Unknowing

Sometimes you move forward in life without knowing what awaits you or how you will make it. I guess most of life is lived without knowing. We don't exactly control what will happen tomorrow we can only do our very best to live our lives in a way that tomorrow holds no fear. We can control the things that we will do but we don't necessarily control the things that happen around us or perhaps to us. Determining what our actions will be before something happens is not always the easiest thing to do. We can determine that we will not do drugs or smoke or drink and when we are approached with that we find the strength to say no. I learned a lot about expected and unexpected behavior this year when I went to parenting classes at South Elementary in an effort to better understand how to work with Jack as well as Natty and Andy. Looking at different scenarios that would or could happen in Jack's life we tried to determine what the expected behavior or reaction would be. I didn't do real great with him on this but it is a work in progress and we are trying. Anyway, there is a lesson there. All of us encounter different experiences in our lives and when we work to determine how we should act when things happen then we will find strength to control our actions. Does this make sense? I don't know.

I sat in a meeting once in the Lakeland Stake with a gentlemen that worked for LDS Social Services in Orlando. He spoke about sin and how we can recognize it and strengthen ourselves against it. The sin itself was referred to as the violation. If we were to chart it the violation would be in the center of the chart like the bulls eye of a target. The rest of the chart would look like the rings of the target that spread out from the bulls eye. The rings of the target are actually little dashes that he referred to as crossings. The crossings represent actions that we take and those closest to the bulls eye represent the actions we took just prior to committing the violation. The crossings that are furthest away represent the things we do that begin us on a path that leads to the violation and the crossings in between are in chronological order. The trick is recognizing what the crossings are. When we find ourselves at a crossing that we know leads us towards a violation then we need to have a plan of action in place that we follow in order to correct our course away from the violation. Determining what the corrective course of action should be at every crossing will strengthen us from committing the violation. You have to be brave and make the course change in order for any of this to work. Anyway, I found this very intriguing when it was taught and believe that there is strength in it.

The specific violation that this Brother spoke about was pornography. We have heard much from the Prophets on this topic over the last several years and it is clearly something that many members of the Church struggle with. As silly as it may sound I am going to go back to a Family Home Evening lesson taught by mom when I was a teenager. I am fairly certain we were living in Carson but I cannot say which house it was. Spiritual Winners was the topic and I learned later that mom borrowed much of her lesson from Jack Christianson. Great work mom. Anyhow, one of the stories was of Joseph and Potipher's wife. I have always remembered how Joseph ran and got him out. I wanted to be the same as Joseph and still do.

I remember a time when I was working in Vegas and we wanted to buy a house. There was a show on TV that took you on tours of different houses in the Valley and they shared a web address and invited viewers to go online and look at many more properties. I thought this would be a good thing. I also thought I could remember the website. When I pulled up what I thought it was I knew I had made a mistake somewhere. Up on the screen popped a woman that wasn't wearing much of anything and the quickest thing I could think to do was hit the main power switch on the computer. I did so as fast as I could. I sat alone in that office and it would have been really easy to indulge in that filth but I had determined beforehand that I would run from anything that would destroy me. I was expecting to look at houses that were for sale. What I expected to happen didn't and so I had to react. I knew that I wanted no part of what was in front of me so I changed course fast. I have ever been grateful for that decision.

Does this make sense? I don't know. I just started writing tonight and this was the message that came out. I hope it serves a purpose. I would say to my children, be brave. never be afraid to run from those things that would harm you. Never be afraid to stand for truth and right. Know that times will come in your life, you won't know when but they will come, when you will be faced with things that you did not expect. I hope that you will be determined to do right, to trust in the Lord and do what he would have you do. Sometimes that will be hard to do but if you will trust in the Lord you will find joy in doing right. You will never regret choosing the right. These are things that I know to be true.