CTR, Remember Who You are. Don't do drugs and stay away from weird men/women!

With the start of school here...I wanted to write to the beautiful girls in our ward (boys, you count too but I'm not friends with a lot of you on facebook and that is where this will be posted), my nieces and nephews, my cute step kids  and all the teens and kids getting ready to start another year of school where so many of your best memories will be formed but where you will be faced with real adversity... I always say, jokingly (yet, I'm not joking), when the kids get out of the car or leave the house, "Choose the Right!  Don't do drugs!  Remember who you are!  Stay away from weird men/women!"

I want to share a few things from a book I recently read, When Life Gets Hard by Meg Johnson:

"Being spiritually "able" requires very simple steps - the kind of answers always given in Primary.  Praying, reading scriptures, and being nice to others all invite the Holy Ghost and spiritual ability.  Likewise, spiritual paralysis happens with similar simplicity." 

"Being spiritually paralyzed is not a disability I can handle."

"Those who are spiritually disabled look at us as "self-righteous" and "haughty" when we refuse to join them in their unfair judgements, gossip, parties, movies and every other activity that would numb us spiritually.  They wallow selfishly in their spiritual paralysis.  They know where the path is but choose to stay spiritually disabled.  They do not wish to join us, instead, despise us for our valiance and humility - and ability."

This is so hard!!  How do we know if it is our pride or if it is someone else's insecurities/anger or spiritual paralysis??  And when we make a mistake, what do we do?  That is something that others sit and wait for us to do, to use as a tool to drag us down and to hopefully pull us off our path.  To point out what hypocrites we are.  We all make mistakes, and if you are me you make mistakes, A LOT (like, daily).  I don't have a deep, profound answer.  I have to always go back to the Primary answers above and have found that those, simple things, are the true answer.  If it is my pride, I ask for help to humble myself and apologize.  Apologies are not always accepted, but you have done your part in it, allow the Savior to do the rest.   

A part in the book, she talks about being in a movie that does not align with her standards and that she knows she needs to leave....and asks the question that I find myself asking, all the time.  What do I do?

"As a modern-day Daniel, you have two places to pray- hidden in your closet or right in front of the window.  Sometimes it is right to pray in your closets, but in this instance, being subtle about your standards and still keeping them -  like closing your eyes during the bad scenes - may not be enough.  But if you "pray in front of the window" and stand up in the middle of the show to crawl over everyone in the audience to get out, people might not be so happy with you.

Sometimes when we "pray in front of our window", we're considered arrogant and self-righteous.  Sometimes our friends won't understand our standards.  Sometimes our family will be angry at us for reminding them of our standards.  God does not always close their mouths.

Sometimes those who see our righteous example are not softened, sometimes they are hardened against us."

"As modern-day Daniels, what do we say in our prayers?  Do we ask that the lions' mouths will be closed?  Or do we ask for thicker skin?"

"....courage is not the same as bravery.  When we're brave, we are fearless and confident.  But I rarely feel that way.  Like you, I know people who dislike it when I pray at my window.  I fear that those lions may eat me and that the fires will burn me - but I fear God more.  In my fear, I have little room for bravery.

But I have room for courage.  Courage is not the absence of fear.  Rather, it is the willingness and determination to do what needs doing anyway - despite how we feel.  With courage, we can fall down on our knees right in front of our window, standing tall in our commitment to righteousness, and let the lions eat us.

With courage, we can walk through the fires that burn, and as we do, we will walk with God.  As we are courageous, we will know that if lions eat us, we're going to taste good because the fruits of the Spirit are sweet!

So let the lions eat us as we bear our testimony with our actions and pray in front of our windows.  Let the fires burn us to a standard-waving crisp!  There is nothing on our trail - no lion, no fire, no rock - that we can't handle when we walk with God, even if we can't walk."

Please remember to include everyone.  Gossip, talking poorly about others, bashing on facebook, that all hurts.  I know because I have been guilty of doing it and hurting people in the past and it has been done to me.  Words cut deep and being left out hurts.  I have few regrets in life, but when I have allowed emotion to take control and I have vented on social media, or said things that were hurtful, I have felt true regret.  It is hard to repair that kind of damage.  Look out for one another, and include one another.  Have fun and have courage.  If you won't, who will?   

And most importantly, choose the right!  Remember who you are!  Don't do drugs!  And stay away from weird men and women!!