The Best Year Ever

There has been some talk about how 2016 hasn't been the best year ever, and I technically agree. There have been, and will be, better years. But I don't think 2016 has been all bad, and I don't think it was the worst year in human history, not by a long shot. I agree, however, that 2016 could have been better and that 2017 can be better, if we make it so.

So, let's move forward. Let's put the past behind us insomuch as we can, and let's learn from it as much as we can. Instead of harping on how bad things are or were, let's work together to make the future as good as it can be. 2017 will have its problems. Everything has problems. But I believe that we can work through them, or at least learn from them, to make 2017 and the years that follow it good years.

2016 wasn't the best year ever, and 2017 probably won't be, either, but I don't think 2016 was as bad as some people say it was, and I believe that 2017 will be better. But we're going to have to be positive to make that happen. We're going to have to look to the future with the hope that we can make things better. And if we can keep making things better than they are now, we can eventually make a year that's better than any year before it. 2016 wasn't the best year ever, but some future year will be, and I look forward to helping all of you make that year happen.

Giving Blessings

Tonight, I went to give my sister a Priesthood blessing, but while I was there in the hospital room with her, I was able to help her in other ways, too. But anything I did, including giving her Priesthood blessings, pales in comparison to what our mom has done for her. Mom has hardly left her side, staying close enough to help her, advocate for her, and bring her comfort. Mom may not have been able to give her daughter any Priesthood blessings, but she has given her many other blessings, which may have helped just as much. Priesthood blessings can be powerful, but we should never underestimate our ability to help people, even without them. There are many kinds of blessings we can give, and Priesthood blessings are only one of them.

Another Possible Reason - XP

Another reason God gives hard trials to His most righteous followers may be reflected in how high-level role-playing characters earn XP.

In many role-playing games, characters become stronger by earning experience points, or XP, for overcoming challenges. The tougher the challenge, the more XP you gain. However, as characters gain experience and level up, they become increasingly more capable of handling challenges, so they have to face tougher challenges in order for their challenges to be "tough" or "challenging" at all. Some game systems reflect this by having higher-level characters gain less XP for the same challenges, and some do it by having higher-level characters need more XP to level up further. Some do both. In any case, the result is that the characters need to face tougher challenges in order to keep progressing at the same rate.

It's like exercising. If you lack physical strength, lifting even relatively light weights can help you become stronger, but if you're already strong, you'll need to lift heavier and heavier weights in order to grow stronger. If you're strong enough, lifting light weights won't increase your strength at all.

Maybe that's part of the reason God gives His toughest challenges to His strongest followers -- Because that's what it takes to help them become even stronger. I suppose that's basically the same as what I said yesterday, that if something is already fairly pure, it needs an especially effective purifying process to make it any purer. I thought of mentioning spiritual inertia again, drawing an analogy from the fact that if something is moving quickly, it takes more energy to get it moving even faster. It's all the same idea.

So when God gives hard challenges to good people, that may be because that's what it takes to help them become stronger. Or maybe there are other reasons, like giving them the opportunity to prove how good and faithful they are, or giving them an opportunity to earn the blessings God wants to give them. Whatever God's reasons are, it's a fact of life that bad things happen to good people, but when they do happen, it can be comforting to know what some of the possible reasons are, and it can be encouraging to know that God may intend to use these challenges to help us become stronger and to prove to us just how strong we really are.

Why God Gives Good People Hard Trials

When someone passes through a trial, it can be difficult to understand God's reasons for letting the trial occur. This is especially true when those most affected by the trial are innocent and righteous people, yet those are the people to whom God seems to subject to the most intense suffering.

One possible reason this may be true is that things which are already pure take extra effort to purify further. A liquid that has already passed through a sieve will need to pass through a tighter sieve in order to become more pure.

It follows that a person who is already largely devoid of unchristlike attributes would have to pass through ever more severe trials to be refined further. If that's the case, God would have to put His most righteous followers through the most difficult purifying trials in order to help them become more pure.

So if you find yourself or a loved one facing especially difficult trials, that may be because you or your loved one were already fairly righteous at the start, so it takes more pressing challenges to help you become even better.

Of course, this analogy falls apart when one considers that we can choose how we want to live, and the most righteous people are often those who require the least prodding to convince them to do good and become better. However, those people can still find comfort in their most difficult trials by remembering that God's help is always available to them. We may not know why God gives us the trials He gives us, but we know that God will always be willing to help us get through them.

No matter how good we become in this life, God will always work with us to help us become better, and sometimes that means forcing us to face difficult trials. We must remember that God always wants what's best for us and He has an eternal perspective. Our trials can be extremely painful, but they're designed for our benefit, and the benefits we gain from them will far outweigh the pain of enduring them.

Whatever His reasons are, God often gives His hardest trials to His most faithful followers, so if you're facing hardship, take heart. It may mean that God thinks you're doing something right.

'Tis the Season for Family

Today was the last day of Christmas, and I spent almost all of it with family. We hung out, ate together, played with legos and toy swords, and played card games. We shared smiles, movie quotes, and many laughs. Not much was said about Christ, however, which makes me slightly worried that we didn't fully capture the Spirit of the holiday, at least not today. But we did capture one element of the holiday. Christmas is a time for worshipping Christ, which we did Sunday, and it's also a time for exchanging gifts, which we did yesterday, but it's also a time to spend with family, which is what we did today. Next to worshipping Jesus, spending time with family may only be a secondary aspect of Christmas, but it is an important aspect of Christmas, so I'd say that, for a holiday, today was a day well spent.

Repenting of Oaths

Earlier this month, I had a conversation about the Rockettes, at least some of whom don't want to perform at Trumps inauguration. The problem is that they may have a contractual obligation to perform at the inauguration, since their producer (or whomever their boss is) signed them up. If they do have such an arrangement where they are legally bound to perform wherever their producer (or whomever) decides, they may have effectively made an oath to do something that they now feel would be morally wrong to do. Speaking about this reminded me of a question I had while reading the scriptures: Can a person "repent of an oath" and remain in good standing with the Lord?

As Latter-Day Saints, we tend to take promises fairly seriously. If someone makes a promise, they have a moral (and sometimes a legal) obligation to keep it. In fact, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies demonstrated that a belief that it's better to die than to break a promise. However, there is one upstanding Book of Mormon hero who did break an oath without losing his place as a Book of Mormon hero. In fact, the book is literally named after him.

Mormon 5:1, Mormon records that he "did repent of [an] oath which [he] had made." Upon further review, I learned just now that the "oath" of which Mormon was repenting wasn't really a oath, per se, but still, it was enough to make me ask the question and now I think I have an answer to it. I think that there are cases when a person can go back on their word and remain in good standing with the Lord. To illustrate this opinion, I'll use an extreme example, also from the Book of Mormon.

Amalickiah, the king of the Lamanites, had once sworn that he would drink the blood of Captain Moroni, one of the best of the heroes of the Book of Mormon; however, I don't think God considered him morally bound to that oath. If Amalickiah had defeated Captain Moroni and had an opportunity to kill him and drink his blood, I think God would have considered it far more evil for him to keep his oath by killing Captain Moroni than to break his oath by letting Captain Moroni live. Similarly, I don't think God would consider any of us morally bound to keep an oath if we foolishly promised to do something evil. In other words, I think that it's less evil to break a promise than to keep a promise to do something morally wrong.

It is important to keep our word, but it's more important to obey God's words. If He commands us to do something, we should do it, even if we promised not to. If He commands us not to do something, we shouldn't do it, even if we promised to. Though our oaths do and should hold a considerable amount of weight, we can and should "repent" of them when we have a moral obligation to do so, and we should neither make nor keep an oath to do anything that's morally wrong.

Personally, I don't know what the Rockettes should do, and I don't care much what they decide to do, but I wouldn't want to force them to do anything they consider morally wrong. They may or may not have a legal right to refuse to perform the inauguration (I haven't really looked into it much), but I'd say that if they truly feel that strongly about not performing at the inauguration, they may well have a moral right, and perhaps even a moral obligation, to break the oath they may have made.

Figurative Followers

The final Light the World challenge is to follow Jesus Christ. His disciples did this literally, by leaving their nets by the seashore and following Christ as He travelled and taught. Many others also followed Him, even into the mountains, to hear Him teach. These days, we don't have the option of literally following Jesus, and thankfully, we don't have to. Back in those days, the only way to hear the words of Christ were to literally follow Him and listen, but these days, we can read and hear His words by making a few taps and swipes on our smartphones. We don't have to hike over rough terrain to listen to Him; we can just go to LDS.org and follow almost any link from there. Our access to Christ's words is so effortless, we no longer need to literally follow Him to maintain it. However, we do need to figuratively follow Him to make any good of it.

We have easy access to the scriptures, but they're not going to change our lives unless we choose to change our lives to match Christ's teachings. It takes effort to follow Christ's teachings, just as it took effort to literally follow Jesus Christ. In fact, I wonder if the difficulty of obtaining Christ's words took some of the difficulty out of living it. It's easier to cherish something we work hard to get than something that's just handed to us. Perhaps having so much access to the words of Christ has made it slightly more difficult to care about it and to choose to learn from it. Maybe we still have to climb a mountain to gain the benefit of Christ's teachings, but our mountain is more figurative than literal.

Still, let's be as diligent as Christ's early, literal followers by figuratively following Jesus Christ. Since we're not faced with any challenges in obtaining Christ's teachings, let's rise to the challenge of applying it. I know that as we figuratively follow Jesus Christ, our lives will literally change for the better. We don't have to literally follow Jesus Christ anymore, so let's follow Him figuratively instead.

Small, Simple, Sincere

The penultimate Light the World challenge was to care for your loved ones, and part of me doubts that I adequately did this today since I didn't do anything special to show that I care for them. But I'd like to think that it doesn't take much to show you care. Small acts of service and kindness, if performed frequently, should suffice. So when I took several small opportunities to help and serve my family, I hope that was enough to show that I care for them.

As with many other Light the World challenges, I think that caring for loved ones is done just as well, if not better, by many small acts as than by a few grand acts. When it comes to showing love, doing so in frequent, simple ways is more convincing than by showing love occasionally and with grand gestures. Performing great acts of love and service is good, but serving frequently may be better.

I didn't go out of my way to care for my loved ones today, but I did serve them in small ways several times over the course of the day, so I'd say I met today's challenge. I'm 20 for 24. Tomorrow will be the last day of the challenge, and it will also be Christmas. I'm looking forward to that. It's fun to exchange presents, it'll be wonderful to celebrate Christmas on the Sabbath, and it's always nice to spend quality time with family, especially since spending time with them is one of many simple ways to show that you care.

Following Suggestions

Today was pretty easy; all I had to do was say nice things about people when they weren't necessarily within earshot. I accomplished that within the first few hours of being awake. 19 for 23. However, upon reviewing the list of suggestions this evening, I discovered that there was another way I could have been a peacemaker today.

One of the suggestions was to "Offer a compliment or a smile to someone who is having a rough day." Today, I interacted with such a person, and I don't think I complimented them, or even smiled to them, as I would have, had I remembered this suggestion.

At this point, I could easily blog about having room for improvement in that I could have been nicer to the person who was having a rough day, but I don't want to do that again. There have been many times when I've fallen short this month, and almost all of those times, I've blogged about how I should have done better. Tonight, instead, I want to blog about the morality of following these suggestions. In other words, I want to briefly explore whether or not the moral value of performing a good action varies depending on whether or not the action was suggested by another.

At first thought, I would say that it's better to do good without being prompted. Doing good because you're a good person is better than doing good because someone asked you to. But on the other hand, what difference does it make? Either way, you're doing good, and that's a good thing. However, doing good out of the goodness of your heart feels better than doing good at another's request. At least, it does for me. Could it be that the better feeling from doing good from my own volition is an indication from the Spirit that doing good "just because" is somehow better than doing good because someone else prompted me to?

I'm not sure, and one of the reasons I'm not sure is that I'm not sure it's even possible to do good without being asked or prompted to do it. Those of us who have been baptised have been given a gift by which the Spirit of God can be with us always. Through this gift, we can maintain a constant connection to the Holy Ghost, one of whose main jobs is to inspire others to do good. I suspect that He is frequently planting suggestions into our minds, giving us ideas of ways we can do good. I wouldn't be surprised if He was constantly giving us such suggestions as we've read and tried to follow during this Light the World challenge. If that's the case, it's virtually impossible to do good without someone asking you to do it, because the Holy Ghost is constantly suggesting ways in which we could do good.

So, really, the question of whether doing good on one's own is better than doing good at someone's request could be moot, because if we are doing good, we will never be on our own; we will always have a companion with us who frequently, if not constantly, suggests that we do good. I would say that the less prompting one requires to persuade them to do good, the better, but I'm not sure I can say if it's even possible to do good without receiving any prompting at all.

At the same time, though, doing good at another's request is better than not doing it at all. For example, while it would have been best if I had complimented or smiled at the person of my own accord, doing so because of the challenge would have been better than not doing it at all. So, naturally, I have some improvements to make, and one way I can make those improvements is by becoming better at following the Spirit's suggestions to do good.

Thanking God

Today's challenge is about gratitude, so I'd like to take a moment to go beyond forgiving God for letting me come to Earth and actually thank Him for it. (This will put me at 17 out of 22, by the way, just in case anyone is keeping track.)

As I said yesterday, mortality is tough, but it's also an incredible opportunity. Without this opportunity, we would literally have been damned. Our progress would have been permanently halted by our lack of mortal experience and our inability to gain it. But since we were born on Earth, we all have the opportunity to learn and grow in ways we couldn't have imagined.

And even without considering the eternal blessings we'll get out of having been alive, there are some pretty great temporal blessings, too. This world is wonderfully beautiful, having a body is amazing, and even with only a handful of decades to work with, life can be richly rewarding and/or a lot of fun.

Yesterday, I expressed complaints about some of the negative aspects of life, but in doing so, I largely ignored the positive aspects of life. Yes, mortality is often challenging, but those challenges help us develop strength that we couldn't develop in any other way. Life can be painful, but it can also be comfortable, and any pain we experience helps us appreciate our comfort even more.

The worst part about mortality is the risk of eternal damnation, but that risk is probably smaller than we think, especially if we care at all about it. If we are at all concerned about the importance of being righteous, then we're probably being righteous enough that we don't really need to be worried.

And that leads me to another thing to be thankful for: The Atonement. Not only did God give us the great opportunity to continue to progress, He also bent over backward to make sure that we wouldn't get hopelessly stuck on any of life's challenges. He made it possible, through the power of the Atonement, to overcome any obstacle, even the consequences of sin.

All told, mortality is a blessing for which it is well worth thanking God. It's not all rainbows and sunshine, and there are some risks involved, but it's an incredible opportunity and a thrilling ride. It has downsides, but it has plenty of upsides, too. It's challenging, but it's worth it. Yesterday, I forgave God for thrusting me into this world; today, I thank Him for doing so. This is the best world I can remember living in, and living in it has been the greatest experience I've ever had. That may not be saying much, but it says enough to convince me that I should say "thanks" to God.

Forgiving God

Today's Light the World challenge is to forgive others, which is a challenge for me for the best possible reason: I couldn't think of anyone I needed to forgive. I haven't been wronged in any serious way, at least, not that I can recall. Thinking of it now, there was that time someone stole the seat of my bicycle, but I've already forgiven them. I have no quarrel with anyone. I am a very lucky man.

However, there have been times when I've felt unlucky. There have been times when I've felt that life has been unfairly difficult and that this life wasn't what I had signed up for, or, if I had signed up for this, I doubted that I knew what I was getting myself into. In short, there have been times when I have felt angry at God, and now I think I should forgive Him for all that.

I don't know how well any of us knew what we were getting ourselves into when we agreed to come to Earth. Not having bodies yet, we would have no idea what it would feel like to feel pain or exhaustion. We would have had no idea what sin or hopelessness or worthlessness felt like. Having spent all our lives in the presence of God, we would have had no idea how it would feel to feel alone and abandoned. We could not possibly imagine how hard or how painful life in Earth would be. Yet, God knew, and He allowed us to agree to come here though He knew that we had no idea what it was that we were agreeing to.

I need to forgive Him for that. There really was no other way. The reason we didn't know what Earth would be like was because we didn't have any experience, and the only way we could gain experience (or a myriad of other blessings essential to our eternal progression) was to come to Earth. We had to come here, even though we didn't know how bad it was going to be, and God had to let us come here, even though He did know how bad it was going to be. That must have been painful for Him, to know that we would experience pain, when, at that time, we had no idea what pain even was.

And though I have felt alone sometimes, I know that I was never really alone. God has never abandoned me, though I have occasionally turned away from Him. Even when I was livid with Him and when I was sure He was disappointed in me, He was never farther than a prayer away. God had to send us to Earth, but He also sent, and is still sending us, all the help He can while we're here.

I forgive God for letting me come to Earth despite knowing how far I would fall and how hurt I would feel. I forgive Him for not doing more to protect me from myself, because I know He has been doing all He could. I forgive Him for letting me and all mankind suffer, because I know that this is all necessary for our eternal happiness.

I forgive God for everything He has done, or not done, that has caused me pain, and I thank God that He forgives me. I have done far more that has hurt Him than He has done to hurt me. I need far more of His forgiveness than He needs of mine. I am thankful that God and I are willing to forgive each other and continue to work together, and I'm thankful for both the peace I feel when He forgives me and the peace that I have felt for forgiving Him.

A Quick Quote About Potential

I'm pretty tired, so I'm just going to share a General Conference quote that my mom shared on Facebook and call it a night.

With all my capacity I encourage you to discover who you really are. I invite you to look beyond the daily routine of life. I urge you to discern through the Spirit your divinely given capacities. I exhort you to prayerfully make worthy choices that will lead you to realize your full potential.
Elder Richard G. Scott, Realize Your Full Potential, October 2003.

One thing I like about this quote is that it highlights the fact that we have divinely-given capabilities. We have natural gifts, sometimes referred to as talents, that God gave us perhaps even before we were born. These gifts frequently correspond to our life-long callings -- that for which we were specifically sent to Earth to do. If we can discover and develop our talents, we can use that information to discern what God sent us here to do, and we will be better prepared to do it. If we do that, we can fulfil our callings and thus reach our full earthly potential. We should all follow Elder Scott's advice by trying to discover our talents and figure out how God intends for us to use them. If we do, we can fulfil our earthly purposes, live a fulfilling life, and achieve our full earthly potential in the process.

Planning to See Potential

Today's Light the World challenge, to see the potential in others, would be so much easier if today was a school day. One of the suggestions is to "Be a mentor or tutor for someone," and on school days, that is, quite literally, my job. Today, I'll have to go a bit beyond just doing my job or doing what I would normally do to meet the challenge. However, I will have a child with me today. Perhaps I'll have an opportunity to let her do a small part of my job or to help her learn to set goals. If not, perhaps I'll blog about our divine potential, since that's a favorite topic of mine. So, that's the plan and the back-up plan. Let's see how well I follow them.

Storms of Life

I didn't help anyone calm the storm today. I am 15 for 19, though I did listen to Motab's performance of "Master, the Tempest is Raging," so I did technically follow at least one of the suggestions for today's Light the World challenge. Maybe I should count that, but I don't really think that counts.

As I was reviewing the suggestions, however, one of them stood out to me. After the main three suggestions, the foremost of the "other ways to participate" was to "Consider ways to reduce contention in your home."

Of course, it was foolish of me to take the idea of this challenge too literally. Though winter is a season fraught with literal rain- and snow-storms, life is also a season fraught with emotional and spiritual storms. I know of a few family members who are currently going through some intense emotional storms. Perhaps I ought to send out a few messages tomorrow. I don't think there's anything I can do to help them, but at least I can let them know that I'm thinking about them.

And when it comes to emotional storms, that's often all one can do. We can't always calm the storms in others' hearts, but we can weather the storms with them. Sometimes, it's comforting enough just to know that you're not alone.

I didn't help calm the storm today, but I will do what I can tomorrow. I know that my sympathy won't do anything to help the situations my loved ones are facing, but maybe it'll help them get the strength they need to face them. We may not be able to calm all the storms of life, but at least we can reach out to each other and help each other endure.

A Christmassy Sabbath

Today's Light the World challenge is to honor the Sabbath, and I am certainly going to do that. By the end of the day, I will be 15 for 18. Today, I will honor the Sabbath by attending a local worship service, spending time with family, and worshipping the Lord through song. This is going to be a wonderful and worshipful day, and I'm blessed, not only to be able to pass the Light the World challenge so easily, but to do it in such an enjoyable way. I love this part of Christmas.

A Call From Across the Couch

Today's Light the World challenge was to care for your mother, and one of the suggestions was to call her, so, despite having spent the whole day with her, I called her this evening - why we were both sitting on the same couch. It was silly, but that silliness brought a smile to her face. Kind gestures don't have to be grand or significant; they don't even have to make sense. As long as it brightens a person's day, it's probably worth doing, even if it's something as silly as calling your mother from across the couch.

Define Compassion

It's hard for me to judge whether or not I've shown compassion today. How do you show compassion?  Some have defined compassion as "sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others." As such, compassion is usually invoked in the cases of those who are less fortunate, but I think this use of the term might be too narrow. We all suffer from time to time. We all have misfortunes. It's not only the especially unfortunate people who need compassion. We all do. Can one "show compassion" by, say, doing a chore for someone who's tired? I suppose, in a small way, I was sympathetic to the needs of others today. So, sure, why not? I "showed compassion" today. 13 for 16. But I'm still not fully convinced that I know what "compassion" even means. What does and does not count as an act of compassion? I'm open to your thoughts, and I'm open to unpacking this word further later, because I'm sure I don't understand compassion as well as I would like to.

Hallelujah - Praise God

Each year, millions of people celebrate Christmas by listening to Handel's Messiah and its iconic Hallelujah chorus. I've heard and appreciated it many times. But it has occurred to me that one element of the chorus that I may not fully appreciate is the meaning of the word "Hallelujah." We tend to use it to express joy or thanks to God, but what does the word actually mean?

A rudimentary search of the internet revealed that, translated literally, Hallelujah is an exhortation, addressed to several people, to praise God. It's not an interjection; it's a verb. When we say "Hallelujah," we are asking those who can hear us to praise God, and when we hear "Hallelujah," that's what we are being asked to do.

Of course, the same website that told me the word's literal meaning also told me that most Christians don't use it. The website states that "For most Christians, 'Hallelujah' is considered a joyful word of praise to God, rather than an injunction to praise him." And, naturally, we must take the speaker's meaning into account. If someone says "Hallelujah" at having heard some miraculously good news, we don't need to assume that they are asking us to praise God right then and there. Similarly, when we say "Hallelujah," we can can use it as an interjection or an invitation, if we have reason to believe that our listeners might recognize it as an invitation.

But now that we know that Hallelujah is sometimes use to exhort people to praise God, I hope we think of that definition as often as we hear the word. There is never a bad time to praise God, and there are few better times than at Christmastime. So, this season, when we hear the choir emphatically sing "Hallelujah" at the end of that glorious hymn, I hope we take a moment to accept that invitation.

More Good Than Normal

It's working.

Today, the Light the World challenge was to clothe the naked, so I went through my dresser and pulled out several of the T-Shirts I no longer wear (and which are still fit to be worn) and put them in a bag to be donated to a thrift store. This was, arguably, a good thing, and it's a thing which I wouldn't've bothered doing for a long time, were it not for the Light the World challenge. Today, this challenge got me to do a good thing which I would not otherwise have done.

This challenge is being a good influence in my life. Much of the good it would have me do, I am already doing, and some of the good it would have me do, I just didn't, but today, and on at least one other day that I can recall, I did some small token of good, just because the challenge called for it. That's all we really need sometimes. Just one small push in the right direction can encourage us to do good that we might not otherwise have done.

Sometimes, it's the Holy Spirit that provides us with the encouragement to do good. Sometimes, it's a friend or family member, or maybe even a neighbor or coworker who gives you the push. And sometimes, it's challenges like these that get us to go beyond the amount of good we would normally do and that help us become even better.

As noted a few times earlier this month, there are some good things that I regularly do. But there are some good things I don't do as often as I should. This challenge has now, at least twice, helped me to do more good in the world. If that's what it was designed to do, and I'm inclined to think it is, it's working.

Need to Be Humble

Today's Light the World challenge was to be humble. Some of the suggestions were to learn to laugh at yourself and to be open to learning something new. I'm not sure how well I succeeded at that. Tonight, at my sister's suggestion, I made dinner, but I quickly grew impatient with my sister's guidance and instruction, and when the meal seemed to have turned out badly, I grew sullen. I could have handled that whole dinner situation better had I been more humble. 10 for 13.

However, I can gain and practice humility by learning from this experience. This is something I can work on. And if I'm humble enough to accept that I need to learn humility, that will help me develop that trait.

I should learn to be more patient when receiving directions, and I certainly need to improve my attitude in general, and particularly toward myself. Learning to be more light-hearted and more willing to listen to others' counsel will make my life smoother and bring me more peace. I'm grateful that I had this opportunity to learn this about myself. Now, hopefully, I'll be humble enough to accept and work on my need to become more humble.

Moral Luck

Today, I stayed home and studied for my Statistics Final. It was fairly boring, and I didn't accomplish much. Among the list of things I didn't accomplish today is today's Light the World challenge, teach others. Apart from some unimportant movie trivia, I don't think I taught anyone anything today. I am 10 for 12.

But I did learn something interesting, though. As part of my not-accomplishing-much, I watched a video about Moral Luck. Let me teach you about it. Let's suppose that two people both go to the same party and get drunk. They each drive home separately while intoxicated. One of them accidentally hits someone and kills them. The other person luckily gets home without incident. Now, considering that they both made the same decisions, but also that one of them caused someone's death and the other one didn't, do you think that one of them is more worthy of blame than the other, or do you think they're both equally blameworthy? If you decide that the person who caused the death of another is more blameworthy than the person who got home without causing harm, the latter can be said to have been morally lucky.

I have gotten morally lucky over the course of this month. There have been a few days so far where I haven't even tried to meet the Light the World challenge, but I succeeded anyway because that day's challenge was to do something I was already doing.

Today, however, I got morally unlucky. As a writing tutor, I teach college students how to write better essays. I literally spend a few hours teaching people each school day. On a normal Monday, I would have succeeded at today's challenge without even breaking from my normal schedule. But today was the first day of Finals Week. My last day of work for this semester was last Thursday. Ergo, I didn't teach anyone about anything today. It was just bad luck.

Yet, I don't think God takes "moral luck" into account. I don't think God would consider either of the two drunk drivers any more or less evil because they either got unlucky and hit someone or got lucky and didn't. I think He cares more about our intentions, desires, and actions, than He cares about the outcomes of our actions. My guess is that God would consider both of the drunk drivers equally wrong for having made the decision to drive drunk. But that's just my opinion.

I also think that moral luck eventually balances out anyway. Some days, we get lucky; some days we get unlucky. Over the years, we have enough lucky and unlucky days to balance each other out, making luck a non-factor, even if God did hold people accountable for the luck they either did or didn't have.

Today didn't work out for me so well. Other days did. In the end, God will look at the big picture, factor out the "moral luck," and judge us based on principles of justice and mercy, not random chance.

Personal Considerations in God's Cosmic Plans

I'm astonished how frequently the Light the World challenge lines up with something I was going to do anyway. Last week, I was asked to help out in Primary that Sunday.  Shortly thereafter, I was asked to help again this week and next week as well, so this Sunday, the second hour of church found me in a classroom with a half-dozen Primary children, helping them learn about Moroni, the Gold Plates, and Joseph Smith. And it just so happens that today's Light the World challenge is to minister to children.

I wonder if God planned that. Probably not, since I'm only one person, and this Light the World challenge affects many. I don't think He tailored the challenge to match my opportunities, not do I think He tailored my opportunities to match the challenge. Why would He have given me this opportunity at this time when He could have just as easily given it to someone else? It's hard to imagine that God would have me factor into His great cosmic plans.

On the other hand, I'm not sure how strongly I believe in coincidences, either. God tends to plan things out; I doubt that He'd leave many things to chance, or that there could be many "happy accidents." For example, if God was planning whether or not it was going to rain on a given day, of course He would consider whose lives might be drastically affected by the rain, but I think He would consider the effect the rain would have on an individual's flower garden. I think He loves each one of us personally that He would take everyone into account while He's forming His cosmic plans.

Sure, things sometimes still don't work out. There are times when it feels like the universe is against you. But that's partly because we all share this one world. What might be good for one person might be bad for another, so God has to decide how to distribute His blessings and trials, knowing that what would be a blessing for one person could be a trial for another. Also, our trials can be blessings, if we let them help us develop personal strength and other Christlike attributes. Often, the trials we experienced are designed to create blessings for ourselves or others.

So, maybe God did factor me into the plan for this Light the World challenge. Maybe He created an absence in the Primary so I would be in the right place at the right time for me to have that convenience and end up writing a blog post about it. It's not impossible for God to have thought of that, considered it, and decided that that's the way things ought to be. Of course, I know that I'm not always going to be so blessed. Today, I got lucky. Tomorrow, I might be unlucky. But now, I believe it's all part of God's plan. We are all a part of God's plan, and He designs His plans around each and every one of us.

Clearing the Path

Today's Light the World challenge was to help people walk. Today, I did this by clearing the path from our front door to the side walk. Occasionally, that path gets obstructed, making it difficult and unpleasant for some members of my family to traverse. It didn't take long to clear the path, and it certainly wasn't difficult for me, but doing so made the things easier for others who have a harder time.

Throughout our lives, we all get opportunities to "clear the path" and make things easier for others. Sometimes, we do so by teaching them or guiding them. Sometimes, we do so by inventing some tool, technique, recipe, or method for others to use. And sometimes, we are literally clearing paths that we know others will follow. Let us take advantage of those opportunities so we can make life a little bit easier and more pleasant for others. Life is difficult, but we can make it a little bit less difficult by clearing paths for each other.

A Challenge to Get to Know the Lonely

This is only the second Friday of December, but so far, Fridays have been easy days for me. Today, the challenge is to visit the lonely, and I already planned to spend most of the day with the loneliest person I know. I don't think I'll invite that person to any special events, but I might ask them questions to try to get to know them better. We've known each other for quite some time, but I don't think either of us know all that much about the other, and t might be a good idea to change that. Reaching out to this person would be at least a somewhat charitable thing, and it would be something of a challenge, so I guess I'm getting a little bit of what I was asking for: A challenge to help me reach out of my comfort zone and be a better person than I normally am. Normally, I'd exchange pleasantries with this person, and perhaps discuss recent events, but the conversation would rarely go deeper than that. Today, I'll try to actually talk to this person, no matter how awkward or forced the conversation ends up seeming. I should try to get to know this person. I think Christ would take the time to try to get to know them.

What Good Does Prayer Do?

Our Light the World challenge of the day was to pray for others, but I have a few minor issues with that. As I understood it (and maybe I didn't), these daily challenges were designed to inspire us to do good things to make the world a better place. But when a person prays, they aren't really doing much of anything. They're asking someone else to do something. And I'm not sure how much good the asking does, either. It seems to me that, in most cases, God was probably was already going to grant the blessing, or still won't, because He both knows and wants what's best for His children. God has probably already decided what blessings He will and won't grant, so our praying for blessings, either for ourselves or for others, doesn't do much to influence His decisions. So, praying for others doesn't do much good, and even if it does do good, we're not the ones that are doing it. So what gives? What does praying for others accomplish?

Several things. For starters, praying for the benefit of others may not be a sacrifice on our parts, and it certainly won't give us much experience with giving service, but it will help us learn compassion. When we pray for the welfare of others, we spend at least a little bit of time considering their needs. We also connect to God's love through prayer, so we can feel a bit of His love for them. These two factors work together to expand our hearts and help us become more charitable. Yet, that still doesn't help others directly.

But we can. Praying for others gives God the opportunity to tell us what they need and how we can help them. Often, we don't know exactly what we can do for a person, but if we pray for that person, God can respond by giving us a nudge in the right direction. When we pray for others, God sometimes answers by telling us what we can do for them.

Though, God does also occasionally answer prayers directly, just as we ask. For one reason or another, God has made some of His blessings contingent on asking for them. So, praying does, in some cases, unlock blessings that might not otherwise have been granted. Also, God has an amazing amount of power. He can do far more good in other's lives than we can. Enlisting God's help to bless someone might be the more effective thing we could do for them. Sure, we could bless them ourselves, and we still can, but if we can get God to bless them, that would be even better for them.

So, praying for others can have some practical benefits, both for ourselves and for those whom we ask God to bless. It still seems like an indirect and unreliable method of helping others, but it can do some good. And it doesn't take a lot of time or effort, either. Praying for someone can be quick and easy, but can still yield some positive results, like teaching us compassion, helping us learn how we can bless others, and possibly calling down the blessings of God. There may be more direct and impactful ways to serve others, but praying for them is an easy serve them, so I guess I'm glad that we were reminded and encouraged to do it.

Sort Of Technically Feeding the Hungry at the Last Minute

I didn't do well today.

Today, I had an opportunity to buy food for people, or at least to share the food I had with people, but I just didn't think of it. I forgot that the goal today was to feed the hungry, and I didn't recognise the opportunity until it had passed.

But they probably weren't all that hungry anyway. And, to make up for my missed opportunity and to make sure today counted, I donated a small amount of money to my ward's Fast Offering fund (Isn't the Internet awesome?), which will certainly go toward feeding, or clothing, or otherwise assisting people who could definitely use the help. That counts. I'm 6 for 7.

But still, throwing a few dollars at my church's poor fund, while admirable, isn't quite as satisfying as helping people directly, and I'm not sure it's as effective at making me more like Jesus Christ. Jesus helped people personally; He didn't hold a fund-raiser to raise money to help the poor through intermediaries. I'll count today because at least I did something, but I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Three Scriptures That Describe Me

One of the challenges of the day was to find three scriptures that represent me and to share them with someone close (or the entire Internet).

The first scripture that came to mind for me was Alma 26:12:

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I can definitely relate to the part about being weak, but I can also relate to the part about gaining strength from the Lord. I have been helped by God in my life frequently, and there have been many times when I was able to do something that I was only able to do because I had God's help.

Another scripture that I would like to use to describe me is Alma 53:20:

And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.

This verse refers to the 2000 stripling soldiers, whom I read about during a special 15-minute scripture study session this morning. Much of it clearly applies to me; I am a young man abundant in strength and activity. I also have some courage, or so I would like to believe. I'm not sure if I am always true in everything with which I am entrusted. I always try to be honest, but I am not always faithful in meeting my obligations, especially when those obligations are given to me rather than taken upon myself. If you give me a task, I might not do it (unless I work for you), but if I give myself a task, I'm far more likely to try to stick with it.

I'm not sure about a third verse. I've covered weakness, and I've mentioned the stripling soldiers. What else is there to me besides being a far-too-human paladin?

Mosiah 2:17

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.

I could stand to learn more wisdom, but more than that, this verse describes me because I have devoted a lot of myself to service. I regularly serve my fellow beings, and I frequently serve God. In fact, that's one of the reasons I occasionally feel weak: I'm not good at turning down opportunities to serve (though I sometimes wish I was). But service isn't a bad thing to be known for. I'm glad God reminded me of that scripture, rather than, say, Alma 12:14:

For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.

 Or Moroni 9:4:

Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.

Or basically any verse with the word "wo" in it.

Service can be tiring, frustrating, and discouraging, but it sure beats damnation. And I'd much rather be described as someone who gives too much service than as one who is doomed to be cast down to hell. There are worse scriptures, is what I'm saying.

I feel like those three scriptures, combined, describe me pretty well. I'm weak, except for when I get God's help. I'm young and active and physically strong, and generally a good person. And I give service. If you know of any verse of scripture that you think would describe me better than those first three do, feel free to suggest it in a comment, but until then, I think those may be the three verses of scripture which best describe me.

Character Test Cancelled

You know what? Not looking at the Light the World program ahead of time is a bad idea. Doing good is better than learning whether or not you would have done good anyway. Besides, what was I trying to prove, and to whom? My readers, some of whom know me quite well, already believe me to be a good person. And God already knows what kind of person I am, so testing myself on this challenge wouldn't really prove anything to Him.

I guess I was doing it for myself. I wanted measurable proof that I am a good person. That seems selfish of me, though it is important to have a good self esteem. Perhaps, rather than trying to prove to myself, with evidence, that I am a good person, I should just take your word for it. I'm not sure I would trust the evidence anyway, and I should also try to learn to trust your judgement. Besides, while it would be nice to have some evidence that I would be good just for the sake of being good, it would be even nicer to do good, even though I'm doing so partly just to participate in some seasonal program.

Not that it would've made much difference today. Today's goal was to heal the sick. I'm already an organ donor, I didn't really have time to donate blood today (though I could schedule an appointment for whenever I'll have time), and much of the rest of the suggestions for today seemed either too great to do (at least on short notice) or too small to be worth doing. I think I didn't quite cut it today. Four for Five. But I will make a conscious effort tomorrow, and I will start by acquainting myself with what I'm supposed to do.

I Will Fight the Dragon

I attended a church service in my area, and I can, right now, make a goal to kneel in prayer every day for the rest of December, so today was pretty easy. I'm four for four. But that's not really what I want to blog about right now.

Driving over to a friend's house, I told my passengers that I wasn't going to try to get into the narrow driveway that was flanked by a brick and iron fence. Specifically, I said, "I'm not going to try the driveway." One of my passengers misheard me and asked "What was that about a dragon?" Another passenger, running with the miscommunication, said "He's not going to fight the dragon," and then added "Some paladin." A third passenger then said, "He's a peaceful paladin."

The reason I wanted to share that exchange was to state, for the record, that that isn't true. I am not a peaceful paladin. I will fight the dragon. In fact, I fight him almost every day.

In Revelations, and perhaps a few other parts of scripture, the term "the dragon" is used to refer to Lucifer, who became Satan, the devil. At times, I would prefer for there not to be a connection between dragons and Satan, because dragons are awesome and I like them, and Satan is not awesome and I don't like him. In fact, I often wish he would go to hell and stay there.

But I don't have to merely wish that he would leave me alone; I can make him leave. I can fight his influence and keep him out of my mind. I may not be able to completely eliminate all temptations from my mind, and even if I could, he would always come back with new ones, but though my adversary is relentless, I can fight him, and I can keep fighting him. I can't slay the dragon, but I can keep him at bay. At the very least, I can certainly try.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to keep Satan from influencing my decisions. I'm going to fight the dragon as often as he comes at me. And if I keep fighting him, I am guaranteed to beat him. Because I am a Paladin, I will fight the dragon, and moreover, I am going to win.

Statistics Homework is Evil

I believe that a thing is evil if it persuades people to do evil. Earlier this evening, my statistics homework frustrated me to the point where I became angry and told my sister, easily one of the nicest people I know, to "shut up." My statistics homework, or the frustration and anger it caused, persuaded me to do evil, and thus proved to be evil. However, even with an evil influence in my life, I have the power to make my own choices, and I should have chosen to control my temper. I am sorry for how I acted and what I said, and it's unfortunate that I still have at least one page of statistics homework left to do, but though I will soon be exposed to evil again, I hope that it won't prove to be evil a second time. My statistics homework is only evil if I let it persuade me to do evil, and I don't intend to let that happen again.

Light the World - A Test of Character

On second thought, maybe I shouldn't go out of my way to try to Light the World. Maybe I should just go about my business, doing what I normally do, and see how many of the days I participate in without even trying. It might be a good test of character. How often do I do the things that we, as Christians, are supposed to do? Also, making note of which days I missed will give me some ideas of where I could improve (as if I needed more ideas of where I could improve).

Today was about honoring your parents. One of the suggestions was to call your parents, which I totally should have done, but I didn't. What I did do was spend all day with one of my parents, helping him with errands and a doctor's appointment.  Part of me thinks that that's nothing special because I do that almost every week, but another part of me thinks that that's special because I do it almost every week.

I'm discovering that service is part of my nature, both as part of my weekly schedule and as something I do impromptu when the opportunity comes up. Like a week ago, when a kid got a ball stuck in a tree, I didn't help him because I was supposed to; I helped him because I wanted to. I saw someone who could use help, and I just wanted to help.

This drive to help and serve others has gotten me into trouble a few times, and I sometimes wish my compulsion to service wasn't as strong as it is, but giving service is usually a good thing, and I do it rather often, so I can't be all bad.

Using the Light the World project as a test of character is a new idea, and I'm not fully committed to it, but it will be interesting to see which days I participate in naturally and which days I have to go out of my way to participate in. I'm two for two so far. Tomorrow is tainted as far as tests of character go because I saw that one of the suggestions is to help others see the virtues in them that they don't see in themselves, and now I'll never know if I'd have done that without hearing the suggestion. I'll do it anyway, of course, but I don't know if I should count it as something I would have done anyway. On the other hand, I did it today before learning that it was a suggestion for tomorrow. As with before, it just sort of came out naturally. I'm three for two, then, I guess.

But now I wonder, should I read the suggestions at the start of the day to make sure I participate, or should I wait until the end of the day to see if I participated without even trying to? Maybe I'll wait until the end of the day, check to see if I did it, and then, if I didn't, I'd go out of my way (if necessary) to make sure I do it the next day. For example, if I hadn't honored my parents today, I would go out of my way to honor them tomorrow. That might work. It's too late for me to do that tomorrow, but I might do it the next day. By not looking forward at the suggestions, I can make this test of character a true test.

I wonder how well I'll do. I'm doing well so far, but I wonder how long I can keep it up. I'm good at service, but I'm sure they'll test other Christlike attributes and behaviors as well. Still, I'm interested in seeing the results of this test. Therefore, I'm going to try to go into the test blind. Let's find out if I normally Light the World.

Coincidental Service

Today was the first day of the church's Light the World program, and today was all about service. If I had been super good and prepared and all that, I might have gone out of my way to do an extra act of service for someone, but that didn't happen. I didn't remember to do a special act of service today. However, I still did a small act of service for a friend.

I know a guy who runs a local card shop. Every so often, I hang out at that shop to join in conversation, play card games, and otherwise kill time while I wait for my bus. Lately, I've picked up a mini-project of sorting some of my friend's cards for him. Today, I cut up some index cards to make dividers to keep some his land cards organized. It wasn't much, and it wasn't planned, but I'd like to think that it was a kind gesture, and that maybe it was good enough to count as an act of service.

For the rest of December, I'm going to try to be more active in participating in the Light the World program. I won't promise to participate in the program every day, but I'll at least try to follow along with the program, and I probably will go out of my way to participate every so often, if only because it'll give me something to blog about, like it did today.

I didn't really plan on doing service today. It just sort of happened. Perhaps you, too, do service for others without even realizing it. It's in the nature of good people to be kind and helpful, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if many of you did service for others without really thinking about it. Today, I learned that it isn't always hard to do service for others, even when you're not even trying to.

I Am Not Ambitious

Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita gave a talk titled Be Ambitious for Christ, an admonition that he borrowed from Doctor William Clark. Since that's not an admonition we receive often, Elder Yamashita was kind enough to explain what he meant by that:

What does it mean to “be ambitious for Christ”? Being ambitious for Christ means being motivated, focused, and dedicated to His work. Being ambitious for Christ will seldom mean that we are singled out for public honor. Being ambitious for Christ means that we serve faithfully and diligently in our wards and branches without complaint and with joyful hearts.

Beside the part about not being singled out for public honor, there's not a lot in that description that I feel applies to me. I don't feel motivated or focused. Dedicated, maybe, but only to a certain extent, which may prove how little I know about the meaning of the word "dedicated." I serve faithfully, but not as faithfully or as diligently as I should. And though I rarely complain, it is also rare for me to feel joyful about my service. All in all, I'd say I match about 50% of Elder Yamashita's definition of "Ambitious for Christ."

Altogether, I'm not a highly ambitious person, and I wonder how strongly I should desire to change that. Practically all of the great men from history were ambitious, but I don't want to be great; I want to be good. Does one need to be ambitious to be good? I don't think so. Does one need to be ambitious to do good? Perhaps not, but I can see how it would help. In addition to being good for myself, I also want to do good for others. If being more ambitious would help me accomplish more good, then perhaps I should look into that.

Unfortunately, Elder Yamashita spent most of his talk sharing examples of people who were ambitious for Christ, and he didn't explain much, if anything, about how to become and remain ambitious. Maybe I could learn that elsewhere. In the meantime, perhaps I could fall back on the method of "faking it until you make it." I could merely try (or pretend) to be ambitious until I actually become ambitious and "trying" and "pretending" are no longer required.

Ambition is a personality trait that I don't feel that I possess, and I'm only barely convinced that I even want to possess it. Developing it might be tricky, but I think it might do me some good. A little bit of ambition can make everything else easier because it incorporates motivation, focus, and determination, along with other admirable traits. I think that I would like to become ambitious, especially for Christ. Now I just need to build up enough ambition to take the first steps to becoming ambitious.

The Unsealed Portion

At the beginning of Elder W. Mark Bassett's October 2016 talk, he talked about a model of the gold plates which he had when he was young. Both the model and the original had many metal pages with writing on them, some of which were sealed and thus impossible to read.

Now, I could spend a minute or so talking about what's written on the sealed portion of the plates, as we have been given a little bit of information about that, and Elder Bassett admitted to having been intensely curious about that sealed portion when he was young. But in his talk, Elder Bassett argued that more important than learning what's in the sealed portion is paying attention to the portion that isn't sealed. We have a lot of scripture available to us. We would do better to read and learn from the scripture we do have than speculate on what we might learn from the scripture we don't have.

Besides, in many of the places in the scriptures where we learn about the sealed portion of the scriptures, we are also told that there will come a time when all things will be revealed, including what's written in that part of the book. We don't need to know what's in the sealed portion just yet. When we do need to know, God will tell us.

In the meantime, it would be best for us to learn what we can from the rest of the scriptures. As long as we don't have access to the sealed portion of the scriptures, we might as well try to learn what we can from the unsealed portion. Elder Bassett confessed that, in his eagerness to see what was in the sealed part of his model scriptures, he completely ignored what was written in the unsealed part, and he urged us not to make the same mistake. The scriptures were given to us for our spiritual development and learning. Let us make good use of the scriptures we've been given, and not fret too much about the scriptures that we have yet to be given.

Giving Up On Working It Out

Try as I might, I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around the concepts of justice and mercy and God's infinite love and the importance of keeping the commandments. It seems that there are too many absolutes, too many unstoppable forces and immovable objects, and I have no idea how they all interact.

If justice was the only force involved, then we would all be in big trouble, because none of us could qualify for heaven by merit alone. We might as well not even try to be righteous, because we would always fail, and even one failing could damn you for eternity. However, if mercy was the only force, we still wouldn't need to try to be righteous, because it wouldn't matter whether we were righteous or not. If mercy completely overpowered justice in every situation, then no amount of sin could keep us from being forgiven. Yet, God's love is somehow reflected in both His justice and His mercy, and because both of those forces are in effect, it becomes imperative to strive to keep the commandments.

Actually, I think that part is starting to make sense to me. You see, if justice was the only force, our good behavior wouldn't matter because we'd be damned anyway, and if mercy was all that mattered, then our bad behavior wouldn't matter because we'd be forgiven anyway. But since the laws of justice are immutable, but can be satisfied by mercy on conditions of repentance, it becomes vital to repent and to keep the commandments because the fates of our souls depend on it. At the end of our final judgement, either justice or mercy will have the final say in how the rest of our lives will go, and our behavior now will determine which force has a greater effect on us then.

There's still a lot I don't understand about justice, mercy, love, and keeping the commandments. Thankfully, I don't need to work it all out. For now, I just need to keep the commandments and trust that it all will work out somehow. God knows how all these forces work, both individually and with each other. I just need to trust God and act according to the light and knowledge that I have. I don't need to figure out the laws of justice and mercy. I just need to be righteous and let God take care of the rest. When the time is right, He'll mete out justice and mercy as needed and deserved. To deserve as much mercy as possible, and need as little as possible, we don't really need to know anything about justice or mercy; we just need to strive for righteousness and trust in God's love. I can't work out the forces of the universe, but I think I can do that.

Team Robarts Rocks at Chair-Folding

I love my brothers. We work so well together. Our different strengths allow us to excel in a variety of situations, and our experience working together allows us to function well as a coordinated team.

Case in point, there was a fireside tonight, and, as usual, my brothers and I stayed together to put away the chairs afterwards. As Team Robarts, we knew the drill. The gold chairs went into a locked room on the stage and the brown chairs went onto carts that went under the stage. The first challenge was getting all the other volunteers on the same page. That was where I came in. I communicated the plan to the masses and got groups working on folding the chairs and getting them where they needed to be.

As for the actual execution of the plan, that largely rested on my younger brother. He was and is a powerhouse. His strength, speed, and ambition made it possible for him to work with extreme efficiency. I'm pretty sure he folded and carried more chairs than anyone else did tonight. He was a powerful and invaluable member of the team.

Meanwhile, my older brother was the brains of the outfit. He was the one who spotted problems and worked out solutions to them. He was a solid worker as well, folding and moving about as many chairs as anyone. His intelligence and wisdom kept the team running smoothly and made him a valuable member of the team as well.

There are other members of Team Robarts, and the team keeps growing every year. Each member of my family who was there this evening contributed to the chair-folding in their own way, and the each made Team Robarts stronger.

I love my family. I love that we have different and well-practised talents. I love that we work so well together in so many different situations. And though it may seem silly, when firesides end, one thing that makes me proud of my family is that we are really good at putting away chairs.

The Bucket by the Fireplace

Our ceiling has a leak in the roof near our fireplace. As a temporary solution to this problem, I put a bucket on the mantle under the leak. Even after a few days, and some overnight showers, the bucket has managed to catch all the water that leaks in through the roof. Feeling grateful for this, I noted that the bucket was doing its job even though the roof wasn't.

I should be more like that bucket: trustworthy, dependable, and diligent, even when others aren't. In life, there are many unfortunate circumstances, and it's easy to shift the blame when things go wrong. It's not the bucket's fault that the roof has a leak in it. However, in the end, it won't matter what caused the situations we find ourselves in. What'll matter is what we did when we were in those situations. The bucket proved faithful, even when place in unfortunate situations of others' makings. We should follow its example by also being faithful, not matter what circumstances we're in or how we came to be there.

See, Ask, Serve

This afternoon, I overheard some children ask their mom for help getting a ball out of a tree. Figuring that I would see if they needed help, I came over, and sure enough, the ball was out of the mother's reach. I asked them if they could use a hand, and when they accepted my offer, I borrowed a stick from one of the kids, jumped, and poked the ball out of the tree. Then, in response to their thanks, I answered with what is now my catchphrase, "That's what I'm here for."

Now, what I did was almost intrusive. In fact, I still feel like it was a little intrusive. After all, I had no idea who these people were, and they had no idea who I was. I was a stranger, lurking around a mom and her kids. But I stated my intentions, asked for their permission, and thus validated both my presence in their midst and my interaction with them.

I don't know how many of you have the same problem as I have, a compulsive habit of helping others, but if any of you suffer from that condition, just bear in mind that the people you feel compelled to serve might not actually want your help. They might be intimidated by you, and they may misinterpret your intentions, so it's important to state your intentions clearly and ask for people's permission before you jump in and serve them.

Service is good, but consent is important. Before you help someone, ask them if they want you to help them or at least if they're willing to let you help them. And ask them politely and respectfully, and back off if they say no. Otherwise, your pull toward their service might be seen as more creepy than helpful.

Just Thank Him and Use it Well

When I think about God's blessings to His children, particularly to me, I sometimes wonder how we can repay Him, and it frustrates me that we pretty much can't ever repay Him for what He does for us. No matter how much we do for Him, it will never measure up to what He does, or even has done, for us. Unfortunately for those of us who want to repay God, there's no really way for us to do that. All we can really do, and all He really wants or expect us to do, is thank God for the blessings He gives us and strive to use them well.

There's an analogy of a parent who buys piano lessons for their child. There's no way the child can repay their parent at their age. The parent asks their child to make use of the lessons by practising and playing the piano, but that doesn't put money back in their parent's pockets. All it means is that the child is making good use of the lessons their parent paid for.

Similarly, we can't offer God anything of equivalent value to the gifts He gives us, but we can thank Him for those gifts and use them as He would want us to. Doing so doesn't repay God in any way, but it does make His blessing us worth His while. So, this Thanksgiving, as you're expressing gratitude for the blessings in your life, also ask yourself how God would like you to use those blessings to bless others as well. Many blessings can be shared, and many others can be used in other ways. Though we can never repay God for the many blessings He gives us, but we can at least thank Him for them and pledge to use them well.

"If You Feel the Spirit..."

In response to yesterday's blog post, my sister shared many excellent scriptures and quotes which combined formed an excellent answer to many of my concerns. The most striking of these quotes came from Elder Tad R. Callister, and it's amazing enough that I just have to share it, even though Miriam already did.

If you feel the Spirit—when you pray, read the scriptures, teach, testify, or at any other time—then that is your witness that you have been forgiven or, alternatively, that the cleansing process is taking place, for the Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy tabernacle.

 That is an amazing thing to hear a general authority say. There have been many, many times when I have sinned and felt unworthy, and I usually pray to God in those moments, apologizing yet again for my weakness, and telling Him that I wouldn't blame Him if He gave up on me. But each time I do that, I feel His Spirit assure me that He hasn't given up on me yet, and now I know that even just feeling the Spirit at all is proof of that glorious reality. God doesn't give up on people nearly so readily as He forgives them, and feeling the Spirit is an excellent indicator that, despite everything, you're still on the right track, that your past is not your future, and that God is still pulling for you, just as He always has been.

Thank you, Miriam, for sharing that quote with me. It is definitely a message worth sharing.

More Than Was Asked and Asking for More

While I was riding the train home today, someone asked me for money. He asked someone else first, but they turned him down. I felt some pity for him, so, being a sucker generous person, I gave him some money. He wasn't asking for much. I gave him a little more than he had asked for and thought he would be satisfied. But before I even got off the train, I heard him ask someone else for money as well.

I felt a bit miffed as I got off the train. I felt like I had been duped and cheated. I thought about the kind of people who make pan-handling their profession, and I felt annoyed and a bit guilty that I'd had a hand in enabling that kind of lifestyle.

But as I got closer to home, I thought about what lessons I might learn from this experience, besides reluctance to give money to a pan-handler again, and it quickly dawned on me that I'm not much better.

I frequently turn to the Lord for blessings, and He regularly gives me more than I ask for or deserve, yet I always want more. More blessings, more patience, more mercy. I wonder if God ever gets tired of helping an unprofitable and insufficiently grateful servant like me. What worries me is that He probably does. He probably does get tired of continually helping people who just take advantage of Him, and I really can't blame Him for feeling that way.

So, I'm going to try to be more grateful and stay generous. I need a lot of blessings from God; it wouldn't be right of me to be stingy with my charity to others. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm going to hand out insane amounts of money to people on the streets. God frequently withholds such blessings from people, and with good reason. But I'll try to be less grumpy when I'm called upon to serve others, because God already gives me even more than I ask for, so I kind of owe it to Him to give what He asks of me, and maybe then some.

Justice, Mercy, and Ceasing to be God

I want to explore the concepts of justice and mercy and ceasing to be God. A few days ago, I noted that Alma chapter 42 mentions the possibility of God ceasing to be God, and I kept a tab open on that chapter because I thought it might be able to shed some insight on what conditions might cause that to happen. As it turns out, three verses do:

Verse 13 . . . Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

Verse 22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

Verse 25 What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.

So, God would cease to be God if the work(s) of justice was/were destroyed, or if justice was robbed by mercy. But what does that mean for justice and mercy?

I can understand justice being one of those eternal laws that even God Himself could not break (without dire consequences). Mercy cannot rob or destroy justice. However, in Alma 34: 15-16, we learn that mercy can "overpower" and "satisfy the demands" of justice:

And thus he [Christ] shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.

Mercy cannot destroy justice, but it can overpower it. Mercy cannot rob justice, but it can satisfy its demands. Am I the only one who's somewhat confused by this? I am sure I am not the only one to ask how justice and mercy are supposed to work, and I'm sure that someone who is smarter and/or more spiritual than I am, who asked the question before I did, has already found a satisfactory answer.

Perhaps I could find the answer through a more thorough reading of Alma 42 or by reading Elder Dalin H. Oaks' talk Love and Law. Someone must know something about how justice and mercy interact, other than that they destroy or demote God if they interact badly. I look forward to learning more about this topic in the near future. But in the meantime, I'll just be grateful that God knows how it all works, and that He knows that, ultimately, everything will work out. I don't really need to know the details, but I plan to study them later anyway, just because I'm curious. And who knows? Maybe I'll find or learn something important, or at least noteworthy and blogworthy, in my search to find out more about justice, mercy, and how God could cease to be God.

Sharpening the Axe

Several days ago, my mom told me a story that I think she said she heard in a General Conference talk. In this story, two men were chopping down trees with axes. The burlier of the two worked relentlessly, ceaselessly hacking down tree after tree, while the more wiry man took breaks periodically, but at the end of the day, the wiry man had cut down more trees than the burly man had. The burly man asked how the wiry man had managed to cut down so many trees despite taking all those breaks. The wiry man explained that he spent those breaks sharpening his axe.

Taking occasional breaks is a good way to refresh one's energy, especially if he or she spends that down time making sure their tools are sharp. My mom and the person from whom she heard this story went on to say that, in this case, sharpening the axe was an analogy for studying the scriptures and praying to God. Doing these things help us to be more capable, and they elicit God's help in our endeavours. Basically, when we take the time to read our scriptures and say our prayers, everything else goes more smoothly.

I could really benefit from taking this advice. I could use more down time, and if I spend it doing something that helps me more than just resting does, that'd be even better. I often find myself feeling like I need more time and energy, but maybe what I really need is to use my time and energy more efficiently, and one way I could do that is by investing some time into my spiritual upkeep. At the very least, it would help me have the Spirit with me more, which could help me manage my stress. It'd probably help me in other areas of my life, too. At any rate, it's worth a shot. I need rest, but my rest time might be even more effective if I spend some of it sharpening my axe.

Cutting Back on Commitments

I feel like I would do well to uncomplicate my life. I have to many obligations to too many people / groups. Frequently, my obligations come into conflict with each other, if for no other reason than that I lack the time and energy to keep them all. When that happens, I have to choose which obligations to keep and which obligations to break, and for someone who wants to be like a Paladin, the idea of breaking any commitment is a terrible one.

I would like to do all the things I'm supposed to do. I would like to be able to. I wish I had enough time, energy, and will-power to meet all my commitments. But I don't. Maybe I could, if I had better time-management skills, or simply more skill in general, but I don't. And I need to accept that I might just not be able to complete all my homework or do all my chores. It's not the end of the world. (Especially if all of my homework assignments combined only make up about 12% of my grade in that class, in which I am doing rather well. I can afford to lose a few points for an incomplete homework packet.)

So, I understand that I may need to make cuts, and it might even be okay for me to make a few cuts, but how do I decide what to cut and what not to cut? Which obligations can I afford not to meet? Not spending hours completing the last few pages of statistics homework might not have too bad of an effect on my grade, and the floor might be able to go without sweeping for another few days, but I really do need to practice my persuasive speech for my public speaking class (that's worth a few more points than my statistics homework), and, of course, my religious obligations are inviolable.

But which of my obligations count as religious ones? I have to keep my covenants, and I have covenanted to obey the commandments, and we have all been commanded to magnify our callings, which can include any number of obligations. Beyond the magnification of my callings (which is challenging enough), there are countless commandments, including several daily and weekly obligations which can take up several hours each week. Even just considering the religious obligations, there may be too much.

I need to cut back. I need to stop making so many promises. I need to stop holding myself to so many commitments. It sounds horrible, but it may be necessary for my emotional health. I need to not try to do so much. If I had fewer, easier homework assignments; fewer, easier callings; fewer family members to serve; and fewer commandments to keep, I might be able to do it all. But I don't, and I can't. Something has to give. But what can I give? What can I afford not to do when I have too many things that I have to do? Which, of my too-many-commitments-to-even-keep-track-of, can I afford not to keep?

God Is Not Omnipotent

In my notes on Elder D. Todd Christofferson's October 2016 talk, I go off on a mini-tangent about how God is not actually omnipotent. Here are two examples, taken from said talk:

"God will always love us, but He cannot save us in our sins."

"Indeed, God does rain down upon all His children all the blessings He can—all the blessings that love and law and justice and mercy will permit."

It's odd to think that there is anything that God cannot do. I'm so used to thinking of Him as omnipotent that the idea of Him having limitations, inabilities, seems impossible. But I believe that there are laws which govern the universe, much like the laws of physics do, which God literally cannot break.

Heck, I'm not even sure He can break the laws of physics. Whenever He seems to, it could simply be that we don't fully understand the laws of physics and that He's using a special trick we haven't figured out yet. I'm sure that if we went back to the 1700s and told people that we'd figure out a way to keep huge, metal contraptions in the air for hours at a time, they'd tell us that that defies the law of gravity. But this is all beside the point.

There may be Eternal laws, like the law of justice, which God cannot break. Or, it may be that, if God did break such a rule, He would "cease to be God," which possibility is hinted at in Alma 42. It could be that God could break some of those "Eternal laws," like the law of justice, but He would face consequences if He did. Which means, at the very least, that He cannot escape the consequences of doing something that He may or may not be able to do. Any way you look at it, if any of this is true, God's power is limited.

Yet, I think I can be okay with that. It's still true that God has great power, even if He doesn't technically have all power. And His limitations don't detract at all from His other traits. He can still be omniscience, for example. And any reference to God as being "almighty" could be a slight exaggeration, as the few things He may not be able to do are things He probably wouldn't want to do anyway. Besides, in terms of this universe, God is powerful enough that we could consider Him all-powerful, and we'd be close enough to being right, even if it's not technically true. Calling God omniscient may be like saying that pi is equal to 3.14159265359. Technically, the digits go on much longer, so that figure isn't perfectly accurate, but still, it's close enough.

So God may not be omnipotent. There may be some things He can't do. But that's okay. God's supposed omnipotence is not part of His core identity. I don't consider Him any less godly for having a few limitations. And I am sure that God still has all the power He needs to keep His promises and do almost anything else He could ever want to do. It was surprising to realize that God may not be omnipotent, but His non-omnipotence doesn't really matter. God is still God, whether He's omnipotent or not.

A Power in the Book

In Elder Gary E. Stevenson's October 2016 talk, he spoke of the Book of Mormon. In doing so, he shared a partial quote from President Ezra Taft Benson of thirty years prior. Titled The Book of Mormon—Keystone of Our Religion, President Benson's talk included the following paragraph:

It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.

Both Elder Stevenson and President Benson listed many more blessings that come from studying the Book of Mormon. In truth, there are countless blessings that can come from reading it. I should do that more often. And Elder Stevenson gave me a no-excuses suggestion for how I could. He noted how much time young people, like myself, spend in front of TV, Smartphone, and computer screens, and he recommended spending 10 fewer minutes pursuing electronic entertainment and spending 10 more minutes pursuing the blessings of the Book of Mormon. I've decided to renew my decision to follow that advice. Starting tonight, I'm going to try to go to bed a bit earlier and spend a few minutes reading the Book of Mormon when I get there. I'm not sure what all blessings I'll get through doing that, and I'm not even sure what all blessings I want to get from it, but I know that there are many blessings that one could get from studying the Book of Mormon, and I intend to get a few of them.

Universal Values

In his recent talk, Elder Cook spoke of how difficult it is to establish universal values about proper behavior, particularly when there are so many conflicting thoughts on the subject. As part of an exploration of those thoughts and others, I have been watching a Youtube series called Crash Course: Philosophy. (This is where I learned about the Euthyphro Problem that I blogged about a while back.) While watching this series, I've learned that the are many, many different ways of thinking, and there are great merits to most of them. Many of them seem reasonable and almost convincing, which is troubling because, as Elder Cook said, many of them conflict with each other.

I think it would be nice if everyone believed in God and His teachings (and interpreted those teachings in the same way) so we could establish some universal values and a common moral code. But that's not the way God made the world, and that's not the way He made us. He sent us to Earth with blank slates, so to speak, to figure out what we can on our own and to learn how to learn from revelation. He also gave us the freedom to believe what we wish to believe and reject the beliefs that we wish to reject. Still, I believe that God's values are universally applicable, whether they're universally accepted or not.

The world we live in is a tricky one, mostly because most people behave according to different sets of moral rules. Sure, it would be nice if everyone would accept the same values, but what we value is part of what makes us unique as individuals. We each have our own beliefs about what we and others ought to do, and that can be a beautiful thing, assuming we can all still manage to work together most of the time. None of the values a person cherishes may be universally accepted, but many core values are widely accepted, such as the values of freedom and of life. Perhaps if we, as individuals and as societies, placed more emphasis on these core values than we place on some of the less widely accepted ones, we could get more people to accept those values until they become truly universal. Elder Cook said that it is hard to establish universal values, but he didn't say it was impossible. If we all accept a set of values, and encourage others to do the same, perhaps they could become universal values.

"If I Die Tonight..."

This afternoon, an elderly lady handed me a card which reads "'If I die tonight, my soul will be in H__________ tomorrow morning!' If you are not sure, visit the website on the other side of this card!" I have no intentions of visiting the website on the back of the card, but I thought that the question raised by the card was worth considering. How sure am I that I would go to heaven if I were to die right now?

Before having heard Elder Cornish's talk, I don't think I would have been sure at all, and even now, I'm not completely sure. Everyone sins occasionally, and I try to repent continually, which should answer the "will I make it" question, but I can't say whether or not I rationalize or rebel. Doing either of those things could be a deal-breaker, and I'm not 100% sure how those terms are defined. Elder Cornish never made it clear. But from what I gathered, rationalization and rebellion basically both mean saying "I don't need to keep trying to get better." As long as we acknowledge our need for spiritual improvement, and keep trying to act on that need, we should be alright.

It's hard to imagine getting into heaven being that easy. All we have to do is keep trying, and not claim that we don't have to keep trying? It seems too good to be true. But, if I'm interpreting Elder Cornish's message correctly, it is true, and we can be certain of entering the Celestial Kingdom as long as we're pointed in that direction. That kind of confidence is something we should all strive for. Even in this world of uncertainty, God's laws are constant, and if we obey them, the outcome is sure. We can become sure that we will go to heaven when we die, and we don't have to visit BBNradio.org to gain that surety.

Stumbling Blocks Into Stepping Stones

One of the best things about the gospel, which Elder Cook mentioned in his talk, is that God can turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones. The things that are currently holding us back can be used to propel us forward. This is largely done by our overcoming our obstacles. If, say, a person struggles with strong feelings of anger, God can help them overcome that emotion and actually grow to become an especially patient person. Similarly, any vice we struggle with can be used as training weights to help us develop its opposing virtues.

There are certainly some vices you struggle with. Use them. Use your vices as opportunities to develop the opposite traits. God will help you. With His help, you can grow beyond the point of merely overcoming a vice to the point where you possess a good measure of the opposite strength. Those who are selfish can become generous. Those who are proud can become humble. Those who are miserable can become joyful. Working on overcoming your challenges will make you a better person. By helping you recognize and overcome your stumbling blocks, God will help you take the steps you need to take in order to come closer to Him.

The Power Pole Perspective

In the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2016 General Conference,  Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke of a power pole on his father's ranch. This power pole was given a rather prominent position in the center of one of the main vistas of the ranch. Elder Cook noted this to his father, complaining that the power pole ruined the view. His father replied "Quentin, that power pole is the most beautiful thing to me on the entire ranch!" He then explained that the power pole meant that we wouldn't have to light candles or oil lamps and that he could use electricity to cook his food and pump water to the cabin. That power pole was a reminder of his blessings, which is probably a big part of why he said "I want to see that power pole right in the middle of the view window."

We, too, have things that seem unpleasant to us, but which bring great blessings. Many of our trials meet that description, as do some of our callings and/or service opportunities. These things are ultimately of great benefit to us, but temporally, they seem to merely get in the way. Instead of seeing our trials as eyesores spoiling our views of life, we can use them as reminders of the blessings we have that make life easier. Seeing our trials as blessings, or at least as means by which we can obtain blessings, can help us improve our attitudes about them.

Since we are all going to have trials and obstacles in our lives anyhow, it is a good idea to find ways to look at them more favorably and to learn to see them from a more positive perspective, thinking not of how ugly they are or how much they get in the way, but of how beneficial they are and how many blessings they bring into our lives. No one is exempt from trials. We will all have power poles on our ranches. However, those power poles and the energy they bring into our lives can be wonderful things. We just need to practice looking at them that way, so we can improve our perspectives and see our trials in a more positive light. Elder Cook's father had the right idea. Rather than focussing on the negative things in our lives, we need to focus on the positive things they bring into our lives, so we can be grateful, even for the power poles that spoil our vistas.

Guilt Isn't Gas - What Is?

In the concluding talk of the Saturday Morning Session of the October 2016 General Conference, Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke of the limitations of guilt:

Guilt has an important role as it awakens us to changes we need to make, but there are limits to how far guilt will help us.

Guilt is like a battery in a gasoline-powered car. It can light up the car, start the engine, and power the headlights, but it will not provide the fuel for the long journey ahead. The battery, by itself, is not sufficient. And neither is guilt.

But what is? I understand that feeling guilty will only get a person so far. To experience enduring change, a person needs something else. But what? If guilt is the battery, what is the gas?

It must be some motivating force, since it provides the fuel to drive change. It must be powerful enough to actually bring about change. And its effects have to be long-term, since a lack of longevity was the main problem Elder Andersen had with guilt.

There are many feelings and conditions that could meet those criteria. Of those many, the first two that come to mind are duty and love. Our duty to God can compel us to repent of our sins and endure on His path, while our love of God can make us want to repent and follow Him, even to the ends of the earth. Of these two, I think that love makes a better "gas," but I would think that either one, or any combination of the two, would work.

There are other forms of spiritual gasoline, I'm sure. If you find that a sense of duty isn't very compelling, or that your love for God isn't strong enough to bring about the changes you know you need to make, perhaps you need to find another form of fuel. God can help you do that, if you want Him to. We're a long way away from where we need to be; we're going to need some kind of fuel to get us there.

But more to the point that Elder Andersen was trying to make, guilt is not the fuel that we need. It may help motivate us at first, but it won't make for good motivation forever. Either it'll stop working on us, or we'll get sick of it and reject it. We need a fuel that we won't grow to resent. In that case, duty may not be the best answer, but perhaps love is.

Whatever fuel we end up relying on, it'll have to be something that can last. It'll have to be something that sticks with us, something we can refresh regularly. It'll have to be something strong enough to motivate us, but something that doesn't leave a bad taste in our mouths. Guilt doesn't work for that because it's a negative emotion; it wouldn't be healthy to use guilt as our motivation constantly. The same goes for any negative emotion, and it may extend to duty as well, depending on how you feel about it. Love is a good motivator, but it may not be the only one. Find a fuel that works for you, and that keeps working for you, and use that as your motivation.

We all need some kind of motivation to help us make the changes we need to make, and since we can't make all those changes overnight, we're going to need a motivator that'll last. Guilt doesn't meet that requirement, so we're going to need some other fuel that does.