Day 340: Oh, the Pylons of Life

Aha:
I had a lot swimming around in my noggin today and really wanted to just clear it out so I put Peter in his little harness and set out for a walk.  About halfway through I turned on the Mormon Channel and listened to a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland, titled "The Laborers in the Vineyard".
I don't know why this happens, because it happens almost every time I need it, but this talk was exactly what I needed to hear.  Here are a few of my favorite excerpts...

Brothers and sisters, there are going to be times in our lives when someone else gets an unexpected blessing or receives some special recognition. May I plead with us not to be hurt—and certainly not to feel envious—when good fortune comes to another person? We are not diminished when someone else is added upon. We are not in a race against each other to see who is the wealthiest or the most talented or the most beautiful or even the most blessed. The race we are really in is the race against sin, and surely envy is one of the most universal of those.

Furthermore, envy is a mistake that just keeps on giving. Obviously we suffer a little when some misfortune befalls us, but envy requires us to suffer all good fortune that befalls everyone we know!...

The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours—real or imagined—fall away in the abundance of the final reward. Don’t dwell on old issues or grievances—not toward yourself nor your neighbor nor even, I might add, toward this true and living Church. The majesty of your life, of your neighbor’s life, and of the gospel of Jesus Christ will be made manifest at the last day, even if such majesty is not always recognized by everyone in the early going. So don’t hyperventilate about something that happened at 9:00 in the morning when the grace of God is trying to reward you at 6:00 in the evening—whatever your labor arrangements have been through the day....

So if you have made covenants, keep them. If you haven’t made them, make them. If you have made them and broken them, repent and repair them. It is never too late so long as the Master of the vineyard says there is time.


Ha ha:
Here's a conversation Clinton and I just had...
He:  This morning I went to pull out of the driveway and there were pile-ons all over the place.  They were taking up the whole road.
Me:  Pile-on?  What's a pile-on?
He:  You know, those orange conical things they put around construction sites.
Me:  You mean, cones?
He:  Yah, they're called pile-ons.  Look it up P-Y-L-O-N-S.  It's a real word.
Turns out the word does exist, but who they heck calls them pylons?  Isn't 'cone' much easier?  Ha ha!