Many-Lessoned Parables

One thing I love about parables is that they can mean different things to different people and at different times. We can listen to those inspirational messages and take from them whatever inspiration we need. Whatever the parable originally meant to whomever originally said it, we can be led by the Spirit to learn from the parable whatever lesson we need to learn at that time. As we study the parables and think them over in our minds, the Spirit can lead us to whatever interpretation will be most helpful to us in this stage in our spiritual journey.

I love parables. Each one has a lessons for everyone, even if those lessons are different for each person each time they read them.

A Good Man

This afternoon, shortly after church, I received a compliment that made my day. I had done a fair amount of service at church, leading up to that point. I helped set up chairs, I almost helped pass the Sacrament (but they ended up not needing me), I changed a battery in a clock, and helped move things from one car to another, and I helped put things away in a closet. My morning wasn't full of service, but there were several small acts of service spread across those two and a half hours. And one of the Relief Society sisters I served this morning took notice of me, thanked me for my service, and told me something that I really needed to hear, that I am a good man.

I don't hear that often. And when I do, I hear it from someone who would likely have a different opinion of me if they knew more about me or from someone who has a different set of standards for what makes someone a good man. But more importantly, I don't usually believe that about myself. I see my flaws and bad habits, and I can hardly help thinking that I'm not actually a very good person. Yes, I have some good traits and habits, and I am a good person in some ways. But overall? I'm not sure.

Still, the fact that some people have confidence in me, that some people believe in me, that some people think that I'm a good person, is meaningful to me. Those people may have a skewed opinion of me because they don't know certain things about me, but still, it's good to know that there's enough good in me that people can see those traits and come to the (perhaps misinformed) conclusion that I am a good man.

I don't know if I'm a good man. I'm not sure I even know what being a good man means anymore. But still, whether I actually am a good man or not, I'm glad that some people see enough good in me to think I'm a good man.

Negativity, Positivity, and Honesty

I find that I spend a lot of my blog posts going over a lesson I learned that day, usually in the form of something I did wrong or poorly and what I learned I should have done differently or better. While such self-reflection is important, it can also be draining and even harmful. You see, if the spiritual experience of me reflecting on and recording my thoughts focuses excessively on my own failings, then I may end up developing negative feelings toward myself and possibly toward spiritual experiences in general.

That said, I don't want to take the opposite route, either. I don't want to use these blog posts to praise myself, because that would feel dishonest, or at least prideful. It would make me guilty of the same issue many social media users are accused of having: putting a false, ideal face forward to make themselves seem better than they are.

Then again, perhaps the reason I conflate positivity with dishonesty is because I've spent too much time being negative about myself, repenting, and reflecting on my need to repent.

I want to be more positive. I'm not perfect; of course I'm not, but I'm not a bad person, either. I have positive and praiseworthy traits, and I hope that it's not prideful to personally be the one to praise them. I am kind and generous. I give service and help others. I am trying to be an honest, moral, good person, and I hope that it is neither dishonest nor prideful to say so. Even my desire to avoid dishonesty and pride is admirable, if I may say so of myself.

And why mayn't I? If I can blog about my failings and negative traits, I can blog about my successes and positive traits, too. I want to be honest. I want to be honest about myself. That includes sharing both the good and the bad. And the good news is, I'm not a bad person. I have some bad habits, as we all do, but I have good habits, too. If I can blog about what I do wrong, I can blog about what I do right, too. And maybe that'll help me be more positive overall, which is certainly a good thing.

I don't want to only focus on the negative aspects of my life, especially not in a spiritual context. I want to be able to be honest enough about myself to be able to blog about my positive aspects as well.

My Guiding Light

Sometimes, I feel lost. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, and I'm not entirely sure how to do it. Thankfully, I have some help. I have a source of guidance. I have a light inside of me that can help me know what I should do and how to do it. I am grateful for the light that guides me, and I pray that it always will.

Routine Service

I got to help someone today. Actually, I get to help people most days, just not always with tutoring. In fact, now that I think about it, I receive opportunities to help others pretty much daily. I just don't typically get excited about it because it has become routine for me.

Oftentimes, we don't give ourselves enough credit for the good that we regularly do, because it has become routine to us. We've come to expect it of ourselves. We don't count it as "doing good." We count it as "par for the course."

We should change that. We should give ourselves credit for the good we do, even if we only do it out of habit or because we're supposed to. We each do more good than we realize, and we should acknowledge that.

We should treat ourselves fairly, and that includes giving ourselves credit for the good we do on a regular basis.

Context Missing - The Pottage Offer

I get the feeling that there's a lot of context missing in our Bible stories, because some of them seem a little "off." Case in point, we just read about Jacob and Esau, and how Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, or, considered from a different perspective, how Jacob sold Esau a mess of pottage, and the asking price was Esau's birthright. 

Frankly, that just seems wrong to me. Many have rightly pointed out that a birthright and a bowl of food are nowhere near equivalent in value, and how Esau shouldn't have sold his birthright so lightly, but, by the same reasoning, Jacob shouldn't have asked him to. This was not an equivalent exchange; it was a scam. Jacob shouldn't have asked for something so valuable in exchange for something so worthless. 

In fact, Jacob shouldn't have asked for anything at all. It was a bowl of food, Esau was hungry, and they were brothers. Most religions teach us that we should care for the poor and needy, and I haven't yet found any religion that recommends checking the poor and needy for birthrights they can sell us in exchange for our "charity." People should help each other freely, and they should especially help their own siblings.

Granted, there's a lot I don't know about how that deal went down. As I said before, I feel like there's a lot of context missing from that story. Hopefully, some of it explains Jacob's "offer," because, without that context, this story doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

The Next Step

I like my rotating To Do list. It's basically a document with a list of dates ranging from the current date into the near future. As time passes, I delete the past, causing the rest of the list to rise up by a few lines. This helps me to recognize when Due Dates are coming up and how much/little time I have left to work on those assignments and get my work done. Now, normally, I like to try to get a week or so ahead, but at times when I can't, it helps to be able to really focus on what most urgently needs to be done next. I like the reminder that, when we're coming down to the wire, it's okay to temporarily focus exclusively on whatever's up next.

I often try to get ahead of schedule, but it's good to know that, when I need to, I can just focus on taking the very next step.

Many Wells of Inspiration

Since the early days of my blog, I've had the idea that one can draw inspiration from nearly anywhere. Almost anything can be used as a parable or an object lesson. Almost any quote can lead to a good, spiritual discussion. Not everything has truth in it, but exploring truthless things can often lead to truth, even just the truth refuting that which is untrue. I'm gradually growing to realize that this principle of drawing inspiration from many different sources is more true than I had previously thought. There are countless wells out there, and they all have at least some water in there, or at least some lesson to teach us about water. Being able to draw spiritual water from many sources will be of great value to me throughout my life. It has already helped me with countless blog posts, and here's to one year more.

I love drawing inspiration from the world around me and from just about every well I come across. That's a skill I hope to continue to develop throughout my mortal journey, and I hope you do, too.

A Day of Rest

Sundays tend to be pretty busy. There's always at least two hours of regular church, plus choir practice and/or other meetings. Then we have to clean the house and get it company ready so we can have a family dinner together. And, naturally, there's lots of cleanup afterward. By the end of the day on Sundays, I feel really tired, and I need some rest.

But this Sunday wasn't quite as bad as normal. This Sunday, after church and cleaning, but before our guests arrived, I took a nap. I actually managed to slip in an hour or two of rest on this Sabbath Day of Rest. And I hope I can do it again on future Sundays, because it helped me be less tired and cranky later.

Maybe the "day of rest" part is more Prescriptive than Descriptive. It's a day when we should rest, rather than a day that is inherently restful. Maybe resting on the Sabbath Day is more of a commandment than something that just naturally happens.

Every worthwhile endeavor takes effort. Evidently, that includes resting. We should take care to never become too busy to set aside some time to make the Sabbath day a day of rest.

The Banquet of Life

Philosopher Epictetus once gave us a unique metaphor for life: 

Remember to conduct yourself in life as if at a banquet. As something being passed around comes to you, reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by? Don’t stop it. It hasn’t yet come? Don’t burn in desire for it, but wait until it arrives in front of you. Act this way with children, a spouse, toward position, with wealth—one day it will make you worthy of a banquet with the gods.

 Life has a lot to offer, but we must be courteous in our acceptance of what life offers us. Life isn't always like a buffet, at which we can take whatever we want and leave the rest untouched. Sometimes, we can't get what we want, and we must accept the meal that's set before us. Yet, we can do so with a certain amount of grace and nobility. We can savor the good of the things life offers us, and we can learn to stomach that which is less savory, while doing our best to be courteous to the other banquet guests and to our Host. And if we act well enough at this banquet, we might be invited to the next one.

Too Nice

While it's not possible to be too Christlike, and Jesus Christ was certainly (usually) nice, it is entirely possible for a person to be too nice.

Some people are doormats. Some people fail to get their own needs met because they're too busy seeing to other people's wants and needs. Some people sacrifice themselves when they don't have to. Some people are too nice.

Granted, most people aren't too nice. Most people aren't nice enough sometimes. Being too nice is not a problem that most people usually have. But it is a problem (or at least it can be), and some people have it.

It wasn't nice of Jesus to kick people out of the temple twice, and it wasn't nice of Jesus to be so brutally honest about the scribes and pharisees. Jesus didn't always behave nicely. We shouldn't always be too nice, either.

Can Evil Create?

There's a quote that says "Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made." That quote, attributed to J.R.R. Tolkien, is intriguing, and I wonder it it's true.

As a general rule, I tend to avoid absolutes, because they can very easily fall apart with even a single counterexample. If I make the claim that all swans are white or that all ravens are black, then all it would take to disprove those claims is a single black swan or a single white raven. The claim that elephants cannot jump may hold true as a general rule, but if we treat it as an absolute rule, it can be disproven by a single jumping elephant. Similarly, the claim that evil cannot create anything new can be disproven by even a single instance of an evil force creating something new. Granted, the claim could still hold true as a general rule, but as an absolute rule, it would be disproven by a single counterexample.

That said, I currently can't think of one. Pornography isn't new; it's a corruption of a healthy and holy practice. Harmful drugs aren't new; they're a misuse of many of the plants that God has made. In fact, since God made the entire planet and the people living on it, it could be said that everything was initially created by good forces, so that anything we make is ultimately made out of something that was created by God. We can't "create" houses, for example. We can only modify, relocate, and assemble the natural resources that God has created. If houses were evil, we could deem them a "corruption" of the wood, stone, and other materials of which they are made. So, perhaps evil cannot create, but, by the same token, neither can we.

Personally, I think that evil can create, because ideas can be new, and people of any moral persuasion can create new ideas. Those ideas may be modifications (or, less charitably, corruptions) of ideas and concepts that already existed, but the new forms of those ideas are, nonetheless, new. God didn't create pornography, and if He didn't, that means someone else did. Prostitution is sometimes jokingly called the world's oldest profession, but there was once a time when it was new. Unless God created that idea, someone else did.

So I'm going to have to disagree with Tolkien or with whomever actually created that quote. Evil can create new things. And alternatively, if they cannot "create anything new," then, by the same logic, neither can we.

Turning a Misstep into a Twist

In the D&D game I ran tonight, I made a number of missteps. Without going into too much detail, I put too few monsters into an area that was supposedly overrun with them. But if the few hours since the D&D session ended, I thought of how I could turn that misstep into a twist. Yes, there are too few monsters in here. And there's a reason for that. That reason will turn into a plot hook, hopefully leading to another step in the adventure, where I can correct my previous mistake by having monsters aplenty in an area the players need to reach before it's too late.

There are plenty of common cliches that address the lesson I applied tonight. Look for opportunities amid challenges. Turn negatives into positives. Every setback is a chance to make a comeback. I think I even blogged about that last one some years ago. Tonight, I made a misstep, felt bad about it, and then figured out how to redeem myself by turning that misstep into a twist. I am now excited to explore the question of why there were so few monsters in this supposedly overrun area, because the answer is no longer "Because I messed up," but is rather something far more interesting and hopefully more fun.

We all suffer setbacks in life. We make mistakes. We face challenges. But if we look for opportunities to twist the negatives into positives, we can sometimes find them. Challenges can become opportunities to grow. Mistakes can become opportunities to learn. And setbacks can become opportunities to come back better than ever before.

I'm not just excited for D&D next week; I'm eager to show how this misstep of mine can actually be the next step in the party's epic adventure.

Imperfect Fault Finders

There's a quote attributed to James Truslow Adams, or perhaps Robert Louis Stevenson, that says "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us." Ultimately, it sounds like a fancy way of saying "We're all human."

Nobody's perfect. We all know that much already. But nobody's pure evil either. People that good and that bad exist only in fiction. For the rest of us, there's always some gray in there. Even the worst people who ever lived on the Earth were good enough to follow God's plan to come to Earth. Yet, even the best people are only human. If we were to judge each other, we'd all just be imperfect people pointing out each other's imperfections.

Given that none of us are perfect, none of us are the best people to pass judgement. Even the best people have some bad in them, and even the worst people have some good in them. So, I think that, rather than judging, we should look for the good in each other and try to encourage it.

On Dice and Decision Paralysis

This morning, I had some trouble managing my To Do list. I had two categories of tasks that were important but not yet urgent, and I had two categories of task that were urgent but not terribly important. I wanted to get all of it done, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do first.

I could have done the less-important, more-urgent tasks first, trusting that I'd have time to do the more important tasks later, or I could do the more important tasks first, knowing that, guaranteeing that I'd have enough time for the more important tasks, even at the cost of the less important tasks. I ended up wasting an unfortunate amount of time trying to decide which of these tasks needed to get done first, but I ultimately decided to roll a die to help me make my decision and get started.

Once I got started, my day went a lot better. I don't think it even mattered which task got chosen first. It was all a matter of momentum and of at least getting something done. When I was paralyzed with indecision, I could have stayed stuck there all day, but once I got a task started, it was easier to keep going, and I ended up getting two categories of tasks done today, and I'm all set to get the remaining two categories of tasks done tomorrow.

I guess the takeaway from this is that any step forward is better than not stepping forward for fear of taking a wrong step. Were the chosen tasks the best possible tasks for me to do today? Probably not, but it was good that I got them done, and I still have time to do more tomorrow. Doing any of those things was better than doing nothing, so letting the die decide was better than continuing to suffer from decision paralysis.

I'm glad I got a decent amount of good work done today, even if I'm not completely sure whether it was the best work I could have done.

Inner Strength, Inner Peace

Maybe I've been going about this all wrong. There have been times when I felt upset that God wasn't giving me the blessings I felt I needed, like strength and peace, but maybe the reason He wasn't giving me those blessings was because He already had. Perhaps I already have all the strength I need to do everything I need to do, and perhaps I already have the ability to feel the peace that I've been seeking. Maybe I don't need to look for such blessings externally because God already put them inside me. I do have a certain amount of inner strength; maybe it's enough. I can feel some inner peace; maybe that's the peace I've been seeking.

I'm grateful to God for the blessings He gives me, and I look forward to receiving more, but maybe the blessings I've most been asking for are blessings He has already given me.

The Spirit is Everywhere

One thing I love about the Holy Spirit is that, unlike the other two, embodied, members of the Godhead, the Spirit can be everywhere at all times. The Spirit can be in all church buildings simultaneously. The Spirit is out in nature. The Spirit can linger in the hearts of everyone who maintains spiritual habits. The Spirit is, simply, just about everywhere. I'm grateful for that fact, and I'm grateful for the fact that, because I can always have the Spirit with me, I never have to feel alone.

An Angelic Reproof

God sent an angel to Hagar to turn her back toward Abraham. God sent an angel to Balaam to straighten him out. God sent an angel to Alma the Younger to reprove him. My hope is that, if such correction is ever necessary in my life, that God would be willing to do the same for me. Granted, I am not a prophet, nor am I related to one, but I am a Child of God, and if I ever go down a wrong path, I hope that God would do what it takes to turn me back in the right direction.

Critical Details Missing

For Family Scripture Study tonight, we read about Abram, Sarai, and Hagar, and frankly, it doesn't sound like a good story. I'd summarize, but I'm sure I don't have enough details to tell the story fairly. It's in Genesis 16, if you'd like to read it for yourself. The bottom line is that, in that story, all three of those characters do things that, to the modern reader, seem regrettable. Yet, I don't want to judge them too harshly because, as I've said, I don't have all the details.

I know that Hagar offended Sarai in some way, but I don't know exactly how. I know that Abram reminded Sarai that she had a legal right to "do to [Hagar] as it pleaseth [Sarai]," but I don't know what else he said or didn't say to her. And I know that Sarai "dealt hardly" with Hagar, but I don't know how hardly or in what way. There is a lot of context missing from this story, and without it, I can't really judge who, if anyone, was in the right or who was in the wrong, or how badly.

It's possible that some of them were in for some divine reproof for some of those things. But it's also possible that at least one or two of them were completely justified in whatever it was they did. Thankfully, it's not my place to judge. God will mete out whatever divine rewards and punishments for whatever they do. I don't know exactly how that story played out, but God does, and God'll sort it all out, if He hasn't already.

I don't know the details of this story, but I don't have to. I don't know the story well enough to pass any judgement, but I don't have to do that, either. Judgement isn't my job; it's God's. God can judge Abram, Sarai, and Hagar fairly for whatever happened in Genesis 16, and that's about all I personally really need to know about it.

A Question about Desecration

So, I've got a question, and I welcome any responses to it. I kinda just want to consider various perspectives and consider changing my own. I just have to ask: Is it wrong to desecrate corpses, and if so, why?

Personally, I don't see a whole lot wrong with it. I, personally, would probably leave a dead body alone, just as I wouldn't bother to mess with an abandoned piece of furniture left by the side of the road. I figure that dead bodies aren't owed much more respect than other objects. The spirit, which does matter, is gone. The body will decay and turn to dust before being restored through the resurrection. My thinking is that, between death an resurrection, a body is just a pile of meat and bones that is bound to be destroyed and restored, no matter what else happens to it.

On the other hand, I know that the desecration of corpses bothers some people. In fact, according to Google, the word "desecrate" means to "treat (a sacred place or thing) with violent disrespect; violate." I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense to treat bodies as being sacred, even if they don't have spirits in them. Our bodies are gifts from God and are referred to in scripture as temples, so they are certainly owed a certain amount of respect. I just wonder, does that continue to remain true after death? Is a temple still a sacred place after the Spirit, for whatever reason, leaves it? Does or can a temple ever go back to being a regular building, which can be remodeled or even demolished without religious repercussions? I'm fully in favor of holding bodies sacred while they're alive, but are bodies still sacred when they're dead?

I welcome your responses and other feedback. I know that many people, and even some animals, treat dead bodies with special reverence. I guess I'm not sure I fully understand why.

Prioritization

One of the skills I am gradually learning is the challenge of prioritization. I have several assignments and responsibilities. Each of them has a different level of importance, urgency, and time required to complete them. And I have a finite amount of time in which to get it all done. Sometimes, the most important task takes priority, which seems only natural. At other times, tasks with greater urgency take priority, temporarily shelving the more important tasks. And of course, the more time-consuming tasks require more time to be devoted to them.

I can only work on one task at a time, so I have to choose, in each hour, what I'll work on at that time. To further complicate matters, my mind needs occasional rest to keep up its full capacity, and high-importance, high-urgency tasks occasionally come up, taking priority over all else. Prioritizing my time is a constant juggling act, with the highest priority task changing more frequently than one might think.

Despite the challenge of prioritization, I'm confident that I can get it all done on time. It's just a matter of determining which task has the highest priority at any given time, and doing it.

As Great as the Universe Is

I remember having seen a video that tries to explain the scope of the universe. The scale starts in Venice with a 1-meter circle, then expands to a circle ten times that size, then expands again to a third circle, ten times the second circle's size, and so on. The video expands the circle by a factor of ten more times than I could count, increasing the size of the universe we're viewing exponentially, repeatedly, for several minutes. It's incredible. After several minutes of expanding the circle countless times, we reach the edge of the known universe. Beyond this point, the narrator tells us, "we cannot see, and do not know."

But here's the real kicker. God can, and He does. God created the entire, unfathomably huge universe, and He knows what there is to see beyond our tiny, finite view of it. God's omniscience covers the entire enormity of the universe, stretching both forward and backward in time through all eternity. If the universe is at all impressive, and it is, then so is the God who created, controls, and understands all of it.

The universe is unimaginably vast, but as great as it is, God is even greater.

God's Open Door Policy

Tonight, we read about the Abrahamic Covenant and about how, through Abraham's "seed," all of the people of the world would be blessed. But we also read that Abraham's "Seed" include all those who accept the Gospel, not just Abraham's literal descendants. If you want to be part of the Abrahamic Covenant, you can be (and, if you're reading this blog post, you probably already are), regardless of your lineage.

I love that God has such an open door policy when it comes to this covenant. It's not just restricted to this one, specific bloodline. Anyone can join. And it's probably just as easy, if not easier, to opt out, also regardless of lineage. God doesn't believe in forced inclusion or exclusion from anything. God believes in agency and giving people the freedom to choose what path they want to follow, regardless of whether they were born on the path or not.

I'm grateful that God makes His blessings and covenants available to all of His children, and not just Abraham's.

Asymmetrical Assignments

As much as I love symmetrical mechanics in most multi-player games, I'm grateful that there's some asymmetry to real life. People have different talents and abilities, making them better suited for different tasks. And as people take on different tasks and practice them, they can become better suited to doing those tasks and others like them. Not everyone is going to be good at everything, but that's okay, because people don't need to be good at everything. They just need to be good enough at the things they need to do.

For example, there usually only needs to be one cook per household. One person can cook for the whole household about as easily as thy could just cook for themselves, so it's easy enough to make one person the household's designated cook and to similarly divide the other household tasks in whatever way most makes sense for the household. Naturally, situations may arise that will compel some other member of the household to cook, but they don't have to be great at it. They just have to be good enough to keep everybody fed until either they gain enough skill to competently fill the role of cook or the regular cook is back in action. The same goes with other tasks. As long as each job gets done well enough by somebody, it doesn't matter that not everyone is good at a certain thing or that no one person is good at everything. Each task needs doing, but different people can specialize in different tasks.

I like working as a part of a team. I like putting my skills to work for the good of the team, and I'm glad that other people can cover the areas in which I fall short. No one can do everything, but if we all work together, no one will have to. Our work can be as different as we are, but if we all put our unique skills to work, we can get it done together.

Unseen Issues

This afternoon, I helped a student with a paper that was tangentially about the fact that everyone has their own issues that most people don't know about. We might notice people being irritable or seeming lazy or having any other undesirable trait, but we may not see the circumstances or conditions that led to them having those traits. As the saying goes, "everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about." Sometimes, they lose those battles in painfully visible ways, but we should try to be kind to them anyway. Be patient, if possible. We have no idea how long or how hard they had been fighting before we saw them lose.

I lost such a battle recently, and I am eternally grateful for those who still managed to respond with patience and kindness.

Nine Years of Blogging

As of today, I have blogged almost daily for nine years. Many things have changed over those nine years, and some other things haven't. Blogging has helped me in some ways, but it doesn't seem to have helped me in others. I plan to keep blogging daily for another year, to complete the decade, but after that, I'm not sure. Blogging hasn't been as beneficial as I had hoped. Perhaps I ought to consider other methods of self-improvement. Then again, blogging and seeking other methods of self-improvement aren't mutually exclusive. Perhaps I'll continue blogging while I seek for something else to do for me what I had hoped blogging would. Then again, if a practice proves to be of little benefit to a person, why continue? I don't know how long I'll keep blogging, but don't be surprised if I make some kind of change on my tenth anniversary of blogging, on 2/3/2023.

All Things in Moderation

This morning, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about the danger of excess. We ultimately concluded that too much of anything can be harmful, but too little can be harmful as well. There needs to be a balance. If we allow our lives to get out of balance, and if we leave that imbalance uncorrected for too long, we may come to regret it. So, we need to look for areas of our lives that may be out of balance and try to correct that imbalance by keeping everything in moderation, by growing in areas in which we are deficient and by pruning in areas in which there is excess. Balance is difficult to obtain and maintain, but as long as we regularly evaluate how we are out of balance and what steps we should take to gain a greater balance, we will ultimately manage to balance ourselves out. Gaining balance is a life-long pursuit, but it's worth it to continually take the steps necessary to bring our lives into balance.

A Single Step Forward

I didn't make much progress today, in almost any regard. I did some regular, essential chores, I tutored one person, and I spent hours trying to solve a problem that had plagued me for months, only to learn that the problem had a different source than I had previously thought. Yet, in all of this, some progress was made. The house and its inhabitants are being taken care of, a student had been helped, and the true nature of the problem has, hopefully, been revealed, with a solution on its way. I didn't make much progress today, but I made some.

Such is life. Every day takes us one step closer to our eternal destinations. We try, yet again, to become a little bit better, and with luck, a miracle, and a lot of perseverance, we succeed. Every day of mortal life takes us a single step closer to our heavenly home, and, for a single mortal day, that's enough. Regaining our heavenly natures isn't something that can be done overnight. It's a process. It's a miles-long journey composed of countless individual steps.

So, I shouldn't lament that I made only a little bit of progress today. Little bits of progress add up. Today, I took only a single step forward. Tomorrow, I'll take another. And eventually, after more than a single mortal lifetime, I will reach my heavenly home.