The Lord smiles on those who use their time and effort to help others.

This morning my Dad sent me an excerpt from John H. Groberg's new book, Refuge and Reality, The Blessings of the Temple.  

This is the most perfect message I could have possibly received at this time.  I thought I'd share.



A man said his bishop and stake president had encouraged him to come to the temple and if possible visit with me. This good brother told me he had some serious challenges and had been coming to the temple regularly, seeking understanding and strength, but so far they had eluded him. He asked, “What am I doing wrong? I thought by coming here more often I would receive more help and answers. Why am I still confused?”


I encouraged him to continue coming to the temple and striving to increase his faith in the Lord. I bore my testimony that in the Lord’s time and way, he and others would receive the inspiration and help they needed. He humbly accepted that counsel and promised to continue coming to the temple and to keep praying for help.


As he stood to leave, I felt impressed to say, “The next time you come to the temple, try not to concentrate on your challenges but concentrate instead on the challenges of the person you are representing. Ponder on such things as, When and where did he live? What kinds of challenges did he have? What was his family like? What did he do for a living? What was his daily life like?


“As you do this, you will understand that many of his challenges are similar to yours and maybe even harder. Concentrate on each person you represent, and pray for him to understand and accept what the Savior has done for him. That person likely had many challenges while here and perhaps still has many. Through the Savior and the temple you are his best hope.


“The Lord smiles on those who use their time and effort to help others. As you concentrate on the person you are representing and on his challenges more than on your own, I believe solutions to your challenges will become more clear.”


He thanked me for the suggestion and promised he would do so.


Many months later I attended a stake conference where a man was sustained as a member of the high council and asked to bear his testimony. As he came to the stand to respond, he passed in front of me, and I recognized him as the same man who had spoken with me in the temple much earlier. He smiled and gave a brief nod of acknowledgment.


He stood tall and confident and spoke beautifully and powerfully. He expressed his love for the Lord, his wife, his family, and all the good people who had helped him and his family overcome their recent challenges. He testified that the Lord hears and answers prayers in the way and at the time that is best for us. He bore testimony of the importance of attending the temple and truly working for others by putting forth effort both physically and spiritually on their behalf. He said he knew personally how deeply these people needed and appreciated our help. 


He encouraged everyone going to the temple not to just act as a proxy but to actually put forth spiritual effort to try to help those they represent.


Then he said, “I have two questions for you. I have thought a lot about these questions and would like you to ponder them seriously. First, Why should the Lord bless us if that blessing simply stops with us? Second, Why should He not bless us if He knows we will use that blessing to help others?” His sincerity and the powerful effect of those questions and his testimony were felt by everyone present. He had learned an important truth and had effectively shared it with others. As he returned to his seat, we simply exchanged smiles, both grateful for the important truths we had learned and been able to share with others.


Receiving impressions from the Lord and following them becomes its own reward, and we don’t need outside confirmation. Can you think of a greater blessing than knowing that the Lord trusts you enough to give you an impression that can help someone else? What a blessing to know that the Lord trusts you enough to allow you to help someone else, as his or her proxy in the temple! We should not hope for praise for acting as a conduit for the Lord’s truths but rather feel to express gratitude for the privilege of being such a conduit.


I have come to know that we learn much more of what is important when we concentrate on helping others than when we concentrate on our own challenges. When we use the blessings the Lord has given us primarily for our own benefit, we close doors to eternal understanding and progress. When we energetically seek to use the blessings the Lord has given us to help others, we open many more doors of heaven, and there is no limit to what we can understand and do.


I know that as we put forth more effort to help others, we gain deeper understanding of where we fit in this big and expanding universe, where we fit in our eternal families, and where we fit as one who wants to help the Lord “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). The temple is a place where we can more effectively be a useful part of this great eternal round of helping others.


This man had learned where he fit in. Because of his humble but sincere service to others, the answers to his questions no longer eluded him. He had learned the truth of King Benjamin’s assurance that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God” (Mosiah 2:17), and in return for that service to others, the man had himself been greatly blessed.

This is from an article my Mom directed me to, and it has been a great source of understanding. I wanted to preserve it on my blog in case that one ever goes defunct.

Fix One Another As I Have Fixed You

“I can’t tell her about my trouble. Even if I begged her not to tell, I know she would tell everyone she talked to. And the story she told would be an awful distortion.” A saintly friend spoke of a family member she had learned not to trust. “I wish I could trust her. Should I confront her about her gossiping?”

That is the beauty of family life. We are regularly pressed against people whose faults we have come to know only too well. We try to be patient but only so many assaults against fundamental values can be tolerated. We chafe.

Generally there is at least one family member who is matchlessly irritating to us. That person efficiently does just the things that hurt, offend, and annoy us.

It would seem that we have just two options: We can allow ourselves to be misused or we can confront the offender. The first option does not help the offender and leaves us injured and resentful. It just doesn’t seem right.

The second option has historically been very popular. In this option we study the offender’s offenses and weave them into a pattern. Almost immediately the character implications become clear. We put a label on the diagnosis. We prepare our speech. We lie in wait. At the next provocation, our considered analysis gushes out. Of course it is all done with the intent of helping our loved one grow.

But there is a problem in this popular approach: “Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger” (Franklin P. Jones). Humans are pained and dispirited by criticism. It commonly makes people feel hurt, lonely, confused, and hopeless. And it does not help them grow.

Returning to the woman who has learned to mistrust the family member, she could lovingly confront the gossipy relative hoping for a ready reformation. Yet I am confident that the offender would be deeply hurt and numbingly confused. I think she would respond: “I thought we were friends. I have always loved you and wanted to help you. You are one of my favorite people. Why are you so angry with me?” No amount of fair and reasonable dialogue could clarify the corrective message. It would simply feel like an attack, a counter-betrayal.

For every offense and every offender there is a sterile, brittle interpretation and there is a sympathetic interpretation. The woman who has a problem with telling stories can be seen as a gossip who barters secrets for attention. She can also be seen as a person who has been bashful from childhood and never had anyone in her life who helped her understand others and who talks about bad situations as part of her effort to understand them.

Of course, there is probably some truth to both versions. Thus we get to choose. We can choose to dwell on the light or the dark. We can choose to focus on the annoyance or to focus on good intentions. Whatever we choose to focus on grows. Thereby we increase the light or increase the darkness.

When we study people’s offenses with even a glimmer of compassion, we make a startling discovery: the root of the offender’s behavior is humanness. We all offend and we all do it because we are human. We all grieve heaven with our narrowness, meanness, and lack of wisdom. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:7). My mortal, human imperfection is something I share with all fellow offenders. In the poetic expression of Edward Sill (1906), “These clumsy feet, still in the mire, / Go crushing blossoms without end.” I can enlarge the world’s supply of pain by responding to humanness with my own provincial humanness. Or I can move us toward the divine by responding with the divine. I can respond with charity.

Charity is a choice—a choice with eternal consequences. “If you don’t like someone, the way he holds his spoon will make you furious; if you do like him, he can turn his plate over into your lap and you won’t mind” (Becker, year). We are commanded to pray with all the energy of heart for the blessed gift of charity (Moroni 7:47–48) so that we can swallow offenses without getting indigestion.

The bitter irony in correction is that most attempts at correction make troublesome problems worse. They add fuel to the angry fires. The woman confronted with her “gossiping” will go running to find someone to help her make sense of the painful attack. In the effort to overcome her gossiping, she will extend it. That is why Paul warns of one of the chief dangers of being human: “O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things” (Romans 2:1). When we judge, we become worthy of condemnation. When we fail to forgive offenses, small or large, we are guilty of a greater sin (D&C 64:8–11).

Judgment is such a delicate matter that it is to be handled only by those who know everything and love perfectly. That disqualifies most of us. “Behold what the scripture says—man shall not smite, neither shall he judge; for judgment is mine, saith the Lord, and vengeance is mine also, and I will repay” (Mormon 8:20). “Ye ought to say in your hearts—let God judge between me and thee” (D&C 64:11).

Jesus has begged us to stay out of the judging business since we are so poorly suited for it. His metaphor of motes and beams provides physical hyperbole but spiritual understatement: Humans can never see each other clearly. Nowhere do we see through glass more darkly than in our assessment of those who have annoyed us for years. We do not see that even annoying family members come “trailing clouds of glory, from God, who is our home.”

So Jesus directs us away from judging and toward charity, toward seeing as He sees. Wedged between His washing of the disciples’ feet and His giving His life for them, Jesus delivers the breathtaking new commandment: We are to love as He loves. He does not command us to repent one another or to fix one another. He commands us to love just exactly the way He loves: with perfect redemption. Such a commandment stretches us beyond human capacity. We simply cannot love as we should love unless we are filled with Jesus. Under His influence, we can view each other with compassion. We can make the good parts of our relationships more central, memorable, and common. We can carefully guide each other around our weaknesses. We can pray for each other. But we can only do it when we are filled with Him.

There is no simple answer about how much the woman should tell her talkative relative. That is the province of wisdom. She might provide a simple story of events. Or she may choose to avoid sensitive subjects with her gossipy relative. Irrespective of what she chooses to disclose, it is clear that she should strive to love and support her relative. Since that “offending” person has a knack for organizing, she can invite her to help organize her family history. She can make appointments for fun time together. She can cherish positive memories. God knows that love liberates goodness. If we all loved each other, the paradisiacal state would flood in on us.

Years ago it became clear to me that I do not have the right to correct anyone I do not love. There have been times when I have looked with compassion on a brother or sister and Father has entrusted me with a message for that person. Of course, at such times my “correction” felt more like celebration and encouragement than judgment, reproof, or scolding.

Researcher and therapist John Gottman (1999) reminds us that we cannot change people until we love them as they are. Of course once we love them as they are, the compulsion to correct is replaced with the desire to bless. “The nearer we get to our heavenly Father, the more we are disposed to look with compassion on perishing souls; we feel that we want to take them upon our shoulders, and cast their sins behind our backs. . . . if you would have God have mercy on you, have mercy on one another” (Smith, 1938, p. 241)

So how should we react when we are pained by the thoughtless and selfish acts of another? We should pray that God will heal our wounds and then fill us with Him so that we can “love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]” (Matthew 5:44).

His message is love.

References

Becker, I. in Reader’s Digest (1975). Pocket treasury of great quotations. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader’s Digest.

Gottman, J. (1999). The seven principles for making marriage work. New York: Crown.

Sill, E. R. (1906). Fool’s prayer. Poetical works of Edward Rowland Sill. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Smith, J. F. (Compiler). (1938). Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book.

About Dr. Wally

H. Wallace Goddard, Ph.D., is a Professor and Family Life Specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. He has created numerous family programs and a PBS television series and has served on national committees for parenting and marriage.

WHY I FIGHT

I was asked to contribute an entry for my new favorite cause: Fight The New Drug.

http://www.fightthenewdrug.org/Blog/Blog-Detail/WHY-

I-FIGHT--Rachel/

This is why I fight:

Growing up in a conservative family, I was sheltered when it came to the appearance and pervasiveness of pornography. I knew from school that there were guys looking at naked women in magazines on our choir trips, and I'm sure even more magazines were hidden under their beds at home. Other than the sexual innuendos in movies that everyone watched, and the XXX adult bookstore in our city, that I'm sure only 'really bad people' went to, I was pretty unaware of what was available.

Later in college I became more aware of the prevalence and addictive nature of porn. I knew about internet filters, and heard of people losing their jobs after finding material on their work computers. I heard about marriages ending because guys couldn't leave the stuff alone. I thought an 'addict' was someone who was pretty out of control, and hoped I wouldn't ever be married to someone who had any signs of getting involved in it. I didn't want to deal with all of the emotional consequences that would come from that kind-of addiction, so I avoided the 'creepers' who would pick up pornography.

I directly applied my perception of pornography to the people who participate in it. Ugly, bad, perverted, disgusting, pathetic, worthless, creepy, and those who used it as people I'd never want to associate with.

Then the face of pornography users changed for me. Three times.

I dated a guy who had been highly addicted to pornography in his youth and early adulthood. He was one of the top writers of erotic literature at age 15. He was deeply entrenched in pornographic literature, videos, and images which affected his sexual life. He gave up every involvement in pornography three years ago. Was he a creeper? A bad guy? A freak? This man is one of the most incredible people I know. His character is admirable, his personality good and kind and generous. His general disposition is beatific, and free of that dark and secret addiction. This man is free.

The second guy I came in contact with that admitted to me his involvement in pornography was still overcoming his struggle. My vocabulary changed. I took a phrase from Tony Horton, the P90X fitness guy, "Don't say 'I Can't,' say 'I currently struggle with." I was now seeing "porn users" as "people who currently struggle with the addiction – Pornography." I have a great respect and admiration for this guy. He was so open about the issue, and so clear to separate the person from the addiction. He no longer believed that he was intrinsically messed up, but realized that his choice was tripping him up in all aspects of his life. He worked with an addiction recovery program to rid his life of porn, recognize the reasons and tendencies that led to it's involvement, and to understand it as the deceptive counterfeit that it is. "It was never about sex for me. I viewed pornography because I was looking for something to be filled- boredom, loneliness, intimacy, connection, etc." He told me about a t-shirt that says, "I'm not IT." Whatever IT is, it's separate from what we are, and therefore it's manageable, treatable, we can dig it up destroy it before it destroys us.

My last example was the story of Seth. His video can be found on the FTND website. I think a lot of people can relate to his story. Just a good guy who picked up some crappy stuff that tripped up different areas of his life and his relationships. I've met Seth and I can tell from the video and from his disposition that he is reaping the blissful benefits of a life free from addiction.

These people changed the way I look at recovering addicts and former users of pornography. And these people are all around us.

I like the way Fight The New Drug approaches this issue. Educating with science, facts, and personal accounts, I want to help people see what it is doing to their lives, their relationships, and our society, so that we decrease the demand for the industry.

Those who understand what pornography is capable of realize it's an uncomfortable topic. But it breeds in privacy and secrecy. We need to start talking about it. Gone are the days when people are oblivious to it's presence, and free from it's effects in their families, communities, and society. We all need to embrace people, and treat pornography as an addiction. When you shine the light of understanding and education on the issue, it's much easier to fight for people that we care about who are involved in it.

I'll always fight it.

-Rachel

(past notes) 25 THINGS ABOUT ME

25 Things About Me

From Friday, 30 January 2009

1. I wouldn't consider myself a food connoisseur, but I definitely have a taste and certain appreciation for finely crafted food. That being said, I often tolerate and even embrace food that has no taste whatsoever, in the name of health, creativity, or convenience.

2. It is a lifelong dream of mine to run a marathon, and something always gets in the way. This time it's patellofemoral pain syndrome in my knee, but I plan to kick it and run 2 1/2 marathons this year.

3. I love the scent of Tide laundry detergent.

4. I am not particularly political, but certainly patriotic. I love nothing more than to listen to an intelligent political conversation, where at least one person having the dialogue has the same values as I do.

5. I use a goLITE Bluewave therapy light, affectionately known as the Happy Light every morning as a remedy for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and it feels like summer every day!

6. When I was 5, my mom sent me up to the counter at McDonald's to buy more fries, and my sister watched in awe as I went up there and she whispered, "She is SO brave!" The phrase has stuck, and I'm the "brave" one of the family.

7. I accidentally stuck a pink light bright peg up my nose when I was 4, and it took 3 hours and 3 doctors to get it out.

9. When I water ski, I make it a point to wave at people in nearby boats and cabins, and my brother-in-law makes fun of me relentlessly for it.

10. I used to sing in a karoake competition at the Spokane County Fair when I was in Junior High.

11. I love, love, love video editing. I went into broadcasting with a distaste for professional involvement in news, tv, or movies, but I have a particular passion for making video biographies of people's lives, and helping them organize, digitize, and archive home videos and other family media.

12. I love sunrises and sunsets and have been known to drive spontaneously, long distances to see a good sunset.

13. I am addicted to peanut butter and cannot buy it for myself, because I eat it by the spoonful like ice cream. Especially natural peanut butter.

14. I shot a .45 last month and thoroughly enjoyed it.

15. My favorite chef is a talented man named Ian Wingate, and he owns a fabulous restaurant in Spokane Washington called Moxie, which I go to about once a year.

16. I want to go sky diving and para sailing someday. I'd love nothing more than going on a hot air balloon on my honeymoon.

17. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a procrastinator which gets me in trouble sometimes. I once did a 15 page research paper on procrastination, which I started a day before and turned in an hour late. I'm also often late to things.

18. I can bake anything. Quite well.

19. I love hole in the wall restaurants and quaint little bakeries. I could live in a small town with a lot of character, or an old city rich with history and culture. It really doesn't matter to me, as long as there's something unique to learn all the time.

20. I have recently discovered early morning workouts and am slightly addicted to the solitude of it all.

21. I can watch almost any movie and gain religious insights and draw parallels to the gospel.

22. I have an extremely low tolerance for scary or evil movies. I can't watch anything remotely scary because it inevitable gives me nightmares.

23. I have a fascination with positive psychology and am openly a fan of Alfred Adler's theories. I did some research about older people and inter-generational service learning, and I like understanding more about graceful and optimistic aging.

24. Thunderstorm, no umbrella, flip flops. A perfect scenario.

25. I love spontaneity, raspberries with homemade vanilla ice cream, taking naps on the grass, family, and all the simplest but profoundly important moments and values in life.

(past notes) LIKE AN AVOCADO

Facebook Note from Sunday, 19 July 2009:

Like An Avocado

So I was chatting with my mom today about my upcoming life change. I had the imagery of a piece of fruit being plucked from a tree. But it was strange- I couldn't decide if I wasn't ripe enough to be picked or if I was too ripe and dried out that I wasn't a good candidate for picking.

Let me explain.

There are two aspects of my life that are going in the opposite direction. But the potential for them to both improve is very possible as I graduate next week. My social scene and my career.

As for the fruit- I do feel inadequate to leave this greenhouse of growth as far as my career goes, even though my greatest supporters assure me that I'm more than qualified to enter the workforce. For weeks I tossed around the idea of finding a way to stay just one more semester so I that I could be a part of all the fabulous things happening with my job at University Communications, and learn much more about equipment, editing, and refining my producing skills. Since I started work as a producer in March, my opportunities and progress have exploded beyond anything I could have imagined. It's been a FUN ride navigating through a newly developing concept of where the department is going, and figuring it out together with everyone. It's produced a new awareness and skill set in me, and I didn't really want it to end.

A few weeks ago I was in the middle of a long day before Guitars Unplugged getting our commercials approved and coordinating with the production team and helping with the last bits of b-roll. I kept saying all day, "I love my job," and I had this intense feeling come over me of contentment and excitement for what I was doing and fear for the future. I thought, "Can it get any better than this? Really, can there be anything more worthwhile?" This ride has been one of the most fulfilling I've ever endeavored.

In the last year and a half, I've volunteered working at concerts, shot devotionals, TD'd, edited promotional pieces, training material, classroom shoots, worked on the Rexburg and Twin Falls Temple Cultural Celebrations, a CES broadcast, graduations, large-scale activities shoots, and learned so much about my craft. I've helped with story development, script assessment, casting, scheduling, producing, shooting, lighting, organizing, and a myriad of other skills as a video producer.

I've been surrounded by people who have tutored and trained me. They've inspired and supported me in my journey of creativity. This support system has been invaluable. It's very much like the theme song to "Cheers." The atmosphere at Video Production/University Communication is contagious, and it feels so great to be there among people who are trying to become better, and have a genuine passion for making quality media.

So I didn't want to leave because I feel I'm not proficient in my skill set yet, and I thought one more semester would do the trick. One more semester, and I'd be an expert in Final Cut Pro 6, Color, Motion, DVD Studio Pro and the rest of the FC Studio. One more semester and I'd understand the ex3 a ton better, have a knack for lighting well, and have a pretty good crash course in audio. One more semester and I'd be able to glean more information from the minds of these people that I admire so much. I admire them not because of what they know, but because they're so generous in sharing what they know, and helping me become the most marketable, creative, contributing producer of quality, meaningful media that I can possibly be. The kindness and synergy that exists there has made all the difference.

I chatted with my Bishop a few weeks ago and told him of my consideration of this option. He said it's always good to be moving forward. And even though I may not immediately have the production job I want at first (as an editor), and even though I have such a great team of people who are so great for my learning and growth, it's always good to be moving forward in your life. And I knew it. For me I know I need to move on and do something different, even if it means something completely different than what I'm accomplishing here.

As for my social life, I've been a bit of a hermit this semester. I haven't made any efforts to contact and cultivate friendships with even some of the best of my friends from past semesters. A simple hello when we pass by on campus, and off I go to the studio or my apartment. I've become way too complacent with my friendships and efforts to accept dates and other opportunities for a social life. In the name of 'busy-ness' (which is relative- everyone's busy) or being burned out, I've let great opportunities for friendship and service go, and I may have become socially awkward as well. Hopefully as I settle in this next phase of life, I'll develop more talents and hobbies and friendships that I was never aware of and didn't have the capacity or time or perspective or paradigm to have before.

So, as my mom pointed out, whether I'm ripe or not, I'm going to get plucked off the tree. Soon. And avocados simply cannot ripen while they're still on the tree. So maybe the best is yet to come. Maybe it's closer than I think. Like the avocado.

I've heard before that I bloom wherever I'm planted. But that doesn't mean uprooting doesn't hurt a bit, or I don't miss the flowers around me.

My cousin Amy gave me this quote as I finished my mission a few years ago and I love it:

"That time is past, and all its aching joys are now no more, and all its dizzy raptures. Not for this faint I, nor mourn nor murmer; other gifts have followed; for such loss, I would believe, abundant recompense."
-William Wordsworth

(past notes) AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

I decided to post a few entries from my notes on Facebook. Some of my favorites will be posted hereafter with the date. I plan to blog more regularly.

From Thursday, April 29, 2010:
An Affair to Remember


This is a night I’ll always remember. I wasn’t even going to go. As I waited in line for 20 minutes at Nauvoo Café and scarfed down my sandwich to rush over to the Conference Center in time, I thought, “Is it worth it?” I hurried to my seat and sat as thousands entered the building-many with silver or white hair talking about the Family History centers in their wards or stakes of which they’re a part. This topic ultimately bringing us all here tonight. “I’m so tired, and didn’t sleep much last night. I could be at home doing something productive,” I thought, “rather than just chilling at an event downtown when I’m SO SO tired.” I looked to the older couple sitting next to me. How his body must be tired. How her patience must have been refined through years of sitting and waiting. I could do it to for the next 90 minutes or so.

“But I should be here,” I thought. I’m a Family History consultant in my ward, and I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can so I don’t feel like an idiot when I try to help people on Sundays. It’s exciting too, but really, I mean honestly, could I have the time in all my life to dedicate my efforts to learning what these experts know? And wasn’t this just going to be a feel-good meeting, when I needed to actually be on the computer learning the system? Maybe my attitude wasn’t this bad, but I had no idea what was about to happen to me.

My ultimate goal of dedicating a portion of my life to a business that makes video biographies of people’s lives seemed so far off to me. I’m working toward it, but I was thinking, “How many people will actually see the videos I make? Will their grand-children really watch them and be inspired to become better because of knowing more about who their grandparents were?”

Sitting in that room full of over 20,000 people is humbling and it makes you feel quite small, as if what you do can’t possibly have a massive effect. Still it felt good to be at the Celebration of Family History tonight.

President Eyring spoke of his meeting his wife Kathleen. He talked about how from the second he saw her, he felt something, and every encounter with her made him feel like he had made a connection with part of his family. We all laughed at this comparison to doing family history work, but he made it come alive. Because each of these people we study and connect to our family tree had a story and a vision and were passionate. I’m waiting for that connection that will start my family, but in the waiting, I learned today one more purposeful way to spend my time and make sure that what I’m building is a more rich and fulfilling life with that person.

He talked about someone (I struggle with quoting) an ordinary person who felt like even in the vast sea of people and existence, as he tries to be part of something bigger than he is, his life just might matter to those who live after him. President Eyring then said, “So I must live it the best that I can.”

The videos that were played tonight, were stunning. The entire meeting was very personal to me especially, as I am a Family History Consultant, a member of the Church Audio/Visual department, a future maker of family video biographies, and as I realized my passion for that art is still alive.

After one funny but poignant video about a boy learning the bagpipes which later inspired his family to understand their Scottish heritage and celebrate it, the choir then sang along with that grown boy and his bagpipes, my very favorite song of all time which has extreme personal importance to me, “Amazing Grace.” I didn’t try to fight tears. They flowed freer and wetter than I had surface on my hands to dry them off my face. This was important. This was worth it.

David McCollough then gave a moving and stimulating speech on coming to know people. He said “People didn’t live in the past. They lived in the present. Their present. And to understand them, we have to understand their present- by reading what they read, the classics, and reading what they wrote, their intimate thoughts and impressions.” He explained why Journals are so important, and that no one is a self-made man, but we are all influenced by the people we never knew. They’ve all shaped us. And we find out who they are- not so different from us, in essentials, as we read their journals. President Eyring talked about that- how he had a distinct impression once that these experiences were not just for him, and to write them down. I would give my left pinky to have video of my mom or grandma or great grandpa when they were my age, talking about the things that were important or scary or exciting to them. To see their facial expressions, and hear their voice inflections. Yes, this is important.

David then then went into political, social, and artistic history and tried to explain what the people before us were working for, fighting for. It reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by J. Michael Straczynski, "We have to make people lift their eyes back to the horizon and see the line of ancestors behind us saying `make my life have meaning.' And to our inheritors before us saying 'create the world we will live in.' We're not just holding jobs and having dinner, we are the process of building the future."

It inspired me to read and spend my time in enriching my life becoming more interesting and sharing, by my attitude, with others the joy and truth of things that are good and honorable and worth passing on. I felt sad for all the time I’ve wasted in shallow, superficial, and forgettable endeavors, and hope there is enough time in my life to make up for it and to take every opportunity to spend more quality time with quality pursuits.

Yes, this was a very memorable night. And it was worth it.

During college I didn't care to read one more word than I had to, because of the great amount of text we had to plow through. I'm not a great reader and am not well read. I just decided to take up the hobby and have carefully compiled a list for entertainment and educational value. I mostly like books that teach me how to be better and how to help other people.

Books I want to read soon:

Adler Speaks: The Lectures of Alfred Adler

The Anatomy of Peace - The Arbinger Institute

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Bonds That Make Us Free - Terry Warner

Broken Things to Mend - Jeffrey R. Holland

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

Common Sense - Thomas Paine

The Continuous Atonement - Brad Wilcox

The E-Myth: Revisited - Michael E. Gerber

EntreLeadership - Dave Ramsey

The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton

Financial Peace - Dave Ramsey

The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis

He Did Deliver Me From Bondage - Colleen C. Harrison

How To Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie

Jesus The Christ - James E. Talmage

Lectures on Faith - Joseph Smith

The Lord's Way - Dallin H. Oaks

Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl

Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

Never Give In! : The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches

The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan

The Peacegiver - James L. Ferrell

Persuasion - Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

The Prince and the Pauper - Mark Twain

The Problem with Pain - C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

To The Rescue - the biography of Thomas S. Monson - Heidi Swinton

Tuesdays With Morrie - Mitch Albom

The Wednesday Letters - Mitch Albom

Understanding Life: An introduction to the psychology of Alfred Adler

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

The Weight of Glory - C.S. Lewis

Along with the Standard Works - Old and New Testament, The Book of Mormon- Another Testament of Jesus Christ, The Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price

Two books that are staples (besides the Book of Mormon) are The Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey and Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute.

I'm also going back and forth on the audio book/ regular book idea. The two books mentioned above I've listened to countless times and probably wouldn't have picked them up if they weren't on my iPod. But there's something about sitting and turning pages- completely focused on the text. I'll have to discover which kinds of books I prefer in one form or another.

This is very exciting!