I have written about how God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost are 3 persons, yet one God in Groupings of 3, three, and tri-groupings..., but now I want to discuss what that unity can mean to each of us...
In 3rd Nephi chapter 19, verse 23 we read, "And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one."
In Hangin' out with 'the Squirt"... my son and I are moving towards "oneness" as we not only share slmost the same genetic makeup, but think alike in most ways, and want to always be with each other! Isn't that the way that "being one" should be like? Shouldn't you not only love that other person, but try to be with them and like them in whatever way that you can?
In To Write... I try to become "one" with the reader as I write! I not only try to write in such a way that we will both understand and be edified as we think about the same subject, but if both he or she and I put into practice those same things that I have just written about, we will be even closer to "being one"!
In Finn's scripture of the day I tried to make (kind of like in "to write") 4 parties one: the reader, myself, the original author, and God himself! All of our thoughts were "at one"... I hope that doesn't sound to full-of-myself, but that's just the way it has turned out!
And in In need of recovery or respite (from beds?), I am waiting for to meet (which in NO way excludes those that I have already met...) the woman who will become one with me!
Those are just some recent posts that share in my "oneness-of-thought/mind" thinking and desire. The best part of it all is... that I know that as long as I keep my thoughts on the same thinking as God's or of Paul's, I will never go wrong in seeking for that final and ultimate ONENESS!!!
JPS
22.6.08
21.6.08
Hangin' out with 'the Squirt"...
Today, Addison and I woke-up, got ready and went down to have him run in the STRAWBERRY DAY'S kids race! He ran so fast and finished the race!!!
After we went to the race, we went down to the carnival, ate some delicious food (thanks Bajio's!), and then watched "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (in fact, he just corrected me on the name of that movie)...
He has been having so much fun since he's been here and I have been having even more fun with him... The best part, though, is knowing that he will still be here and we will still be able to do things until he leaves to go back home to Cali-fornai-A.
He is such a cool boy and just a cool kid to have around, and to know that he is MY son!!!
JPS
After we went to the race, we went down to the carnival, ate some delicious food (thanks Bajio's!), and then watched "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (in fact, he just corrected me on the name of that movie)...
He has been having so much fun since he's been here and I have been having even more fun with him... The best part, though, is knowing that he will still be here and we will still be able to do things until he leaves to go back home to Cali-fornai-A.
He is such a cool boy and just a cool kid to have around, and to know that he is MY son!!!
JPS
15.6.08
To write...
Writing is easier if you have something to commplain about or if you just plain-old-have-something that makes you angry!
On the other hand, writing is also easier if you have something that makes you so happy that you feel like you can't get your fingers to type fast enough to get the words out of your head and down onto the paper or onto the screen...
On the flip-side, if you are neither angry/embittered/or furious-about and yet nothing makes you feel like you are on top-of-the-world and couldn't be happer, you can't even find the will to write.
I was talking the other day with a man who aspires to be an author of a good-book, and he reads and reads, and he also practices writing all-of-the-time, yet he is putting off the day when he believes he'll have his inspiration and be able to "knock-out" his first book...
I suggested to him that he needs to take the words of the prophet Brigham Young to heart and apply those words to his writing delema: to write or not to write!? (Is that the question?)
Brother Brigham once said that: If ever you don't feel like praying, to get down on your knees and pray until you feel like praraying!
I told this friend that he should apply that same wisdom to his writing and get on his typewriter and type until he feels like writing.
Testing-out this bit of Josh-made-wisdom to these blog, I have found that it works quite well and has never let me down... Whenever I think that "I'm just not in the 'mood' to write, if I will just sit down at the keyboard and write, I will become inspired to write more!!!
Doesn't that just make sense? Even if you think to yourself, "Nah! That sounds good and all, but it just won't work for me..." ... Try it out and you will find that if you will 'put your heart into the trying', then you will without fail find that it works... Of course, you cannot do the trial just to show or prove to yourself that it DOESN'T WORK or else you aren't actually even fullly doing the trial!
You have to act just as Almulek teaches in Alma 32, where he urges you to try, even if you can do nothing more than desire to have FAITH--try to desire!!!
Those are my words and that is what I have written...
JPS
On the other hand, writing is also easier if you have something that makes you so happy that you feel like you can't get your fingers to type fast enough to get the words out of your head and down onto the paper or onto the screen...
On the flip-side, if you are neither angry/embittered/or furious-about and yet nothing makes you feel like you are on top-of-the-world and couldn't be happer, you can't even find the will to write.
I was talking the other day with a man who aspires to be an author of a good-book, and he reads and reads, and he also practices writing all-of-the-time, yet he is putting off the day when he believes he'll have his inspiration and be able to "knock-out" his first book...
I suggested to him that he needs to take the words of the prophet Brigham Young to heart and apply those words to his writing delema: to write or not to write!? (Is that the question?)
Brother Brigham once said that: If ever you don't feel like praying, to get down on your knees and pray until you feel like praraying!
I told this friend that he should apply that same wisdom to his writing and get on his typewriter and type until he feels like writing.
Testing-out this bit of Josh-made-wisdom to these blog, I have found that it works quite well and has never let me down... Whenever I think that "I'm just not in the 'mood' to write, if I will just sit down at the keyboard and write, I will become inspired to write more!!!
Doesn't that just make sense? Even if you think to yourself, "Nah! That sounds good and all, but it just won't work for me..." ... Try it out and you will find that if you will 'put your heart into the trying', then you will without fail find that it works... Of course, you cannot do the trial just to show or prove to yourself that it DOESN'T WORK or else you aren't actually even fullly doing the trial!
You have to act just as Almulek teaches in Alma 32, where he urges you to try, even if you can do nothing more than desire to have FAITH--try to desire!!!
Those are my words and that is what I have written...
JPS
12.6.08
Finn's Scripture of the Day...
So, my good friend, Finn Bjarnson, has begun putting up occasional scriptures that just "jump-out and grab him"... Or, at least he's done one scripture of the day (6 June, 2008):
Romans 12:2
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."
The very first thing that came to my mind when I read this was that we are necessarily going to be "in" the world, but, we are commanded to be not "of" the world (like I already mentioned in my comment...).
Also, before I talk about the "transformation" part of the verse, there is found in the Articles of Faith, 13, an entire list of things we are to "see after":
"... being ... honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
I believe that if you have molded yourself to at least one, possibly ALL of these characteristics, then you are following the council of Paul and not conforming to the pattern of the world!
Now, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind...". This is an active command and not simply a "thou shalt not" command. We are being admonished to do and to be a certain way!
"Renewing of the mind" comes from the Greek word, metaneo, and also the Hebrew rube shube, which are similar in meaning. In English, they are both translated into the word "repent"... "Shube" actually literally means "to turn" and likewise, "metaneo" means to change one's mind/soul/spirit/or idea.
Both words, as well as the English equivalent, "repent", essentially mean to have a new mind, in the broadest and fullest sense.
It is only when we have a new mind or a new heart, are we truly penitent and can therefore be forgiven. It is only when we are forgiven that we have become clean and are able to come into God's presence. Paul was only wanting us to do what Moses had spent years and years teaching the Israelites to do; come into God's presence! It seems that all prophets and also the apostles are only trying to entice us all to come into God's presence...
Is it to much to ask to follow their words?
JPS
Romans 12:2
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."
The very first thing that came to my mind when I read this was that we are necessarily going to be "in" the world, but, we are commanded to be not "of" the world (like I already mentioned in my comment...).
Also, before I talk about the "transformation" part of the verse, there is found in the Articles of Faith, 13, an entire list of things we are to "see after":
"... being ... honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
I believe that if you have molded yourself to at least one, possibly ALL of these characteristics, then you are following the council of Paul and not conforming to the pattern of the world!
Now, "be transformed by the renewing of your mind...". This is an active command and not simply a "thou shalt not" command. We are being admonished to do and to be a certain way!
"Renewing of the mind" comes from the Greek word, metaneo, and also the Hebrew rube shube, which are similar in meaning. In English, they are both translated into the word "repent"... "Shube" actually literally means "to turn" and likewise, "metaneo" means to change one's mind/soul/spirit/or idea.
Both words, as well as the English equivalent, "repent", essentially mean to have a new mind, in the broadest and fullest sense.
It is only when we have a new mind or a new heart, are we truly penitent and can therefore be forgiven. It is only when we are forgiven that we have become clean and are able to come into God's presence. Paul was only wanting us to do what Moses had spent years and years teaching the Israelites to do; come into God's presence! It seems that all prophets and also the apostles are only trying to entice us all to come into God's presence...
Is it to much to ask to follow their words?
JPS
11.6.08
In need of recovery or respite (from beds?)!!!
So, as I go through these (because right NOW is one of those times...) times of trial or possible heartbreak (like when Steph and I were divorced [102], then as Teresa wrote me to ask that I not write her anymore [103], and now as the girl that I met the other weekend at the temple, Lucretia, has asked me to not email her anymore [not in so many words, but basically!][104]), I don't get totally down and depressed but instead I feel that I need to think of 'whomever it was that I was worrying over' whenever I have a break in my activities... The tendency to have your mind turn to thoughts like that are good and even great if they aren't finding no person to refer-to.
Until today I have chosen to "get right back on that horse" and set-out in search for another person to have those thoughts refer-to... I have, as of clicking "PUBLISH POST" at the bottom of this blogsite, not let anything get in my way of finding that person who will both love me entirely and completely but also who I would love both entirely and completely!
I haven't given up hope or closed my sensitivities to such an event happening, but I have either run those girls off that I was interested in dating/seeing where that same path would eventually lead to... With Steph, I kept a way-of-life in her face (the one that I'm pretty sure we had both agreed to at the Salt Lake Temple in 1997) until she was burned-out and couldn't stand the sight or sound of me (she feels the same even today!); Teresa (my rebound-girl, as my mom refers to her) I practically drowned with affection and attention--regardless of the nature or inherit worth of such attention--until she couldn't stand my letters any more; and Lucretia, who I knew was in a fragile state of her life right-then (as evidenced by the fact that she wouldn't even give me here phone number, but only gave me her email address--that way, all she would have to do is click "delete" on that email and would never HAVE to respond to it [unless you admit to yourself that clicking delete is itself a way of responding--"No response" is just another type of way "to respond"]) who I pushed a-little-hard in my emailing her about herself...
Let me tell you what made me think I could continue on in the way that way that has driven them all away:
- Nothing that I was choosing to do (and subsequently was doing) could be seen and pointed to as a "foul" or an inherently offensive thing-to-do...
- Nothing that I knew I was doing was having any negative consequences other-than- the-fact that the girls were leaving...
- Everything that I was having them leave (me) for-having-done was good and admirable and, even, laudable and a trate that would be sought-after in most cases (being completely "true" to my religion and my God and my covenants and writing amd showing "too much" interest when they were not ready to move ahead...).
It's really, really, REALLY hard to know that each choice that you are making is going to help your relationship with that girl or woman... I can tell when I am making a choice that is not what I should choose; because it's a sin or becuase the Spirit will not give me the go-ahead. When there is an entirely separate and distnct person who is making their own choices that may or may not coincide with the choice that I have just made, all I know that is right is how the choice stands on its own merit--not how it will stand alongside and end-up as they make their choice to go with my choice...
Needless to say, I do not know how to be in a relationship unless both she and I are choosing to go towards the same objective!
I skipped that stage in the relationship-evolution-game... I met Steph in 9th grade and knew that I wanted to be with her, married her only a few months after having arrived home from Italy and my mission, and from then on I have made all of my choices with the one goal in sight: EXALTATION.
Is that wrong? That seems like I have been "jumping-the-gun" and "putting the cart before the horse" (I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but jumping the gun works as well, as "getting ahead of yourself"...) when it comes to relationships. It's like the long believed truth, "the end justifies the means" simply doesn't work in some or most or even all situations!
I need to think of dating simply as a process (like in my last post about the steps heading towards a relationship and not think so much as geting to the "final destination" in the shortest amount of steps possible... I need to appreciate that it's the journey gives the whole marriage or experience meaning!!!
I'm afraid that I am leaving good and fine and great and beautiful women by the wayside as I burn past or through them though! Maybe #105 will be my ultimate lucky number... We'll see, because it just started popping-up and standing out today... "What does that mean anyway?", you ask. Maybe nothing at all, but maybe, just maybe, it means the whole world!
JPS
Until today I have chosen to "get right back on that horse" and set-out in search for another person to have those thoughts refer-to... I have, as of clicking "PUBLISH POST" at the bottom of this blogsite, not let anything get in my way of finding that person who will both love me entirely and completely but also who I would love both entirely and completely!
I haven't given up hope or closed my sensitivities to such an event happening, but I have either run those girls off that I was interested in dating/seeing where that same path would eventually lead to... With Steph, I kept a way-of-life in her face (the one that I'm pretty sure we had both agreed to at the Salt Lake Temple in 1997) until she was burned-out and couldn't stand the sight or sound of me (she feels the same even today!); Teresa (my rebound-girl, as my mom refers to her) I practically drowned with affection and attention--regardless of the nature or inherit worth of such attention--until she couldn't stand my letters any more; and Lucretia, who I knew was in a fragile state of her life right-then (as evidenced by the fact that she wouldn't even give me here phone number, but only gave me her email address--that way, all she would have to do is click "delete" on that email and would never HAVE to respond to it [unless you admit to yourself that clicking delete is itself a way of responding--"No response" is just another type of way "to respond"]) who I pushed a-little-hard in my emailing her about herself...
Let me tell you what made me think I could continue on in the way that way that has driven them all away:
- Nothing that I was choosing to do (and subsequently was doing) could be seen and pointed to as a "foul" or an inherently offensive thing-to-do...
- Nothing that I knew I was doing was having any negative consequences other-than- the-fact that the girls were leaving...
- Everything that I was having them leave (me) for-having-done was good and admirable and, even, laudable and a trate that would be sought-after in most cases (being completely "true" to my religion and my God and my covenants and writing amd showing "too much" interest when they were not ready to move ahead...).
It's really, really, REALLY hard to know that each choice that you are making is going to help your relationship with that girl or woman... I can tell when I am making a choice that is not what I should choose; because it's a sin or becuase the Spirit will not give me the go-ahead. When there is an entirely separate and distnct person who is making their own choices that may or may not coincide with the choice that I have just made, all I know that is right is how the choice stands on its own merit--not how it will stand alongside and end-up as they make their choice to go with my choice...
Needless to say, I do not know how to be in a relationship unless both she and I are choosing to go towards the same objective!
I skipped that stage in the relationship-evolution-game... I met Steph in 9th grade and knew that I wanted to be with her, married her only a few months after having arrived home from Italy and my mission, and from then on I have made all of my choices with the one goal in sight: EXALTATION.
Is that wrong? That seems like I have been "jumping-the-gun" and "putting the cart before the horse" (I'm not even sure exactly what that means, but jumping the gun works as well, as "getting ahead of yourself"...) when it comes to relationships. It's like the long believed truth, "the end justifies the means" simply doesn't work in some or most or even all situations!
I need to think of dating simply as a process (like in my last post about the steps heading towards a relationship and not think so much as geting to the "final destination" in the shortest amount of steps possible... I need to appreciate that it's the journey gives the whole marriage or experience meaning!!!
I'm afraid that I am leaving good and fine and great and beautiful women by the wayside as I burn past or through them though! Maybe #105 will be my ultimate lucky number... We'll see, because it just started popping-up and standing out today... "What does that mean anyway?", you ask. Maybe nothing at all, but maybe, just maybe, it means the whole world!
JPS
New trial, life trial...
I think that maybe this is just WAY to early to make any conclusions on the matter, but, as I was thinking of the different trials that I'm going to face in the near future (to make me prepared to endure the final trials that will necessarily pass my way... Like enduring my trial of Abraham [because, YES, we are all going to be tried as Abraham was if we are going to gain the same blessings that he has already...]), I was reading, again, from C.S. Lewis (which I have already posted this quote here among these "extemporaneous rants"...):
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."
What I never included in my last post was the sentence that he wrote that comes after this quote was that He (meaning Christ) has built this palace so that He can come and live inside and make it his house...
If Christ is going to live inside of this palace that he has now made from our humble-little-cottage-beginning (remember, remember, that this whole idea is metaphorical... Don't even think that Lewis is making a break from christian ideology...)! Do we not want to let Him make the greatest palace that he can and using the least amount of struggles and effort possible? Wouldn't that be our wish?
Joseph Smith said something almost exactly like the Lewis quote when he said,
"You ill have all kinds of trials to pas through. And it is quite necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it, you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." (as recorded from John Taylor in the Deseret News, 8/21/1883)
My trials, I believe, have started with my car accident, but that was just a preamble to my Abrahamic trial, as it just made life harder for me (not harder to bear, mind you...) and I'm afraid that the other part of the "test" will be making my way though life with the desire and the aptitude and the choice made to be remarried, but never actually having the struggle culminate in a Celestial Marriage... I don't know, maybe I will eventually be married to another student or maybe professor in Graduate School (you think?).
I will continue to live my life day-to-day and take on each new experience with whatever wisdom and knowledge I have brought with me from the rest of my life... I'm not in a hurry to have 'all of the experiences that I will pass through in this life' be completed or "over"... Now! I do not want anyone to think that I've written this posting in self-doubt or in self-worry or, especially not in self-pity; but I have written this as a self-declaration that I will let things unfold as they may and stop trying to push my will onto anyone else. I have been trying to learn as much about "agency" as I could, but I see now that the best things that I can learn from are the very experiences that I am passing through!!! Like I say, I will just be ready for the next step--and I will do my best to try and not "run up the stairs" but just take them one at a time...
It's move-on to the next step!!!
JPS
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace."
What I never included in my last post was the sentence that he wrote that comes after this quote was that He (meaning Christ) has built this palace so that He can come and live inside and make it his house...
If Christ is going to live inside of this palace that he has now made from our humble-little-cottage-beginning (remember, remember, that this whole idea is metaphorical... Don't even think that Lewis is making a break from christian ideology...)! Do we not want to let Him make the greatest palace that he can and using the least amount of struggles and effort possible? Wouldn't that be our wish?
Joseph Smith said something almost exactly like the Lewis quote when he said,
"You ill have all kinds of trials to pas through. And it is quite necessary for you to be tried as it was for Abraham and other men of God, and God will feel after you, and He will take hold of and wrench your very heart strings, and if you cannot stand it, you will not be fit for an inheritance in the Celestial Kingdom of God." (as recorded from John Taylor in the Deseret News, 8/21/1883)
My trials, I believe, have started with my car accident, but that was just a preamble to my Abrahamic trial, as it just made life harder for me (not harder to bear, mind you...) and I'm afraid that the other part of the "test" will be making my way though life with the desire and the aptitude and the choice made to be remarried, but never actually having the struggle culminate in a Celestial Marriage... I don't know, maybe I will eventually be married to another student or maybe professor in Graduate School (you think?).
I will continue to live my life day-to-day and take on each new experience with whatever wisdom and knowledge I have brought with me from the rest of my life... I'm not in a hurry to have 'all of the experiences that I will pass through in this life' be completed or "over"... Now! I do not want anyone to think that I've written this posting in self-doubt or in self-worry or, especially not in self-pity; but I have written this as a self-declaration that I will let things unfold as they may and stop trying to push my will onto anyone else. I have been trying to learn as much about "agency" as I could, but I see now that the best things that I can learn from are the very experiences that I am passing through!!! Like I say, I will just be ready for the next step--and I will do my best to try and not "run up the stairs" but just take them one at a time...
It's move-on to the next step!!!
JPS
7.6.08
Memory-in terms of practicality
You know... There are so many ways that technology that your phone or your computer or your "Palm Pilot" would help you to remember all of your birthdays or dates-to-remember or what-you-were-going-to-do-tonight, etc. that in most ways, we don't have to do all of the leg-work to remember things...
Now, you just have to be smart when you are using that technology, or else you might as well just leave it to your brain to do all of that leg-work.
How can you be smart about how to best use your memory?
Well, to answer my own question...
You can use your memory to remember the things that you eith need to know know now or will need to remember in the future about the future or will need ot remember your future's past (presumably the things that are going on in your curren present or the things that actually have taken place in your actual past...).
You could just remember everything, but like most (or ALL) of us, we need some criteria as to what we will choose to remember. I would recommend the citeria of what is found in Dallin H. Oaks, October 2007 Sunday afternoon talk in General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Good, Better, Best.
It'll be 100% up to you to decide which things are best and remember those or to remember the things that are merely good or better to remember... I can't lay out a standard and uniform guideline for all of you, so, stop trying to force me to!!!
My own opinion would be that we should focus our mental thought (our memories) on those things that, "... can only be accomplished with Priesthood authority, such as teaching the Gospel and redeeming the dead." (Dallin H. Oaks, BYU Studies November 1992).
JPS
Now, you just have to be smart when you are using that technology, or else you might as well just leave it to your brain to do all of that leg-work.
How can you be smart about how to best use your memory?
Well, to answer my own question...
You can use your memory to remember the things that you eith need to know know now or will need to remember in the future about the future or will need ot remember your future's past (presumably the things that are going on in your curren present or the things that actually have taken place in your actual past...).
You could just remember everything, but like most (or ALL) of us, we need some criteria as to what we will choose to remember. I would recommend the citeria of what is found in Dallin H. Oaks, October 2007 Sunday afternoon talk in General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Good, Better, Best.
It'll be 100% up to you to decide which things are best and remember those or to remember the things that are merely good or better to remember... I can't lay out a standard and uniform guideline for all of you, so, stop trying to force me to!!!
My own opinion would be that we should focus our mental thought (our memories) on those things that, "... can only be accomplished with Priesthood authority, such as teaching the Gospel and redeeming the dead." (Dallin H. Oaks, BYU Studies November 1992).
JPS
True love postponed...
Is that even possible?
Let's think about this for a minute... Shall we talk about "true love"? I believe (and I think that the writers of "The Princess Bride" would agree with me...) that in order for you to have "TRUE" love, it does require that both parties are in love with each other. In other words, it cannot be unrequited love; it can't be that you desperately love another person but that they don't share those same feelings!
Now, let's move on to discuss "LOVE" and see what we can discover about that word, in relation to "true"...
A wise man once told me specifically that in order to realize my potential (eternal), that I would need to learn to communicate well with my chosen future-wife and that we I would need to learn to understand and be understood by that wonderful woman.
In order to be true, like Christ is true at all times and in all circumstances and places, you must let the Spirit of God be with you. It will always be with you; if you will let it. One of the ways that you have to let the Spirit know that you want it to always be with you (besides partaking of the sacrament weekly) is to follow a scripture and council found in the Old Testament: Numbers 23:12 - "Must I not take heed to speak the words which the Lord has put in my mouth?"
Let us not forget to consult with the prophets of God, as well, as President Gordon B. Hinkley has reminded us that, "True Love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one's companion."
So, to answer my original question, YES, it is possible for "true love", for me, to be postponed. Just another lesson in patience! I will never be tired of learning that lesson, and by so doing, I am learning the lesson of "long-suffering".
For me, my quest to find "true love" will necessarily be accompanied by a quest to be long-suffering... Thus, all things will become one!
JPS
Let's think about this for a minute... Shall we talk about "true love"? I believe (and I think that the writers of "The Princess Bride" would agree with me...) that in order for you to have "TRUE" love, it does require that both parties are in love with each other. In other words, it cannot be unrequited love; it can't be that you desperately love another person but that they don't share those same feelings!
Now, let's move on to discuss "LOVE" and see what we can discover about that word, in relation to "true"...
A wise man once told me specifically that in order to realize my potential (eternal), that I would need to learn to communicate well with my chosen future-wife and that we I would need to learn to understand and be understood by that wonderful woman.
In order to be true, like Christ is true at all times and in all circumstances and places, you must let the Spirit of God be with you. It will always be with you; if you will let it. One of the ways that you have to let the Spirit know that you want it to always be with you (besides partaking of the sacrament weekly) is to follow a scripture and council found in the Old Testament: Numbers 23:12 - "Must I not take heed to speak the words which the Lord has put in my mouth?"
Let us not forget to consult with the prophets of God, as well, as President Gordon B. Hinkley has reminded us that, "True Love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one's companion."
So, to answer my original question, YES, it is possible for "true love", for me, to be postponed. Just another lesson in patience! I will never be tired of learning that lesson, and by so doing, I am learning the lesson of "long-suffering".
For me, my quest to find "true love" will necessarily be accompanied by a quest to be long-suffering... Thus, all things will become one!
JPS
6.6.08
"The Spanish Prisoner"'s secret mission...
I don't discount inspiration or possibly a burning bush or even a dream or vision, but, I believe that Teresa basically wrote me that "Dear Josh" because of The Spanish Prisoner...
Let me explain... No time, I sum-up.
You see, after all of the possible reasons to have decided to not keep going out with me, I think that the reason must have been because, when I had any movie in the world to choose from to watch with her, and we only ever watched one movie together, I had been aching to watch that movie with her (almost as if it had been total inspiration to choose watch that particular movie), also because when we had watched about 3/4 of the movie, the VCR started to "eat" the VHS tape and I had to perform "mechanical CPR" to rescue the tape (and we did get to watch the last quarter!).
Ok, let me go back and explain now the summation, because this frankly sounds to weenie of an explanation.
Well, I was working on the USPS project at my work under the team-lead Esther Shepard and she had just given us permission and encouragement to use AOL Express (a type of Instant Messeger program). I had gathered login names for about everyone on our team and Esther used it, occasionally to gather the whole team together ("Meeting in the North Training room at 2:30 today!"). One day I had pulled-up and was using the messenger program when I noticed that an unfamiliar name was logged in that morning... I sent the name a message and was almost instantly responded to! Come to find out, it was Teresa...
After work I saw that I could use AOL Express (I am purposely not linking to AOL whenever I mention their name... They are rich enough and don't need any more business!!!) on my cell phone, and when I logged-in, it automatically populated with my work contacts, so I started text messaging Teresa more...
We talked like crazy for weeks and weeks and then one day she asked me if I wouldn't want to go up to Salt Lake and pick-up her uncle and aunt at the airport. I said that I would love to. We went up to the airport (talking, of course, the whole way up and getting to know each other better) and after we had loaded the luggage and her uncle into the car and were waiting for her aunt, I took the opportunity to kiss her right on the lips.
Maybe a little brash and maybe a dangerous choice to try to make a move like that, but, I knew right then and there that I wanted to kiss her, and so I did.
Months later, she finally left on her mission and I faithfully wrote her every week while she was in the MTC and then every other week (about) while she was in Switzerland. She, however, apparently did not think that we would remain together after she returned home and wrote me that Dear Josh.
She doesn't come back from her mission til November, but I think that The Spanish Prisoner was the final straw that broke the camels relationship back...
I can't think of any other relationship having so much promise and yet being inwardly-sabotaged by me... I purposefully chose to make all of the little decisions (like the movie that I chose to watch...) in such a way that she would have no choice but to be "scared-off" by those inconsequential a utterly meaningless acts...
When I decided that I would date her (and she obviously agreed to "go along" for the ride until she left...), I was so fantastically and utterly excited to do everything and anything to be with her and have as much fun as she could have before her mission... For example, I was so excited that one night I made a list of ideas for dates that cost no money (or minimal money) and yet were good date ideas for us to have... I know that many-a-young-men's leader or young-women's leader has made such a list, but those lists are made from groups of grown adults with almost a lifetime of experience and that have a wealth of ideas that they've gathered over the years, and I was just one almost-30-year-old boy (young adult) with practically no dating experience sitting alone in a room, with no computer/internet to refer-to and nothing but my own mind to give me ideas... I was so excited about dating her!!!
At the end though, it all came back down-to, "what movie did he choose to watch with me during one of my last days before leaving on my mission?" ... ... ... You know the answer! I chose the movie that I knew I would show to her, if I ever had a chance, The Spanish Prisoner!
JPS
Let me explain... No time, I sum-up.
You see, after all of the possible reasons to have decided to not keep going out with me, I think that the reason must have been because, when I had any movie in the world to choose from to watch with her, and we only ever watched one movie together, I had been aching to watch that movie with her (almost as if it had been total inspiration to choose watch that particular movie), also because when we had watched about 3/4 of the movie, the VCR started to "eat" the VHS tape and I had to perform "mechanical CPR" to rescue the tape (and we did get to watch the last quarter!).
Ok, let me go back and explain now the summation, because this frankly sounds to weenie of an explanation.
Well, I was working on the USPS project at my work under the team-lead Esther Shepard and she had just given us permission and encouragement to use AOL Express (a type of Instant Messeger program). I had gathered login names for about everyone on our team and Esther used it, occasionally to gather the whole team together ("Meeting in the North Training room at 2:30 today!"). One day I had pulled-up and was using the messenger program when I noticed that an unfamiliar name was logged in that morning... I sent the name a message and was almost instantly responded to! Come to find out, it was Teresa...
After work I saw that I could use AOL Express (I am purposely not linking to AOL whenever I mention their name... They are rich enough and don't need any more business!!!) on my cell phone, and when I logged-in, it automatically populated with my work contacts, so I started text messaging Teresa more...
We talked like crazy for weeks and weeks and then one day she asked me if I wouldn't want to go up to Salt Lake and pick-up her uncle and aunt at the airport. I said that I would love to. We went up to the airport (talking, of course, the whole way up and getting to know each other better) and after we had loaded the luggage and her uncle into the car and were waiting for her aunt, I took the opportunity to kiss her right on the lips.
Maybe a little brash and maybe a dangerous choice to try to make a move like that, but, I knew right then and there that I wanted to kiss her, and so I did.
Months later, she finally left on her mission and I faithfully wrote her every week while she was in the MTC and then every other week (about) while she was in Switzerland. She, however, apparently did not think that we would remain together after she returned home and wrote me that Dear Josh.
She doesn't come back from her mission til November, but I think that The Spanish Prisoner was the final straw that broke the camels relationship back...
I can't think of any other relationship having so much promise and yet being inwardly-sabotaged by me... I purposefully chose to make all of the little decisions (like the movie that I chose to watch...) in such a way that she would have no choice but to be "scared-off" by those inconsequential a utterly meaningless acts...
When I decided that I would date her (and she obviously agreed to "go along" for the ride until she left...), I was so fantastically and utterly excited to do everything and anything to be with her and have as much fun as she could have before her mission... For example, I was so excited that one night I made a list of ideas for dates that cost no money (or minimal money) and yet were good date ideas for us to have... I know that many-a-young-men's leader or young-women's leader has made such a list, but those lists are made from groups of grown adults with almost a lifetime of experience and that have a wealth of ideas that they've gathered over the years, and I was just one almost-30-year-old boy (young adult) with practically no dating experience sitting alone in a room, with no computer/internet to refer-to and nothing but my own mind to give me ideas... I was so excited about dating her!!!
At the end though, it all came back down-to, "what movie did he choose to watch with me during one of my last days before leaving on my mission?" ... ... ... You know the answer! I chose the movie that I knew I would show to her, if I ever had a chance, The Spanish Prisoner!
JPS
1.6.08
Build-a-Bearville Villiage...
There is a fun new place for my son and I to play together online. The site is: http://www.buildabearville.com/ and it is fun to do things together, since we can't be together as often as we would like. Playing online is still one way of being able to do something he loves with his dad...
His name in the build-a-bear world is danielXXXXXX and mine is SorenStar... Come and find us and we'll be virtual buddies!
JPS
His name in the build-a-bear world is danielXXXXXX and mine is SorenStar... Come and find us and we'll be virtual buddies!
JPS
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