...Is Okay.

I feel like a jerk for what I said yesterday. It really isn't my place to judge. Everybody's different, and everyone's entitled to worship differently. Our church even proclaims that as one of the articles of our faith! "We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." If others choose to worship God through music that I would deem as "irreverent," it's really not my place to say anything about it. Perhaps, if I had spoken to someone who worships like that on a one-to-one basis and said something to the effect of "I think it's great that you draw closer to God through music. Here's some music that I find uplifting and might help you even more than what you're already listening to," then perhaps my counsel would be less offensive and more appropriate. My saying "your music may help you think about Jesus, but it drives His Spirit away" isn't going to help anyone, mostly because no one would want to hear my message if I said it like that.

Besides, we've got a total beam-and-motes scenario going on here. "Who am I to judge another [person's choice of music] when I walk imperfectly?" I should be more concerned about my own flaws and irreverent moments than I am about theirs. And anyway, they're probably better off with it than without it. Anyone who goes from rock and rap to Christian rock and Christian rap is at least heading in the right direction, and it'd be completely counter-productive of me to criticize any part of that. It's better than a lot of other stuff they could be listening to. Sure, there's music that's even better than that, but I have no right to demand that they change their choice of music just because it might be better for their souls. Sure, I might make a suggestion, but it's totally their choice, and it's not even the worst choice they could have made - not by a long shot.

So, I guess this blog post is a retraction of pretty much everything I said yesterday. Not that it wasn't true, but it simply wasn't very nice to say. Christian rock, and even Christian rap, is better than I gave it credit for in my previous blog post. If you feel like listening to it helps you draw closer to God, you go ahead and keep doing that, and just forget I said anything yesterday.

Irreverent Worship Music

Last night, my family and I enjoyed some nice, patriotic music. We also heard other music which was religiously themed, but not, in my opinion, appropriate to be played or listened to on the Sabbath. As Elder F. Enzio Bushe once said, "divine light develops in places of peace and quiet." There was nothing peaceful or quiet about most of the music I heard last night.

In that music's defense, I'll admit that its lyrics helped me to draw my thoughts toward God and reminded me of a few true principles, but I could hardly feel the Spirit testify to the truth of those principles, mostly because of the music. Whether it was because the Spirit wasn't comfortable around such music or whether I simply couldn't hear the Spirit over all the noise, either way, listening to that music was not a spiritual experience for me. Our missionaries are instructed to "not listen to music that... dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics, or intensity." I'd say that much of last night's music matched that description.

In our church, we take a more reverent approach to worship music. We play music more quietly, on a piano or organ only (usually), and the congregation sings along... without clapping. The lyrics of our music invite the Spirit, and the relative peace and quiet of our music allows Him to stay. I look forward to the hymns we'll sing in church today because I know I'll feel the Spirit as we sing them, which, unfortunately, is more than I can say about the worship music I heard last night.

Have a Nice Day!

As I've said before, Joel Osteen gives really good quotes. This one reminds me of the moment in The Hobbit in which Bilbo wishes Gandalf a "good morning," and Gandalf lists several possible meanings of the phrase, including that Bilbo might "mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not." The thing is, I'm not sure it could have been.

We each have to choose what kinds of attitudes we have and what attitude we have determines what kind of day it is. I think that if Gandalf didn't want to have a "good morning," he could have maintained a grumpy attitude and had a bad morning no matter how "good" the morning originally was. No matter what happens on any particular day, we have at least some choice in how we feel about it and what we do about it. Even if we're having a "bad day," we can make it a good one either by doing good or at least by keeping a positive perspective. Sometimes, that's much easier said than done, but I think that it's always possible, and if having a good day is always an option, I think we should continually take it.

I hope you have a good day today, and by that, I'm mean that I hope you make this day a good one.

God Helps Me Blog

I once again find myself with nothing interesting to blog about, but having committed to blogging daily, I have to post something anyway. Perhaps I spoke too soon when I said that I was good at coming up with analogies and blogging about them. Actually, why don't I blog about that?

Part of me believes that any talent we have is at least mostly God-given. That is, if we're naturally good at something, we're good at it partly because God's helping us, and we'd do well to acknowledge that and give God most, if not all, of the credit for what we're able to accomplish.

If I'm good at blogging, or writing in general, it could be that I have some inherent talent for writing and blogging, so much so that I could do pretty well at it even without God's help, but that seems not to be the case. It's God's Spirit that inspires me and helps me see spiritual meanings in ordinary things. It's His Spirit that inspires me to know what words to type. In fact, now that I'm being humble and grateful enough to accept God's help and admit that I need it, I feel His Spirit in me right now, helping me to know what to say.

With God's help, a lot of it, I've been able to write a number of good and inspiring blog posts. In fact, I've written enough of those blog posts that I started to think that I was good at it on my own and to give myself the credit for that success. However, as most good artists do, I realize that my works would be nothing without God's help to inspire me and to aid me in writing.

The bottom line is that I need to focus on God more than I have been in these last few days. I need to seek God's help more and give Him the credit for what I, with His help, accomplish. I couldn't do it without Him, and I need to do better at admitting that.

Everything is Awesome

Between a slow computer and a lack of inspiration, I've been having a hard time finding anything that I want to blog about this morning, so I'll just blog about something that's been floating around my head for the last few days: Everything is Awesome.

Everything is Awesome is pretty much THE song from The Lego Movie. Its lyrics are repetitive and ridiculous (listing things such as stepping in mud and having allergies among the list of things that are awesome), but the message, namely that of being extremely optimistic, has some merit. I think that, if we look hard enough, we can find something good, perhaps even "awesome" in just about everything. As I said recently, almost any experience can be a positive one, if you have the right attitude. Perhaps, given an incredibly optimistic attitude, everything can be seen as awesome.

But is it really wise to be THAT optimistic? It's not very realistic to be excited about "rocks, clocks, and socks," and it certainly isn't normal. But who ever said we were trying to be normal? Even if it is insane to think that everything is awesome, it's certainly going to help you be a lot happier than thinking that everything is terrible, which is just as false, if not more so. While I don't really think that everything in existence is so good that it's awesome, I think that there's at least some good in just about everything, and that we'll be a lot happier if we make the effort to see it and appreciate it than if we don't.

Everyone is Special

A few days ago, Mom came home from Costco with The Lego Movie. I've seen it three times since then, and I really love it. I love it's silly/cheesy moments. I love how everything in the Lego universe can be transformed into almost anything else. And I especially love the message of the movie - that  anyone can be "The Special."

The first time I heard the phrase "Everyone is Special" from a movie was during a scene from The Incredibles in which Dash, a young boy with super-powers is talking to his mom, who also has super-powers. The family of Supers had been forced to hide their powers in an attempt to fit in with the rest of the world, "but Dad said our powers are nothing to be ashamed of - that our powers make us special," Dash said, to which his mom responded "Everyone is special, Dash," after which, Dash grumbled "That's just another way of saying no one is."

One of the few things that I dislike about The Incredibles is that they never resolve this concern. They never explain how everyone can be special and unique without "special" and "unique" becoming normal. Right now, I am ironically wearing a T-shirt that reads "You're unique - Just like everyone else," and depicts nine stick figures which are each exactly the same, indicating that there's nothing special about being unique because everyone is unique and special.

Fortunately, The Lego Movie answers that concern by having one completely normal person, followed by several others, begin to see what's so special about each of them, and unlock their potential to do extraordinary things. I hope I haven't given too much away to those who haven't seen the movie yet. I'll try to stop talking about it now.

Bishop H. Burke Peterson spoke about each of us being special when he said:

You were preserved to come to the earth in this time for a special purpose. Not just a few of you, but all of you. There are things for each of you to do that no one else can do as well as you. If you do not prepare to do them, they will not be done. Your mission is unique and distinctive for you. Please don’t make another have to take your place. He or she can’t do it as well as you can.

I sometimes find it hard to imagine that there's anything that I could do better than anyone else. For each individual thing I can do, I'm sure there's someone on earth who could do it better. But each of us has a unique set of talents and abilities, and God's plans for each of us takes every aspect of ourselves into account. I'm definitely not the best blogger on the internet, or the most knowledgeable scholar of Gospel doctrine, or the best at coming up with new ideas, but when I combine those traits, it's potentially possible that I'm one of the best people in the world at seeing ordinary things, coming up with gospel-related analogies for them, and blogging about them. It's possible that blogging about new gospel-related analogies is part of God's purpose for my life, and that there's no one better at what God wants me to do than me.

In fact, I think that last part holds true for everyone. There's no one in the world, or even the history of the world, that's better at what God wants you to do than you are. Even if someone else could fill the role that God has assigned to you, they couldn't do it as well as you could. In that way, you are special and unique, and no one can adequately take your place.

I fully believe that it's possible for everyone in the world to be unique and special. In fact, I truly believe that everyone is.

Grateful for Unfortunate Circumstances

I haven't blogged about a General Conference talk for a long time, and I still have two or three sessions to cover before the next one happens. The next Conference talk on the list is President Deiter F. Uchtdorf's Sunday Morning Session talk, Grateful if Any Circumstances.

He spoke about how we often speak of being grateful for things, specifically blessings, but he recommended being grateful in any circumstance, whether we feel that we're being blessed or not. He said:

Perhaps focusing on what we are grateful for is the wrong approach. It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. True, it is important to frequently “count our blessings”—and anyone who has tried this knows there are many—but I don’t believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial than in times of abundance and ease.

It's difficult to be grateful in times of trial, but one way to do it is to remember that God often blesses His children through their trials. Hardships can help us develop strength and wisdom, which help make us more like God. Sometimes, certain blessings can only come by way of trials, or are made sweeter by our having experienced trials before receiving the blessings.

Last week, using the restroom was often inconvenient and/or unpleasant. I often had to walk a good distance, usually uphill, to find a working latrine, and when I found one, I often found that there was a very unpleasant smell to the latrine that made using the restroom an overall unpleasant experience. However, those unpleasant experiences helped me to develop sensorial fortitude (that is, it helped me develop the skill of ignoring my nose), and honestly, I should have been grateful to have access to latrines at all. Plus, for the first few days since I came home, I found myself very grateful to have convenient access to flushing toilets, sinks with soap and warm water, showers with adjustable temperatures, and other blessings, such as sidewalks and streets that don't coat your shoes and socks with dust, telecommunication, and my comfortable bed. Being temporarily deprived of blessings I tend to take for granted helped me to be grateful for blessings I've had all along.

However, President Uchtdorf also said:

We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain? 

Being grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look beyond our present-day challenges.

While I was not necessarily pleased with having to use glorified outhouses for a week, I was certainly grateful for the opportunity to go to Scout Camp. Though some of the conditions were less than perfect, and there certainly were a few things I could have complained about, overall, I was just grateful to be there. It was an experience, but it was a good one. Actually, I find that most experiences are good ones if you know how to make challenges fun or funny, or if you learn and/or grow as a result of the experience. I may be misinterpreting the meaning of President Uchtdorf's talk, but I think that there are several tricks to turn bad experiences into good ones, and as long as you use one or two of those tricks whenever bad things happen, all experiences can be good ones.

Most often, you just need a little bit of perspective and patience to see how your trials work out to be blessings, and once you have that, it becomes possible to be grateful, even for your trials.

A Scout is...

A week ago today was the first day of camp at Camp Winton. Shortly after we arrived and got checked in, we were given an orientation course in which we learned multiple methods of moseying, how to protect our feet from toe-biting rocks, and what to do about "black mambas." In addition, we learned about the 13th, 14th, and 15th points of the Scout Law: A Scout is Thirsty, A Scout is Hungry, and a Scout is Tired. (I successfully guessed two out of three of those before being told. What threw me off from getting a perfect score was that they listed Thirsty before Hungry.) As I was thinking about additional points to the Scout Law that day and in the days following, I had experiences that caused me to think about a few points we could seriously add to the Scout Law and I wrote them down in my journal.

A Scout is Patient

The first day at Winton was great, but there were a few hiccups. Since this was the first week of camp at Camp Winton, not everything was perfectly ready. Namely, two of the latrines (Big John and Big Red II) were being renovated and were temporarily unusable. These two latrines were not only the biggest in camp, each having three rooms while each other latrine only had one, but they were also the two latrines closest to our campsite. With those latrines out of commission, all scouts and leaders were required to share access to the smaller latrines that were scattered throughout the camp. This meant longer walks to the closest usable latrines and longer waits in line when you got there.

The situation was less than optimal, but many of our boys showed patience by not complaining. The latrines were eventually completely fixed, and things were soon running much more smoothly. Sure, we had gone through what could have been considered a rough patch, but we got through it and everyone had a good time anyway.

A Scout is Honest

The Trading Post at Camp Winton sold playing card decks and one of our boys either bought a deck or brought one from home (I'm not sure which). One of the games we played is traditionally called BS, but we called it Liar. In this game, the first player plays a number of Aces (1-4) face down. The second player played Twos in a similar manner, and so on. If a player didn't have the cards they were supposed to play, they were supposed to play 1-4 cards of any number or combination of numbers they wanted, but to say that they were all cards of the number that they were supposed to play. In essence, in that game, you had to lie. We also played Mafia, a game in which the Mafia (one or two randomly and secretly selected players) were encouraged to lie so as not to be eliminated, so they could eliminate all the other players and win the game. I was surprised at how many games we played that rewarded dishonesty, but thankfully, our boys were honest when it mattered.

One of the boys had been given an amount of money that he was allowed to spend at camp, but the remainder of which he was expected to return when he got home. Someone, I'm not sure whom, suggested that the boy might keep the money and tell the lender that he had spent it, but I'm proud to say that that boy rejected that idea pretty much immediately. On Tuesday night, around a campfire, we told stories about obtaining injuries and things getting lit of fire and/or exploding, and some of the stories were pretty crazy, yet I knew that they were all or at least almost all true because our boys were at least mostly honest.

A Scout is Intelligent

I have a watch that I got before my mission, easily at least four years ago, and I've never had to change its battery. It has spent the last two years sitting on my dresser, not being used, because I have a cell phone that I use to tell time now. At Scout Camp, I wanted to save my cell phone's battery in case of emergency, so I brought my watch with me to tell time. Despite its years of use and lack of use, it still worked. The watch also had a Light feature, so I could even tell time at night. And that's where I went wrong.

Sometimes, the light feature wouldn't work so well. At the time, I thought it was just because the watch was kind of old, so maybe the light feature just wasn't working so well anymore. Rather than using a flashlight to look at my watch, I foolishly continued to attempt to use the light feature until my watch stopped working altogether. My guess now is that the battery was and is terribly low, and that the light feature just takes up too much energy.

Left without a working watch on early Wednesday morning, I tried to figure out how to tell time without a timepiece. I knew a Boy Scout trick for how to find North without a compass by using a watch and the position of the Sun, and I had a compass with me, so I tried to figure out a way to reverse the process and use a compass and the position of the sun to find out what hour of the day it was, but I couldn't wrap my head around the concept, and I eventually ended up buying a new watch at the Trading Post.

Once I got home, I took apart my original watch to get the details of the battery so I could replace it. Inside the mechanism of the watch, I saw a Reset button, so a pressed it and the watch started working again. Had I thought of doing that sooner, I could have saved myself some money at the Trading Post by reseting my watch there at camp. Or, had I been intelligent enough to use a flashlight with fresh batteries rather than the light feature of the watch whose battery I knew must be dying, it never would have died in the first place. My lack of intelligence had cost me about thirteen dollars that I otherwise might have saved. So much for A Scout is Thrifty.

A Scout is Grateful

On Thursday, I was just plain grateful. I was grateful that the Trading Post sold watches and that they weren't too terribly expensive. I was grateful that I had enough money on me that I could buy a watch without having to borrow money from somebody. I was grateful to once again know what time it was. I was grateful that I had the opportunity to go to Scout Camp in the first place and have all these great experiences. On Friday, I packed up my tent (so I wouldn't have to pack it up on Saturday morning) and slept under the stars, and that was a really nice experience as well. It wasn't too cold, and I enjoyed being able to observe my surroundings as I went to bed and woke up. Nature is beautiful, and while technology and plumbing are absolutely wonderful, I was glad to have the chance to spend a week at camp.

A Scout is Strong

This one didn't get into my journal, but it's worth sharing anyway. Going to Camp Winton involves a hike in and out of camp, and each scout is typically required to carry all their gear. I've heard some people say that there's more uphill or downhill in one direction or another, but there are ups and downs both ways. And I'm not sure exactly how long the trail is, but it's long enough that your pack starts to feel really heavy. Thankfully, I don't think any of our patient scouts complained about how long or hard the hike was, but perhaps that's because they were all strong enough to do it.

Going on a hike like that could easily be a metaphor for life. We have to face challenges. There are ups and downs. It's a long and difficult hike, which can be made even more difficult by carrying burdens we don't need, or by bearing our burdens incorrectly. Incidentally, shoelaces do not make good handles, though actual ropes can. And, just like in life, a certain amount of strength is required to complete the journey. For one, we need physical strength and for the other, we need moral strength, but either way, a Boy Scout is expected to be strong. Not all of our boys were physically strong, but together, we were strong enough. I don't know much about their moral strength, but as members of the church and as Boy Scouts, they're all definitely in the right place to get it.

Crazy Dance Parties Are Okay... Or Are they?

As I had planned, I took notes about what to blog about on each day of the camp out, but I don't want to copy down all of those notes now because it would take a significant amount of time, and I have to go get ready for church. Instead, I'll blog about dancing.

During the campout, on Thursday and Friday specifically, we had a couple of dance parties in which fun music was played (a little bit too loudly, in my opinion) and we were invited to come up onto a porch with the Staff and dance like no one was watching. Several of the boys did, but most didn't, and almost none of the leaders did, but on Friday, I couldn't really help myself. I went up there, danced my heart out, and sang along to all the songs I knew the words to. While I was up there, I was a little bit worried about what others, specifically the other leaders in our group, would think of me. It wasn't very dignified. It wasn't behavior one would really expect from a Paladin or from a leader of a Boy Scout Troop. I probably shouldn't have gone up there with the others, but it was a lot of fun.

And what's wrong with having fun? The camp Staff was up there, some of them in goofy outfits, dancing like they were crazy, and at that point, we had had an entire week worth of evidence supporting that theory. All week, they've been doing silly skits, telling corny jokes, challenging each other to eating and dancing contests, and pulling practical jokes on each other - all for the amusement and entertainment of the boys. It could be said that they were all dignified and respectable people under normal circumstances, and that they only behaved that way during Scout Camp because it was in their job description, but I believe that some of them were honestly having fun. And again, what's wrong with that?

Last night, I had an opportunity to dance like crazy and have fun at our Ward Dance and Game Night. I took that opportunity, and nobody there thought any less of me for doing it (as far as I know). In my opinion, people, even adults, are allowed to have fun. Yes, adults are expected to be respectable and sane most of the time, but there are times, like at crazy dance parties, when even adults are allowed to let loose. Our culture makes such allowances, and unless I'm wrong, so does our religion.

Of course, we have to be reverent on Sundays, we have to do our share of work every day, and we should never listen to, let alone dance to, the inappropriate music you hear at most crazy weekend dance parties (thankfully, the music at Scout Camp was clean), but at other times and with good clean music, I think we're allowed to have fun, and even to dance like crazy if we feel like it. I certainly did, and I didn't feel any less like a Christian for doing it.

I did, however, feel a little bit less like a Paladin. Paladins are expected to be especially dignified and respectable, and I find it hard to imagine a Paladin dancing like no one was watching, even after he had fulfilled all of his regular duties. Paladins don't normally dance like crazy. It's just not the kind of thing that Paladins normally do. But are they allowed to? Once they've done everything they're supposed to do, and assuming the music is clean enough and tame enough to not offend the Spirit, are Paladins allowed to loosen up and just dance? Am I?

I want to be like a Paladin. If Paladins don't dance like crazy, even when it's okay for others to, then I should refrain from dancing like crazy also. It's a Paladin's strict standards that give them their moral strength. If I want that strength (and I most certainly do!), I must uphold high standards as well. Does that include not dancing? I don't think so. I don't want it to. But still, dancing like that is something that I can't really picture a Paladin doing. Maybe dancing is okay for most people, but not okay for me.

That'd be a bummer, but I could probably live with it. It'd be sort of like fasting, except that instead of fasting from food, I'd be fasting from acting like I'm crazy. That would be a challenge for me, but that's what makes it a sacrifice. If God accepts that sacrifice and rewards it with additional strength, it'll be worth it.

I'm going to try to work out an answer to whether Paladins are allowed to dance like crazy or not. If they're not, or if I can't find a satisfactory answer, I may never dance like crazy again.

Why Good Paladins Make Terrific Leaders

I'm back. It's been a good, but long week at Scout Camp. The Staff was great. The scenery was phenomenal. The boys were friendly, and most of them were even sane, which was something of a surprise to me. It was a terrific experience, but I'm glad I'm back. Scout Camp takes a lot of energy, and there are some aspects of it that are less than terrific. Thank God for modern plumbing!

On June 13th, which was a week and a day ago, I predicted that Scout Camp would "help me grow, spiritually and as a leader," and boy did it! At Scout Camp, I didn't learn any scouting or survival skills that I didn't already know (though I did get some good practice in the practical use of knots I hardly ever use). What I did learn was why good Paladins make terrific leaders.

Paladins lead by example.

At Scout camp, there were man times when we had to choose between what we wanted to do and what we were supposed to do. Whenever a Staff member or other Scout leader gave the Scout Sign, signaling for silence, all conversations were to come to an abrupt stop, and full attention was to be given to the Scout leader or Staff member. Since I have spent the last few years of my live striving to develop greater moral discipline, and since I have a few years of maturity over most of the boys, I found cutting conversations short and focussing my attention less difficult than some of the boys did. When this happened, the other Scout leaders and I led by example. By giving the staff members our full attention (and occasionally giving our Scouts a little prodding) we succeeded in getting our boys to act we the appropriate level of maturity about as often as we tried. However, I'm am fairly certain that if we, the leaders, had been goofing off, the boys would have been goofing off, too.

Paladins are known for choosing the right and for encouraging others to do so as well. Just as I'm certain that some of our boys wouldn't have paid attention if we didn't, I'm sure that a Paladin's, or anyone's, call to repentance wouldn't have had much convincing power unless they were being righteous themselves.

Paladins uphold high standards, but understand that others don't have to.

That being said, sometimes boys will be boys. Even those these are Boy Scouts, legendary for their adherence to the list of moral principles known as the Scout Law, they are still Boy Scouts, and due to that fact, some allowances need to be given. They don't all have the level of maturity that can only come with age. In fact, very few of them do. While some behavior is inexcusable, even from teenagers, other faults, such as desires to both stay up and sleep in later than they should, must be forgiven.

In contrast, the leaders are responsible for not only getting up at the correct time themselves, but also helping their Scouts to go to bed and get up when they should as well. The leaders are supposed to remember all the rules, obey them constantly, and remind their troops to follow the rules as well. Since the boys looked to us for examples to follow, we were tasked to maintain the highest standards we could, even though our boys failed to do that from time to time.

Similarly, Paladins have sworn binding oaths to maintain high standards, but frequently travel with those who haven't. While they themselves must always be honest, true, and committed to the cause of good, strictly rejecting any evil thought or action and cautiously avoiding any questionable ones, they understand that not all of their associates are expected to be that strict. So, the best Paladins are forgiving of the faults and imperfections of their companions, even though they strive fiercely to remove those faults and imperfections from themselves.

Lastly, Paladins are charismatic.

At Scout Camp, I learned that if people like you, they're more likely to listen to you and respect you. Though it may or may not be true literally, it is figuratively true that you collect more flies with honey than with vinegar. If you want to get boys to follow your example and respect your authority, it helps if you can get them to like you. Many of the boys in our group liked me and their other Scout leaders, and they often behaved well when we asked them to.

In Dungeons and Dragons, Paladins typically have high Charisma scores, which chiefly affects their likability and their ability to influence others (and to lie, except that Paladins don't lie. I'm just saying that if a Paladin did lie, they'd probably be pretty good at it because of their high Charisma). At first, I didn't understand what Charisma had to do with being a Paladin. What possible relationship could there be between likable and being an unshakable champion of justice and righteousness? As it turns out, the connection is pretty strong. While some so-called champions of justice consider it just to answer minor infractions with severe retribution, Paladins seek to promote righteous not so much by force (though sometimes force is necessary), but rather by persuasion. It's better to convince someone to be more righteous by talking to them than by pointing a sword at their throat. That's why the best Paladins use force and the threat of force sparingly, and more often use their friendliness and persuasiveness to eradicate evil with their words. And, not coincidentally, those Paladins often get better results.

I've heard that Paladins often take positions of leadership, and I have been placed in such a position with my calling as a Scout Leader. It seems a strange coincidence that my calling places me into a position that's even more closely aligned with the fictional figures I've been attempting to emulate than I was already attempting to be. But perhaps it's not a coincidence at all. Perhaps this is a sign that God is not only okay with my desire to be like a Paladin, but that He wants me to be even more like a Paladin than I thought was necessary. Or perhaps God is simply working with the decision that I have already made. I've already decided that I want to be a Paladin, God knows that Paladins are supposedly good leaders, so perhaps He turned me into a leader knowing that I already had some motivation to be a good one.

What I know for certain is that right now, God wants me to be a leader to a small group of Boy Scouts that have named themselves the Valiant Knights. If being their leader helps me to be more like a Paladin, or if being more like a Paladin helps me be a better leader, either way I'm happy with that idea. I want to be both a good Paladin and a good leader, and if being either one of those things helps me to also be the other, all the better.

Satan's Envy

Last night, in Stake Conference, one of the speakers, Elder Fallabella, I think, mentioned that Satan can't have a family. He can't get married or raise any number of children. That option simply isn't open to him. When I heard that, I leaned over to my mom and whispered, "So that's why he's trying to destroy the family; he's jealous." And now that I think about it, there are other things that Satan's probably jealous of as well.

One of the primary things Satan can never have is a body. So, as a aspect of his envy, he tries to get us to abuse, misuse, demean, and even destroy ours. He encourages us to use toxic or otherwise dangerous substances. He tempts us to mistreat our bodies and the bodies of others. He whispers into our minds hurtful things about our bodies until we believe them and start to feel badly about our bodies. And, in extreme cases, he manages to convince some people to destroy their own bodies. And he does all this because he will never have a body and he's jealous of the bodies we have.

He's also jealous of our freedom. We have so many options to choose what we want to do and who we want to be, but Satan has already made the choice about what he would be and do, and I'm pretty sure it's too late for him to change his mind now, even though I'd like to think that there's hope for even him. But, in envy of our freedom, he tries to limit it by catching us in temptations and addictions. He tries to control us through subtlety and manipulation to undermine our freedom to choose for ourselves. We can choose our own destiny, but he tries to convince us that we can't, all because he's jealous that we kept our first estate of agency, and he didn't.

Lastly, Satan is jealous of our future. If we keep the commandments and live righteously, God will grant us additional blessings and power (gradually, I assume, as we continue to prove our worthiness of it) until we ultimately become as He is. Satan had that same potential in the Pre-mortal existence, but he tried to claim it early. When God refused him, he rebelled, and he lost his chance at Godhood forever. Now, Satan does everything in his power to derail us from the destiny God laid out for us. He tempts us to sin so we won't be worthy of God's blessings. He tempts us to rebel against God, as he did, so we would become miserable, as he is.

But the encouraging thing about this thought is that since Satan is trying to destroy us, we must have something good enough to be worth his effort of trying to destroy. And we do! We all have bodies. Many of us have capable, even powerful, bodies, and we can do great things with them. We have our freedom to choose what we want to be, what we want to do with our lives, and whose example we want to follow. We have the opportunity to have our own families - not just for this life, but forever! We have the potential to have an eternal increase, and to eventually create our own worlds for our children to live on.

We have such wonderful blessings and opportunities available to us. Don't let Satan's jealousy destroy yours.

Hidden Gem - The Kingly Virtue

How many excellent and exceptionally valuable gems of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in the archives of the records of our church! In July, 1978, Melecio Vir. V. Emata (and no, I have absolutely no idea who that is) wrote about Self-Control: The Kingly Virtue. I find it hard not to highlight most of his article, but I'll limit myself to sharing the following paragraph:

Self-control, whether we like it or not, is an all-embracing and paramount consideration in the life of every Christian. For the ultimate reward for obedience through self-control, and ultimately self-mastery, is kingship over cities, dominions and principalities. No one, absolutely no one, can qualify in the eternal realms to be a king exercising control over others unless he has completely mastered himself. That is why unless we now practice self-control, we cannot hope to be worthy of the reward so high and forbidding yet not a necessarily unreachable, impossible dream. Jesus Christ did it. He said we can do it. So, it can be done.

In order to fulfill our full potential and become all that our Heavenly Father wants us to be, we must first learn to control ourselves and keep our impulses, emotions and desires in check. With great power comes great responsibility. To receive the power (and responsibility) that God wants to give us, we must first prove that we can handle that responsibility by showing that we can manage the responsibilities God has already given us by giving us the power to govern ourselves.

It's also worth noting that the lofty goal of achieving self-mastery, along with obtaining all the blessings that go with it, is not an unreachable goal. "Jesus Christ did it. He said we can do it. So, it can be done." Impossible though it may seem sometimes, we can learn to gain total control over ourselves and ultimately master all of our impulses, emotions, and desires. It is a quest of the utmost difficulty and of the highest possible reward, yet it can be completed successfully, making it a perfect life-long quest for a Paladin or for any of us. It will certainly take us a lifetime or longer, but pursuing the goal of self-mastery is a wholly worthwhile endeavor, and one that I'm going to continue working on for the rest of my life, if not longer.

Preparing for Scout Camp

I mentioned yesterday that I'm going to go to Scout Camp this next week, and I'm wondering what that'll mean for this blog. Naturally, I won't be able to blog while I'm at camp, yet I've made a commitment to blog every day, and I want to keep that commitment as well as I can. One idea is to bring plenty of note-paper to camp with me and to, every day, write down the kinds of things I would write on my blog. Then I'll probably post them online when I get back. I think I'll even take some church materials with me - scriptures, of course, and perhaps an Ensign or two - just in case I don't find enough inspiration at camp, though I'm sure I will.

I've got this theory that God and nature are often close to each other. God may spend some of His time in nature, and nature follows closely the patterns given to it by God. Nature is beautiful - just the way God made it. I'm going to enjoy my time there, and it'll probably help me draw closer to God.

In the meantime, I need to pack. I'll need plenty of clothes and some Scouting Basic Essentials, but surprisingly, that may be mostly it. The camp is covering our meals, a supply of fresh water, access to First Aid, and even a few cots for the leaders. I still plan on bringing some trail mix and band aids, but I don't think we'll need anywhere near as much equipment as I usually bring on camp outs. Not having to worry about food and water has really lightened the list of things I need to worry about in preparation of this outing, so that's quite a blessing.

One issue that remains is transportation. To get up at the campsite by 6 or 6:30 (I forget which one we're aiming for), out Troop will be leaving at 3-3:30 AM! It won't be much fun getting up that early, and I'll have to secure a ride from someone else who's going so Mom doesn't have to get up that early, too, but it'll be worth it. I haven't been to Scout Camp in a long time (and never in a leadership position), so this'll be a good experience.

I'm looking forward to next week, even if it means I won't exactly be blogging during that time. It's going to help me grow, spiritually and as a leader, and I think it'll be loads of fun.

Double-Dipping

A friend of mine recently gave me an interesting piece of advice. She encouraged me to look into Personal Progress. For those of you who don't know (assuming there are any non-Mormons or recent-converts among us, Hi!), Personal Progress is a set of activities young women in our church are encouraged to do to help them develop Christlike virtues that are fitting, and even essential, for a Christian young woman to have in order to better face the challenges of our day. The activities of Personal Progress are split into the following groups: Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue. These are called the Young Women Values, but I challenge you to find anyone in our church who said that these values were meant only for young women!

When I heard my friend's advice, I laughed at first, just because the idea was so unexpected, but then I continued to chuckle because the idea is, to borrow a phrase, so crazy that it just might work. There are a lot of values on that list that I could use in greater abundance, and I've acknowledged in previous blog posts that I'm a little bit feminine compared to some guys, so actually, this idea makes perfect sense. I've had lots of experiences in our church's Young Men's meetings and Scouting activities to help me develop my masculine side. Maybe now I need this to help me develop my feminine side.

Now, some of what's in Personal Progress isn't going to translate perfectly to my life because, naturally, I'm not a Young Woman, so the parts of Personal Progress that apply exclusively to womanhood aren't going to apply to me, however, there's a lot of good stuff in there that isn't so gender-specific. For example, the "Young Women" Values would be good traits for just about anyone.

The same thing may apply for the Young Men's equivalent program, Duty to God. There are virtues and values taught in that program that would be good for women and men, both young and old. And since both programs have traits and teachings that can apply to people of either gender, I don't see anything wrong with double-dipping. I want to do a little bit of studying of Personal Progress to see what I can learn from it. The trouble is that I'm running out of time. I'll study up on it over the weekend, and maybe print a few things up, but early on Monday morning, I'm leaving for Scout Camp. I'm not entirely sure why, but I find this situation hilariously ironic.

More From Monson's Talk - Behavior Under Observation

When Jabari Parker, well-known basketball player, was asked to share the best advice his father had ever given him, he quoted his father as having said, "Just be the same person you are in the dark that you are in the light." President Monson shared that quote in the same talk I blogged about yesterday, but first, he shared a story about a young man that hadn't been the same person in the dark as he was in the light. In church, the young man "touched the hearts of the entire congregation as he spoke of gospel truths and of the joys of keeping the commandments." Just a few hours later, however, he was found "[walking] down the sidewalk dressed in scruffy clothes—and smoking a cigarette."

I've heard it said that a good way to judge a man's character is to see who he is and how he acts when he's alone and believes that no one is watching him. I think that the word "believes" in that sentence is very important, but I'll share more on that later. When we know we are being observed, we have more of a reason to be on our best behavior. Sometimes, we want to make a good impression. Sometimes we just want to not get in trouble. But if we thought that no one was watching us, if we felt like we could get away with doing whatever we wanted, our behavior might be different than what it's like when we know we're being observed.

President Monson has advised us to be the same people in the darkness as we are in the light - to be the same people when we're alone or with friends as we are when we're at church or at work. Basically, he encouraged us to always be on our best behavior, just as we would be if we knew the Savior was watching us. And guess what. He is.

One of my favorite hymns isn't in our hymnal. Nor, apparently, is it in our Children's Songbook. It's called "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," and it shares the message, "If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say/do the things I do?" The final verse goes:

He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care,
So I’ll be the kind of person that I know I’d like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh watching over me.

In all honesty, we are always being watched by our Eternal Judge, so, even more so than with our friends or even at church, we have a very good reason to behave as well as we possibly can. Because, in reality, there is no darkness - at least, none that the Lord can't see through. We are always "in the light." So it makes perfect sense to follow the prophet's counsel and behave just as well in the darkness as we try to behave in the light.

The Crowd That Shouts Your Name

From President Monson's talk:

The call for courage comes constantly to each of us. Every day of our lives courage is needed—not just for the momentous events but more often as we make decisions or respond to circumstances around us. Said Scottish poet and novelist Robert Louis Stevenson: “Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowds shout your name.”

Personally, I think Robert Louis Stevenson was wrong. It's not that I think everyday courage isn't noble. In fact, it may be even more noble than courage displayed before crowds. When you have a group watching you, you know you have to put your best foot forward, show them a good example, and really impress them. When you're on your own, it's easy not to be the person you know you should be.

But are we ever really on our own? Does any action ever go unwitnessed? Aren't there dozens, if not hundreds of angels watching over each one of us, hoping that we'll choose the right? And don't you think they might get excited when we do?

I personally think that each of us has a crowd of angels pulling for us. If we can remember that in times when we feel alone, it might help us to make good choices anyway. I never hear the angels that cheer for me. A rarely feel their guidance and influence. In fact, I rarely feel that they're even there at all. But they may be. And I'm certain that there's at least one person out there pulling for me and cheering me on. I want to do the right thing for them. They're putting so much effort into helping me. I don't want to let them down.

You may not feel like there are many people pulling for you here on Earth. Sometimes, we can all feel very alone. But never forget that there is a God in heaven who loves you, and there are countless angels cheering for you and shouting your name. You can pray to feel their encouragement whenever you need to. No act is too trivial to attract heaven's attention, and no decision is so trivial that angels do not cheer or weep when it is made. (Well, actually, that might not be true. I'm sure there are some decisions that don't really matter in the Eternal scheme of things, but most of them do.) When we know that there are angels watching us, pulling for us, and cheering for us, it can help give us the courage to be the kind of people we know we should be.

I'm grateful for my angels. I let them down far more often than I would like to, but that's partly because I forget that they're there. I'm going to try to do better at remembering, and I'm going to try to make them proud.

A Need to Study More Diligently

...You will need to study diligently. Do not become so absorbed with trivial things that you miss learning the doctrine and teachings of the Lord. With a solid, personal doctrinal foundation, you will be a powerful source for sharing vital truths with others who desperately need them. 

—Richard G. Scott, "I Have Given You an Example"

I love teaching the gospel, especially to those who, like you, already believe in it. I have been blessed with the ability to easily gain insights and share them. However, I have also been cursed with a particular challenge - that I sometimes "become so absorbed with trivial things that [I] miss learning the doctrine and teachings of the Lord." That's pretty much what happened this morning. My mind was elsewhere, so I had trouble focussing on my blog, and I ended up turning to LDS.org's Daily Messages for a quote I could blog about, just so I could blog about something. I'm guessing that there may have been some spiritual insight that I might have gained this morning, if only I had been better able to focus.

But there's not much purpose in saying "if only" or wondering what might have been. Instead, I can try to move forward. Yesterday, I felt the spirit more strongly than I had in a while, and I think that had a lot to do with the amount of time I spend pondering on the things I was learning. I feel like the time I spend studying the scriptures has waned again, so I'll try to do better at that again, and maybe I'll be better able to focus on blogging for the next few days. Also, I should go back to blogging about General Conference talks. Those are always spiritually insightful. The next one up is Be Strong and of Good Courage, by President Thomas S. Monson. I'll probably blog about it tomorrow.

Who Goes to Heaven?

There are only a handful of times when I've been late in blogging, and most of those were due to technical difficulties or other circumstances beyond my control. This time, I'm glad that I was prevented from blogging this morning. What I was going to blog about was probably going to be dumb, but now I really feel like blogging about a theme I picked up in church today - a theme which had nothing to do with the talks or the lessons - which I might have forgotten if I wasn't about to blog about it right now.

Sinners go to heaven.

This seems to contradict several teachings in the scriptures, including all those that warn about the consequences of sin and speak of the immutability of Eternal laws. Yet, it must be true, or heaven would be an endlessly desolate place. Besides that, we have scriptoral evidence of some people having died and gone to heaven, and if anyone (besides Jesus) went to heaven, that group certainly included its share of sinners.

We are all human. Being human, we all make mistakes and bad choices, including sins. We are all sinners. And yet Jesus, in His infinite mercy, invites us to Come Unto Him anyway:

Come unto Jesus, ye heavy laden,
Careworn and fainting, by sin oppressed.
He'll safely guide you unto that haven
Where all who trust him may rest.

Come unto Jesus; He'll ever heed you,
Though in the darkness you've gone astray.
His love will find you and gently lead you
From darkest night into day. 

Hymns 117, verses 1 and 2

 Although we've all gone astray and wandered onto paths of darkness, our Savior is more than willing to welcome us back and earnestly invites us to come as we are. We're not perfect. None of us are. But heaven isn't a place full of perfect people who have never done anything wrong. It's a place full of people who may have done a lot of things wrong, but who did at least one thing right: They repented. They got down on their knees, told their Heavenly Father they were sorry, and vowed to make a sincere effort to not repeat their poor choice. Maybe they kept their vows, and maybe they didn't. Maybe they slipped up again. But if they did, they must have repented again, and God must have forgiven them again. Even though they were sinners, God forgave them and welcomed them back into their heavenly home.

When Jesus prayed for us in Gethsemane and died for us on Calvary, He didn't just suffer for our sins. He "bid the prison doors unfold," and "called upon the sin-bound soul to join the heav'nly throng" (Hymns 182, verses 3 and 2). That song, We'll Sing All Hail to Jesus' Name, was the song that got me thinking about this. Even though I'm a sinner (a generally good person, but yes, a sinner) and I know that I'm not worthy of the great blessings God offers to His faithful followers, this gives me hope that He may extend those blessings to me anyway. And that makes me want to keep His commandments - not to earn my salvation (it's a little bit too late for that), but to show my thanks for His mercy.

I typically think of heaven as a place with saintly and angelic people in it, and I thought that, if I were there, I'd feel a pang of guilt, remembering my sins, and I'd think that I didn't deserve to be there. Now I'm wondering if it's not the case that everyone there will have those same feelings. It's funny that the people who believe that they're wonderfully righteous often aren't as righteous as they think, and the people who truly are fairly righteous are willing to humbly admit that they aren't righteous enough. I think that we'll find a lot of people like that in heaven. In fact, we'll probably be among them.

Under Construction

Since I knew I wouldn't have much time for blogging this morning, I spent a portion of last night on Facebook, looking for something I could blog about. I found this:

Though I'm sure it's just a translation error, I couldn't help thinking that, in a way, they're right. Today is under construction. We build it one moment at a time. Each passing moment makes this day more complete until it's fully over. Right now, it's too early to say that today has been a good day or a bad one, because it's still in progress. As long as there's even a single moment left in a day, it could still get better or worse, depending mostly on our actions and our attitudes.

That could be applied to our entire lives as well. We are all works in progress, under construction. As long as we're still alive, we can build on what we have and make our lives more meaningful. We can continually make repairs and renovations to the parts of ourselves we didn't build so well the first time, or, if our lives are already in really good shape, we could add another room, or a garden, or a pool. No matter what condition our lives are in, as long as we're alive, we can always make improvements to make ourselves that much better.

Today, I'm under construction, so I'm going to try to use today (and every day afterward, if I remember) to make myself a better person. Sometimes I worry about how poor a job I did earlier in life and I don't think I'm doing any better now, but I'm a work in progress. Every day, I have a new chance to repair and renovate the life I've been building and improve the kind of person I am. Some day, I'm going to have a full and complete life that doesn't need so many major repairs, but until then, I'm going to keep building on what I have.

Messages From My Past

Sometimes, when I don't know what to blog about, I read some of my old blog posts, hoping that something that inspired me before will inspire me again. This time, I was just struck by how much I need to continually reread the messages I wrote for myself. I've written messages about repentance and faith, about what it means to be a Paladin and why it's important, about the meaning of life and the purpose of my existence. All of these are things that I certainly need to remember, but that I sometimes forget.

Perhaps right now I'm starting to understand why God told me to start this blog over a year ago. These messages aren't just to bless me when I write them or to bless others when they stumble upon them, but also to bless me as I go back to reread them. It preserves the thoughts that I've had while under the direction of the Holy Spirit. It preserves the insights I've gained and the principles I've learned. It reminds me of spiritual truths that I know a knew once (because I was the one who wrote them down here), but may have since forgotten.

I've blogged about light and darkness, and while we all have some light in us, sometimes our inner light is stronger at some times than at others. By blogging when my light was at its brightest, I've captured some of the feelings and truths that have helped that light be as bright as it was, and I've preserved those thoughts, allowing me to tap into that light now.

I find myself a little bit lost at the moment. I get discouraged, and sometimes I wonder What's the point?, but then I look back and I remember that I know, or at least knew, what the point is. I wrote it down. We're here on Earth to practice and gain self-control, to prove that we can be trusted with the blessings God wants to give us. Thanks to this morning's rereading, I've been reminded of the power of prayer and scripture study - of tapping into a greater source of light than I have ever possessed for myself. I gained some direction, and learned where I can turn to receive even greater direction.

I feel like some kind of time-traveller, like I jumped back in time to learn from my past self, or that my past self jumped forward to give the current me a little help. It's kind of cool. It reminds me of stories I've heard of old pioneer journals inspiring the people that read them today. Those thoughts from the past are still shaping the future, just as what was written by my past self is now helping the future me. It makes me want to keep blogging, and especially to write stuff that my future self may need to read.

If, some time in the future, I come back and reread this blog post, what would I want to say to that future me? Perhaps that life is good. That even though it's hard sometimes, it's worth it to keep trying. And that it's important to pray - to really pray, not just to talk to God or even to talk with Him conversationally, but to close your eyes, maybe meditate a little bit, and really connect with God on an emotional level - to feel the spirit enter your heart, if only just to remember what that feels like so you can try to hold on to that feeling and fight to keep it.

And one more word of encouragement for my future self: You're doing good. And as long as you're doing good, you're doing awesome. And as long as you're doing awesome, you are awesome. God is proud of you. You've overcome, and may even still be fighting against, struggles that are harder than you probably realize. But God knows how hard your struggles are, and He is very deeply proud of how well you're doing. Keep fighting. You're doing so much better than you think you are. You are a Paladin.

I'm glad that I reminded myself of that this morning, and that this message will be here to remind me when I need it later. Writing this blog is one of the best things I've ever done for myself, and another good thing I do for myself is reading it.

You've Been Warned

On May 1, I consulted with you on the subject of making a new, anonymous blog. At that time, I had informed you that if I did make that new blog, and if I continued the practice of writing one blog post per day, some of those blogs posts I write would end up on the other blog rather than this one, so there would be some days when this blog wouldn't get any meaningful updates that day.

Today is one of those days.

Actually, today would be one of those days if I wasn't having so much trouble with the new blog. But whatever. I've written something, and I'll post it when I can. I'll count that as my blog post for today. I'm sorry you're not getting a good blog post today, but you can't say I didn't warn you.

Service - You Snooze, You Lose

The special project from yesterday was replacing worn-out parts of our fence so our fence now slides open and shut more easily. I wish I could take credit for this project - especially since it was honestly something I was planning to do - but I can't. It was the Pesqueras, a family that stayed with us over the weekend, who took the initiative, bought the materials, and showed up on our porch yesterday morning, ready to install the new parts. All I did was provide the tools and install the parts with a lot of help from the Pesqueras.

I found myself kicking myself yesterday because I really was planning on fixing the fence (including replacing the parts) myself, but I just hadn't done it by the time the Pesqueras decided that they were going to. I wanted to have done it, but I had put it off too long, and now I've lost my chance.

The same concept could apply to a lot of good things we could do. If you see a service opportunity and let it pass you by, thinking I'll do that later, the person you were going to serve might do the job themselves, or ask or hire someone else to do it, or perhaps someone else will step up to the plate, as the Pesqueras did, and your opportunity will be lost. The same could go for comforting someone, following a prompting, magnifying you calling, or doing virtually anything else. We have lots of opportunities to do good and be awesome, but many of those opportunities are only ours for a limited time, so if we don't take those opportunities when we can, we might never get another chance.

The Pesqueras certainly understood this. I'm not sure how long they were planning on being in the area, but I'm pretty sure you could count the number of days on your fingers. They had a very small window of opportunity, and no one would have blamed them if they let it pass them by, yet they stepped up, went above and beyond what anyone expected them to do, and accomplished in only a few days what I had been planning on doing for months.

I regret not being the one who replaced our worn-out fence parts. I was going to do it, I could have done it, I should have done it months ago, but I didn't. And now it's done. But I'm not going to waste any time crying over spilled milk. I'm going to take this experience, and (as I do with many semi-negative experiences) try to learn from it and help it make me a better person. I lost that opportunity to do good and be awesome, but I'll have others, and now I feel more committed to not let them pass me by so easily. I'll follow the Pesqueras' example and do what I can, when I can, rather than let things wait until later - and later learn that I waited too long.

And as a personal note to the Pesqueras, in case any of them are reading this, I really am grateful that you fixed our fence. It works so much better now, which is a great blessing for everyone who lives, or even visits, here. I'm grateful for the example you've shown me of working quickly to do good while you can. I'll try to follow that example. I only wish that I had done it sooner.

Priorities - Running Out of Time

Because I got distracted by a cute, cartoon owl, and because my computer is being painfully slow and crashing occasionally, and because I took some time to work on a special project (on which I'll do some more work when I'm done blogging), and because I spent a few too many minutes learning how magic wands and scrolls are made, I now have only half an hour to write a decent blog post. Next time, I'll try to get my blogging done before spending time on cartoon owls and magic wands (the special project was something of a priority task. It couldn't wait for blogging).

Just about everything we do in life takes a certain amount of time, which is really interesting since we only have so much time to spend on earth, and no one knows for sure how much time the really have. If I knew that my time was almost up (which, if we're talking about blogging, it almost is), I probably wouldn't spend quite so much time studying magic. Even the special project might have been put on hold. I might still have taken the time to meet the owl, though. I'll post a link to his website in the comments. He's really worth checking out, especially if you feel that life gets you down sometimes.

But my time is running out, or at least it makes sense to act as if it were. I constantly need to check my priorities and try to make sure I'm spending my time wisely, because no one knows how much or how little time I have left except God.

Thankfully, God is usually pretty forgiving of our foolishness. Even though we spend a significant portion of our time on things of the world and of our own imaginations and other things that don't really matter in the long run, He's grateful for whatever amount of time we choose to give to Him (though, for our own sakes, He usually asks for more time than we voluntarily offer Him). Time spent improving ourselves spiritually and blessing the lives of others is time well spent. With everything else, we should judge whether what we're doing is going to help us reach our eternal goals, and consider changing our behavior to more closely match our goals. For me, personally, I know I spend more time thinking about magic and other fantastical things than I probably should. I'll try to cut down on that, and spend more time working toward more long-term goals instead.

The Test of the Two Spirits

Yesterday, in Elder's Quorum, the teacher asked for three volunteers. Feeling slightly bored, I raised my hand first. I was followed by Trent, who is the other 11-Year-Old-Scout leader in our ward, and Michael, whom I don't know very well. I was handed a blindfold and asked to wait outside the room until someone fetched me. After a few minutes, I was led blind back into the room, where Trent and Michael guided me through an obstacle course made of the chairs we had all been sitting in. But here's where things got interesting: their directions sometimes disagreed.

I followed Trent more than I followed Michael, and it turned out that he was the one who was guiding me safely to where I was supposed to go. Since then, I've been trying to figure out why I decided to follow Trent rather than Michael. I think it may give me some insights into how we can discern between the Holy Spirit and the tempting ones.

When I first entered the room, I bumped into the doorway, and Trent apologized for letting that happen. It was my first hint that I was supposed to follow him, but at the time, I thought I was supposed to follow both of them. Michael gave me directions to not go so fast, which I thought was a good idea, so I moved more slowly, not realizing that I hadn't yet reached the part of the room with the obstacle course in it. When I reached the actual course, their instructions became more specific. Trent told me to come toward him, while Michael told me to go to the left. Following Trent, I eventually learned to mostly ignore Michael, though I still listened when he again told me to slow down (I think I had passed through the obstacle course at that point, and was being led by Trent to my destination, and Michael was trying to slow me down).

At first, I may have been following Trent more because I already knew (and thus, trusted) him better than I knew and trusted Michael. Or perhaps it was simply that he was being more vocal than Michael was. Going into the activity, I was pretty sure that my other quorum members would be the ones trying to mislead me, but while I could have mistaken Michael's voice for that of other Quorum members I didn't know so well, I already knew Trent's voice very well and easily identified him as one of the two people I could trust. By the time I figured out that there were only two voices and that they seemed to be in disagreement, I continued to follow Trent, figuring that he had led me pretty well so far up to that point, but I still sort of listened to Michael, thinking that if I bumped into something following Trent, I'd try following him instead.

The more I think about it, the scarier this experiment becomes. At first, I followed Trent partly because he was the more vocal of the two. Most of us know that the devil is more vocal than the Holy Ghost. If we decide to follow him, just because his voice is the one we hear more clearly, it would be so easy for him to lead us astray. On the other hand, I had a thought in my mind that I would start following Michael if I bumped into anything following Trent. If we decided to change course any time we run into opposition, we would likely end up following the path of least resistance, and that path won't lead us back home. Still, after following Trent for a while, I started to mostly ignore Michael, which would have been extremely dangerous if Michael had been the good spirit and Trent had been the evil one.

After having this experience, I thought about how we can discern between righteous influences and unrighteous ones. Familiarity, one of the first reasons I followed Trent more than Michael, isn't a good way to judge, because what if the group or individuals you're acquainted with are following the wrong path? You could easily end up following each other off a cliff like lemmings. There has to be some way to judge trustworthiness than by only trusting people you know.

One way to judge between good and evil influences is by comparing their instructions to what's taught in the scriptures. I'm reasonably certain that the scriptures contain the words of God, so anyone who teaches things contrary to what's in the scriptures is probably leading you astray. Then again, most people don't directly contradict the scriptures, but they interpret the scriptures in different ways.

We could, through careful examination, determine some people (like our church leaders) to be trustworthy, but then we run the risk of being misled by familiarity. It makes sense to pray to receive guidance, but if Satan plants a suggestion in our hearts after we've prayed, we might mistake that for God's answer.

I suppose the only real way to test between various influences is to guess and check. We may follow whatever suggestion feels right to us, and then check our results to try to determine if it was the right choice or not. The Holy Spirit will never lead us down wrong paths (difficult paths, sure, but never wrong ones), so we can know that if a spirit influences us to do something we know is wrong, we can know that's the wrong spirit to follow. The same thing goes for people. Good people don't intentionally mislead others, though it can be hard to judge people, since we frequently make mistakes.

Yesterday, I guessed that Trent was someone whose directions I could trust, and I was lucky enough to have guessed correctly. If I had guessed wrong, I probably would have bumped into a bunch of chairs and started following Michael instead. Either way, I'm sure I would have gotten to my destination eventually - it would just have been a matter of how long it would take and how many bruises I'd get along the way.

I'm not sure if this experience has taught me anything about discernment other than how important and difficult it is, but the importance of developing good judgement is enough of a spiritual message for this blog. If any of you figure out a good way to do it, let me know.

One Dedicated Father

I love watching movies about families and thinking as much as they love each other, my Heavenly Father loves me more. In Finding Nemo, a movie mostly about fish (in case you didn't know), Nemo, a clownfish, is captured by a dentist and held in an aquarium in Sydney, Australia. As soon as Nemo is taken, his father, Marlin, pursues the boat that took him, facing countless dangers along the way, including jellyfish, an anglerfish, and a total of three sharks. Upon hearing about the dangers and hardships Marlin was willing to face to get his son back, one bird remarked "That's one dedicated father if you ask me." But as dedicated as Marlin was to save his son, Nemo, our Heavenly Father is even more dedicated to helping us.

We have each, in a sense, been taken - not by dentists but by the tricks and traps of the devil, and just like Marlin, our Heavenly Father would do just about anything to get us home safe. Fortunately for Him, He, being immortal, does not need to face mortal peril to rescue us. He does, however, have to deal with terrible frustration and heartache, most of it cause by the people He's trying to save. But because He loves us more than Marlin loved Nemo, more than we can even imagine, God is willing to go to almost any lengths and face any hardships to save us.

I love how much God loves us and it makes me want to love Him back more than I do. I don't want to spoil the movie, in case any of you haven't seen it and are still planning to, but Nemo had to face some hardship and danger, too, in order to break out of the aquarium. Though he was discouraged after his first frightening, failed attempt, when he heard the stories of the courage and dedication of his father, he was inspired to try again. In a similar manner, we have some work to do in order to safely return to our Heavenly Father, and we can let His dedication to us inspire us to show a little bit of dedication to Him. He's willing to move mountains for us. Let us be willing to do our part as well, whatever dangers or hardships we have to face to do it.

There aren't many moments in movies that are more touching than when parents and children are reunited with each other. I can't even imagine what an emotional moment it will be when we're reunited with God. Let us each do what we can to make sure we get home clean and safe, no matter what challenges get in our way.