Self-Analysis

"Stop analyzing me and start analyzing yourself," she quipped.

In the first instant I think, "I am in a constant state of self-analyzation..." Is that true though?

All of us think (or most of us anyway) that we are fully introspective in a way that we think that we are always analyzing ourselves--but we're not. I'm not.

Almost all of us live our lives on autopilot and are making decisions only based on what would feel good to us, or sometimes based on what we've already chosen in the past.

Is that right? Shouldn't we take time, at least weekly, to analyze ourselves and see what there is to change? Is there anything to change or are we fine with how we are?

As a counselor, I have learned that in order to counsel with someone we should be in a state of relative congruence. That means that I shouldn't be acting in a way that's contrary to the things that I know to be right and good. Shouldn't all of us be living in such a state? Shouldn't all of us be living according to that which we know and believe to be right and good and true?

Stop analyzing me and start analyzing yourself--start acting according to that which you already know or believe to be just and good and true!

JPS

Expectations...

Where do they come from and why do they frustrate our lives?

First of all, every one of us has expectations: we expect to be able to sleep tonight; we expect to be able to drive away in our car when we turn-over the ignition; we even expect to have our dreams fulfilled, and sometimes we expect that fulfillment to be speedy or speedy--sometimes we expect those dreams to be fulfilled instantaneously! Sometimes, however, in fact most of the time, those dreams are never fulfilled, sometimes fulfilled in a slower time-frame, or sometimes they are fulfilled speedily or instantaneously.

Why, though, do we get angry when they don't happen as soon or as quickly as we thought they would?

Like I was saying, when we get in that car and turn the key over and the motor doesn't turn over or start, we are frustrated or angry. Why is that? The same thing happens when we aren't able to have a good night's sleep or have a fun-filled weekend... Why is that?

I think that it is mostly because we don't have patience. We don't have a good-enough perspective on life. Unfortunately, there is not a easy-to-fix-button or an easy solution--life experience and wisdom are the only thing that will lead to a greater perspective.

Don't get frustrated though when things don't turn-out the way you thought they would. Things happen, usually, the way that they are supposed to and we need to learn from those lessons in life that hit us the wrong way.

A wise man once said that everything that happens to us in this life is or will be eventually be for our good, and I believe him. Why can't we all believe him?

Stop getting angry and bringing other people down when your own expectations aren't fulfilled!

JPS

Am I using my priesthood to its fullest potential?

I don't think that you can ever honestly answer that in the affirmative and not know that there is something more you can do...

For example, Soren Kierkegaard writes about our relationship to Jesus Christ in his book, "Practice in Christianity," that the only way you can be right before Christ is to admit that you are wrong.

In a similar way, the only way that you can be correct or right in answering the question, "Am I using my Priesthood to is to its fullest potential," is to admit that that you could be doing more and/or could be exercising more faith while trying to magnify your calling/position/duty/responsibility/etc.

If you want to know more about the priesthood, know what it is, know why God has entrusted His power to man on this earth, or know how you can learn more about any of this, click on the I Believe... link on this page or travel to www.mormon.org

JPS

Character

Probably the best decider of a person's character or the way to best see what a person's character is is to watch them during and after the act of sacrifice. In other words, you can tell what the character of a person basically is after watching them make choices throughout the day, throughout their life, but if you really want a glimpse into that person's soul; if you really want to see how they are deep-down inside; if you really want to see how their rubber hits the road and what sort of material this person is made of: notice how they act when their character is put to the test as they make a sacrifice or are asked to make a sacrifice.

This goes along nicely, and is more straightforward than just seeing how they act in an ironic situation. See how they act while they are making a sacrifice.

When they are in the act or middle of making a sacrifice, their true colors will shine through. You will be able to see whether or not they truly believe in what they are saying that they believe in. They will show what they truly value and believe in as they continue to make the choice to make the sacrifice.

They also may be showing what they believe in during the rest of their life and from their other many choices, and this doesn't mean that they only believe in the thing that they have sacrificed for, but a sacrifice or a sacrificial act tends to strip away the superfluous or the light-minded choices and leave a more pure character trait. When I was in elementary school, I first learned about "chaff." It is only when the chaff or impurities are melted or burned out of the gold or silver, you have a more pure metal and are able to look into the molten silver or gold and see your reflection more-so after the chaff has been removed.

A sacrifice is a sort of chaff removing process. You are left more pure after those impurities have been removed.

JPS

The Lord's Fierce Anger?

As I try to understand the character of God, and His son, Jesus Christ (because they are one in character, perfection, attributes, and will), I remember having to explain to a relative once that Jehovah (in the Old Testament) was not fierce and angry and a punishing God--although He could and can be seen that way.

I was reminded by a passage in the Book of Mormonv when Abinadi is preaching to the people under King Noah (or wicked King Noah if you'd like) when he reminds the people that if they do not start remembering the commandments and of God, that He will visit them in His anger; yea, His fierce anger.

So what does that mean? If, you remember what I was explaining to that relative-of-mine, Jehovah is simply the pre-earth name of Jesus Christ's spirit, and you also remember that God has been teaching His Son for a long, long, time and has been teaching, creating worlds with him, teaching other Earths (more than man can number...), that He has been a God for that long, long, time, you will also remember that He has had the same characteristics and attributes as God the Father (since He has always been tutored by Him), God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ are One. Jehovah wasn't a tyrant God. Jehovah did not punish the Israelites. Remember, Jehovah and Jesus Christ are the same person. If you think of Jesus Christ in the New Testament or in the Book of Mormon (or other Latter-Day scriptures...), you cannot reconcile those two actions coming from the same being.

What you're left with, is either a paradoxical conundrum or a lesson to be learned. When Abinadi tells the Nephites that God will visit them in His fierce anger, he is reminding them how much it hurts to fight against the good and the right. Like I have often told my sons, when they hit me or karate chop me, the pain that they feel isn't from me hitting them back (I haven't moved...), but it's the pain they similarly would feel if they were to try and karate chop a stone or a brick wall (not that I am telling you readers that I am built like a brick wall, but it doesn't hurt for my sons to believe that...). Both my sons and the disobedient Nephites are feeling the same pain--all attributable to themselves. They hurt themselves. They are fighting against an immovable object.

Jesus Christ, like His Father, loves us. Neither of them want to see us hurt or in pain. Their perfection, though, comes from not only having perfect attributes but from perfectly living God's life. They are Gods because They live God's lives. Just like I don't want to my sons to be hurt when they punch me, I can't change my body to make it softer and squishier--neither can God change His character, His laws, His attributes, His commandments. It will hurt when we try and fight against His immutable truths.

The trick, I guess, is to try to live in harmony with those perfect characteristics. Accept His love and accept His ways. That is the only way to not feel His wrath (and, it just so happens that, live in harmony long enough, and we will become like Him, just like His Only Begotten Son has done; perfectly, might I add...)

JPS

Work that Fills You with Energy!

Some people, or maybe even most people talk a bout how much of a drag it is to go to work... I, however, have found a profession that I look forward to going to each and every day and even think about it always when I'm not there. Why is that, that for some people, they just go to work because that it what they have to do while others go to work because they "get to do" what they've chosen to do every day? Why isn't it the same way for everyone? Are there simply not enough of the preferred jobs to go around, or what?

I think that maybe the only way to get an answer to this question is to utilize my job. No, I'm serious... All day, every day (that is the weekdays), I go into schools (really just one school per year and it may be that I go the same school, as that is my job) and help the students there to discover what it is that they love to do. They may already know what they love to do, and that's fine--I will just help them discover more ways to do the thing they already love to do.

So, let me rephrase my first question (or maybe just repeat the same question...): why is it not the case that everyone loves their job? Seeing as how there are school counselors advocating for students in schools and helping them to discover and chase the job of their dreams, why haven't all of the students in the USA discovered their passion and the job that they will love to do?

Why aren't you happy in your job?

What can I do to help you to be happier? Happier in your job and happier in life (for most people, their job is or has become their life...), won't you just let me help you?

It's not too late; it's never too late.

So, what do you say? Want to get happier?

JPS

Desire and Motivation

We all desire something and almost all of us are motivated to one end or the other...

Where does that desire or where does that motivation come from?

Some desires are completely inexplicable like your desire to choose the red shirt instead of the blue shirt or you desire the green bracelet over the purple one; you can't explain why--in fact, you don't even know why yourself!

Motivations, on the other hand, almost always have some sort of foundation or rationale behind them and you could probably explain why this and why not that... Motivations are easier to explain. You might even be able to trace the reasons back in your life and probably can even explain it back before your birth--"My mom and dad knew this and then they taught it to me, and now I know it too and want to keep doing it" or "This goes back in my family for generations and I won't be the generation that doesn't keep doing it also..."

Maybe, though, it's just deeper than that: "I feel that it's right" or "I've prayed about this and know that it's true." Sometimes it's not just a matter of preference or even of history, but it's a conviction that you have that goes so deep that you know that you couldn't ever not believe it.

Let's look at the flip-side though or the reverse side: Why don't you want to do that?

That's a little harder to explain for most people. You can say the negative of each reason, though, for your negative desire or motivation--I can't explain why I don't, but I just don't--it's inexplicable. I don't want that just like my father and my father's father didn't want that... Or, I just feel that it's wrong or I know that it's wrong.

Let's ask, now, how to get a new desire or how to be motivated? I think that this is a question or a problem that all of us, or almost all of us, struggle with. How can I create a new desire or how can I flip a switch and be motivated when I wasn't before?

I won't presume to be able to answer this for everybody or even anyone--you tell me! How can or do you do it?

JPS

Action or Reaction

Stuff happens; we all know that.

The question is: Are you going to react to the situation or can you calmly an collectedly act with poise and well-thought-out and logical, maybe even already-thought-out plans (that's really the best way to go--act with a plan that you've already thought of and maybe pondered on before, maybe even for a long time...). That way you won't just be reacting to the situation. That doesn't mean that you have to think of every single possible situation and make a plan for what you'd do in in all the varying and different situations.

This isn't just my thought or my pondering vision of the way things would be--I've gleamed this from many different thinkers and wise men.

Act, don't react!

JPS