Chutes and Ladders

As a small boy I loved to play the game chutes and ladders.  This board game is still being sold today.  It is a simple game. Players move along a path and randomly encounter a chute or a ladder.  The chutes on the board game look like slides but they are anything but fun.  When the player on the path encounters a chute, he slides backwards instead of forward on the path.  Some of the chutes are short, but some are long, and if the player happens on a long chute, he is set back a great distance on the path.

The good news is that the player often has the opportunity to land on a ladder which he can climb that will advance him forward on the path. The ladders increase his chances to get ahead in the game.

The path of life is filled with many chutes and ladders.  Each day of our lives, we take steps along the path and each day of our lives we encounter these chutes and ladders. 

Like daily deposits and withdrawals in an account, we are either blessed or burdened on a daily basis.  We may get kicked or we may get kissed, depending on the encounter.  We may get a snow cone, or we may get hit with a snow ball.  We may get relief from a water bottle, or we may get hit by a water balloon.  Our daily walk along the path has both stumbling blocks or stepping stones, that is a part of life: we will always face both.

How we react, however, to what crosses our path is the key.

When we complain, what we are usually complaining about has something to do with our circumstances.

What part do we let our circumstances play in our lives? If we allow our circumstances power to control our lives, affect our emotions, and direct our behavior, we become indentured to our circumstances and we usually become victims of our circumstances.

Our level of expectation is usually directed towards our circumstances. We expect circumstances to go a certain way, and if we are preoccupied with circumstances, and if those circumstances don't go the way we expected, we are usually frustrated. In this way we let circumstances color our mood and, in return, color our judgment

The natural man is a man of circumstances.  And the natural man is at enmity with God. The only way to put off the natural man is to yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit. (Mosiah 3:7)

Monetary items and material things are the "things of the world" (D&C 121:45). Just as money cannot buy happiness, we shouldn't let lack of money buy our unhappiness or spoil our happiness.

It is not that circumstances do not play a part in our lives, the key is to realize what part we let them play in our lives and how much we let them influence our happiness and behavior. It isn't easy to "put off" our circumstances, but with the Lord's help we can.

The Savior, after facing the exhausting test of fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and being tempted by the Devil himself, the Savior Jesus Christ faced a great multitude. How he responded to the multitude that crossed his path is both informative and instructive.

"And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him" (Matt 5:1).

The Savior was about to give what some call his greatest sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. Before he taught this great multitude, however, he took a time out, a time away from the masses and went alone into a mountain.

The Saviors reaction was the opposite of acting on impulse,  when he "was set" or settled or grounded, he then was approached by his disciples and he was ready to teach the people.

To be set then is the opposite of acting on impulse.  Acting on impulse is often a reaction, if not an over-reaction to the things we encounter along life's path. 

If we do as the Savior did and set our hearts, we can calmly face life's circumstances, whatever they may be.

WHAT NEXT

Looking at the title of this blog entry, I guess I don't know what is better grammar: What next or What's next.

Perhaps the answer isn't a question of grammar but a question of deeper meaning.  Consider the following thoughts.

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my temple marriage to Shannon.

Today our families will gather to hear my stepson, Austen, share experiences from his mission.

Both of these events, the mission and the marriage, are great achievements for our family.

Great achievements rarely happen by chance, but by choice.

We can choose to let life happen or we can choose to make life happen.

We can live a life of indecision or we can make decisions.

We can live a life of non-goals or we can achieve great things with goals.

Clean doesn't happen by chance, it happens by choice.

We can choose clean or we can choose clutter: Our house doesn't get clean by chance.

Weeds will take over our garden by chance, but we can weed the garden by choice.

We can be victims, as President Wilson calls it, or we can be victors. We have the choice.

We can take action, or we can be acted upon.  We must act and not react.

Perhaps the answer then to the title of this blog is simple: it could be either one.

What next?  or  What's next.  We decide.  It's our choice.

DO IT YOURSELF

I have been busy doing lots of repairs to get my home in Centerville up for sale. After almost 9 months of hard work, my house is on the market!

Most of the projects were do-it-yourself type of projects. But in the end I really needed lots of advice and help from others. My sweet wife Shannon, my brothers, my daughters, my neighbor Dick Johnson, were my go to people for the help I needed. And I really needed their help!

There appears to be something admirable about doing things on our own. The do-it yourself mentality is, for the most part, commendable. If life is really a test, then like most tests, we as test takers must take the test by ourselves. In school we are responsible for our own answers on tests. We take entrance exams to get accepted to college and we take hundreds of exams, in college, to be able to graduate with a degree. Many professions have aptitude tests that are required before being accepted or admitted into those professions. We even take a driving test, on our own, to get a license to drive.

 
If we aren’t careful, however, we may assume that we are here on earth to fend for ourselves.

Somehow many of us seem to have adopted the notion, and therefore feel the need to perpetuate the false notion, that we are to work our way through life on our own, by our own power and strength, forging our own success, through our own efforts, without the need or help of others.

Wasn’t that the philosophy of Korihor? Didn’t the Book of Mormon Anti-Christ argue “that every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength.” (Alma 30:44)?

According to Korihor, there was no need for God in the world because, man was capable, if not expected, to handle life on his own, and conquer “according to his own strength.”

Perhaps there is a deeper question we must ask. How much of life do I have control over and how much of life is out of my control? To put it in a more spiritual context, how much does God participate in my life and how much of my life am I on my own?

If we adopt the Korihor conclusion we would conclude that God isn’t involved in the details of our lives, in fact if there is a God, He isn’t influencing or intervening in our lives at all. Even those who may believe in God may foolishly assume that, like learning to ride a bike, once we have got the hang of it, we are on our own. 

The answer to question is found in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The atonement is the greatest act of Divine intervention the world has ever known. Christ redeemed us from the fall and from sin, because we couldn’t do it on our own. Life certainly is about learning, and sometimes learning things the hard way, but Christ’s involvement provides the mercy and the tender mercies that only the Son of God can provide. His grace is sufficient and necessary for our salvation. “We are saved by grace after all we can do.” (2 Nephi 25:23)

If we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, He will direct our paths. This promise is a promise of divine participation. God’s tender mercies and answers to prayers are available to those who put their faith and trust in Him.

Here are a few other thoughts I posted on Facebook.

It is easy to equate that so much of our unhappiness is due to our poor choices, but it is hard for us to admit it. Admit your mistakes or you may make them again, learn from mistakes or you'll undoubtedly repeat them.

We are often puzzled by habits and vices that seem so subconscious. The subconscious riddle is no longer a riddle when we realize that although we have a subconscious, a subconscious that has preprogrammed behaviors: behaviors that seem automatic and we are often unaware of them, that we, with the Lord's help, can alter these behaviors and change our very nature.

Often we think of selfishness as a person only thinking of himself or not wanting to share. But selfishness also includes taking from, using, and even abusing others. Stealing, for example, is really a form of selfishness. As is borrowing, without returning. Another example of selfishness is a person playing the victim, feeling sorry for himself, or always being worried about how he appears to others or what other people think. Even lying is a form of selfishness. Perhaps a more subtle form of dishonesty and yet another form of selfishness is the pervasive way people hear only what they want to hear and ignore or deny the truth when the truth is presented to them. So self absorbed in their own view of the world that they ignore clear warnings set before them. This is still dishonesty and it is still selfishness.

The need to buy can be as addicting as the need to gamble. Certain types of buying can produce mood altering hormones that stimulate the pleasure regions of the brain. Buying never buys happiness, however, and the constant pursuit of purchases can become all consuming. Beware of the urgent need to buy. Unscrupulous salesmen prey on it and marriages can be devastated because of it. The question of what we buy may not be as important as the deeper question of why we buy.

When someone emotionally disconnects, detaches, or distances themselves from others, it is like they are emotionally preoccupied: like their mind and heart are somewhere else. The emotional distraction is painfully evident with an overwhelming feeling of emptiness and silence between us. It is as though they have stopped emotionally paying attention and are aloof in their own emotional world. Sometimes I call this "Into the woods", not so much as a reference to the musical or a metaphor about emotional distance, but those who are lost in the woods have both left us emotionally and maybe, just maybe, they are truly emotionally lost and don't even know it. Whatever the reason, when we lose emotional connections to others it feels like we have lost a part of us

The world is full of so much noise it affects the mind. The mind, itself, is full of a kind of noise that keeps us from listening, and if we are listening, from truly understanding the mind and will of the Lord . Understanding the mind and will of the Lord requires a still heart to hear the still small voice. "Be still, the Savior beckons, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10). His words and will come often as a whisper.

It takes faith to understand the word of God. As faith in God takes hold of ones heart, the heart begins to understand, more fully, the word of God. As the eyes of our understanding are opened, our knowledge grows and our faith grows along with it. Faith, then, is the first principle of knowledge.

Finally, here is a quote I read in the Priesthood lesson manual. 

" It is a great blessing to have an inner peace, to have an assurance, to have a spirit of serenity and inward calm during times of strife and struggle, during times of sorrow and reverses. It is soul-satisfying to know that God is at the helm, that He is mindful of His children, and that we can with full confidence place our trust in Him." Ezra Taft Benson.