Talking the Talk & Walking the Walk

I have been a little slothful these past few weeks and I have noticed it all the way deep down to my core. I have noticed it in my daily activities and with my schedule and other people around me have noticed my slothfulness as well. For awhile I kept on doing the monotonous routine of sleeping in late, being late to my scheduled responsibilities and staying in what I call my "Fortress of Solitude" or what some people call "The Cave" a.k.a. my room. I hate to admit all of this, but it has been unfortunately true. I have though, during all of this time, kept my spiritual morale up by reading great and inspirational words from Sterling W. Sill, C.S. Lewis and The Book of Mormon. I would not say my time has been completely slothful, but majority of it has been because I have not been completely obedient to my responsibilities. During this time I have noticed myself not only being isolated from others, but also not as happy as when I am around the happiness of others, and to me it is this very one thing which has hurt me the most during this time. In this great and wonderful journey, which we call life, we all make mistakes, but the greatest part of living this wonderful journey is being able to learn from our mistakes, discouragements, sorrows, griefs and hurtful pains. There is a wonderful quote I read while I was in my parents' apartment in New York from a little quote book they had sitting on a glass table in their living room which said: "Success is not defined by our position in life, but by the obstacles we overcome." We all face obstacles in our life, great times of adversity, pain, discouragement and sorrow, but if we never learn from these times in our life becoming better from them, then what good is it? We can always start over clean and it is never too late. Since being in this state of slothfulness I was recently able to talk with my mom. My mom always has a way of wording encouragement to really get to you in the most positive and constructive way possible without hurting you or making you feel bad, which is a trait I greatly admire in her out of her innumerable many. She was concerned, so she called me and gave me some words of encouragement I really needed to hear. She had heard I had sunk into this slothful state from updates via Skype and email. She told me now that I have this last stretch of a month left I should commit harder than ever before to make it really worth my experience so I can leave knowing I made an impact. She said something to me which really stuck out: "Success breeds success." This reminded me of something I previously read in one Sterling W. Sill's books on Leadership. He said, "Success comes out of consistency. We must make up our minds about values and directions and then concentrate all of our efforts to one end." I had not been consistent in my efforts of being obedient to all of my responsibilities. Hearing the words from my mother, which sparked the words of Sterling Sill, made me realize I have every capability to be successful as anyone else, but if I fail in concentrating my efforts consistently, then I fail in succeeding to obtain success. Another thought triggered into my mind about what Sterling Sill wrote about success. He said, "Success is not made up of fractional devotion or minimum performance. Success does not come easily to one who is disabled by every little discouragement, nor does it come to one who has a large degree of personal irresponsibility." All of these things I was at fault for and it was because I had lacked in my personal responsibilities. I had been what my mom said in our conversation as "Talking the Talk", but not "Walking the Walk". The reasons for why I had slipped into this slothful state was because my mind was distracted on unimportant matters. Satan always has a cunning way to distract us from our course and lead us to abandonement if we do not realize it soon enough. I was lucky to have realized it fairly quickly, but I should have realized it far sooner. No matter where we are in life Satan will always tempt us to stray off the path of righteousness. It is up to us to fight with consistent effort so we are not lost from the path. Our eternal salvation depends on it and we cannot lose. William James, a renowned philosopher and psychologist once said: "That which holds our attention determines our action." My attention was upon unimportant matters and as a result I sunk into slothfulness; I was enticed and gave in to Satan's cunning whispers and as a result I sunk into slothfulness. The reasons for why we all sink into any kind of slothfulness is because our mind wonders causing our attention to determine our actions in a hurtful way to ourselves and to God. God wants to bless us more than ever, but he cannot if we are not obedient in our responsibilities to ourselves and most importantly to Him. In the 82nd Section of the Doctrine and Covenants verse 10, the Lord says, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." Any of us can "Talk the Talk, but only a few of us can "Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk". I have learned it is not always going to be easy to follow the path of righteousness God has set up for us, but in the end it will be the path most worth taking because our eternal salvation depends on it. With anything in life causing us to work hard for something greater never comes instantaneously or with a snap of a finger, but slowly and gradually with consistent effort and concentration of our direction and values with maximum performance and devotion not being disabled by every little discouragement or falling into personal irresponsibility. Rome was not built in one day and neither was your personal success, spirituality, mental focus and anything in life worth fighting for. I hope each one of us can realize when we are slipping into slothfulness and be quick to catch it because if we do not we may lose our path to eternal salvation. I love my work here and I love the people! I love and miss you all! I pray for the safety for each one of you! God bless!