"I Choose!"

As 2013 begins and many of us recommit to do better and be better a Lehi's words to his son Jacob come to mind: "And the Messiah cometh in the fulness of time, that he may redeem the children of men from the fall. And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon" (2 Nephi 2:2, emphasis added).

What this says to me is that because we have a Messiah, someone who has saved us from the consequences of evil if we will just let Him, we have the ability to act or to choose what we will do, say, and feel in any given situation. Situations and circumstances do not have the power to act upon us. We have the power to act upon them. Remembering that simple fact is empowering.

So when tempted to be less than you can be, shout out, "I choose good!" and then envision yourself doing whatever good you are contemplating and watch what happens. You have the power to Live in Truth every moment of every day!

Good

There are days when for some reason we just wake up feeling out of it. It isn't that we feel bad, we just are in some foggy state of not feeling anything at all. On days like that I've found that the mood can be quickly changed by simply repeating in you mind the word good.

This works on other occasions also. When negative feelings plague you, push them away by repeating, "Good!" and watch what happens. Or when you want to remember something from the past that is good, but you can't quite think of it, say, "Good" and all sorts of past memories that are good will spring to mind. Hopefully one of them will be the one you want.

But you have to say the word with meaning. There are ways to say good and really mean bad. This only works if you mean what you say!

Make it a good day!

A Fulfilling Life

We've all wished to have a fulfilling life, and we've wished the same for our children and loved ones. But what exactly is a fulfilling life?

Fulfill is an old English word that means exactly what it says--to fill until full.


Fill means to put into something as much as it can hold.

"Put into" sounds to me like investing. Thus when we are filling something we are investing in it.

Investing means to make use of for future benefits or advantages.

Reading through these definitions helps me see that a fulfilling life isn't about waiting until the end of my life and looking back to see if I've filled it up. A fulfilling life is a cumulative experience. A fulfilling life is one in which every day something has been invested to make it fuller. A fulfilling life is one in which we invest as much good in ourselves as we can hold every day, and that investment compounds and earns interest to provide future benefits and advantages..

Healing

Good news! At first the doctor thought my foot was broken, but the x-rays showed that it is not. There is a lot of swelling in the joint and tissue damage, but no break! For a couple of days after the fall I ached everyplace-my hip, shoulder, foot toes, arm, and hand. I have several bruises and one scratch, but the amazing thing is watching this body heal.

Without me directing it or even knowing how to make it happen somehow my body is actively healing itself. Already, just four days after the fall, swelling is decreasing, bruises are diminishing, and pain is disappearing. It is such a miracle! Likewise, every day my body breathes, my heart beats, my blood circulates, my cells regenerate and I am doing nothing to make that happen. If God can make all that happen, certainly He can direct the rest of my life also.

all this reminds me that there is Someone in charge who knows what He is doing and that I am being cared for at all times. It is only my own thinking that gets in the way. When I relax, trust in God, and cling to the positive in life things take care of themselves in good ways.

Things eventually work out for good. As Paul explained to the ancient saints, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28).

Cheerfully Doing

As I’ve been teaching the second half of New Testament this semester I have been struck once again by Paul’s determination. Few people would endure the persecution he did and get right back up and go on preaching like he did. On his first missionary journey Paul was stoned to death by angry Jews in the city of Lystra and taken outside the city walls and left for dead. But while the disciples stand around mourning, Paul is revived and goes with Barnabas to the nearby city of Derbe and begins to preach again.

The amazing thing is that after preaching in Derbe he could have traveled east to Antioch of Syria and been safely home in a few days. But instead he insists on returning to Lystra and Iconium—the very places he has been persecuted in—and ministering once more to the new converts and the leaders in those cities.

In the Doctrine and Covenants section 123 there is a wonderful phrase that encourages and instructs. It says, “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power,” and Paul is a wonderful example of just that. He doesn’t let the persecution and adversity get him down. He Lives in Truth. He just keeps on doing anything he can to build the kingdom, to accomplish good.

Thank goodness few of us will ever encounter persecution to the same degree as Paul, so we have no excuse. The task before us is simple. We only need to cheerfully do good whenever we can and where ever we are.

Is It Good or Is It Bad?

Shakespeare’s Hamlet had his problems, but he said some very profound things that have impacted my life. One of my favorites, because of what it teaches me about Living in Truth, is: “For there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

Put another way, if we think about it we discover that “There is a silver lining to every cloud.” When we find and dwell on (think about) the silver lining we realize that even the bad things that happen to us bring about some good. We have a choice then; we can think about the bad and make ourselves more miserable or we can think about the good and be happy.

In the gospel this principle is expanded upon when the Lord tells us that “All things shall work together for your good” (D&C 90:24; 100:15; and 105:40). Notice it says ALL things not just the good things. “All things” includes everything that happens to us whether we consider those things to be good or bad. So if the Lord is going to make all things good, we can take do the same. We can think until we find the silver lining and then let our thoughts rest there.

But we must also beware, as Hamlet warns, that we are also capable of making good things bad by the way we think about them. Good and bad is a choice and we are the only ones who can make that choice!

Finding Good!

Beautiful white snow in the morning on my way to school and sun that almost looks like springtime in the afternoon on my way home!It's the season of the crocus!  What more could I ask for? Life is good. Especially if you look for the good and then enjoy what you find after you look.

All Is Well . . .

Years ago I was doing some research in which I was reading original journals and writings from the early days of the Church. Now I grew up in the Church, and on all lines of my family for five generations they have been members of the Churc,h and I knew about the persecution in Missouri and Illinois and Ohio. But as I read those journasl I was surprised at the atrocities and horrors those early saints encountered and I wondered why those things weren't talked about more.

As I began to review my Church history classes and what I’d learned I realized that most of the persecution was glossed over quickly. The only time I remember details was in the story of the Haun’s Mill Massacre and most of that story centered on the mother who packed her sons blown away hip with ash and how the hip grew back. In other words, even that story was centered on the positive instead of the atrocities that occurred.

Critics of the Church often criticize the Church for not dwelling more on the negative things the Church has done in the past, but as I learned from reading those journals the Church doesn’t just downplay the bad things members have done, they downplay the bad things that have been done to them. Sometimes historians or individual members will dig up the past and try to dwell on it, but the Church mostly downplays anything negative and concentrates on everything positive.

That taught me something. Critics might say we are “sweeping things under the rug” and trying to keep things quiet, but when we compare this behavior to what the Savior teaches we realize that there must be power and strength in concentrating on the good and not dwelling on the bad. Every family, every individual has good and bad within it. But if we follow the example of the Savior and the Church we realize that we can dwell on the negative things that happen to us and cause ourselves unnecessary pain and grief or we can move on and concentrate on the positive things and enjoy peace and happiness. The choice is ours!

I Am A Creator of Good

In the beginning of the Bible we are told that we are created in the image of God. We are also told that God created us as well as this whole earth and everything in it. From this it is apparent that God is a creator, but there is a “hidden” message here.  If we are created in God’s image and God is a creator, we are creators. It is in our nature to be creators.

On the other hand the adversary is a destroyer. Everything he does is meant to tear down, destroy, abolish, and obliterate. 

Understanding this difference becomes very helpful when assessing our own lives and progress. At any point in a day we can determine who we are following by simply asking, “Am I creating or destroying?” If I find myself gossiping, I’m obliterating good thoughts others may have toward the person I'm gossiping about. If I find myself being critical, I’m tearing down. If I find myself getting angry, I’m destroying.

But if I find myself loving, or serving, or giving the benefit of the doubt, or finding the good in whatever is happening, I’m creating. I’m creating good. As children of God, it is intended that we be creators of good just as our Father in Heaven is.  The power to be creators has been given to us through the Atonement. We just have to choose to do it.

Knowing I have the power, right now I’m going to create a good day. How about you?

Savor the Good

The Savior performed many miracles on the Sabbath day which healed people—made them whole. As I’ve studied these miracles, I’ve come to realize that one of the major purposes of the Sabbath is to heal. It is a day for us to reach out and help heal others—heal their loneliness, their discouragement, their disbelief and other such things. It is also a day for us to do the things that heal us. Obviously things like scripture study and pray and taking the Sacrament all do that, but one we might not think about is counting the good.

The mistakes we make and the sins we commit tend to stick in our minds as if glued there with gorilla glue. They haunt us and drag us down and depress us, but if we’ve repented and desire to do better we need to drop the very thought of those things so they don’t weigh us down. Thinking about anything for too long generates more of that thing whether it’s positive or negative. So filling our minds with positive things not only pushes away the negative, it heals us and motivates us to more good.

Therefore, one of the best things to do on a Sunday to help us heal is to take a few minutes to think back through the past week and identify every good thing we did that week. Savor those things like you’d savor the taste of a good chocolate. Feel the good all over again, and let that good define who you are and where you are going. Good begets more good and centering our thoughts on the good energizes us to do more good.

Get in the habit of doing that every Sunday and watch what happens to your week!

A Good Christian

Repentance is a U-turn

What is a good Christian? Some would say it is a person who does everything exactly the way Christ taught—someone who keeps all the commandments perfectly. But we would never say that a good body is one that is never hurt or in which nothing ever goes wrong. There isn’t such a thing. Instead a good body is one that heals rapidly, one that resists illness so that the person doesn’t get sick as often as others, one that when bruised or cut mends fast and well.

Likewise a good Christian is not someone who never does anything wrong. Good Christians turn back to Christ the moment it is discovered they are off course. Good Christians repent well and fast not because they reason that it is the right thing to do or because they are trying to please those around them but because the Light of Christ within them leads them to do it. It is just who they are.

As C. S. Lewis said, a good Christian “does not think God will love us because we are good but that God will make us good because He loves us just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.”

Have a "GOOD" Day

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The phrase, "Have a good day" should mean more to us than it usually does. Instead of simply meaning, "Have a day in which only good things happen to you," it should mean, "Have a day in which you only do good."

It is impossible to have such a day without consciously choosing goodness. The default position in this mortal world is badness. Therefore, if a person doesn’t consciously decide to be and do good, badness takes over. In other words, goodness must be worked for if we are to achieve it. No one is going to accidently arrive in the celestial kingdom.

 

The other day one of my daughters told me how she had found that if the night before she makes a list of all the things she is going to do the next day, she achieves so much more than if she just wakes up and does whatever comes to mind in each moment. She was amazed at how planning increased productivity.

It is the same way with goodness. When we plan ahead to be good, look for opportunities to be good, recognize that every moral choice will bring us closer to or farther away from good, surround ourselves with good in order to strengthen ourselves, we will be good. But if we don’t work at it, plan for it, and consciously determine that it is what we want, we will find ourselves swept away in the default.

“I want to be good,” is the first thing we should say in the morning, the last thing we should say at night, and everything in between should remind us that we want good. In that way we overcome the default and rise to new levels of joy and happiness.

The Longest Day

Today is the longest day of the year here in the Northern atmosphere. That means more sunlight than on any other day of the year. Being a person who is always looking for something to celebrate, I’m using this “Longest Day” to celebrate light. As we are taught in D&C 50:24, “That which is of God is light, and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light and that light growth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”


While I soak in the sunlight of this day, I’m going to think about and take note of every good thing I encounter. I’m going to count the good that is and has been mine. I’m going to glory in the light that is mine.

Isaiah tells us to “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness” (55:2). Nephi also tells us to feast upon the word and to “let your soul delight in fatness.” (2 Nephi 9:51). In other words, you can binge all you want on the “soul food” of the scriptures and you will never get fat. Likewise you can bask in the light of Christ and never get sunburned.

So enjoy this longest day and let it remind you of God and the light He sheds upon you.