What I'd Do On the Day the World Ended - Saturday Response #22

This last Tuesday, I invited you readers to respond to the question, "Would you really party if there was no tomorrow?" I enjoyed the responses I received.

All of the comments had a common thread. Every respondent wanted to do the things they otherwise would if they weren't facing their normal responsibilities and had a clear conscience heading into the next, non-existent day. In essence, they would live their last day on earth finding ways to make themselves happy.

This was both enlightening and sobering for me. In the scenario I described, we all knew of the impending disaster. We had time to actively make decisions about what we would and would not do in our last day.

But what if tomorrow doesn't come tomorrow? What if, unbeknownst to me, I only have a few hours left to live? Will I take pride in my last day? Will I do things I regret? What if I don't necessarily regret my actions, but still wish I'd done something different with my last day?

As it is, I'm making a decision to add more value to my life. I don't want to find myself regretting the last moments I have if they come quicker than I expected.

How about you?

Slavery and Sex Trafficking - Thursday Thought #8

I often hear people say, "Slavery ended when Abraham Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation." The thing is, slavery didn't die. It went into hiding.

Even today, slavers and the slave trade exist. Hundreds of individuals are ripped from home and family (or even sold from home and family) and turned into the playthings of unscrupulous men and women. The victims of these tragedies are often children.

I have recently grown more aware of this issue thanks to the research others have taken upon themselves and then sent to me. As I've worked to educate myself regarding this issue, I have decided that not speaking up about it would be cause for condemnation.

And so, I share this message with you.

I first began my studies by listening to this podcast.

Interview with Tim Ballard of OURrescue.org

I know it's twenty minutes long, but at least listen to the first three minutes of it. If you're utterly bored at that point, I give you permission to stop.

Then I visited ourrescue.org.

Operation Underground Railroad

I especially researched the 'Join the Fight' section.

Operation Underground Railroad: Join the Fight

And as I worked on this very post, I discovered this campaign.

Thunderclap: Turn Social Blue for Freedom

My challenge today is simple: join the fight.

As for me, I jumped on that Thunderclap and donated ten dollars right from the O.U.R. website. I invite everyone to find whatever way works best for you to help and then do it.

As the hymn goes, I personally want to do more than dream of my mansions above.

How I Use My Time (And How I Want to Improve) - Response Saturday #20

This post is in response to this past Tuesday's thinkjoust.

I would argue that I am not a lazy person. Let me break down my average schedule for this past semester.

When I wake up in the morning, I go to my part-time job at Future House Publishing. In the evening, I go to work one of my other two part-time jobs. I 'donate' plasma twice a week. In addition, I work on online coursework, work on creative projects like my novels and this blog, and even throw in some exercise here and there. When I'm finished with all that, I'm afforded a few hours of free time a day.

The question is, what do I do with that free time? Lately, I've been playing video games.

The thing is, I swore off video games for a while there. I started back up this summer because one, all I was doing was working (which meant I was getting burnt out), and two, I wanted to be more informed about narratives in video games, seeing as how becoming a writer in that industry is a possible future career path for me.

The thing is, when I say I use my free time to play video games, I mean all of it. When I'm home, away from work and projects and school, I'm either eating, sleeping, or gaming. That's it.

In the meantime, my impressive stack of books I have yet to read grows instead of shrinking. I've still mastered only one or two chords on my guitar. I haven't figured out how to properly fly a drone yet. I haven't made a YouTube video in months. Except for when I do some one-on-none basketball, I don't go out to appreciate the beautiful summer weather, or take a drive, or do anything physically engaging.

Again, I don't think I'm lazy. But I'm not doing enough with the time I'm given. I can only 'research' video game stories for so long before I'm just wasting time.

So what about all those questions I asked on Tuesday?

Basically, I balance my time between 'working' (which includes my employment(s), my online 'business,' and other responsibilities like school) and video games. As it is, I feel like I have become a slave to routine. I don't do anything because I want to, or because I am reaping true satisfaction from it. Instead, I'm just mindlessly doing the next thing on my check list.

An easy solution would be to take a leaf from Casey's book, but I need modern conveniences for a large variety of reasons, including my work and other things. Sure, what helps me produce blog posts (the internet) may also distract me from improving myself, but the solution may be better time management on my part as opposed to blaming the machine. If I'm being distracted, that's pure user error right there. After all, I know activities that better myself offer the most value in my life.

Either way, the most important thing for me to remember is that life is about living, about loving what you're doing every day. If all I'm doing is working toward goals, always seeking the next 'ending,' then I fail to live in the moment and enjoy what I'm doing. I need to be happy no matter what I haven't accomplished, be it a novel, my education, or even finding a future spouse. I can be happy, right now.

And that's all that matters.

Are You A Slave to Your Time? - Thinkjoust Tuesday #51

Today's thinkjoust was requested by a loyal reader.

The modern era offers us more options to fill our time than ever before. With the internet and other means of instant media, the world can be at our fingertips with only a few keystrokes.

The thing is, it's easy to drown under all these options. While some people make efforts to improve themselves, others find themselves doing things that are easy or unfulfilling. With the high-speed lifestyle most of modern life demands, it's one thing to take a break, but are breaks all we do with our free time?

So, how do you balance your time? Are you master over what you choose to do, or are you a slave to routine? How does technology help you? How does it hinder you? What brings value to your life? Do you feel like you're actually living life, or merely waiting for endings?

Be sure to comment below, and you may be featured in Saturday's post, when I respond and talk about my own habits.

Love ya!

I Conquer Weakness

This week's past two posts have talked about my lack of perfection and my mistake-making. The conclusion to this mini-arc focuses on how I combat my insecurities and weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

I imagine myself as a monarch over a castle. My best self is kept safe inside the castle walls.

So the gray part is my castle, the green part is grass, and I'm the yellow dot.

I'm ready to defend myself from any weaknesses that want to come in and wreck the place, thus holding back my best self.

Sure enough, before long, I'm attacked by two vices (the purple dots holding cutlasses). Let's say these are pride and anger. I rush to defend myself.

But then two more vices come onto the scene. These guys could be envy and hatred. Fearing the new threat, I rush to answer their assault, leaving pride and anger to attack my right flank.

But before I can do anything about envy and hatred, laziness and greed swoop in from the east. I leap forward, ready to take these new enemies out.

But then, lust and discontent barrel into the fray, and I race past laziness and greed to contend with these new enemies.

But by then, it's too late.

Because I spent so much time jumping from threat to threat, I never fired a single arrow. My defense was useless, and now all of my weaknesses are successfully battering down my best self.

I should have taken the time to tackle one weakness at a time. If, instead of racing to the new threat the moment it presented itself, I'd taken aim and gotten rid of the issues currently in front of me, then I might not have become overwhelmed.

Yes, by the time I took out pride, anger, envy, and hatred, the others might have put some sizable dents into my castle. However, the damage they would have ended up doing would have been far less than the entire combined body working together unhindered.

Now let's jump into the real world application.

We all have weaknesses and things that keep us from being our best selves. I have so many, in fact, that I am often overwhelmed by all the work I have to do on myself. Because I get caught up trying to balance so many things at once, I end up doing nothing at all.

So here's my advice.

Pick one thing about yourself that you want to work on. Focus on that one thing for a week. If you're satisfied you made progress, move on to focus on something new. As time goes on, you will find yourself circling back to the first thing you picked. You may not recognize improvement in yourself all at once, but taking things one step at a time will help you continue moving forward, as opposed to being overwhelmed and stagnating.

So get on up top of your castle's ramparts with a bow and a smile, and start picking off your personal goals one by one. I'll be right beside you in my own castle, plugging away myself.

When I Care About the Opinions of Others - Response Saturday #16

I didn't get a lot of comments on this past week's thinkjoust, so maybe I need to come up with better topics? Who knows. We'll see. Either way, most of what I talk about today will be less of a response to your comments, and more of an outline of my own thoughts.

The question was, "When Should You Care About What Others Think?"

For starters, you have to be you first. I and many of my friends often ask each other for advice about how to act (including when we're trying to understand the opposite gender), but when we make a choice, we make it our own. Our decisions and the lives we lead are products of choice, of our own self-motivated spirit.

There comes times when other people criticize us for the choices we make, whether great or small. It is in these moments when we demonstrate our conviction to ourselves. If we change who we are because of someone else, then our conviction is weakened. Judgments, especially those which are unfounded, are not worth my time to consider.

Who am I am is how I act in both adversity and prosperity. What I believe is not necessarily who I am. As such, when someone questions my belief systems by expressing their own, I should carefully consider everything they say and then keep or discard the truth from it.

In a personal example, after I write a book, I cannot discard the opinions and criticisms of my fans. While not every criticism pointed at every creative work can be considered valid (I'm looking at you, internet trolls), I need to carefully consider those that are valid. The reviews for Ama's Watch (Amazon and Goodreads) have been enlightening and instructive for me as a writer, and I'm pleased to have such an eager and honest fan base. I have to care about their opinions.

Most importantly, I may not care about the opinions of others, but I need to care for others, regardless of their opinions. If I turn away someone's friendship or even companionship because we think, act, or look differently, then I am no better than the "judgmental" people I so "disdain."

This Week's Top Comments

When Should You Care About What Others Think? - Thinkjoust Tuesday #47

I often meet people who tell me they don't care what others think of them. Despite this, I have found that these same people often express fears of being judged.

Now, I may be crazy, but the phrase 'I Don't Care What People Think About Me' has reached near memetic status in our culture. A disdain for judgmental people has also become increasingly more prevalent.

This apparent inconsistency has led me to reflect on how I view the opinions of others. How much do I really care about what other people think? I act the way I want to act, but am I under the influence of pressure? Do I ever feel guilt or shame over my choices? Do I fear or wonder about what other people think despite my own agency?

After some internal debate, I decided that there was no one catch-all answer to this situation. I could imagine scenarios in which I would be foolish to rely on the opinions of others. I could also imagine scenarios in which I would be greatly strengthened by the opinions of others.

So my question is, when should I care about what others think about me? After all, it seems obvious that I can't live through life doing nothing but dissing the opinions of others.

This next Response Saturday will present my up-to-date opinion regarding when I should accept judgments and feedback. I will consider any arguments you deliver via the comments section or social media engagements.

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say.

Why and How I'm Restructuring Throwback Thursday

While compiling the results from the last poll of 2015, I noticed something about the votes for the Throwback Thursday feature.

There were no votes for Throwback Thursday.

Despite the lack of interest in these posts, I will continue to post an equivalent every Thursday at the normal time. Critics of my Throwback Thursday posts may throw up their arms in disbelief. "Why?" they may demand. "Why are you keeping this unpopular feature?"

Well, for several reasons.

Throwback Thursday posts give me a break during the week, an opportunity to work on other projects. They give me a chance to feature older posts lost and forgotten in the archives, posts still
relevant to my current audience.

Each Throwback Thursday is nothing more than a commentary on a post from the past, a look into my memories regarding the ongoing creation of the blog. It is the links found within the Throwback Thursday posts that offer the true meat of that day's message. However, as I've reviewed the statistics, almost no-one ever clicks on the links.

This prompts confusion. Without the context of the post found at the other end of the link, my commentary makes no sense. People read Throwback Thursday posts and wonder, What he is talking about?  No matter what I've done to try and promote knowledge of these links, readers just don't click on them.

So, I'm restructuring this feature.

Every Thursday, I will market a post from the past, only this time, it will have (with Added Commentary) attached to the title. You can think read the original post, and, if you want, click on the link at the bottom to read my fresh commentary.

Be sure to give me feedback as I continue on with this!

Why I'm Keeping Thinkjoust Tuesday and What I'm Changing About It

For the very last Thinkjoust of 2016, I asked you, as my readers, to let me know which features of Change and Cherish you appreciate the most. I let this poll run for two weeks straight, a full week longer than usual.

Here were the results.

These results taught me some things.

For starters, it's true only 9 people voted on the poll, even though my daily readership is above 30 people on a bad day. One of the primary reasons I started writing this blog was so I could create a community. The lack of votes suggests we're still far away from that.

Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday are all 'feature' days. On each of these days during this week, I will be commenting on their futures as features. For features without specific hosting days, I have prepared a short commentary below.

Why I'm Keeping [insert feature here] and What I'm Changing About It

Poetry

I was surprised to see this at the top. Very few of my poems receive above thirty views, and while no poems made the Top 10 list this year, one of my poems made the very bottom of the Bottom 10 list. As it is, I have decided to write more poems, but also try to include discussion questions at their end.

Slice of Life

Even though this was a tie for second, pageviews fluctuate for these depending on the topic. Slice of life posts made both the Top and Bottom 10 lists of 2015. I know some of my more vocal fans hate these sorts of posts, but because Slice of Life posts are an integral part of the blog, I don't see them leaving anytime soon. I do want to make their content more relevant, however.

Videos

Again, like poetry, videos don't see a lot of love here. I don't make very many videos as it is, seeing as how they require about ten times more work than your average post. However, I will continue to make videos when the fancy strikes me.

Reviews

There are probably fewer review posts out there than there are any other type of post. Regardless, I was surprised they got so little love, seeing as how they all average pretty high views on average. I don't know that I'll stop writing reviews altogether, but I definitely will not be as eager to jump into one.

And, finally, the one you've been waiting for ...

Thinkjoust Tuesdays

One of the big problems with these posts is that the topics discussed are generally of no significant relevance to anyone. The most popular Thinkjousts revolved around dating and pets, but others, like those about weather or operating programs, barely received more than a 'Meh' from you as a collective audience.

I've pondered how to improve this, and I've decided several things.

First, I'm going to stop posting polls, at least on a regular basis. People interested in engaging in the content should use the comments section found at the bottom of every post.

Second, I'm going to start discussing heavier topics, likely revolving around current events.

I'm scared to do this because I don't want Change and Cherish to become volatile and unwelcome as people come in and express their opinions. However, I do believe that every opinion has the right to be heard, and that this sort of discussion naturally builds community. So I guess we'll see where it goes!

Thank you for your support and love. I'll see you tomorrow!

What to Expect from this Blog before the End of the Old Year

Don't forget to vote on that poll on the right-hand side! I'd love to find ways to improve this blog.

Hey, everyone! In order to hype some of the exciting things coming up on the schedule for Change and Cherish, I wanted to give you a current peek at what I'm planning on doing for the rest of the year.

24th - Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie review. In this post, I'll decide if I'd recommend it to an audience seeking clean entertainment, if I thought the movie was good, and if the story's primary message was tight or even existent, among other things.

25th - Christmas introspection. There's a high chance I'll put out a late post that day.

26th - Another politics post. At this point, it's looking like another Know Your Candidate, unless someone has a topic they want me to express an opinion over.

27th - Sunday Snapshot.

28th - Thoughts on the Zoo lights, a trip my family and I are embarking upon tonight,

29th - A recap of your least favorite posts from 2015, or the posts with the least number of views overall. You can see last year's counterpart here.

30th - A recap of the posts I thought deserved more credit than they received. You can see last year's counterpart here.

31st - A list of the most-viewed posts of 2015. You can see last year's counterpart here.

1st - A REVEAL OF MY NEW BUSINESS?!?

2nd - My New Year's Resolutions.

I'm excited about everything coming up! Hopefully, we crash into 2016 right!

Finding Peace: Early to Rise

D&C 88:124 - "... cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."

I've been waking up really early as of late. Sometimes, I wake even before the sunrise.

I rise before most, if not all, of my roommates. I study my scriptures, I prepare for the day, and then, I leave.

The streets are quiet. The occasional car passes by. The driver and I, we nod at each other. I'm left alone to think about life, where I'm going, what I want to do. The solitude gives me perspective on things I can't achieve when I'm enjoying company. 

Later on in the day, things get hectic. I blog, I check my finances, I go to class, I go to work, I write, I do homework, I spend time with my loved ones, I run from appointment to appointment.

But lately, I've been giving myself time to pause, getting up first thing in the morning like that. It's a pause I need and relish, and even though I'm often tired at first, the rest of my day always seems more smooth and anxiety-free.

Today's challenge? Give it a try. Wake up at 5:30 AM sometime. I'll be right there with you. In my own timezone, of course, but you get me.

Appreciation: Spiders, Mosquitoes, and Beetles

Genesis 1:26 - "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion ... over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Don't forget to add your voice to Tuesday's thinkjoust! The poll is located just to the top of the column on the right-hand side!

I'll be honest with you; this beetle has absolutely nothing to do with the post. This particular insect was just more visually appealing than the other subjects we will be discussing presently.

Several of my comrades have returned from their forays into the basements of my workplace complaining of a most insidious group of marauders - the deadly spiders.

Of course, from what I can gather, most people only dislike spiders because of the way they move. Something about the way those eight little legs churn give people the willies. I've also heard that a lot of people are scared of being bitten by a poisonous spider. That's a genuine fear--I've seen horrible pictures of the effects some spider venom has on human flesh--but it's rather racist to assume every spider you run into is poisonous. Look up the poisonous spiders in your area so you can identify them. Odds are, 95% of the spiders you run into are completely harmless, right?

Right?

No? You still want to assume all spiders are poisonous? All right, I'l try a different tack.

The common house spider is one of the least proactive predators on the planet. Seriously. It weaves a web and waits for something to fly into it. Yes, I'm aware some spiders are more hunters than fishers, but let's be honest here; the spiders we're familiar with are probably all web weavers.

The cool thing about these web weavers is that they straight-up protect us from far more aggressive insects. Take the mosquito, for instance. Not only can those little blood-suckers fly, they are able to maintain a near-invisibility when their nighttime hunting begins. They leave bites all over your body, which itch like the dickens, and you can be sure they didn't sterilize their proboscis after biting your friend and then coming after you.

Spiders eat these things. By the dozens. Spiders are useful. Spiders are our friends.

These arguments fell on deaf ears. An exterminator was called to eradicate the spider population in the basements. Though I never saw the sight, hundreds upon hundreds of our mosquito-eating friends lay prone on the floor, their legs pointing toward heaven.

I kid you not, literally a day after the extermination, I heard people complain about mosquito bites for the first time all summer.

I truly do believe God puts everything here on earth for a reason. "Why did he put spiders on the earth, then," someone might ask. I would respond that the spiders are here to protect us from mosquitoes. "Why did God put mosquitoes on the earth, then?"

So we can appreciate spiders all the more.

You, too, have a purpose here on earth. There are so many things you do, every day, that someone notices and admires. No matter how insignificant or disregarded you may feel, your contribution means something. It has worth. Don't be afraid to let your light so shine.

Finding Ways to Relax: Fancy Dinner Dance

Ecclesiastes 3:4 - "... a time to laugh ... and a time to dance ..."

Vintage style, yo!

This past week, I was asked by one of my friends if I wanted to go up to a fancy dinner dance with her and a couple of friends. "It's a black tie affair," she said.

I protested. "But I don't own a black tie!"

Regardless, I was easily convinced, and, after finding myself all dressed up with someplace to go on a Friday afternoon, I drove over to the third member of our party's house and picked her up (obviously, I considered myself the fourth member of the party).

It was a several-hour trip up to the hidden ancient dancing grounds. The plan was for the two of us riding in my car to meet my friend and her date halfway there, and then carpool the rest of the way there. Even though I'd never before met my copilot, we felt comfortable and relaxed as our conversation meandered, along with the car, down the highway. This comfortable feeling continued as we joined the others and finished the trek up.

Live music and senior citizens were the major attractions at the dinner dance. Given that we were, as far as I could tell, the youngest group in the room, it was easy to feel a little intimidated by the obviously love-struck couples as they expertly danced to Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud. However, despite our inability to dance like pros, we nonetheless made the most of it, coming up with the best dance moves anyone's ever seen on this side of the Mississippi. I mean, that wave-heart-jump move! STUNNING.

The ride home was, again, comfortable, and even though my copilot and now new-found friend was incredibly tired and had work the next day, she graciously stayed up to keep me company on the last leg home.

It was an excellent evening altogether, particularly so in my mind because of how relaxing it was. With the stress of school and work and other socialities constantly stomping down on my mind, it was nice to just go into something, even a new and foreign experience, with no expectations and no worries. Looking back, it's been a while since I've done anything with that sort of attitude. Rather, I seem to have slipped back into the mentality of doing things because I have to, not because I necessarily want to. It made me ponder how easy it is to just lose myself in the intricacies of life and never give time for myself.

My challenge to you all today is to find something that relaxes you. Set everything in your schedule aside, including what other people expect of you (like professors and their homework), what you expect of yourself (like writing a blog post), and put it on hold for a while, even just for an hour or so. Nothing helped prepare me for the upcoming week more than just going out and having good old-fashioned fun, and I know that, whatever you're facing, you'll experience the same kind of feelings I did.

So go on! Get out there! What are you doing still reading?

Hey!

HEY!

Stop reading!

Seriously, it's like you never listen.

Good, Better, and Best: NaNoMo Day 1

Mosiah 4:20 - "And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy."

National Novel Writing Month kicked off yesterday, and I did a really good job on sheer content, though I'm always faced with a little frustration when I try to write humor. I just have a hard time laughing at my own jokes, I guess. Either way, though my goal was 2000 words for the day, I struck over 3000 by the end. It was great!

Seeing as how I want to make creative writing a large part of my career, I try to avoid writing on the Sabbath, both as a way to sanctify the work before I get it published and to prepare myself for when I'm actually bringing in moolah. Of course, come 11:59 last night, I was frantically slamming my keyboard into oblivion, trying to keep ahead of the time so I could reach the part of my novel that I'd outlined in my mind as I wrote the opening scene.

Well, I didn't quite reach where I wanted to, so I may lose my best vision for the scene as today goes on and the memory gets buried under others. It's not a total loss, but nonetheless a little disappointing. However, in looking at my activities for the day, I recognized I probably had the time; I'd just managed poorly.

I was productive even beyond the novel yesterday, too, of course. I played D&D with the crew, I finished the weekend's worth of homework in just about all five of my classes, I went to work, I even connected with some good friends. However, I also sat around for a couple of hours watching YouTube videos and TV. Honestly, I feel like I deserved that little indulgence, but had I focused on where I wanted to reach in my novel first, then I would have accomplished the greater thing, and wouldn't feel as frustrated with myself.

And so it goes. It's the principle so lovingly declared in the title of this post, and since I don't believe in unironic title drops, I won't drop this one. However, yesterday was a good reminder for me that if I want to accomplish the best of things, then I need to sometimes forego the lesser things, even if it is only shortly. And when the very best of the best is reaching the Celestial Kingdom, well, even the mundane is thrown into a new perspective. CK or bust!

What is your very best? Be sure to comment below!

An Analogy: Tight Parking (With Added Commentary)

1 Thessalonians 5:21 - "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

I went over to go play board games with some old and new friends yesterday, and was confronted with the terrible curse of navigating bad parking jobs.
There was only one spot in the parking lot, and legend had it that parking on the street earned you a ticket. Unfortunately, both cars on either side of the parking lot had pulled in with their back ends bleeding out a little over the line on each side. To make matters worse, the space provided behind the cars was minuscule as well, meaning you couldn't even fit a car length-wise between the spots on one end of the parking lot to the other.

It was a testament to my studies of both Jamaica-bound missionary and Jamaican drivers that I was able to squeeze into this impossible spot, which, by all accounts, should have been an impossible feat. Sure, I backed up and inched forward probably a good twenty times, I thought I'd hit a car at one point, I nearly slammed into a pedestrian walking behind me, I didn't even get all the way in, my trunk sticking out farther than should have been necessary, but I did it!

I was preparing to back out and go home when I realized that this could be a gospel analogy. The one I landed upon is that, sometimes, I'm offered to do or say or partake of something I feel uncomfortable about, whether it be watching a certain TV show or spouting vulgar humor or whatever. Partaking of those things may feel completely comfortable to the people I'm around, meaning their relationship with God still remains completely intact afterward. However, I may feel, personally, that such things breach my own personal standards. These dilemmas generally have less to do with keeping the commandments or following church standards, obviously, but deal more so with the personal decisions you've made to help strengthen that.

And yes, I'm getting back to the parking spot. Sometimes, navigating these personal standards may seem daunting, requiring a lot of positioning and maneuvering and even prayers in order to determine where you finally need to fall. Once you've finally found that sweet spot, you rejoice with much jubilation. Keeping your boundaries set, like staying as far away as possible from the back ends of vehicles as you creep in between them, may seem difficult, but you will be rewarded so much more than if you just blast in and see what happens.

I wrote a commentary about this post on March 10, 2016. Click here to read it!

Of course, that may not be the best analogy! What gospel analogies can you think of that are related to parking? Be sure to post in the comments below!

The Point of the Matter

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13: "To every thing there is a season..."

I think focus is my big problem right now. True, yesterday's post focused on focus as well (HA! See what I did there?), but I think, touching on that concept, everything falls down to priority.

One of the big reasons why anyone ever fails at anything, I believe, is a lack of proper priority. Perhaps many of the world's greatest minds have been locked under the sway of outside forces, who place their extraneous interests and desires above that which they've been inspired to do. I certainly could not have even attempted to keep a blog like this two years ago, so focused was I on my 'top two priorities,' namely, 1.) video games, and 2.) endlessly obsessing over ways to gain vengeance for every insignificant instance my pride was nicked. As it was, my chief goals in life - to become a published author, to get married, to enter Christ's presence - were all placed on the back burner. I still have yet to accomplish any of those things, obviously, and the latter objective will take the rest of my life to complete, but now that my priorities are focused on those things, I have a better chance at succeeding. And taking myself out as an example, do you think Thomas Edison would have ever been able to produce commercially practical light bulbs if he'd spent all his free time doing a number of unconnected, unfulfilling tasks? That man had priorities.



My family and I had the opportunity to take a trip to Seattle yesterday, a city I've had an interest in long before I ever had the chance to go. Now that they've moved a little closer, I was able to experience some sights and wonders for the very first time. Throughout the entire day, I was just strongly reminded of the blessings I've been given.

I had people who loved me on every side, and yet, I saw many who were alone.

I had a smart phone from which I was able to get directions, and yet, many begged me for money for food.

I was able to have an extended, relationship-building conversation with my brother, something I can't recall us ever doing.

I was able to ascend to the heavens and see man's machinations mingled with the beauty of God's creations.

I was able to recognize some more improvements I need to make in my discipline and diligence.

All in all, it was a magnificent day. Sometimes, I think I look for the 'big needle' in my life, the big blessing I want ... right now! However, yesterday, I would have been completely content to stay on the ground, as everything I really needed was right there with me. And that is enough.