Lesson 5 Preparation

I went to the library and started work at 12:40. Lesson 5 concerns Decision Making and Goal Setting, which will be interesting to explore because I have always been rather indecisive concerning temporal matters and I have always had goals in my mind, but never took the time to write them down unless someone told me to.

In the opening quote, it talks about goals reflecting the desires of our hearts and I guess I need to work on setting goals that will help me to achieve my heart's desires.

The first talk was called Choices by President Faust and it talked about how our choices now affect what our future opportunities and blessings will be, as future opportunity requires preparation now.

According to President Faust, choices:
*determine a large portion of our happiness or unhappiness.
*have consequences that have to be lived with.
*are not always between good and evil, but sometimes are of opposite directions.
*can be learned from and provide opportunity to grow.
*should be made carefully and not on the basis of popular demand or social pressure.
*are our own and we shouldn't allow someone else to dictate how we act.
*are either reversible or irreversible, but the Atonement is there to help us.
*have a timeline, so we need to be aware and prepare.
*are our responsibility and we need to take responsibility for acting how we will.

The repentance process is:
*recognizing and taking responsibility.
*releasing our desire to act in those bad behaviors.
*resisting the desire to repeat the behavior.
*seeking remission by confession of wrongdoings.
*making restitution whenever possible.

The next activity was a talk called 'The Three R's of Choice' by President Monson and it talked about how all choices have consequences, but all consequences have different levels of impact on the different people that are affected by the choice that is made.

The three R's are right, responsibility, and the results.
*The right refers to the free agency that we have and how free agency is a precious gift given to us by God that we might learn and grow according to our mandate of mortality. Along with Christ, Satan volunteered to perform the Atonement, but his motives were to rob people of their agency and to take the glory for a plan that was not his own; he wanted to be an eternal plagarist. Fortunately, Christ was chosen and we have our agency to do with what we will.

*Responsibility refers to the obligation we have to choose whether or not to support good or evil in this continued war that is waging between good and evil. As much as we may want to remain neutral, neutrality will eventually turn into apathy and with apathy comes the loss of being able to choose for ourselves, for apathy is choosing not to care and with that, the loss of ability to care will soon follow.

*Results refer to the unavoidable fact that our choices have consequences and those consequences can either be very big or very little depending on our choice. Consequences to not just affect the one making a choice; they affect others connected to the chooser. While the Atonement is there and has paid for our sins to be taken away so that we aren't imprisoned by them anymore, we have to want the Atonement's help to be able to enable that payment that will save us.

We need to be grateful for our agency and the chance we have to use it wisely. If our agency is not used wisely, we will lose it and become trapped in the choices we have made until we haul our broken and battered selves to Christ that He may rescue us with His Atonement.

I then watched a Mormon Message called 'Look Not Behind Thee' and right off the bat, I feel like it's going to tell me that when the Atonement takes away our sins and the loss of self that comes as a result of our sins, that we should leave the past in the past. Why look at the past and let it consume us to the point where we think we can never move past it? With that line of thinking, we will only end up destroying ourselves. If we look back, we will destroy ourselves as Lot's wife did. Learn from the past and move on; don't cling to the past because it will wreck your chance at a happy future. The Atonement paid for our sins and for our freedom, so we don't own inadequacy any longer nor do we own the ability to die over our sins. Someone already did that, so LET THEM GO ALREADY!

I then read about the SMART formula, a formula that can help realistic goals be set.
Specific: Where do you want to end up as the result of a goal?
Measurable: How can we keep track of our progress?
Attainable: Can we realistically achieve what we want to do?
Relevant: Does the goal fit with everything else we want to do in life?
Time-Bound: Is there a specific finish date or is it ongoing?

I then read an article by M. Russell Ballard called 'Keeping Life's Demands in Balance' and it said that some good can come from all trials and that trials may motivate us to stop and think about what good comes from all things we experience. Funny enough, I have gone through a rollercoaster of emotions and personal growth during my mission that took place from March 2013 to March 2014 and also again in July 2014 to October 2014 when my dad was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer of the adrenal gland that was ultimately untreatable. The compassion and patience I learned on my mission helped me be able to truly be there for the cancer experience from beginning to end with a newfound appreciation for the gospel and the eternal benefits of staying close to God and Christ.

Elder Ballard's suggestions of self-consideration, prioritizing, setting short-term goals, being wise with finances, staying close to family and others with whom you have good relationships, diligent scripture study, pay a fair and honest tithing so you can receive financial blessings, finding time for rest, exercise, and relaxation, having a gospel-centered family, and to pray both alone and in family units is a very useful suggestion as finding a balance withing your own life and world will leave you less to worry about when it comes to your involvement in other people's lives and your contributions to the world as you know it. A good balance helps us to enjoy life.

Finally, I read an excerpt by Elder Wirthlin called 'Life's Lessons Learned' and it was about how different lessons in our lives come at different points in our lives. He talked about how important it is to examine our lives and engage in behaviors that will enable us to become who we ourselves want to become and not do things that will enable others to morph us into who they want us to be. Nobody gets to decide who we are, what we will do, and who we will grow to become except for us.

The quiz was began at 1:35 and I finished at 1:45 and got a score of 100% Thank you God!

In conclusion, I made a post on the Discussion Board and finished at 2:00

Results refer to the unavoidable fact that our choices have consequences and those consequences can either be very big or very little depending on our choice. Consequences to not just affect the one making a choice; they affect others connected to the chooser. While the Atonement is there and has paid for our sins to be taken away so that we aren't imprisoned by them anymore, we have to want the Atonement's help to be able to enable that payment that will save us. I don't take the Atonement for granted, as it has saved me from remaining in a state of weakness and sorrow.

 

I am not that quick to make up my mind on anything temporal, as I am always thinking about how the decision will not only affect me, but also those around me. I used to never make up my own mind on anything because it was easier for me to give in to what others wanted in terms of temporal things rather than face endless scrutiny over the fact that I couldn't make decisions properly because of my disability. Even though I have a disability, I am quite competent at making my decisions and also being supportive to the decisions that others make even if I don't agree with them because I can only control the use of my agency.

 

Most of the time, I don't even think about making a decision on something until I have information on it that comes from a credible source, as there might be something in the information that may affect the decision I make. In my eyes, making a decision without a good amount of credible information and spiritual meditation is very careless, as it only takes one decision to lose your agency and it may take a long time to regain your agency, as not all choices are easy or even possible to reverse. I have seen the struggle and outright agony that others go through as they try and fail to reverse poor choices they made, so I try everything I can to avoid having to do the same.

 

When I do make a poor choice, however, I work very hard at fully repenting as quickly as I possibly can because time is very short and one never knows when the time to make amends will run out. Life and time are too short to not take the time to take responsibility and make things right when you have done wrong, as you will not only have to be accountable to yourself and others, you will also have to be accountable to God and Christ. Christ is our advocate in all things, but if we don't wish to improve, He is not going to force the advocacy on us. I personally need Christ to advocate for me and stay by my side, as without Him, I would be very much alone and struggling daily.