Swing, swing, swing

Howdy,

I have been there and back again.  What a wonderful week of adventure.  As I have pondered many things this week, one thing that sticks out to me is that my adventures are what I make them.  Life throws us lots of varied pitches.  There will be times when we swing and there will be times that we don't.  But one thing is pretty much guaranteed, it is a very rare event that we will ever connect the ball with the bat if we don't swing.  I don't know if that made sense to you, but in my head it does. 

D&C 76:25-27

I have been going over and over the words of these few verse this week.  My mind has been filled with wonder.

"...an angel of God who was in authority in the presence of God..."  

If you read just that simple part of verse 25, it sounds like an pretty impressive, worthy, dedicated, loyal, righteous individual.  But who were they testifying of?  An individual who was impressive, worthy, dedicated, loyal and righteous individual who lost his way and rebelled.  When he did, "...the heavens wept..."

How many of you have seen this happen?  How many of us have found ourselves being wept over?  How many of us have lost our way and even been rebellious?  Have we identified the root cause of that rebellion?  Have you ever wondered how it is possible?  Better yet, have you given serious thought as to how to prevent it from happening?

This is where my thought have been this week.  It was witnessed to me that no matter who you are, how much you know or understand about the gospel, you are never more that one step off the path from falling away into rebellion.  But it is more than that.  I am not sure how to say it differently.  It is more that stepping off the path.  It may also be stopping on the path or ceasing to move forward along the path.  If we are not moving forward, we are not progressing but digressing.  The path requires constant and consistent effort and momentum.  Our movement does not have to be large lengthy strides, but movement none the less.  We need to be in constant movement.  That movement takes effort.

I invite you to to make the effort to move.  

Pray, read, study, ponder, live, strive, and become.  I am sure I could use more words, but we need to be doing something.  The more the better.  Over and over again, we are invited to do.  DON'T STOP MOVING.  I don't care how busy you are, how important the work you are doing may seem, MAKE TIME FOR THE LORD AND HIS WORK.

As I think about this "...fallen, even a son of the morning...",  I realize that not only his he real, but he will do all that he can to convince you that his plan is better that God's plan.  He does this by taking good things and convincing you that they are more important that better things.  i.e. your school work is good, studying is good, so study is more important than studying the scriptures.  NOT.  Maybe it is your job or spending time with your family, all of these things are good, but they are not better or best without the Lord.  That is what Lucifer has always wanted, to convince you that God is less important than everything else.  Don't fall for his enticing. 

I hope that makes sense.  Think about it.

This week has been all over the place.

The Queen and the Professor flew the coupe early Saturday morning.  They spent the week basking in the sun, strolling through the gentle tides, hiking in the mountains, working 10 hour shifts, and starting up the routine study schedule for another semester of school.  

Tall Man and Ehl-Bo filled the week with work and then headed south for some R and R.  It sounds like they were having fun the last I heard from them.

Puddin and Lady Hawkins have continued their rigorous study habits and class attendance with spattered visits to the work place.  They have been busy.

Me?  I spent my time strolling up and down the Main and around the Thames.  My days were also filled with many hours of labor with spattering of adventure.  

Now it is time to start another week of adventure, keep moving forward and swing at as many pitches as you can.  The odds are you will make connection.