Reading in the news today I see a story about Alcoa trying to make a $27 billion Hostile bid to take over a Canadian company called Alcan after talks between the two companies failed to produce a merger for the companies. It got me thinking about a few things.Recently one of the groups I game with went through a hostile merger. I call it thus because the member of the shell who wanted to merge his shell pushed and pushed for the answer to be yes. Now the leader of the group that was merged into his member’s shell isn’t happy with how things are turning out.When do you draw the line between a Take over and a merge of groups or more so, when do you draw the line from consent to go along with a plan to being pushed against your own will into something you don’t want to do.
Everyone is granted agency. This is not something that we have to earn in life; it is a gift from God. Why is it that people so readily give up this agency to allow others to tell them how to act, and what to do? Why is it that we will allow others to determine what is best for us? When we allow others to determine our course in life we become nothing more than lemmings that will follow the one ahead of us even if it is over a cliff and to our deaths.
The scriptures tell us that we must be “in the world but not of it.” What does this mean to us as individuals and children of our father in heaven?To me it means that even though I buy stylish clothing I can still look classy. I don’t need to “show what I have” or be vulgar to fit in. If I compromise myself to fit someone else’s idea of what is normal then I give them control of my choices. I want to say at the end of the day that I am free to choose my own way in this world. Whether or not my choices are the right ones is not the point, it’s that I made the choice of my own free will and I accept the consequences of these choices.
I am thankful for a mother who has always let me make my own choices and after they were made taught me to learn from the choice. There is no “wrong” answer in life; there is only which was better and which was not. If you keep making the not as good choice in a situation look at it as a test you need to pass. Why do you keep making the choice you make? What lesson can you learn from the choice you made? What can you do the next time you encounter this situation to make the outcome better?
This life is a test for us to pass to gain an eternal life where we will progress. During Christmas I heard for the first time the parable of the bicycle. For those of you who haven’t heard this cute story I will paraphrase it.
A little girl asks her dad for a bike for Christmas. Her father who doesn’t really have the money for a bike tells her if she saves all her pennies eventually she will be able to afford a bike. A few weeks later he sees his daughter doing chores for her mother for pennies. When he asks her what she is doing she tells him that she is saving her pennies for her bike. Touched that she took the lesson to heart he asks his small daughter how much she has saved. She says she has something like 67 cents. He realizes that she will work but at the rate she is going it would take years for her to earn her bike. He takes her to the store and tells her she can pick any bike she wants. The bike costs $100.00. She pays her 67 cents and he covers the rest.
From this he realizes that the atonement of Christ is a lot like his daughters bike. You can try all your life to become perfect but somehow you will never reach it. When you die, Christ will say “What do you have?” once you have given all you can he will cover the difference for you. Without his help we can never make it all the way to our goal; however we do need to give all we have.
The atonement will not carry us and pick up where we won’t even try. Eventually we have to stand on our own two feet. This reminds me of a poem I once read. Butt prints in the Sand
One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore. But then some stranger prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord,” What have we here?”
Those prints are large and round and neat.
“But Lord, they are too big for feet.”“My child,” He said in somber tones,
“For miles I carried you alone.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait.”
“You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up.
And there I dropped you on your butt.”
“Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”
Author unknown
Will your footprints be along with our lords or will your butt print show where he got tired of carrying you?
