Optimism

This week I had a rather annoying experience in which due to the neglect and pure laziness of one of my roommates part of my apartment flooded late at night. I was up 3 hours later that I had wanted to be cleaning up the mess. I had all sorts of reasons to be mad, annoyed, and angry. As I thought about it though, I decided to look more on the positive side, and look for good things that had happened, such as
1) I was able to stop the flooding before it got the whole apartment
2) There was no permanent damage
3) Maintenance did come (though after I'd cleaned most of the mess) and helped
As I began to think about why these happened, I began to be grateful for things I would have never thought, such as accidentally falling asleep so that when I would wake up I would leave my room to use mouthwash and discover the flooding one hour earlier that it would have otherwise been discovered.

Anyways, as I have tried to be positive I have been able to avoid getting mad at my roommate. I am also not as annoyed with the apartment management, who should have replace the part that caused the flood months ago when I first filed a request for it to be fixed.

So what will I do? I will be more optimistic and work to always be happy.

Choosing the Best

One think that has kept coming up this week for me is Elder Oaks' Good, Better, Best talk from a few years ago. We talked about it lots at institute - are we doing the best thing we could be doing? Are we doing what God wants us to do, not just doing good things?

Also, when I was asking someone for advice in a job decision, he also referred to this talk: "Both are good. This is a good, better, best situation."

I think there is a reason this is getting emphasized at this time of my life. As I have thought back on these experiences, I realize that I have focused mostly on doing "good" or "better" since I got back from my mission. I have not really focused on doing "best", though. I do not want to be losing any opportunities because I am not willing to do what is best.

This is one thing that I will be implementing now. For example, it is good to do homework. It is better, however, to put the Lord first and spend time studying the scriptures and going to the Temple. Now, there is no reason you can't do both, but homework should not be priority number one.

As I work to change my priorities and put the best things first, I will be able to run my life, rather than having my life run by my obligations. I will be able to do those things that are most important, the things God wants me to do.

Procrastination Woes

This week started off kind of badly. I spent last weekend watching conference and spending time with my family rather than doing homework. While I don't regret that decision, it left me with four homework assignments incomplete at the end of the weekend. I had to wake up at 4 in the morning on Monday in order to finish them. I was barely able to finish these assignments. As the day progressed, two of the four homework assignments had their due dates pushed back. A professor decided that one of the other two assignments I had would not even be graded.
Some might say "Well good for you, they are already done and you don't need to worry about them anymore." While that is true, it led to me being very frustrated and annoyed at the start of a very demanding week. I have had a shorter temper and not acted as I wished that I would have. Why? Because I started off the week being so frustrated that I had needlessly woken up at 4 in the morning to do homework. Now, this may seem insignificant, and in the big picture it really is. For some reason, though, it just pricked me wrong the whole week.
What have I learned? I cannot control my professors' decisions about deadlines or what they will choose to grade, so instead I must keep myself from having to wake up at 4am to do homework. I need to stop procrastinating homework, and if I am going to take the weekend off I need to put effort in before that to finish my homework. By doing this I will be able to do the things I want to do without stressing about homework or becoming frustrated when deadlines are changed.

The Path God Has Prepared

In my institute class this week we discussed some of the lessons that can be learned from the Jaredite people, who came to the Americas after the tower of Babel. One of the great things that can be learned from the Jaredites is that we should be willing to do what God has prepared for us. In Ether 1:38 Jared tells his brother to pray to the Lord to know if he will drive them out of the land and lead them to a promised land. They knew that God has blessings prepared for those who are righteous. In order to receive these blessings, however, we must follow the Lord's plan for us.
Later, when they are on the coast, the Jaredites are told to build barges to cross the ocean. As they build these barges, which are "tight like unto a dish", they must have realized they would have two problems traveling in them - no light and no air. However, rather than trying to fix these problems themselves as they built the barges, they built the barges as the Lord had told them and then went to him to find out what his solution would be.
How often we ignore this wise pattern. We try to come up with solutions for our own problems. Now, don't get me wrong, D&C 58:26 states that it is not meet that we be commanded in all things. I firmly believe this, that the Lord wants us to put work in ourselves, studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets. However, when we have problems, when we need to make life changing decisions, we should turn to the Lord. We need to be open to hearing what He wants us to do, and willing to take whatever path it may be.
This is one of my new major goals, to make sure I seek the Lord's counsel when necessary, to always have an open mind, and to be willing to do whatever the Lord may command me to do.