Happy P-Day! This week went by fast and included fun activities, such as a parade as the church did a blood-drive. Kids do parades all the time here for their schools- they usually mope while their teachers shout what they're representing or who they're celebrating. We also started some zone goals to make everyone pumped for October. This is going to be an amazing month, so we're working particularly hard to reach high goals. Amid all that, I started thinking about how important sincerity is in the work. I think insincerity is one of the deadliest traps. In any routine, it's inevitable that the reasons we do things slowly shift from sincerity to comfort. I thought of some ways to save our sincerity in whatever we're doing.
1. Change. The most difficult thing, in most cases, is change, which means stagnation will bring ease which will bring apathy. We need always be changing because that´s where we are challenged. As we frequently seek to give something more, I think we save our sincerity. I believe this is particularly true on the mission. We ought to frequently adjust and heighten our goals in order that our sentiments are as true as possible.
2. Continual Self-Evaluation. I don´t know how often we really use our time to think. We have a great many activities during the day and it seems whenever we've got downtime we turn to either music or movies to let someone else think for us. When we are thinking, I think it´s common to get hung up on hypothetical situations and run them into the ground in your head. I think the most effective way to use time to think is to evaluate yourself, and where you are, and why you´re doing what you´re doing, and your goals, and why you have those goals, and try and stretch your ability to think and develop ideas. Or, in other words, continual repentance. That's the kind of thought method that gets us somewhere, and gets us to know ourselves. My Dad emphasized that frequently in our Family Home Evenings, and my Mom used to guide us in exercises as kids to help us think clearly.
3. Prayer. Praying always makes me more sincere, because I have to acknowledge that He knows me perfectly, which means I have to spend a lot more mental effort on portraying my real desires for Him. There's no use lying, after all. If I've gotten into a routine, then I don't know how much good that does. Elder Bednar once said we don't have to try really hard to think of new things to say to avoid routine, but rather focus on really meaning what we say and then acting on it.
Anyway, those are some of my thoughts this week. I hope you all continue to have good days and weeks and find relief in being sincere with yourself and others.