I never told you what I gave up for Lent.
I guess I have PD to thank for that. I don't think that I would've chosen it otherwise. My mother told me it was overwhelming and too silly but I figured in the next little bit- everything would start changing anyway- so why not a complete overhaul?
I did make an exception though- a visit to PD in Missouri. I wouldn't want him to see 'the new me' when he enjoyed the 'old one'. That wouldn't be fair. I know that while I may retain some of my newer qualities, I won't keep all of them- I'm too crazy for that!
In Someone Else’s Shoes:
Things need to change.
I want to be someone that is successful- has her act together. As I was thinking of something that was near
and dear to me to quit for the 40 day Lent- I thought about giving up almost
who I am. Does that make sense? The past year, I had been pretty
miserable. I lost myself in work and
didn’t do anything else. I became a
bore- and hardly the person I ever aspired to be. There are things about me that I like, but
there are also things that I don’t like.
Following several interviews, I realized that I had lost who I was and
instead turned into this mess. I’ve
decided to make some changes. Some are
fairly strange- things I’ve never been like- but honestly, I should probably
try harder to do so. I’ve looked inside
myself and thought, “what’s the difference?”
I looked for simple differences of someone more successful that I could
emulate. People ‘give up themselves’ all
the time. We see it in missionaries,
church officials, and people devoted to their causes. Not to mention, our Lord and Savior. He gave His life so I could live mine. If I lost 40 days of myself- it would be
nothing in the grand scheme of things, but if I change for the better and
accomplish a better balance- it would be priceless and limitless.
Let’s give it 40 days.
40 days to live as ‘someone else’.
May I be able to transfigure my being and if not, it was a 40 day experiment. 40 days isn’t eternity, but it sure can have
an effect on it.
If we desire to increase our progress- We must exert ourselves.
Every man has got to learn to stand upon his knowledge; he
cannot depend upon his neighbor; every man must be independent; he must depend
upon his God for himself entirely. It
depends upon himself to see if he will stem the tide of trouble and overcome
the impediments that are strewn in the pathway of life to prevent his
progress. A man can get information by
the operations of the Holy Spirit, and he approaches to God and increases in his faith in proportion as he
is diligent.
It is impossible to advance in the principles of truth, to
increase in heavenly knowledge, unless we exercise our reasoning faculties and
exert ourselves in a proper manner. We
have an instance recorded in D&C of Oliver Cowdery. The Lord promised him the gift to translate
ancient records. Like many of us today,
he had misconceptions in regard to the ecercise of the gift. He thought all that was necessary for him to
do, inasmuch as this gift had been promised him of God, was to allow his mind
to wait in idleness without effort, until It should operate spontaneously. But when those records were placed before
him, there was no knowledge communicated, they still remained sealed, as it
were, for no power to translate came upon him.
Although the gift to translate had been conferred, he could
not prosecute the work, simply because he failed to exert himself before God
with the view of developing the gift within him; and he became greatly
disappointed, and the Lord, in his goodness and mercy, informed him of his
mistake.
If we expect to improve, to advance in the work immediately
before us, and finally to obtain possession of those gifts and glories, coming
up to that condition of exaltation we anticipate, we must take thought and
reflect, we must exert ourselves, and that too to the utmost of our ability. We ought to get the Spirit ourselves and not
be satisfied to walk in the light as it is shadowed forth by others…
I made some lists and things about exact changes- but that's a little too personal for this. Sufficeth to say, I had been doing well sticking to some of my new qualities- and some I should probably start!!
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