New Year's Resolution

I am going to try very hard and blog every day. At least a note each day on how the day went. (I have to get over thinking I need a picture with every blog). I am not a writer and I hate to write. It is by far one of my worse thing to do, but I am going to try.

I read an email yesterday from Greg my brother and really appreciated what he had to say. He said it was impossible to be good at all things and tthe thing that you are good at you have spent a lot of time at and usually at the cost of not being good at something else. He also enlighten me with his thoughts of premortal life and how we probably knew (and still do somewhere in our brains) a whole lot more than we are aware of in this mortal life. I will try and include a copy on this blog so you can read it...he is a much better writer than I!

I am the 2nd counselor in RS and thus had to teach on Sunday. The lesson was on Introducing Joseph Smith as this will be the course of study of the next 2 years. The info in the book was mostly history and dates. I designed a time line and had the sister fill in as best as they knew Joseph. It went well and I think we all learned something. I then gave each sister a book mark that I had made with the picture and quote of Joseph Smith. I am glad I don't have to teach this week and don't have to for another 3 months!

Monday FHE was spent watching the LSU and Ohio State football game during which time Tulsa was under a tornado warning. So every time out or commercial the channel would tune to the weather. There were 2 storms brewing but luckily one was to the southeast and the other to the northwest and so we just got some thundering, lighting and rain. LSU won as you all probably know and now Abby has a months worth of "free sitting" at school!! Whatever that means...

Following is the email from my brother:

FRANK
Jan 6th, 2008
Yesterday I was traveling around the world via Goodle Earth (that has to be one of the coolest programs ever) and looked at a place that I visited about three years ago near Sheffield, England. The beautiful countryside from a ‘7,000 foot’ view caught my eye and started me thinking.
My dad observed in a letter several weeks ago that we are all multifaceted individuals who in this life don’t have the time, and in many cases the opportunity, to develop our talents in certain areas. I’ve observed that those who pour themselves into one discipline are really not very good at another discipline. In short, we have to make choices on which parts of our earthly experience we will cultivate and which will lay fallow. The image that I saw on Google Earth shows land that is obviously being cultivated (some with cities, and others with crops) and other land purposefully left uncultivated for a season.
I think of this picture as a being symbolic of my own life. I have purposefully cultivated certain aspects of my life experience. For example, I’ve learned much about how things are manufactured and the various processes used to produce the articles that we often take for granted. I’ve learned the science of metal working, plastic forming, and glass shaping. These are things that I have devoted much time and effort to understanding. I have built a career on the understanding of these types of engineering and sciences. As a trade-off however, I have not spent time enough in music to become effective or productive in that discipline. That part of my life has to this point in time been
fallow. Not to say that this land will always be fallow in my life, but for this time and season it remains fallow. Even if I were to choose to become accomplished with music and begin to plow that fallow ground, what segment of music would I plant? Would I spend my time with an oboe, piano, violin, or any number of other instruments? If I did choose oboe as my instrument of choice, would I have to leave piano or violin fallow simply because of the limitations of time on this earth? Probably so.
I think back to our Savior, the greatest of all Beings to live on this earth. There is no record of Him devoting his time to become proficient at metal working. We do have record, or at least a passed on belief that he learned the trade of a carpenter, a wood sculptor. As far as earthly skills, we don’t read too much of what ‘ground He cultivated’ other than He grew line upon line to the stature of a man. He too had to deal with what parts of his life would have to remain fallow while on earth. We know that before this world was He created under the direction of His Father (and our Father) worlds without end. The science, engineering, mathematics, and physics of such creation were all known to Him before He came to live in this ‘simplistic’ life experience where He had to choose what time to spend doing the things that His Father required of Him.
Now is where I step into my own opinion. This is life as Greg sees it. This is not gospel doctrine. During this life we have at most a hundred years to learn and experience mortality. We experience much while here on earth in the time allotted. However, time simply does not allow for the development of all things. Some things must lay fallow. I’ve noticed that someone who devotes a tremendous amount of time to ‘cultivating’ physics will find themselves ‘fallow’ in other areas such as musical oboe excellence, or possibly physiology. We simply all have ‘cultivated’ areas and ‘fallow’ areas of our lives. I believe however, that the eons before our arrival at this point of time in earth experience has allowed us to understand and learn more than the veil of this life experience would suggest. We very likely would all know a lot more about music, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, art, dance, etc than we currently know. I believe that in some cases, the understanding and knowledge gained in our previous eons of existence is a bit more translucent (shines through) in this life experience and we feel more comfortable, or are naturally more adept at some aspects of life experience than others. It gives me some comfort to believe that I don’t have to learn it all here. I am however expected to come away from this life experience with a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Redeemer, and have established a personal, prayerful relationship with my Father in Heaven. I need to bend my will to the will of my Father in Heaven. These are the things that I believe need to be ‘cultivated’ while on this earth at the expense of the endless other things I could choose to ‘cultivate’. I believe that if I put the things of God first, all the other things that I’ve learned over the eons will one day be added to my life experience here on earth to add up to the grand sum of who I am and what I know and what I know how to do.
We’ll now that I’ve ‘philostrophized’ as my kids would accuse me of doing, I’ll end and let you all know that we are doing well and we have REALLY enjoyed having the whole family together over the Christmas break. Lance will be doing
some interviewing this coming week with some law firms for summer work, and Eric, Brittani, and Brock begin school again.
On Wednesday evening Mark (my brother), Eric, Lance, Marci, Glade, and I went night skiing at Brighton. It was a perfect evening for skiing and everyone really enjoyed it. Here’s another case and point on a ‘cultivated’ skill. Mark is an excellent skier. As a young man he spent a lot of time learning how to ski. He not only can go down very steep terrain with little problem, but he looks good doing it! I get down the mountain, but I never go on the black diamond runs with Mark, and I never look soooo stylish as he does going down the hill. Skiing is a part of my life experience that is pretty much ‘fallow’, though maybe one day… (<:
Love Greg/Jackie/Crew