Becoming - Personal Reflection

The topic of “Becoming” came to mind from President Thomas S Monson’s talk given 1999.  It left a lasting impression on me, or desire in me to question who I am and who or what was I becoming.  I found a thought-provoking joke that made an impression on me, “Even if you are on the right track, you can still get hit by a train.”  I found that train bearing down on me as I recognized I am on the earth for a reason, and I am running out of time to accomplish everything I want to accomplish. President Monson asked, “Am I what I want to be?  Am I closer to the Savior today than I was yesterday?  Will I be closer yet tomorrow?  Do I have the courage to change for the better?”1 Those are questions that I am asking myself.
We are not on the earth by chance, evolving from slime, as some believe.  There is a plan or reason for each and every life.  We also are not dropped here on earth without help, guidance, and direction.  We have prophets, scriptures, and a loving Heavenly Father ready and waiting to communicate with each and every individual through prayer.  He gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, to Atone for our sins if we will but come unto him.  Keeping his commandments, including making and keeping sacred covenants, will be necessary for us enter onto and then stay on the pathway, or the “right track,” back to Him
“Men are free … to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the … power of the devil”2 Agency is an incredible gift from God.  And as long as we learn to use it appropriately, we can be apart of an amazing eternal family.  We have control of who we are and what we are becoming.  We have already proven our potential, now to we need to make choices that help us become as God would have us be.
            “May I suggest that first of all every one of us develop the mark of vision. One writer said that the door of history turns on small hinges, and so do people’s lives. If we were to apply that maxim to our lives, we could say that we are the result of many small decisions. In effect, we are the product of our choices. We must develop the capacity to recall the past, to evaluate the present, and to look into the future in order to accomplish in our lives what the Lord would have us do.”3
         “Becoming” is why we are all on this earth.  We have the responsibility to make something of ourselves.  Some choose marathons, climbing mountains, fame, and so forth.  There are as many ways to become the best you can be so it is for us to continue to move forward and make choices but be aware that we are headed somewhere.  And every choice we make takes us along the path.  Do we have a goal in mind?  Are we headed towards our goal through the choices we are making?  Are we becoming whom we intend to be?
1-      President Thomas S Monson “Becoming Our Best Selves”, Oct 1999 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints
2-      The Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 2:27
3-   Thomas S Monson, “A Royal Priesthood” October 2007

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Be a peacemaker ---

Image
  “… To be a peacemaker is not to be weak but to be strong in a way that the world may not understand. Peacemaking requires courage and compromise but does not require sacrifice of principle. Peacemaking is to lead with an open heart, not a closed mind. It is to approach one another with extended hands, not clenched fists… .” Gary E. Stevenson Oct 2025 Don't Bite Back A small rattle to keep from being stepped on is okay, even needed, then you can get away. Let your light shine, be the best you, you can be. A favorite story is of a contest asking for a picture of peace -- it was a mother bird sitting in a next caring for her eggs in the midst of a horrendous storm.
Read more

Promises

Image
  Alma 37: 16 But if ye keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord doth command you, (for you must appeal unto the Lord for all things whatsoever ye must do with them) behold, no power of earth or hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words. 17 For he will fulfil all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers. Those that came before worked so hard to give us what we have today.  How can we not work hard for them and our future posterity as well.
Read more

Where do you stand ---

Image
 When playing roulette with scriptures I first received a warning, but if I change, then a blessing  2 Nephi 32: 7 And now I, Nephi, cannot say more; the Spirit stoppeth mine utterance, and I am left to mourn because of the unbelief, and the wickedness, and the ignorance, and the stiffneckedness of men; for they will not search knowledge, nor understand great knowledge, when it is given unto them in plainness, even as plain as word can be. Ether 4:13 Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief.
Read more