Seven of Everything

God has given us a simple pattern to follow in this life: 1) God gives us grace 2) He commands us to act on that grace 3) If we choose to act on that grace, He gives us more grace 4) If we choose not to act on that grace, He removes that grace 5) He gives us enough time to choose and act on that grace 6) He wants us to actively seek for more of His grace 7) He decides if we are ready to receive more grace Grace is enabling power. The grace of God comes in many forms. Some of these consist of our body, agency, knowledge, wisdom, power, priesthood, and the atonement of Christ. A commandment is an invitation with promise. It is what God in His infinite wisdom wants us to do for our benefit. If we receive knowledge from God and we act on that knowledge then He knows that we are worthy to receive more. If we do not act on that knowledge then we are not worthy of it and he removes it from us. He gives us the time necessary to act on knowledge. If we procrastinate choosing to act o...

Yesterday I taught a lesson at church to the priesthood holders on the saving ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ and here is the first part of what I taught: President Eyring stated in the October 2010 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the brethren of the church who hold the priesthood: "We have been called to use divine power to serve the children of our Heavenly Father" ( Serve with the Spirit ). This divine power is given to us by the grace of God to fulfill His purpose. This purpose is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" ( Moses 1:39 ). God prepared His Son to carry out this purpose through His Atonement. "Through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel" ( Article of Faith 1:3 ). Salvation is brought about through the grace of Christ's Atonement and through faith. We are able to choose faith, and live by faith, be...

Seven Steps of Prayer This is my own set of seven adapted from three sources: The Lord's Prayer in 3 Nephi 13:9-13 The Lord's Prayer in Matther 6:9-13 How to pray as taught by my church 1) Address who you are talking to - Our Father  2) Praise His name (reverence Him)   3) Pray that His will be done    4) Recognize His hand in all things (thank Him)   5) Ask the desires of your heart according to His will  6) Praise His glory and power 7) Close in Christ's name I also shaped the chiastic nature to this order.

Recently, at work, this video went around and I thought it was very interesting. They found three secrets of what motivate people and they were not what you might expect. They are: 1) Autonomy 2) Mastery 3) Purpose. Autonomy is the desire to be self directed. Mastery is the urge to get better at stuff. Purpose is the need to know where you are going. This author wrote a book called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. These are the results of very interesting studies: It may not appear to fit in with the seven structure initially but I would argue that it does fit in with a partial structure. Specifically 1, 2 and 3 for self and 5, 6 and 7 when leading others. This may not be clear to you even after watching this so feel free to ignore that.

I learned one of the great lessons of my life during track practice in high school. I decided to try pole vaulting one year but I learned rather quickly that it was not very easy. Our coach was an experienced pole vaulter who had a personal trainer. One day during practice, I asked her to give me suggestions on how to improve. She showed me how to hold the pole correctly and then watched my attempt to jump over the bar. I stood at one end of the track, held the pole with a firm grip, ran down the track, posted the pole in the box and jumped. As the pole raised me up, I lifted my feet over my head attempting to clear the bar. But I hit it, knocking it over and then tried to land without falling on the bar. I talked to the coach afterwards to see what mistakes I had made and where I needed to improve. She quizzed me to see what I did wrong; I didn’t know. Then she asked me where my eyes were while I was running. I recalled that I looked at the box, the bar and her. She told me that my...

For some time now I have been trying to determine what the needed criteria of a good goal would consist of. Last night the topic of my institute class was about goal setting so I was able to think more about this and formulate my thought process. Similar to the repentance process I kept hearing a list of criteria but there always seemed to be something missing or there was inconsistency or overlap between ideas. I am going to start by describing how the SMART goal is not good enough in my view and what should replace it. The SMART goal: S pecific M easurable A ttainable R ealistic T imely The terms specific and measurable seem to be very close. Specific seems to imply details; this is important for a goal. Measurable is also an important aspect of a goal. Similarly the terms attainable and realistic are very close. Both of them seem vague and I would put them under specific. What may be attainable to one person may not be attainable for another person and therefor not realist...

Omni 1:26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should 1) come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, 2) and partake of his salvation, 3) and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, 4) and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, 5) and continue in fasting and prayer, 6) and endure to the end; 7) and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.