Learning from our choices in life.

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September 23, 2024 at 4:24 am #213427

Anonymous
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I have never kept a journal. But lately I have been keeping track of life experiences and the choices I have made.

As a result, I have tried to reflect on what I have learned in the process. For example, I recently read or heard the

following. I don’t remember if I heard it or read it.

~~Quote:~~

Sometimes the wrong choices bring us to the right destination.

One of the first thoughts I had, after hearing this was the parable of the prodigal son.

The results of the son making the wrong choices early in his life eventually brought him back to his home & family.

Even though there is a lot of missing details after his return, the conclusion you can draw is he learned a valuable lesson

& hopefully became closer to his family & his God. I believe that Jesus left most of the parables open to multiple

interpretations. And multiple lessons.

General Conference is coming soon. I’m sure there will be several talks that will include “follow the covenant path” or

“cling to the iron rod”. My hope is that someone will include: “as you go through this life you are going to make mistakes”.

“As you make your mistakes, seek to learn from them”. I’ve been reflecting on some of the mistakes I’ve made trying to

navigate this life. This includes being inactive for 8 years. Experiencing our mistakes, repenting where needed & trying

to learn & move on makes us more humble, more compassionate & more sympathetic of others.

My thoughts for today.

September 23, 2024 at 12:56 pm #345420
Anonymous
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I get this approach, but I do quibble about how one defines a choice as “bad” and how do we define the destination as “right”?

CHOICES

“Good vs Bad” and “Right vs Wrong [And/or Left – Just ask any left-hander]” and “Male vs Female” are binary opposites that are great at ego-boosting or ladling out shame, and lead to another “Us vs Them” binary and can land a group into a zero-sum game if all parties are not careful about it.

Church doctrine and church theology want to present themselves as subject matter experts on “Good” and to continue to exist as an organization and culture with active followers and tithing money coming in. Ironically, the certainty they have of “truth” and “good” limits moral/ethical developmental growth. I have had to sit in some tough conversations and consider my personal morals/values/ethics more carefully as a Non-Christian then I did when I was a believer.

GETTING IT RIGHT:

Brene Brown profoundly said this,

“I am not here to Be Right. I am here to Get it Right”

My family is working on how to “Get it Right” for all of us by the choices we make and the accommodations we need to that we all “Win”. Family fighting can get super intense and it is easy to want to “Be Right” – to be justified in our choices towards others and sit on our self-congratulatory and/or self-defensive ego hill.

HOPEFUL:

I personally hope that all the range of experiences in earth life mimic a trip I had to the park with my kids last summer. Our park has a wooden truck to climb all over, swings, 2 tube slides, 2 fort turrets, 1 sand area, and 1 ship-shaped play structure.

My children split up – 1 to play on the tube slides, 1 to go on the swings. Next, the youngest wandered over to something else before playing in the sand area (and getting a skinned knee). Then, they re-grouped to play on the ship before climbing up the turrets. They avoided the truck entirely this time.

My point is that we have different “activities” that we wind up experiencing at different times throughout the mortal journey – just like my kids had different experiences at the park.
There wasn’t a “right order” to play with everything.

Even with all the safety precautions, you can still get hurt.

No one should expect you to complete all the activities and get to know that park experience all in 1 visit.

What matters is that you showed up at the park and you are actively engaged in the activities there for your Vitamin D intake, your opportunity to mingle with others, and for you to develop autonomy – to figure out what you want to do when and for how long in a space designed for that.