Walking with God

In our family scripture study this evening, we discussed the significance of the meaning of the Savior's invitation to walk with Him. God doesn't require us to go alone. God offers to work with us and walk with us as we travel down the gospel path. Naturally, the path is still difficult. Even with God's help, keeping the commandments can be a great challenge. But the promise we've been given is that God will be there with us to help us on our way. Granted, in order to walk with God, we have to try to stay near Him. That's part of following the path. But as long as we stay as near to God as we can get, He will help us stay on the path so we can draw closer.

It's comforting to know that God will walk with us so long as we walk with Him and that He will help us along the path He asks us to follow. We don't have to walk alone. So long as we have faith in God and follow Him in faith, we can walk with God, and God will walk with us.

Family Support

I'm thankful for the support I get from my family. Without going into too many details, I went through a small rough patch recently, but a member of my family helped me handle it better than I would have on my own. I'm grateful that I have a family whose members lend each other their support.

I know that not everyone has a family that supportive, and that's why I'm glad to know that one's "family" isn't always just the people they're related to. "Found families" and close friends can fill that role when blood family doesn't.

And, of course, if nothing else, we all have a Heavenly Father who, at the very least, can give us a listening ear and shoulder to cry on.

I'm grateful that, between my blood family, my friends, and my Heavenly Father, I have several members of my family that I can count on for support.

To Talk and Make Adjustments

Tonight, I had a really good experience with D&D. The previous two weeks had been a bit of a struggle, and some of the players left the session feeling bored, confused, or frustrated. Thankfully, after talking it out and making some adjustments, we were able to have a good game together tonight, and I can with some confidence say that a good time was had by all.

And frankly, I think that's the key to any good relationship. We need to talk with each other, truly listen to each other, try to understand each others' wants and needs, and make adjustments when necessary. If we can do that, we can overcome our differences and learn to work together.

I think that everyone had a good time tonight, and I think that a big part of the reason for that was that we talked to each other and made adjustments. As long as we keep doing that, I'm sure we'll have fun gaming together for a long time to come.

10,000 Reviews Can Be Wrong

This afternoon, I saw a commercial that said that 10,000 reviews can't be wrong, then went on share some of the positive reviews they had gotten and why we should use their product or service, whatever it was. But while the rest of the commercial was playing, what I was thinking about was how fallible humans can be and how any number of humans can be wrong about any number of things. No one is perfect, and that includes not having perfect perception. We can see and hear things wrong and incorrectly interpret what we think we've seen and heard. For instance, there are 1.9 Billion Muslims in the world, according to a quick Google search, and 1.34 Billion Catholics. If the Muslims have the correct religion, then 1.34 Billion Catholics are wrong in their deeply held religious beliefs, and if the Catholics are right, that means that 1.9 Billion Muslims are wrong, and I have it on good authority that they're both wrong. At least 3.24 Billion people believe that their religion is the correct one and are wrong. In fact, no matter which religion is true, the vast majority of Earth's population is wrong about religion.

This is concerning to me. Naturally, I have faith in my religious beliefs, but statistically, it's highly probably that I, by random chance, have fallen into the vast majority of the population who believe that they're right, but are wrong. Fortunately, I can fall back on core principles that are held in common across many religions. There is a God out there (perhaps more than one), and He (or She or whatever) hears and answers our prayers. I can also, with some certainty, believe that God wants us to be good, or at least, it is good to be good. Most basic moral principles apply across most beliefs and cultures, and many people believe that, as long as we are basically good and try to be about as good as we know how to be, then we can trust God (or the Gods) to take care of the rest.

And if we're all wrong about that, which I suppose is possible, it's probably still good to believe it anyway. Society is better off believing that it's worthwhile to be good than believing that morality doesn't matter.

I believe in God, and while that belief has been shaken somewhat, I plan to hold on to that belief and to try to be about as good as I know how to be. If God is also Good, that'll probably count for something. And if I'm wrong, oh well. At least some people's lives will have been improved by my belief (wrong or not) that God wants me to be Good.

Make Time For Family

This afternoon, after doing a good amount of schoolwork, I had an opportunity to sit back, relax, and just enjoy some YouTube and video games for a while, and for a while, I did. But then my brother asked if I wanted to go for a walk with him. At the time, I was in the middle of a relatively challenging dungeon and in the middle of a YouTube video, but I decided that it was more important to pause both and go on the walk anyway, and I'm glad I made that decision. As important as recreation and relaxation sometimes are, it's also important to make time for family.

This afternoon, I had a chance to pause what I was doing and make time to walk and talk with my brother, and I'm glad I did.

Imbued with Meaning

I've recently gained a greater interest in a song titled A Little Heart, written by a YouTuber who writes and performs songs based on video games. Since this song was written to commemorate the release of Kingdom Hearts 3, the song was full of references to Disney songs, so the lyrics themselves don't necessarily make a whole lot of sense. However, the relative lack of meaning in the lyrics allowed me to interpret the lyrics fairly liberally and imbue them with my own meaning. As such, this song has become surprisingly meaningful for me, mostly because I chose what meaning it has.

The same can be true of some parables. While many parables have clearly explained interpretations, others aren't as clearly explained, allowing us to interpret these parables however we'd like, in whatever way is most meaningful to us. With no objective meaning, we can imbue the parables with whatever meaning the Spirit impresses on our minds. This way, many of the parables can mean whatever we need them to mean, just like how A Little Heart now has special meaning for me.

So, when we read parables, especially parables with no clear interpretation, we should try to keep our hearts open to whatever impressions He sends our way. These stories are flexible. Many of them can be imbued with whatever meanings are especially meaningful to and needed by us.

Old Habits

Old habits, apparently, die hard. Here I am, half an hour before midnight, blogging at the last minute, again. Fortunately, I know how to get myself out of this situation. After I write a quick blog post about blogging (this one), I'll brush my teeth, go to bed, and try to make sure I blog earlier tomorrow. That's all I really can do. It may be that the only way to overcome old habits, like blogging near midnight, is to overwrite them with new habits, like blogging in the middle of the day, and forming new habits takes time, diligence, and fighting through the occasional relapse. Today may not have been a good day for me, but tomorrow will be better, and so long as I keep trying to improve, I'm sure I will.

Old habits don't die quickly or easily. They die as knew habits are formed to replace them, but only when the new habits are maintained long enough to become "old habits." Until then, I guess I'll just have to keep working on it.