Enduring

First and foremost, this roller coaster looks like an epic one. This is in Japan. I dunno where or what it is called but it looks legit! Lately, I've been thinking about the gospel principle of enduring to the end. All of us are at different stages of our lives. Some of us are young, in junior high school. Others are attending college. Some of us are parents with 4 kids who are the cause of a lot of grief and break things around the house, but are the source of so much joy. Some of us are grandparents that faithfully write their grandson on his mission and never get a letter back because he is awful at writing letters. I dunno who that would be or anything....just using examples here.. And some of us are in the sunset of life just about to move on to the next stage that Heavenly Father has beautifully prepared for us. I am gonna talk about where I am right now, and that is on a mission. As missionaries, it is easy to get into a habit of just going thru the motions. You find the way the you want to do missionary work and the way that you think is best to do things. We go to meetings to get motivated by our leaders and we try to have uplifting experiences that change our outlook on our missions, but those stirring feelings seem to only last for a few hours, maybe a few days, and then things are back to normal again. This vicious cycle results in what I call "coasting." Coasting thru to the end of your mission, just doing the minimum and not really putting too much feeling or effort into it. I see missionaries all the time struggle with coasting. We get complacent with where we are at and we just decide to ride the roller coaster till we step off the plane at the end of our mission. I too have felt this way at times, and that is one of the worst feelings that I have ever felt. It is easy to go thru the motions, that's why its so appealing! Its easy to just ride the coaster! But when we do step off that plane at the end of wearing the black tag, what will we have learned? Maybe a few scriptures, how to deep-fry ANYTHING (seriously, people will deep-fry sticks of butter out here and eat them plain...), and maybe a few people skills, but will we have learned how to endure to the end? Or better yet, to ENJOY to the end? Will we have learned how to sacrifice everything like the Savior did? Will we have learned how to love God and to magnify our calling for Him? I honestly don't think that we would, and that's what scares me. Now, I'm not saying that we should be maniacs and become over-bearing missionaries, but I do know that there is more for us than to just go thru the motions of everyday missionary work! And I know this applies to more people than just missionaries! When is the last time you, yes YOU, took a second and realized what matters most? When is the last time that you took things off of auto-pilot for a minute and looked at the beautiful creations of our God? When is the last time that you have served a member of your family to bless their life in an extraordinary way? I know that as we step off of the roller coaster and step onto the pathway of Life, we will ENJOY this Journey instead of just experiencing it. We will realize that we have learned how to find happiness in this life and how we have become more like the Savior Himself, who was a perfect example of endurance. I hope we all can take a second and step off of the roller coaster today and really try to enjoy this journey.
I Stand All Amazed...at finding JOY as we endure.