Slopes

My favorite message from Conference today is too personal and too unusual to share, but my second favorite message was the one that involved algebra. One of the General Authorities spoke of our lives as lines, with our starting points not being anywhere near as important as our slopes. As long as our slopes are positive, we will end up really well off, no matter how low we started, but if our slopes are negative, it will end poorly for us, no matter how high up we were when we started. Thus, no matter how high or low we started, and no matter how high or low we are right now, our slope matters far more than our past or current position. I love the hope and inherent warning in this message. It's a warning that we shouldn't get too comfortable, but it also gives us hope for a bright future, no matter where we are now.

I find it comforting to know that, despite the unfairness of life, people will ultimately end up wherever we deserve to be. Wherever we started in life, we can control the slope of our lines and thus control our destinies. Where we end up in the future depends entirely on how positively or negatively we choose to live them.