Stop Tyranny

I stole this quote from James who got it from the Glenn Beck program.

Samuel Adams (Oct. 1772)

"It is high time for the people of this country explicitly to declare, whether they will be freemen or slaves? It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more than anything in this life. The salvation of our souls is interested in the event. For wherever tyranny is established, immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent. It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interests are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore, they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the people's liberties, practice very art to poison their morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all events, to put a stop to the progress of tyranny."

Change

The other day I had decided on making a certain change in my life-I had decided that I was going to start riding my bike again, for my benefit as well as Neo's benefit because I would take him with me. I went out to get my bike and had to change the seat and then I discovered a flat tire and I was out of time.

As I left the endeavor I was frustrated and a bit upset at being foiled in my attempt at effecting positive change in my life. I attempted at first to rationalize my failure by sayin that some of the elements of change were beyond my control. I was unable to satisfy myself with this answer because of something learned from my dad: the maximum effe range of an excuse is zero.

I did have power over the elements of change this situation. I could have and should have taken the effort and time to ensure my success rather than my failure. I re-learned that the only elements of change not in our control are people. In the future, it is up to me to take the time and effort to ensure my success and I have only myself to blame if I fail. I control the situation, the situation should not control me.

Purpose?

The other day, James was flipping through the channels, yes, he is a channel flipper, and we ended up watching part of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (except maybe me). The situation was this, Raymond wanted to prove he could be mature. They were under the impression that their daughter wanted to talk about intimate relations between men and women, so, Raymond studied up, got some books, then went up to talk to her. It turns out, she wasn't interested in that, she wanted to know why we are here, why did Heavenly Father place us on the earth. Raymond panicked, said something about Heaven being crowded and we are placed here to relieve heavenly congestions. I guess Heaven has a cold.

Anyway, he went downstairs and he and his wife were trying to decide what to tell the daughter, when his family came barging in. The following conversation was a bit sad. The father sat there and made rude and snide comments to all family members, the brother was thinking too hard in the abstract, and the mother tried to find the answer in the bible. In the end, they still weren't sure what to tell the daughter.

How hard is it to say that we are here to learn, to grow, to prove ourselves worthy to go back to live with Heavenly Father. How pointless and hopeless it would seem to live without this knowledge. For people who really don't know what to say to those questions, there is an answer.

I then remembered a professor at Southern Utah University. He talked once about using the proper tools for a job. If you are studying chemistry, you don't use physics tools, if you are studying physics, you don't use electrician's tools. When you are working on something, you use the tools that will give you the best results. When studying things of a spiritual nature, you should use the right tools, spiritual tools, not scientific tools.