WALKING THE GREAT BRIDGE OF BROOKLYN WITH MY FATHER

PUTTING A 'HEADLIGHT' ON OUR HABITS!

Habits…we all have them. Both good and bad. As I have aged, I find myself saying “What?” to my wife, just out of habit. It is super annoying to her, and I don’t blame her at all. I hear and understand what she is saying, but before I know it, “What did you say?” comes out of my mouth.  It’s become a bad habit of mine. Good and bad habits are hard to break. ”The carI have been driving for a number of years has a nice feature on it that Ienjoy. The lights are automatic! That is, they can be set to turn on and off,automatically, according to the darkness of the surrounding atmosphere. Forinstance, they will automatically go on when going through long tunnels andthen turn off when I drive out of it. The same can be said for day vs nightdriving. I have become accustomed to driving without regard to my headlightsbeing on or off. They will, “automatically” take care of me, including turningthemselves off after I take the keys out of the ignition. Thus, I am not in thehabit of turning them, “on” or “off”. The habit that I have developed in ignoring my headlights hasbeen causing me problems as not too long ago I rented car which was notequipped to do this. One night I left the headlights on as I got out of the carto go inside to bed. The next day the car was “dead as a door nail” when I gotup. I had to call on a family member to give me a jump and vowed to myself thatI needed to remember to check the lights manually each time I drove it. Severaltimes during the next few days, upon arriving at my destination, I had to goback to the car and turn the lights off. Each time I told myself I wouldn’t doit again. Late one night on my way to visit my sister’s house, I stopped forgas. I filled the car up and started driving down the main street of the localtown. I hadn’t gotten far when I saw, in my rearview mirror, the lights of apolice car flashing behind me. I pulled over and started thinking to myself,“What have I done wrong?” I rehearsed in my mind my driving the last few milesand could think of nothing. So when the officer came to my window, I wasinterested at what he was going to say. He said, “Sir, you are driving withoutlights!” “I am?,” I said. I looked at the switch to the lights and sure enough,they were on “off.” I quickly turned them on and while sheepishly grinning,told the officer, “This is a rental car. My car has automatic lights so I’m notused to turning them on after I stop.” He smiled pleasantly and replied as hewalked away, “It happens!” I think being pulled over has jarred me enough tocure me of my bad habit of not checking my lights. Perhaps! One of David O. McKay’s favorite sayings was “We sow ourthoughts, and we reap our actions; we sow our actions, and we reap our habits;we sow our habits, and we reap our characters; we sow our characters, and wereap our destiny.” (C. A. Hall, The Home Book of Quotations, New York: Dodd,Mead & Company, 1935, p. 845.) Habits! They can be the greatest blessings in our lives or thegreatest curse! Some of our habits are so ingrained into our character that wescarcely know they are habits. Let us examine our habits! Let us put a“headlight” on them and examine if they are worthy of change. There is at leastone bad habit in each of us worthy of discard and probably more. “What didyou say?”

WALKING THE GREAT BRIDGE OF BROOKLYN WITH MY FATHER

So, on that day, on that bridge, I saw the beautiful handiwork of man. But of more import was that I got to walk across it with the great handiwork of God; my father. As we walked together, I discovered, that I wasn’t walking “over” the “Great Bridge”, I was walking “with” it. It is my father who instilled in me the “literal and genuinely religious leap of faith” that has embodied his life. For because of him, I have spent my life in pursuit of the things of God. In the end, that is all I will be able to take with me! My faith, my hope, and my dreams are founded in the Plan of Salvation, of which my Father taught me. My Father has since passed!  If you haven’t yet, before it’s too late; find a bridge, and walk it with your Dad. So to you Dad, thank you for your kindness and goodness, but most of all, for your example of faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, that has blessed the lives of countless individuals! The Brooklyn Bridge will always be ours!

I'VE TAKEN TO DRINKING!

I once met with a wonderful woman of faith who was going through a difficult time inher life. An unfaithful husband, coupled with personal health issues and troubles with her children, left her in a state of extreme depression. Sheshared with me how difficult it was to attend church and associate with membersof our faith. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel cared for or loved by them, it wassimply the depressing nature of her life and having to face the possiblediscussion of her problems with others. Attending church, for her, seemed tofeed her depression instead of curing it! Or it least she perceived it thatway. She then remarked with sadness, “I’m sorry to confess that I’ve taken todrinking from time to time in order to dull my senses.” We talked for a long while and discussed the positive naturethat comes when we obey the commandments and the strength that comes fromregular attendance at church. There is, in reality, wonderful blessing that docome into our lives from these things. The commandments were given to bless us,not damn us. And regular church attendance, while monotonous at times to some,really does uplift and inspire us if we are in the right frame of mind. Andjust being in the Lord’s house often provides us with a certain peace andconnection with Deity. This wonderful women’s story is not unique. Many of us find weare faced with challenges that seem to overwhelm us and lead us into pathwaysthat are dark and lonely. With darkness comes fear of the unknown andtrepidation at every step. It is then not unusual for some to seek help inartificial ways. Ways that can ultimately lead to great travesty, compoundingtheir already fragile state. Recently a friend of ours shockingly related thatthey had lost eight extended family members to illegal drug overdoses. Be itlegal or illegal, there is no question that our nation is plagued and beingtorn apart by the use of drugs that alter the mind and dampen the ability of usto feel the presence of a loving Heavenly Father in our lives. A number of years ago Tim McGraw penned and sang a song called,“Drugs or Jesus.” Part of the lyrics read: “My whole life, I’ve tried to run, I’ve tried to hide. From thestained-glass windows in my mind. Refusing to let God’s light shine down onme…(we) sit and watch a perfect world go by. We’re all looking for love andmeaning in our lives…we follow the roads that lead us to drugs or Jesus.” Meaning can be found in the life when we understand the purposeof life as revealed through the Lord’s plan of salvation. Fortunately my friend found her way back. A few years later wetalked again. Her face had regained its light and her spirit was buoyant. Shehad chosen the way back to Jesus. Faith in Him had provided her with thestrength to overcome and return to the fold. May we take comfort in the words of the Redeemer when hedeclared: “ Iam come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abidein darkness.” (John

WHEN DID 'GUTTER' LANGUAGE BECOME FASHIONABLE?

I don’t know precisely when it became fashionable for “gutter language” to become apart of everyday life. I am taken aback by the coarseness of language that hasbecome acceptable across all walks of life. And the use of foul language, atleast in media, knows no bounds. Young, old, male, or female, using suchlimited language is just so ‘in vogue’. You can’t watch anything on TV or go tothe movies without someone dropping the ‘f’ bomb as a part of their regularvocabulary. Gone are the days when the use of obscene or taboo language, or swearing as ismore commonly known, is seen as a sign that the speaker lacks vocabulary,cannot express themselves less offensively, or even lacks intelligence. Theinteresting part is that such foul words don’t even make sense in the contextof the sentence that people use. And does everything bad that happens in thelives of people need to be greeted with “F” me! Is this type of languagesupposed to show how tough someone is? Language has always been a problem inathletic events, but when did it become acceptable for coaches to use the foulestlanguage in post-interviews about the game they just played? I’m ashamed! Evenour politicians, who kept their mouths restrained in public in the past, nowhave no problem using profanity in their public remarks. Including ourPresidents! Our media personalities, male and female, apparently feel it isimportant to use obscene language, to empathize a point. Just the other day Iwas listening to a female newwoman, who now has her own podcast, dropping the “f”bomb over and over throughout her commentary. My respect for her went down…alot! Iremember the day when the only ones using gutter’ language were quote ‘sailors!’In talking to my wife, we both couldn’t recall ever hearing our fathers usesuch language and for a woman, let alone a mother swear opening was, well,unheard of! What does it teach the rising generation when the media showschildren swearing at their parents and parents swearing at their children? Whatexample is set if every time an adult has a problem, they resort to droppingprofanity? And what happens when the name of the Lord is a ‘hiss and a byword?” I know they are just words. But words are symbols of what is inour hearts. And the heart of mankind seems to be darkening by the day. James ofthe New Testament wrote: “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven orby earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no,so that you may not fall under condemnation.” But I think it was Luke who nailed it by stating: “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart producesgood, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out ofthe abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

TO ARGENTINA WITH LOVE!

Be it the Olympics, the World Cup, or any other sporting event, or world political event,outside of cheering on the United States, I always root for Argentina and probably will till the day I die!  Why? It was over fifty years ago that my father came down the stairsat our house and handed me a letter.  This was no ordinary letter; it was“the letter.” It was postmarked, “Salt Lake City,” and it was from my church’sheadquarters informing me of where they wanted me to serve for the next twoyears.  I couldn’t wait, so I immediately opened it, and I found out thatI was being called to ‘serve’ the people of Argentina—specifically, BuenosAires and the south. And so it was that I spent the next two years in Argentina,where I first learned to place others in front of myself. It was there inArgentina that I learned the true meaning of service. It was there that I sawpoverty and lived among the poor, whom I learned to not only care for but alsolove.  It was there that I found out what was required of someone whowanted to become a faithful servant of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It was there,among those wonderful people, that I became acquainted in a most personal waywith Deity. It was also there that the people treated me with such love that Ihave never forgotten the feeling.  I have a fixed image of looking out thewindow of my plane with tears streaming down my cheeks when it lifted off afterthose two years, as I watched my beloved Argentina slowly fade from sight. Marvin J. Ashton once said: “A sure way to set our guidelines for that which we choose toserve and learn to love is to follow the admonition of Joshua: “As for me andmy house, we will serve the Lord.” (Josh. 24:15.)… We serve that which we love.If we sacrifice and give our love for that which our Father in Heaven asks ofus, it will help us set our footsteps upon the path of eternal life. Again, Iconclude, what we serve we learn to love, and what we love takes our time, andwhat takes our time is what we love.” (“We Serve That Which We Love”, April GC,1981) And so it is that every time I see anything in the news onArgentina, I stop and read it.  I somehow felt some pride in the fact thatthe former Pope hailed from there. I cheer for them every World Cup. I cheerbecause that country and its people remind me of good things.  They remindme of a day when I was at my best in serving others. I cheer for Argentinabecause I love their people and because they loved me. I love Argentina becausethe saying really is true; we really do learn to love those we serve. And so it is,  be it the people of Argentina, a stranger,or the neighbor next door, the embers of God, which we all carry, are flamedwhen we serve others. It is selfless service that ignites the flame of eternalGodly love, which in turn warms the soul and soothes the human heart. So when Ieven hear the name Argentina, it brings to mind love and touches my soul withgreat memories, and reminds me that when you serve, you are blessed way beyondwhat you give.