My Christmas is almost complete. I'm not ashamed to admit that I, yet again, shed a single tear over a Charlie Brown's Christmas. The good kind though.
How could you not? Of course, you need to see the whole movie for it to have full impact. I don't even want to try to express my emotions in words this time; I probably won't do it justice. So here, instead, is possibly one of the most beautiful scenes in all of cinema. In my opinion, of course. Either this is how I feel, or how I want to feel. Sometimes I'm not sure of the difference.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Saturday, December 20, 2008
My fireplace
I am promising myself a fireplace in my apartment. I will not stop until I get one. It's within my reach, I can feel the warm cinders heating my soul, and I won't give up!
Basically I've spent the last few hours figuring out how to get a silly video of a fireplace on a DVD that I can put on our TV for ambient home-imitating, heart-warming goodness. The stupid video is not cooperating.
It's been a learning opportunity though. Every few months I go through a weird phase where I feel motivated enough to look through a bunch of tech-savvy blogs and wikis on computer stuff I don't really understand, and I read and read and search and read some more until I start to gain a subtle understanding of it all. This phase's lesson was on torrent downloading and encoding errors. I promise it's just as boring as it sounds.
I got the fireplace on a DVD and it was working great! For about 3 1/2 minutes I savored the sweetly warm glow of my TV, listening to loud crackling of digitally encoded wood. Then the crackling stopped. Stupid sound disappeared! Grrrr...
So I got to learn all about how avi sound can be fickle, and how DV format is better quality, and how I need to pay in order to get QuickTime Pro which can easily change the format from avi to DV, and how there are myriad other free programs that'll do the same thing. Now I'm waiting for the DVD to burn with my new "Fireplace.dv" file on there. About 25 minutes left. Anyway...
Fireplaces remind me of Monopoly. And Wisconsin. Actually, they remind me of playing Monopoly in Wisconsin in front of the fireplace. How do you say "yummy" in terms of memories without using pompous $5 words? (As opposed to the 50 cent or $2 words; thanks again MCom 320 for all your imparted knowledge!)
I'm just writing as I think again. I kinda like it. It makes it seem more real, or maybe more like I'm talking to someone. Everyone is gone for the break, so there's really no one to talk to. Actually it's because it's 2:47 am. Same difference.
So far this Christmas has seemed way different than all the other ones I can remember. I haven't felt the same kind of Christmas spirit I have in the past. The one that is all about waking up Christmas morning and seeing family, making breakfast, wondering what Santa brought, and so forth. Instead I've had a different (probably more mature) Christmas spirit. I've been noticing all the nice things I could do for people, and then trying to find ways to do them. It's this spirit that makes me put down the stuff I'm carrying to get back in my car so I can repark it a couple extra inches away from the car next to me so they can get in a little easier. The same one that tells me I should call a friend I haven't talked to in months to say hi, or that I need to try to put more thought than money into my Christmas gifts this year. The same one that doesn't feel at all disappointed to hear "we're going really easy on the Christmas gifts this year," but rather sees the opportunity for having a first-hand experience with the true meaning of Christmas.
I read Miracle on 34th Street two days ago, and I liked the slight permeation of Alma 32:21's definition of faith it gave: Faith is believing in something even when common sense tells you not to. I got to experience that in the testing center on Thursday. I prayed about an answer I was going to give to a question I wasn't sure about, and I got the impression to change the answer. But almost everything pointed to the answer I was originally going to give! I felt like someone was telling me "just answer it the way I'm telling you to, and I'll take care of your overall grade." So I felt like I was sacrificing one question for the good of all the other ones. It didn't make sense to me that this would change the outcome of my grade, since the answers are already marked, but I did it anyway. I got a 97% on my advertising final, and it turns out I would have gotten that question wrong had I not listened. I guess it's not really sacrifice after all. It was faith though, because common sense told me a different answer. I guess it's more impressive when you're the one that has the experience, cause I realize it sounds kinda silly when I type it down.
AND NOW I HAVE A CRACKLING, GLOWING FIREPLACE IN MY APARTMENT! I think I might try to steal a space warmer from home and set it next to the TV to push out warm air so it feels even more like a fire. I don't care how much it isn't a real fireplace, I'll pretend for now. Yay!
The real one is 40 minutes long. Heck yes.
And on that note, I'm going to bed.
Basically I've spent the last few hours figuring out how to get a silly video of a fireplace on a DVD that I can put on our TV for ambient home-imitating, heart-warming goodness. The stupid video is not cooperating.
It's been a learning opportunity though. Every few months I go through a weird phase where I feel motivated enough to look through a bunch of tech-savvy blogs and wikis on computer stuff I don't really understand, and I read and read and search and read some more until I start to gain a subtle understanding of it all. This phase's lesson was on torrent downloading and encoding errors. I promise it's just as boring as it sounds.
I got the fireplace on a DVD and it was working great! For about 3 1/2 minutes I savored the sweetly warm glow of my TV, listening to loud crackling of digitally encoded wood. Then the crackling stopped. Stupid sound disappeared! Grrrr...
So I got to learn all about how avi sound can be fickle, and how DV format is better quality, and how I need to pay in order to get QuickTime Pro which can easily change the format from avi to DV, and how there are myriad other free programs that'll do the same thing. Now I'm waiting for the DVD to burn with my new "Fireplace.dv" file on there. About 25 minutes left. Anyway...
Fireplaces remind me of Monopoly. And Wisconsin. Actually, they remind me of playing Monopoly in Wisconsin in front of the fireplace. How do you say "yummy" in terms of memories without using pompous $5 words? (As opposed to the 50 cent or $2 words; thanks again MCom 320 for all your imparted knowledge!)
I'm just writing as I think again. I kinda like it. It makes it seem more real, or maybe more like I'm talking to someone. Everyone is gone for the break, so there's really no one to talk to. Actually it's because it's 2:47 am. Same difference.
So far this Christmas has seemed way different than all the other ones I can remember. I haven't felt the same kind of Christmas spirit I have in the past. The one that is all about waking up Christmas morning and seeing family, making breakfast, wondering what Santa brought, and so forth. Instead I've had a different (probably more mature) Christmas spirit. I've been noticing all the nice things I could do for people, and then trying to find ways to do them. It's this spirit that makes me put down the stuff I'm carrying to get back in my car so I can repark it a couple extra inches away from the car next to me so they can get in a little easier. The same one that tells me I should call a friend I haven't talked to in months to say hi, or that I need to try to put more thought than money into my Christmas gifts this year. The same one that doesn't feel at all disappointed to hear "we're going really easy on the Christmas gifts this year," but rather sees the opportunity for having a first-hand experience with the true meaning of Christmas.
I read Miracle on 34th Street two days ago, and I liked the slight permeation of Alma 32:21's definition of faith it gave: Faith is believing in something even when common sense tells you not to. I got to experience that in the testing center on Thursday. I prayed about an answer I was going to give to a question I wasn't sure about, and I got the impression to change the answer. But almost everything pointed to the answer I was originally going to give! I felt like someone was telling me "just answer it the way I'm telling you to, and I'll take care of your overall grade." So I felt like I was sacrificing one question for the good of all the other ones. It didn't make sense to me that this would change the outcome of my grade, since the answers are already marked, but I did it anyway. I got a 97% on my advertising final, and it turns out I would have gotten that question wrong had I not listened. I guess it's not really sacrifice after all. It was faith though, because common sense told me a different answer. I guess it's more impressive when you're the one that has the experience, cause I realize it sounds kinda silly when I type it down.
AND NOW I HAVE A CRACKLING, GLOWING FIREPLACE IN MY APARTMENT! I think I might try to steal a space warmer from home and set it next to the TV to push out warm air so it feels even more like a fire. I don't care how much it isn't a real fireplace, I'll pretend for now. Yay!
The real one is 40 minutes long. Heck yes.
And on that note, I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
1 Cor. 13:13
I think epiphanies are some of the greatest experiences ever. I always loved having epiphanies on the mission, especially during personal study time in the morning. Of course, in many cases, epiphany is just a more common word for revelation as far as the world is concerned. But that doesn't concern me. I like both words.
One of my favorite epiphanies I had on my mission has to do with faith, hope, charity, and love. They were concepts that I could associate other words, thoughts, and feelings with individually without thinking too much about it. I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have hope for an eternal life. I try to be charitable to those around me. I love my family and friends. Easy.
I could also give definitions from memory, such as "faith is not a perfect knowledge, but a hope of things are are not seen but are true."
But what's the tie?
Finally I realized that it isn't by chance these four words--faith, hope, charity, and love--go together. Faith is a HOPE of things which aren't seen but are true. Charity is the pure LOVE of Christ.
My mind often works in little Venn diagrams. I imagine a big circle called "Hope." Inside that circle, there is another circle that fits entirely inside called "Faith." Faith is a specific kind of hope. If you have faith, you necessarily have hope. However, if you have hope, you don't necessarily have faith.
Of course there's another Venn diagram with a big circle titled "Love," which has a smaller circle titled "Charity" inside. By having charity, you are exercising love. However, by exercising love you are not necessarily exercising charity.
If charity is just the pure love of Christ, how did he love differently than others in such a way as to necessitate a separate category?
Here's a little excerpt from my mission study journal on the subject:
"Charity is a gift from God (see Preach My Gospel "Charity & Love"). Normal love is attained by a person and is often accompanied and strengthened by the love or friendship of another. Charity, however, is a gift from God. It is a love for all, those who love in return and who hate in return.
"John 15:17-20 - 'If the world hate you, know that is hated [Christ] before it hated you... The world would love his own (if you were of the world).'
"The world makes friends with those who are friends to worldly things. The instant that a person changes or tries to better themselves and overcome the world, the world will mock that person. However, the pure love of Christ (charity) 'seeketh not her own' (Moroni 7:45) but breaks past and reaches out to all, even those (or maybe especially those) who aren't charitable in return.
"Therefore, to receive this love we must ask for it and work for it. We can't ask to love the Portuguese and then get mad at someone who rejects the message, etc. Moroni exhorts us to pray for this love (Moroni 7:48)."
I just remembered an experience I had on my mission where I said something in a lesson that I had never thought about before, but made perfect sense with this same topic. We were referring to Christ's teachings about loving others.
Matt. 5:43-44 - "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."
Christ says you should love your enemies. He doesn't mention, however, anything about not having enemies. The commandment has more to do with loving those that don't return love, and is not about only associating with those that do. If we only needed to show love towards those that love us back (the world would love his own...), we wouldn't learn much about the kind of pure love Christ showed to all people--charity.
I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father operates through the "Charity" circle of the "Love" diagram. Otherwise his love would be conditional upon our own actions, and that is NOT the principle behind forgiveness.
I guess you could say this is why being offended is a problem for the offended person and not the offender. (David A. Bednar's the man!) The offended needs to rid themselves of pride and realize that they need to forgive the offense in order to really be working towards a charitable act of loving those that don't show the love in return. To dwell on an offense is to remain outside the "Charity" circle because the love is only conditional.
Random key words/phrases that run through my mind on this topic:
*Forgiveness
*Charity is not easy
*Christ's example
*The Lord not giving up on us, even with our faults
*Philia
*Amae - our need to receive charity/to be loved and taken care of (as opposed to our need to love others)
*Persian love proverb:
One of my favorite epiphanies I had on my mission has to do with faith, hope, charity, and love. They were concepts that I could associate other words, thoughts, and feelings with individually without thinking too much about it. I have faith in Jesus Christ. I have hope for an eternal life. I try to be charitable to those around me. I love my family and friends. Easy.
I could also give definitions from memory, such as "faith is not a perfect knowledge, but a hope of things are are not seen but are true."
But what's the tie?
Finally I realized that it isn't by chance these four words--faith, hope, charity, and love--go together. Faith is a HOPE of things which aren't seen but are true. Charity is the pure LOVE of Christ.
My mind often works in little Venn diagrams. I imagine a big circle called "Hope." Inside that circle, there is another circle that fits entirely inside called "Faith." Faith is a specific kind of hope. If you have faith, you necessarily have hope. However, if you have hope, you don't necessarily have faith.
Of course there's another Venn diagram with a big circle titled "Love," which has a smaller circle titled "Charity" inside. By having charity, you are exercising love. However, by exercising love you are not necessarily exercising charity.
If charity is just the pure love of Christ, how did he love differently than others in such a way as to necessitate a separate category?
Here's a little excerpt from my mission study journal on the subject:
"Charity is a gift from God (see Preach My Gospel "Charity & Love"). Normal love is attained by a person and is often accompanied and strengthened by the love or friendship of another. Charity, however, is a gift from God. It is a love for all, those who love in return and who hate in return.
"John 15:17-20 - 'If the world hate you, know that is hated [Christ] before it hated you... The world would love his own (if you were of the world).'
"The world makes friends with those who are friends to worldly things. The instant that a person changes or tries to better themselves and overcome the world, the world will mock that person. However, the pure love of Christ (charity) 'seeketh not her own' (Moroni 7:45) but breaks past and reaches out to all, even those (or maybe especially those) who aren't charitable in return.
"Therefore, to receive this love we must ask for it and work for it. We can't ask to love the Portuguese and then get mad at someone who rejects the message, etc. Moroni exhorts us to pray for this love (Moroni 7:48)."
I just remembered an experience I had on my mission where I said something in a lesson that I had never thought about before, but made perfect sense with this same topic. We were referring to Christ's teachings about loving others.
Matt. 5:43-44 - "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."
Christ says you should love your enemies. He doesn't mention, however, anything about not having enemies. The commandment has more to do with loving those that don't return love, and is not about only associating with those that do. If we only needed to show love towards those that love us back (the world would love his own...), we wouldn't learn much about the kind of pure love Christ showed to all people--charity.
I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father operates through the "Charity" circle of the "Love" diagram. Otherwise his love would be conditional upon our own actions, and that is NOT the principle behind forgiveness.
I guess you could say this is why being offended is a problem for the offended person and not the offender. (David A. Bednar's the man!) The offended needs to rid themselves of pride and realize that they need to forgive the offense in order to really be working towards a charitable act of loving those that don't show the love in return. To dwell on an offense is to remain outside the "Charity" circle because the love is only conditional.
Random key words/phrases that run through my mind on this topic:
*Forgiveness
*Charity is not easy
*Christ's example
*The Lord not giving up on us, even with our faults
*Philia
*Amae - our need to receive charity/to be loved and taken care of (as opposed to our need to love others)
*Persian love proverb:
-
-
-
- Even after all this time
- The sun never says to the earth, "You owe me."
- Look what happens with a Love like that!
- —It lights the whole Sky. (Hafiz)
-
-
Monday, December 15, 2008
creative life writing
I love the gift my mom wants from me for Christmas.
My mom loves to write. I should qualify that: my mom loves to write creatively. I think I needed to qualify that because I like to write also as long as I can write what I want to say, and not write about something I don't care much about. I am my mother's boy, after all.
My mom wants playlists of music with different styles to serve as background music to help inspire her write in different tones and moods.
I wonder what music is playing to the writing of my own life's story.
I was riding home from Sundance today, marveling at the snowy, majestic scenery through the canyon, and couldn't help but realize that the music we were listening to was feeding my emotions and patterns of thought.
Going through the canyon reminds me how small I am. When I look at the top of mountains, they're so much larger than I, I feel like I'm not moving at all. Sometimes I wonder if God made these of such grandeur to remind me that I have something great to look forward to.
Actually, better said, that I have something to work towards.
It reminds me that no matter how many mistakes I make, there's forgiveness if I look for it.
And I make a lot of mistakes. Ones that I know better not to make. Ones that I've made before and fear too much to make them again. Fear strong enough to drive me to commit other errors. And it starts again. And only I and the Lord seem to understand it. And I have a hard time with that.
I recently had a friend I haven't talked to in so many years add me on Facebook. We spent so much time together when I was younger, and he moved away one day and I think I saw him maybe one more time in my life. His lifestyle changed, and so did mine. I wouldn't even say we have much in common now. Except for that time we spent together before the road forked. That's an important time.
Driving through the canyon, I realize how small I am, how much other life is going on around me, and how much I have to work towards. If I'm not careful, it makes me think that I'm insignificant. Lately, I haven't been careful.
I haven't been careful with priorities. I haven't been careful with time. I haven't been careful with assumptions. I haven't been careful with perceptions. I haven't been careful with hypocrisy.
I haven't been careful with great opportunities.
One of the things I most dislike experiencing is learning the hard way lessons I've already learned.
I suppose we all feel it sometimes.
The playlist inspiring the writing of my life's story right now? Something that is wise beyond my years, for sure.
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy
And sad of eye
But very wise
Was he
And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"
My mom loves to write. I should qualify that: my mom loves to write creatively. I think I needed to qualify that because I like to write also as long as I can write what I want to say, and not write about something I don't care much about. I am my mother's boy, after all.
My mom wants playlists of music with different styles to serve as background music to help inspire her write in different tones and moods.
I wonder what music is playing to the writing of my own life's story.
I was riding home from Sundance today, marveling at the snowy, majestic scenery through the canyon, and couldn't help but realize that the music we were listening to was feeding my emotions and patterns of thought.
Going through the canyon reminds me how small I am. When I look at the top of mountains, they're so much larger than I, I feel like I'm not moving at all. Sometimes I wonder if God made these of such grandeur to remind me that I have something great to look forward to.
Actually, better said, that I have something to work towards.
It reminds me that no matter how many mistakes I make, there's forgiveness if I look for it.
And I make a lot of mistakes. Ones that I know better not to make. Ones that I've made before and fear too much to make them again. Fear strong enough to drive me to commit other errors. And it starts again. And only I and the Lord seem to understand it. And I have a hard time with that.
I recently had a friend I haven't talked to in so many years add me on Facebook. We spent so much time together when I was younger, and he moved away one day and I think I saw him maybe one more time in my life. His lifestyle changed, and so did mine. I wouldn't even say we have much in common now. Except for that time we spent together before the road forked. That's an important time.
Driving through the canyon, I realize how small I am, how much other life is going on around me, and how much I have to work towards. If I'm not careful, it makes me think that I'm insignificant. Lately, I haven't been careful.
I haven't been careful with priorities. I haven't been careful with time. I haven't been careful with assumptions. I haven't been careful with perceptions. I haven't been careful with hypocrisy.
I haven't been careful with great opportunities.
One of the things I most dislike experiencing is learning the hard way lessons I've already learned.
I suppose we all feel it sometimes.
The playlist inspiring the writing of my life's story right now? Something that is wise beyond my years, for sure.
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy
And sad of eye
But very wise
Was he
And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"
Friday, December 12, 2008
akabl
That's the code I just had to type in to leave a comment on another blog :-)
So I had this idea for what I was feeling, and then I realized it's an awful lot like an awful chain e-mail thing I've gotten before. (note: by "awful chain e-mail" I mean that I dislike chain e-mails in general, but this one had a good message.)
Why do I have such problems expressing to people how much I appreciate them? I do it WAY more now than I ever used to (even just a year ago or so), but it's still way hard for me! Easier though...
I love my problems! How lucky am I to be worrying about getting assignments done on time?? How lucky am I that I get frustrated that I type the word "efficient" wrong half the time, that I oftentimes find myself doing nothing in my apartment alone, that I have no food in my cupboards, and that the guys upstairs love Dance Dance Revolution too much??
If the world were a village of 100 people, I would be one of seven in the village who have a computer to type "efficient" wrong on, and the ONLY ONE worrying about getting assignments done for a university! I'm one of eight who has money in a bank, my wallet, and spare change at the same time. (I need to leave the computer and go grocery shopping... p.s. it turns out I spell "grocery" wrong a lot too.)
The Lord gives everyone their own problems to deal with, but nothing that is more than they can live with. I wrote a paper from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec 10 until 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec 11, stopping only for about an hour and a half total to eat and shower, only to find out three minutes before class started that the printer in the Tanner Building wasn't working. Having remembered the lesson from MCom about problem solving (not giving our problems to someone else to solve), I ran back to class to verify that the paper was due within the first 10 minutes of class, ran up the 90 stairs on the Tanner Building and across the street (this doesn't sound like much unless you've recently tried doing it 29 hours after having woken up) to print the paper off, ran back, and turned it in. I really had to work until the last second to get this blasted assignment done on time. But it wasn't more than I could handle.
How many people in the world would love to do what I did yesterday? Well, if it were a village of 100 people, about 99 of them. Not 100 though. Usually the 1 person complains about the toll school is taking on them.
I love my problems! Life could have been so much less generous to me.
The Lord gives us the trials we have to test and stretch us, so I don't think belittling the difficulties we face is really the best way to learn from them. But I sure appreciate that I have the problems I do, because it means I'm not suffering in ways most of the world is.
I'm going to go shower in warm water, choose what clothes I want to wear, eat something (I don't think we really understand what it means to have NO food in the cupboards...), drive in my car to the store that is within walking distance to buy food, and then plan what to do with all my spare time today.
Today, 100 people want to fret about getting assignments done on time.
So I had this idea for what I was feeling, and then I realized it's an awful lot like an awful chain e-mail thing I've gotten before. (note: by "awful chain e-mail" I mean that I dislike chain e-mails in general, but this one had a good message.)
Why do I have such problems expressing to people how much I appreciate them? I do it WAY more now than I ever used to (even just a year ago or so), but it's still way hard for me! Easier though...
I love my problems! How lucky am I to be worrying about getting assignments done on time?? How lucky am I that I get frustrated that I type the word "efficient" wrong half the time, that I oftentimes find myself doing nothing in my apartment alone, that I have no food in my cupboards, and that the guys upstairs love Dance Dance Revolution too much??
If the world were a village of 100 people, I would be one of seven in the village who have a computer to type "efficient" wrong on, and the ONLY ONE worrying about getting assignments done for a university! I'm one of eight who has money in a bank, my wallet, and spare change at the same time. (I need to leave the computer and go grocery shopping... p.s. it turns out I spell "grocery" wrong a lot too.)
The Lord gives everyone their own problems to deal with, but nothing that is more than they can live with. I wrote a paper from 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec 10 until 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec 11, stopping only for about an hour and a half total to eat and shower, only to find out three minutes before class started that the printer in the Tanner Building wasn't working. Having remembered the lesson from MCom about problem solving (not giving our problems to someone else to solve), I ran back to class to verify that the paper was due within the first 10 minutes of class, ran up the 90 stairs on the Tanner Building and across the street (this doesn't sound like much unless you've recently tried doing it 29 hours after having woken up) to print the paper off, ran back, and turned it in. I really had to work until the last second to get this blasted assignment done on time. But it wasn't more than I could handle.
How many people in the world would love to do what I did yesterday? Well, if it were a village of 100 people, about 99 of them. Not 100 though. Usually the 1 person complains about the toll school is taking on them.
I love my problems! Life could have been so much less generous to me.
The Lord gives us the trials we have to test and stretch us, so I don't think belittling the difficulties we face is really the best way to learn from them. But I sure appreciate that I have the problems I do, because it means I'm not suffering in ways most of the world is.
I'm going to go shower in warm water, choose what clothes I want to wear, eat something (I don't think we really understand what it means to have NO food in the cupboards...), drive in my car to the store that is within walking distance to buy food, and then plan what to do with all my spare time today.
Today, 100 people want to fret about getting assignments done on time.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Competition can only limit you
I was in an Entrepreneur Lecture class yesterday and had one of those the-guy-speaking-said-something-basic-but-I-expounded-on-it-until-I-had-an-epiphany moments. The guy runs the Provo Great Harvest Bread Company franchise, and was talking about competition when he first opened his store here. He said after bread sales began to skyrocket, other bread companies started opening up around town. Then he talked about his attitude towards dealing with the competition, and basically said he didn't pay attention to them--they were in competition with him, and not the other way around.
Then I realized that focusing on being in competition with someone limits you. Why set the bar just barely higher than the person you're competing with rather than just work as hard as you can to set it as high as you can? That's like running a race just fast enough to beat someone you're competing against, rather than trying to do your best in the first place.
I think it applies to living the gospel too. Why do just what we're asked to do, when we're told to be anxiously engaged in a good cause of our own free will? Don't just obey the commandments, live them! Don't just avoid tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, but eat well and exercise! Don't wonder how close to the edge you can get before falling, but stay as far from it as you can! Don't compare yourself to those around you, but just try to be the best you can be. That way you're not limiting yourself to the best someone else can do (especially since they also may not be trying their hardest to be the best they can be!). On the other hand, you're also not getting frustrated for falling short of other people's best (this is much more what I have to worry about).
Then I realized that focusing on being in competition with someone limits you. Why set the bar just barely higher than the person you're competing with rather than just work as hard as you can to set it as high as you can? That's like running a race just fast enough to beat someone you're competing against, rather than trying to do your best in the first place.
I think it applies to living the gospel too. Why do just what we're asked to do, when we're told to be anxiously engaged in a good cause of our own free will? Don't just obey the commandments, live them! Don't just avoid tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, but eat well and exercise! Don't wonder how close to the edge you can get before falling, but stay as far from it as you can! Don't compare yourself to those around you, but just try to be the best you can be. That way you're not limiting yourself to the best someone else can do (especially since they also may not be trying their hardest to be the best they can be!). On the other hand, you're also not getting frustrated for falling short of other people's best (this is much more what I have to worry about).
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