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.