Obama Has Won it For 2012

Lots of emotions this week...  But today the emotion I’m feeling is hope, and even a positive feeling of anticipation for the strength we will gain, as individuals and families, in the years ahead.

For a long time I’ve felt strongly that we as a nation, myself included, have some hard lessons that need to be learned.  Through our prosperity we’ve managed to instill in ourselves and our children such a sense of entitlement that if we can’t travel regularly, eat out often, wear the best clothing, live in the nicest home, give each child his/her own bedroom, and have our pampering needs—mani/pedi/haircolor—worked unquestionably into the family budget, we believe ourselves to be deprived.  Even the poorest among us have so much in comparison with many throughout the world.  We have so many luxuries we now consider to be necessities, we don’t even think of the possibility of life without them—and we shudder at the very suggestion of it.

Over 160 years ago, Brigham Young said, "The worst fear that I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and his people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell.  This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty and all manner of persecution, and be true.  My greater fear for them is that they cannot stand wealth; and yet they have to be tried with riches, for they will become the richest people on this earth."

We surely have become the richest people on this earth.  And in my opinion, as a whole, we haven’t handled it very well.  Brigham Young’s fears were valid.  We’ve been tried with riches, and to a large extent we’ve failed to exercise the wisdom necessary to handle them.  I worry much more about my children having too much than not having enough.  If we as a family were to have to band together as our forefathers did, to work our hardest for our very survival, there would be a strength and a bond between us that would unite us like nothing else.  But instead our battles have been ones that divide us, sometimes without our realization at all, as we each sit with our phones/ipods and scroll through our instagram and facebook posts, check our email, and watch a little youtube, oblivious to those precious individuals sitting right next to us on the couch, waiting and hoping for our time and attention.  I speak from experience, and with deep regret. 

The time is very likely coming when we will have to cut back, to give up many of the luxuries we’ve come to enjoy.  And a big part of me is looking forward to it.  I know it won’t be easy, but we each have the opportunity to choose our attitude.  We can do this by force, continuing to spend every dime we make—and then some—until we are completely sunk; or we can do it by choice, wisely budgeting, determining needs vs. wants, and beginning now to plan for the future.

If we choose to look to the future with a heart full of gratitude, we will find blessings every day, even as challenges come and we see the continued need to simplify.  But if we approach the future still holding firm to the belief that we’re entitled to any and all good things, it will be a difficult and painful road we travel.  We can choose to humble ourselves, or we can fight it to the end.

I love these words from Alma 32:  "Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed--yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty.
Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble..."  

Change is coming, and I’m ready.  In many ways it really can’t come soon enough.  It will come to each of us in various forms, and to varying degrees, depending on what we as individuals need to learn.  But the Lord is in charge.  I trust Him to do whatever is needed to help me and my family learn, through our challenges, to draw close to Him and to realize what is truly important.  If I need to sacrifice every luxury I’ve ever enjoyed in my life, in order to achieve the level of humility needed to be ready to meet my Savior again, I will.  He is preparing to return to this earth, and I need to be sure I'm taking my preparations seriously as well.  I look forward to that day like no other, and pray that it comes quickly.