Seasons of Choice ~ Part Three

  Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a BYU Devotional from February 2003, and it is called "Seasons of Choice" by Brother Randall W. Boothe. This post is part three. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional. 

Brother Boothe has mentioned; "... At times in our weariness we may catch ourselves saying, “I just don’t care anymore. I don’t want to choose. I’ll go along with whatever you want to do. I’ll embrace whichever marketing approach is more convincing. I am simply too tired to think this through and choose.” 

... We might have to expand Joshua’s invitation to say, “Choose you this minute whom ye will serve. Choose you this day, this week, whom ye will serve. Choose hundreds of times every hour to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We must, of course, enlist the good counsel and influence of the Spirit that we may be directed to those choices that will help us become the woman or man God has planned for us to become. 

It is possible to make every important decision in our lives correctly if we can learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. What we choose today will influence eternity. Every choice brings us either a step closer to or further from our eternal destiny. We are not victims of circumstance. We have total control. We are the ones who decide how we will react to the environment we find ourselves in.

President Spencer W. Kimball taught: Some people feel that decisions are really out of our hands, that we merely respond to circumstances without choice, ... And I agree that there can come a time when we no longer have control over our destinies, but I believe that this is only after the cumulation of our own past decisions has left us helpless.

In the beginning, each of us is a bundle of potential that can be developed and shaped by what we choose to do. In youth there is still great malleability. We can choose what we will become. As the years go by, we find our past choices have narrowed the alternatives still open to us and we have less and less control over our future. [TSWK, 165]

We cannot do everything at once, but every act every choice opens the gate and leads us down a specific pathway. With every choice thereafter we progress further down that path. Sometimes we must turn around, take some time out, get back in touch with our eternal map, and hang on as the Savior of mankind draws us back closer to our heavenly home. 

... At those times when we feel very strong and independent, we might close our hearts to those closest to us who could help the most in our journey over life’s treacherous paths. Don’t close up. Open your heart to the wisdom of life’s precious companions.

Can you imagine how excited we all were in the premortal existence as we anticipated the blessing of exercising our free agency while experiencing life together? ... We may feel somewhat overwhelmed with so many good choices. 

I am convinced that there is really only one choice that we must make, and that choice is Jesus Christ. When we choose Him, everything else will naturally follow. The Lord himself outlined His four recommended choices for every season, for every day of our lives: Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am. [D&C 93:1]

These are four simple, righteous choices to make every day. ... Are we ready to choose to commit to the Lord’s plan? Are we ready to choose to forsake our sins and come unto Christ? Will we choose to call on His name? Will our choice be to obey His voice? 

Are we prepared to choose to keep His commandments? ... In verse 28 we are promised that “he that keepeth [the Lord’s] commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.” We can know all things! 

That has got to be helpful when we are trying to choose wisely. Every season of life is a season of choice. This is not a time for sitting on the sidelines. We must choose to play ball every day, every hour, every season, relying on the merits of our Savior to assist us in this journey of choice.  ..."

If you would like to read the whole talk either now or in your own time, here is the link below.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/randall-w-boothe/seasons-choice/

Stay Tuned until next time.

Seasons of Choice ~ Part Two

  Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a BYU Devotional from February 2003, and it is called "Seasons of Choice" by Brother Randall W. Boothe. This post is part two. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional. 

Brother Boothe has mentioned; "Choose to Follow the Light
In 1991 Larisa Deeva served as a hostess for two Young Ambassadors on their tour to Riga, Latvia. She recognized the Spirit in the lives of these young men and wanted that spirit to be a part of her life. As she received a copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian from her guests, she proudly displayed it right next to the Bible in her home.

In a letter to Young Ambassador Richard Higbee, Larisa wrote in halting English: I don’t know how to thank you for all that you have done for me. I am so very glad met you. I am happy found fine friends. It was unforgettably for me! I was visit the paradise with you. I have believed in God! ... You have given back me sense in life. I wasn’t know why and what for I lived. And you present me wings! [Letter to Richard Higbee from Larisa Deeva, 1990]

Sister Deeva was baptized on August 22, 1992. In a subsequent letter to Richard Higbee, Larisa wrote: In August of last year I was baptized. I was the first member in the Church here in Riga. Now there are approximately 30 members in this branch. 

I play the piano in our ward. Now I have God in my life, and He helps me deal with all of my struggles. I know that this church is true and know that our Heavenly Father loves us. [Letter to Richard Higbee from Larisa Deeva, 1993]

As the Young Ambassadors returned to Latvia to present a fireside for the new Riga Branch on May 30, 1993, we were pleased to learn that Sister Deeva had been sustained as president of the Relief Society. Larisa Deeva found the truth, was nourished by its power, and with great eagerness made the choice to follow the light.

Choose to Learn from the Word of God

Nearly every morning at 6:30 you will find me walking the streets of Spanish Fork with another of my heroes: my dad, Wayne Boothe. As we exercise, Dad speaks of his experience studying the scriptures that morning before our walk. For 34 years Dad taught seminary and institute classes for the Church Educational System. Through those years he chose to study the scriptures most mornings at 4:00. 

... He enjoys the topical guide and will often approach his study by topic. He loves to encourage us to visualize the scriptural accounts in our minds or to place ourselves in the time and place of the scriptures to explore what it might have felt like to be there. Dad chooses to ponder and pray about those passages he reads. 

... I want to be prepared. The scriptures are helping me to prepare.” At 4:00 a.m. many of us could think of other ways to spend our time, but through all of the years of raising a family of seven children, 40 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren with my beautiful mother, Dad has chosen to consistently learn from the word of God.

"Everything you are comes from your choices." 
- Jeff Bezos.

Choose to Serve

... While serving 14 years as a Relief Society president, Sister Huff learned that folks need to be recognized. In a recent telephone conversation she said, “There are a lot of lonely people in the world. 

I continue to call young and old alike on the phone to congratulate them, and I try to send notes every day to express appreciation for all the good things they are doing for our growing community of Spanish Fork.” Every day Marie Huff chooses to serve.

Choose to Be Firm in the Faith of Christ

... We are told that Moroni “was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ” and that “if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men” (Alma 48:13, 17).

... Will we, like our heroes, be anxiously engaged in choosing to help accomplish the great mission of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man? Will we choose to follow the Spirit in our own lives? And then will 

we choose to extend our love to our families, our associates, and our neighbors, illuminating their paths in our 

own little corner of the world? What an influence we can collectively have on this world as we choose the right.

... The world is being prepared to receive the Savior, and we are all up to bat. So many of our Father’s children are counting on us to bring them into home plate. This is our time to play the game of life. As you step up to the plate in this game of choice, you must choose to serve, to love, to learn, to follow the light, to share. The choice is not complex. We simply choose the Lord or we choose the opposition and we all know who leads that opposing team.”

Stay Tuned until next time.

Seasons of Choice ~ Part One

 Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 
this post should take four minutes to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a BYU Devotional from February 2003, and it is called "Seasons of Choice" by Brother Randall W. Boothe. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the Devotional. 

Brother Boothe has mentioned; "... Have you noticed how the seasons of our lives move forward in a never-ending stream? ... Our personal choices are different as we pass through each new season. Do you remember how many of your choices as a small child focused on play, on discovering the world and people around you, and on simple decisions that made you smile? 

As you grew to the age of accountability and beyond, choices became more critical. The adversary knew this, of course, and worked harder than ever to influence your choices as you matured. Progressing through the seasons of childhood into the teenage years and young adulthood, did you notice that the Spirit has a tremendous capacity to guide you, to lead you to productive, righteous choices? 

And as we qualify ourselves to be led by the Spirit in every season of life, the choices we must make become more clear. Through the spring, summer, fall, and winter of our life, one thing remains constant: we are free to choose. We fought for this right. It is ours. 

No matter how sheltered we may have been in our season of childhood, or how much we may have leaned on loved ones and friends to keep us safe, there come countless times in life when we have to choose for ourselves, when we, alone, face the winds of adversity, when we struggle and stand up to temptation, when we must choose which road to travel and then accept the consequences of that choice. 

Trusted friends cannot always go with us. Parents and teachers will not always be watching. Others are not in a position to make our choices or live our lives. In every season of life we have the opportunity to choose for ourselves. 

... Our Heavenly Father was not about to leave His precious sons and daughters on this earth without a means by which they could grow and learn and search and reach to find their way back to Him. The means by which God planned for our return is our free agency—our personal freedom to choose. ... In today’s world we are literally bombarded with choices. 

"All of life is about choices."

In fact, in recent decades the number of choices in our lives have multiplied many times over. ... Today we may choose to shop in hundreds of stores in convenient shopping malls that are filled to overflowing with merchandise from all over the world.

 With so many choices being required of us every day, we may become weary of choosing. This weariness can place us in a rather dangerous position. ... With marketing teams working around the clock to capture our attention, we may occasionally allow someone else to make choices for us. 

Sometimes, however, our inability to make the right choice threatens the very core of our eternal lives. If we allow ourselves to sit back and “go with the flow” of society, we may be surprised to find ourselves somewhere we do not wish to be.

We frequently encounter heroes in our lives. Their examples of righteousness, faith, service, and love wield a tremendous influence on our choices to become more like them. You know them; they are all around us. ... Today I’d like you to become acquainted with six men and women whose lives have influenced their part of the world in an incredible way because they have consistently exercised their power to choose the right.

Choose to Love

... In 1981 two young men in white shirts and dark, conservative ties volunteered to help her with her work. When the missionaries subsequently taught her about the plan of salvation and spoke of life after death, Julia was deeply moved by the message that she could see her husband, John, again. It made sense. She joined the Church, and the gospel became a great strength to her as she faced more tragedy in her family. 

In the 1990s her grandson happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when gunfire rang through the township, and he was murdered. When Sister Mavimbela’s soul cried out for the healing influence of the Spirit, she left behind the rocky paths of grief and bitterness. Julia Mavimbela chose to love.

Choose to Share

Raj Kumar studied at the University of Punjab in Chandigarh, India. Attending a performance of the Young Ambassadors at his university in 1982, he saw in the faces of our students something different. As he recognized the light of truth and felt the Spirit, he wasted no time in approaching Tom Nelson, our Young Ambassador lighting technician, after the show, asking to know more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

... Dear brother, before I was baptized in this true church of the Savior, I was very reluctant to tell others that I was a Christian. ... I visit hospitals every Friday and spend about three hours there. I pray for sick people admitted over there and visit from one bed to another, introducing them to the Church and the Lord and distributing tracts. 

As you know, we do not have tracts and pamphlets in Hindi or Punjabi languages. I’ve translated the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith into the Punjabi language. I have applied for the mission. I expect to get the call within a couple of months. You will be glad to know that I have started going to Delhi every weekend to take part in church services. ... [Letter to Tom Nelson from Raj Kumar, 1980]

Brother Raj Kumar received his call and served a mission in Fresno, California. Since his mission he and his wife, Sarala, have been blessed with a beautiful family. Brother Kumar has served as bishop, on the stake high council, and currently is ward mission leader in Toronto, Canada. When blessed to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, Raj Kumar chose to share."

Stay Tuned until next time.

What Are Some of Your Current Focuses Now?

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take approximately three minutes to read from start to finish.

Throughout our lives; we make new friends and sometimes we can get carried away to turn on our focuses onto something else. I am positive that each of us as individuals has faced on letting go and moving on from some of the past friends that we have met during our childhood years, our teenage years, and our early adult years. 

We have focused on our time with our studies if we are currently enrolled with education, we have focused on our time with our employment if we are currently employed, our time spent on building relationships, and so forth.

Some of your current focuses can be any or more than one of the following; - You can focus on aiming to start and finish reading The Book of Mormon before end of this year. - You can focus on having more purposeful prayers to Heavenly Father daily often. - You can focus on eating healthier often.

- You can focus on thinking about what you would like to have as short-term goals for 2021. - You can focus on thinking about what you would like to have as long-term goals for 2021. - You can focus on doing more family history more than you have done in the past. - You can focus on staying positive more often. 

- You can focus on finding effective ways of how to have better daily habits. - You can focus on finding effective ways of how to use your time wisely. - You can focus on how to the best person you can be. - You can focus on making new friendships. - You can focus on exercising often. - You can focus on how to be a better friend to your current friends. 

"Always remember your focus determines your
reality." - George Lucas.

I know that my husband and I have been focusing on listening as many past General Conference talks as we can before end of this year, we have been doing very well of making sure that we both are feeling loved, we have been doing our best to focus on agreeing with each other more often, we have been doing very well of making sure that we both have support for each other, we have been doing very well of making sure that we know that we can rely on each other, we have done our best to eat healthier more often which means more homemade meals, to consume less fast foods, and takeaways, I know that my husband and I have done our best to exercise regularly as much as we can but we stopped (because my husband continued working after it gets dark at night times) so I have started exercising on my own at my own pace, and so forth. 

Stay Tuned until next time.

Focus and Priorities ~ Part Two

 Good Morning or Good Afternoon or Good Evening, 
this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a April 2001 General Conference talk called, "Focus and Priorities" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. This post is part two. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk.

Elder Oaks has mentioned; "Nephi taught, “Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do." That is focus. Nephi also said that as he taught from the scriptures, “I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning”

.. Overarching all of this is the importance of what the Spirit whispered to us last night or this morning about our own specific needs. Each of us should be careful that the current flood of information does not occupy our time so completely that we cannot focus on and hear and heed the still, small voice that is available to guide each of us with our own challenges today.

.. Brigham Young, who declared: “Every discovery in science and art, that is really true and useful to mankind, has been given by direct revelation from God. ... We should take advantage of all these great discoveries … and give to our children the benefit of every branch of useful knowledge, to prepare them to step forward and efficiently do their part in the great work” We also need priorities. 

Our priorities determine what we seek in life. .. I hope we will heed these teachings. Jesus taught about priorities when He said, “Seek not the things of this world but seek ye first to build up the kingdom of God, and to establish his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” “Seek … first to build up the kingdom of God” means to assign first priority to God and to His work. 

"Focus on the solution, not on the problem."
- Jim Rohn.

The work of God is to bring to pass the eternal life of His children, and all that this entails in the birth, nurturing, teaching, and sealing of our Heavenly Father’s children. Everything else is lower in priority. 

Think about that reality as we consider some teachings and some examples on priorities. .. Our priorities are most visible in how we use our time. Someone has said, “Three things never come back the spent arrow, the spoken word, and the lost opportunity.”

We cannot recycle or save the time allotted to us each day. With time, we have only one opportunity for choice, and then it is gone forever. Good choices are especially important in our family life. 

For example, how do family members spend their free time together? Time together is necessary but not sufficient. Priorities should govern us in the precious time we give to our family relationships. 

Compare the impact of time spent merely in the same room as spectators for television viewing with the significance of time spent communicating with one another individually and as a family. In terms of priorities for each major decision (such as education, occupation, place of residence, marriage, or childbearing), we should ask ourselves, what will be the eternal impact of this decision? 

Some decisions that seem desirable for mortality have unacceptable risks for eternity. In all such choices we need to have inspired priorities and apply them in ways that will bring eternal blessings to us and to our family members.

The ultimate Latter-day Saint priorities are twofold: 

First, we seek to understand our relationship to God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and to secure that relationship by obtaining their saving ordinances and by keeping our personal covenants. 

Second, we seek to understand our relationship to our family members and to secure those relationships by the ordinances of the temple and by keeping the covenants we make in that holy place. 

These relationships, secured in the way I have explained, provide eternal blessings available in no other way. No combination of science, success, property, pride, prominence, or power can provide these eternal blessings!"

If you would like to read the whole talk in your own time, here is the link below.
www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/04/focus-and-priorities

Stay Tuned until next time.

Focus and Priorities ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take approximately five minutes to read from start to finish.

What is your definition and understanding of the word, "focus"? What is your definition and understanding of the word, "priorities"? This post focuses on a April 2001 General Conference talk called, "Focus and Priorities" by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. This post is part one. I would like to share with you some highlights while I was reading the talk.

Elder Oaks has mentioned, ".. We are accountable and will be judged for how we use what we have received. This eternal principle applies to all we have been given. ... The principle of accountability also applies to the spiritual resources conferred in the teachings we have been given and to the precious hours and days allotted to each of us during our time in mortality.

... Because of increased life expediencies and modern time saving devices, most of us have far more discretionary time than our predecessors. We are accountable for how we use that time. .. we sing in a popular hymn; “we cannot call it back. It comes, then passes forward along its onward track. And if we are not mindful, the chance will fade away, for life is quick in passing. 

’Tis as a single day” The significance of our increased discretionary time has been magnified many times by modern data-retrieval technology. For good or for evil, devices like the Internet and the compact disc have put at our fingertips an incredible inventory of information, insights, and images. 

... With greatly increased free time and vastly more alternatives for its use, it is prudent to review the fundamental principles that should guide us. Temporal circumstances change, but the eternal laws and principles that should guide our choices never change.

He shared a story about a warning and he likes the story because it translates easily into different languages and cultures. .. Because of modern technology, the contents of huge libraries and other data resources are at the fingertips of many of us. Some choose to spend countless hours in unfocused surfing the Internet, watching 

trivial television, or scanning other avalanches of information. But to what purpose?

.. Faced with an excess of information in the marvelous resources we have been given, we must begin with focus or we are likely to become like those in the well-known prophecy about people in the last days—“ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”. 

"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape
our choices, and choices determine our actions."
- Elder Dallin H. Oaks.

We also need quiet time and prayerful pondering as we seek to develop information into knowledge and mature knowledge into wisdom. We also need focus to avoid what is harmful. The abundant information and images accessible on the Internet call for sharp focus and control to avoid accessing the pornography that is an increasing scourge in our society. 

... The Internet has made pornography accessible almost without effort and often without leaving the privacy of one’s home or room. The Internet has also facilitated the predatory activities of adults who use its anonymity and accessibility to stalk children for evil purposes. 

Parents and youth, beware! There are many gospel implications of this easily accessible flood of information. For example, our Church Website now provides access to all of the general conference addresses and other contents of Church magazines for the past 30 years. ..

Stay Tuned until next time.