Pride

Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Isaiah 5:21



Last night I went to a church meeting and I was struck by the importance of not being prideful. One of the things that was said was, we should have God be our number one focus, then our fellow man and THEN ourselves. It is so simple and so perfect. It is something I will be working on.

Chances

I work at a doctor's office as a PA and I often have patients that I follow for chronic illnesses. I have one patient (who I really like a lot) that has hypertension and high cholesterol. He is very overweight and he smokes. The first time I saw him he had been off his meds for a few months and he promised me that he was changing his life. He said he was going to quit smoking, start eating right, exercising, taking his medications and come in for his appointments. I was excited for him. I wrote his prescriptions and we came up with game plans for helping him exercise and quit smoking. I told him to come back in 3 weeks for a medcheck and fasting blood work. Well, 2 months later he comes back in and is out of his meds (blood pressure was through the roof), he has gained 5 lbs and it still smoking. Again, he said this time will be it. I am going to do it this time. I was excited, but this time worried and not as trusting.

I have thought a lot about this gentleman and myself. I think in many ways I am like him coming to my Heavenly Father and asking again for another chance to change myself. I come in prayer, sometimes later than I should and say "I know I promised to get my priorities straight and I know I promised that I would do a better job of reading my scriptures and I know I promised to always say kind words to others and I know I promised I would look for opportunities to share the gospel and I know I promised to make sure I only enjoy wholesome entertainment, but I haven't done all that I could have and Heavenly Father I am sorry. This time will be different. This time I will do better." Sometimes as I am promising this I wonder: Does He still believe me? Has He given up on me and my promises to do better? But in heart I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are constantly waiting with open arms. They are willing to forgive us and give us chance after chance. We just have to keep trying and keep working to be better and they will always be there for us. I am grateful for second, third, fourth etc. chances for me to try to be better. I am thankful for Christ's atonement and that he doesn't give up on me.

I love to see the Temple

Last week I got to teach the kids about the temple. I was so excited to be able to tell them about the feeling I have when I am in the temple and hear about their experiences with the temple. I asked all the kids and teachers to share a temple experience and one of my teachers summed up one of my feelings about the temple. She said, "I love going to the temple because every time I go I feel like royalty. I feel like royalty in my Heavenly Father's house because I am his child and He loves me." I really loved that explanation. I love going to the house of the Lord and feeling His love and feeling the Spirit. I am grateful that Heavenly Father provides a place apart from the world where we can worship and enjoy peace and quiet.

Joseph in Prison

I recently read in the old testament the story of Joseph being sold into Egypt. I was thinking about trials. Joseph was first sold into Egypt by his brothers and then put in prison. In the end those things both proved to be a blessing because then he was at the right place, at the right time to interpret the Pharaoh's dream. He was then able to begin storing food for the famine which ultimately protected his family from starvation. Sometimes we have trials that we have to wade through in order to see that Heavenly Father was doing it for our gain. When Rich and I were applying to school we were praying and fasting that we would both get into school in the same area. Well that didn't happen and we were so frustrated. I wondered why we weren't given the blessing that we had prayed so hard for. We came out for me to go to school and Rich found a job. School was very difficult and time intensive for me my first year. Rich decided to apply again the next year and he was admitted. I realized that it truly was a blessing that he didn't get in the first year because I needed him to be living with me (if he had been admitted we would have been living two hours away from each other) and I needed that support and it would have been really difficult to study the way I needed to and commute to see him. Then the next year, when I was traveling and most of my rotations were in Richmond I realized again how blessed we were, because Heavenly Father sees that big picture when often times we can't see it. I am so thankful that I have a loving Heavenly Father who only gives us trials that will be for our benefit. While in the trial it can be difficult to understand and see that, but I know that it is true.

Elaine Dalton gave a general conference talk about virtue. The thing that struck me about her talk was it was not just a virtue, but a RETURN to virtue. When I look around the world today I see many sad examples of people lacking virtue. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I want to be known as somebody who is virtuous. Sister Dalton say, “Virtue begins in the heart and the mind.” We really have to desire to be virtuous in order for our hearts to be set on it, but I believe if we try to live our lives with virtue or “a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards” we can be a huge force for good in this world.

Also, as a coincidence I opened my fortune cookie and it said, "Your virtues are a priceless treasure." I would have to agree.

Faith

Today I am teaching the kids ages 8-12 about faith. One of the suggestions in the manual is to tell some stories from the scriptures about somebody who showed faith. One of the stories it recommended was about the 2000 stripling warriors. I love this story. If you haven't read it in a while, I recommend it. These young men were born into families of faith. Their fathers had covenanted not to go to war and use weapons ever again and their mothers had taught them to have faith. When their fathers were in a position requiring that they might break their covenant, these young men offered to go to war so their fathers wouldn't have to fight. They went forth with courage and faith and fought with strength.

If that isn't an example of faithful families I don't know what is.

Article of Faith #13 Part 2 Honest and True

The thirteenth article of faith say "We believe in being honest, true..."

Whenever I think of being honest and true, I think of integrity. There are many quotations in the scriptures about honesty/being true/integrity, but anytime I think of that character trait I associate it my Grandpa Schmidt. My whole life, anytime someone would talk about integrity, my parents would tell me about how much integrity my Grandpa had. A couple years ago, my dad wrote me a letter of advice. I treasure this letter and the important things my dad said in it. This is what he writes about integrity:

"One of my favorite words in the English language is integrity. I like it because it is more than honesty. It is like honesty on steroids. It means that you are honest when it doesn't matter to anyone and no one but you knows the difference. It means that you have enough self-respect that you will do what is right because it is right. Your grandfather was a lot like that and I have always known that I could count on Henry Schmidt's moral compass if mine was in a magnetic field or not sending a clear signal. It is better to give a little more to the other guy than it to be off balance on your own side....An example of this was when dad was bailing hay in Wyoming during the depression. He had contracted with a man to bail his hay and then haul it to Salt Lake and sell it. As I remember the story, dad was to bail and haul the hay to Salt Lake and they would split the money in half. The man really needed his share of money fast so dad gave it to him in advance. Dad couldn't r really afford to do this but the man was pretty desperate. When dad got to Salt Lake with the hay the price had gone up considerably. Because the deal had been made in advance, dad had every right to keep the added money , but my pop split the profit right down the middle and shared the gain rather than keep it for himself. It probably would not have mattered if dad kept the gain and the other fellow would never have known the difference. What does matter is dad did the right thing. Never let anything get in the way of your integrity."

There was a day when I was in a clinical rotation and I was writing a note in the chart and I went to write down my finding on the abdominal exam. I realized I had forgotten to do it, but I knew it was normal because the patient told me they were feeling great and hadn't noticed any problems. I was about to write down that the abdominal exam was normal (I had seen my preceptor do the same thing many times before). Then I started thinking about my Grandpa Schmidt and the meaning of integrity. I knew that by writing that the abdominal exam was normal I was certifying that I had done it, even though I hadn't. I realized that losing my integrity was not worth the few minutes it would take me to walk down the hall and actually DO the abdominal exam. It only took me a few minutes, and it was normal (as I had expected it would be), but I new in my heart that I had done the right thing. That to me is what it means to be honest and true. I believe in being honest and true.