To Define the What and Why

This one is gonna cost me...

One good man, one man who does not put on his religion once a week with his Sunday coat, but wears it for his working dress, and lets the thought of God grow into him, and through and through him, till everything he says and does becomes religious... that man is worth a thousand sermons. He is a living Gospel. He is the image of God, and men see his good works, and admire them in spite of themselves, and see that they are God-like, and that God's grace is no dream, but that the Holy Spirit is still among men. They get a glimpse of God, and glorify their Father who is in heaven.                                                  -Charles Kingsley

Lynn G. Robbins of the Seventy spoke this past General Conference on recognizing and developing Christlike attributes, but first he started off with talking a little bit about on being true to thine own self. His thoughts on the subject included the thought, "To be and to do are inseparable. Do without be—hypocrisy—portrays a false image to others, while be without do portrays a false image to oneself."

That IS A Good Question!

We all gotta check ourselves.

I don't know what most people believe. I couldn't possibly tell you because I can't possibly spend enough time asking and understanding. However, I can tell the difference between the people who act on what they believe and those who don't in about the first five minutes of talking with them. I can usually tell whether or not the beliefs and values they claim to hold actually have sway over them in their everyday life or whether its just a front they put on once a week.

I struggle with this. Who I was before I decided to serve a mission is not who I am trying to be now. Being a missionary just doesn't come naturally to me. What happens when who you are trying to be is a better thing then you have been for twenty some years? To be or not to be...

The most important thing for all of us to remember is this:

WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD FIRST AND FOREMOST!

Whatever we have been in our life thus far is trumped by the fact that we were his child before we even came to earth. We are all innately good. We all have the potential to be as God and Christ would have us be and, "Be perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect". As children of God, we have claim to that divine potential.

There are things we can do to unlock this potential... Praying specifically for a desire, for distinct attributes, for patience and for diligence is a good start. Iimmersing ourselves in the life of Jesus Christ through the scriptures, thus coming to a better understanding of him will help tremendously. Lastly, faking it till we make it comes to mind. The things we did and didn't do will someday define us. Vince Lombardi has one of my favorite quotes for this:

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

Lets get to work.