#31: D is for Divine Nature

“There is something of divinity within each of you. You have such tremendous potential with that quality as a part of your inherited nature. Every one of you was endowed by your Father in Heaven with a tremendous capacity to do good in the world. Train your minds and your hands that you may be equipped to serve well in the society of which you are a part. Cultivate the art of being kind, of being thoughtful, of being helpful. Refine within you the quality of mercy which comes as a part of the divine attributes you have inherited.

Some of you may feel that you are not as attractive and beautiful and glamorous as you would like to be. Rise above any such feelings, cultivate the light you have within you, and it will shine through as a radiant expression that will be seen by others.

You need never feel inferior. You need never feel that you were born without talents or without opportunities to give them expression. Cultivate whatever talents you have, and they will grow and refine and become an expression of your true self appreciated by others.

In summary, try a little harder to measure up to the divine within each of you. As Alma said, “Awake and arouse your faculties” (Alma 32:27).”

President Gordon B. Hinckley gave this inspired message several years ago. Even though he was speaking to the young women of the church, his message is to all. Each one of us is a child of God. YOU are a child of God! He loves you because you are His child. And just as in any other parent/child relationship you have inherited certain qualities from Him.

2 Peter 1:4 says

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…”

We have been given so many unique gifts and traits because of our relationship to our Heavenly Father. We can discover what specific talents and qualities we have been given through sincere prayer and careful scripture study. And I hope that each of you will take the time to ask Heavenly Father what you have inherited from Him. He’s waiting to tell you and to help you expand your divine nature.

D is for Divine Nature

#26: Guest Post--Set Goals to Obtain Greatness!

One of the great things about this life is that we get to learn from one another and share our thoughts and ideas. One of the other California Santa Rosa missionaries shared this story with me recently and I liked it so much I asked him if he wouldn't mind writing it down for my blog. So with Elder Balaich's permission I present the first of what (I hope) will be several guest posts. Take it away Elder Balaich!

As a high school athlete I had the great opportunity and blessing to be coached by some great men. (One of which even played in the NFL for some years then after an injury went on to professionally lift weights and body build.) One summer, this coach taught me something great, something I’ll never forget.

It was early morning workouts; we lifted, ran drills, conditioned, and things like that. One drill is called the standing broad jump. Basically, you try to jump out as far as you possible can. This drill is done often at combines to display an athlete’s explosiveness and to compare athletes side by side to see who can jump further.

To practice this drill, we all went into the gym to the basketball court. We got in a line behind the baseline and just simply jumped out as far as we could. We each did this a few times, with coach not saying anything out of the ordinary but observing closely like he always did.

After this we moved on to some other drills, the L-drill, shuttle drill, ladders—things like that. Then we went to the baseline to once again do standing broad jumps. As before we all did the drill. Simply jumping from the baseline got boring so we moved to the half-court line instead, doing the same drill. This time though, Coach brought out a cone. He watched how far most of us were jumping and set it a few inches beyond where we landed. Then he challenged us to jump beyond the cone. Some of us did and some of us didn’t. Seemingly satisfied, he had us move on once again to some different drills.

But once again, we came back to the broad jump. We all lined up single file on the baseline and coach set up his cone a good distance beyond the baseline and said to all of us, basically something to the sorts of,

“Okay, we’ve practiced this off and on all morning. Now you all MUST jump past this cone I’ve set up here. ALL of you HAVE to do it. I know that all of you can, it’s up to you right now to just do it.”

We all took our turns, one by one. And all of us succeeded. We all jumped beyond the cone. Coach was all sorts of excited. What he knew—that we didn’t—what he had slyly done to make us all better, still sticks with me to this day. None of us had noticed but Coach had been measuring how far we jumped with his steps. Measuring the first attempts and then pushing us a little bit farther the second time. Finally, for the last time, he measured the furthest we had jumped and stepped a few feet beyond that and placed the cone there. Further than any of us had jumped.

None of us knew he was measuring us or even pushing us further. Until at last, when all of us jumped past the last cone he let us all know what we had just done.

"It's all in your heads!" I remember him saying.

The first time we were told to jump as far as we could, we all put some effort into it. But the big difference between the first feeble attempt and the last, great success was that a mark had been set.

A goal was made and failure was not an option. We didn't care about how far we had jumped before because we didn't even really know. But with that cone set there, we could see how far we must jump.

After we all jumped past the cone on our last try, coach took quite a few steps back towards the baseline, measuring carefully and standing in one spot where he said,

“This is the furthest any of you jumped the first time.”

The difference was so big that it has always been a reminder to me of how much impact setting a good goal can truly make—as opposed to simply going out and just “doing our best”.

The conditions of the drill never changed, neither did our technique. Sure we had a few practice jumps but the difference between the first and last jump is that the greatness of personal achievement was obtained by setting up a piece of plastic on a hardwood gym floor, a simple cone, a profound goal.

#23: The mystery of the forced manual labor

Last summer we painted our house (again). 

We tried to convince my dad that hiring the job out was the best way to go. But dad has a bad habit of making things like this a "family project" that we all do together. I never quite understood why we didn't just get someone else to do it or take what I thought would be an "easier way". Then I read this article about a dad who takes a project and turns it into an opportunity to have some face time with his kids. (You can check out the article here or just read it below.)

"Living in a small country town has its advantages, but one disadvantage is the mud in the spring. In an attempt to keep the mud outside the house, I planned to spread gravel on my dirt driveway. I had 60 tons of gravel brought in and left in two piles, which looked even bigger when I stood in front of them. In our town, people commonly have big trucks, trailers, tractors, front loaders, and backhoes. Me? I’m the guy with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

I asked Rory, my 15-year-old son, if he would come out and help. He wasn’t the picture of enthusiasm, but he agreed....He was a teenager whose world was getting larger than the one his dad used to fill. I had never had any real problems with him, but he was no longer the little boy who would hold my hand and chatter as we walked. His world now included many activities and friends that took him outside the home. We still enjoyed each other’s company but found it harder to spend time together. I wouldn’t have guessed that moving gravel would facilitate openness between us, but on that day it did just that.

As we shoveled, each to our own rhythm, Rory started talking. At first we discussed the job at hand, but then the talk turned to other things that were on his mind. We discussed music that he was interested in. He was active in certain forums on the Internet and described the posted conversations. In school he had a psychology class, and we discussed some of the ideas. Then there was the topic of his friends, and several funny stories followed.

As we talked we filled the wheelbarrow, and then I would lift the load, wheel it to a bare spot, and dump it. I was pleasantly surprised when Rory followed me during these short intervals in order to keep up the conversation. I am pretty sure he didn’t know how much his willingness to talk meant to me. I tried not to let on. His talking so freely to me didn’t happen every day.

As we worked, blisters formed on my hands, but they were just a reminder of the sweet time I spent with my children, especially my oldest son.

Across the street a young construction contractor was building his house. While I was working, he was using a front loader to push the earth around the foundation of his home. It would have taken 20 minutes to get our job done with his powerful machine, but I was afraid he was going to come over and offer to help. I would have looked foolish turning down his help, but accepting it would have robbed me of the unexpected experience I was having with my children. Toward the end of the job, when I was exhausted, I wasn’t sorry. My children were still there and were still talking to me. Manually moving that gravel was the sweetest hard work I had ever done."

I'm guessing this is a big reason why dad made us do the work (I'm sure there were lots of other good reasons too, Dad...) This video clip was another big hint as to what was so important about all of us getting out there and doing the work ourselves. 

All in all, I'm grateful that my dad has always taken a "homegrown" approach to the jobs around the house (big and small). (That's easy to say now that I'm not living in the same state as my parents--can't get roped into a home improvement project for at least another 9 months haha) I have learned so much from my parents about how to work and take care of myself and those around me. The lessons learned and the time spent together were well worth the hours of manual labor.

#19: I've been out here for how long?!

Six months ago today I said goodbye to life as I knew it and walked into a totally new phase of my life. Looking back, I still can't believe I made this decision. I've already realized that it's going to effect every aspect of the rest of my life. And I'm only 1/3 of the way through this crazy experience!

Things I've done in the last 6 months (in no particular order):

-seen the ocean
-seen people find lasting happiness by following a few simple commandments
-eaten an artichoke
-knocked on strangers' door and invited them to learn more about Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon
-learned that it is humanly possible to be joined at the hip to someone 24/7 for 6 solid months. (That's 264,960 minutes straight, for the record)
-seen people use the Atonement of Jesus Christ to become better than they were
-eaten shrimp
-learned how to make things out of duct tape
-had my core convictions challenged by very angry people
-looked those very angry people firmly in the eye and told them exactly what I believe
-realized that God is the best planner. Ever. Period.
-prayed for miracles
-seen miracles
-checked an empty mailbox one more time (just to make sure we didn't miss anything)
-volunteered to give up chocolate for a MONTH just to get someone to stop smoking
-broken into a baptismal font just so someone could make covenants with God
-grown closer to Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost than I've ever been in my life

Obviously this list doesn't even come close to everything that's happened in the last 6 months. But it's a start.

I am so grateful that Heavenly Father took a chance on me and let me come out here. I may have come out here to try and pay Him back for all He's done for me--but I ended up even more in debt to Him. Guess that's life.

I love my life!

#15: Embrace this day!

This blog isn't very original (as if the other ones are...) but I read an article that one of my sisters sent me (you can read the whole thing here) and it had some wonderful pointers on how to grow closer to the influence of the Holy Ghost and how to stay focused on the most important things in our lives. I wanted to share the author's thoughts with you in the hopes that they affect you as much as they affected me when I read them.

* Embrace this day with an enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks. The covenant with God to which you are true enables you to become enlightened by him, and nothing is impossible for you.

 

* When you are physically sick, tired, or in despair, steer your thoughts away from yourself and direct them, in gratitude and love, toward God.

 

* In your life there have to be challenges. They will either bring you closer to God and therefore make you stronger, or they can destroy you. But you make the decision of which road you take.

 

* Put all frustrations, hurt feelings, and grumblings into the perspective of your eternal hope. Light will flow into your soul.

 

* God knows that you are not perfect. As you suffer about your imperfections, he will give you comfort and suggestions of where to improve.

 

* God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us--everything will fall into its place.

 

* Avoid any fear like your worst enemy, but magnify your fear about the consequences of sin.

 

* When you cannot love someone, look into that person's eyes long enough to find the hidden rudiments of the child of God in him.

 

* Never judge anyone. When you accept this, you will be freed. In the case of your own children or subordinates, where you have the responsibility to judge, help them to become their own judges.

 

* If someone hurts you so much that your feelings seem to choke you, forgive and you will be free again.

 

* Avoid at all cost any pessimistic, negative, or criticizing thoughts. If you cannot cut them out, they will do you harm. On the road toward salvation, let questions arise but never doubts. If something is wrong, God will give you clarity but never doubts.

 

* Avoid rush and haste and uncontrolled words. Divine light develops in places of peace and quiet. Be aware of that as you enter places of worship.

 

* Be not so much concerned about what you do, but do what you do with all your heart, might, and strength. In thoroughness is satisfaction.

 

* The pain of sacrifice lasts only one moment. It is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes you hesitate to do it.

 

* Be grateful for every opportunity to serve. It helps you more than those you serve.

* And finally, when you are compelled to give up something or when things that are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be learned right now. But know also that, as you are learning this lesson, God wants to give you something better.

I know that some (or most) of these bullet points are easier said than done but I felt the truthfulness of these statements when I read them and I know that acting on them will lead to greater happiness. Even if you can only pick one to focus on, let that one idea change you and bring you closer to the person God wants you to be. As it says above, "God knows better than you what you need. He always attempts to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that He makes to us--everything will fall into its place."