Embrace the Gift

The only problem I have with this video is that the first gift of Christmas was wrapped: "And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." - Luke 2:12 Then again, He wasn't wrapped at the moment when He came into the world, so maybe it's okay to say that the first gift wasn't wrapped. Perhaps I'll try to find something blogworthy about the difference between being wrapped in decorative paper, being wrapped in swaddling clothes, and not being wrapped at all, but not this morning. No time.

This morning, I'm just going to skip to the end and encourage all of us to discover the Gift by reading the scriptures, and to embrace the Gift by letting Him change your heart and your life. I know you hear this every year, but Christmas is only seasonal, but the effect it should have on us should last all year, or longer. It, like the Sacrament, is a regular reminder of things we should keep in mind all the time and should be part of who we are. As Christians, and as Mormons especially, we have promised to take upon ourselves the name of Christ and always remember Him. Let us remember the Gift, and take time this season to thank God for Him.

Things to be Grateful For

When I need to quickly get an inspirational thought to blog about, I typically look in two places: Facebook, where my mom and sister frequently share inspirational thoughts on pretty photos, and on LDS.org's daily messages, which are usually too long or off-topic from anything I'd like to share. This morning, I was pleased to find a daily message that isn't terribly long and that struck a chord with me.

Do material possessions make us happy and grateful? Perhaps momentarily. However, those things which provide deep and lasting happiness and gratitude are the things which money cannot buy: our families, the gospel, good friends, our health, our abilities, the love we receive from those around us.

-Thomas S. Monson, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude"

 We frequently hear reminders that Christmas isn't about things. It's about spending time with family, expressing love for each other (sometimes through gifts), and remembering Jesus Christ. Of course, we also hear reminders about Black Friday door-busters and last-minute savings on the top gifts for everyone on your list. Many people believe that Christmas has been too commercialized, and they're probably right. Thankfully, it's still possible to keep the true Spirit of Christmas with us, sometimes with the help of occasional reminders like this.

When you really think about it, the best blessings in the universe are things that money can't buy. Without repeating the items on President Monson's list, these blessings include the presence of the Holy Spirit, the feeling of being forgiven, our knowledge of God's plan for us, and the hope and promise of eternal happiness. Or maybe all those things were summed up concisely when President Monson listed "the gospel." When you compare your material blessings to your eternal blessings, you discover that things of this world really don't matter all that much. Sure, they're nice, and they make life more pleasant, but it's often (I would almost say always) true that the pious poor are happier than the irreligious rich. Which group do you think truly has more to be thankful for, the group whose treasures will remain and waste away on earth, or the group who has few earthly treasures, but whose real treasures are eternal?

We have eternal treasures far more valuable than the things we give each other on Christmas. This Thanksgiving/Christmas season, let's give thanks to God for the blessings we have that are worth far more than any material things.

The Bailey Effect

You've heard of the Butterfly Effect, in which the exact path and power of a hurricane might be affected by the flapping of a butterfly's wings some weeks before. Last night, my family watched It's a Wonderful Life, in which we witnessed how life in Bedford Falls Pottersville would have been different without George Bailey. In that movie, Clarence makes the comment, "Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

My hope is that none of us have to have a near-death experience followed by a foray into an alternate universe in order to see the value of our existence. We each influence others in ways we may never fully realize. Our friends, neighbors, and family members have all had their lives changed by our presence in it. For George Bailey, it was a positive influence that he didn't see and couldn't appreciate. In our lives, we would do well to consider what kind of impact we have on the lives of others, and evaluate whether that's the kind of influence we'd like to make. Thankfully, many of the people I know have positive influences on those around them, including me, but now I wonder, am I having a positive influence on them? And how strong is my influence on others? How would the world be different if I had never been in it?

Mind you, those questions were rhetorical. I don't actually want to know. I just think that it's something worth thinking about. I want to have a George-Bailey-like effect. I want to have a strong, positive influence on others. Maybe I already do. But even if I do, I know that my influence could be stronger and more positive, so there's always room for improvement. Then again, the same could be said for the strength of the wind caused by the flapping of a butterfly's wings. Maybe small acts of human kindness are all that are needed to make the world a better place. That's what George Bailey learned that Christmas Eve. May we all learn that lesson, too, and learn to appreciate the value of our lives and the power of the influence we have on others.

"Include All Things in Your Gratitude"

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"All things"? "All things"? Well, I guess so, if you consider that trials make you stronger, that hardship builds character, and that adversity can bring us closer to God. Still, it's hard enough to be grateful for all our blessings. How can we be grateful for all our blessings and all our trials, too? Actually, being grateful for everything might be easier than only being grateful for good things.

I've heard it said that it's easier to do something 100% of the time than 98% of the time. Emerson advises us to "cultivate the habit of... [giving] thanks continually." With such a habit, it'd be easier to give thanks for our trials than not to. If we make a habit of seeing the good in everything and giving thanks for everything, we can become better at giving thanks for all our blessings, even the ones that are blessings in disguise.

Being thankful for everything requires a certain amount of faith and/or perspective, but it can be done. Let's try to develop a habit of gratitude that includes even our trials and troubles. They contribute to our advancement even more than our regular blessings do, and thus do even more to contribute to our ultimate happiness than the things that bring us happiness here and now. We should try to have enough faith in God to know that He can use all of our life experiences to bless us and make us happier. This Thanksgiving season, let's try to be thankful for all our blessings, even the ones that don't look like blessings to us.

The (Foolish) Pursuit of Happiness

At first, I both agreed and disagreed with this quote. I disagreed with it because "happiness is the object and design of our existence" (emphasis added), but I agree with it because it sounds true. And as my mother pointed out when she shared this photo on Facebook, "If you strive to do and be these things, you will be happy."

God created us so that we could be happy, but the path to happiness isn't what many people think it is. Often, in the pursuit of happiness, people make choices that give them temporary happiness, followed by lasting unhappiness. God has shown us the path to true happiness, but because it's not easy or fun, many people have trouble following it. It's ironic that our desire for happiness pulls us away from the source of true happiness, and that if we forget about our own happiness and just try to make other people happy, we'll end up happier, too.

There's a lot of irony in the world, and most of it can be attributed to either Satan trying to trick us into thinking that evil is good, or God knowing that the path to happiness passes through the valley of sorrow. It's ironic that in order to get what we ultimately want, we have to put our own wants on hold for a while. In order to find true happiness, we need to stop looking for things to make us happy. Crazy, huh?

I want to be happy. Of course, we all do. But strangely, in order to gain happiness, I need to stop putting so much focus on things that I think will make me happy. Temporary happiness isn't important. Eternal happiness is.

Valiant as a Lightbulb

Knowing that I'm one of the leaders of a bunch of 11-year-olds who call themselves the Valiant Knights, and knowing that I try to see myself as a Paladin, who are known for their valiance and courage, my mom, in parting, advised me to "be valiant." One of my brothers, being random, added "as a lightbulb." Mom ask him in what ways a lightbulb could be valiant, and I accepted the challenge to answer that question for him.

At first, I thought that blogging about lightbulbs would be easy. I could just borrow a few lines from Elder Bednar's message on Revelation, add a few lines of my own, and I'd be done. But being suddenly given a clear message through revelation, which is a rare occurrence, by the way, has nothing to do with being valiant.

Because I wanted to tell my 11-year-old Scouts what it meant to be a Valiant Knight, I looked up the definition of "valiant," and was slightly depressed by its linearity. (Side note: How is it that Spell-check is okay with "linearity," but doesn't like my spelling of "lightbulbs"? How else would you pluralize "lightbulb," which it doesn't think I misspelled?)

Dictionary.search.yahoo.com defines Valiant as "Possessing or exhibiting valor; brave," and defines Valor as "Courage and boldness, as in battle; bravery." (Another side note: I love that the first example of valiant this dictionary gives is "a valiant knight.") So valiance is, uninterestingly, a synonym for bravery. What's so brave about a lightbulb?

Lightbulbs are best known for using electricity to generate light. They're also known for being fragile. Lightbulbs are hollow and made mostly of a thin sheet of glass. If you struck a lightbulb with sufficient force to say that you had struck it and not merely tapped it, it would likely shatter. It is perhaps in response to this vulnerability that lightbulbs show their courage. Lightbulbs are often encased in something that diffuses the light and offers some protection to the lightbulb, but even without such protection, a lightbulb will shine boldly. In fact, a lightbulb without such protection shines brighter than the others, as if to say "If you want to take a swing at a lightbulb, here I am! I'm right out here in the open, shining as bright as day. I'm not hiding. Take your shot."

Okay, maybe they're not that suicidal, but they're not shy. Lightbulbs, despite their weakness, don't try to hide themselves or their weakness from others. They stand boldly and brightly, shining their light for all the world to see. It sounds to me like they've got a testimony and they're not afraid to share it.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. 

Matthew 5: 14-16

Putting a candle under a bushel is like putting a lightbulb in a lampshade. It'll make the light seem less harsh, and it may protect the lightbulb from a glancing blow, but it also weakens the light and makes it less clear. It's true that we should be kind and sensitive to the feelings and beliefs of others, but we should still be bold in declaring ours. By trying to be non-offensive and politically correct, we hold back many of the truths that may resonate in our friends' hearts - truths that they remember from before they were born.

Not all people have kind opinions about Mormons, and I have to admit that we are pretty different from other Christians. We're so different, in fact, that some people believe that we're not Christian at all. Some people doubt Joseph Smith's honesty or the Book of Mormon's validity. Some people know our church's history or doctrine too well, and at the same time not well enough. Such people might take a swing at us once they find out who we are. That lampshade is starting to sound pretty good to me. Hiding behind the guise of being "Christian, and let's just leave it at that," may protect us from the attacks of others, but it also prevents us from sharing our light with them. Admitting that we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints takes the courage of a lightbulb, but it's the only way to "let [our] light so shine."

But let's say our light is limited. Most people's lights are. Let's say our testimonies aren't as strong as they ought to be, or that we don't know Mormon doctrine as well as we'd like to. Let's consider another use of the word Valiant and again consider the example of the lightbulb.

Because of energy-saving practices and regulations, lightbulbs have all but been replaced by florescent bulbs, which produce just as much light (once they finally get warmed up), and use less energy. However, there is one advantage that old lightbulbs have over most new, florescent bulbs: they're dimmable. (I know that, just a few paragraphs ago, I implied that dimming the light is a bad thing, but bear with me.) Lightbulbs generate as much light as they can with whatever amount of electricity they have access to. If they can, they'll shine brightly. If they don't have quite enough energy for that, they'll just shine as brightly as they can.

Not all of us have strong testimonies or eloquent arguments in favor of our beliefs, but that's okay. We all have at least some light in us, and it's our responsibility to share as much light as we have. Another way to say it is that even though our and a lightbulb's capabilities may be limited, we should each make a valiant effort and do as much good as we can.

By shining brightly despite their weaknesses and limitations, lightbulbs prove themselves to be surprisingly valiant, and we should follow their example. We should each try to let our light shine before the world by striving to be as valiant as a lightbulb.

When the Going Gets Tough...

I heard yesterday that stress can rob us of our spirituality - that when we're worried about the concerns of life, we have a harder time focussing on Christ and striving to be righteous. I don't know if this is strictly true, but it certainly makes sense to me. How many times have we gotten angry and lost the Spirit because we were stressed out or frustrated? Which came first - getting angry, or losing the Spirit?

I think that Satan is constantly trying to influence us by putting negative thoughts in our minds. Most of the time, the Spirit keeps him at bay, but life starts to feel like it's too much for us to handle, either we start thinking negative thoughts that drive away the Spirit, or we drive away the Spirit, and then the enemy is allowed to put negative thoughts in our minds. Either way, if we're stressed, we'll have negative thoughts and not the Spirit, but if we have the Spirit with us, we won't have (many) negative thoughts or be (as) stressed.

How we keep the Spirit with us when life is hard is the same as how we keep the Spirit with us normally - it's just harder to do it. We keep the Spirit with us by praying, reading the scriptures, doing good, and striving to be Christlike. This is harder during the trials of our lives because we have more pressing matters to take care of than our scripture study, and we have other things to worry about than how righteous we are or should be. These times are great times to pray, to allow God to calm your heart and mind and help you focus on the tasks at hand, but when we're in these situations, we're normally not in the mood to pray.

God lets trials happen to us for a number of reasons. Sometimes, two of those reasons are to test our spiritual strength and help us grow spiritually stronger. It's sometimes as if God says "You're pretty good at being righteous most of the time, but let's see how righteous you are when you're facing adversity." He does this not to torment us, but to strengthen us. God wants us to be spiritually strong enough to remain righteous no matter what, just as Job did.

The holidays are stressful times for most adults, and those of us who are in school may have noticed that we're starting to get closer to Finals. It'd be fairly easy to get stressed out and let a lot of negativity into our lives right now, which is ironic considering what the holidays are supposed to do to people's hearts. Instead, let's try to keep the Holy Spirit with us, and possibly catch the spirits of thanksgiving and Christmas while we're at it. Life is hard sometimes, and at those times, it can be hard to keep the Spirit with us, but if we can keep the Spirit with us, He can help us get through the hardships of life. It takes spiritual strength to do that, but we'll gain spiritual strength if we try. Let's try to be righteous through the holidays so we can gain the strength we need to also get through the other storms of life.