Who Wants to Go on a Family Vacation?

Tonight I was reading in James E. Talmage's "Jesus The Christ."  I've heard stories about this book, and so far, it's living up to the hype.  Brother Talmage has such mastery over words and concepts, he paints a beautiful picture of the Christ.

I was reading about the pre-existence.  During this "time" we as spirit children of God decided against Lucifer's plan of compulsion.  We chose to suffer through life and exercise free agency.  Brother Talmage calls free agency our "divine heritage."  This made me think back to earlier today, to a conversation I had with a few of my residents.  I won't go into details about anything, but it really made me wonder what sort of futures these girls will have, how many times their hearts will break before they find relief, what sort of mothers they will become, and when their personal conversions will occur.

God is our spiritual father, the creator of our souls and everything in our universe.  I love to compare Him to an earthly father when I think of Him in relation to me, it makes more sense to my mind, which is still bound behind the inhibiting veil.  If I was given the gift of freedom for a day from my parents, my favorite gift of all when I was in high school, what would I do with it?  I know something I definitely would not do!  Be bored!  Now if I was told that what I did with this one day of freedom would determine if I could join my family on a vacation to the most amazing place on earth, would I act differently?  Of course!  I would probably stay at home a bit more, talk to my parents, and check with them whether or not an activity I had in mind would disqualify me from the family vacation.  I would make sure I was around the right friends, who would not encourage me to get a bit wild.  I would probably try to schmooze a little bit and run some errands.  I might pick up my siblings from school, do some grocery shopping, and help organize the house.  Then, when I was pretty positive I was doing ok, I would hold back a bit and try to keep myself physically safe.  I wouldn't want to be sick or injured on the vacation!  In other words, I would live that day on my absolute best behavior.

This is what our lives are!  A day of absolute freedom, that determines whether we can enjoy a future paradise.  We should be living on our best behaviors.  We should be with those who uplift us, not those who encourage us to dabble a bit in the "fun stuff" in life.  We should stay in the Lord's home, the temple as much as we can, and talk to Him, to know whether the path we are on is a good one.  We should be picking up our "siblings" from school, or rather, serving our fellow man and doing missionary work.  We should run the errands of the Lord, and He will tell us what those are, He will not leave us in the dark.  When was the last time your mom or dad asked you to do something, but didn't tell you what it was you needed to do?  We should organize His kingdom on the earth.  Then, when I say keeping ourselves physically safe, I mean that somewhat literally.  If you haven't read my post about the nature of the soul, it's here.  Our souls depend on our bodies being intact to function at optimal levels.  This includes our emotions.  I know many people who throw themselves around like a Lego in a drier, living life on the edge.  Sure the ride is fun, but it's not worth the cracks and melted plastic that we end up as.   We are NOT supposed to "eat, drink, and be merry" just because we can.  Yes I know that the verse I took that from is more about people believing that God will forgive all their sins with no effort on their part, but I feel it still applies here.  Just because we can repent of our sins, doesn't mean we should be living a life where we have to repent of every other thing we do.  Just because duct tape is amazing doesn't mean we should cut ourselves in half.  After a car is dented in an accident, you can push the metal back into shape, but it is weaker than before, and more liable to bend again.

Life is not the party, life is the road to the party.

Sorry if I kind of get stuck on this topic, there's many a time where I want to grab people by the shoulders and say "Stop living life so carelessly!!  It was given as a gift, and the price was beyond any you can comprehend!  It really isn't actually even yours!"  I get really frustrated by it so I apologize to anyone who feels offended by this.  I just wish people would take a step back and think about what it is that they are really doing.

Anyway, just keep in mind that this life is a time of probation, not of party nations.