Education Week Notes -- Wednesday

THE DISEASE PRONE PERSONALITY--DR. KEITH KARREN AND DR. KAREN SHORES: Every one of us has a personality, in fact a dynamic personality.  Dynamic mans moveable and changeable.  Think of who you were at 15.  Have there been shifts?  There are personality characteristics that make us more prone to disease.  We're not trying to blame ourselves.  There are chronic conditions that happen even after all we can do.  But there are certain personality characteristics that we can modify to be healthful.  Anxiety--is it part of your personality and if so, what can you do about it?  Personality types which are more prone to diseases.  The connection between anger/hostility and heart disease.  The negative effects of worry and anxiety and fear on spirituality and faith.  Depression, a cause and effect of physical, mental, and spiritual health.  The spiritual, physical and emotional effects  of insomnia and sleep deprivation.  The spiritual, physical and emotional effects of loneliness.  The spiritual, physical and emotional effects of grief.  Personality is the sum total of your habits, attitudes, and traits that make you the person you are.  The pattern of behaviors that distinguish you from everyone else.  You unique way of responding to your environment.  The individual's unique constellation of consistent behavior traits.  Two qualities:  Consistency and distinctiveness.  When each baby comes into the world, they have their own unique personality.  The theory that personality affects health is not a new notion.  The notion that a certain personality type leads to heart disease dates back 2,000 years to Hippocrates.  What is new is a recent flood of scientific data that lends credibility.  Ronald Grossarth-Maticek claims to have shown that personality attributes lead to cancer and heart disease.  Personalities characterized by repressed emotions and hopelessness/helplessness are cancer prone personalities.  Personalities exhibiting hostility are cancer prone.  There is an immune-prone personality, a personality that is hardy to the effects of stress.  Sensitive, overly cooperative and passive people tend to be prone to cancer. They stuff emotions down inside themselves.  A bleak childhood characterized by a tense, hostile relationship with one or both parents, feelings of loneliness and isolation, unable to feel safe in relationships. Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune disease wherein the body attacks the collagen in connective tissue.  The ulcer personality is characterized by excessive dependency on others and a tendency to rely on other people in ways that are not healthy.  There is a connect between hostility and heart disease.  Pent up anger, blood boiling. Anger is temporary.  Hostility is not temporary. It is an attitude.  It is anger that is expressed in aggressive behavior motivated by animosity and hatefulness.  Unhealthy expression of anger.  How the body reacts:  The health effects of anger and hostility are numerous, and it effects mortality.  If you're somewhat hostile, write down three good things that happen to you each day, learn to appreciate people and love them.  Take deep breaths.  That's a signal to the body to come back to a relaxed state.  When you start to feel angry, find more rational ways to deal with your situation.  If today was your last day, would you spend it in anger and hostility?  Sleep deprivation can be a big problem.  Retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.  60% of Americans are sleep deprived.  Sleep is an annoyance, it's in the way.  Some people feel that sleep is a near death experience and they just don't have time for it.  Then they crash and burn.  30% of adults average less than 6 ours of sleep per day.  Only 31% of high school students reported getting at least 8 hours of sleep on an average school night.  A new mother can expect to lose more than 500 hours of sleep in the first year after the birth of a baby.    24% of young adults (18-29) doze off while driving, causing more accidents than alcohol.  38% of adults report unintentionally falling asleep during the day.  Dozing while driving causes more than 50% of all accidents, 1,550 deaths and 40,000 injuries.  Insufficient sleep is a public health epidemic.  Daylight Savings Time studies show the rate of auto accidents increased by 23% and remained high through the week until the following Monday.  The rate of heart attacks increased by 10% the first three days after going on DST.  In contrast, when we gain an hour of sleep in the fall, heart attacks went down by 5%.  If you are sleep deprived, your brain cells go to sleep while you are still awake.  Your brain cells are exhausted and need to go to sleep.  The brain cells that you use all day long are the ones that go to sleep.  They're the ones you need the most.  Effects of deprivation:  Increased irritability, decreased hand-eye coordination, weakened short term memory, feelings of fatigue/tiredness, blurred vision, decreased concentration, impaired judgment, increased moodiness, increased accidents.  They're more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity.  Advantages of getting adequate sleep are that is restores your body and mind, may help in weight loss, promotes better concentration, reduces stress, keeps the heart healthy, can reduce pain sensation, increases alertness, decreases chronic diseases.  Loneliness is a feeling of isolation that results when we have suffered the loss of a loved one, feel misunderstood, feel unloved or spend too much time alone.  Sometimes older people are intensely lonely.  All their friends have died and their families live far away.  We are hard wired to connect.  The two groups that are at the highest risk for loneliness are teenagers and people over age 80.  Teenagers have low self esteem and are trying to figure out who they are.  People who are happily married are less lonely than people who are single.  Among those who are single, those who have never been married are less lonely than those who have been divorced or widowed.  To be isolated is the greatest tragedy for a human being and the most generic form of stress.  Loneliness can lead to cardiovascular disease, kidney problems, blood clots, increased risk of cancer, depression, increased cholesterol. Loneliness can make you sick.  When exposed to pathogens, those who are lonely are more likely to get sick.  The more connected you are to life, the healthier you are.  If you have anyone who loves you, cling to them and thank God.  Grief is a natural emotional, even animals feel grief (wolves, geese, etc.).  Grief is a complex set of physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual difficulties and changes that follow a loss. It can be a loss of a loved one through death, but it can also be a loss of a job, a purpose, a relationship, a pet, a dream.  There are stages to the grief process:  denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance, hope.  Knowing the stages doesn't prevent them, it just helps you know you're not insane when you experience them.  Grief doesn't shut down your brain, it speeds it up, which is why you can't concentrate.  Both men and women who lose their mates are among the highest groups for premature death.   

SOFT HEART OR HARD HEART:  UNDERSTANDING TWO WORLDS OF EMOTION (TERRANCE D. OLSON):   If we accept the concept of moral agency, we need to throw away the statement "He made me angry" and also "No one can make me angry.  I make myself angry."  When we talk about a change of heart, we're talking about the moral core of our being.  Moral agency is powerful.  It's a matter of being willing to receive or refusing to receive.  Seeing ourselves as moral agents gives us hope.  How do you teach the moral in the public schools without generating objections as to whose morality you are going to teach?  Asking anyone the question, "Have you ever been in a situation where you felt something was right to do?" they all say yes.  In the question, "Have you ever been in a situation where you felt something was right to do and your simultaneously refused to do it?" they all answer yes to that.  The answers to these questions shows that everyone is able to see the right and they don't always honor their conscience.  What is life like when we honor our conscience compared to when we go against our conscience?  Our emotions are related to our obedience, our intentions, our reasoning, our behavior. The pop culture suggests these four things: 1. Emotions are neither right nor wrong, they just are.  2. Therefore, while we cannot help how we feel, we can learn to control or express the emotions. 3. We are victims of our emotions--they must be kept under control. 4. We get eaten up when we hold our emotions inside they must be expressed.  However the gospel suggests:  1.  Emotions are expressions of our moral way of being in a given moment.  2.  If emotions are of a moral quality, we are evidently accountable for them.  3.  If we are accountable for the quality of our emotions, they must be a matter of agency.  The way we treat other people matters.  The scriptures condemn some emotions.  Can you be angry with your brother and not sin?  If we are to discover a broken heart and a contrite spirit, we would not condemn other people.  Imagine that we can be loving or unloving.  Consider that King Benjamin had taught the people to keep the commandments of God that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.  There's something about obedience that's an anchor to our ability to love other people.  So commandment keeping might be the root of love and hence of all worthy emotions.  Resisting commandments might be the root of hate and resentment and hence of all unworthy emotions.  Do we try to show the other person that we are not at fault and are not to blame?  When our hearts are softened, we don't use other people's hard hearts against us to justify having a hard heart against them. We have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.  Our change of heart isn't necessarily permanent, but it is always available.  There will always be jerks out there, but who you are in response to the jerks is the issue.  If you become a jerk too, what good will it do?  You'll just make your blood pressure go up and you'll be miserable.  Have you received His image in your countenance. Being soft hearted is an ongoing thing.  This gives us hope that change is possible for ourselves.  We have no guarantee that other people will change, even if we do. Our emotions are a matter of moral agency.  How could the Lord command or condemn certain emotions if we were not accountable for them?  Could it be the quality of our emotions is a symptom of the quality of our way of being in that moment?  When we put the light back in our lives, the things that irritate us that we thought were so important, disappear.  Could it be that our emotions are as deep and rich when we are living true as when we are not?  Is it possible that we only experience emotions in an out of control way when we are not being obedient and casting our burdens on the Lord?  What if the moral quality of our thoughts and feelings is whole.  In other words, it is not possible to have an immoral thought and a moral feeling at the same time.  Nor is it possible to have a moral thought and an immoral feeling at the same time.  Our thoughts and feelings are jointly responsive to our moral way of being in the present moment.  Instead of thinking we let our emotions get the better of us, we need to realize that we hardened our hearts and that allowed our emotions to get the better of us.  Being soft hearted is constructive.  Being hardhearted is self-betrayal and destructive.   When we're soft hearted we are empathetic, genuine, compassionate, connecting.  A hard-hearted person is blaming, defensive, victimizing, counterfeit, and despairing.  Every emotion we feel as a heart hearted person is counterfeit to what we'd feel if we were living true. Only when we are soft hearted are we in a condition to judge.  When we're hard hearted we're condemning of other people.  We need to have the other person's best interest at heart.  We can bounce back and forth from the soft hearted to the hard hearted world in an instant.  But however common this might be, it is not necessary.  This is why we can be persons of hope, instead of settling for "cope." 

PLAN OF SALVATION SYMBOLS SEEN THROUGH OLD TESTAMENT MIRACLES TYLER J. GRIFFIN):  Miracles are powerful object lessons for our progression in the plan.  He wrote "CAT" on the chalkboard and asked us all to describe what he'd written on the board.  People were shouting out "Feline, furry, purring, pet."  But he said the correct answer would have been "A letter C, a letter A, and a letter T, all in capitols written in white chalk on a green board."  We all ignored what we actually saw and went straight to the symbol of what it represented.  There aren't s many miracles per page in the Old Testament as the New Testament, but there are plenty of miracles to discuss.  Elisha had 20 miracles.  19 of them were when he was alive and one after he'd died.  We can be weirded out by the strangeness of the story or we can ask ourselves what the symbols might represent.  The bones of Elisha revived and flesh returned to them.  That's the story.  What could this represent?  When you come into contact with the remains of dead prophets, it has a reviving power.  The scriptures are the remains of dead prophets.  Moses showed divine power given to him when he changed water to blood.  Symbolically speaking, John in the New Testament seemed to go back to this, talking about changing water to wine.  This is an object lesson for the greatest of all miracles to ever take place, the atonement of Jesus Christ.  He drank of the bitter cup.  It courses through his veins.  The pressure is so great he sweat blood from every pore.  Every week we partake of a cup, a sweet cup, in memory of His blood, and it now courses through our veins and becomes a part of us.  The bread we take before that represents the body of Christ.  We let Him in and He becomes a part of us. In the miracle of the Passover, Israelite families have to actually do something for this to take place.  It is conditional.  There are miracles in our lives that are likewise conditional.  They were to kill a lamb, a male without blemish.  They were to dip hyssop in the lamb's blood and put it on their door posts.  This would cause death to pass them by so they would not lose their firstborn sons. These miracles are pointing us to the great and last sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Once you get the children of Israel out of Egypt you have a whole series of miracles out in the wilderness.  You have the parting of the Red Sea. The water was bitter, but by throwing down a stick, the water became good to drink. The bitter waters were healed.  You get the manna, the brazen serpent.  There's another kind of miracle.  There is opposition as you try to progress in the plan. If you're not careful you're going to expect God to do the same miracles he's done in the past.  But he does a variety of miracles.  Every problem you take to the Lord will be solved in one of three ways.  The brother of Jared went to the Lord with problems with the barges.  They had no air--the Lord gave him specific instructions on how to deal with it.  No light--the Lord told him he had agency and let him decide.  Steering problem--told him not to worry about it.  He would take care of it and he should let it go.  Everything is answered in one of these three ways, or a combination of them.  Gideon had a problem and turned to the Lord.  He had 135,000 Midianites coming toward him.  Does your life every feel like you're overwhelmed and outnumbered?  You have so many things to do and you're not doing any of them very well.  There were 32,000 Israelites.  Those were not good odds.  But God gave them specific instructions before performing the miracle.  He told him they had too many men.  They whittled them down to 300 men.  Sometimes we look at things with physical eyes and think we don't have sufficient resources to handle the problem.  But the faith part of the miracle is to be able to let go of some of the things we think we've mastered, and rely more on God's power.  If we follow the instructions of the Lord, He will be with us.  What would have happened if Gideon had said, "Get rid of some of the men?  No way!  We need everybody we've got!"  David and Goliath. We're not overwhelmed by numbers, we're overwhelmed by one giant problem.  David stepped forward with faith and said to the whole army of Israelites, "God is on our side. He will help us!"  There are times when we have a multitude of stresses bearing down on us.  They had 600 Israelites against those as numerous as the sands of the sea.  Only four of the 600 who had swords.  The others had sticks and rocks.  The people were trembling and hiding and waiting to die.  You were a real person when the war in heaven was taking place.  Those who are with us are greater than them.  Jonathan trusted in God to fight the Philistines no matter how many of them there were.  We can be faithful amidst incredible opposition.  This was not an easy battle no matter how you look at it.  But by the time they got to the top of the hill, they'd killed 20 men.  Our best efforts in life don't come anywhere close to meeting the need.  But that's the miracle!  The Lord tells us to give Him the very best effort and He'll take care of the rest.  At this moment in the battle, the Lord sent an earthquake and they were confused.  The Philistines started fighting each other.  God takes car of far more than we can take care of, but He won't do it until we do what we can do.  So don't sit down in fear and do nothing.  Go tackle what you can.  There are times when we don't have to do anything but trust in the Lord.  Our hardest part in these situations is to actually let it go and trust in the Lord.  Stop fretting and worrying.  Your part in this type of miracle is to trust in the Lord.  As a widow is on her way to get water, Elijah asked her to get him water.  She does so, passing the first test.  Then he asks her for food.  She explains that she only has enough for a last meal for her and her son before they die.  They're down to their last food.  At that point Elijah comes and asks her for food.  God waited for this moment, not two weeks ago when she still had a two week supply of food.  Her faith was being tested.  Elijah told the woman to make him a little cake first and afterward make something for her and her son.  He promises her that if she does that, her barrel of meal will never run out and her oil will never run out, until the famine is over.  She passed the trial of faith.  She trusted that even giving Elijah the last of what she had, there would be enough for her and her son.  Every time she came back to the barrel, there was always enough for the next meal.  The same God who helped these people, showing them mercy and love and power, lives today.  He lives and He loves us and He will help us. 

HAVING HOPE AMIDST HARDSHIP; LESSONS WE LEARN FROM LIFE'S DISASTERS (KATHY HEADLEE MINER):  The atonement was not only for our sins, but also for our pains and sufferings and sorrows.  It is for the gloomy and frustrated and the worried.  We can offer up our sorrow and sadness up to the Lord.  Sometimes it's difficult to be hopeful.  Sometimes we feel overwhelms with troubles.  He takes our infirmities upon Him and succors us.  As we go through the journey through life, we need to draw upon God's power.  The atonement has power to change and heal and refine us.  It's a power beyond what we can comprehend.  Sometimes we wonder what else we can do to help someone.  We can share with them a knowledge of the atonement and that is enough.  She is the founder of Mothers without Borders, which is a charity that helps children around the world. She tries to help people realize how wonderful they are and what they can do to help others.  She came across a Christian woman in Zimbabwe, a widow with children.  She was a woman of faith.  She'd gathered up children who had been orphaned.  She had no way of supporting herself, let alone the orphans.   She went to visit this woman, but wasn't prepared for what she experienced.  200 kids would come to her little tiny house.  She tried to feed as many as she could, but would run out of food before they all ate.  She asked her what her needs were, and she said she needed a house.  She misjudged her and thought she didn't really need a house.  But she took her around to meet the children.  They went into one home after another where the parents had died.  They found children living in a corner of a room living with tenants who were strangers.  They went out into a last house where the glass was broken out.  There was no furniture, it was all run down.  There was a dark spirit at that house.  There was a dirty, torn mattress on the floor.  Empty and broken liquor bottles were all over.  Three little girls were living in the house with tenants who were molesting them.  Now she could see the need for a house, so these children would have someplace to go.  She then attended a conference which talked about the Proclamation on the Family.  She was distraught and wept through that conference, thinking about these poor children living in such dire conditions.  When we realize the purposes behind this journey in the wilderness, it allows our eyes to be open.  She learned a lot about hope.  She began to seek for scriptures that would allow her to see light in the wilderness where it appears no light exists.  Often the reason she doesn't recognize those passages is because of a lack of trust.  As we learn to trust God more perfectly, the power of the atonement is felt in our life.  Through faith in Jesus Christ, it floods light into our way of thinking, and then Heavenly Father can speak to us.  Sometimes the only thing we can do is bring the hope of Christ into a situation.  There is a unique way about the way the African people pray.  It's like they reach through the heavens and speak to a trusted friend.  They understand that their very lives depend on the Savior.  They don't get through another day without Him.  We're surrounded by ease and comfort and we can become casual, but they need Him for their daily bread.  They place themselves in the gentle hands of God, trusting that He knows all their needs.  Sometimes we forget that we are right here in His hands.  Be ready to answer God's call--where can you help someone today?  We are all connected to each other.  When we carry hope into a place, it matters.  It heals hearts.  Sometimes when she walks through the darkest places of the earth, that's all she carries with her.  But it is enough.  The disasters that you face in your life are real. The same principles that help people with extreme situations will help you as well.  The Savior suffered for each of us.  Everyone's troubles are equal in the eyes of God.  Don't diminish the things that are troubling you.  To the Savior you are right in His heart.  He loves you.  Every one of your concerns is a concern to Him.  Allow the Savior to teach you and heal your heart.  Whatever you suffer from is important to the Lord.  The way is open to everyone.  The Savior knows the way because He is the way.  The mists of darkness descended upon all the travelers, not just a few.  It's often through the disasters in our lives that we get to see what we're made of.  We get to see our strengths and weaknesses.  Sometimes we feel like everything came crashing down around us.  A man in Indonesia had lost everything he owned and all his family in the tsunami.  In yet he took time to help others.  He had an understanding of tapping into the great person he was.  It was a great moment for her to see this. It was difficult to see the recovery of all the bodies, 250,000 people. Breathe.  The Savior is the one who gives us every breath.  He is in control.  He is the creator.  It is through the atonement of the Savior that we can be healed and blessed and exalted.  Sometimes we feel like we're in a huge body count.  Go back to knowing who is in charge.  When she went to Haiti the destruction was so massage, everything was crushed and broken.  Thousands of people lost.  They moved rubble, but she knew there was something more for her to learn.  There were hundreds of people camping in tents in the parking lot of the church.  Most of them were not members of the church.  The bishop asked her to teach the people.  She was learning stuff as she was teaching them.  They sat in a circle and told their stories.  They needed to be heard.  They said they were afraid of another earthquake.  She told them they'd already survived an earthquake.  All the things they were worried about, they were doing.  With the power that comes to us through the atonement, we're okay.  They knew that the people who survived and were left to pick up the pieces had a harder job than those who had died.  You're experienced trials and tribulations and you've lived through it.  Look back on your life.  You're already doing it!  With the Savior, you can keep doing it.  The world needs help!  Your family needs help.  Your ward needs help.  The world needs your help. They need the help you can offer when you fill your life with the power of the atonement.  You can bless lives without even knowing you're doing it. 

THE CHURCH IS TRUE! LDS HISTORY AND CHURCH PRACTICES (ANTHONY R. SWEAT):   Church growth.  Joseph Smith prophesied that the church would fill the world.  We're relatively small, 98.3% of the USA and 99.98% of the world are not LDS.  However, we're the 4th largest denomination in the U.S.  He showed a map of red dots indicating where there is an LDS congregation.  You can see that they are all over the world. The pioneers.  Thousands of people were willing to go from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois and then trek thousands of miles to come to Utah.  They left a legacy of faith.  Brigham Young--the modern Moses.  Brigham Young is one of the most famous Mormons.  One critic said the LDS Church would have failed if it wasn't for Brigham Young's genius.  He heped lead over 70,000 saints to gather to the Salt Lake valley and pioneered the establishment of over 500 western cities and settlements.  The Salt Lake Temple.  It's a wonder of the world.  The mountain of the Lord's house would be established in the top of the mountains and all nations shall flow unto it.  More people visit Temple Square than they do Universal Studios in Florida.  All nations flow to it.  Apostasy and converts.  People are always going to leave the church and people will always join the church.  In the midst of the Kirtland apostasy, Joseph Smith called Heber C. Kimball on a mission to England and people joined the church by the thousands.  Don't ever forget that this is the work of God.  There will always be people to oppose it because Satan works against it, but the work of God will go forth.  Conversion to the church.  We baptize about 300,000 per year.  Nearly half of the country of Tonga are Mormons (46%).  Half of the current membership of the church are first generation converts.  In other words, they aren't members of the church because their great grandpa was.  Over half the members of the church (55%) are not Caucasian. We worship side by side with all nations and races.  Fleeing into the wilderness.  Abraham fled, Moses fled, Lehi fled, pioneers fled.  The concept of being driven and fleeing is a consistent pattern.  Prophetic succession.  The only way a prophet is chosen in our church is that he is called by someone else, put in as an apostle, and then outlives the others.  We place it in the hands of God who is in charge of life and death.  Laying on of hands.  The authority of the priesthood is passed by the laying on of hands by one who has authority.  You can trace your priesthood back to Joseph Smith who was ordained by Peter, James and John.  No self selection.  We don't campaign or vote people into church office.  You don't just decide you've been called to be a minister.  The Lord calls you through those having proper authority. Lay minister.  Guess how much training your bishop got to be bishop?  There's no professional clergy, in yet our wards function.  People give of their time without pay  because the church is true.      There are 250 volunteer positions to be filled in each ward.  It amounts to 400-600 hours of voluntary service each week.  Anointing with oil.  It is an honor to give a priesthood blessing.  In the Bible it talks about giving blessings and anointing with oil.  Oil is symbolic of Jesus' atonement.  Temples and the endowment.  Everyone in the Salt Lake Valley had addresses that include how many blocks they are north, south, east or west from the temple.  We center our lives on the temple.  Some people have temples but they don't know what to do with temples.  Our church practices the endowment which was given to ancient apostles.  It is a series of ordinances and instructions that teaches you about Jesus Christ.  We are commanded to build a house to the Lord.  The Lord wants to give everyone an endowment.  It's more important than a mission call.  Eternal marriage and sealings.  75% of Americans believe that they will be with those they love in the next life.  However, the only religion that has a viable doctrine for how this works is the Mormons.  Many songs sing about eternal love.  You don't hear songs that sing about only loving you for mortality.  In the Bible it teaches about whatever they would bind on earth would be bound in heaven.  Baptisms for the dead.  The fact that we do baptisms for the dead is a great sign the church is true.  Everyone needs baptism.  Other churches have a quandary about what happens to people who die without baptism.  150,000 people die each day.  What percentage of those have received baptism?  It's illogical to think that God would not save them.  Our church has the only answer of how everyone can receive baptism.  Covenants.  We're a church that makes and keeps covenants.  The Old Testament was called the Old Covenant and the New Testament the New Covenant.  We need to learn the covenant of the Lord.  If we make a covenant with Jesus, we are now linked with Him.  It's more than just a belief in Jesus, we need to make covenants with Him.  The Sacrament.  We take the sacrament on a weekly basis.  Every time you take the sacrament in a repentant spirit, you have the cleansing power of your baptism renewed.  The sacrament renews the covenants we make at baptism. Focus on the family.  We are a family oriented people.  The 1995 Family Proclamation is evidence the church is true.  Tithing.  It's an ancient practice.  Some people are amazed that members of our church voluntarily give 10% of their money to the church.  It's a miracle.  Every day somewhere in the world we build a chapel.  We finance ourselves.  Fasting and fast offerings.  Fasting looses the bands of wickedness.  It helps us overcome sin.  When we fast, we gain more control over our worldly appetites.  We gain more self control.  It also helps us take care of the poor and needy, by donating the money we would have spent on food.  Service to others.  A 2010 study found that collectively Mormons are among the most charitable of Americans with their means and their time.  Humanitarian Aid.  Welfare Program.  It is far superior to government programs.  LDS Youth Activities. 

HAVING MANY REVELATIONS DAILY; HOW THE SPIRIT HELPS US RECOGNIZE, UNDERSTAND, AND LIVE BY PRINCIPLE (STEPHEN K. HUNSAKER):  We need to live a principle driven life.  Sometimes God changes our course and we become angry.  He still invites us, but He won't ever force the human mind.  When He finds a child who is willing to live by eternal principles, He is filled with joy and He can then pour down blessings.  He won't stop pouring down blessings as long as we allow Him to.  We don't even realize it.  Circumstances constantly change.  But eternal truths never change.  God is the only constant.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  If you live by eternal truth, you will always find joy.  If the Lord commands, He'll provide the way.  Nephi knew God would deliver him.  He was constant because he believed in that principle.  His brothers let their circumstances determine their happiness.  We must learn to keep a record of what the spirit teaches you.  We'll all learn different principles from what a speaker says.  When God finds a child who will write down revelations, He'll give him more.  If God gives you a revelation that you don't live, you are damned.  He is so kind and patient and long suffering He'll wait until you're ready.  Then you'll be filled with revelation upon revelation every day.  As the Lord communicates with the meek and submissive, fewer decibels are required, and more nuances are received.  A man had two horses--Laman and Nephi.  Laman would obey when his master was riding him but not willingly.  Nephi obeyed willingly.  When his grandchildren came to visit, he let them ride Nephi, but not Laman.  He completely trusted Nephi.  We need to be in harmony with the Father and confident in following Him.  This will bring us peace.  It isn't a one time thing and it doesn't happen overnight.  You have to plant seeds and develop it.  When we try to do things our way, we fail.  The Lord knows what He's doing.  We need to submit willingly to our Heavenly Father's will.  Jesus, the only perfect person on the earth, went three times to the Father asking for the cup to be removed.  But He still submitted to His Father's will. When we're willing to do all things the Lord commands us to do, miracles will flow.  The Adversary accuses the saints day and night. He tells us we'll never make it.  So revelation is needed day and night so we won't forget who we are.  Your willingness to accept the will of the Father will not change what in His wisdom He has chosen to do.  However, it will certainly change the effect of those decisions on your personally.  That evidence of the proper exercise of agency allows His decisions to produce far greater blessings in your life.  I have found that because of our father's desire for us to grow, He may give us gentle, almost imperceptible promptings that, if we are willing to accept without complaint, He will enlarge to become a very clear indication of His will.  This enlightenment comes because of our faith and our willingness to do what He asks even though we would desire something else.  His wife felt an impression to stop giving their baby a medicine she'd been prescribed, and it took courage to listen.  But the Lord knew that medicine wasn't what the baby needed.  Sometimes the Lord hopefully waits on His children to act on their own, and when they do not, they lose the greater prize, and the Lord will either drop the entire matter and let them suffer the consequences or else He will have to spell it out in greater detail.  Usually, I fear, the more He has to spell it out, the smaller is our reward.  One day he felt an impression to write his old Seminary teacher a letter, but he didn't do it. Six months later he met that teacher and told him of his impression.  The teacher told him he had no idea how much he needed that letter six months ago.  He deserved to be reprimanded.  We need to learn to live by principle, not by circumstances.  We need to trust the Lord and know Him better. True doctrine understood changes attitudes and behavior.  Get on the path and head in the right direction.  If you're on that path when you die, heading in the right direction, you'll receive eternal life, no matter where on the path you are.  Whenever you are feeling the Holy Ghost, you are being changed.  As you receive revelation daily, you're being changed daily.  When was the last time you felt the atonement working in your life?  Reception of the Holy Ghost is the cleansing agent as the atonement purifies you.  That is a fact you can act on with confidence.  You can invite the Holy Ghost's companionship into your life.  And you can know when he is there, and when he withdraws.  And when he is your companion, you can have confidence that the Atonement is working in your life.  How can we sincerely pray to be an instrument in His hands if the instrument seeks to do the instructing?