Too much or not enough

I actually propose that it is just right.
What? You might be asking yourself, but I will tell you.
How much truth is taught during general conference?
That is a strange question, I know, but what would you say?
100%
Most
Enough
All

“In the [several] two-hour sessions . . . , truths were taught, doctrines expounded, exhortations given, enough to save the whole world from all its ills—and I mean from ALL its ills. A rather complete education in eternal verities was given to millions with a great hope that there were ‘ears a’hearing and eyes a’seeing and hearts a’throbing,’ convinced of truth.”
President Spencer W. Kimball
If you are not excited for conference you should read THIS

A Vehicle

True Discipleship
"You cannot communicate with God unless you have first sacrificed you self oriented, natural man, and have brought yourself into the lower levels of meekness, to become acceptable for the light of Christ."
I have some room for growing.
Thank you Elder Busche

Lessons learned from my Nook

So I am calling a friend after work and don't have four hands so a bunch of stuff ends up on top of my car and one item does not get in my car. 

My nook.

You may not know what a nook is, but imagine a 7x9 eReader device that gets smashed to little bits when it is on top of your car and falls and hits the road and a car hits it ass you are driving with it on top of your car.

So, you are up to speed. 

After realizing I didn't have it I started to freak inside until I remembered to pray.

I let Heavenly Father know that I wasn't really upset to lose the device because I had been stupid, but I would really like to get the card back because it had all of the books on it. 

I looked and didn't find anything. 

I went home and just forgot about it and started figuring when I could get a new one. 

Sunday rolls around and go to church and then to another ward to give a promo for institute and my amazing EQ President calls up. I call him back and he lets me know that my home teaching companion has my nook. So I call him up and he said that a guy was behind me and saw it fall off and a car hit and stopped to get it. He had been unable to turn it on to retrieve any owner information but found a home teaching assignment in it and called my companion. He went and got it and it was returned to me.

The next happy thing that happens is that I got extended replacement and it is going to get replaced with a new one, and I got my card back. 

It never ceases to amaze me how personally invested God is in our lives.

I hope you had a happy Monday!

The Power of One

I don't know if any of you ever watched that in Jr. High/High School or if they still show it, but I thought it was not really beneficial. Call me a critic or cynical, but I was unimpressed. 
I have come to learn though that the power of one is interesting.
In math the power of one is the original number itself. Something rather insignificant to most people. But actually the math in powers is interesting. You are looking for sets.
3^2=9
Why?
{ (1,1), (1,2), (1,3), (2,1), (2,2), (2,3), (3,1), (3,2), (3,3) }
What the property really says is that there are 9 sets of two numbers in the tuple set,
10^1=10
Again
{ (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8), (9), (10) }
There are 10 sets of 1 number
The power of one lays the basis for all further math of exponentials to build on.
I am amazed at the power of one, because as you can clearly see it it not merely the number itself. It is a set of individual numbers that make the whole.
Often people do nothing because one person cannot make a difference.
People who say that have never tried. 
One person can make all the difference in the world.
Most of the times that I count as defining moments in my life are on a one to one basis. It is where we reach out and touch one person. The desire to effect more than one person is great as long as it does not diminish our ability to reach out and serve the one person in the meantime.
One nice thing for someone will always find it's way to someone else. So from all the people that I have touched to all of those who have touched me they say thank you. 
I thought that you should know that truth about the power of one.

Blu-ray

So I noticed something very interesting the other day. I am of coarse awaiting my pre-ordered copy of Tangled and waiting anxiously to be able to watch it, but one thing bothers me.
Blu-ray
I can buy the widescreen edition for $15 or I can buy a combo pack for $30. The combo pack comes with a digital download that retails for $15. Hence the $30. However, there are also two, not one but two Blu-ray discs that are included (a 3D and a 2D disc). 
This begs the question as to why.
I am really starting to wonder if I am going to have to switch over my immense Disney DVD collection to Blu-ray. With practically giving them away in combo packs to the point where I don't know why you wouldn't get two discs for free. 
This has just been on my mind for the last few days. 
I have already made up my mind seeing as how it is ordered, but still I am not really sure that the Blu-ray thing is as exciting as some people make it out to be. After all DVD is pretty incredible quality.
All the same I am a technology freak, and interested to see where it goes. Because as a geek I am sure that Blu-ray is not the end of the entertainment industry.
Change is just hard sometimes.

It's a Beautiful Day

Don't let it slip away
An interesting song that I like to listen to says that it's a beautiful day and I have lots of time to think about what makes a day beautiful. It is usually one part or thing that makes the day stand out.
Getting to see a friend that I haven't seen in a while
Helping someone or making a difference
Going on a date
A sunrise or a sunset that impresses me
Spending time with my family
The more I look the more I find reasons why life is beautiful.
Today was a beautiful day
My advise; don't let it slip away.
Embrace it and find ways to make everyday beautiful.
It only takes one good thing to outweigh every bad thing.

Smiles

I don't think that you can get much closer to heaven than smiling. It is a sensation that I love. I love to think about smiling, I love to make other people want to smile, I love to induce smiling, laughing, any of the related emotions. I think that is one reason that I am sufficiently happy in life. It is an interesting thing to consider.

Do our thoughts really influence who we are as much as some people say

I think so. If you are focused on the negative then it tends to exude from their presence. If they focus on being happy they are happy. If we focus on Christ then every good thing is ours to claim. 

That is mercy. 

To know that Christ came to suffer for our sins, but also to show us the way to be truly happy. His thoughts were always centered on the Father. What would He do if he were here. What would He say if they had asked Him. In so doing he reached out to the one. 

I may only be able to reach out to the one, but I can reach out to the one. 

I can put my own selfish desires aside and do something for someone. 

I can take a minute to send a text to someone in need. 

I can go out of my way to do something that is nice for someone else.

I often take out much more than that for myself.

Time

I was thinking about the passage of time and how it seems like life is much more meaningful when looked at as a whole and in frames. Lots of people that I talk to break time into common units like weeks, months, quarters, years, etc. I like to use frames. Usually in regard to my frame of mind during a period. It helps me to look at my life in a better light and break down my accomplishments, my shortcomings, and evaluate where and what I can improve. 
I noticed that people also use this same characterization with the scriptures. They classify chapters, and books, but I prefer blocks. I find that even after the chapter ends that the idea is continued throughout several chapters and it is referred back to often in subtle ways. The writing style of the authors is often harmonious and it provides better background to go back and find new insight. I find that the less I lump things together in common ways the less I think common things. 

Your very best?

You should only watch this if you want your life changed (and the rest of the blog to make sense)


What is my very best?
The funny thing about that question is that only God knows until I have achieved it. Then we both do.
Many people give various reasons for trials. I side with the scriptures and other writers like C.S. Lewis. Trials show us what our potential is. They show us where we are weak and where we are strong and often times, if we press on to the end, we have achieved more than we thought possible. Faith is the blindfold that allows us to truly achieve that which we cannot imagine. For if we walked by "knowledge" and not by faith we would stop at the 30 having given our all and the rest of our potential would be wasted. The truth is that we have no knowledge to walk by if it was not for faith which grows into a perfect knowledge.

A beautiful mind

A beautiful mind is a terrible thing to waste and that is why I am grateful for amazing people that remind me of things that are often able to be forgotten. 
One of my friends recently posted a topic about the Holocaust.
This reeled my mind back to college and my final research paper that I ever presented.
The Holocaust.
I watched hours of videos with live interviews from survivors and how living conditions were and what it would have been like. Hours going through the effects of the USHMM and books that made you realize that even though some talk about the Holocaust like a fiction novel that has the rebels on the run from the Nazi Party, it was not a storybook affair. 
It made me sit in the Library and wonder. 
Wonder about man's inhumanity to man.
Wonder about God and how He views the world.
Wonder about how the human family can fall.
I came to appreciate one of the most prolific writers and survivors of the Holocaust. There was rarely a movie that he was not mentioned in. He wrote several of the books that were included in my final project.
He truly came to know God in a place that others would have defined as Hell, in more ways than one. The fires that burned day and night consuming bodies. The smell, the conditions, the torment, the degradation. Yet this comes from a man who was there, 
"Don't aim at success the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it..."
It was after this after truly thinking and pondering about what I learned from the Holocaust that I vowed that I would never have a bad day.
 When we only care about making ourselves happy that is what causes a Holocaust. 
Happiness is what you let happen to yourself by not caring about it. It is that which then ensues you as you pursue serving another. 
I have not had a bad day since I realized that happiness is like the treasure that one seeks and never finds. It is already within us. The only obstacle is us, for while it is in us, it takes another to unlock it. 
Victor Frankl found a purpose by giving others purpose. He would share his rations and gave hope to so many. There is so much that should not be taken from the Holocaust and that is what people tend to focus on. What we need to take from it is more important or it was for naught and will be forgotten.
Let us never forget.

I'm trying to be like Jesus

So one of my favorite primary songs and an interesting idea that I have been stewing over (for a really long time but recently as well).
Why do I do the things that I do?
This had a new level added to it for me. I was at FHE and there was a girl there that was asking some of the leaders for help. She wasn't from the ward but I could tell that she wasn't going to get any help either so I offered to help her with the math. 
Time out.
Why do we go to FHE?
To socialize?
To do something on Monday nights?
Or is it really to worship God?
I decided that helping with math was what I ought to do and so I helped with her math while everyone else went out and went on the amazing service scavenger hunt. (It really was the best organized service scavenger thing I have ever seen.) 
This got me to thinking though. 
Do I read my scriptures to check off a list or mark a calendar? Do I home teach to report at the end of the month that it is done? Do I go to church because I know I need to? 
While they may not be evil they are wasting my progression. 
I really got to take a step back and think and say, "If I am really doing all of these things to learn how to be like the Savior and learn to love like the Savior and develop a relationship with the Savior then I should probably think about trying to be like the Savior when I am not doing those things. 
The Savior would be late to a meeting to hold a door for someone. 
He would take time from teaching to touch the one.
He would put aside His own wants and desires to help another. 
If those are not the feelings that are tugging at my heart strings then I need to re-evaluate my prayers, scripture study, temple attendance, Sabbath observance, Institute participation, service and everything that we do to try and be like Jesus. 
Would we put off a friend because we have to read our scriptures? Would we not home teach so that we could go to a fireside? 
Not to say that those things are unimportant because they are, but what is neglected because of them is also important. We might have to sacrifice more me time to then read our scriptures if we take time to help someone in need. 
Anyway probably mind vomit to you but I like to think, keeps my mind active. 

To Quench

So I am a word nerd. I may or may not have mentioned it before but I love etymology and the expression found in old language. It is simply beautiful. Interesting word that wasn't mentioned in church today but you will see the importance later.

Quench

Etymology

asbestos
late 14c., fabulous stone, which, when set afire, would not be extinguished; from O.Fr. abeste, from L. asbestos "quicklime" (which "burns" when cold water is poured on it), from Gk. asbestos, lit. "inextinguishable," from a- "not" + sbestos, verbal adj. from sbennynai "to quench," from PIE base *(s)gwes- "to quench, extinguish" (cf. Lith.gestu "to go out," O.C.S. gaso, Hittite kishtari "is being put out"). Meaning "mineral capable of being woven into incombustible fabric" is from c.1600; earlier this was called amiant (early 15c.), from L. amiantus, from Gk. amiantos "undefiled" (so called because it showed no mark or stain when thrown into fire). Pliny was the first to make the error of calling this asbestos. Supposed in the Middle Ages to be salamanders' wool. Prester John, the Emperor of India, and Pope Alexander III were said to have had robes or tunics made of it.

Definitions 

1. To extinguish; to put out; as, to quench flame.

2. To still; to quiet; to repress; as, to quench a passion or emotion.
3. To allay or extinguish; as, to quench thirst.
4. To destroy.

5. To check; to stifle; as, to quench the Spirit.

So a friend of mine had a non-associated friend die. We were discussing this with a small group and he said towards the end something to the affect that he felt sheltered in a way that some people effected by the death were not. 

I thought that was interesting and was looking at faith, shield, quench and go to thinking how does it relate, if at all, to his statement?

Interestingly enough shields are not designed to deflect. That is what I naturally assumed. Shields are typically made from two materials; wood or steel. Steel is extremely elastic and therefore terrible for deflected. It will merge with the impact and thus absorb the effect of the blow instead of bouncing the two people in crazy directions. 

So with my reading and what I was able to find out faith has yet another new layer added to it. Faith is the shield. If given the choice between a sword and a shield, take the shield. But if you want more reliable advise it says Ephesians 6:17 reads, "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Above all sounds pretty important.

So conclusion I am pretty stoked about faith. It literally absorbs all of the fear, the hate, the hurt, the abuse, even death that may come from outside forces, but also gives us the strength to repent and thus not only absorb the outer threats, but to draw out the stain from within us.

Faith in the Lord Jesus Chirst and His Atonement. Makes sense why the last part has been added as of late.

Keep it simple

This is my number one of the three. I have become a professional at simplifying my life to the basic aspects. I realized long ago that having things in my life that people believe you need to have to experience an enriched life just stressed me out. I have "swings" because of it though. Most people will call it mania. But I find that if I can focus on a few things and keep my highest priority items at the top of the list then everything gets done in a first in first out manner and I still get all of the necessities taken care of. It is a great feeling to be able to "get things done" but to actually see the results that brought on the original desire to get things done.

Elevate your Sights

This is principle number two and probably the hardest one for me. I am learning and hopefully not in the worst way but I know that it is not the best or there just isn't a good way to learn. Goals are what i automatically think of. and setting specific goals was never my strong suit, because I am a passionate person. When I feel strongly about something I will preform above my natural abilities even in order to make things the way I feel are right. Setting my sights higher and striving for that daily is something that i am terrible at. I think that it is something that makes him a great man as he strives to do this in everything. I just need to learn more reasonable goal setting and find a way to make it work. After all the only reason that I don't is that I lack the faith that it will bring beneficial results for my life. It is the one that I am working on.

Striving for Excellence

So I know some incredibly epic people. I thought that I would share one of three things that one of them has stressed . 
Be excellent in  the basics. 
Pretty simple, right? Maybe for a week or two right after New Years Resolutions are over. 
But really it is. I was talking with my mom about how funny life is and that the only thing that I can really see regretting in the next life is how much time was wasted. I am blown away by how petty people can be and how much they can focus on things that they
1. cannot change
2. will not care about tomorrow
3. should not care about in the first place
There's a new high school and you can see the pride seething from most of the parents and it is pathetic. One group of parents doesn't want their kids going to school with stuck up kids and the other doesn't want their kids going to school with white trash. 
It makes me laugh except for the fact that it is sad. Both people are in sin as much as the other and neither can see it. Pride goes both ways. Then I think wow what a waste of time and energy. But they have mastered the basics of sin. 
So how do we become excellent in the basics that will allow us to become who we want to become?
The same way. We allow the gospel to consume our lives as others allow pride to take them in. We fiercely oppose evil and we read our scriptures, say our prayers, remain temple worthy, and serve others. 
Excellence in the basics is easyA.
What basics are we most excellent in?

A day at Disneyland

Wouldn't be enough.
It's been good to go through and think about it for a bit and I will get back to other things that I am needing to blog about, but all in all this has really helped me which I feel is the main reason for this blog. It's a catalog of my feelings. I know that even though there are lots of times when I am far away from Disneyland that the reason that I love it so much continues with me. 
I love it because it helps me choose to be happy.
I have recently taken up reading 21 year old archived dilbert comics and some are really amazing. You will see them up on my wall and the best part about reading them at work is that I am nearly laughing when I pick up the phone and am able to portray to the customers that call in how fantastic my day has been and some even ask. Even when I am not in Disneyland I have my great memories that serve me and the sense of childhood fantasy that makes life so incredible that you can't wait to get out of bed in the morning.

I'm addicted to you

Besides being a great old school song about dumb love, it is how I feel about Disneyland.
I mean really. 
Colored sidewalks and always clean. Music everywhere you go, and on frequent occasion live music. Food that makes the palette exultant and rides and fantasy magic that every child believes in. It is where I go to become young again. .Especially the older that I get the more that I realize that life can age you rather quickly. Stress and other things can accumulate and then what? You feel old. 
There are several things that can fix that for me, but the deepest return to childhood is Disneyland. It cleanses long embedded spores of unnecessary viral aging and restores my belief in magic.
That may seem stupid and too childish to you, but the more I understand about the gospel and the more that I learn the more that my trips come to mean. They are not nearly as instructive as a temple experience or anything, but with the vacation from "real life" comes a new perspective that will always exist as I go about doing my thing. Disneyland is my escape from that. 
I have other escapes too, whether four wheeling in the mountains, taking pictures, spending time with family, hanging out with friends, or the other various activities of life that I have found recluse in they are in their own ways each therapeutic, but Disneyland will always hold a special place in my heart. It may be something in the air, but the more that I go it is something inside of me that draws me back each time. Something that has etched the goings and comings of that place in the eternal parts of my soul. Something that feels a lot like Home.

Disneyland

Do I miss it? You could say that.


Fantasmic


I will be posting about Disneyland on and off for a bit or at least until I can get over my pining.

To be or not to be...

Elder Holland is one of my heroes and I heard two talk references today that he gave so I thought I would talk about them because they are interrelated topics and from the same person.
The other reason is because I saw that a few people read the how to have a good day post and were probably disappointed. This is the best, concise teaching I have found on how to be happy and have a good day.
As Elder Holland states much better than I can, the best way to have a good day and be happy is to know that unhappiness has an end. Most anyone can suffer through unpleasantness if they know that it has an end. I am not talking about the eternity kind of end, though that will certainly end ALL sorrow and suffering. I am talking about the living reality of Jesus Christ the Son of God. Because He lives and loves us our bad days and suffering have an end in Him as soon as we seek the solace that He offers. We must keep moving forward and that takes real faith that the best is truly yet to be. 


The best is yet to be 

Good things to come.

How to have a good day.

Decide to have a good day.
That was easy.


No, I know that there is a lot more that goes into having a good day, but realistically this is a great start. Most of the time if we start out finding the bad in a certain thing then it becomes extremely difficult to find the good because we have predetermined that it is bad. 
One of the best examples; Monday. Ever since I looked at Monday as a continuation of my weekends it is a great day. I love getting up on Monday just as much as every other day now and it is no longer the dreaded Monday. It no longer ruins my weekend but only services to enhance it.


So Decide to have a good day and Day Light Savings Sunday March 13th, @ 2:00 a.m. Don't miss it.

Life gets interesting

I love looking back on things that happen in life. 
I love wondering during interesting times, "What will this look like when I look back?"
I love wondering why it's so hard to see right now for what it is.


Life is always getting more interesting. It is one of the things that gives me great joy in life. I love to be able to live life without stressing about others opinions or worries. I look at how much I've grown and realize that I used to be a punk.There are so many thing that I realize and the best way to describe it is like climbing a very interestingly shaped cliff. You reach a ridge that is sooooo high that you could never possibly see over it. You climb it with much help and physical, mental, emotional excursion and then you go a little way on and find another cliff. The interesting part is that when you look back on the first, second, third, etc. Ridges that you climbed each keeps diminishing in size because of your perspective. I use to think that being single was the worst punishment that could be endured by man. After dating lots of girls I realize that marrying the wrong person is and that I am happy and am able to make others happy just as well as a single as I can a married person. The happiness is different, but not more. It's made me more responsible and depend more on Heavenly Father. I have needed that. 
I also used to think that surviving in the world was impossible. Money makes the world go round, right? Wrong. Funny how you find that so many things that you though years ago are simply perceived with a limited perspective. 
I love going to the temple for that reason. Perspective. That is one of the greatest ways to make life interesting. You want to see your old troubles in their true light? You need to go to the temple for that. Then you realize the size of the world and our place in it, coupled with the size of eternity and our possibly ever present reality there.

Much love

I was reading Luke 7, one of my favorite chapters, and at the end of the chapter after all of the great things that Jesus does He sits with the Pharisee Simon to eat. During the course of the night there comes a woman who crying bathes his feet with her tears and dries them with her hair and anoints Him with oil. Simon is troubled that Jesus would let this go on knowing that the woman touching Him is unclean, and the Savior precedes to give Him one of the greatest parables about love I know of. 

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

I always find it interesting since returning from my mission to find people that love the Savior in varying degrees. We all owe the Savior an infinite amount. There is no one that can say, "Well I've never broken the law of chastity or the word of wisdom or killed anyone and this person has done all of that, therefore I need to repent of less than they do." All of the sin in the world is just as damning as the single smallest sin in regards to entering the Kingdom of God. There is no varying degrees within righteousness. We are either clean or we are dirty. Therefore we all need forgiveness equally. The difference of the people in the parable then is not one of quantity of sin for the quantity is the same, one. the difference between the two people is the one justified that he only owed his debtor fifty pence while the other accepted that he owed the full amount. If we claim that we have overcome sin "on our own" and therefore are the owners of it then we do not owe the debt of gratitude to the Savior for that sin. The truth is that Christ has already purchased all of our sin. We give it to Him and in return He gives himself to us. That was the trade in the Garden that night of Atonement and it is the trade today. The Son of God for the sins of the world or our world. If we realize how much Christ has done for us then we love Him that much more. If we feel that we come into anything on our own then we automatically love Him less. 

So it is with others. If we truly love someone then we think about what we owe them. We realize that everything good in life comes from them for they are sent into our lives from Heavenly Father and Jesus from whom all good gifts come. We realize that and it increases our love of God and of that person. We then seek to do everything we can for them and for God. Which in turn deepens our ability to love. 

Much love everyone.

Post 111

Make a wish. It's as close as it gets.

The Greatest Generation

So yeah the CES Fireside was pretty sweet. I think that it was interesting that Elder Perry brought up that his generation was marked as the greatest generation. I had heard that applied to my generation on multiple occasions but I think that he gave us some keys on how to become the greatest generation and what was to be expected of us in order to become the greatest generation. There is no scriptural precedence that God should have a favorite people on the face of the earth. 
The only way to gain favor in the sight of God is to follow Him. 
You cannot be born great. Only for greatness.


"They had to learn to accept the future that played out one day at a time."


Daily Prayer
Daily Scripture Study
Temple Worthiness
Daily Service


These are what I believe are keys to becoming the greatest generation.


"Arise to a new sense of commitment and arise to become the greatest generation"


I submit that a "return to Christian values" is more than an invitation to be missionaries. It is an invitation to become as the the Savior is. It is an invitation to become the greatest generation. 
The greatest generation of missionaries
The greatest generation of leaders of His church
The greatest example of righteous living.
And through the grace of God, partakes of the greatest gift. The Atonement. And then as Elder Perry states extending that gift to others. And becoming saviors on Mount Zion, partners with the Savior of the World.

Vanity

The following is an excerpt from, "Be and Not Seem" - Elder MARION D. HANKS

"Vanity it is, to wish to live long, and to be careless to live well. [Thomas å Kempis, Of the Imitation of Christ, chapter 1]

Vanity it is, I add, and foolishness indeed, to pretend--to say and not to do, to seem and not to be.

In its worst form, that is hypocrisy. In its best form, I suppose, it might be thought to be pursuing the "as if" principle--that is, to say to oneself, "I will behave as if I were honest, decent, moral, courteous, gracious, sensitive, and courageous; and in so behaving, I will acquire the capacities, make the habits, and become capable of being all those things."

I suspect that most of us fall some place in between. We do not savor, and in fact sicken at, the thought that we are hypocrites, and yet we do so much to be seen of men. We sometimes say that which will tickle the ears of men. We pretend, knowing that in our own quiet places--our closets or, wherever the place, our minds--we are not what we seem.

That is not to suggest that only the perfect may act with credibility in matters of important principles. All of us fall short and are inevitably visited with the pangs and pains of our own failures; there is a universal understanding of that, since none of us is exempt from it. But to deliberately pretend, to put on a show, to give long prayers when we have devoured the widow's house, to do less than we can and should and pretend to do, to go through motions--not because they are honest efforts to do better, but simply to try falsely to fit somebody's conception of what we are--all of this is vanity and foolishness indeed. Christ's life, His instruction, and His testimony centered in being what we ought to be. And there is great room in His holy heart to forgive when we fall short in genuinely trying to be what we ought to be.

Early this morning, under the heading "be and not seem," I noted for myself an idea or two about Him, and I share them with you. These thoughts are not a pretense at comprehensive scholarship but simply an expression of what in Him seems to me at this hour to be so admirable and beautiful and worthy of emulation. I noted first His acute awareness and sensitivity to the lives and needs of others, to the point that the woman in the mob who touched the hem of His garment found response, not only in her own well-being but in His knowledge of the incident. He knew He had been touched, though ever so lightly. And when He mentioned it, His disciples, seeing the thronging multitudes, wondered how He could ask such a question. Who had touched Him? Many were touching Him. But one touched Him with a special need and a heart ready for the response, and He knew it. (See Mark 5:25-­34; Luke 8:43-­48.)

Another characteristic of the Lord was His acceptance of others as they were without the intention to leave them as they were. He could heal the body, bless the mind, and help change the soul of one who was willing--the prodigal, Zaccheus, Magdalene. Remember also that moment on the cross when He forgave. Most of all, I am touched by that tender time when a father who loved his ailing son, and who had sought help from the disciples and had not received it, presented himself to the Lord pleading for help. To him the Lord said, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." Do you think that one who has not loved a son might have a little less sensitivity to this. But with his heart and his life hanging on his son's well-being, when he was asked if he had faith he answered, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." He did not have perfect faith, but he knew to whom he spoke and trusted in Him. (See Mark 9:17­-27.) Oh, how I love and need that!

The reason that I choose this part is because it strikes me as the most important in my life. To wish to live long and to be careless to live well. And then with the plea help thou my unbelief. It will make more sense tomorrow, but I was researching, reading, studying and found this and it helped me understand a little better so I thought I would share this with you and hope that it helps you.

Faith

So I was reading today (and every other day too, but specifically today) and re-read that faith is the principle of action in all intelligent beings. Then in EQ they asked us why don't we do things that we know will bless us. The inverse then is true as far as I can tell. If faith is the principle of action then the principle of non-action is doubt. The reason that we do or do not do things is nothing other than a lack of faith. If you don't believe that it will rain out you don't wear or even take a coat. If you have a particle of faith that it will rain then you take a coat. If you really believe that it will rain then you wear a coat. So simple as I can put it is that when you boil everything down to the bits and pieces core it is Faith. The reason people don't go to church is that they lack faith that it will enhance every aspect of their lives. Apply it to raincoats, dating, church, school, and you will find that it is true. Faith is the principle of action in all intelligent beings and a lack of faith is the principle of non-action. If there is another thing that I am over looking I would appreciate your insight. This is still to be tested and analyzed but I think that it is a good start. 


P.S.
I know that there are only a dozen or so that even read this, but I have gotten lots of comments on needing to change my blog so that it is easier to read. I am not an interior design so if you want it to change then I need specific feedback. I am pretty relaxed about such trivial matters and the look is of no importance to me and I really don't think that it will make a big difference so if you want to see something I will be willing to try it.

Life in general

I couldn't think of anything specific to address today and so just a general state of life for now. 
Painting the house is an adventure but it will look great finished.
Work rocks my world. 
Institute is great.
I love my room.
My ward is pretty bom-diggitty
And people wonder why my life is great. Now you can stop wondering.

The Infinite Atonement

So this is a favorite topic to revisit specifically, and it gets drawn upon fairly often anyways, but the fact that the Atonement is infinite. I love that. 

Infinite

Boundless

Limitless

Unlimited

This means that God's mercy is unlimited. 

That is fairly ironic, because most of the time I think that people have a general perception that God is not as merciful as Christ. I believe that is false. I believe that they both have an unlimited amount of love and mercy. 

So the question that usually begets

"So if God has unlimited mercy then why will we not all return back to live with Him?'

Good question, but founded on a logical fallacy. We automatically assume that the only thing to keep us from returning to live with God would be Him. The truth is well founded in the opposite. Look at yourself. When you do something stupid to hurt someone's feelings how awkward is the first time that you see that person the next time? Multiply that by an unlimited amount. There is usually an awkward factor when people stop praying, reading scriptures, going to church, being social, etc. 

God wants everyone back. 

Do we want to be back with Him though?

The scriptures say that there will come a time of judgement and we will know that His judgement is just. The reason is that when we enter a kingdom of glory we will be eternally happy. It is a kingdom of glory. The problem is the scriptures also state that they who enter into a rest less than with the Father, do so only because they were not willing to receive that which they might have enjoyed. 

This does not mean that they will be miserable

They will live full happy and productive existences. 

However, because they were unwilling to deal with that awkward moment of I have really messed up and I want to make things right, they refuse and accept less. 

The great thing is that it will still cover the unfairness of life. 

Anything that was dealt to you unjustly or because of the actions of someone else will be compensated for. Things will be weighed equally, but there will still be some who will not want to have all that the Father has. 

It really shouldn't shock you though, if you think about it you all know people like that and I have a lot of those tendencies within myself. At its root; Pride. So, now what. Decide what you want and you will know who to follow to get what you want. 

Spectacular Events

So discussing spectacular events and things that are great and that you remember in an Institute class, I had an interesting thought. If anything from a few minutes to a few years is defined as a spectacular event then my life is a spectacular event. All of the great things I've done, and people I've met, friends, I've made and lost. All of these things are in their own way spectacular events. Thus my life is a spectacular event and this weekend it is going to be even more so.

Back to December

No this isn't a post about a great Taylor Swift song, though I have listened to it recently and like it for the most part. I just needed a title and it was on my mind. 
I love my institute class. I think that it is interesting to see different teaching styles though. I love how the gospel works differently on different people and you can totally tell the way that some people teach. There are some people who teach with source material, from source material, and with no source material. I prefer with no source material. It is much more difficult,  but everything is until it gets easy. There are teachers who demand class participation, encourage class participation, and discourage class participation by lecturing. Depending on the circumstance my mode changes but I know that I like the second option and things usually go best with the middle option. 
So why no source material. I find that writing a talk out was always laborious for me. I can never follow a topic and I prefer to derive topics and lessons and principle from the scriptures that are applicable to our lives and that is hard to do with lots of forethought. It floes much better to be speaking and then realize that it relates to a scripture and then deliver the contents of the scriptures in an applicable format. 
Kinda besides the point except that we had a substitute tonight that was a different style from our normal teacher, so it was different. 
We are in 3rd Nephi and talking about the teachings of the Savior to the people in the America's and miracle were introduced to the lesson with what seemed to be an intended tangent so that we didn't spend too much time in 3rd Nephi which irked me because I think that most people are uncomfortable in the particular block we are in because they do not understand it. But anyway we spent a good chunk of class covering two week old sunday school material but I got to thinking on my own tangent of the tangent of miracles and faith.
In 3rd Nephi Jesus Christ tells the people that he has never seen such great faith among all the Jews and that they have neither heard nor seen the things which they have heard and seen.
So I thought to reason that they learned by faith. Which means that learning by faith means that you discern spiritually, because of great faith, the true nature of things. Growing in faith means that your understanding grows and that as you come closer to the Savior that you accept with faith, based on prior manifestations the truth of what is presented. Faith is the price. Because of great faith they heard and saw things that others did not, because they were willing to do what others were not. They understood and continually grew in their understanding. That is why two people can sit in the same room and hear the same things and one understands and one does not. The one who understands exercises faith based on prior knowledge and experience. The one who misses the point refuses to accept immediately what has been given and wants to mull it over and separate it and put it back together. When the Spirit came to the first and said this is true and you need to change he said yes. The second said well I need to change to here and here but what has this got do with anything. I am fine there. 
Faith to change is a willingness to accept that we are not perfect and that perfection in it's truest form is progression. When we are becoming perfect we are always changing. Hence perfection is only achieved by gaining the narrow and narrowing way that leads to eternal life. From the distance a vanishing point is observed as the destination. when finding it however we realize that the road stretches on. Not to realize that the journey to perfection is impossible, but it is in our "eternal" progression. We will always be becoming more perfected. I submit that there is nothing that does not need changing and modifying in our lives even though we may have reached a perfection.

I hope that you are happy

So I was listening to some music and Wicked came on and it says, "I hope you're happy!I hope you're happy now! I hope you're happy how you've hurt your cause forever, I hope you think you're clever! I hope you're happy! I hope you're happy, too. I hope you're proud how you would grovel in submission to feed your own ambition. So though I can't imagine how, I hope you're happy, right now!"
I actually hope that you are happy, not like this.