Excellence through daily choices

Daniel Webster, during a crucial time in history of the United States in 1830, stood before the senate and said:

“Mr. President, when the mariner has been tossed about for many days in thick weather on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun to take his latitude and ascertain how far the elements have driven him from his true course. Let us imitate this prudence and before we float on the waves of this debate refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are” (Link)

After a busy week in the seas of life we every week have the opportunity to “ascertain how far the elements have driven [us]” by partaking of the sacrament; we then can make the necessary course corrections to our earthly voyage which can take us to the heavenly harbor where our heavenly parents will be waiting for us. I know that our Savior is the ultimate unchanging reference point and destination. He can show us how to use the instruments given to us to navigate through life, but I must choose to learn.

This topic has been on my mind for some time now. It is something I need to work on and I definitely won’t achieve in the next couple months, years or even decades but I can make some progress on that direction now; the quote by an unknown author will help me set the stage:

“How many times a day do you bargain with yourself to avoid maximum effort? How often have you compromised somewhere between maximum potential and minimum daily requirements? "That is just human nature," you may say, but beware of a lurking danger!

For it does not take long for the minimum to become the maximum that you are willing to do. When the minimum becomes the maximum, the sum of your life becomes mediocrity. That is the way countless generations have lost a portion of that characteristic called

"Excellence." All too often, we are willing to settle for a "comfort zone of mediocrity," caused by a diet of minimum commitment, minimum effort, minimum risk, and minimum accomplishment in life”

President Hinckley speaking on this topic said in the 1992 Ensign (Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Quest for Excellence,” Ensign, Sep 1999, 2) “I want to invite us all to walk a higher road of excellence” after this invitation he continued saying:

“I speak of the need for a little more effort, a little more self-discipline, a little more consecrated effort in the direction of excellence in our lives. This is the great day of decision for each of us. For many it is the time of beginning something that will go on for as long as you live. I plead with you: don’t be a scrub! Rise to the high ground of spiritual, mental, and physical excellence. You can do it. You may not be a genius. You may be lacking in some skills. But so many of us can do better than we are now doing. We are members of this great Church whose influence is now felt over the world. We are people with a present and with a future. Don’t muff your opportunities. Be excellent.”

As president Hinckley said, IT IS MY DECISION. A scripture that always comes to mind is Alma 37:16, Alma speaking to his son Helaman taught:

“But if ye keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord doth command you…behold, no power of earth or hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words.”

It has to be my choice.

There is a history about Socrates of a time when a young man came to him asking for knowledge; Socrates took him by the sea and dunked him under water for some time and took him out again and asked “what do you want?” to which the young man reply “knowledge!”. Socrates repeated the dunking until the young man answered “air”. And so it is with me, I will never be able to do anything until I make the resolution or I want it as bad as I want air. My conversion is my decision and I have to choose it. I am thankful to my father in heaven for the gift of agency that allows me to act and not to be acted upon.

I know that being excellent may seemed like overwhelming or even impossible specially if we want to do so over night; but with effort and time it can be achieved. I know I am not perfect and I am far from it but the Savior himself gave us the invitation when he said:

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in which is in heaven” (Matt 5:48)

So it is possible!

Here is where the old question about how to eat an elephant comes to play, and no not with ranch or barbeque sauce. We eat it a bite at the time. I have been looking more closely at the things I do in my daily life and many things have caught my attention and even surprised me! One example of this happened to me couple of weeks ago when I caught myself watching part of a show where the language used was less than desirable and it didn’t seemed to registered until I have watched few minutes of it. It seemed to be that I am getting desensitized to many things. So one once asked: “if the warm water in a tub is raised by 1 degree every 5 minutes, how would a person in it know when to scream?

More than ever before, I need to be on guard. The scriptures tells us that in the last days the mentality will be more along the lines of fearing God; yes he will justify in committing a little sin…and if we are found guilty God will beat us with few stripes and at last we will be saved in the kingdom of God. Elder Ballard in the Liahona of 2002 said regarding “The day of the “repent and go” missionary is over. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, my young brothers?” yes, at this time he was raising the bar for missionaries but if the bar was raised for them it has also been raised for me.

Elder Ballard continued in his talk and addressed to me…and to all of us, including those who have not yet served missions:

Finally, to those of you who have already served, please remember that you were released from your missions but not from the Church. You spent two years as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. We expect you to always look and act like one of His disciples. Look the part. Act the part. Don’t follow worldly trends and fashions. You are better than that. If you have slipped, then do what is necessary to regain your spiritual balance. The rules for happiness and success after your mission are pretty much the same as they were during your mission: pray hard, work hard, and be obedient. Get busy now and find your eternal companion to enjoy life with. Serve the Lord together, and raise up the next great generation.

Now that I know what I need to do, the question is how do I do it?

Well, things I do, decisions I make, things I choose to think, shows I choose to watch may seem like small things but those are the waves on which we drift away from my desired course. At work, I have the opportunity to see every day the big impact small things we do have. As part of my job I am contacted by people higher up in the firm because a system they depend on is not working properly. In several instances the whole problem that cost the firm thousands of dollars was a checked box left unchecked.

But…we all know that! Don’t we?! We all have learned this since primary days and recently we all have heard talks and examples of how small things made a huge difference at the end and in some instances had disastrous consequences. We have hear president Uchtdorf and how few degrees caused a plane to crash or how being off a degree or two will end up being 600 miles off our destination.

What I need to work on is the desire to do those things I know I should be doing. Moroni invites us to pray to the father so we may be filled of his love (Moroni 7:48) once filled of his love, as Alma teaches us, even if we cannot more that desire to believe; if we let this desire to WORK even to the point that we will believe and as King Benjamin taught to his people we will have the change of heart and we will be able to overcome.

There is a scripture I like a lot and is often referred to when talking about tithing but I personally feel that I can apply it for anything “and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” In my mind is like the Lord is telling me “I dare you to try me” and this is the hard part: to take the step in the dark to see the light turn on.

I do know God lives. I know life is hard at times and we may get discourage even though we may be doing our best. I also know that in those times when all things are going wrong the Savior has been there for me to rescue me like he did to Peter who after walking on water focused more on the storm than on the Savior. I know Christ lives. I end with the words of the hymn:

Today seek the treasure better than gold,
The peace and the joy that are found in the fold.
Today seek the gems that shine in the heart;
While here we labor, choose the better part.

Today, today, work with a will;
Today, today, your duties fulfill.
Today, today, work while you may;
Prepare for tomorrow by working today.