New Year's Resolutions

Me, with my husband Bryan and our youngest, Alyse 

 

This time of year always lends itself to great reflection.  What did I learn this past year?  What would I like to happen next year?  What will I change?  What will I add or delete?  Most importantly, what will I maintain?

 

The first thing I would recommend for myself and others is to maintain and nurture our relationships, especially with our spouses and family members.  I have often said the greatest joys and challenges lie in family life.  It expands the level of pain and happiness we can experience by leaps and bounds.  Three of my children had babies for the first time this year.   It has been so sweet to see the cycle of life repeating.  For the first time, they have insight into how much we, as a couple, love them, as our children never quite feel the same way we feel about them.   But, if our children can witness true love, intimacy, forgiveness and equality in marriage, we offer them the best of gifts.   It is my personal opinion that divorces are often sought prematurely.  However, as I investigated child abuse, I learned that if there is a spouse who puts his spouse or children at significant risk of safety and well-being, due to substance abuse and/or domestic violence, divorce is often the appropriate course of action.

Finn, one of our four grandchildren born this year.

 

Many take time as the New Year approaches to set goals to seek to improve their physical and emotional health.  Now that I am in my sixties, I am grateful for some of the good choices for healthy living I made, such as avoiding use of drugs and alcohol, but there is room for improvement as I want to limit my sugar intake, eat more foods high in nutritional value and get more rest.  Yet, I choose not to make health or fitness my religion.  There is place for feasting and celebrating.  I  have a strong testimony of the importance of reading scriptures.  This daily practice not only increases our desire to live righteously, but actually gives us the power to do so.  Partaking of true principles literally adds light to our whole being and gives us spiritual strength much like eating provides us the energy to work and move.   I want to continue limiting how much television I watch.   The last two years, I took the opportunity to take lots of history classes so that I could add a history endorsement to my teaching credentials.  I didn't have much time for television.   Even with my diminished short term memory from a rear end collision, I learned so much.  Because I have taught troubled youth for almost three years, now, I also learned the joy of reading some classics.  These troubled youth love to be read to. 

One thing, I will maintain is trying to put what I am learning into words and share those thoughts.  I am still convinced that we grow through the sharing process.  Not just any sharing will do however.  Most Americans are terribly negative.  Nonetheless, it isn’t prudent to ignore the negative trends that are happening.  I believe it is expedient that we discern both good and evil and that we promote that which is wholesome and edifying.  Paul taught, “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.”   Life is a test and it places before us the opportunity to earn a reward in heaven.  The basic premise is that God is a rewarder of those that love and seek Him.

Our daughter Audrie is serving an LDS mission in Argentina

 

Part of life is having trails.  One of my new mothers, after reading child rearing books that shared what to do when you child gets ill, remarked, “I just want to avoid all of those illness in the first place.”   If she were successful in this desire, both she and her child would miss out on a lot of living.  Trials have the capacity to weaken or strengthen us.  They seldom leave us as they found us.   Man’s cruelty to man has ever existed.  Yet, no amount of human suffering needs to be entirely wasted if we turn more fully to God.  The human spirit to survive is most often present, but this is not equivalent to righteousness.  The truly righteous do not fear death, nor look for a premature escape from life.  The truly righteous are desirous of representing God well, but do not make being impressive or pleasing others tantamount to righteousness.  The righteous are willing to judge, for judgment is essential to the establishment of Zion, but they do not burden themselves with retribution, knowing it is certain and perfectly administered by eternal laws and consequences.  They raise a warning voice, but do not compel others to a course of action.  They avoid evil companions and conditions, but would come face to face with any man, or group of men, if compelled by the spirit.

I am currently in circumstances that make me feel a little anxious about my financial future.  I am not sure whether these circumstances are wholly the result of poor choices, or in part, a curriculum that was prescribed by the Lord to better prepare me for eternity.   Regardless of their origin, my trials have increased my reliance upon the Lord and my knowledge that without God, I am nothing.  They have increased my understanding that the difference between the worst and best of us is less than I ever imagined.   They have increased my compassion for others in need.  As a couple, we have sought to be prayerful in our financial decisions.  So it is kind of tricky to encourage others to follow our lead in this as we are confident we haven’t heard or implemented this process with perfection.    I had once dreamed that I had to go down some descending stairs.  When I reached the last stair, it was dark and I couldn’t see where the landing was.  But, I felt impressed to step off that last stair in faith.

In some ways,  I feel as if I am in a free fall and I don’t know how all of this is going to turn out.  However, I still feel compelled to encourage others to counsel with the Lord in their doings. (See Alma 37:37 in the Book of Mormon).  I still don't advocate a simply prudent life.  One cannot joy in this life or in the eternities if one doesn’t live by faith.  My take away from the scriptures is that the righteous are frequently asked to go forward in faith, not seeing the end from the beginning.  I believe God is a God of miracles and I am willing to trade my limited view of things for his perfect and divine perspective.  I believe that God is more interested in exalting saints than he is in making his saints appear awesome and sinless.   We are not here to promote ourselves, but Him, who is mighty to save.  Everything I have read and everything I have witnessed indicates to me that God lives and that He is mighty to save.   We discover him, by putting our lives on the altar and being willing to go where he desires to take us.  We must pray and seek to know what is God's will concerning us today.  I think each one of us has a divine mission to fulfill in mortality and that there was far more planning in our pre-mortal life than many of us suppose.

Independent of my trials, I think that it is an incredible privilege to live and learn.  I never expected that my older years would be so very exciting.   

 

Have a wonderful New Year!