Keep Moving Forward

Keep Moving Forward!

Do you remember why that is important? Probably, but regardless. In our swirling, twirling, ever busy lives, it becomes easier and easier to get lost. There comes a time in life, that because of this or that struggle it feels too hard to keep going any further. Somehow, life keeps going, and so do we. Which reminds me of this song, song, reminding us to put one foot in front of the other, keep walking. Quitting is easy. But there are those who are patient with others’ imperfections and choose to resist the winds of temptation and keep moving forward to their goal. They know what temptation feels like to the fullest extent, and they stand firm. With a little practice, we can too. We can give up the vices and temptations, and stand a little higher. The winds will still blow but we can be strong.

I made it to the top of one mountain in my life. Yes, just one. Anyway. It was remarkable. The view was remarkable and as soon as I caught my breath, I forgot the pain. Well, no. I didn’t forget it. But it made it meaningful. Do you know what else? There were so many more mountains ready to be climbed. Temptations, trials, errors to be overcome. Life keeps going, and so do we.

Keep moving forward. The end is in sight. There is a way out of whatever mess you find yourself in. There is always hope. No, I don’t personally know the details, but we all know enough to move forward. We can trust in and find peace that only the Savior of the World truly brings.

Take a minute, one little minute each day, look how far you have come. Are you moving forward? Are you getting better? Or are you getting worse with age? In Isaiah 25:6 the righteous are compared to “wine on the lees.” This wine, depending on the quality of the grapes, will make the wine better or worse if it is left on the lees. Are you getting better as you grow older? If you are not, you are getting worse, more responsible for your actions but no improvement. Most likely, you are at least making little movements forward.

I grew up in a football home, and where I do not play {very well}, I think about it anyway. For instance: 1. If there were no opposition in a football game, no one would watch, and no one would play. Life’s a little like that.  2. The goal is to keep moving forward, through the defenses and struggles, and to keep moving forward. Luckily in life we have a little more control over receivers and the players on our team, but in the same aspect, if we are not careful, we will slip up, and we will be pushed back.

Start today, with the New Year, keep moving forward. Keep climbing, onward and upward. It is hard and sometimes scary. It requires leaps of faith in others and with yourself. I love the quote “try a little harder to be a little better” from President Gordon B. Hinckley, just try a little harder each day to improve in some way. Make it a little farther through the marathon of your life. Don’t go backwards. You have a crucial part to play. You are surrounded by those who love you, you have support in place. Now, keep moving forward, on to bigger and better mountains to climb, for adventure is waiting.

With this New Year, the Resolutions abound, and so does the expectation that they won’t last very long. Right? Well, then don’t label this a “New Year’s Resolution.” Just try a little harder to be a little better, and remember to Keep Moving Forward.

__________ is a Virtue

As I began thinking about this post, I kept thinking that I’m not saying anything new with this post or any of my other posts. Then, I thought about the title of this blog, it is “Remember” not “Listen to my profound new information.”

Patience is a Virtue

Sometimes I have it.

Sometimes I do not.

So, be patient with my impatience, 

...and someday I’ll get better.

Quality takes time. It is easy to tell when something has been rushed through. It is {hopefully} equally acknowledged when something is truly amazing. I’ve been thinking about this post for about a week and where that does not qualify it for a work of genius, hopefully my thoughts are better organized than they would have been without my preparation.

My earliest memory about patience comes from waiting for my grandma to make breakfast.  I must really have been bothering her because I remember her scolding me to be patient. “Patience is a virtue.” I did not like her reply and did not want to be patient. I still struggle with patience, but a couple of times I’ve been told I am patient, so I must at least be better at hiding my impatience. 

One step at a time.

Find what you need to work on, what you thrive doing, something you are weak at, find something that is important to you, and be patient in your quest. Then, take it one step at a time. Do not rush your masterpiece. This is your life, live it! Don’t waste it in your haste. Take time to make sure each piece is properly in place.

Remember, be patient with yourself as you develop patience. It does take time, but you can do it. Take the time each day to enjoy life a little more, see what is important and build on that foundation.

Suffering

First, I would like to point you to an essay I read and found interesting, it is called The Problem of Evil by Richard Swinburne. The Problem of Evil simply asks how can an all powerful, all loving, all knowing God can allow for evil, pain, and suffering to exist in this world. Such an idea at first glance does seem incompatible. For, if God were all loving surely He would not allow suffering, but maybe He lacks the knowledge or power to fix it. Maybe He knows how and can fix it but chooses not to because He does not love us, etc. The four main arguments that the above link suggests are as follows:

1. God should not create anything that would do anything evil
2. If He does create those with potential to do something evil, He ought to make sure that they do nothing evil on accident

3. Freedom and responsibility have gone too far- There is too much suffering

4. If we have to allow for all the above, there should at least be no natural evils (i.e. hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.)

Being as long winded as I am, I could explain the responses posed by Richard Swinburne in the essay I linked you to- but it would take too long and you would lose any remaining patience you have for my thoughts.

So, instead, I will focus on what I want you to remember. Agency is vital to everything. If God in any way dictated who we are, we would no longer have any potential for growth or for meaning. Our character would be fixed, static for eternity. With the potential for evil, we have the potential to reach even higher, past all the struggles and heartache, on to perfection. On an especially hard day, it is easy to imagine it would just be better if we were all perfect already, never a bad day, never a struggle, no more pain. This ideal will come, but will be for the greatest good if we have the opportunity to progress and create the perfect world with Him.

Lately I have had a series of little, insignificant trials and I struggled to understand why. These "evils" were in no way eternally significant, and I couldn't comprehend why I had to have so many little problems.  Sometimes, even little trials are given to us and we just need to learn from them. No one is exempt from having a hard day once and awhile. Without these little trials, I would not have developed the relationship and deeper understanding I have of our God. I was not at the crossroads of my eternal character, but by making daily choices to trust and to be optimistic, I am building the foundation of who I can be for the rest of my life.

There are much bigger problems in the world than what I face daily. They need our care and attention. But, sometimes they are overwhelming. There is so much that needs to be done and so little time and cooperation to do so. Remember that just because there has to be suffering does not mean we have to fix everything right now. I find a lot of comfort in the Starfish Story, that just doing what we can, makes a big difference to someone somewhere. We do not need to be the Savior of the World, for we already have one. We are called to lift where we stand. Suffering is a natural part of life, but it has an end. It will cease and we can do a lot now to learn from and lessen the suffering in the world.

Puzzles and Perspective

Puzzles

Puzzles

Puzzles

Puzzles intrigue me. I have two main metaphors that I use with puzzles, which I find calming, bringing life back into perspective. They are by no means perfect, but fun to think about and to remember.

When putting a puzzle together, I often find a piece that looks perfect. It has the right colors, it has the basic shape. But it does not fit. The angle is wrong. The corners don't line up. I usually fight with it for a little while begging it to just go where I want.

I love to plan things- I love to watch my plans unfold in my life and I love seeing how everything just fits together. Sometimes, like with a perfect job, or a perfect school, perfect life, everything just seems so close that it physically hurts when it does not fit together. If the angle was changed in just the right way it would fit perfectly.

But where does that leave the rest of the puzzle, the piece that was meant to go there? What about where the altered piece was supposed to go? 

There is a Hebrew proverb that fits here- "if you ever want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." We don't have the perspective to always know what is right for us. We have our ideals and our visions of grandeur, but sometimes they fall apart. The pieces don't fit together.

I'm at a point right now in life where for myself and those around me, life is starting to fall into place. When we continue on doing the best we can with the pieces of our lives we can see and manage, we can take a step back and see the picture of what is to come. Because of Him, all the pieces have a place. Each piece contributes a vital piece to the puzzle of our individual lives, and the puzzle of the entire world. 

My second metaphor is closely related and I can sum it up in one sentence:

I figure, if God can guide the tiny pieces into their perfect places, He can surely guide the big pieces.

Sometimes in my day, I am just miserable about something. It is probably small and of no consequence, but still it is hard. One semester, I had to walk a long way to class, up and down this really long set of stairs at least 5 times a day, and was always almost late for class. This was in the summer and it was really hot. I would come up the stairs after the second time and just want to cry. Luckily I kept walking. But everyday, for just thirty seconds, this little breeze enveloped me. I felt better and refreshed because of it. Other times I will be in an extreme hurry or coming home from a long day, and I just want a good parking spot. And I can tell you that I found them. I found the comfort that I was seeking. 

If He can give me what I need just when I need it, these little moments, I know He can put the big ones in place, like the rewards of my work, education, job, spouse, health, etc. It's in the little blessings that we truly find the Lord's magnificence. Big puzzles are easy to put together. The little puzzles that look so close together and have so much detail its hard to distinguish, are for the more advanced puzzlers. He is already the master of the small things so I can trust that He will take care of the Big Pieces too, and He has.

Keep life in perspective. Keep moving forward. Remember Him. Remember that even if your life puzzles you with all its confusing intricacies that there is the Master at the helm, He can see what goes where, He knows what your puzzle will look like when it is finished, He knows how to connect it to the entire world, everything has a place. Trust in Him.

Writing

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.

Mark Twain

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.

Edward Albee

The art of writing is one of the greatest blessings we enjoy. To cultivate it is our duty, and to use it is our privilege.

The Prophet Joseph Smith

Since I decided I would start writing a blog, more than 75 ideas of topics that I’ve wanted to share have come bursting through my mind, almost like the floodgates have opened. Writing a more “philosophical” and “theological” blog as opposed to verbally explaining it, really fits my personality much better. I am definitely not perfect in writing and sometimes I really don’t make sense or am able to truly capture what I mean or feel based on the limits of language and my skill as a writer. Hopefully I will get better each post and you can learn something from what I say.

Yesterday as all these ideas kept coming I had to keep going to my computer or find scraps of paper to write all my ideas down, because, it is hard to remember everything. I wrote in my journal how I’ve felt about the whole thing, and it just feels right to write down. At the very least, I will have a more centralized location where I can draw upon this to remember things which are important, i.e., for a talk, a conversation, just for something to think about.

Here is a little list of some things I will be writing about in the future:

Puzzles; Lessons from hiking; Being creative; Agency; Morality; Influence v. cause; Respect; Knowledge; Problem of Evil; Media’s influence; Responsibility; A time for rest; Obedience; List of quotes and scriptures; Friendship; You can make a difference; Wicked take the truth to be hard; Pursue or Ensue; Cleanliness and order.

How’s that? Are you intrigued? Me too.

Invitation to Remember

I decided to write this blog for a couple of reasons.

1. Through writing, I am able to continue learning, and sharing that 

knowledge is very important to me.

2. I enjoy writing, so wanted to continue after I left school

3. Think and analyze my own thoughts and assumptions

4. To give you something to think about.

My goals for this are to write about ideas I've been considering, in a less formal way, than for a talk or academic paper. It's weird but I often think how I'd love to prepare a talk about a certain subject, but, never give it... so this will be my way of giving a talk without all the nerves and pressure associated. 

This blog will be a thoughtful, respectful, look at different topics that I hope we will all remember. President Kimball is often quoted for saying the most important word is to remember. I love going through the scriptures and reading the counsel to remember. I feel the idea of remembering truly is our challenge in mortality. We will remember our true priorities and work towards them, we will remember who each person is, a Child of God, we will remember to be faithful stewards of our planet and His creations, we will remember to be obedient because we remember why it is important.

Most importantly, we will remember His Son, Jesus Christ, His life and sacrifice for us, His love that He freely gives to us, and His arms, ever stretching out towards us. If we remember, we can truly become as He is, but it will not happen by accident.

 Hopefully, I won't be a nuisance with my posts, but that if you have time you can find something of value with what I have written.