Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement

Bricks

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No one “builds a house”. They lay one brick again and again and again and the end result is a house. Nearly every big undertaking can be boiled down to a core unit of progress — its brick. A 45-minute gym visit is the brick of getting in great shape. A 30-minute practice session is the brick of becoming a great guitarist. — Tim Urban When you think about your hopes and dreams for the future, what do you envision? What are your dreams? What would you like your life to be? Are these hopes and dreams different from your…

Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement

One Life to Live

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Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank. — Ben Irwin We all have things in our lives that we want to do. The things we believe we should do. The actions we want to take. The habits we know will make us great. We all have hopes and dreams. But far too often we fail to take the action we believe we should take. Instead, we just let the flow of life take us where it may. When we do this we fail to be our best. We live as though we…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement, Testimony

Emergent Opportunities

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The type of person you want to become — what the purpose of your life is — is too important to leave to chance. It needs to be deliberately conceived, chosen, and managed. The opportunities and challenges in your life that allow you to become that person will, by their very nature, be emergent. — Clayton M. Christensen So often in life we fail to see the opportunities that exist all around us. Opportunities surround us. They come in many forms. Challenges. Difficulties. Fears. Troubles. Shortcomings. Weaknesses. All of these things can feel very overwhelming. Most of the time it…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement

What’s Your Map?

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Remember, the default map of the world you’ve drawn for yourself is massively incomplete. I’m telling you, there is so much more out there that is possible for you than you could ever dream of, but to get there you have to keep pushing past the known horizons that you’ve explored up ’til now. This is your comfort zone, and every time you bump up against the edge that little voice is going to pipe back up and try to keep you down. — Kevin Hart Each of us are the product of our habits. Your habits are the evidence…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Ministering, Testimony

Peace, Be Still

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In our shared ministry of reconciliation, I ask us to be peacemakers — to love peace, to seek peace, to create peace, to cherish peace. — Jeffrey R. Holland In the book of Matthew in the New Testament we can read the story of Jesus and his disciples. One night, as they were traveling by ship, they found themselves in the midst of a great storm. Many of the Savior’s disciples were fishermen. They were accustomed to the sea. But on this night, the storm raged and the Savior was fast asleep in the hull of the ship. The storm…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity

Cages

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Do away with the opinion I am harmed, and the harm is cast away too. Do away with being harmed, and harm disappears. — Marcus Aurelius Many of us experience hurts and harms of our own making. We build for ourselves cages of frustration without understanding that the door of the cage is unlocked and we can free ourselves whenever we choose. There are many circumstances in life that feel like they cause us harm. But we must choose to be harmed. There are many people in life that can make us feel frustrated. But we must choose to feel…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement, Repentance

Quick Fixes

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There are no quick fixes for the fundamental problems of life. — Clayton M. Christensen In my recent posts, I have talked a lot about trials and challenges. We all have challenges and struggles. We all have weaknesses and failings. This is true for all of us. When we encounter our troubles it is easy to find ourselves praying and hoping for a speedy solution. But the truth is that there are no quick fixes for our problems. The take real time, effort and perseverance to overcome our challenges. Elder D. Todd Christofferson has counseled: “To deal with something very…

Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Ministering

Begin and End with Kindness

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Every single one of us has the power to be kind from the beginning of a conversation until the end. Kindness does not mean that we act fake or that we let people walk all over us; it just means that we never allow for any person or situation to turn us into a version of ourselves that we are not proud of. — Cloe Wade To anyone who takes the time to look, it is clear that we live in a very divided and confrontational world. Around the world, across the country, in our neighborhoods and even in our…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Parables, Testimony

How to Chop Wood

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Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. — Zen Proverb What does it mean to be righteous? What does it mean to have your heart changed or to receive Christ’s image in our countenance? It is easy to imagine that we will someday arrive at some hoped for milestone where all our problems will be solved. It is a tempting fantasy that someday we will reach a point in our spiritual progression where everything will magically get easier. But this is just a fantasy. There is no point when everything just becomes easy. Challenges and…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Parables, Personal Improvement

What Ships Are For

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We rest here while we can, but we hear the ocean calling in our dreams, And we know by the morning, the wind will fill our sails to test the seams. The calm is on the water, part of us would linger by the shore, For ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for. — Michael Lille We all know life can be hard and it is natural for us to hope for comfort and security. Challenges push us out of our comfort-zone. Hardship is unpleasant. And it would be so much easier for us to…