Trying to live like Christ

Memory: I walked into my sisters room and sat on her bed. In her hand was a magazine and she was excited to read about the life experience of Spencer W. Kimball. I listened intently as my sister read about how this church leader had a total of  33 black binders  on his personal study shelves which consisted of his journal. To me this was an impressive autobiography. In that moment I felt a little guilty for all the times my parents had encouraged me to write in my own journal and I had either not done so or followed their counsel begrudgingly. What stuck with me all these years is that I had a strong desire to follow Kimball's example. Along with the impressive picture in my mind of all the black binders all in a row, I wanted to someday be able to tell people that I had written in my journal as many consecutive days back to back as Kimball had.  I do not remember the exact number of days the article specified, but I do remember that my sister and I felt the spirit of...

Here is the first installment of my monthly talks in blog form. As a little forewarning, the talk itself is a bit lengthy and has only been proofread a couple of times.  I only recently made the goal to start putting my talks online in my new blog. Meaning, I had to post what I'd already written 'as is' so I could meet my deadline of posting it on the first of this month. The good news is that I've pointed out the highlights over the following few paragraphs so you can refer to some of the most important aspects of the talk again without the need of scanning through the entire talk. Highlights: Choosing to be more compassionate and willing to sacrifice in our own lives will enable us to find more hope and faith; thereby obtaining a more joyful outlook on this life. Compassion starts with the desire to alleviate others’ suffering.  Perhaps our greatest downfall in being compassionate is asking why there is so much suffering in the world around us...