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Hi everyone!

I've been giving a lot of thought this last week about trials.

In Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life, he and his son Nephi make a very interesting point with regards to the great and spacious building (for visual referral and for those not acquainted with the story, attached is an image depicting the vision).

In the vision, the great and spacious building a a symbol of the pride of the world, and those that are inside of it mock those who hold to the iron rod that leads along the path to the tree. Nephi's point, roughly paraphrased, is that all those who paid heed to the words of the scorners and scoffers fell away.

Note that it doesn't say all those who heard them.

And note that it doesn't say some of them fell away, or even most of them.

And that got me thinking: If everyone who pays heed to the scorners and scoffers falls away, what do we do to not pay attention to them?

I'll put it simply: if everyone who pays heed to the devil (or whatever you want to call the source of all negativity) falls away from God and all things good, how do we not? I, for one, am more than prone to see negative aspects of things. Having dealt with a depression (and still in the process of dealing with it), I think that kind of speaks for itself.

The negativity is still there. So what do we do?

Choosing to ignore it only works for so long. Putting off problems and stress does not get rid of them. Finding some neutral point doesn't silence the nagging, worrying, frustrations, tensions, and pressures. Sometimes it's from other people, but I often find that the worst of it comes from myself and that anything outside just adds on top of that.

We have to fill our lives with good, and learn to pay heed only to the good - only to God. To all things virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy. Our self-destructive habits and negative self-talk (a bad habit I have, I'll admit) have to go. We have to stop being our own worst enemies.

We have to, in short, press forward "with steadfast faith in Christ", as Nephi in his later years urges us to. So maybe we'll get distracted, and we may have moments of weakness and failure. God doesn't hate us for that. We can always repent and turn to Him, and He will always, always welcome us. God is love. The more we finally get that through our heads the better we understand that all bad things don't come from God. Negative self-talk isn't negative self-talk, because it's negative, and where do all negative things come from?

Bingo.

Go be happy.

Remember to smile!

Mark