Great Possessions... among other things

In Sunday School last Sunday we discussed our "stuff" and how we might have too much that we've allowed to get in the way of focusing on Christ and progressing towards salvation, whether that be hobbies, talents, goals, physical objects, mentalities... etc. We discussed the story found in Matthew 19 where the young man asks the Lord (v.20) "What lack I yet?" in order to gain eternal life, as he has already lives in accordance to keeping all the commandments. Jesus answers him in verse 21: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

The wealthy young man walked "away sorrowful: for he had great possessions" and is never mentioned again, and we never know what he ended up doing. I have always hoped that he was able to follow the Lord's counsel. 


But man, I can really relate to that guy this week. After three massive garbage bags, three hefty boxes to Good Will, and several days of sorting, piles, re-sorting, re-piling, I've FINALLY gone through all my possessions that I haven't bothered to throw out earlier. (excluding art supplies, books, toys, school papers... I'm working on it.) I had WAAAY too much stuff... most of it was pure junk that I didn't want to sort through at the time, so I put it off until now. (Why, for example, did I find it necessary to keep every junk letter from random colleges and universities across the country when I always knew it was BYU or nothing? exactly. Yet there they were.)


 It was awful. I'm not surprised he walked away sorrowful, because man, it stinks trying to get rid of all your stuff. 


But it is SO WORTH IT. I feel as light as a bird now. It is so wonderful to know that those things don't mean anything to me, and they really haven't all these years. It became so funny to me that we hold on to the unnecessary things in our lives for no reason, yet we can't seem to get them out from our grip. All this time, space and energy have been used to store my junk (or hold a grudge, or keep some pride) when I could have been using those storage containers or that space for something more useful, like blankets or food storage (or spiritual development or building relationships). The Savior certainly knows how to teach a multi-layered lesson.

So, what else is new?


I got a letter from the MTC with instructions how to access several videos that the Church has prepared for missionaries to watch before coming to the MTC. They are AWESOME. Essentially, they are a documentary of a district of missionaries from the San Diego area and their struggles/successes in the mission field. You learn so much from their experiences, it is pretty amazing. The Church is doing some incredible things to help prepare and strengthen their missionaries, and I am lucky to be on the front wave of these new tools. And they definitely work! It is inspiring and encouraging.  The coolest part about these videos is that my sister was able to participate in their development, so I've heard about them for a while, but to actually watch them and feel their power has been incredible. 


My sweet mom and I tackled the storefronts again today, with some successes. Mixing and matching turns out to be harder than you think, but here are a few victories:

Return policies are great things!






MTC Countdown: 22 Days


Word of the Day: factoid  \FAK-toyd\ ,  noun; 1. a briefly stated and usually trivial fact.