Mighty God, Holy One of Israel, Consolation of Israel, Counsellor, Son of God, Hope of Israel, Mighty One of Jacob, Our Peace, Carpenter, the Prophet, Bread of Life, Rabbi, Righteous Man, Messiah, Good Shepherd, Friend, Master, Holy Child, Wonderful, King, Blessed of God, Elder Brother, Advocate with the Father, Son of David, Redeemer, Bridegroom, The Lord Omnipotent, Son of Man, the Word, Teacher, Judge, the Way, the Truth, the Life, Messenger of the Covenant, Friend, Lamb of God, Alpha and Omega, Jehovah, Comfort, and Emmanuel. These are all names of Jesus Christ, whose birth we commemorate today.
There isn't any gift more precious than that of the life of the begotten Son of the Father. His earthly ministry, his sacrifice, his resurrection, and his continuing revelation are so, so beautiful. I can't even express how thankful I am to have him.
I don't know what else to do with this post. Just, take time to think about Jesus Christ today, and the hope that he represents for all mankind and for you.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Mission Statement
Everybody has a reason for living. I don't have any idea what yours is. During Personal Leadership I had to think about my own reason some more, and was finally able to come up with a mission statement for my own life. It helps me sometimes when I'm caught up in the apathy that tends to sneak into my heart sometimes, so I want to share it with you here:
"I will do everything in my power to be free mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally. I will never do anything that binds my soul through addictions. I will avoid unhealthy relationships. I will take care of my body. I will take time to exercise my mind, spirit, heart, and body every day.
"I will build meaningful relationships. Relationships are one of the most important things in this life. In order to have meaningful and healthy relationships, I will connect with others who build up my values and encourage me to live the way I want to live. I will also be a support for them, and help them live according to their values. I will be empathetic, while still keeping a sense of who I am.
"I will give myself completely to whatever endeavors I take up. I will be present. I will live purposefully. I will be awake. I will be vibrant and truly alive. I will take risks.
"Above all, I will dedicate myself to my god. Everything I do should be to serve him and develop my nature to become like him. I will serve. I will repent. I will listen to his words. I will preach his gospel. I will strive to live my life in such a way that people see him through me. I will love him with everything I have. I will remember that I am his."
I hope you have written or decide to write a statement for your self. Really. I want you to be happy, and I think it will help you to have a clear vision of who you want to be.
"I will be cheerful. I will have hope.
Discouraging things happen. Life’s hard. But I will greet it with a smiling
heart anyway.
"I will do everything in my power to be free mentally, spiritually, physically and emotionally. I will never do anything that binds my soul through addictions. I will avoid unhealthy relationships. I will take care of my body. I will take time to exercise my mind, spirit, heart, and body every day.
"I will build meaningful relationships. Relationships are one of the most important things in this life. In order to have meaningful and healthy relationships, I will connect with others who build up my values and encourage me to live the way I want to live. I will also be a support for them, and help them live according to their values. I will be empathetic, while still keeping a sense of who I am.
"I will give myself completely to whatever endeavors I take up. I will be present. I will live purposefully. I will be awake. I will be vibrant and truly alive. I will take risks.
"Above all, I will dedicate myself to my god. Everything I do should be to serve him and develop my nature to become like him. I will serve. I will repent. I will listen to his words. I will preach his gospel. I will strive to live my life in such a way that people see him through me. I will love him with everything I have. I will remember that I am his."
I hope you have written or decide to write a statement for your self. Really. I want you to be happy, and I think it will help you to have a clear vision of who you want to be.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Judgments
People always seem to have opinions on things they know very little or nothing about. Most of the time, these opinions are very silly and also held very deeply. I guess it's natural, but still something to work on eradicating.
For example, I used to think that there was absolutely no use for either pop or rap. They seemed to sound awful and hold highly immoral opinions. No exceptions, no investigations. Then I took a class about music, and as part of that had to analyze a number of pop and rap songs. I realized that it was nothing short of foolish to label a whole group of music as bad just because of a few songs. Now I've been looking into more pop songs and rap songs, and I like quite a bit of it (as hard as that is to admit.)
That example is a fairly innocent one. I never hated anybody because they like stupid music. Sometimes people do, though. They make judgments about races. They don't take time to learn about religions before judging them as terrorists or idiots. They hear one little thing about a person, and assume that it applies to the rest of the person.
Think about some areas in which you judge hastily. Now choose one to become more informed about. Be careful. Your character is at stake.
For example, I used to think that there was absolutely no use for either pop or rap. They seemed to sound awful and hold highly immoral opinions. No exceptions, no investigations. Then I took a class about music, and as part of that had to analyze a number of pop and rap songs. I realized that it was nothing short of foolish to label a whole group of music as bad just because of a few songs. Now I've been looking into more pop songs and rap songs, and I like quite a bit of it (as hard as that is to admit.)
That example is a fairly innocent one. I never hated anybody because they like stupid music. Sometimes people do, though. They make judgments about races. They don't take time to learn about religions before judging them as terrorists or idiots. They hear one little thing about a person, and assume that it applies to the rest of the person.
Think about some areas in which you judge hastily. Now choose one to become more informed about. Be careful. Your character is at stake.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
Legalized Murder
Cal Coburn Brown was killed by lethal injection on September 10th, 2010. Brown had been sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a young woman, and he was the last case of capital punishment in Washington state. Since then, the current governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, has suspended use of the death penalty in our state.
I hesitate to say this, but sometimes people simply need to die for things that they have done. I don't say that they deserve to die, because I don't know if that is accurate, and rather have a feeling that it isn't. They just need to die in order to provide some semblance of justice and prevent repeat crimes by these individuals. The point of this post isn't to prove the point that capital punishment is in fact necessary, but I needed to introduce it with that background.
Sometimes, we as citizens become detached from events, and even try to make things out as different than they actually are. We pretend that our politicians aren't corrupt (which is a very difficult mindset to keep), we pretend that violent crime isn't a common occurrence, we pretend that we don't have huge amounts of adults and children living on the streets, we pretend that we don't live lives of excess and selfishness. The list could go on and on, but one of the biggest things we do is pretend that our government doesn't kill people, or at least minimize what that means. We use the term "capital punishment" instead of "legalized murder". We use operations such as lethal injections to make it look like a medical procedure, so we don't have to see the blood and pain that usually accompany death. Right now the only two available options for execution in my state are lethal injection and hanging, and hanging is only available by special request.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It is my opinion that the only way that our murders can be justified is if we as a nation see them for what they really are. It is truly disgusting to have our sensibilities offended by this while still approving these methods. Talking about death is considered to be in bad taste, yet we sit back and do nothing while sterile and "humane" procedures of killing people happen in our approved government. As Victor Hugo says in Les Miserables, "We may remain more or less open-minded on the subject of the death penalty, indisposed to commit ourselves, so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes." The problem is that we don't see guillotines; we see vaccinations.
This willful ignorance, this brutality of trying to be merciful is truly revolting. Take a side. This issue is too important to ignore. Talk about it. Do something.
I hesitate to say this, but sometimes people simply need to die for things that they have done. I don't say that they deserve to die, because I don't know if that is accurate, and rather have a feeling that it isn't. They just need to die in order to provide some semblance of justice and prevent repeat crimes by these individuals. The point of this post isn't to prove the point that capital punishment is in fact necessary, but I needed to introduce it with that background.
Sometimes, we as citizens become detached from events, and even try to make things out as different than they actually are. We pretend that our politicians aren't corrupt (which is a very difficult mindset to keep), we pretend that violent crime isn't a common occurrence, we pretend that we don't have huge amounts of adults and children living on the streets, we pretend that we don't live lives of excess and selfishness. The list could go on and on, but one of the biggest things we do is pretend that our government doesn't kill people, or at least minimize what that means. We use the term "capital punishment" instead of "legalized murder". We use operations such as lethal injections to make it look like a medical procedure, so we don't have to see the blood and pain that usually accompany death. Right now the only two available options for execution in my state are lethal injection and hanging, and hanging is only available by special request.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It is my opinion that the only way that our murders can be justified is if we as a nation see them for what they really are. It is truly disgusting to have our sensibilities offended by this while still approving these methods. Talking about death is considered to be in bad taste, yet we sit back and do nothing while sterile and "humane" procedures of killing people happen in our approved government. As Victor Hugo says in Les Miserables, "We may remain more or less open-minded on the subject of the death penalty, indisposed to commit ourselves, so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes." The problem is that we don't see guillotines; we see vaccinations.
This willful ignorance, this brutality of trying to be merciful is truly revolting. Take a side. This issue is too important to ignore. Talk about it. Do something.
Monday, December 1, 2014
Being Tender
We walk around exposed to pain. Our flesh is on the outside, just waiting to be hurt. We walk around exposed to all the thorns, rocks, and other things or people who wish to injure us. Some animals have shells on the outside, protecting them. We don't. Our soft bodies are just open to everything.
This seems pretty silly. But the thing is, it lets us feel everything else, too. We can feel the beautiful things, like a baby's skin, or rose petals, or mud. That is worth all the pain.
So it is with hearts. We have a choice. We can harden our hearts and build an exoskeleton to protect ourselves from pain, or we can allow ourselves to be tender and vulnerable. I personally think the last option is best, because I want to be happy.
This seems pretty silly. But the thing is, it lets us feel everything else, too. We can feel the beautiful things, like a baby's skin, or rose petals, or mud. That is worth all the pain.
So it is with hearts. We have a choice. We can harden our hearts and build an exoskeleton to protect ourselves from pain, or we can allow ourselves to be tender and vulnerable. I personally think the last option is best, because I want to be happy.
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