The End of the Semester...

Is coming.

It's not far away.

We're all getting tired and worn out from all the work.

But we can't give up just yet.

We can never give up.

We must keep fighting until it's over.

No matter how hard the fight.

We never know how much good we could do if we just keep trying,

and all the opportunities we could miss if we give up.

What would have happened if Christ had given up and taken it easy during the last two weeks he was on earth? What if He had said, "it's almost over, I don't need to ___(make friends, help others, do service, work hard, etc)____.

We'd all be in trouble!

I'm so grateful to Christ, for enduring to the end and finishing out strong.

"Saints are sinners who kept on going."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else."

~ Brian Tracy

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place."

~ Unknown

NT - Printing Museum

This week our class visited the Crandall Printing Museum (on Center Street between 2nd and 3rd East in Provo). This was the second time I have been, and it was amazing to see what the Lord does in preparation for events that need to come about.

The Printing Press was invented by Johannes Gutenberg around the 1430s as a way to print the Bible faster than having monks hand write it. For 400 years the press stayed about the same, then a few alterations were made to it, and finally technology improved and improvements were made until we reached the typewriter and then the modern keyboard.

It's just fascinating to me how the Lord prepared the way for Joseph Smith to receive his First Vision. Joseph got the idea from reading the Bible, which was printed from a press. Furthermore, the printing press played a major role in the first editions of the Book of Mormon (5,000 copies).

I believe the Lord planned it all, and inspired the inventors with the ideas and the methods to making a printing press that works.

Makes me wonder, and look for, what the Lord has prepared for me and what He is preparing for others through me.

Who thought a wheelchair was limiting?

Can you do this?

I think the moral of the story here, is never except limits just because society or someone tells you it's impossible.

"That they may always have his Spirit to be with them..."

I hear the sacrament prayers every week. Both prayers contain the sentence, "that they may always have his Spirit to be with them" and yet it took my cousin's baptism on Saturday for me to remember the promise God made with me when I got baptized and then confirmed.

Sometimes I freak out because I feel like I don't have His Spirit with me and I'm going to make a very wrong decision without His Spirit.

Saturday I realized I really just need to calm down and trust in the Lord.

As long as I am truly striving to follow the Lord with all my mind, might, heart, and strength, His Spirit will be with me just like He promised. I need to trust Him.

:D I love it when I realize these things I knew all along, but just kept confusing myself about.

NT - Paul's Last Visit to Jerusalem

Luke's historical account of the events that occurred following the death of Christ comprise the book of Acts. This account primarily follows the travels and teachings of Paul, right up to his last visit to Jerusalem.

As Paul prepares to leave for Jerusalem, those around him pleaded with him not to go. They feared for his life for they knew many Jews in Jerusalem were angry with him and sought to take away his life. Fully aware that traveling to Jerusalem would lead to his death, Paul is determined to go anyways.

Just as expected, when Paul arrives in Jerusalem, he is sent to the temple where he is found by those who hate him most. In the hussle, however, the Roman guards who are watching over the temple mount save Paul and lead him away from the angry crowd. On his way out, Paul turns and recounts the story of his conversion to the crowd before being taken by the guards to Phillip.

Paul spends the next few years in captivity appearing before Jews, Gentiles, kings, and rulers and spreading the gospel to them. Eventually, he does die for the gospel he so entirely believes in, but the fearless and unselfish dedication he gave to the spreading of the Good News is what makes his life great.

Forget Yourself

My "ah-ha!" moment happened yesterday.

I was sitting in the park enjoying the most glorious sunshine and reading a book called "My Left Foot"by Christy Brown (a most fabulous book by the way, I suggest it for reading to anyone). The story is basically an autobiography of Christy Brown's life. He typed the whole book on a manual typewriter, one letter at a time with the pinky-toe of his left foot since that is all he could really move. Truly inspiring book.

Anywho...

For some time I have been pondering on what it means when Christ promises "whosoever will lose his life for my sake, shall find it" (Matt. 16:25). I know that's the key to true happiness and joy in life. Pondering, pondering on what losing my life for His sake means. I kinda had an idea that it referred to service, but I had tried just doing service and I didn't find the happiness that this verse promises.

Then, I read this passage in the book:

"I had come to know myself better because I had learned to express myself [through painting]...Yet it wasn't just painting that made me so happy; that in itself would not have been sufficient. It was the fact that I painted, not just to please myself, but to please someone else: the feeling of being useful, of painting my pictures for somebody..." (pg. 62).

WHABAM! Like a hammer on a nail my epiphany hit me! That was it! The idea is to use my talents and abilities to please others, not myself. It's more of a direction of focus than an act or periodical occurrence. Like Christy states, "I was changing. I didn't know it then, but I had found a way to be happy again and to forget some of the things that had made me unhappy. Above all I learned to forget myself" (pg. 56).

The idea is to spend more time in my thoughts end efforts paying attention to those around me and their needs, focusing on what I can do for them, making them smile the goal of each day. That's how I'll find my life, and the happiness that comes with it. If I can work so vigorously on learning something so that I can please others and brighten their day, that is when I will have life. I won't find myself, or happiness, if I spend a majority of my time thinking about myself, what classes I'm taking, when I'm going to graduate, where I want to work, how I'm going to get my homework done, what I want to do for the rest of my life, where I want to live, etc.

I will find my life when I learn how to lose it for Christ's sake; when I spend more time thinking about what I can do to help __(insert name here)___ be happy, more confident, and feel appreciated. That's my goal, starting now and working through the summer. I'm going to spend at least 65% of my waking moments with my thoughts focused on what I can do or learn so that I can help brighten someone else's day.

I think that is what Christ meant when He said "whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."

NT - The Apostacy

From the time the Early Christian Church began, and even the time prior to that, prophets spoke of the apostasy. If you look up the list in the topical guide, you will see that the prophecies are quite large in number. Isaiah and Amos in the Old Testament foretell of this falling away. Then, from the very start of the New Testament, the apostles wrote of the apostasy and warn the members. Matthew and John write about it in the Four Gospels. Luke mentions it in his writings in Acts. Paul's accounts are more direct warnings in his epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians, Thessalonians, Timothy, and Titus. Following Paul are James, Peter, John, Jude, and St John the Divine in Revelation. So many warnings to the people of the church.

Paul states in Acts 20:29-31, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."

Paul knows he's going to his death in Jerusalem, and yet, he takes a moment of his valuable time left on the earth to remind the saints what he had warned them about "every one night and day" for three years. He knew the apostasy was coming, and it was coming soon. He would not live to see it, that much is clear, but he knew the members of the church living during his time, would live to see it. The apostasy was on its way, growing from a rebellion within the church itself, not by external attack of any other church, that would burn the church to the ground, so to speak, and leave future generations the task of picking up the ashes so that Christianity could survive. So Paul warned the saints, he told them to watch out and to not be led away.

Nevertheless, the Early Christian Church died in the first century A.D. and the apostasy began. Christianity survived, however, and religious peoples picked up the pieces from the shattered glass to form other Christian churches.

Decisions Decisons

I've made many new decisions in my life and in the process, learned a lot about decision making and what God thinks about it.

I've struggled quite a bit because I had the idea that God had one path planned out for me and it was my job on this earth to figure out what that path was. During this process of deciding my future and what direction it's going to take me, I've come to realize that this life is not really about where we go, but who we become in life.

I think now that God doesn't really care where we go in life, as long as we learn, grow, and become the kind of person He knows we can become. Obviously, there are some times when God needs us to go somewhere specific, but maybe for the most part, it's really up to us and the experiences we want in life. So, I've decided to make some decisions with my specialty in my major and also with internships over the summer.

It's about what I learn and what I do with what I learn that matters.
Who I am, and how I treat those around me is more important than what career I get.

So many different directions life can take us. So many different areas of life God will accept as good. If I am trying my best to be an influence for good to those around me, I guess it doesn't matter too much what I'm doing.

At least, that's what I'm thinkin now. If I'm going astray, please direct me.

NT - Museum of Art

This week we went to the MOA on campus for a part of class. We walked through the "Types and Shadows: Intimations of Divinity" exhibit. I think my favorite piece was this one entitled "Exchange No. 8" by Ron Richmond. The colors are what's most intriguing to me, how the red cloth is draped over the fallen chair while the white cloth is placed over the upright chair. The red color, however, is still reflected off of the white cloth. When I first saw this piece, I immediately thought of myself as the fallen chair covered in the red scarlet of sin bowing down to my Savior, the perfect upright one in white who Atoned for my sins. As we looked at this piece as a class, however, the MOA assistant stated that she thought of it as both chairs being herself. The overthrown chair was symbolic of putting off the natural man, and the standing chair was her repentant self, with the red reflection being the memory of her past sins staying with her to remind her never to go back. Interesting. I can see it both ways.

Throughout the exhibit, I think the themes stood out to me most.
Themes of perseverance,
of hard work,
of grief,
of pain,
and of the magnificent lOvE of the Almighty that comforts them all.

Ok, some of the coolest dances I've ever seen!

And here's the dance I think is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen: