Late Night Ramblings and the Example of Amalickiah

First, a quick disclaimer for yesterday's post: I didn't invent solid flame. The Balrog had solid-flame weapons in the first Lord of the Rings movie (and possibly book), and anyone who has ever used a flaming sword is familiar with the concept of solid flame. In retrospect, with all those shining examples, I'm surprised it took me so long to catch on to the idea of using solid flame.

Also, I'm not sure how it's harder for me to think of spiritual thoughts when I'm tired than it is to ace a history quiz when I'm tired, but it is. I should probably find out why that's true and do something about it. I should also go to bed really soon, which is a thought I had about an hour ago, but I still haven't gone to bed yet because I still haven't thought of anything I could blog about.

I know I've said before that this isn't what God had in mind when He had me commit to blogging every day. I don't think He meant to make me stay up so late. I suppose I wouldn't have to stay up late if I had spiritual thoughts during the day (and remembered them long enough to blog about them), but most of my thoughts have been centered on my schoolwork, and I don't think there are many blogworthy thoughts in my literature or history homework.

There are, however, blogworthy thoughts in the other reading I do every day, and I have no idea why it took me so long to think of this, but my family reads one chapter out of the Book of Mormon every night, and every night, we find something that's worth commenting on. Tonight, the most memorable comment that I made was that while Amalickiah was a bad guy in a hell-bend-on-global-domination sort of way, he was an excellent example of pursuing one's goals. He was diligent in pursuing his desires, but also flexible enough to try new methods when what he had been doing wasn't working for him. He repeatedly faced defeat, but kept on trying, and had a good deal of success before he died. He never really accomplished his goals, partly because his goals went directly against the will of God, but it was amazing how much one man could accomplish. He went from being practically a nobody to being a king! If he could accomplish so much without God's help, imagine how much we could accomplish with God's help and Amalickiah's determination and flexibility. There'd be no stopping us.

And right now, since I've finally managed to produce a blogworthy thought, there will be no stopping me from going to bed.