Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Parables

How to Not Fall Off a Cliff

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It’s easier to hold to your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98 percent of the time. The boundary — your personal moral line — is powerful, because you don’t cross it; if you have justified doing it once, there’s nothing to stop you doing it again. — Clayton M. Christensen There is a story of a wise business man in the old west who had to regularly travel by stage coach down a treacherous road. This road wound down a steep hill. On one side it had the wall of the mountain…

Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement

Chip Away

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It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential. — Bruce Lee When the pandemic hit last year, the world was flipped on its head as the everything closed. Lives were put on hold. Many of the daily distractions we had crammed into our lives were forcibly removed. For many of us, we found our lives suddenly and dramatically simplified. The unessential was removed practically overnight. As we have started to emerge from the pandemic, life has started to return to normal. This has been a breathe of fresh air for many of us. There are so…

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

Escaping Your Comfort Zone

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Don’t wish it was easier wish you were better. Don’t wish for less problems wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenges wish for more wisdom. — Jim Rohn If you are like most people, you have a natural resistance to change. Almost everyone prefers the known to the unknown, the familiar to the foreign, the manageable to the chaotic. “Hold on a minute, I’m not boring! I like change and variety and new experiences,” you might be saying. Of course you do. The natural tendency to resist change is not the same thing as avoiding novelty. The change…

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Testimony

Flip the Switch

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Faith knows it has received and acts accordingly. — Florence Shinn A neighbor recently shared his testimony of his birthday. He talked about how he has experienced his birthday many times. He has faith that his birthday is coming and that it will continue to come. He has a testimony of his birthday. I have a testimony of light switches. I know that when I flip a light switch the light will turn on. Why do I have this faith? I have faith in light switches because I have experienced the result of using a light switch thousands of times….

Children & Youth, Faith, Foundations for Eternity, Ministering

Good, Pile It High!

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So what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things, one at a time. Just let your pile of good things grow. — Rainbow Rowell In software engineering, there is term known as “yak shaving”. Yak Shaving refers to task, that leads you to another task, and so on and so on, until you no longer have time for the original task. These tasks lead you down the rabbit hole and prevent you from achieving your original goal. So often in life we can get caught up in yak shaving. In…

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

Predicting the Future

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The best way to predict your future is to create it. — Abraham Lincoln When you think about your future, what do you see? Have you thought about who you will be in 3 years? How about 5 years? 10? 25? Most people have hopes and dreams. They have wishes for their future. But many people find when their future arrives, that it does not match their dreams and hopes. They may look at their life with disappointment and frustration, but be unsure of what they did wrong. What can we do to better realize our hopes and dreams? Simply…

Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Parables

Lighten Your Load

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The best way to start being more happy is to stop being unhappy. — Robert Koch Years ago, I had the opportunity to go on a backpacking trip as a leader in our scout troop. As a leader of the group and a chronic over-preparer, I backed a lot more gear in my pack than I really needed. When I was done preparing for the backpacking trip, my pack was over 45 pounds. We arrived at the trail and proceeded to do the hike which was only a couple miles long, but in that distance we climbed over 1,400 feet….

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

The Grass is Not Greener On the Other Side of the Fence

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Don’t look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity. — Paul Arden How often do you find yourself wishing that things in your life were different? If you do, you are not alone. Most people feel this way at one time or another. In our always connected, social media heavy world, we constantly see the highlights from others. When we see this constant parade of the best parts of other people’s lives, it can leave us wondering why our lives feel so normal of boring. We can wish we had the opportunities that we…

Children & Youth, Foundations for Eternity, Personal Improvement

Fickle Feelings

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You are more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action. — Dr. Jerome Bruner How often have you found yourself saying the words “I don’t feel like it”? Often they are used as an excuse for not doing something we know we should do. We know we should go to the gym, but the couch is so comfortable. We know we should order a salad, but burgers taste so good. We know our neighbor needs some help with something, but we have so much of our own stuff to handle right now. The truth is that…

Atonement, Foundations for Eternity, Ministering

Drowning

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When you meet someone, treat them as if they were in serious trouble and you will be right more than half the time. — Henry B. Eyring I have thought a lot about the above quote from Henry B. Eyring lately. I don’t know about anyone else, but just about everyone I know is struggling with something or helping a loved one who is struggling with something. For some, it might be a minor struggle, but most people I know are struggling with very real and difficult challenges. So often we see others from a distance or read their posts…