Real Life in Jesus Christ's Church

A Calm Sense of Self Not all anxiety is problematic. At various points in my life I have felt anxious about tests, job interviews, parent/teacher conferences, going to the bedside of very ill family, driving in bad weather, even going to lunch with friends. This event-related, temporary anxiety helps me focus on the task at hand to avoid dangerous situations, recognize others’ needs, prepare well for presentations, ask for help, and receive motivation to act in ways that minimize unpleasant consequences.  Anxiety that becomes a diagnosable mental disorder, hangs around after the test, interview, conference, visit, or bad weather is over. Like a big snowstorm can accumulate, piling anxiety upon anxiety until there is no place to shovel it to the side of the emotional roadway, negative results follow. The anxiety-ridden have trouble focusing, which interferes with happiness, limits productivity, saps energy, suffocates relationships, and disrupts spiritual focus.  A...

I have felt anxious about  tests, job interviews, parent/teacher conferences, going to the bedside of very ill family, driving in bad weather, even going to lunch with friends. This event-related, temporary anxiety is beneficial. It has helped me focus on the task at hand, avoid dangerous situations, recognize others’ needs, prepare well for presentations, ask for help, and be motivated to act in ways that minimize unpleasant consequences.  Anxiousness turns into a medical problem  “when it extends beyond logical worry in an unreasonable, unwarranted, uncontrollable way. Situations that should elicit no negative emotions all of a sudden seem life-threatening or crushingly  embarrassing .” A nxiousness becomes a mental disorder if hangs around after the test, interview, conference, visit, weather, or lunch is over. Like winter snowstorms, anxiety can accumulate as snowflakes, piling anxiety upon anxiety until there is no place to shovel it away to clear an em...

Continue the Legacy Chester Todd, my father, raised homing pigeons. And homing pigeons do just what their name implies. They find their way home even from extremely long distances. They can fly as far as one thousand miles. They can fly as fast as fifty miles per hour. But whether they fly far or fast or slow is not nearly as important as is the fact that they come home. Chester had a good friend who also raised pigeons named Tom Monson, long before his name became famous. Their friendship lasted over sixty years. I can remember several times Brother Monson and his son came to our home to talk pigeons. When Chester was near death, President Thomas S. Monson visited him in the hospital, gave him a blessing, came to the viewing, and spoke at the funeral, all without being asked.   At my father’s funeral, President Monson shared memories for about fifteen minutes, then graciously said he had to attend another funeral and closed his talk. He walked off the stand to my moth...