Eeyore vs. Tigger

So this past weekend was our Stake Conference. There were so many great talk to choose from that i didn't really know where to start. Then it hit me. There was talk given by the first counselor in the Stake Presidency that was directed towards your attitude.

As we go through our daily lives, it can be very difficult to stay positive. The world around us seems to know all of the buttons to push on any given day, or sometimes minute, that will degrade our positive thinking.

The theme of this stake conference was "Hastening the Work". The idea is to help the full-time missionaries share the gospel and have the Holy Spirit testify of the divinity of Christ. One of the ways we do this is by befriending these people. So what does this have to do with children's cartoon characters?

Lets think back for a second, for some this might take several seconds. Think about the cartoon Winnie the Pooh, more importantly two main characters, Eeyore and Tigger. These two are polar opposites of from one another.

First you have Tigger. He's fun loving, cheerful, out going, competitive in a friendly way, and has complete confidence in himself. He always seems to be happy and positive and doesn't let anything get him down. Tigger is the type that you want to hang out with. Tigger will jump in to help without thinking about the danger to himself. Tigger is forever the optimist.

Flip this coin over, and there you have Eeyore who is...well, a "Glass half empty", kinda guy. He can be characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old donkey. He is found to be the most reluctant of the group to go along with plans or adventures with his friends, but doesn't oppose them because he believes it would be futile to try.

Now let me ask you a question. Who would you much rather have around? For that matter, who would you rather be? As I said before, this life has a unique way of bringing us down. But there is good new! We don't have to be an Eeyore. We can maintain our positive outlook. How? We have the love of our Father in Heaven to see us through our difficult times. We read time and time again about people overcoming adversity through the power of prayer and actions keeping within the commandments. We can also be washed clean of this sins of this world through the power of the atonement because of the sacrifice that Christ made. Knowing all of this gives me peace that I can handle anything that comes my way. I find it hard to be negative when I think of all that God has done for me.

I know that we all have trials and tests that send us to our breaking point. That's why we're here though. To be tested and to grown spiritually. It seems the more we follow the commandments and live worthily, the more we are tried. I put it like this. There was only one perfect person on this earth, and they crucified Him. So what makes you think that you're going to slide by?

We are all going to be tried and tested in this life. It's something that we can get away from. There are two ways to respond to it though. You can take the Eeyore approach and let it get you down and depressed and unwilling to do anything about it. Or, you can take a note from Tigger's playbook. Be forever the optimist and know that you can overcome anything through your faith and action in Christ. When you do this, people will take notice. They will see a spark in you that will ignite something in their hearts. Soon they will be asking themselves, "what is he/ she doing that I'm not?". This is when you will be able to bless their lives with the gospel. We first have to change our way of thinking before we can ask anyone to change theirs.

I have a strong testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. They have blessed my life time and time again. I have challenged myself, and now issue the same challenge to you, to become more like Tigger and have that positive spark that others will want to gain. It will bless your lives.

God Bless

New Year, New Me!

I don't think this post could be any later if I tried. Maybe it could. I guess I'm just living up to my blog title. In the beginning of the year I made the usual resolutions, Lose weight, feel great, get my life together, etc. It's day 22 and how am I doing? I don't want to talk about it lol.

I have decided at day 22 of the new year though, that I am going to try something that I should have been doing all along and have fallen short of many times before. If I do this, everything else will work itself out. I have decided to work extremely hard to repair and continue to develop my relationship with my Heaven Father.

I feel that I am doing "okay" with it. But I've noticed that the only time I pray, is when I'm blessing my food. I know that God knows the wants and needs of my heart. However, when I pray, I'm exercising my faith that He exists and will see me through ALL of my endeavors.

I have also made the commitment to read The Book of Mormon from cover to cover before my birthday (Valentine's Day). I, like many other Latter-Day Saints fall short of this goal somewhere after 1st Nephi. This is a goal intend to reach.

Developing my relationship will help me strive to become a better person by "simply" living the commandments that he has sent forth for me. I say "simply", because while keeping the commandments is easy for a while, we are taught that we must "Endure to the End". We don't know when the "end" is, so we have to take it day by day.

We will see in the days to come what sort of progress I've made. Wish me luck.

God Bless

No Excuses, Only Results

This is the wrist band that was recently given to me my my wife's cousin Cheryl. She's a Health and Fitness coach. Here's a link to her website. You can also like her Facebook page. She periodically comes out with weight loss challenges that are sponsored by various health and wellness companies with weekly prizes for winners. Be sure to check her out.

Since the beginning of the year, my wife and I have been on our weight loss kick. To date, I've lost 36 lbs while Karen has lost 24 lbs. For a while I was doing great. Over the past month though, the scale has started to creep back up. Karen and I had our own weight loss challenge for the month of June. Who ever lost the most weight percentage wise would win $50 to spend however they wanted. Neither one of us won. We both ended up gaining weight in the month of June.

So here I am...again. Making a commitment to myself and to my family to not only lose the weight that I regained, but to keep losing weight until I reach my ultimate goal. My motto now is the same that's on my wrist band, "No Excuses, Only Results".

How do I relate this to the scriptures? That's easy. This reminds me of D&C section 89. This section is devoted to the Word of Wisdom. To those who don't know, The Word of Wisdom is a law of health revealed by the Lord for the physical and spiritual benefit of His children. The Lord revealed which foods are good for us to eat and which substances are not good for the human body. He also promised health, protection, knowledge, and wisdom to those who obey the Word of Wisdom. Heavenly Father wants us to be at our best not only spiritually, but physically. We are promised blessings if we do so. I'm just trying to do my part.

Happy Independence Day!!!

Happy Independence day to all. Today we started the morning off with our annual Flag Raising and Pancake Breakfast Ceremony in our ward. We all had a great time. Especially Allyson. She went last year but was too young to enjoy the food or festivities.

Karen and I were ask by the Bishop to give a brief talk on what the fourth means to us since we both served in the Navy. The fourth is a special day for me. This day commemorates the day we declared with one voice that we are free to govern ourselves. I like to relate this to the premortal existence when we chose to follow Heavenly Fathers Plan of Salvation over the alternative. In doing so we were able to keep our agency to choose for ourselves. All our decisions have consequences, good or bad. But, at least they're our choices.

As a first generation American, this day has a special place in Karen's heart. Many years ago, Karen's grandmother moved to America with her daughter to provide a better way in the land of promise. Though she loved Jamaica, she felt that her and her family would have better opportunities in America. The pursuit of the American Dream.

For me, there is no greater nation than the USA. I love it so much that I was willing to serve my country in the military. No country is without mistakes. And though the U.S. has many, I can think of no other place that I would rather be. God bless America.

Below are a few of the pictures that were taken at the breakfast.

Whole World vs My Soul

Recently I made the decision to start listening to more uplifting music. This was on the heals of realizing that the music I was listening wasn't very savory. So I decided to turn the dial to our local christian station in Atlanta, 104.7 The Fish.

The first songs I heard was from an artist I've never heard of. His name is Toby Mac. The song was called "Lose My Soul". The hook of the song says, "I don't want to gain the whole world and lose my soul." This was a very powerful line to hear after just making the decision I made. I've spent too much time being in the world and not simply being of the world. Too many times I feel that we let the adversary seep in and negatively influence the decisions we make. I felt that this was Heavenly Father telling me that I made the right decision. Just thought I would share this with you.

Catching Up

Well...I guess I wan't lying when I said that I procrastinate lol. It's been a while since my last post. That doesn't mean I had nothing to say, just that I "didn't have time". My wife found a quote the other day that says "When you say you don't have time, you're really saying that it wasn't a priority". I see this quote getting me in a lot of trouble.

4th of July Talk
Yesterday my wife and I got a call from our Bishop. I instantly thought, "Another calling?!" I already have two! It turns out that he wants Karen and I to give a 5-10 minute talk on what Independence Day means to us since we served in the Navy. This shouldn't be too difficult...I hope. We are giving this talk on the 4th at our Annual Flag Raising and Pancake Breakfast. I can't wait to eat....I mean talk.

Roku and BYUtv
Over the weekend Karen and I decided to buy a Roku streaming media player. We have a Wii that we have been using to stream Netflix and Hulu. That's all we used it for though. So we though, why not get a Roku so that we can still have Netflix and Hulu, and a ton of other channels to choose from. One of the biggest selling points for me though was the ability to get BYUtv on the Roku along with Mormon Channel. For a mormon who doesn't have cable, having BYUtv in the home now is a huge blessing! We finally have a way to watch General Conference in our home, not to mention all of the other shows.

I recently got into a show called "The District". For those of you who don't know, it's a documentary that follows the lives of 8 LDS Elder and Sister Missionaries while they are serving in the San Diego, California mission field. It documents some of the highs and lows of their missions. I was surprised to find that it doesn't just show the success stories of people getting baptized, but it also shows the rejections that the missionaries face while spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. This show has given me a greater understanding and appreciation for the work that missionaries do. Click on the link below to check it out.

The District

Repentance

Repentance is a very serious topic for me. This is the process through which we ask Heavenly Father to forgive us of our sins. This is the point where we take ownership of our short-comings and make an honest vow to God that we will strive to commit this sin no more.

It is through the Atonement that Christ made that we are able to repent and have the opportunity to return to Heavenly Father. Without this life saving ordinance, we would be lost to Satan himself.

I have a question for you. Are you in the process of repenting? Are you currently struggling with the repentance process? Do you believe this will bring you closer to Heavenly Father?