Remember Lot's Wife

What stands out to me this week was the BYU devotional I attended on Tuesday. I think Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is one of the greatest LDS speakers of all time and he proved it at the Devotional. Basically the message of the devotional was to not look back into the past longingly, but instead look forward with confidence and hope in the future. He used the example of Lot's wife who looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Elder Holland told a touching story of when he and his wife were young students at BYU and reached a point where they felt like going back, much like Lot's Wife. They didn't see much hope in the future because of all the tough times they were going through. Elder Holland was admonished by his wife that they don't go back, and that the future holds everything for them. I was struck by this point: "God doesn't care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go."

It is important for me to forget about the past and my mistakes I've made. I need to remember only enough to not repeat those same mistakes, and then go forward with a bright hope and confidence for the future. There is a way for me to succeed, and I need to press forward faithfully and forget about my tendency to put myself down by looking at my past mistakes.

Besides that, this week has been pretty average. I felt a little discouraged yesterday because I got some pretty harsh comments on my story I wrote for creative writing. But, I know that I have to look at these comments constructively and see what I can learn from them. I do want to be a writer, so I need to learn that it is going to take a lot of practice and improvement to reach my writing goals. So, I am stronger now in my resolve to pursue writing no matter how many negative comments I receive.

I promised to have some humorous quotes from my Church History teacher, Brother Fluhman, so here they are! Yes, many of these seem random and perhaps a few won't be funny to you since they are taken out of context, but I think they'll give some kind of sense of what his personality is like.

"Update on me first off: I had lunch and got a salad."

"I don't count soup as a meal. If it's in a bowl and runny it's not a meal. Even if the bowl is edible- not a meal!"

"She knows he is delicious." (talking about his daughter's thoughts on Zac Effron)

"If you're in your 20's and a guy, don't sing along to High School Musical."

"Tell us what it's like to have a talent."

"Sunday I made the most delicious cake ever, it was off the hizook!"

"These are the not stupidest people ever."

"Please let me have force powers!" (talking about wanting to be Luke Skywalker as a child)

"I dare you, read Deuteronomy, It'll blow your mind!"

"Get up there and start spreading the word, y'all!"

So, that is my week for you. I wish you all a happy week!

Music Recommendation:

"So Many Roads"

Neal Morse

from Lifeline

I think Neal Morse is the most brilliant songwriter alive today. It is a crime that most people don't know about him. I heard this song this week when it randomly came on my ipod. This song is meaningful to me because it talks about the many choices we have in life. We can go down so many different roads, most of which lead us nowhere. Neal Morse begins the song by talking about the desire we have to know which road we should take. This is when we first hear what I consider the "God's Theme" of this song. This theme shows that our desire to go down the right road does come from God. When the song goes into the second part, "Star For A Day", this same theme is played, but it is distorted, showing that Satan is trying to distort our righteous desires to lead us down the wrong path. But, in the end, behind door number 2, there is another way. We must look in the Eyes of the Savior and go down the road that keeps us on our way to Him. It is a profound song and the ending where God's Theme comes again in all its glory gets to me everytime. Everyone should listen to this song!