Day 12: Good, Better or Best

This is Day 12 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.

The fact that life has choices means there are more than a thousand ways to go about it. In giving us a world of choices God surely knows that some will be bad, some will be good, and some will be "best." His written law, the ten commandments, his beatitudes and other parables point the way to the choices that lead to the "best" outcomes. His prediction is that "few there be that find it (meaning the best path)." This speech encourages us to be strategic about our use of time and resources so that we are on the best path.

1. Read the Speech:

Speech

2. Take the Quiz

Quiz

3. Personal Challenge Statement: I will take responsibility for my past choices by making better choices today.

4. Goal: Make a plan to align your inner desires with your outward choices.

5. Dig Deeper: Best Family Councils
Do You See Small Enough?
Course Correction

image credit: flickr/Steven Guzzardi

You Can Have What You Want or You Can Have Something Better

This post is about the Ten Commandments.  Each item corresponds to one of the ten in order as described by Moses in Exodus 20.

1. You can believe in many gods or no god at all; you can look to horoscopes and scientific hypotheses for explanations or — you can have something better: a rock solid belief in God and trust that He will explain everything in his own due time.
2. You can have your big house, fast car, and all the distractions of life or — you can have something better: a relationship with God.
3. You can make your point with profanity or — you can have something better: reverence for the source of true power in the universe.
4. You can vacation, work, wash your car and a hundred other things on the Sundays of your life — or you can have something better: nourishment that comes from worshipping in church and studying God’s word privately.
5. You can harbor hatred towards your parents for all the mistakes they made — or you can accept their gift of life and the things they did right as the gift they truly are.
6. You can take your frustrations to the extreme and kill either yourself or someone else or — you can learn to be happy by dealing with your emotions.
7. You can have an affair, an open relationship or experiment with same gender attractions or — you can have something better: a marriage to someone who also keeps the law of chastity.
8. You can take what you want or think you deserve with no thought for the consequences to others or — you can earn your daily bread through honest labor and gain the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
9. You can pretend to be who you aren’t, offer what you can’t deliver, and say what you don’t mean, but there is something better: one heart and one mind at peace with yourself and others.
10. You can have a negative perspective preferring to focus on all the things you don’t have — a house as big as your neighbor’s, a husband or wife as good as someone else, a lack of health, wealth or talents and you can become bitter and resentful of God — or you can have something better: faith in His purposes for your life, hope in a brighter tomorrow, love for your neighbor and yourself and a sense of contentment and happiness.

Life is undoubtedly hard.  The trials we face force us to use all our resources, develop resources we never had and discover our own grit and stick-to-it-ness.  These Ten Commandments (as with all commandments) point the way to happiness.

This video is an excellent speech given to an audience of young BYU students but with a timeless message of hope and encouragement.

The title comes from Jeffrey R Holland as quoted here.

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True and Perfect Worship

"True and perfect worship consists in following in the steps of the Son of God:

Keeping the commandments
Obeying the will of the Father
Living
Doing
Obeying
Emulating the life of the great Exemplar
to Follow
to Seek
to Believe
to Think
to Walk in his paths
to be Baptized
to Preach
to Heal the sick
To put first in our lives the things of his kingdom
to Live by every word that proceedeth forth from His mouth
to Center our whole hearts upon Christ
to Walk in the light
to Do the things he wants done
to Do what he would do under similar circumstances
to Be as He is
to Walk in the Spirit
to Rise above carnal things
to Bridle our passions
to Overcome the world
to Pay tithes and offerings
to Act as wise stewards
to Use our talents and means for spreading truth
to Build up the kingdom
to be Married
to Have children
to Teach them the gospel
to Perfect the family unit
to Honor our father and mother
to Love our spouse and none else
to Visit the fatherless & widows
to Keep ourselves unspotted from the world
to Work on welfare projects
to Administer to the sick
to Go on a mission
to Study the gospel
to Treasure up light and truth
to Ponder in our hearts
to Make them part of our lives
to Pray with all the energy of our souls
to Preach by the power of the spirit
to Sing praises
to Be actively engaged in good causes
to Be about our Father's business
to Love and serve our fellowmen
to Feed the hungry
to Clothe the naked
to Comfort those that mourn
to Hold up the hands that hang down
to Strengthen the feeble knees
to Stand valiantly in the cause of truth
to Influence for good in civic, cultural, educational and governmental fields
to Support laws and principles which further the Lord's interests
to Be of good cheer
to Be courageous
to Be valiant
to Keep the faith

"It is ten thousand times ten thousand things.  It is keeping the commandments of God.  It is living the whole law of the whole gospel."

- Bruce R McConkie
Source: How to Worship
Image credit Flickr/ jubileelewis

Faith is the Conviction that Moves Us

This is part 3 in a series

In this post:  We all use faith every day - How faith guides my choices 

Any action I take is an act of faith.  

This is illustrated by Hebrews 11 where it says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)

• God created the worlds by faith — they “were not made of things which do appear”
• Abel offered a sacrifice by faith — he did not see God’s approval until afterwards
• Enoch had a testimony by faith first — he got proof later
• Noah made an ark by faith — before the rain provided an imperative
• Abraham moved toward the “promised land” — even though he didn’t know where it was
• Sarah conceived and bore Isaac by faith — she was past the age of fertility and it was “impossible”

These great men and women received a promise and exercised faith in it before they saw proof.  They believed in things that were “afar off.”  All of us use faith every day.  We put faith in doctors.  We put faith in banks.  We make things using instructions that we’ve never tried before.  We marry.  In this video, my daughter jumps with more faith the second time.

Faith in God’s promises and warnings works the same way.  

When God says, “agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art in the way…lest…[he] deliver thee to the judge,” then my faith impels me to try to resolve my interpersonal conflicts quickly. (Matt 5:25)

When God says, “when the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby,” then my faith says that I must monitor my actions if I want to avoid that consequence whether literal or not.  (Ezek 33:18)

My faith is the conviction that guides my choices.  I have faith in the sacred state of marriage so my faith guides me to work at my marriage even when it is difficult rather than give up.  I have faith in Christ’s redemption so through faith I try to repent not knowing what a healed soul feels like.

That explains why Christ’s stories about the blind receiving sight are so moving to me.  His teachings give sight to those who can’t see and hope to those who can’t believe in future happiness.  He is “the way, the truth and the life.” (John 14:6)  (Which is how the death referred to by Ezekiel doesn’t have to be literal to be true.)

Challenge:  Put your faith in God by acting on one of his commandments.