Vision

Last week I touched on "vision" with my notes on attitude, so I'm not sure how much more I will say on the topic.  Maybe this, while I don't feel it is my place to impose my vision over what God has in mind for my life, I do feel the need to seek God's direction to discover my role in mortality and then use this knowledge as the vision to shape my goals. 

The power of this kind of vision was illustrated for me today.  Jared was sharing what he had learned while he was at church today, and mentioned wanting to look up the reasons why the "sons of Mosiah" went on a mission to the Lamanites.  Here is what he found:

"That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might be friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them." (Alma 28:2)

 That vision sounds a lot like "peace on Earth, goodwill toward men."  No wonder they were willing to submit to so much affliction-- there was a lot at stake!

Without a clear vision of what we are doing and possibly why it is important, enduring through difficulties doesn't make much sense. 

I think what I am describing here is also what I would refer to as "Faith". In the Sixth Lecture on Faith, I read this:

"...we next proceed to treat of the knowledge which persons must have, that the course of life which they pursue is according to the will of God, in order that they may be enabled to exercise faith in him unto life and salvation.

...An actual knowledge to any person that the course of life which he pursues is according to the will of God, is essentially necessary to enable him to have that confidence in God, without which no person can obtain eternal life.  It was this that enabled the ancient saints to endure all their afflictions and persecutions, and to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing, (not believing merely,) that they had a more enduring substance

...Such was and always will be the situation of the saints of God, that unless they have an actual knowledge that the course that they are pursuing is according to the will of God, they will grow weary in their minds and faint..."

Now, back to my 90-day Challenge update (for anyone who is following along), this week I missed a couple days of sending progress.  Part of my daily checklist is to read related books, listen to CDs, and watch a video clip.  By the time Friday and Saturday came, I just got involved with other family projects.  My reading and watching were not directly related to the challenge, and I didn't prioritize setting up the laptop where I could listen while I worked on other things.  I guess it is kind of like the vision thing I started talking about.  If I am not sure that the activities scheduled are really going to get me to my goal, it is much easier to miss them occasionally.  Right now I feel like the assigned materials are geared toward sales, and that isn't where my passion lies.  Still, I plan to continue, looking toward the end goal of teaching a class by the end of March.