How to be more "upbeat"!

Since I'm not exactly sure how it is that I am supposed to be more upbeat than I already am, I am going to write about "HOW" to become more upbeat and in the process, I hope to be more upbeat!

Just so you know, I don't feel like I am depressed or even gloomy, but as soon as I start writing--I am not the most positive person around! I don't know... Maybe it's just the subject matter or the the things that I choose to talk about. I think by trying to explain how it is that I should be sounding, I will become that type of writer (at least until I write again...).

I am taking this idea of not-knowing-how-to-become-a-certain-way-so-you-just-start-talking-as-if-you-are-already-that-way from a quote from Brigham Young. He once said that, More people have obtained a testimony while standing up trying to bear it, than down on their knees praying for it.

So, my ideas for starting to write and being upbeat are:

1) Let your happiness come through your writing! As in, if you are a naturally happy person, then let that happiness come across to others...

2) Don't choose to write or talk about anything that is or could be construed as potentially sad or even disheartening!

3) Write with someone in mind that makes you happy! Use this idea-of-the-person to "check" yourself and keep yourself from straying from the desired happiness...

4) Think back on what you're writing and make sure that you are actually getting happier/more excited just from putting words about that thing that you're writing about...

and 5) Ask yourself if you could conceivably bring this same topic into an already happy conversation with a loved-one without "bringing them down" or ruining the mood!

I realize that I, myself, haven't followed these rules and have kind-of avoided the whole topic of being happy... These are good guidelines to follow and keep yourself from not being a-happy-writer, even if this post has just been a meta-happiness-blog!

JPS

Haven't I written something about *memory* before?

I don't remember what I was going to write about... But it'll come!

JPS

Worms... Roxanne... Worms...

Ok, guess you have to be a big "Roxanne" movie-lover to appreciate the title...

The reason that I have gathered you all together today is to talk to you about the very importance of "words". In an amazing speech given by the law-school professor and librarian, Constance K. Lundberg called, "Words of Hate; Words of Love".

In the talk/speech to fellow law students, faculty, and professors, she mused:

"Used in the context of our relationship with God, words are real, and their power is real. Repentance can be real and sincere, but our acceptance of the atonement is not sufficient if we only have a change of heart. We must also be baptized. The act, and the words of the prayer, are more than symbols. They effect real change. The acceptance and understanding of that change is part of the act of repentance, and of our preparation for baptism."

Finishing the thought, she relates, "Contemplating those vows enables us to test the reality of our commitment to repentance, to a forsaking of past sins and a covenant to take upon ourselves the Name of Jesus Christ – more words. More words that are the acts we cherish and revere."

Take a look at the speech/talk and see what you think... That is all ... Reconridge!

JPS

The irony of me not accepting god's will...

I try hard to align my will with God's, so much so that I am almost happy to see bad (or even terrible...) things happen in my life (as long as I am then able to overcome or endure those things). Because, if and when I DO overcome them, then
it's proof to me that I AM following the correct path and forces are fighting against me the whole way!!!

This is a good thing... What I am trying to work out now is that I am finding it hard for me to allow the *good* things in life or even *the blessings* in life happen to me in the same way that the bad happens!

... I was just down in my room having a personal dialogue with myself (would you call that a "auto-monologue"?) about why it is that I will not allow myself to have things "go my way" for a change with a relationship... I just enumerated a whole list of positive things that went my way, in one particular situation, that IS NOT going my way, yet it's hard for me to be charitable to myself or to allow others to be charitable to me!

I feel like the spirits in Lewis' The Great Divorce who are refusing to enter into heaven because they are unwilling to "let go" of the pattern of wrongs that they've "suffered"--they get some sort of satisfaction out of not being blessed! The crave the "BLAME" that they are able to attach to something other than themselves and attribute victimization to that thing or that person!!!

Am I following in that same trap? Why won't I be optimistic about myself and the things that are "going my way"? Am I dooming myself to forever be the false-accusor? Will I always expect a certain amount of "wrongs" that are trying to hold-me-down? Why am I adding even more weight to that burden until I believe it's "heavy enough"?

The truth is: I DO have faith and trust that some things are going to turn-out the way that I plan, but, those things (in which I successfully have faith in) are very, very few! Where I am lacking in faith is the faith that my life will continue to be blessed and that I will find joy in my relationships (among other things)!

I'm afraid that I will not start seeing my life as being blessed until my attitude changes... Maybe that change will start with this post!?! In fact, it has changed from that personal/private monologue down in my room... GOODBYE PESSIMISM and HELLO CHARITY!!!

JPS

What has God done to "purge" you?

In The Gospel according to JOHN, chapter 15, verse 2, we read that:

Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

This question already assumes that YOU are not an evil branch that brings forth evil fruit, but that you are good and bring forth good fruit! So, now that we know that you "beareth fruit", I want to know how have you been "purge[d]... that [you] may bring forth more fruit".

JPS

Unstring your bow my son, unstring your bow!

Joseph Smith is reported as advising certain brotheren, after other non believers/non mormons would call out that he was a fallen-prophet because he would get down and play with the children whenever he could, that 'If you kept your bow constantly tied and the string taut, that your bow would lose its spring' meaning that you can't go around all day, every day, wound-up to the maximum level. You have to relax and do other things that aren't going to necessitate you be posed to battle every-little-thing, as if you were at war!

Likewise, C. S. Lewis, in his book, The Weight of Glory, reminds us that the Master himself advised his followers that we need to ask for our daily bread and not to let the thought of not having our daily bread tomorrow or the next day or next week, etc. be our concern... You see, even the children of Israel, when they were wandering in the desert for 30 years were commanded to gather only enough sustenance (bread in this case...) for that day, and if they gathered more than that, the manna would spoil and have maggots!

Again, C. S. Lewis writes, "Happy work is best done by the man who takes long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.'"

Some may see this post as terribly ironic and even comically ironic that I write a blog about not being so serious and yet, at the same time, fill the blog with scriptural quotes and theological references... Little steps, little steps... I am working on it and will keep more in mind that I can't keep my bow constantly taut!!!

JPS

I will not be complacent! I will not be complacent!

One summer Stephanie and I went to an Indigo Girls concert up at Wolf Mountain (or was that before the name change from Park West?) and besides good and fine music, one of the parts that I remember most about the concert was that after singing a song from their new Swamp Ophelia album she kept chanting, "I will not be complacent" again and again...

I'm sure it was spawned by some sort of desire to become even more of an activist or better yet, to inspire those listening to become a some sort of activist in one of their many causes (you know... save the wales, legalize gay and lesbian marriages, what-have-you!).

The reason why I am saying that "I will not be complacent" is because I am going to do what is right, no matter the outcome ("Do it now!" -President Spencer W. Kimball). I am talking about doing what is right on every level of life--my school, my work, my family life, my friendship activities, my personal life, and my church activity--even things that I will say or wright!

The irony of this whole story which was inspired by the Indigo Girls is that the night of the concert was on a Sunday... So was the night that I was taken to a Sundance Film Festival showing of a Stewart Copeland movie about the Police; on a Sunday...

The thing that causes me to write this is: It's nobody's fault that I chose to go to these two events on Sunday... Nobody forced me to and it's not like I didn't have a choice. My own choices and the way I was being and acting was as an enemy to God and to what I knew and know to be right!

I think that I am out of danger of succumbing to the Sabbath-day-breaking desires that hounded me, but, I need to recommit myself to making all of the choices that I feel are going to be the most helpful and beneficial and inspiring-to-others that I can! Regardless of who says differently (even me and my natural man flare-ups), I am going to act, insofar as I am able, in strict accordance with God's will and then allow My Savior's atonement make up for the rest!

JPS

"But we heeded them not..."

Peer pressure is something that I haven't worried about since I was in high school, but as a father, I can't not be worried about the choices that my son will make in life. I know that he will have the influence of his dad and his mom and the influences of all of his grandparents, but he's going to also have the influence of friends: some good and some-not-so good!

I pray for him each and every day and night and ask that he be able to glean those truths that are spoken all about him and taught directly too him, that he may become wise in his own decision making...

The title of this blog is from the first Book of Nephi chapter 8; it reads in versus 33-34 that, "... and after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not. These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away."

I know that he will have PLNT of chances and opportunities to be laughed at and teased and even ridiculed because of the choices he will make, but I pray that in the end he will have not heeded those words and he will NOT have fallen away. I know that he can be strong and he will glean those life-saving truths that will help him along the path to reach me waiting for him at the Tree of Life with all of his loved ones!!!

JPS

More on memory...

Memory is something that we almost never think of, but readily use it every single moment of our lives!

I suppose there in the inherent memory of how to keep our body functioning that seems almost completely unconscious (NOT subconscious, mind you, but UNconscious...)--breathing, circulating blood, how to see with our eyes, etc. Then there is the memory that we think of, which is conscious, like memories, mental organizing calendars/priorities/goals/etc.

I had a very, very interesting conversation with a woman that was in my ward when Stephanie and I were married (Aspen 1st ward) about a case of amnesia that a girl that she knows had after an accident, but when the amnesia went away, she had decided during the time when she couldn't remember things, that the Church wasn't true. Essentially, she had a strong testimony-was in an accident and had amnesia-regained her memory but fell completely away from the Church!

My friend was asking me about it and wondered why I did not lose MY testimony after my accident, yet she had...

I took a moment to think about it and then told her that I understood her story suggested was:

1- Our testimony is closely related to the influence(s) of the Holy Ghost (as I've written about in prior blogs),
2- During the time of amnesia she had lost her memories of the Gospel, etc.,
3- When she started recovering her memories, she didn't have the promptings and confirmation of the Holy Ghost confirming what she had previously known as being true actually WAS true, and
4- Because she felt like what she was feeling (the promptings of the truthfulness) or being told was not being confirmed against what little she could remember, she discounted and disbelieved it all...

In short, her physical loss of memory (which would have told her that she already believed what she was having people try and remind her of...) led to her trying to confirm with her mind the thoughts that were being supplied about the truthfulness of the Gospel, but without her memories she was left as a brand-new investigator--having to accept the Gospel with no prior experiences to judge it from, and it was her over-critical brain that decided to discount the hard-to-believe truths that were being presented to her...

My explanation for why I didn't experience the same effects was that I, fortunately, never was without a memory of the Church or of the Truth and, therefore never had to be treated as a brand-new-potential-convert as her friend will have to...

We are all given different trials in our lives which will all lead us back to our God and we will receive the Glory according to how we fare in our life and choices and trials!

I am eternally grateful that I did not have that sort of trial and that I have always known that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was the only true and living church on the face of the earth in these days and that I am glad to be one of its priesthood holders!

JPS