A Thought Provoker

I think many of my posts on my blog end up being like talks more than scrapbook pages of the Shurtz family, but I tend to get rather passionate when I write (hence, why  I love journaling so much).  I want to share something that has been on my mind a lot in the past few months so here we go with a thought provoker post... (and sorry for the funky formatting issues.  Blogger has got some kinks to work out.) 

Yesterday, I spoke at an Additional Relief Society Meeting (Church activity for women for my non-Mormon readers) about getting organized with your personal goals for the year.  I quoted Elder Uchtdorf's encouraging words to never forget:

             To be patient with yourself 

      The difference between a good and foolish sacrifice

            To be happy now

Sometimes as we think about goals and resolutions that we want to make, we can overwhelm ourselves.  There is so much good to be done.  There is so much we are capable of doing, if we only had time.  There are things that need improvement in our lives.  And there are things on our list from last year that we still have not gotten to. 

Remember!!!  To be patient with yourself and to be happy for all that you have accomplished.  We as women do not often give ourselves enough credit.  Elder Uchtdorf- “Dear sisters, many of you are endlessly compassionate and patient with the weaknesses of others. Please remember also to be compassionate and patient with yourself.”

Elder Uchtdorf warns us to not forget the difference between a good and a foolish sacrifice and I think this can be a good reminder when making goals because goals require a sacrifice of our time to accomplish.  Elder Uchtdorf says,   

“Every person and situation is different, and a good sacrifice in one instance might be a foolish sacrifice in another.  How can we tell the difference for our own situation? We can ask ourselves, “Am I committing my time and energies to the things that matter most?” There are so many good things to do, but we can’t do all of them. Our Heavenly Father is most pleased when we sacrifice something good for something far greater with an eternal perspective. Sometimes, that may even mean nurturing small but beautiful forget-me-not flowers instead of a large garden of exotic blooms.”

My brother is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Siem Riep, Cambodia and he has made a habit of giving our family challenges as he learns many things about people and the gospel.  His advice a few weeks ago was to “Think as Big as You Can!” …. He said that as a missionary, he thinks a lot about time. He noted how much our lives are spent in anticipation for something to occur… school, a party, work, a wedding, a birthday, a mission. In this anticipation we study, lose sleep at night, work with other people, make and spend money, experience stress, cry… The days and years leading up to these events can be a very big deal, “but then, as soon as it’s over and with every passing day after, all of it is a glimpse of time… a few photographs, maybe words written in a journal, material items that get old, break, and are thrown away and forgotten.”

So, he asks, “Then, what is it all for? Why do we do the things we do? This is a question that many people ask and not enough people have the answer to.”  His experience on his mission has taught him that many of the people of Cambodia do what they do so they can eat tomorrow.  He goes on,

“They only see today and tomorrow.  Money today, food tomorrow, repeat.  For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, our reason for doing what we do is because we know that This is the time for men to prepare to meet God.  That is about as big of a perspective as you can get. We have the knowledge of our Heavenly Father’s plan for each of us, therefore giving us a much larger perspective of this life we live.  We know that the reason we are here is to prepare ourselves.  When we fill our lives with things, which may only last a day or a year, but help prepare us to have something that lasts an eternity, we can partake of that gift that only God can give- Eternal life with our families.  SO lift up your hearts, be of good cheer, and when the days get rough, think as big as you can and try to remember why we are here.”  

Something we ought to ask ourselves often is, “Do the things I do daily amount to any weight in heaven?”  Because for Heaven’s sakes, what on earth are you doing?  As we think about the things we will sacrifice our time to accomplish this year, let them be things that are of value to God.

This topic that I presented for the women of my church yesterday got me thinking about those things that can be distractions for our time and encourage us turn good sacrifices into poor sacrifices of our time. We are so blessed to live in a country where most people don't have to work today to eat tomorrow like those in Cambodia.  We experience many luxuries by living in the United States.  Unfortunately, people can lose the perspective of what's most important when their attention is drawn to luxuries.  As my brother said, we can spend a lot of our energies on events and gifts, but we need to remember that the common thread that should be weaved through our lives is service and personal growth to become what God sees in us!  

I worry a lot about how focused we are becoming on the technologies that make our lives 

easier.  I feel that there is a product that exists to make your life easier in almost every way, 

almost to the point of ridiculousness!  I saw an advertisement recently for a product called

"Forever Lazy."  It's kind of like a Snuggie, if you know what that is, but now it has a butt flap

on the back so you don't have to get out of your body blanket to use the restroom.  Seriously?

All the while there are people in Cambodia who, I'm sure, have one blanket and its purpose is

to cover their bodies as they lie on a dirt floor and try to keep insects off of their bodies. 

Here we are in America buying frivolous products that make pooping easier so we can be 

"forever lazy"!!!  I guess the Disney movie Wally wasn't too far off for predicting the people of

the future if this is the direction we're headed in. It's hard to imagine that such a stark contrast
in living conditions still exists in the world today, but it is very real and prevalent. 

We Americans could (and many do) get caught up in products that make our lives easier.

Maintaining these "time savers" (cars, computers, phones, appliances, etc.) sometimes take up
so much time that we waste a lot of our lives trying to become more comfortable.

Examples of blessings that can also be burdens: 

-Entertainment Systems.  The luxury: an Entertainment system...and you know why.  

The time burden: looking through 800 channels to find one to watch, watching too much 

television because the entertainment system is so awesome, getting all the audio systems to 

sync, syncing your television with your mobile devices, setting up DVR, and taking the time to

 condense 5 remotes into one because you don't want to deal with 5.  Each feature being 

advertised as making your life "more comfortable," "easier," and "convenient." 

-Apps and Websites that provide useful information or applications.  The luxury:  

having things that keep us be entertained and organized, filling our minds with good ideas.  

The time burden: looking up the ideas and ALL the options available to accomplish whatever 

it is that you're wanting to do.  Sometimes we can run out of time in a week to actually do 

what we're researching about!  These resources for knowledge can detract us from living in the

present!    

We should be careful to not spend too much time in looking to make our lives simpler, 

but rather, spending time LIVING OUR LIVES! Accept that yes, you could have a phone

that could find you a place to eat breakfast just by asking it and your car's GPS could direct 

you there. You could have a sink that turns on just by touching the spout and an oven that 

will bake at three different temperatures for three different dishes at a time. You could have 

a garage door opener that disarms your security system and turns on your entry lights as it 

opens the garage and you could even turn off the lights in your kids bedroom from your phone.

BUT I know we would all be just fine to eat breakfast at home, turn the handle on the sink to

extrapolate water from our conveniently plumbed water source, cook one dish at a time

(because who actually bakes three different dishes at once?), fumble for 5 seconds through

the dark to the light switch in your garage and walk up the stairs to turn off your child's light!! 

Let us keep some perspective here that there are still people in the world who don't have food

and other basic necessities!!  

According to a TED lecture by Hans Rosling, there are 2 billion people in the world that live 

on less than 2$/ day. The richest billion people spend more than $80/ day on consumption 

and there are 4 billion people that live between the two extremes.  Of the 7 billion people in

the world, only the top 2 billion wealthiest people have washing machines.  Hans showed 

pictures of women in third world countries that bring their water from far away locations and 

they wash their clothes by hand.  

    They spend a large part of their life doing this hard manual labor simply to have clean 
clothes to wear.  So, if you own a washing machine, count yourself as one of the lucky people 
on this earth because you have the privilege of using all of that extra time on more useful and 

enriching activities.

Putting things in this perspective over the past few weeks has really helped me be SO grateful

for what I have.  I feel spoiled.  I feel so blessed by my Heavenly Father.  I feel that I DO live a 

luxurious life and I need to thank God everyday for the blessings He has given to me.  

Commercialism might lead us to believe that we "need" this and we "have to have" that in 

order to be comfortable, cool, with it, or whatever... but I say, Find joy in what your life IS 

and enjoy what you do have by living each day in the present.  Call me Amish, but I do not 

want to get caught up in the luxuries that seem to be advertised on every corner.  I know it 
can be difficult to keep our minds on what matters most when there are advertisements in
nearly every direction we look, but we have to try.  One reason that I don't watch television is
because it makes me feel so manipulated... manipulated into wanting things and having to 
reschedule my week to come back to another episode to see what happens next.  I know there
is likely some good stuff I am missing out on, but for the majority of what I catch glimpses of,
I am convinced I am "just fine without television."  


   A saying that I have developed for myself recently (as it pertains to products, machines, 
   goods, etc.) is,  “Just because it exists, it doesn’t mean I need it.”  

   Just something to think about.