Beware the Lightning Sand

Lighting sand is the fictional super-quicksand that Westley almost loses his damsel-in-distress to. If I'm not careful (and it goes for you too!) I could waste my whole day in a time trap.

The time trap is computers, electronics, and games. These things are not inherently evil! I'm using the internet to communicate with you right as you read this! In a few days, living Prophets and Apostles will speak out to the world by these same technologies. The use of internet, video games, and so on is not necessarily evil.

But I'm not interested in just avoiding evil. I want to accomplish good! I want to be good. And that means that sometimes the question I ask myself isn't "is it okay to do this?" Sometimes it's "would Jesus spend His valuable time doing this?"

If you watch the five-minute videos of people's stories on this page, Meet Mormons, these are people of accomplishment! They all are doing something with their lives! They push, try, and win! And they do it in this world, the real world, not a world that you can only look into through a screen, that some game designers made up. This world has the most brilliant, most inventive, and most compassionate Game Designer ever! (It also has great graphics!)

I have just said something. I'm going to go do something now. AFK. (away from keyboard)

P.S. If you liked this, David Bednar said it all first in his article Things as They Really Are.

Knight In Shining Armor

Do you want to know how to fight evil in this day and time? Does it seem that the struggle between right and wrong has been resolved, and peace has been won? It hasn't. There are people enslaved today. Children without protection, families without shelter, and lives on the line. This battle has barely begun.

I mean the theater in the war on sin that is devoted to defeating pornography. There are many places where the war on sin is being fought, but perhaps no battlefront is as extensive or as subversive as this one. A frontline - or a family - that is infiltrated by pornography is compromised, and unless countered, successive defeats on other levels of battle are sure to follow; a disruption of the love for one another that once was strong, addictions to things besides pornography, and breaking other of God's laws, all begun by one secretive sin.

If you're not sure whether or not pornography really hurts anybody besides yourself, I invite you to take a look at a video that shows a textbook story of a pornography addiction, shown side by side with the same people, but without the pornographic weakness. It's called Watch Your Step.

CombatingPornography.org

The First Two Commandments (Matt 22:35-38)

I remember one fight I got into with my brother, when I was 12 or so, and he was 8. We had both had a long day at school, and one of us had said something to the other that rubbed just a little too much. I was throwing jibes and mocking, and because he was so much younger and couldn't compete verbally, he was pushing and shoving.

"Why don't you stop?!"   -shove-
"Oh, yeah, ouch, that hurt so much!"
"Rrrrr!"  -shove-
"Ouch, you're hurting me so much!"

Dad entered the room and separated us. He dismissed my brother with a warning and took me, the older brother, aside. He asked me:

"Do you remember telling me about that older boy who would provoke you, then make fun of you when you tried to make him stop? That's what you were doing to your brother just now."

I didn't show much of a reaction when he said that, but it shook me. I had done the exact same thing that other boy had done. I don't remember apologizing to my little brother, but I do remember deciding right then that I would never do anything that I wouldn't want others to do to me again. I mess up a lot, but this experience has helped me to keep my drive to someday reach that goal.

 Thanks for the lesson, Dad.

Be Thou An Example

Today I got on to talk about how great of an example some of my friends have been to me while I've served the Lord in the past few months. But when I tried to look up a scripture to illustrate my ideas, one of the search results struck me so much that I decided to use the idea it talks about instead.

There were a few missionaries in an ancient land who wanted to convert the people there to believe in Jesus Christ. The people of that country were hostile to the country that the missionaries were from, but the Lord whispered a comforting message to these men that echoed in my mind when I read it.

And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.                  Alma 17:11

I can preach the gospel just by setting an example of how a person who has faith in Jesus should act. The Lord is all-powerful, and can use me as an "instrument" to help other people even in times when I don't know I'm helping anyone at all. So I don't have to be discouraged!

No matter how insignificant you feel, all that you have to do to make a difference is do your best. People can see it, and it will leave an impression. That is what I aspire to be. If you do too, I recommend that you visit "Missionary Work", which will help us to see what we have in common.

Living Water

Once, on a hiking trip, I was super, super tired. I could actually feel how much stamina I had left, almost like you can read how much battery run-time is left in your laptop. As I ate meals or stopped to rest, I could feel the gauge go up, and on a steep trail I could feel it drain. Now, as a missionary, I am more closely tuned to how much spritual stamina I have in me. I can feel the recharges I get when I read the scriptures or go to church.

Jesus once called his own teachings "living water". He lived in a day where poor planning of a simple day trip could mean running out of water and dying of thirst. It was just that easy to suddenly find yourself without water and in danger of heat stroke or worse. People made trips every day to wells or rivers, the only sources of water that was clean and safe.

That is how important He wants His scriptures to be to us. People used to take a huge vase or urn to a well and carefully take the time to fill it up. We ought to approach our daily (yes I said daily >.< ) time reading in the scriptures with the same care and think of it as being at least as important. If we do, we can be sure that we won't die from spiritual thirst.

P.S. Here's an update on my last topic! You can visit this site to see dozens of video clips about the New Testament world that Jesus lived in, the customs of the culture, and so on, all on LDS.org. The selected video talks about the Bible Story where Jesus teaches about living water! Ahh, connections within connections!

Getting Hungry

In my Mom's e-mail today, she said my family has considered having a "simple meal night". So I told them that I was already doing that, ha ha! I take a tasty kind of bread, like tuscan roll or focacelli [sp?] and dip it in pasta sauce. Tasty and fast.

In fact, that's a common meal in the culture that Jesus lived in during his mortal lifetime. You can learn a lot about the teachings of Jesus by learning more about the culture He comes from. If you asked me where I would start learning about ancient culture in the Holy Land, my knee-jerk response would be Jesus Christ, Our Savior. Beyond that, I would try chatting with the online missionaries at Mormon.org or searching about the topic on LDS.org. Like this video of the parable of the good samaritan!

Going a little link crazy.

Is That Your Final Answer?

Today, in personal scripture study, I read a verse that really jumped out at me. Here's the part that hit me:

...blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more...   -2 Nephi 28:30

This is the Lord speaking, and when He talks, I try to listen. It's good for me to know that no matter how much I learn, no matter how far I can see, God has yet another challenge, yet another puzzle, yet another joy for me. Hoo-rah!