So after much deep thinking, I realized I needed to take an experience I had tonight and re-enter the blogging world.
As you may or may not know, I work at the MTC teaching missionaries. Tonight, I was watching them in the TA (Formerly known as the TRC) and I was paying specific attention to one elder who has struggled with self confidence since day one. I was amazed to see him literally glowing with the Spirit as he taught with power and spoke with boldness. I could feel the Spirit through the tv screen as I watched him in the other room as I watched him. The investigator he and his companion were teaching was not reacting well to them however as he tried to "Bible Bash" with them. Upon realizing his lack of Bible knowledge, the elder began to get nervous and his glow was quickly changed to fear and the lesson went south (figuratively speaking). After the lesson I talked to them and I was surprised to hear how negative they both felt about a lesson that I thought was groundbreaking. After a slight pep talk things got a little better and they realized they did all they could do and the investigator was choosing to ignore the Spirit.
What shocked me the most was that the elder didn't even realize how powerful of a teacher he had been in the lesson and that he didn't notice how his humble testimony invited the Spirit. All he could think about was how little he knew about the Bible and so he left himself be consumed with discouragement. It got me thinking a lot about "perspective" and about how you can choose what to look at. You can choose to see the good or the bad -they are both always there. Every single person in this world makes mistakes and has bad days, its just up to you on how you deal with them. I then began to think about the whole "eternal perspective" and how to keep a perspective of God's eternal plan you would have to focus on the good in life. If you didn't then you wouldn't have a desire to follow Christ or to repent.
I was about this far in my mind wandering to realize that all Satan tries to do is change people's perspective. If he can get someone to think in the moment rather than think about eternal consequences then he wins -game over. Really all he does is get people to shift their focus from something divine and eternal to something worldly or carnal. Whether its getting you to throw away eternal blessings for brief happiness or getting you to focus on items that don't matter or even all the bad things in life, no matter what it pulls you away from experiencing the blessings and happiness that a loving Heavenly Father wants you to have. Satan will put whatever he can in front of you to make you lose sight of the prize.
Its as though consistently you need to ask yourself "How does this help me draw closer to Christ?" as though it filters everything you do. And if it doesn't help you draw closer to him, I'll use a line from Preach My Gospel to advise what to do. "You and your companion should consider whether the activity is worth your time." If it doesn't help you become closer to the Savior then there is no point in doing it or thinking about it.
Well that's the sum of my thoughts tonight. It doesn't even bother me that, since I have been home from my mission for 3 weeks, I can't talk about anything not gospel related. Until next time.
