clear.

Whether the issue you are considering is one of those big values-based divides of our day — war, abortion, gay marriage, religion — or whether it is just a simple matter of your daily dealings with other people, all you have to do is ask yourself: is this the world I want to live in?