Life is a Journey....LIVE IT

I sometimes wonder where my life is headed? What am I even doing?  Or what does my future have in store for me?  Life has so many paths and options, but with each day we have to choose one.

As a 20 year old guy, people ask me all the time, what will I be going to school for?  What do I want to become?  At times these question can seem overwhelming,  I have so many choices to make each day, let alone be thinking about the future.  Then the thought crosses my mind, my presents is my future. 

I was reading about another guy who is about my same age, probably being asked similar questions.  His name is Nephi, and his story is told in the Book of Mormon.  Nephi is told by his father that he and his brothers need to go to a distant land to get some brass plates ( a book ) from a wicked king who does not like Nephi family at all.  Now some of us can relate to this, we face challenges in our life or are asked to do something that most likely won't be much fun and very difficult.

 I am glad we have Nephi as an example to look to he tells his father " I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded ."  This is the attitude that I am trying to and continually working on to develop.  Sometimes choices are hard, life is tough, but it is for sure worth living it.  The more we put into it, the more we get out of it.  I saw this as I continued to read Nphi's story,  because although grudgingly his brothers Laman and Lemuel went too,  their end result is definitely not the same as their brother Nephi.

This is how life is for us all.  We can just walk through life and do the motions, but if we change our hearts, and apply all the principles of the gospel, we see how truly bless we are and the Lord's hand in our lives each day.  This reminds me of a legit quote Brigham Young gives us

"If you go on a mission to preach the Gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, looking for this and that, and to learn what is in the world, . . . you will go and return in vain . . . Let your minds be centered on your missions"

That quote is directed towards missionaries but with a few slight word changes it applies to us all...

"If you go through life living the Gospel with lightness and frivolity in your hearts, lookin for this and that, and living in the way of the world, . . . you will life and return in vain . . . Let your minds be centered on your purpose in life."

I really like that.  We should not fear our future, or be grudging towards living life.  It is a blessing to have it, and the more we involve God in our life's the better it becomes!

At the end of Nephi's story he gets the plates and there is a promise with in them... " ...keep my commandments, they shall prosper in the land of promise ."  Life can be tough at times, but with the help of God we will make it through it.  I love the chance of life each and everyday.  I learn, fall, and grow each day, and the next day it starts all over again, but with each day we can find more and more meaning and purpose as we keep our half of this simple promise from the Lord "keep my commandments."

One last quote that I really like about this topic,

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.  When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life."

                                                                                             -Elder M. Russell Ballard

Life is an amazing gift from God.  We should live it to the fullest as long as we are blessed with it.  I always say "Life's to short take the time to laugh."  Sure we make mistakes, and we might not always no where we are headed, but if we put God first and put our whole heart into it, everything will turn out real nice.  Life is a journey.....LIVE IT!