Clouds

This evening, I looked at the sunset, and I saw that it had different effects on different clouds. Some clouds were lower in altitude and already in shadow, while other clouds were higher up and still catching the sun's light, creating beautiful colors. I thought that, had there been more lower-elevation clouds, we wouldn't have been able to see the more colorful clouds, but they still would have been there.

Sometimes, we don't see the light and beauty above us because concerns of lower elevation block our view. At those times, it can be difficult to remember that, even though we can't see it, that light and beauty is still there. Those clouds are still up there, still catching the sun's light. It's still good and bright and beautiful, even though it goes unseen.

Having a thick blanket of clouds overhead can feel oppressive and depressing, but we should remember that those dark clouds often have lighter clouds above them, and we can take heart, knowing that, even though we can't always see them, there very well may be bright clouds overhead as well.

Charisma

Charisma is one of the six main traits of all creatures in D&D. All creatures have a Charisma Score, which determines their Charisma Modifier, which they add to all their Charisma-based Attacks, Saving Throws, and Ability Checks. Charisma is useful in social interactions through the Deception, Intimidation and Persuasion Skills, but it's also used in Performance checks, such as acting, singing, and playing musical instruments. Charisma is especially important for Charisma-based Spellcasters, including Bards, Sorcerers, Warlocks, and, you guessed it, Paladins.

Given that Paladins rarely use Deception or Performance, and they tend to reserve Intimidation for their enemies, Paladins most often use their Charisma for their magic and for Persuasion, which I interpret fairly broadly. In my personal life, I use Persuasion to form and maintain positive relationships between people and to try to be polite. Granted, I don't always succeed in doing this, but I almost always try, and I think I tend to succeed.

I think that Charisma is an important skill because it helps us maintain relationships stronger than those maintained through Intimidation. It's good to be friendly, and it's important to be polite. I know that not all people have high Charisma Scores, but I think that's it's still important for people to make their Persuasion checks to try to maintain their relationships and practice courtesy. It's important to be kind, and inasmuch as kindness requires Skill Checks, Charisma is probably the applicable skill.

I'm grateful that I seem to have decent Charisma and that I know how to use it to be kind.

Love and Service

I think I finally got a glimpse of something I've heard about at church. They say in church that you can't help but love the people you serve, and for all my life, I've felt that it was the other way around. If you love someone, as a family member, or as a friend, or even just as a human being, you'd feel some amount of compassion for them and some desire to serve or help them.

This time, it was a little different. As I served others this afternoon, my compassion for them deepened, and I felt a greater desire to continue serving them. As I helped them, I felt more Christlike love for them, and I wanted to help them even more.

For me, for most of my life, service has been a chore, or a duty, or at best, a habit. I helped people because that's what I do, not because I felt a driving feeling of compassion for them. But today was different. Today, I felt love for those whom I served, and that made me want to continue to serve.

A Balanced Day

Ages ago, I had a really good day. A day that was remarkably good. A day that was so good that I put thought into finding out why it was so good, so I could try to have as good a day again. And I think I just did.

That really good day ages ago was good, I determined, because it had a good balance of physical, spiritual, and mental work, rest, and recreation.

For today, I started with physical work, vacuuming the church with the help of a friend. My physical recreation took the for of a brief walk, only about 10 minutes, not quite enough to cause exertion. And, of course, I spent part of the day sitting down, at physical rest.

My spiritual work took the form of service, in the form of vacuuming the church building. I have no idea what spiritual rest is or if it's necessary, but my spiritual recreation involved the singing of hymns.

My mental work and recreation involved planning, preparing, and running a game of D&D. I'll grant you that it wasn't much work. It wasn't like homework or a mentally taxing job. However, some thought was put into the preparation of tonight's game and in the actual running of the game. Running D&D involves doing math, managing multiple characters and their unique abilities, tactics, and plenty of improvisation. I'd say that preparing the D&D game was mental recreation, whereas running it took at least a little bit of mental work.

And if you don't count that, you can at least count writing this blog post as a form of mental work.

And mental rest is easy. I can turn to YouTube for that.

Today, I had a decent balance of physical, spiritual, and mental work, rest, and recreation, and today was a decent day. Here's to even better days with even better balances in the future.

Physical Assistance

One thing that occurred to me yesterday, and was relevant to my life again today, is that, even though God has a physical body, His body isn't usually on Earth with us, as far as I know. God can help us with spiritual matters, but when it comes to physical matters, we can't expect Him to come down here, toll up His sleeves, and join us in the physical work. He can be with us in spirit, but if anything physical needs doing, we have to do it ourselves.

Perhaps that's why the church and its teachings (at least from the perspective of a member of an Elder's Quorum) place such an emphasis on service opportunities. As Uchtdorf said, we are the Lord's hands. He's not going to come down here to mow lawns or shovel snow or help anyone move from one house to another. When He wants to help people physically, He does it through the service of people like us.

I have been blessed with the ability to render physical assistance and with a sporadic desire and a tendency to do so. By offering physical help, I help others in a way that even God doesn't. Of course, that's not to say that I'm better than God. God helps way more people than I do in ways that I can't. Still, it's nice to have a niche. We're part of a team. God helps everyone in ways that only He can, and I help those around me in a way that He can't or doesn't. Together, we help people in every way possible. It's just that, sometimes, the help that God offers has to come through physical, mortal beings like us.

A Call to Serve

I got a call to serve this afternoon. It wasn't a big deal. All I had to do was walk for ten minutes and push a button, and as it turned out, I didn't even have to do that much. But still, doing so brought a friend of mine some peace of mind. It was a good thing to do, even though I didn't actually do hardly anything. But after I did that act of service, I thought about how I was the one my friend called. I was the one my friend turned to. I was the favorite vacuum cleaner. And yeah, I don't always like being people's first person to turn to. It gets tiring. But it's good to know that my friends and family know that they can count on me for help. It's nice to know that I can give them some peace of mind, even when my service doesn't amount to much else.

I'm glad I answered that call to serve this afternoon, and I'm honored that I was the one my friend chose to call and that he knew that I would answer.

Letting Agency Remain

In Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk, The Personal Journey of a Child of God, he quoted a woman named Emily, who had been the result of a teen pregnancy. Emily wrote that she was thankful for her birth mother's choice not to use her agency in a way that would have taken away Emily's agency. As a proponent of agency, I agree with this sentiment. We should not use our agency to restrict or invalidate the agency of others. Naturally, this includes not killing them, but it also includes passing strict and unreasonable laws and rules. It includes not trying to control people or manipulate them. Essentially, we should respect the freedom and agency of others and leave them with as many open options as possible.

We are both lucky and blessed to have agency. We should not now turn around and use our agency in any way that would restrict the agency of others.