Of Common Sense

In the early morning of our lives, our school is our home, the students in the classroom are our siblings, and our teachers are our parents. In the afternoon of our lives, our school is a building outside the home, the students in the classroom become our friends and confidants, and our teachers are those who have themselves studied and prepared to impart knowledge to us that we will use as we continue on our journey through life. In the evening of our lives, we continue learning in the school of life with the world being our classroom, and life itself being our teacher. Each new day of life is an opportunity for us to learn some new and interesting things. The wise man gleans as much as he can from his life experiences and with his new found knowledge and wisdom is able to chart and navigate his course in life. With all of his learning, he also learns that some obstacles in life can be overcome by using a little common sense.

It is far better to surround ourselves with a few trustworthy friends that are willing to ride out the storms of life with us and help us steer our ship through sometimes turbulent waves, than to be surrounded by a myriad of friends, many of whom when at the first sign of tumultuous waves crashing over the bow of the ship will want to abandon ship, leaving us all alone to fend the storm and to steer the ship to safety.

Let us not be so hasty to be so critical and to race to pronounce judgement upon another person because of the wrongs that they have committed. We do not have to condone the behavior, but we are taught that we are to love the person, regardless of his transgression. We hate the sin, but we love the sinner. Let us remember this important council: But for the grace of God, so go I. None of us are perfect. Therefore, where do we think that we have the God-given right to sit as judge and jury upon another? Let us spend some time cross-examining ourselves, and then we may just find that we don’t have as much time to put others on the witness stand.

The beauty of absolute truth is that it forever stands on its own merits as being truth regardless if one person believes it, a thousand people believe it or no one believes it. Absolute truth does not need our sustaining vote to be declared as truth, and we cannot void its validity by simply disbelieving it.

If standing up for what is right means having to stand alone than I will choose to stand alone. I would prefer to be found with my feet planted on the firm ground of truth, than to find myself sinking in the quicksand of compromise and uncertainty. He who attempts to win the favor of man in all that he does has already lost his race, but he who stands firm on the rock of truth shall be declared the victor in the end.

Isn’t it simply amazing that often the ones who claim that they have nothing to say concerning a matter are usually the ones that seem to have the most to say even if what they say has absolutely nothing to do with what has already been said?

When we take another for granted, we are in essence saying to that person that they don’t matter – they are of little or no significance – they mean absolutely nothing to us. The message that we convey to that person is that he or she is merely someone that we use as our proverbial door mat to wipe our feet on or step stool to get to the heights that we desire to reach. Those whom we take for granted are reduced to becoming things that we use, and not people that we should love. More times than not, as long as the person that we take for granted continuously fulfills our wants and our desires, they are found within our good graces. However, the moment that he or she decides that they are no longer going to allow others to use them, the tables turn 360 degrees, and often fault is found with, and blame is placed upon that person, when in reality the fault and the blame was ours all along.

Why do we overly concern ourselves with the “dust” in the corners of the houses of others when our own houses are in dire need of cleaning from top to bottom? Let us clean our own houses first and then we will be better suited to help others clean theirs.

There are times when ears that know how to listen are more appreciated than a voice that knows how to speak. We should not always want to be the one who dominates a conversation, but rather, we should learn to listen carefully and intently at what others have to say, and then, when we do vocalize our thoughts and opinions, we will be able to do so more objectively, and above all, more intelligently.

We can no more determine the contents of a book based on its title alone, than we can determine the character of a person based on the color of their skin. Sometimes the title of a book can lead a person to think that the book is about one subject matter, but upon perusal of its pages, the reader discovers that the content discusses something entirely different. In the same way, we cannot judge a person based solely on comments that may have been made about his race, nationality, or culture – comments or remarks that can sometimes be unfair, unjust, and unwarranted – but rather we must take the time to “read” the person – to get to know the content of his character. Just as the actual contents of a book tell what the book is about, so does the character of a man tell what type of a person he truly is.

There is not one person living upon the earth who has lived a perfect, spotless life. All of us, if we are sincerely honest, first of all with ourselves, will have to admit that there are some things that we have done, said, or may have been involved in that we feel regret, remorse, and perhaps even some sorrow for. Unfortunately, none of us own a time machine. We cannot reach back into time and change the events that took place on a particular day that we wish we could do over. Life doesn't work that way. The time has passed, those events have already occurred, and are now written on the annals of time. The best that any of us can do is to continue to press forward, learn from our life lessons of the past, improve upon the mistakes that we made, and vow never to travel down particular roads again. We cannot, and must not, allow our past to dictate how we live our lives here at this present moment, or to destroy our hopes and aspirations for the future. When we focus our attention on things of the past, we rob ourselves of the joys and blessings that can be ours in the here and now, and we literally shut the door to the future, of those things that are yet to come.

If we say that we truly love someone, we will love them for who they are, here and now, and not base our love or our measure of love for that individual on their past. If we say that we truly love someone, we will be willing to help them move forward from those unpleasant things of their past, by not drawing attention to, or constantly bringing to the forefront, those unpleasant things.
True love does not care to pitch its tents in the lands of the past. True love chooses to focus on the present. These are the precious moments that truly matter. True love says, "I know that you have made mistakes in your life, but so have I, so have we all. We are not perfect beings, we are all striving to become perfect." True loves holds a funeral service and buries the past, bears its grief for a moment of time, and then moves forward with life.

It is far better to live according to your own standards; to be directed by your own moral compass; and to maintain a good name, than to seek popularity from a crowd whose mores are in total opposition of your own, and whose influence will only tarnish your good name and reputation, and eventually drag you deep into the bottomless mire along with them.
It is far better to be considered an outcast for doing what is right than to be found hanging in the balance and being unduly characterized as an outcast because of the injudicious decisions that you have chosen to make.

I am forever amazed at the number of people that I come in contact with that seem to be pressed to be the most popular person amongst a group of people, or to have a myriad of friends. The question that I want to ask them, in all honesty, is, "Why is that so important?"
At almost 59 years of age, if I have learned nothing else, one very valuable life lesson that I have learned is that not everyone who claims to be a friend is indeed a friend. There are a lot of leeches in the world who will do their level best to suck the life blood out of you in order to champion their causes or to fulfil their selfish agenda, and when you have been drained dry, they barely even remember your name.
There are others who only associate with a person because that person may know someone of social status and importance, and so they ride along on that person's coat tail in hopes that they can boost their own pathetic egos by proclaiming that they too are associates of the same people as the person they have latched onto as their "friend."
To journey through this life thinking that everyone that crosses your path will like you, let alone befriend you, is pure and utter foolishness. Not everyone who claims to be a "friend" even knows the meaning of being a friend. I have found that hindsight is indeed 20/20, and as I grow older, my immediate circle of "true" friends begins to grow smaller, not larger, and I am OK with that.
It is far better to be in the secure company of a few "true" friends than caught in the quagmire with a myriad of so-called "friends."

There are times when ears that know how to listen are more appreciated than a voice that knows how to speak. We should not always want to be the one who dominates a conversation, but rather, we should learn to listen carefully and intently at what others have to say, and then, when we do vocalize our thoughts and opinions, we will be able to do so more objectively, and above all, more intelligently.

A fool is a person who thinks that he knows everything, and even when he is emphatically proven wrong, he continues to convince himself that he is right and the rest of the world is wrong. He believes that his follies are his stronghold, but when that stronghold becomes infiltrated, he finds himself vulnerable and soon discovers that his own foolishness is his weakest defense.

As I grow older I am slowly learning that it is not worth fussing and arguing with people. All it does is cause you to get frustrated and upset and 99.9% of the time the person you are fussing and arguing with doesn't care. It is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. You get filthy, but the pig loves it.

The Proper Use of the English Language
The English language is beautiful to listen to when used properly. If we speak intelligently we will find that people will look up to us, and treat us with dignity and respect, and as a person who possesses some intelligence.
If our speech is riddled with slang, “street talk,” and profanity, people will have a tendency to look down upon us, and oftentimes will place us in classes or categories in which we don’t rightfully belong.
Therefore, our speech can gain us favor, or it can betray us and cause us to become an outcast in society.
If we know how to speak the English language then we should strive to do so, and do so properly. Attempting to be “cool” or a part of an “in crowd” by speaking in a tongue that can only be interpreted by our immediate sphere of influence, may prove to be in life, extremely detrimental to our being accepted in many circles.

Instead of incessantly pointing fingers and trying to place the blame on others for our misfortune or maltreatment, perhaps we should take a good long look in the mirror at the person who stares back at us, and come to the realization that the root cause of our problems is not necessarily that the world is against us, but oftentimes the core of our problems can be found within ourselves. Sometimes, whether we wish to admit it or not, we become our own worst nemesis.

In my humble opinion, a "half-truth" is nothing more than a ravenous wolf, better known as a whole lie, disguised in sheep clothing. If the "half-truth" is not crafted carefully, the wolf will soon be exposed for who he truly is, and his unsuspecting victim will be devoured.

We are all special, unique people masterfully created by the Divine Creator. Although we may have some of the same character traits, none of us are exactly alike. Each of us has a purpose for being here at this particular time, and thus we each have our individual missions to fulfill. As the human body consists of many parts that function in their own right, and as a part of the whole body, our individual talents and abilities combined with those of others are what makes up the body of people known as the human race. No one person is better or superior to another, but we are all different, and it is the sum of those differences that make us such an interesting, special, and unique race of people - the human race.

Every day is a new opportunity to be just a little better person than we were the day before. We cannot step into a time machine and teleport ourselves back to yesterday, but we can bring to the present the lessons learned from yesterday to improve upon our lives today and to use as stepping-stones to help lead us to brighter tomorrows. We should remember the past for its valuable life lessons taught, but we cannot afford to dwell there. Yesterday has gone, and tomorrow may never be ours, and so we must seize the day, for these are the moments that truly matter.

We are all ignorant of some things, which in and of itself is not a bad thing, for there are none who are knowledgeable of all things. The problem arises when a man so chooses not to rise above his ignorance but rather chooses to continually wallow in its mud pits. To obtain knowledge is a wonderful, powerful thing, but knowledge is rendered useless and powerless unless a man is willing to take hold of it to enlighten himself, and thus escape the obscurity of ignorance.

Hatred is the tumultuous tormentor of the soul entwined with misgivings, prejudice, misunderstandings, and ignorance. If but a measure of mercy would be meted to the man who lives his life as a prisoner enchained within the walls of its cold dark dungeon. Oh, that the light of love may somehow shine through, to bring a ray of hope to this otherwise forlorn soul.

I believe that knowing what the truth is and denying it for the sake of pleasing the masses, or for fear of being rejected or being considered an outcast, is like denying food to one who is hungry, or a drink of water to one who is thirsty, even though you are able to give a morsel of bread to satisfy their hunger, or a cool drink of water to quench their thirst.

We May Be Only One Voice. . . .
We may only be one voice, but yet that one lone voice can be used to penetrate a deafness of silence and make a tremendous impact on the world. There is a time to remain silent, but there also comes an hour when that silence must be broken.
It is not the time to remain silent when a great revolution is taking place around us, but perhaps it is best to remain silent if our voice is the main cause of a revolution without vindication.
We should raise our voices, not merely to be heard above the masses, or to add to the rumblings already created by the masses, but rather our voice should be raised as a clarion trumpet that sounds attention to salient matters.
We may only be one voice, but if that voice is raised to bring about change in the world, to give hope to the hopeless, and encouragement to the discouraged, then that one lone voice finds itself no longer in solitude, but rather it becomes music to the ears of hungry and thirsty souls in search of sound reasoning.

Friday Morning – 21 July 2017 – Tree Stump Discussion
There are times in all of our lives when we may feel down and distressed, dishearten and discouraged, hopeless and defeated, ostracized and otherwise rejected – when the storm clouds of adversity are their blackest and the storm winds are their fiercest. For anyone who is reading this, and has never experienced any of these things, I say to you, JUST KEEP LIVING.
When times such as these arise in the life of someone we know or associate with, it is not the time to put on our “super hero” costumes and rush in as if we have all the answers and are there to “save the day”. Neither is it the time to try to impress that person who is “going through” a difficult situation as to how holy and how righteous we think we are. I believe that one of the last things that a person who is seriously hurting needs to hear is one more “sermon” from anyone.
Oftentimes we have the best heartfelt intentions of saying things that we believe will bring comfort, relief, and peace to a person, but sometimes our timing is just a little less than impeccable. Sometimes the words that we say, or the feelings that we try to convey in certain situations can prove to be more detrimental than helpful. I humbly believe that sometimes the best thing that we can say in some situations is to say nothing at all. There are indeed times when an ocean of words is less, and silence proves to be more.
There are times when we need to realize that people who are hurting do not necessarily need someone to speak a myriad of words to them – they don’t need to hear our voice – what they do need is someone who has a heart full of compassion, and ears that are capable of listening to their voice - their cries. And in our listening, we need to have understanding and discernment. We dare not try to offer advice or counsel in helping to bring about resolution to a situation when the knowledge that we have of the situation does not even fill a thimble.
When someone we know is having a difficult time, we need to learn to take the focus off of self and focus on the one who needs us – who needs anyone that is willing – to just be a friend. After all, this life is not all about us, but it is all about helping others – helping our brothers and sisters on their journey.

The unmerited suffering brought about as a result of prejudice, racism, bigotry, and hatred, is not only felt by the few, but the foul stench of such infiltrates and permeates the lives of many.
We cannot continue to hate our brothers and sisters for all the injustices that we feel they have committed towards us. For a war has never been ended by continuing to bombard the shores of the enemy. At some point, one side or the other raises the white flag of surrender, a cease-fire order is then decreed, and an armistice agreed upon.
In the same way, I remember that the Savior Himself taught us to love our enemies - bless and pray for those who use us, mistreat us, and hold us in derision. We cannot continue to fight hatred with more hatred, as it equates to pouring gasoline on an already raging inferno. Instead, we need to, and we must, come together and reason together and peacefully resolve our differences.
Call me a dreamer, but I dream of the day when ALL of God's children will be able to sit at the welcome table together, break bread together, and join hands across the table together, and resolve to bury their weapons of war and vow to study war no more. Oh, what a blessed and much welcomed day that will be.

There are times when ears that know how to listen are more appreciated than a voice that knows how to speak. We should not always want to be the one who dominates a conversation, but rather, we should learn to listen carefully and intently to what others have to say, and then, when we do vocalize our thoughts and opinions, we will be able to do so more objectively, and above all, more intelligently.

If people did not spend so much time hating, they would be able to see the true beauty in the world and come to a fuller understanding that there are perhaps more commonalities among us than there are differences between us.
Some are so wrapped up in their own little world of “Me, Myself, and I” that they are unable to see that they are not the lone tree in the forest, but rather they are surrounded by many other trees of different types, shapes, sizes, and colors. Each is different and unique in its own way, but each makes the forest a whole.
A man who is drowning may be fortunate enough to save himself, but often times he needs a life preserver that only someone else can offer him. There are some things that we may be able to do on our own, but there is so much more that can be done if we would only learn to work together.
None of us are better than another. We are uniquely different, and that is what makes each of us special in our own way. So, let’s stop all the hating, and start accepting one another for who we are.

We must learn to stand up for what we believe, and after all we can do, we must continue to stand. For it is a certainty that if we do not stand for something, we will fall for anything. Gone are the days when we can sit silently in our comfortable chairs of complacency and mediocrity. We can no longer straddle the fence, or hitch a ride on every bandwagon that seems to be headed in the right direction at the moment, but in reality is quick to veer off its course because it uses as its compass the voices of popularity instead of the voices of sound reasoning. The hour has come when we must not only stand up for what we believe, but we must also be resolute in knowing why we believe as we do and be determined to never compromise our stand even in the face of rejection or persecution. We must learn to stand, even if it means standing alone.

There is a vast ocean of difference between calling upon the services of the talents and abilities of a person to help resolve an issue or to be a helping hand in accomplishing tasks at hand, and using and taking advantage of that person's talents and abilities and good nature.
Although it may seem convenient for us to always have someone else shoulder the burden and responsibilities, our convenience can often time prove to be a great inconvenience for the one who bears the brunt of the load. Just because an individual may do certain things for us without ever saying anything, it does not equate that their resolute silence means that the way we may, perhaps inadvertently, take advantage of them, is the acceptable norm.
We need to put the proverbial shoes of others on our own feet and walk a few miles, and then rationally make the decision as to whether the way we treat others is fair and just, or is it merely to satisfy our own selfishness.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling on another for advice, counsel, or guidance in matters where we are indecisive and need such. However, we should be careful of placing the heavy burden of our problems upon the shoulders of another. There does come a time when we need to stand on our own two feet, bolster up the courage and self-confidence, make a decision, and stand by the decision that we make. A loving parent can help a baby when he is starting to make his first steps, but sooner or later, they have to let go and allow the baby to fall and pick himself up and continue on. In the same way, we cannot expect to go through life expecting someone to hold our hand every step of the way. We will fall, but we also have to make the conscious choice and effort to get back up, and press on.

We all have giants in our life called "fear" which we must learn to face. Anyone who boasts of never being afraid of anything, in my humble opinion, is either a liar, a fool, or both. There are none who are so invincible that there is nothing that they fear or that shakes their foundation. The overarching objective in life should be to not let our fears conquer us, but rather we must learn to conquer our fears. Remember that a young, small shepherd boy only needed a sling and a few small stones to conquer the great giant Goliath.

We need to use extreme caution in deciding what information we share with other people. There are those who are genuinely concerned about our well being and will listen to what we have to say and hold it in strict confidence. There are others, however, who are nothing more than town gossips. These are they who love to hear us talk about our "business" so that they can publish the "news" on the front page of their proverbial rag newspapers or magazines. We need to remind ourselves that sometimes saying less to people is more.

I am a firm believer that we do not learn or grow by wanting to remain hidden in the shadows while everyone else always takes the lead. We need to crawl out of our shells and get out of our comfort zones and let the world know, without being obnoxious or overbearing, that we do exist and that we do have a voice. We may falter and make mistakes along the way, but we learn from those mistakes and keep pressing forward.
Many a talent is never revealed to the world, and many a blessing is missed out by the person possessing the talent perhaps because of a fear of failure and rejection. Let us think of failures as the bellows that stoke the fire within us, and rejections as the coals that are needed to help keep that fire within us burning.
We need to be a light to the world, but we cannot do that if we continue to hide our light under a bushel where no one can see it.

Tell a man to build a bridge, and the end result may not be to your satisfaction because he will attempt to accomplish the task based on his concept of what he thinks a bridge should look like when it is complete. Teach a man the concepts of building a bridge, and the finished product may more closely resemble the type of bridge that you had in mind as he will attempt to apply those concepts which he has been taught in order to get the job done. Show a man exactly how you want the bridge to be built and you will be more pleased with the finished product, and the man will be better able to hone his skills and have a better understanding of what is being asked of him.

The old adage is indeed true; people will not care how much you know until they know how much you care. We can all be found guilty at times of being so wrapped around the grandiose moments in our lives that we often miss the beauty of, and the lessons that can be learned from, the moments that we count as insignificant.
People may never remember what we did or said in this life, but what they will remember is how we treated them and how we made them feel. It is often the random acts of kindness, no matter how meager they may seem, that are the most beneficial to everyone.
The man with the highest IQ is not necessarily the wisest man; rather he that has a heart full of love and compassion for others and demonstrates that he sincerely cares by reaching out to them in their moments of need.
He who spends his life standing in the spotlight seeking vain glory and recognition may well be remembered by a few, but it is often he who stood in the quiet shadows realizing that because he has been given much he too must give that will be remembered the most, not necessarily by name, but because of his unselfish acts of kindness and because he cared.

A man wishes to visit his family. The family lives some distance away from the man so he plans his trip, purchases his airplane ticket, and arrives at the airport the day of the flight, in time to catch the flight. However, if the man does nothing more than that, he will never reach his final destination to spend time with his family. He has to physically get up when his flight number is called and board the airplane that will take him to where he needs to go.
And so it is with life, as long as we remain comfortable and complacent with the mediocrity of life and wish to remain in our comfort zones and not move from where we are, we will never get any further in life. We will indeed have reached our final destination. In order to get “there” from “here” requires some action and mobility on our parts.
The same applies to the blessings that we receive in life. We cannot just sit by and expect to have blessings fall from the sky. Many blessings that we receive in this life are predicated on our willingness to do something and then we are blessed in return for our actions. In order to take full advantage of the life that we have been given, we need to spend more time doing something and less time just sitting around doing nothing.