Apr

25

a life worth duplicating

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I’ve been on break since Wednesday of last week. It’s been a nice reprieve from the rigors of school. Although, I have to admit, this last semester was not as difficult as it could have been. Having split my second semester on the island when Hannah was born, this semester was a perfect load for having a family. I was able to spend some quality time with Emily and Hannah. I’ll look back on this past semester with fondness.

Yesterday, I was lounging around the house and noticed a movie was just starting. Intrigued, I watched it for a few minutes. It looked like it was set in the early 1970′s. I looked it up on TVGuide.com (yes, Emily, TVGuide.com) to see what it was. It turns out it was a movie about a guy named Steve Prefontaine named Without Limits. I wasn’t able to watch every second of the movie, but it was one of the most inspiring stories I’ve ever seen. This genre of movies, unbelievable sports stories, is full of miraculous people or teams overcoming great odds to be the best in their respective fields. The application of this man’s desire and drive reach all areas of life. He was truly an extraordinary man. In reading more about him, I came across several quotes that were very inspiring:

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.

A race is a work of art that people can look at and be affected in as many ways as they’re capable of understanding.

I’m going to work so that it’s a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it.

Someone may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it.

The only good race pace is suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die.

I think this man ended his life with few regrets. He obviously left the world wanting more. A life like this can only give hope and inspiration to those who know the story. He has certainly inspired me . . . and he died two months before I was born.

Apr

15

pride

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In keeping with my spiritual theme for writing on Sunday . . . I had the opportunity today to speak in our Sacrament service. I say “opportunity” because it truly was. Public speaking is the number one fear of people in general. Growing up in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) I’ve had the opportunity to speak in front of audiences of varying sizes since I was four years old. Through no doing of my own, the fear of speaking in front of an audience isn’t something I have to deal with. Therefore, I was able to concentrate more fully on the topic for which I was preparing. How grateful I am. A couple weeks ago, while I was listening to General Conference, I had a thought enter my mind as to the topic I should address. In short . . . it was pride. My main resource for the talk I gave was a talk given by President Ezra Taft Benson in 1989 titled Beware of Pride. Another talk I used as source material for my talk was given in 1992 by Elder Dallin H. Oaks titled Our Strengths Can Become Our Downfall.

While reading these talks and the scriptures, I was humbled. There are so many things I need to eliminate from my life. When preparing a talk or lesson, I always feel an unfair advantage. I always get more out of the preparation than anyone in the audience will ever gain from my presentation of the topic. Pride has truly become a device of destruction in our world. Lives, marriages, communities, and nations have fallen to the destructive force of pride. I’m going to share a few of my favorite points from Beware of Pride:

Fear of men’s judgment manifests itself in competition for men’s approval. The proud love “the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Our motives for the things we do are where the sin is manifest. Jesus said He did “always those things” that pleased God. Would we not do well to have the pleasing of God as our motive rather than to try to elevate ourselves above our brother and outdo another?

This is so evident in the world around us. Co-workers going to any length in order to “look good” to their superiors. Honesty, sincerity, and integrity are replaced by a cutthroat desire to climb the ladder at any cost. Worrying about what the crowd will think if a decision made is “against the grain” leads to a loss of what truly makes us great!

Another point I loved from Beware of Pride was:

Another face of pride is contention. Arguments, fights, unrighteous dominion, generation gaps, divorces, spouse abuse, riots, and disturbances all fall into this category of pride.

Contention in our families drives the Spirit of the Lord away. It also drives many of our family members away. Contention ranges from a hostile spoken word to worldwide conflicts. The scriptures tell us that “only by pride cometh contention.” (Prov. 13:10; see also Prov. 28:25.)

This pretty much sums it up. There’s not much more I can add to that. In preparing my talk, I’ve become more resolved to eliminate the awful faces of pride from my life. I’ve experienced times in my life where I don’t think pride was prevalent and I’ve experienced times in my life where pride ruled . . . I prefer the former. We live in an incredible world . . . beautiful beyond description . . . how much greater could it be . . . without pride?

I’m going to close this entry with a scripture from the Book of Mormon. It is found in Alma 7:23:

. . . now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

What more can I say?

Apr

10

mobile baby

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Well, we’re ten days into April and this is the first time I’ve decided to sit down to write. Hannah decided to stop being stationary and joined the ranks of the mobile by crawling. She started Saturday by taking about three “steps” for lack of a better word. I was outside and Emily came to the door and screamed, “David! You better get in here . . . your daughter is crawling!” Since then, she has decided to explore the house. I was just telling Emily the other day that I don’t feel my life has changed that much since we had Hannah . . . I know Emily’s life has changed more than mine, but my life is not all that different from before Hannah was born. Of course, my heart has expanded beyond anything I could ever imagine. Having Hannah come into our life is indescribable. Anyway, as I was saying about my life not changing that much . . . we’re having to be much more vigilant about stuff at her level. Cords are getting tucked away, our little tables we use for our computers can’t be left out without our supervision, etc. So . . . admittedly, my life is changing. I accept it happily! Well, this semester is almost over and I’m looking forward to the break. Our Saba time is slowly but surely drawing to a close . . . I’m not looking forward to it.