In all things

I was going to get started on my next assignment, which is the mysteries of God. It's fun when I learn a little bit about myself - the last segment was talents, which was short, and that was a disappointment for me when I was done after one day because I knew this was a course that I could never again read for the first time.

This time, I was getting started on another subject, and going to it in the index, I saw it was huge. Many days of study here. My heart sank because it seemed like a lot of work. It makes me realize that I'm not very consistent in my thinking: I'm disappointed when it's short, and I'm disappointed when it's long. This is something I get to work on. I reminded myself that this is a new, nice, long book that I can consume slowly and with relish, like I did gifts. I choose gratitude now after looking at my inner soul. Yep, still imperfect, but that's OK. It's why I'm here.

But as I was getting started, I got stuck on a subject nearby. This is a subject that a friend has dug deep into, and I wished to have the gift of knowledge that he had received on this subject - or part of it.

It's about there being opposition in all things. For him, the key word there is the word "in". The gem he described is that everything comes with its own choices, and anything can be used for good or evil. To illustrate, a person could go for a walk and choose to fill themselves with the joy of nature, of sunshine and good air, or they could go and do the same walk and notice the neighbor's uncut grass, be pissed off about loose dogs, complain about weeds, find opportunities to gripe about HOA inconsistency, etc.

Or a person could swim (me) and continuously remind themselves about the grind that each lap represents, vs perhaps enjoy the time with yourself and nothing pressing you.

The opposition isn't around the thing, it's in the thing. We can choose to respond to it or see it positively or negatively.

This reminds me of a story I heard from a friend a few days ago. He talked of a story where a person was talking to a farmer about recent events in his life. The guy explained that he was given a free horse. The farmer responded with "Good or bad? Who can say?" Then the story went on. The horse ran away. Same response from the farmer. Then the horse came back with another horse, same response: "good or bad? Who can say?" Then the story went on with the man's child being thrown from the horse and breaking his leg. Same response from the farmer. Then the army comes by and picks up all able bodied young men for impression into the army. Now the guy is grateful for his son's broken leg. The farmer's response of course was the same: "good or bad? Who can say?"

It tells me that the good or bad in any event is not the event, but how we deal with it.

This follows along with greek philosophers as well. They decided that what happens to us is neither good nor bad, it just is. What is good or bad is how we deal with it.

So now we have Nephi 2:11 "For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things." The word is In - not to or of. Otherwise "...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead..."

This scripture goes deeper than I can go with it, and the extent of the verse is longer than I included, but it appears to me that the Lord is saying that if only good comes with a particular item, it's dead. If you can't choose good or evil from any single item, if you can only pick good, then you can't grow or claim any benefit from having that item. If the only pathway was the good path, you can make no claim for benefit from having followed it because it was the only path you could take. I suspect this is the deadness that this scripture is talking about.

Of course, this also applies to me and this blog very directly. This scripture is telling me that with this blog, there will also be good and bad that can be taken from it. A person may read it and open himself up to be guided by the Savior from these words, or a person may read it with the intent to criticize. Both will get what they were looking for.

This settles me greatly for calming my fears about being criticized. There will be criticisms, and some will be harsh. They may be aimed at me, but they don't have to affect me. I can understand that it's not about me, but about the angels or demons they may have. Christ was criticized and killed. The prophets have been criticized greatly. I am not comparing myself to them, but if they're not immune, then neither am I. If they can manage their critics, then my little issues can also be managed.

My response is to be a light, rather than curse the darkness, or fight it, or focus on it.