Leaving Paradise

This morning, I submitted my paper about leaving paradise. I wrote about how Adam and Eve had to leave the paradise of Eden in order to make progress toward the paradise that God has promised to all those who live faithfully. In our own way, we all have to do this. We all have to leave one paradise in order to progress toward another. We cannot make any progress if we comfortably remain where we are.

Granted, I'm not suggesting that we all currently live in paradises. Some people are between paradises right now. Some people are searching for any kind of paradise at all. Perhaps we can help them by leading them to any of the paradises we have found, by sharing with them any of the blessings we have found and teaching them how they can gain those blessings for themselves.

That said, some paradises are better than others, so while we try to lead people to better places than where they are now, we should also acknowledge that there are better places yet to find, and we often have to leave the comfort of where we are now in order to reach the potential of where we can be. The paradises we have already found are good, but we have to leave them behind us in order to find the paradises that are even better.

Progress is Important

This morning, I worked on a paper on a very blogworthy topic, but I don't want to blog about it too specifically until I submit the paper, out of a risk of an accusation of self-plagiarizing. For now, I'll simply say that it's important to keep making progress. No matter how good your current situation is (physically, spiritually, economically, or in any other way), it could always be better. Yet, your situation can't get better unless you're willing to put in the work to change it and move forward. Stagnation is damning, at least in the literal sense of the word. So, if we are to pursue eternal progress, we should develop in mortality the habit of continually striving to make progress. We should continue to try to become better in every important way. We should grow comfortable with the cycle of making an attempt, receiving feedback, gaining wisdom, and making another, better practiced, more wise attempt.

Progress is important. It's important to keep striving to make progress in important ways rather than letting ourselves stagnate.

Correcting a Dumb Mistake

Seven years and almost two months ago, I made a dumb mistake that I thought I had learned from, but about a week ago, I made a similar mistake, with a similar result. People learn slowly. Sometimes, people need to "learn" a lesson several times before it really sinks in. Still, I think I have learned something from that experience and in the intervening years. Whereas I had previously been somewhat content to accept the consequences of my dumb mistake, I now sought to correct the mistake almost immediately after repeating it. I did almost everything in my power to correct my mistake, including acquiring the necessary tools and seeking professional help when the tools proved insufficient. I now feel a lot better, and I also feel more confident in my willingness and ability to solve problems instead of simply living with them. I've become far more proactive than I was back then, and I'm glad it only took me two dumb mistakes and a week of clogged ears to learn that.

Defining and Achieving Success

Earlier today, I wrote a short essay about someone who achieved a good deal of success by staying true to their vision and by having their own idea of what success meant to them. See, we don't all have to have the same goals. Some people want to gain money or muscle mass, some people want to lose weight or bad habits, and some people want to gain friends or a set of collectible items. People have different goals. And when people accomplish any of their various goals, they can say that they were successful, at least at accomplishing that goal.

Now, there are multiple keys to accomplishing one's goals, but the one I want to focus on right now is the importance of maintaining focus. In order to reach a destination, you need to have a destination in mind and take steps that get you closer to it, but that's only possible so long as you remember where you're going. People get lost without landmarks to follow. Granted, one's habits can carry them for a while, but without a clear goal in mind, it's possible to run out of the motivation to maintain those habits. By keeping your focus on your goal, you can guide yourself and motivate yourself to take the steps that will get you closer to achieving your goal.

I'm glad I was able to learn and write about such an insightful person today. I'm grateful for the reminder of how we can define our own success and how we can achieve it. And I'm glad that I know what goals I'm striving for and that I'm motivated to take the steps to get there.

Letting it Go

They say that only takes offense when no offense was meant, and that those who take offense when offense is meant are even greater fools. I might expand this bit of wisdom to include other negative emotions, like anger and frustration. Often, those who frustrate us don't intend to, and thus should be forgiven, and those who do intend to anger or frustrate others don't deserve the satisfaction of succeeding. No matter what the sources of our hard feelings meant or didn't mean, we should try to let go of such negative feelings as quickly as possible. Either to forgive those who intended no wrong or to spite the trolls who attempt to provoke us, the best course of action is to let it go.

Do We Need Recreation?

Every day, we make decisions about how we spend our time. Of the infinite ways we can spend our time, I believe that most of those ways can be sorted into the three broad categories of Work, Rest, and Recreation.

Naturally, we have to spend some of our time doing the necessary work, and of course, our minds and bodies need adequate rest, but I wonder if the third category, recreation, is also important. I'd like to argue that it is, because I like recreation, but I'm really not sure.

One could argue that there are psychological benefits to recreation, perhaps even essential ones, but I don't know how essential those benefits are. It's possible that we need recreation as much as we need work and rest. Or maybe we don't actually need recreation at all.

Regardless, I think it's important that we spend at least some of our time with recreation, if only for our own enjoyment. Human happiness is important, and recreation makes people happy. I think that's enough reason to fit some recreation into our daily schedules, even if we don't technically need to do it.

Using Tools Poorly

The back of a box of Walgreens brand Double-Tip Cushioned Cotton Swabs (Q-Tips, basically) reads, in part, "CAUTION: DO NOT ENTER EAR CANAL. USE ONLY AS DIRECTED." This box of "Double-Tip Cushioned Cotton Swabs" was one of the aforementioned, hope-bringing tools I acquired recently to help me solve the problem of having clogged ears.

However, I will no longer be using them for that purpose because, despite the amount of earwax they were able to remove, I'm concerned that they also pushed earwax further into my ears, where it causes the clogging condition I was trying to cure. Frankly, using these cotton swabs to try to clean my ears was probably doing more harm than good, and I will now stick to using the "Earwax Removal Aid" solution as closely to "as directed" as I can manage.

In life, we are given many tools, all of which are wonderfully useful, if we use them correctly. There are many good ways to use these tools, and also many ways to misuse them. It is our job to learn to be careful with how and when we use each tool. Thankfully, some of them come with instructions, and God gives us directions for how to use others. Other tools, we can figure out by being prudent and listening to sound advice, including the warning labels on the backs of the boxes. With wisdom and good judgment, we can learn to use our tools well.

I regret having used my tools poorly, and I hope that I haven't caused too much harm to myself. I still have high hopes that this problem is merely temporary, especially if I use my tools more wisely from now on.

A Less-Than-Fantastic Day

Today wasn't necessarily an especially fantastic day. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't a bad day. It just wasn't a great day, either. I didn't get done everything I wanted to get done. I didn't have much fun. It wasn't satisfying. Except...

I got to help I few people. That's what I do. I help people. And the handful of people who came to me for tutoring got the help they came for. I can be satisfied with that, I think. Sure, today wasn't a great day, but I got to help a few people, and I can be satisfied with that. After all, it's what I'm here for.

I'm glad that I was able to help a few people today, and I'm glad that I'll be able to help a few people tomorrow and the day after that. So, in a sense, today was a decent day after all. And as long as I can keep going and keep helping people, I can always hope for a better day tomorrow.

Tools Bring Hope

This morning, I awoke with a minor issue which, at the time, seemed far more major than it seems now. I suppose the difference is that now, I have the tools I need to deal with the problem, and I'm confident that to problem won't last much longer. Given that the issue is soon to be resolved, it no longer seems like as big of an issue as it seemed when I first encountered the issue. I'm no longer worried because I now have hope.

Problems seem smaller when we have the tools to deal with them, so I'm glad I was able to find good tools to help me deal with this issue.

A Balance of Focus

Today, I was talking to someone about some life advice she had read. The basic gist of the advice seemed to be that we should figure out how much pain we're willing to suffer for the sake of our goals and only pursue goals for which we are willing to suffer. The person I was talking to had some different ideas about good life advice. Specifically, she said that we should focus on our goals and use our desire to reach our goals help us muscle through the pain that is necessary to achieve them.

In my opinion, there's some truth to both of them. If you want to climb a mountain, but there are rocks and trees and bushes between the mountain and you, you shouldn't be so concerned with the rock and trees and bushes that you lose sight of the mountain and veer off course, but at the same time, you shouldn't focus so hard on the mountain that you ignore, and run into, the rocks and trees and bushes between you. There has to be a balance of focus. We shouldn't get so caught up in the drudgery of our daily tasks that we lose sight of our ultimate goal, and we shouldn't get so caught up in the dream of our ultimate goal that we neglect the daily tasks that'll get us there.

While the advice she had heard had some merit, the person I was talking to had the better advice. Instead of focusing on the necessary, painful work we have to do or neglecting the work in favor of dreaming of our goal, we should use our goal and our desire to achieve it to motivate us to take on the work we have to do to accomplish our goal.

The goal must not be forgotten, and the work must not be neglected. We need to balance our focus between both.

Two (Or More) Wolves

I assume we've all heard the idea about having two wolves inside of us, one good, one evil, both fighting for control. The winner in this conflict, according to the parable is "the one you feed," but as I've thought about this idea, I've come to the conclusion that it applies to far more than just two "wolves." 

I believe that we can, theoretically, feed or starve any part of our inner selves. We can feed or starve habits, attitudes, and personality traits that, by themselves, are neither good nor evil or that can be good in moderation but would be evil in deficiency or excess. For example, we can make ourselves more or less loyal as a general trait, and whether that loyalty is part of the good wolf or the evil wolf depends largely on who or what we're loyal to and what that loyalty drives us to do.

Each human being has a myriad of habits, attitudes, and traits, and each of them can be fed or starved individually by focusing on them specifically. While our individual life choices and trajectory can be simplified into the categories of good and evil, it can also be far more complex than that. We can work toward specific, personalized goals, rather than a general desire to be more good and less evil.

For the sake of the conceptualizing parable, it seems reasonable to focus on two individual wolves, but it may be slightly more accurate to say that there are whole packs of wolves inside of us, and we can decide, individually, which wolves we starve or feed.

The Great Outdoors

Today, I had a picnic with my family, and it was great. The food and the company were both wonderful. But the thing I loved most about the picnic was that it got me to spend a great deal of time outside.

I don't normally spend much time outside. I sunburn easily, and thanks to the digital age (and the pandemic) taking my classes and my tutoring work both online, I hardly need to go outside at all, even for commuting. And sure, I take the dog for walks occasionally, and I still go to church and to my D&D games, but other than that, I typically stay indoors.

Except today. And today was the perfect day for it. Sure, the wind was a bit much part of the time, but the wind died down, temperature stayed cool, and there was plenty of shade. There were lots of trees, and I got to take a moment to listen to the breeze pass through the leaves and to just breathe. It was great.

And that wouldn't have happened if I spent the whole time on my phone or if I was just passing through the outside world because I had somewhere else to be.

I'm glad that I got to spend several refreshing hours outside today, and the food and family were great, too.

"...And Those Who Prepared It"

When we pray to ask God to bless food, we often also ask Him to bless those who prepared the food. However, there is one main exception to this traditional practice. We don't usually as God to bless those who prepared the food when "those who prepared the food" are ourselves. Case in point, when I ask God to bless my breakfast, I always ask God to bless whomever prepared my breakfast, unless that person is me.

I wonder why that is. We don't generally have any trouble asking for blessings for ourselves under other circumstances, and we have no trouble at all asking God to bless other food-preparers. I suppose it could be a form of humility, not insisting on being blessed for our efforts, but there are ways to humbly request the sorts of blessings that such service normally affords those who perform it. When people attend service projects, the person offering the invocation or benediction generally prays for all of the participants to be blessed, including themselves. And when multiple people work together to prepare a meal, the person who prays over the meal generally asks God to bless all those who prepared it, even if they were one of them. We have no trouble asking for blessings for ourselves in personal prayers, and we have no trouble asking God to bless us as part of a group, but we don't normally ask God to bless us individually when we are praying on behalf of a group, even when we would request such a blessing on a different individual, had they been the sole preparer of the meal.

I would guess that we feel a social faux pas in requesting blessings for ourselves while speaking on behalf of others. I can mostly understand that. But at the same time, if we would have asked God to bless those who prepared the food if they weren't us, why would we hesitate to ask God to bless "those who prepared the food" when that's us? I don't see that as selfishness, but as consistency and perhaps as an acknowledgement that something good has been done (by us). Humility doesn't, or shouldn't, require us to disregard the facts or sweep ourselves under the rug.

We can honestly, truthfully acknowledge when we do something good, and we can acknowledge that God typically blesses those who do good. When we prepare food, for ourselves or for others, I personally see no convincing reason why we shouldn't ask God to bless us.

A Wise Use of Resources

For my Business class, I recently wrote about how businesses that want to help others are best off donating money to the charities that help others, rather than trying to help others directly. My argument was that the businesses don't always know the best ways to help people, since they focus on improving their product or service and maintaining decent profits. Non-profit organizations, meanwhile, focus on helping others. Non-profits don't always have enough resources, and for-profits don't always have the right ideas, but together, they can do great things.

Most of us have good intentions, but we don't always know what's best. That's why we should listen to people who are wiser than we are, who understand the situation better than we do, and consider following their advice. We may have all the resources we need to do the right thing, but that won't help us much while we're still struggling to figure out what the right thing to do is. If we listen to the right people, we can put our time, energy, and other resources to better use than we could if we wasted time and energy trying to figure it out on our own. It's better to listen to the people who have devoted their lives to figuring this out and who seem to know a lot better than we do.

Morality vs Illegality

When I'm not completely swamped with homework and other responsibilities, I like to run a D&D game for myself, wherein I play the role of both the DM and the only player. I've been told that this is called "writing a book," and I disagree. Actually writing a book requires more planning and revision, and fewer dice. I let the dice and my own whims decide how the stories play out, and I make it up as I go, writing only as much as is needed to keep the story moving forward. And at the moment, the story is moving in a pretty interesting direction.

The main character of this story is Mialee (Mia for short, but it's pronounced like Maya). Mia is a princess, and she's currently trying to track down someone who was kidnapped by dark mages. Dark magic is illegal in this setting, but other forms of magic are not, so the mages can maintain the appearance of legality so long as they're careful with where and how they practice their dark magic. Apparently, these particular dark mages have been especially careful, as the dice rolled in their favor several times in a row, and it was determined that, while we suspect them of the kidnapping (and they are, in fact, the perpetrators), there's not enough evidence to convict them, and they are legally untouchable.

Yet, a person has been kidnapped, and they need saving. Mia knows who did it, she knows where the captive is being kept, and, whether her actions are legal or not, she's going to do something about it.

Frankly, I'm not sure whether or not I condone this behavior. On the one hand, I'm far more aligned with Good than I am with Lawfulness. People should always do what's right, and people should usually obey the law. On the other hand, if those who are supposed to enforce the law don't obey the law themselves, then we have a serious problem. Law enforcement should operate within their legal bounds, even if that means letting the bad guys get away. But then again, that would open the door to more people being victimized. In this current case, it would mean letting a kidnapping victim remain a captive until they can be liberated legally, however long that'll take. Mia knows that what she's doing is illegal, and she's prepared to face the consequences, but she also believes that what she's doing is right, and I think, at least in this case, I agree with her.

Moral questions can get very difficult when the laws of morality and the laws of the land disagree. Sometimes, the right choice is obvious, like when the law of the land requires you to do something especially evil. In such cases, it becomes morally evil to obey the law. But there are also difficult cases, where it's not as clear whether the right choice is to do good or to obey the law.

If you could help someone, but you would have to break the law to do it, would you? Would it matter how much good you could do? Would it matter how serious of a crime it would be? Mia is willing to trespass (both literally and against the law) to save someone who has been kidnapped. Would you or I be willing to do the same? Should we be? In such a situation, what is the right thing to do?

Building on the Past

Today, I got a chance to reflect on how written language has helped civilization grow. We all have a certain amount of knowledge. By writing our knowledge down, we can share it with each other and record it for future generations. That's what our ancestors did. Because they shared their knowledge and wisdom with us, we don't have to start from scratch. Instead, we can build on what they gave us and advance human knowledge and wisdom even further. Because of the knowledge that our generations discovers, future generations will have an even stronger starting point, and the knowledge they gain will go on to benefit their children.And as long as we all keep writing and keep reading, that process will repeat itself, with humanity developing more knowledge and wisdom with each passing generation, ad infinitum, until the end of time. In fact, it may be possible that humanity itself will learn, line upon line, until the perfect day.

Perhaps I'm being optimistic. Perhaps humanity will regress of die out eventually. And, of course, it's possible for wisdom to be ignored and forgotten and for knowledge to be lost. But still, I have hope for the future. The pattern of building on the knowledge and wisdom of the past has held true for untold generations, and here we are now. With luck and diligence, we can build on the past to leave an even better starting point for those who will follow us in the future.

Our lives have been blessed by the knowledge and wisdom our ancestors left for us. My hope is that our children will be blessed by the knowledge and wisdom we leave for them.

Helper for Hire

I love that I have a job where I get to help people. I work as a writing tutor, and today, I was able to help two students figure out some ideas for their paper and figure out how to revise their paper into one that fits the prompt they were given. It was great. Just a handful of hours of talking with someone, helping them brainstorm and figure out solutions, and by the end of each of those tutoring sessions, the student was a lot closer to their goal than they were at the start. I like being able to help people, and I love that I get to do it for a job. It's very fulfilling work. I feel like, in some ways, it's what I was meant to do.

I figured out a long time ago that helping others is "what I'm here for." It's part of my purpose on Earth, and I love doing it. I really genuinely love helping people. Granted, it can get tiring sometimes, and for a while, I worried about being taken advantage of, but those whom I help now are very respectful and grateful for my help (some even monetarily), so I very much don't mind helping them. In fact, time and energy permitting, I'd like to help them more. I love helping people. I love the feeling I get when I help people, when I do good and accomplish good things, when I get thanked for it, and when I feel my Heavenly Father's approval.

God sent me here to help people, and I'm happy to help, especially if I can somehow make a career out of doing it.

Emotions are Positive Feedback Loops

I've probably blogged about feedback loops. A feedback loop is any system where the output becomes the input. The output "feeds back" into the system, with an increasing or decreasing effect. If the feedback loop increases the effect that fed into it, that is called a positive feedback loop, and if the feedback loop decreases the effect instead, that is called a negative feedback loop.

One example of a positive feedback is attraction due to gravity. If two objects are close enough to pull on each other, and no other forces keep them apart, they will drift closer together. The closer they get to each other, the stronger the gravitational pull becomes, bringing them even closer. This continues until a collision occurs. An example of a negative feedback loop is wind resistance. The faster an object tries to pass through the air, the more resistance the air will provide, slowing it down.

Naturally, that's only tangentially related to what I wanted to say. I kinda just wanted you to understand what I said in the title, "Emotions are Positive Feedback Loops." Having some amount of any particular emotion increases the condition of having more of that emotion. (There's no science in this, that I know of, by the way. This is just my observation. I'm probably wrong about this.) This happens mostly through our perceptions. When we're happy, we're more likely to see things that make us happy and/or be happy about the things we see. When we're angry, we're more likely to find other things to get angry about. When we're upset, more things are upsetting. Frustrated, frustrating. And so on. It seems to me that every emotion alters our perceptions in such a way that grows that emotion.

The same principle applies through our behavior and that of other people. When we're upset, we're more likely to lash out, further upsetting ourselves and others. When we're sad, we might start crying, and when a person cries, it's hard to stop. Thankfully, this positive feedback loop applies to desirable emotions, too. When we're happy, we're more likely to do things that make us and other people happy, further increasing our own happiness and that of others.

So, let's all try to be mindful of the emotions we cultivate. Let's try to grow and spread our uplifting emotions and to resolve our less-desirable emotions before they get a chance to grow and spread.

Conduits of God's Love

I was grateful that I was able to lead a good discussion today. Lots of people commented, shared their own experiences, and bounced ideas off each other. It was great. One of my main takeaways from that discussion is how we, as people, can act as manifestations of God's love. Specifically, our acts of love can reflect and take the form of God's acts of love. For example, visiting a sick or elderly individual can help them feel both our love and God's love for them. God often expresses His love through the acts of other people. As we express acts of love, God can express His love through us.

A Pleasant Surprise

As I was writing an essay contrasting the Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife against those taught by the Church, it struck me how little detail we actually have about the Spirit World and the three Kingdoms of Glory. We know the basic hierarchy of the afterlife, but the Ancient Egyptians knew the geography. Some Ancient Egyptians were even buried with maps.

And yet, as envious as I am of their knowledge of their afterlives, I wouldn't trade places with them. Their detailed information describes horrible hazards, such as poisonous serpents, impenetrable darkness, and dismembering demons, whereas the one "detail" we have about the lowest, telestial kingdom is that its glory "surpasses all understanding" (D&C 76:89).

I don't know much about what awaits me in the LDS afterlife, but I know it's better than what the Ancient Egyptians thought they knew awaited them. Sure, I'd like to know what the next stage of my life is going to be like, but so long as it has to be a surprise, at least I'm confident that it's going to be a pleasant one.

"As a Man Speaketh"

I recently had an experience that reminded me of something Nephi said about a conversation he had with an angel.

1 Nephi 11:11 ...for I spake unto him as a man speaketh; for I beheld that he was in the form of a man; yet nevertheless, I knew that it was the Spirit of the Lord; and he spake unto me as a man speaketh with another.

But as I was looking for that scripture, I found another that I like even better.

Exodus 33:11 And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend...

I really love these scriptures and the concept behind them. Granted, I know that these are biblically exceptional experiences, but they don't have to be. The experience I alluded to earlier was coming to the realization that when I communicate with the Holy Spirit, we talk to each other the same way any two people talk to each other. We basically just talk.

I'm sure some people and religious count it as blasphemous to have casual conversations with deity, to speak with them "as a man speaketh with another" or "as a man speaketh unto his friend," but I don't think it is. After all, Elohim is our God and Jesus is our Messiah, but they're still family. And one day, if we're careful and perseverant, we'll be just as great and glorious as they are. Then why should we not speak as equals? In terms of our potential, that's exactly what we are. And having a close relationship with deity will only increase our chances of realizing that potential. At the very least, speaking to them "as a man speaketh," makes it easier to pray, which we are supposed to do always. 

So, blasphemous or not, I'm going to continue to speak to the Spirit (and to God through His Spirit) "as a man speaketh unto his friend." I want to be God's friend, not His servant, and not His enemy. And one way to foster such a friendship is be speaking with Him as a friend. Nephi did it. Moses did it. And so will I.

The Currant Bush

I keep thinking about that currant bush. You may or may not be familiar with the story from several General Conferences ago. I think you can find it on YouTube with the title "The Will of God." Anyhow, I keep wondering if the currant bush had any say in what kind of plant it grew up to be. It seemed perfectly happy to grow as large as it could before the gardener came and pruned it down. And, yeah, with its smaller size, it produced more berries, but that still seems like a bit of a trade off. Yeah, the bush is now better in this one specific way, but it's also still worse in another way which the bush previously seemed to care about. Whether that's better or worse over all depends on which trait is valued more, and value is subjective. Also, I'm not sure whose opinion should or should not matter in making this evaluation. I keep thinking, sure, the gardener knows what he wants, but shouldn't we also care what the currant bush wants, especially since the currant bush is the one that's getting cut up?

Now, there are many ways to interpret the story charitably for the gardener. Maybe the currant bush was happier being productive than it had been when it was tall. Maybe the currant bush had chosen to be a productive, berry-producing currant bush before its physical form was created, and it had merely forgotten that it had wanted to be productive, perhaps because of some kind of veil of forgetfulness. Maybe, had the currant bush been properly informed and consulted on the matter, it would have consented to being pruned down, and maybe the gardener did consult with the currant bush, but that part was cut out of the story to save time. Maybe the gardener wasn't just some self-assured jerk enforcing his will on apparently sentient creatures, totally disregarding their will.

I can only hope that the currant bush was ultimately happier after its encounter with the gardener than it had been before it. And if I ever meet a gardener who "loves me enough to hurt me," I hope He also loves me enough to explain why hurting me is necessary and to get my permission before pruning me down.

Post-Work Rest and Recreation

Regardless of whatever my blogging history may suggest, I like to do my homework as early as possible, both to make sure I have time to do it all and to try to make sure I have time to relax after the work is done. It feels nice to have my work done and be able to spend the rest of my time however I choose. I feel the same way, on a smaller scale, when I manage to blog before the late evening.

I wonder if I'll feel the same way at the end of my life. After Final Judgment, after all my mortal labors are done, I wonder what comes next. Will I go straight into my Eternal endeavors, or will I have time for some post-mortality rest and recreation first? I suppose I can only hope.

And I can enjoy my free time here, while I have it. As long as I can get my work done quickly enough, and meet my goals with time to spare, I'll at least have some time that I can spend as I please. Work is, of course, important, but what I like best is the time when I get to relax and play after the work is done.

A Random Encounter

Life's not always a lot of fun. There are chores and errands and work to do, and there are challenges that come up and cause additional problems and/or make our existing work more difficult. One such challenge arose in my household tonight, but as I told my friend about it, I didn't phrase it as a problem. I phrased it as a random encounter.

Lots of life's problems and challenges can be made more tolerable when one thinks of them adventurously. Chores can become adventures. Errands can become quests. And the challenges that arise unexpectedly can be random encounters, like a goblin ambush, or a bandit raid, or even a dragon attack. They, of course, may be challenging, but we can rise to the challenge, overcome the problem, and press forward in the pursuit of our quest.

Perhaps it's silly to think of life this way, but it's more encouraging, more interesting, and a lot more fun.

Everything God Does (and Doesn't Do) Shows His Love

The more I think about it, the more I think that just about anything could be a manifestation of love. Love isn't one of several listed possible acts. Love is a motivation that can inspire any number of kinds of acts. I suppose that, if your goal is the welfare of a person, any attempt to accomplish that goal can be viewed as an expression of love for that person. Of course, it's best if those attempts actually contribute to that person's welfare, but it may be that, so long as your heart is in the right place, then anything you do to try to help that person, including trying to understand how to best help them, can be an act of love.

Applying that to God gives us an interesting result. I think I recall hearing that everything God does, He does for our benefit. Yeah, here it is. 2 Nephi 26:24: "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world..." God loves the world, so everything He does, he does for the benefit of the world; therefore, everything He does is an expression of love for the world,  including us.

Naturally, that would include every act of omission as well. Choosing not to do something is a choice that's as active as choosing to do something is. Just as everything God does is something that God does because He loves us, everything He doesn't do is something He doesn't do because He loves us.

Huh. That even applies to withholding blessings. As President Dallin H. Oaks said, "God’s universal and perfect love is shown in all the blessings of His gospel plan, including the fact that His choicest blessings are reserved for those who obey His laws." So long as all actions made for the benefit of someone are expressions of love for that person, and so long as all of God's actions (and inactions) are made for our benefit, then all of God's actions (even including withholding blessings and meting out punishments) are expressions of His love for us.

This is a little mind-blowing, to be honest. This is prompting me to reevaluate some of God's inactions which I had previously interpreted as evidence of an absence of love, or at least as a limitation on God's ability to express His love. Perhaps I was misinterpreting the (lack of a) sign that I was given. Yet, the logic seems sound. If the premises hold true, then the conclusion must be true as well. If all acts taken for the benefit of a person are expressions of love for that person, and if all of God's acts are for our benefit, then all of God's acts are expressions of love for us, even if they don't feel like acts of love at the time.

I currently believe that this revelatory moment is the reason I was chosen to lead this discussion. God wanted me to have this assurance that everything God does, He does because He loves us, because He loves me.

I almost mentioned this yesterday, and the night before, but I thought that leading this discussion was going to be difficult because I hadn't felt God's love for me in a long time. I felt like He couldn't reach me or didn't care to. But now I know that, if those two premises are true, then I must conclude that everything God does (or doesn't do), He does (or doesn't do) out of love. So, God does love me after all, and every sign He shows me, or doesn't show me, is an expression of that love.

A Short List of Ways in Which God Shows His Love

I have been asked to lead a discussion next week, focused on the talk "God Loves His Children," by Elder Taniela B. Wakolo of the Seventy. In this talk, Elder Wacolo lists three ways in which God manifests His love for us, namely through our eternal relationships, through giving us prophets, and by offering correction when needed. For the purpose of the coming discussion, I'd like to add a few more items to that list, including the offers of exaltation, personal revelation, the comfort of His Spirit, and inner peace.

God has many ways to show His love for His children, and so long as I'm being asked to lead a discussion on ways God shows His love for us, I'll be sure to include a few of my personal favorites.

Doing Good Badly

I am incredibly tired and terribly late. I started trying to blog at around 10:30 tonight, and I thought I'd have plenty of time, but I hit a roadblock, just stuck, and couldn't get myself out of it until just now. Just now, I decided that I had to at least blog about something. At least I could blog about being late and tired and sorry and promising to do better tomorrow, which is basically what repentance is anyway.

Nobody's perfect. We all fail to live up to our ideals more often than we'd care to admit. I submit my blog posts late more often than I'd like to, and I occasionally tell myself that I'll do better, and I often do, but I still end up posting late blog posts every so often.

But you know what? That's okay. Late blog posts are better than no blog posts. Trying to do good, but falling short, is still good. This doesn't work in academia, but in real life, you can sometimes get an A for effort, regardless of the results.

I've been blogging daily for almost ten years now. Most of those blog posts have come in on time. Several of them have been insightful. My blogging hasn't been perfect, but it has been good. Blogging is a good thing, even if the blog posts are very late. Doing good is a good thing, even if we're not terribly good at it. Doing good badly is better than not doing it at all.

Pieces of Light and Truth

As I've been reading about these ancient religions for my humanities class, I've been struck by the number of similarities between the ancient faiths and my own. Granted, it's only natural that we'd have features in common with early Judaism, since we both use the Bible, but I was almost surprised to see that the ancient Egyptian got a handful of things right as well. Now, I could attribute this to the stopped clock situation and say that even a broken clock is right twice per day, but I think it's more accurate to say that anyone from any faith can be inspired by the Light of Christ, and so it's only natural for there to be some light and truth in every religion, even in the ones that get literally everything else wrong.

I know that there's only one true church with all of the truth in it, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see pieces of light and truth pop up elsewhere as well.

The (Divine) Advancement of Early Man

This morning, I finished and submitted a paper about the remarkable advancement of early man. Even back in the Neolithic Age, around ten thousand years ago, we see evidence of invention, art, architecture, social structures, and religion. Of course, it seems remarkable that a group of clever or lucky cavemen could have developed such traits, but personally, I wouldn't be surprised if mankind was basically born with them.

Adam and Eve were taught by God, an omniscient being, and they taught their children and grandchildren. These were not animals who evolved opposable thumbs and tried to figure out how to use them. These were human beings place here and instructed by the hand of God. They may or may not have had a written language or many of the other advancements that we sometimes take advantage, but I wouldn't be surprised if God taught them how the world works and how they could work together.

Looking at the world and evolution and the development of society, it can seem to be the result of a series of staggeringly lucky coincidences. But looking at it from a religious perspective, it's easy to imagine that humankind has had a lot of help from God to get us started.

Balancing Productivity and Relaxation

Perhaps in response to feeling overly stressed, I have forced myself to slow down with my homework, to make use of more of the time that I've been given, to pace myself, and to try to relax, unwind, and keep calm, at least in the evenings, even while I try to make steady progress during most of the day. And I think it's working. This morning/early afternoon, I wrote a 1269-word draft of an assignment, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and playing a game with some friends. I had a balanced, productive, relaxing day today, and I plan to have a similarly productive and relaxing day tomorrow.

It's possible that I won't be able to keep up this exact balance forever. My workload will increase, requiring me to spend more time working, but for now, the balance seems to work. I can make good progress on my work without running myself into the ground, mentally or emotionally. I'm not sure what I'll do when my workload increases, but I'll figure it out. No matter how much work I have to do, I'll find some way to balance productivity and relaxation and how to get my work done without driving myself insane.