I'm sure that many of you have had similar thoughts and you've begun to implement them in your daily lives. I wish you the best of luck in these endeavors! I hope that 2013 is the year that you accomplish your goals!
Today, I've had to put a lot of my goals on hold, because I'm lying in bed with the flu. It's amazing to me that no matter how strong you are, or how much you try to stay well, a tiny, microscopic bug can knock you flat. Every time I get out of bed it feels like I'm dragging around weights tied to my arms and legs. My body hurts like it hasn't hurt in a long time and I just want to be well!!!
One thing it has shown to me is the vital role that Dad plays in the home. I've been sequestered from my family in hopes of not spreading the disease. My kids come in and blow me kisses as they go to bed and I can see that they long for a hug as badly as I long to hug them. I can't wait until this period of contagiousness is over and I can be DAD again!
Family, work, exercise, Church callings, everything is on hold.
This really stinks!
The upside is that I know that I will be better soon and able to return to all those things that I truly love to do. If I get the rest I need, take my medicine, drink plenty of fluids, and take care of myself, I'll be well again soon. I'm hoping to be well by this Saturday so I can take my sons to the temple to do some baptisms for their ancestors that they have been working so hard on.
While this little virus has really disrupted my progress...it has also made me pause to consider how often do I let little things, sins and misdeeds, do the same to me and I don't make the right effort to amend that?
We fight to get well when we are physically ill, but what about when we are in spiritual trouble? How hard do we fight to stay on the path of righteousness? How many times do we justify a little sin and think that we'll be OK?
One thing that I've found that really does make a HUGE difference in my daily life is to A) Read the Book of Mormon, B) Say my personal morning prayer (asking specifically for help in avoiding things that will cause me to stumble) and C) facing my day like a Righteous Warrior, with discipline, hardship and a determination to win my battles.
Just as this illness has separated me from my family, so too does sin keep me from being the kind of man, husband and father that I know I can and should be.
Thankfully, when we do stumble, we have the grand gift of the atonement to help pick us back up. Among my resolutions this year, I want to make greater use of this amazing gift. Repentance should be an ongoing process. I hope to use it to greater effect in my own life, to keep those little things from coming between me and my family.
In some upcoming posts, I'd like to lay out some battle plans for you. I'd like to discuss "the Battle" that we fight on a daily basis, talk about "Why We Fight", outline "How To Fight" and then teach how to "Maintain Victories". This is a topic that I've been teaching and refining for some time and I hope that you find it to be useful in your quest to become better men and righteous priesthood warriors.
NO FEAR - NO WHINING - NO REGRETS
A good friend of mine read this post the other day and sent me the following comment:
ReplyDeleteDid you mean to use the word “hardship”?
facing my day like a Righteous Warrior, with discipline, hardship and a determination to win my battles.
“I’m going to face my day with discipline and hardship…”
No – that does not sound like the Tony that I know and love.
Perhaps you meant to say: “face my day like a Righteous Warrior, with discipline through whatever hardship may come my way – and have a determination to win my battles.”
Now THAT sounds more like you…
So...
I felt like my answer would be beneficial to share to clarify for everyone. So with his permission, I've attached my email response to him:
I thought a lot about your question and comment over the weekend. You bring up a good point…I wasn’t very clear…
Here is my thinking:
I intentionally start out every day with hardship. I do it on purpose. To me, part of being a warrior is to CHOOSE the difficult path, the hard path, and consciously doing what the “Natural Man” would shy away from. If I start my day out hard then other things don’t seem so tough. Plus, as warriors, we just do Hard things, and I find that it’s just easier to do hard things if we choose to do hard things.
Life is hard, why make it harder by waiting to have hardship thrust upon us? Just make the hard choice to begin with and get your lumps over with???
What do I mean when I say that I choose to start my day out with ‘Hardship’? Well, I think about what I’d do if I were lazy and I do the opposite of that. Rise early, pray, read scriptures, exercise hard, eat healthy, serve others, etc. I intentionally forgo a lot of comforts and frills that come with modern life, just because I know that they are ‘soft’ and I don’t want to be ‘soft’. The warrior that I want to be is not soft.
So I guess to me the way I use the word “HARDSHIP” is similar to the way that teenagers use the word “SICK”…I’m not looking at life and whining “it’s hard”, rather I’m looking at like and asking “what will harden my warrior skills?”
That doesn’t mean that I never relax…but relaxing becomes so much sweeter when it is hard fought for. But even my version of relaxing might be a bit harsh to some.
I hope that helps in understanding the meaning...