Lesson 9

I started off by looking at the reading assignments for the week

Seeing Red: To Write is to Edit - by Josh Ritter
In this essay, Ritter describes the angst that is involved in perfecting a piece of writing and how it not only affects him, but his loved ones. He expresses the importance of knowing how to write creative thoughts down in a way that is organized and will appeal to the reader. When it comes to writing, you have to realize that your first attempt will not be perfect, but probably far from it, and editing and often the sacrificing of words and/or passages is sometimes essential to bringing out the best of the written word. You cannot expect to be even a decent writer without being willing to sacrifice words or passages that holds your writing back from reaching its potential. Writers not only need to know how to edit themselves, they also need the support of others who are willing to look at the writing objectively and help the writer flush out anything that detracts from the attractiveness of the piece.

Things as They Really Are - by Elder Bednar
Do we see things as they really are or as we want them to be? The Lord obviously worries about how we perceive things and our choices weigh heavily on his mind even if we are not as thoughtful concerning our own behavior. If we are open-minded and faithful to the promises of the Lord, we will see the windows of heaven open and blessings come down into our lives to make up for every pain, sorrow, and sacrifice that has been made in the name of the Lord. We will know if we have the Spirit to be with us because we will have a sense of peace and safety within us that others will also be able to see and identify as a 'spirit of righteousness.' We all start out as children of God, but we alone are to choose whether or not we remain as such and while some choose to stay close to God and live up to divine potential that was there even before birth, others will walk away with the preference of choosing their own path. Unfortunately, those who walk away from God are not truly free, as they have chosen to give Satan power over them through the exercising of their own ignorance or unfettered pride. If we give Satan power over us, we are defiling our temple and disregarding our own holiness for the sake of comfort or convenience and that causes God much grief. Satan only has power of us if we choose to give it to him because he is nothing more than a spirit condemned to eternal ignorance, but it is incredibly easy for others to give him dominion without realizing that they are doing so. By choosing to see things as we want them to be instead of how they really are, we are choosing the path of willful ignorance and pushing the Spirit of God aside. When we push the Spirit of God aside, we are being unfaithful to the Lord and choosing to sacrifice spiritual fidelity in favor of pleasure. Satan likes to feed on our carnal desires and entices us to make those temporal pleasures a priority over that which will last. Satan teaches us to use others and abuse ourselves for the purpose of pleasure and getting what we want when we want it. He knows that when we act on a misguided or incomplete perception, we don't see the whole picture and do things that cause a great deal of damage. The illusion that an inaccurate perception may provide may give us comfort or pleasure for a short while, but all illusions eventually fade and we are left to look over the damage that was done.

After that, I watched videos on Plagiarism and Proofreading. I then turned my attention to the Grammar Lesson, which was about Parallel Structure. After I read a handout on it and watched a video, I did the quiz and got 100% on the first try because I took my time and read each question very carefully, keeping the handouts open in case I needed to refer to them.