Eyes on the Prize

Thank you everyone for the birthday shout-outs. It was really nice to hear from so many of you. I have been thinking a lot about the importance of keeping our Eyes on the Prize. I don't remember when, but I love the example that President Utchdorf used in one of his past conference addresses of walking in the desert. He said at noon when walking in the desert the sun is right above your head and you don't have the sun to make sure you are on the right path, but when the sun is setting or rising, you have a clear view of where you are, and where you need to go. Like it is so important for those in the desert to use the sun to calculate their direction, our prize can be many things, a goal, or the most important thing, Eternal Life. We should never lose track of our prize. Think on it as you go through life and make all your decisions around this prize, desire, goal, or whatever you want to call it. As I have been thinking on this and re-evaluating my goals and progress, my dad happened to send me a great example from the Book of Mormon about the prize. "The brother of Jared was commanded to leave Jerusalem, build a ship (multiple ships) and cross the seas to the Americas. Nephi was commanded to do the same. There are many similarities in their journeys, but one difference lies in the journey. The Brother of Jared temporarily lost site of his goal. I don't have time to look up forgotten names but I believe it was in the land of "Deseret" where the group of Jaredites stopped for a number of years, before continuing on to the Americas. The Brother of Jared records how he was chastened by the Lord for, essentially, "losing sight of the end goal" - the promised land. Of course you know the story. he was chastened because he stopped calling on the Lord. He stopped praying. He lost site of the end goal. Nephi, on the other hand, never appeared to lose site of the promised land. Well... this may not be a perfect analogy, but maybe it is useful: The Brother of Jared was ultimately forgiven and was able to see the Savior face to face. I'm suggesting that Nephi was able to be more effective on his "wilderness journey" because, along with dealing with the day to day challenges of his life, he kept his mind and heart on the longer term goal. This also became a blessing to them as they prepared to build the ship and cross the ocean." I love this because it is so true. Maybe we feel we are not progressing, and it could easily be because we are just walking in circles thinking about completing our goals without taking any steps in the right direction. Deck the Halls with Remembrance of our Savior's Love.