Ok, here it goes. First Blog, first Post.
For starters, let me tell you the bane of my existence.
WORK.
As, in effort.
This may be the carnal man inside me, but if it were up to
me I’d stay inside all day watching endless cartoons on Netflix while browsing
through Deviantart look for cool artwork. With pop tarts and root beer. And
Pandora playing music in the background.
Quite simply, I enjoy being lazy. Add Minecraft, Facebook, books
I've meant to read, infinite YouTube videos, and I’d would never have to go
anywhere, provided I had food.
The worst part of all of this is that it’s easy. It’s a
really really easy trap to get into. I
have caught myself many times watching just hilarious
cat videos when I should have been working on Job applications. It has not escaped
me that most of the ‘easy things’ are available right here off my laptop. It
takes just seconds to switch from working on a paper for class to checking my Facebook
page, and then my Tumblr, and would you look at that I got a new email! I soon
discover I just spent an hour looking up random memes instead of finishing that
essay due tomorrow. Time to kick out the caffeine, I’m staying up late tonight!
Such was life before my mission. I served a mission for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints about 2 years ago. I never worked
so hard in my life. I devoted all of my time to spreading the Gospel to the
people of Ohio. And when I was out there away from Facebook, Deviantart, all of
it, I made a very crucial discovery. I LOVED working hard.
I said earlier I enjoy being lazy. Let me rephrase that, I
enjoy being lazy in the moment. After the moment is gone, the enjoyment leaves
too. Sometimes I would feel guilty about all the time I just wasted. Other times
I felt dread, dismaying over the fact that I gotta get up and start working again.
But on my mission, it was different. I got satisfaction out
of a job well done. I felt drive for
working for a good cause, the best cause in fact. I enjoyed working with others
and helping them achieve all they could be. There would be days I’d come back
after a long day completely exhausted, and feel on top of the world. In short,
I found a lasting happiness. And boy was it way better than the short snippets
of enjoyment when I found a funny gif.
At the end of my 2
year mission, my mission president (who supervises his missionaries and teaches
them how to be more effective) gave me some really really important advice. He
read us a scripture from modern scriptures called Doctrine and Covenants . In the 88th section he read:
124 Cease
to be a idle; cease to be b unclean; cease to c find fault one with
another; cease to d sleep longer
than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise
early, that your bodies and your minds may be e invigorated.
He explained that being idle meant being unclean, like what
happens to furniture when they’re not used, they get dusty and moldy.
Now I don’t want you to misinterpret, being lazy isn’t
completely bad. It says a lot in the scriptures that you shouldn’t run faster
than you have strength. Taking a break sometimes is not a bad thing. But since
then I’ve tried to be less idle. I’m not perfect at it, since coming back home
I’ve slid back into some bad habits. But at least now it’s something I work at.
And hey, with God’s help I can do it.
That is part of the reason I’m making this blog. I wanted to
have an outlet that would be productive. I also still want to be able to share
what I believe, if you want to hear it. I just want to make sure I don’t get
moldy.
So here I am. In this blog I’ll be sharing some of my
thoughts on things going on in my life and in the world. I’ll be sharing some
of my art work as well, cause I’m working toward an art major and quite frankly
it’s kinda important to me.
Welp, here we go. Allons-y!
