The Payment (Brad Wilcox)

 

Christ’s arrangement with us is similar to a mom providing music lessons for her child. Mom pays the piano teacher. How many know what I am talking about? Because Mom pays the debt in full, she can turn to her child and ask for something. What is it? Practice!

Does the child’s practice pay the piano teacher? No. Does the child’s practice repay Mom for paying the piano teacher? No. Practicing is how the child shows appreciation for Mom’s incredible gift. 

It is how he takes advantage of the amazing opportunity Mom is giving him to live his life at a higher level.

Mom’s joy is found not in getting repaid but in seeing her gift used—seeing her child improve. And so she continues to call for practice, practice, practice.

Obedience

Obedience doesn't satisfy the demands of justice. It just shows appreciation for what He did. It acknowledges that this is the system that is, and I'm not foolish enough to pointlessly rail against it.

Where Grace Comes In

How comfortable do I plan to be in God’s presence? That's how I should determine my actions & obedience 

Freed by Grace

Grace is choosing to look at what I've done, and saying "this was enough to get me where I am. Now I can move forward from here." 

Instead of "I cannot move forward because I haven't done enough."

Looking Forward

After I read this, what will I be able to do better?

Using Scriptures to Make My Life Better

What are the people in the scriptures going through? 

What counsel would I give to them? 

What am I going through? 

What counsel would they give to me?

Only Peace or Joy

 I, like the Lamanites, can be changed to become like Christ. I can choose to reframe or redefine events as either neutral or good, and feel either peace or joy in every circumstance. I was not meant to feel anger fear or sadness except in very rare and particular circumstances to save my life. I am capable of feeling either peace or joy in all others.

See Helaman 1 intro 

The Path

He is there to be my example. Emotional control. To be in a body with a lizard brain, but never to be hijacked by it because I've learned to rewire automatic responses of anger fear and sadness to trigger peace and joy instead. It's a long road, but it can be done. At the end is exaltation. Only feeling what I want to feel because I control what circumstances mean, and my reaction will be what I have chosen.

See D&C 76:21

Start

"Whenever you are stuck searching for the optimal plan, remember:

Getting started changes everything."

-James Clear

How to Win

"Mental toughness is not skipping the days that are easy to skip."

Show up when no one is watching

Keep your eye on the ball

Do a little bit every day

- James Clear

The Best Time

Be happy when it is inconvenient.

- Sr. Schmutzler 

Turn. Listen. Heal. Make Time

 Jesus never sees interruptions as distractions. He sees people. Even when you're on the outskirts of the path, He turns. He listens. He heals. He makes time for people who might be out of the path of His duty. And that is charity.

-Sr. Schmutzler 

What Defines Me

While missions are amazing opportunities for exponential spiritual, emotional, and personal growth, they do not define us.

-Sr. Schmutzler

Which begs the question, what does define me?

Thoughts to actions to habits to identity.

Purpose of Joining This Church

 The purpose of a service mission is: "To help others come unto Christ by serving with loving kindness as the Savior would. To minister in His name to the one through the power of the Holy Ghost and to live as an example of faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, covenant-keeping with God, and enduring to the end."

Existential Peril

The feeling that I'm being accused of a mistake that can't be corrected or undone.

"You blew it and you can't fix it, but I'm going to keep you here until you've talked your way out of it."

Virtue

Doing the right thing in the face of reasons not to 

Transformation of Glory

Actions become habits become identity.

Power helps me change my mind, which helps me change my actions.

Thoughts become actions become habits become identity 

The Place I Can't Go

You need to have humility about the fact that your perception is distorted, right now. You simply cannot see the landscape of options in your life objectively. By default, you will ignore a path to your dreams if a personally perilous emotion—worthlessness, loneliness, imperfection—is along the way. 

- Useful Fictions 

Actual Change

"If your goal is to actually change someone’s mind... then you should be operating in the conversation as if you’re talking to the hero of the story, who is basically good but has been misled."

-Useful Fictions

This probably also applies when I'm talking to myself.

"You can make someone feel as if you’re not a villain mocking them, but rather, a sympathetic helper who can bring them new information."

"Entering into this perspective of non-superiority, briefly, is what allows us to actually be better, to temporarily see the ways we could really be kinder, more curious, more humble. It’s what empowers us to think daring thoughts like “maybe I’m the problem in this relationship.”"

Hopefulness v Cynicism

"Hopefulness is not a neutral position. It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism. Each redemptive or loving act, as small as you like... keeps the devil down in the hole. It says the world and its inhabitants have value and are worth defending. It says the world is worth believing in. In time, we come to find that it is so."