The Hammock Revelation

  This is my hammock revelation. Okay so this is a bit personal but not really, ever since 
I was a greenie I would receive this great revelation in the bathroom. My trainer would tell me an investigators problem and I’ve received the inspiration during planning session with close to 64 ounces of water.
Often times, I take my thoughts with me and come out of the bathroom with clean hands and a resolved concern. Well that hasn’t been the case since I’ve been home, it doesn’t come as fast and it doesn’t stay as long and it seems I have to ponder it more. I think because they are my own concerns and Heavenly Father knows that I need to put in more sweat and energy to receive the answers to the questions of the soul.
So in conjunction with this hammock related thought I must tell you the reason I always pay these forward. I used to be the type of person and still sometimes am a coveter of my own ideas. This never fails to backfire. I used to bury my treasures, or spiritual insights, but I learned thankfully early on to share them, which deepened my understanding: line upon line, percept upon percept. I was stunting my growth and others because I never shared revelation I received when the majority of the time it was always for the benefit of others. That natural man, selfish character got the best of one. But I feel like this one relates, let me know what you think, your added revelation and insight. Don’t ever Covet your own ideas, you will be less likely to receive more…. SHARE and GROW
So often we hear the phrase “People Pleaser” There are parts of me that emulate that and I’m trying to change that for one particular reason. It isn’t bad to have a desire to make others happy. But do we really do it because we have the desire or the desire is evoke from the wants and or needs of others. Does it begin with us or what people expect of us? There is definitely a balance needed on my own life. It is so clearly vivid to me when I look back on the past, the more time I spent investing my will to others desires, the less time naturally I able to focus on Heavenly Father’s will for me. I look back and see how much my character changed for the worse because I was doing what others demanded or wanted opposed to my Father in Heaven. It’s a loyalty shift I’m talking about, is it happening in your life? No answer needed just something I had to ask myself. I feel like the more we give in to others, our loyalty is distant from God, which slowly changes who we are. Another reason for the scriptural phrase: Your loyalty is first to the Lord, your mission President and your companion.
As we come to know God, our Eternal Father, Jesus Christ and the directive Holy Ghost, we will be guided in the correct manner to bind our will to others. They will guide us through opportunities to please others, emotionally and spiritually. It has been many interesting events that have led me to realize the reality and consequence of choice on every level and aspect of our lives. But also how important it is to me to be loyal to God first.
It strikes me to comprehend how protective a particular commandment can become. Protecting us until we really know what we need and want out of life and others. It is one of the strongest blessing we can claim in this life from it’s obedience. Because He understands ALL. He lovingly commands all his children to love Him with all our hearts, this allows us to be protected from peer pressures. How we might ask? When we give into peer pressure on any level, we are literally submitting our will to that person, situation and choice!
It blows my mind that I just now found a personal cure for pure pressure. This commandment is here to help us and if we let it be preparatory for everything we do, naturally we will become more like Him, which is what we are all shooting for anyways. We are trying to put that at the center of all we do.
It took me 10 years living my life differently to know the opposition of this principle, and yet 10 minutes on a hammock to have a revelatory connection made. I know it’s real, by the small adjustments I’ve made that change the way I think and desire about the Lord, others and myself.