Reality Check

Through gratitude, we receive the best blessings.

Gratitude is the reason we are happy with what we have. I also believe that it’s being honest with ourselves in what we need and what we really have.  If not for gratitude, we see pressure to have more, and temptation to get it without working to get it.  The lack of gratitude, and the attitude of wanting more violates the tenth commandment, advising that we should not covet.

For a long time, I wondered what the difference between having vision and wanting more and coveting was, I think that the answer is gratitude. Those that are grateful for where they are now, how the achieved their place, and who got them there, but want to continue. This is what Heavenly Father wants us to do.

On the other side, when we grow unsatisfied with our lives, and then decide that only more this or more that without the desire to work for it is coveting that way of life. I believe that this is Satan’s cheap imitation of vision and desire to progress because when we covet, we might, if we are smart climb the latter, make more money; but I’m only progressing financially, but spiritually, their growth has been stunted, and this creates even more dissatisfaction in life.

This week I read an article about a woman who, even though she loved her job, and she loved her boss; she was happy in her marriage, and was overall satisfied with life; however, she siphoned half of a million dollars from the company she worked for because it was easy for her to justitfy her actions, and for the most part, she was grateful, but she still wanted more. I think that more importantly than being grateful, we must be continually grateful for what we have been given. 

It's the Little Things in Life

I've been thinking, giving back without a purpose isn’t really giving back. Part of giving back isn’t just the good things that it brings to those receiving (though, that is an important part of it), but it’s also the growth that happens within.

This is the growth that enables you to give more, and to inspire others to give. It’s not just entertaining the mind and tickling humanitarian phases every now and again; it’s learning how to live with charity in your heart, and in your actions.

Charity is Christ. We receive His praise when we keep the commandments and live life according to the doctrines and principles that this world was created with. Charity (giving back) is one of those. I believe that this is where passion comes from is from.

Passion is when you are willing to earn something, no matter the cost, whether it be pain, patience, perseverance, or enduring all three together and more. I believe that once we gain Charity, we gain passion. As we gain more passion, the more we are able to have the qualities that Og Mandino writes in his scrolls. Willingness to accept yourself, to keep going no matter what, to seek guidance from other sources (hopefully the ultimate source), to live things in their season.

We can give back in countless ways, but with that, we can tear down and take away in just as many ways. With every actions there is another one just as powerful and just as opposite as the other. We are all compelled to go both ways, and there are many voices which one to choose, but there is only one voice that matters to the final decision.

I will make sure to listen to my mind and to my heart, and then pray; especially if the two disagree. 

Ahead of time

So I read scroll ten a week ahead of schedule, and I think that this one has influenced me the most of all the scrolls. I constantly think about praying to be guided instead of praying to receive. I also have started to do the same for my loved ones who struggle with certain things.

We are not here just to play. Heavenly Father wants us to learn, and to learn, we must struggle. I recently watched an LDS produced short thought where kids have two options. They can eat a chocolate chip, or they wait to receive something that has been beautifully wrapped in a box. Some of the children make ways of distracting themselves, but you know that always on their minds is what’s in the box.

After a while, they open the box to see a giant cupcake! Oh, the joy and happiness that has been well earned. I think that is the secret to real happiness; work, patience, suffering and hope. Without those things, we would not grow, or appreciate the things, skills and experiences that we have been given.

Hope and with the Lord will help me to accomplish any righteous aspiration in my heart. I just have to have the vision of happiness.