A Matter Of Perspective

When my son Alex was ordained to the office of a priest, the bishop allowed my older son Tyler and I to bless the sacrament with him the first time.  It was a moment of indescribable pride to have two sons who were worthy priesthood holders standing on either side of me performing that sacred ordinance.

To my surprise Alex was kicking himself on the way home because he made a mistake his first time through the prayer and had to start again; so he thought he had done a bad job.  The same thing happened when Tyler did it for the first time.  Interestingly, at that same moment that he was frustrated with himself, I was flying high with the pride of a father.  I was excited about the fact that they were both worthy participants in the gospel and great kids; he was focused only on the technicality of an individual moment.

It made me wonder how often, as children of God, we make mistakes in life and we are down here kicking ourselves and feeling hopeless while simultaneously a loving Heavenly Father is looking down with great pride at his child who is fighting the good fight, struggling against a tidal wave of daily challenges.

God loves us more than we love ourselves I think.  He understands the mountains we must climb to overcome this world and ourselves to become celestial beings.  It is Satan who uses discouragement as a vehicle to push us away from him.  I don’t think we understood how hard it would be in this life, but he did.

Some of us mess up more than others, but it is not perfection that makes him proud, it’s a child who won’t give up.

Vince Lombardi, Jr.
When you see someone on top of a mountain, you know he didn’t fall there.