The Metaphorical Shady Side of Town

There's a guy that I work with that I'm not especially fond of.  He's not an altogether horrible person, but it seems like every time I work with him I discover another thing that I don't want in my future eternal companion. Things like avoiding going to the temple because it puts him to sleep, or not being able to watch an entire session of General Conference without flipping channels to check the score on the football game.

Remember my job-turning-down incident of the last post? I've started to look at that experience like I look at dating. There were a lot of really great things about that job: great hours, great benefits, etc., but at the end of the day, the pay was just not enough. The compensation would not be enough to sustain me in the matter to which I (and all people who like to live in health and safety) have become accustomed. Having nights and weekends off would not make me feel any safer if I had to live in a seedy neighborhood. Prescription coverage wouldn't do me much good against the cockroaches and marijuana fumes I would be at risk of enduring in a sub-par apartment complex. No extras can make up for the basic essentials a person needs to live in safety.

So it is with dating. I could find a man that is absolutely smoking hot. He could have advanced degrees and a gorgeous singing voice. He could be the kindest, funniest man in the world. He might have even served a mission and attends church every week. But what if he goes for weeks without even thinking about cracking his scriptures open? What if he hasn't gone to the temple in years? What if he spends his nights watching R-rated movies and telling crude jokes with foul language? These are things that will not sustain a relationship at the level of spirituality that I have spent an entire life working to get to.  I need to date someone who will be an example to me, who makes me want to be a better person. I need to marry someone who will help me raise our children to be strong because of our example, not in spite of it. It's kind of important to me.

I guess what it boils down to is that there are requirements and there are bonuses. They pretty much consist of what I've already discussed. Of course, there's also personality compatibility, and he should probably be roughly 23-30 years of age, but the really serious things are way more important. It's like that object lesson they give in Young Women's. They give you a piece of cake, or whatever, and talk about how delicious it is. Oh, except there's one ingredient that you might not like: dog poop. Clearly, that's not something that you want to be eating. But what if the cake has an ingredient that may sound a little unusual, but not detrimental to your health...like sour cream. When I first heard of baking recipes that included sour cream, I was sufficiently weirded out, but it actually makes a difference for the better in the finished (and delicious) product.

So to sum up: don't settle for the shady side of town, put sour cream in your cookies.

"Because thou hast done this thing...I will bless thee."

I recently had an interesting experience with personal revelation. I've been looking for a new job, and finally came to the realization that I might have better luck if I headed to the larger market of the Salt Lake area. As I was pondering this (and thinking about how much I don't really want to live right in Salt Lake City), I thought to myself, "I really just want to live in some random small town...like Herriman". This thought surprised me because I really didn't know much about Herriman besides that it existed. I tried to dismiss it, but it wouldn't leave my head. All day at work, the name bounced around my head: Herriman, Herriman, Herriman. I happened to be going to the temple that day, and again during the session it was on my mind: Herriman, Herriman, Herriman. I felt very strongly that the Lord wanted me to move to Herriman. I shared the experience with my family members and close friends, and they supported me.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and I had a phone interview with a credit union that has a branch down in Herriman. At the end of the interview, the HR woman told me she was referring me for a position in their corporate office in Ogden. I thought that maybe this was the reason for the Herriman impression, since this position had yet to be posted anywhere. The next day I had an interview in Ogden, which went really well. The job sounded amazing; it was something I knew I could do well, and the company offered great benefits. There was just one hitch in the deal: the hourly wage was only $8.50, and it sounded like there wasn't really any chance of regular raises. I left the interview confused, wondering if I could even survive in Ogden with such low compensation.

I tried to keep my hopes up as I went to drive by a couple of apartment possibilities, but they were all in various stages of disrepair, located in shady areas of town. With my stomach intertwined in several knots, I finally admitted to myself that I would have to turn down the job I had just interviewed for, if they decided to offer it to me. The knot in my stomach immediately went away, and when the job was offered to me the next morning, I told the HR woman that it simply was not enough money and that I was unable to accept the position. I was a little bummed, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

So what does this all mean? Why on earth would I have such a strong impression to move to a random city, only to end up turning down the job that the impression led me to? While I don't want to draw any solid conclusions (because I never know where my life will go), I have to consider the possibility that I've had what I like to call an Abraham and Isaac situation. When the Lord told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, he had no intention of letting that happen, but Abraham didn't know that. Abraham's faith in the Lord was such that he was willing to sacrifice the son he had waited a long, long time for. At the last minute, God intervened to save Isaac's life and Abraham passed the test.

I truly believe that God tests us; he exercises our spiritual muscles to see if we will listen to the Spirit. There are a lot of instances when I saw the direct results of following the Spirit, but there have been many times that I followed a prompting, having no idea what the outcome would be, and sometimes I never do find out. Just as a runner trains for a race, we train for those moments in our lives when failure to listen to the Holy Ghost can mean serious consequences.

Looking back at Abraham and Isaac... I always like to read about what happens after the main portion of the story. After Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is halted, the Lord provides a ram for Abraham's sacrifice, and, in later verses, the Lord bestows blessings on Abraham. (This is in Genesis 22, if anyone wants to read it.) The Lord always blesses those who listen to the Spirit and act upon those promptings. It may not always be in the next verse, or even the next chapter, but I am confident that the Lord will bless me when He sees fit.

*Post title comes from verses 16 and 17 in Genesis 22.

Shall We Not Go On?

This post was not supposed to be the first post for this blog. I have an entirely different post, nearly complete, saved and waiting in the rafters. I don't even know that I planned for this to be the second post. It was just an idea that came to me after watching the new Joseph Smith movie with a friend of mine.

I honestly can't remember if this scripture was quoted in the film, but one of the scriptures I think of when I think of Joseph Smith is Doctrine and Covenants, Section 128, verse 22. It begins: "Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward..."  The scripture is in reference to gospel matters, which was the original inspiration for this post. Joseph Smith, as well as many others, went through unspeakable trials to bring this gospel to the earth. So many things happened, yet the call was simple: shall we not go on in so great a cause? There is no logical alternative. The gospel is true: it is the great cause that we are all involved in as members of the church. What on earth could persuade us to not go on?

But life is hard. Right now, a number of my closest friends are enduring trials that are heartbreaking to me as a mere bystander. I cannot even fathom that pain that comes from trials such as these. The world would expect these dear sisters to sit down on the side of the road and give up, to let the world just pass them by for at least a little while. Instead, I have been deeply inspired by the faith that my friends have shown. I know that they have shed tears, but each of them have been quick to mention the comfort and peace that comes to them from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether it's the ability to attend the temple, the testimony of the Plan of Salvation, or the ability to communicate with our Father through prayer, I have seen and felt the Spirit at work in the lives of my friends.

I know that life is a journey, but isn't that exactly what's implied in the scripture? Go forward and not backward. Behind us lay the trials and fears of yesterday; ahead lies the promise of healing and the hope of eternal life.  I hope my friends don't mind my mentioning of the struggles in their lives; I only do it because I am so honored to be their friends and hope that others can be inspired by their strength and faith.

Shall we not go on? How can we do anything but? Some days are gut-wrenchingly hard, and all we want to do is stay in bed and not do a thing, but that's not helping us any. Getting out of bed and facing the day, each day, is the first step in going forward, not backward. It is my prayer that we may all keep this simple challenge in our minds when things seem hard, because there's always something more just ahead.