Eternal Perspective

The lessons just never seem to end. I learned yet another important lesson this week. In fact I’ve learned many lessons, which is why I thought it was important to start a blog, so that I could have a place to record the things I learn, and by doing so, help others in their struggles. So this week, I lost sight of my long term goals. I convinced myself that allowing a little bad to happen was much better than having a lot of bad happen. What I should have done, is had more faith. I needed to have more faith that although the temptation wasn’t going away, that it would if I continued to faithfully endure. I convinced myself that I knew better than God knew. I thought that taking things into my own hands was the best way to overcome. I am thankful that I was able to keep it at just a little bad, but that still doesn’t make it right. With help from my Heavenly Father and from my Savior, I have learned how to be better at controlling my thoughts. This has saved me on numerous occasions. However, at times, I just get things stuck in my head, and they don’t seem to want to leave. I try whatever I can think of, and sometimes it will go away for a little while, but then it will come back later. This was the case this week. But I have learned a lot.

I have learned that I need to not only pray for the strength to make it through today, and for the knowledge of the things I need to do today to keep myself safe, I also need to start praying to know the things I need to work on and be aware of even before they happen. If I can anticipate things happening, then I can come up with a solution before they happen rather than leaving me guessing when a different temptation or situation arises. One solution I have come up with for when things get stuck in my head is to get them out. This week I got them out by looking things up. But in the future, I am going to get them out by telling my friend what is in my head. It is as if keeping the thoughts in my head just seems to make things worse. If I can just tell someone what is going on in my head, then I am hoping that will be enough to get them out. 

At the end of the day, I need to just keep my eternal focus. I need to remember what my potential is. I need to remember what it is that I can become. If I am going to become like God is, then what should my life look like while I am here on earth? Having that perspective changes a lot of things. The struggle is just keeping that perspective in mind when a trial or temptation comes. I try to see everything as a learning opportunity. If there happens to be something that goes wrong, I really try to analyze it and figure out what went wrong, how if perhaps could have been prevented, and how to prevent it from happening in the future. As long as I keep learning and improving myself, I am progressing, and that is what the Lord wants.