Sunday, January 4, 2009

New Year. New Start.

Charlotte last year got me started on picking a "word of the year" I think it's a really great way to keep yourself focused on important things throughout the year. Last year my word was OVERCOME. I could tell you how it went but i'd rather focus on what my word is going to be for this year. It was a tough decision to pick a new word, there were quite a few that i thought would be good ones. But i finally decided on the word.....SIMPLIFY! I'm really excited about it and i'll tell you why. The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. I feel like when you eliminate all the superfluous things in life and really focus on the very basic, life just runs so much more smoother. It's easy to get caught up in the world and all the things that go on around us. We always want to be doing everything and never take a break.

I chose my word after hearing, reading, and then re-reading again the talk by L. Tom Perry "Let Him Do it with Simplicity". He talks about our 4 basic needs and the spiritual benefits gained from each of them. I won't go through what his whole talk said but everyone should read it, it's a great one! This year i'm going to focus on gaining and strengthing my testimony of the basic principles of the gospel, on the principles that make up the foundation of it. Simplify it and build up from there. As far as life on a daily basis, i'm going to work on saving more money and not spending it on things i don't need. Also, i'm cutting back on TV this year. THe less TV i watch the more time i have to spend on more practical things. There's quite a few more aspects of the word SIMPLIFY that i want to incorporate into my life, but i'll leave you with that and a quote from Elder William R. Bradford,
“In righteousness there is great simplicity. In every case that confronts us in life there is either a right way or a wrong way to proceed. If we choose the right way, we are sustained in our actions by the principles of righteousness, in the which there is power from the heavens. If we choose the wrong way and act on that choice, there is no such heavenly promise or power, and we are alone and are destined to fail”.

2 comments:

charlotte said...

I love this! What a great focus for the year; really the gospel is so simple and the more we live it, the more simplified our life becomes. Not that living the gospel is always easy, but by simplifying, we focus on the important things, and that makes living the gospel just a bit easier :)

Heather said...

You are just so profound and sometimes I feel that you are so much wiser and spiritual than me. You are such a great example to me and I really love reading these blogs where you get a little spiritual. My goal this year is to be more like you and that is a serious goal. You always have such great comments about talks/scriptures that you read. Brooke, you are such an example!