Be Where You Are

At the end of our practice last week, I spoke to my players about the phrase "Be Where You are". At that specific practice, we had some players focused on other things. Mainly it was a new video game that they wanted to play afterwards and it distracted them from our drills. As a result, their conversations affected the warm ups, the drills, their defense, and their attention span while the head coach or I was talking to them. At one point our head coach said, "If another team challenged our team at this video game, I think we'd get more excited for that than we do to play baseball." Before he even finished his sentence he was interrupted by shouts of excitement by the players, proving what he said to be correct. My post practice message was focused on being your best self in whatever situation you are in. "Be Where You Are" means that while you're at practice, you're only thoughts are on practice. 

In the stage of life where I'm at, I've had to confront a lot of situations where I'm dealing with more than one big thing. Examples in my life right now are school/homework, work, family responsibilities, and coaching a baseball team. All of these categories bring a lot of different sub-categories with them. For example, multiple papers or projects to do for school, having a record breaking day at work with sales and I have to make sure everything is still being done correctly, sometimes family responsibilities include driving 30 minutes to Riverton several times a week, or driving to multiple baseball practices a week. A lot of times, this comes at me all in the same week. Also, I haven't even mentioned supporting my wife in the activity she's involved with at the time. 

Now to talk about "Be Where You Are". If we feel overwhelmed with all of the things God is giving us, I believe that it can be one of a few reasons: 1. We don't have enough faith in God (sometimes in general, or sometimes at the time of the events) 2. We are lazy and don't want the responsibility (again, sometimes in general, and sometimes only in the moment) and 3. When we're confronting one thing, we're distracted by everything else we have to get done. Even in the course of the last year, I'm guilty of all 3 of these. At our baseball practice, our players were distracted by what they wanted to do after practice, and their efforts and performance suffered because of it. It's important that we bring back the One Pitch At A Time concept and take things one at a time. 

When you're at work, GO to work and EARN your paycheck. A lazy worker is only stealing money from his/her company, because no work is being done in exchange for money. When you're at school, get off your phone and pay attention. You're paying a lot of money to be there, so why waste it and not learn anything? When you're back at home with your family, be with your family. I remember being excited when my dad came home each day, and it meant a lot to me when he would spend time with us every night. 

If we confront these situations with faith in God and giving our best effort, we are promised several blessings. These blessings are multiplied when we have the mentality of building up the Kingdom of God at all times. "And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord. (Mosiah 24:15) And, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (3 Nephi 13: 31-33) 

Always have faith in God, because our life situations come from Him so that we may grow and progress. If you don't understand the purpose of a specific burden, ask Him. 

How To Deal With Failure

Baseball is a game of failure. To be successful, a baseball player must face failure most of the time he's at the plate. In the MLB if you get a hit 3/10 times at the plate, you're an all-star and one of the best hitters in the game. Knowing this, what defines a baseball player is how he reacts to the other 7/10 times. Is he willing to stick to it and keep working hard, or will he roll over and define himself by his mistakes? While on defense, physical errors happen even to the best players. After making an error, the toughest players have the mentality that they're going to make the next play, and they still want the ball hit to them. They don't let an error that happened in the 1st inning effect their play in the 9th inning, or even in the 2nd inning. One of the best things about baseball is that a team can play one of their worst games as a team, but can rebound and play their best game the very next day. This depends on the mental toughness of each individual player.

In a certain sense, we can say that life itself is a game of failure. We set high expectations for ourselves in various aspects of life. It can be weight loss goals, overcoming an addiction, dealing with a divorce or death of a loved one, trying to apply a gospel principle that we have a harder time with, or feeling like we aren't good enough. Even though we are trying our best to be like Christ, we come up short with our sins and shortcomings. I encourage you to read or reread the talk "Be ye therefore perfect, eventually" by Elder Jeffery R. Holland. Here is the url:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/be-ye-therefore-perfect-eventually?lang=eng

In the Book of Mormon, the first story we read about is about Lehi and his family as they're commanded to leave their home and wealth in Jerusalem and depart to the wilderness. Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi are all obedient and follow their parents into the wilderness. When we typically think of Laman and Lemuel as rebellious, murmuring sons, they are actually obedient to their father. They could have stayed in Jerusalem and inherited the great wealth and home that was left behind, but they went with their family. The difference between them and their other brothers was their attitude as they were following their father/prophet. They couldn't understand why they were leaving, and not even seeing an angel could open their hard hearts. Nephi and Sam were experiencing the same trials, but they were always looking for ways to learn from God and seek His miracles. We are in a similar situation here in the Latter-Days where God's commandments may conflict with our personal views, or we may not see the importance of following a certain commandment, but it is important that we show faith to God and faith in His path. Nephi was able to bring miracles to his family, (building a ship in the way of the Lord and not of man, eating raw meat that was miraculously blessed with taste and made healthy, seeing the same visions as his father Lehi, retrieving the brass plates from King Laban, etc) and this was because he was always looking to the Lord. Laman and Lemuel did not learn these same lessons because they chose not to turn to the Lord, but instead lean on their own understanding.

President Henry B. Eyring once said, "if you are on the right path, it will always be uphill." While we are on this gospel path, we will experience hardships and trials. Instead of feeling that we are weak or that we aren't good enough, let's remember that God loves us more than we can imagine. Sometimes, we must realize that the consequences that we are experience are a result of personal sin, and some come as a result of personal sins of others, and some come because God is teaching us an eternal principle. When we show that we can endure trials, God will give us more so that we can learn more. Doctrine and Covenants 130:19 says, "And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."

Pictures from lds.org 

Choose You This Day

     On the Riverton High School baseball team, we talked about what it meant to have a "quality at-bat". There are several ways that a batter can have a quality at-bat. They are: 1. Any kind of hit 2. Get on base (walk, hit by pitch, etc) 3. 6 or more pitches in the at-bat 4. Do a job (sacrifice bunt, squeeze, sacrifice fly, hit and run, move a runner, etc) 5. Hard hit ball. If a team can have all of it's players focused on getting quality at-bats, then their success rate will go up. I have seen far too many players who have a bad attitude about laying down a sacrifice bunt for their team. Instead of doing what's best for the team, they'd rather go up to the plate and be the hero with a big hit. Even though the coach knows that you are capable of getting a hit, sometimes he needs you to lay a bunt down and move the runner up a base. During most my time at Riverton High School, I hit third in the lineup. Despite being in this position in the lineup, I led the team in sacrifice bunts in two separate seasons. We had a good duo of hitters in front of me, and they were often on base when I came up in the first inning. Our coaches knew that I could get a bunt down, so they called on me to do it often. As a result, the fourth hitter behind me got a lot of RBI's. For our team, this meant that we were able to score in the first inning frequently. For me, I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was able to contribute to those runs. Selfish mentalities can plague a team faster than almost anything else. CHOOSE TO BE A TEAM PLAYER.

     In the church there are many callings where members are able to serve in, ranging from worldwide leadership to being in charge of teaching a class of 8 or so kids. Just like on a baseball team, we can choose to be a team player. No calling is more important than another in the service of God. When we magnify our callings, we are showing God that we sustain our church leaders and that we trust that He put us in that specific calling. As Sunday School teachers, it is important to love and pray for each individual member of your class. Help them realize that you love them by showing interest in their extra-curricular activities and attending those events. As a high school baseball player, I specifically remember my young men leaders who came to at least one of my games. I was happy to see them in the stands and I was excited to talk about my games with them on Sundays before class.

     In this comparison, my main focus that I wanted to talk about was using our agency for the betterment of the team. In gospel terms: Use your agency, that God has given you, to turn your life over to God. This doesn't mean that He will make decisions for you, because He trusts us with our agency, but it does mean that we can show our love for Him by keeping His commandments. He wants every single one of His children to return to Him. Make sure that YOU are your strongest convert to God. Trust God, know that He lives, and know that He loves and knows you personally.

Picture taken from lds.org

I, The Lord, Remember Them No More

One of the biggest poisons for a baseball player is getting inside his own head. This happens frequently during games when the player makes an error, when he strikes out, or if he struggles to throw strikes. Being mentally tough in these situations is what separates good players from great ones, because some players allow these emotions to consume them the rest of the game.

In a tournament, we were in need of a late inning rally to keep our hopes alive. As our team was watching the pitcher warm up and getting their timing right, I walked up to our lead-off hitter for that inning. I asked him, "you gonna get on base for us right now?" His reply surprised me, "I don't know." I asked him why he wasn't sure if he would get on base and he said, "because I'm not doing so well this game. I couldn't throw very many strikes when I was pitching." I tried to tell him to forget about that, because all we needed was a good at-bat from him in that moment. Long story short, that player didn't make solid contact in his at-bat and recorded the first out of the inning. This player was so enveloped in something in the past, that it impeded him from moving forward. In baseball, one big hit can break a slump for a certain player, but he has to have the mental tenacity to fight through the slump.

I see this happen in our day to day lives, where something in our past impedes us from moving forward. Sometimes it's sin, sometimes it's grief, or needing to forgive someone (including ourselves). An important scripture to remember is Doctrine and Covenants 58:42, "Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more." When we repent of past sins, we are accepting the Savior's invitation of coming unto him. Alma the Younger had a strong testimony about this concept, saying "Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death. And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more." Likewise, we are coming unto the Savior by forgiving somebody else of a wrongdoing. The answer to life's most difficult questions is simply to accept the loving arms of Jesus Christ.

The Lord needs us NOW. In the Latter-Days, we are making one final missionary push to spread this great message to the whole earth. One of the biggest things that will slow the work down is when we let something in the past hold us back, and we feel that we aren't worthy to do his work. Don't let Satan get in your head, but instead get in his. It bothers him when the weakest of the saints kneels down in mighty prayer. Come unto Christ, and let Him show you the way.