Poison

I don't know how many other individuals in this life are "people persons", but I know that I enjoy talking and interacting with just about anyone. It's fun, right? Well, to me it is at least. The thing about this life tho, is "there must needs be an opposition in all things." Meaning, that for every good interaction or relationship that you have, you can find a really dumpy one too. So then what do we do when people in our life hurt us or wrong us?

I saw a quote once that I liked: "Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die"

Whenever I hear this quote I think of a scene from one of my favorite movies called "The Princess Bride." Hopefully many of you are familiar with it, but in one scene, 2 men are dueling in a battle of the minds. There are two cups, and they both are aware that one is poisoned. They are trying to deceive and convince the other that they are safe to drink out of their own cup. At the end, the the villain drinks out of his cup, thinking he knows he is safe, and ends up dead. (Inconceivable!)

The same idea can be applied to our lives. We are the only ones who are in charge of our own destiny. We choose what we do and how we react to certain situations. We may be the ones who think we are safe, because the world tells us it is ok to hold onto our grudge or our anger. But in the end, we are the ones who end up being hurt, not them.

Our Heavenly Father has asked us to forgive each other. We are to love one another, without conditions or expectations. As we do this, we become Christlike. Our Father wants us to be like His Son, and I know that forgiving others and letting go of our anger is how we can grow closer to both.

Are you ready for...?

So, I had many thoughts/stories that I had been thinking to share with this first post. Most of them stunk, and most of them were a reeeeeeal stretch to be anything worth while. But I think I finally settled on a median that will be at least half decent.

One afternoon, my companion and I were sitting on the side of the street in our car making a couple phone calls before going to an appointment.

We were minding our business when a man in a green Chevy pick-up drove past a couple hundred feet in front of us to his cul-de-sac. Right away, he gave us a look telling us he was NOT happy.

He got out of his truck as we pretended not to be looking to see what he was doing. He pointed at us to his friend on his way in the house as he still seemed less than ecstatic to see us missionaries (go figure)

He made his way out of the house 3-4 mins later with a face as red as a tomato as he made a B-line straight for our car.



He came right up to the passenger side where I was sitting and banged on the window. Trying to casually pretend that we didn't notice him before, my companion lowered the window about half way as we asked him what we could do for him.

The next 2 minutes, we sat in the car as he proceeded to yell at us through our half cracked window. He must have known french really well, because he had a few choice words in there. At points, we were certain that he was about ready to rear back and give me a face-full of fist

He eventually finished his opinion about how he didn't want to see us around his house anymore and made his way home. We decided this was a good time to leave.

As we were leaving, my companion and I discussed how weeks earlier, we had made a plan on what to do if someone were to try to attack either one of us, and thought we had a pretty solid game plan. We then talked about how that plan would not have worked one bit in that situation. We were caught totally unprepared.

It made me think of how many times that happens in our lives. We think we have a plan and know what to do when certain "foes" approach, but then challenges come in ways that are un-foreseen and not planned for.

It makes me glad that I have two tools at my disposal: Prayer and scriptures. With these two helpful tools, I am able to better alter my "route" or "game plan" when life throws you something you aren't prepared for. Put them together and they can be a literal road map for your life. God wants to help us along the way, we just have to be willing to ask for the help.

"Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you, amen"
[Doctrine and Covenants 4:7]