Above Yourself

Now that my morning schedule has changed, I’ve decided to set a goal to get up early in the morning so that I can go to the gym. My only problem is that my morning nemesis is the alarm clock. How can I get up early in the morning?

I’ve decided that my best way to do this was to inspire myself and reward myself with a more exciting gym workout. I’ve set up my mp3 player to download some new podcasts from IfYeArePrepared.org (I’ll talk more about this later) for me automatically, and I’m pretty excited because these daily podcasts have LDS conference talks and other inspirational messages that will help me start out the day well. Getting up early will also help me move other things to the morning, including my daily scripture reading. I’m pretty excited.

Steve Pavlina has told me how to get up right when my alarm goes off, and 43things has linked me to a community of people who are also trying to wake up early. In my experience, a sense of community is really helpful in achieving goals, especially ones like exercise and weight loss.

Every once in a while, I have the privilege to read something that echoes exactly what I have been thinking about a topic. Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to watch a two-part documentary by PBS on Mormonism. Many other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had that same privilege, and the church noted these commentaries in a release from the Church’s Newsroom that clarifies many of our basic beliefs. As a Mormon myself, this caused a lot of inward thinking about what exactly I believe.

I believe in God. I believe that he is our Heavenly Father and that he loves us very much. I’ve come to understand this at new depth recently since I’ve become a father myself. Our Heavenly Father truly cares for each of us and for our own well being, but he also understands that each of us need to grow up, just like my little girl needs chances to learn things for herself, even if it means falling down a few times.

I believe in Jesus Christ. I had the opportunity to serve the people of Argentina as a missionary for two years, and during those two years I gained an incredible sense of wonderment and awe for our Savior Jesus Christ. Although I could never express it fully in words, I believe that he loves us very much and that he died so that we can live again. He was resurrected so that we, too, can one day rise again after death. His sacrifice for us was immeasurable.

I believe in the Holy Ghost. Through the Holy Ghost we can receive a personal conviction of the gospel. This means that God loves me so much that he has given me a chance to find out his truths for myself. I can receive a witness for myself that is not based on the beliefs of others, but is rooted in my faith in Jesus Christ.

Although gospel truths certainly touch on many more subjects than these, all doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded on our belief in Jesus Christ:

Based on the scriptures, Joseph Smith declared: “The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.”

Would you like to see more testimonies of members of the Mormon Church? You are also welcome to discuss it with me here, or you can learn more about Mormonism online.

In chatting with her friends, my wife recently discovered Freecycling at Freecycle.org. It’s a great concept, and especially useful for people at our stage in life when we’re about to move into a slightly larger place. Basically, you join a mailing list through the site and the people on that mailing list share the items with others who may need them before getting rid of them. In the few days since we’ve joined, we’ve seen messages every day for different things, and we’ve even received a nice, comfy couch for our new place!

Share and Share Alike

We occasionally accumulate our own “stuff” that we can’t always use, so it’s great to have a resource like this that we can go to share what we have as a community, which helps us all keep down the clutter in our lives. Freecycle.org has a large community, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that our small town not only has a list of its own, but a few hundred people subscribed are subscribed to the list.

We live in a time where we’re blessed to have access to God’s word through the scriptures. These holy books contain God’s word written by his prophets. Many of us have read some part of the scriptures before, but why should we read the scriptures on an ongoing basis? Elder Henry B. Eyring replied to that question in a discussion on scripture study:

The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ, and we learn about Him in its pages. We know that it has great power. It has the power to change lives. It has the power to convert. If you read it with an open heart, you will know that it is the word of God and that it is true.

Through the Book of Mormon the Lord can also teach us about being with and serving people. This book reveals the will of the Lord for family life in a way that the other scriptures don’t even approach. I believe that is largely because of its interesting structure. It’s about families; it’s about people’s relationships. It starts with families, it ends with families, and we come to love these families.

Like any habit, daily scripture reading takes practice. To start, it’s best to decide on a time each day that you can read the scriptures. If you can make a habit of getting up early, beginning your day with scripture reading can have a profound effect on your life. Keep track of your progress and set goals, perhaps using the online tools at Readthescriptures.com. My wife and I are on a scripture-reading “team” that lets us keep track of each others’ reading, as well as to keep track of our family scripture reading.

Let us know of any tips you may have for daily scripture reading in the comments.

Welcome to Above Yourself, a blog that focuses on improving yourself through principles based on faith and religion. We realize that there are many self-improvement blogs out there, but this one focuses on spiritual aspects of your life as well as advice from latter-day prophets. We hope you find yourself coming back to visit and joining in our discussion on faith, finances, and personal improvement!