Assumptions, Expectations, and Progress

Life is full of assumptions and expectations, and rightly so.  If we didn’t make any assumptions, we would have to treat every person we meet like a newborn, which is effectively what happens between people who don’t speak the same language.  How we handle these awkward situations, (which is not limited to this scenario), says a lot about the character of a person.  Someone who is willing to be patient and attempt to communicate at the lowest common level shows respect for the dignity of another, and actually elevates themselves in doing so.  As everyone has different life experiences, we will all have occasion to be in either of the teacher or student roles on a regular basis. 

Conversely, when we assume and expect more of a person than they are capable of right then, that can create a situation of frustration, impatience, and eventually, anger.  That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have expectations of improvement from others, especially those that we are responsible for.

You may be wondering what brought this on.  I was playing Yahtzee with my son the other day, (this was his choice, not mine), and he was having a hard time understanding the rules, (he’s 5).  In playing the game, there are 2 sections, an upper and a lower.  You get a bonus for each section when your score exceeds a certain minimum.  It inspired me to go and make some “Yahtzee chore charts” which had “points” for each chore done.  The top section had their regular chores, (e.g. empty dishwasher, make bed), with a bonus if they completed them all.  The lower section was more challenging, (e.g. vacuum room), that would stretch their abilities.  Both sections had a bonus.  I gave them the options to either cash in their points for candy or for nickels.  Payouts happen on Saturday, (so they can pay tithing on Sunday).  My eight year old daughter picked up on it right away and has started cashing in big time.  We even made charts for my wife and me to work on. 

The beauty of this system has been that we can customize the responsibilities to the level of the person.  “Work an hour on the basement” isn’t going to be a very good goal for a child, but gives me some incentive to finish it, incrementally.

At work, I’ve been trying it with some success, but has been more of a challenge, due to the ever fluctuating environment of IT. 

Covenants=Promises

While I was studying the scriptures this morning, I was thinking about the promises that the Lord made to His people.  They can be categorized in to two general categories, which I'll call rewards and punishments, or positive and negative promises.  Rewards being those things that the Lord gives for righteous behavior, and punishments for sin.  To delve in to it even further, there are active and passive ways for each.  This applies individually and collectively as well, but the collective is merely the sum of it's parts.

Passive:
I believe God's grace is good to us if we try honestly to live good lives and avoid doing wrong.  Conversely, there are things that we offend Him in if we don't make any effort.

Active:
Obviously, any active sin is going to lead us away from God and make it harder to heed to Holy Spirit.  The purpose of my post today is to look at active obedience for which the scriptures spell out specific blessings.  One example would be the Beatitudes in Matthew chapters 5-7.  "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."  (Matt 7:7).  This basic premise of "condition then blessing" is repeated throughout the scriptures.  From an LDS perspective, we have the promise of "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."  (D&C 82:10)

I now want to define and catalog the references where there is a specific promise tied to added obedience to a spiritual principle.  Certainly, some will be more obvious than others.

Goals (Deacon)

The Duty to God program has been established by the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help young men learn about their priesthood duties as Deacon, Teacher or Priest, choose activities to reinforce what they've learned, and encourage them to share with their peers.  To set an example, I've followed the model for myself.
 
My goals that I've set are in the following areas:

SPIRITUAL STRENGTH
Pray and Study the Scriptures:
-Buy scriptures on CD to play in the car.  I am in a vanpool, (of like minded religious people), for 2 hours a day, (1 hour each way), so this was an easy way to get to hear and think about the scriptures more than I do currently.

-Family prayer on the 8's, (meaning 8 a.m. and 8 p.m).  We actually do pretty good about this as I call or Skype in from work on weekday mornings.  Where we tend to fall short is on the weekends when the schedule isn't as rigid, and it sometimes gets missed.  I would like to change that.

Live Worthily:
The three sections of the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet that I have selected, and their goals are:
-Physical Health.  I don't consider myself out of shape, but I do find it challenging to get exercise in with my full schedule.  My goal here is to find something that I enjoy so that it's not so difficult to overcome that "do I have to get up and do this?" mentality.  I think it will end up being hiking in the Spring-Fall months and snow-shoeing in the winter.  Do I hear new gear? :-)
-Education. The reason I chose this is because I'm at a point in my career that something needs to happen to move to the next level.  Whether that means going after a Master's degree or some expanded training, I'm not sure.  The goal is to define that by the end of the year.
-Agency and Accountability.  I want to evaluate my life and keep the "best" things, even if that means eliminating some of the "good".  If I'm too busy to make it to the temple each month, then some thing or things need to go.

Understand Doctrine:
The four doctrinal topics that I have selected are:
-Priesthood and Priesthood keys
-Prayer and Personal Revelation
-Agency
-Covenants and Ordinances

PRIESTHOOD DUTIES
Administer Priesthood Ordinances:
-Do more to focus on the the meaning of the sacrament.  This could be by reading the scriptures during that time.

Serve Others:
-Find a service project that can be done as a family, and that can be repeated regularly.

Invite All to Come Unto Christ
-Write this blog and share it on my Facebook account.  (That was easy).

FOR THE STRENGTH OF YOUTH
Physical Health.
I hate to be overly excessively redundant, (yes, that is sarcasm).  I've already made goals in this area, so I've got nothing new to add here.