Man Overboard

 

Have you ever felt like this man?  I know I was scared that I was going to be this man.  I was right behind him on the rafting trip and a huge wave caught us.  I was able to withstand the wave and stay in the boat, but the guy in front of me was not so lucky.  These were huge waves and he wasn't much of a swimmer.  Thankfully he had his life jacket on, but I know he was still scared!  If he wasn't, his wife was scared enough for them both.  He was paniced for a minute, because the water was moving so fast and we couldn't just stop and get him.  We just left him behind it appeared to us and his wife.  What we didn't realize, but our guide did, was that there was a raft right behind us that was able to get him and pull him on board.  He was fine, a little shook-up, but fine.  How easily this can relate back to life-  Sometimes big waves come!  We may be able to hang onto the raft and be fine, but sometimes we fall out of the boat.  If we are wearing our life jacket it's much less tragic than if we are not.  What could a life jacket relate back to in real life?  How about the commandments, if we are following the commandments when the big wave knocks us out of the boat we will be much better off than if we are not following the commandments.  The beautiful thing about this analogy is that we each have a personal tour guide, well two of them, we have Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to guide us.  We may not be able to see what's behind us as we struggle with the current of the fast moving water, but they do.  They know everything, Jesus Christ even understands everything we are feeling.  How wonderful it is to know that they will never leave us abandoned, but they will always make sure that we are taken care of.  Never fear for the Lord is with us.  We are not alone in the water!

Rappelling through Life



This is me at Morning Glory Natural Bridge.

 So I've been thinking back a lot to about a year ago when I went to Moab.  My family took an awesome vacation before I headed out to Montana and Wyoming.  While we were in Moab we did quite a lot, but the scariest thing for me was rappelling.  It was also my favorite thing that we did. It was scary for me, because I knew there was a big drop off and I had to make myself go over the edge.  Once I got going though I loved rappelling.  I have thought about this experience and what really happened.  We certainly didn't just go rappelling by ourselves with no equipment.  We hired someone who knew what he was doing to help us.  He brought along all the equipment that we needed to help us be successful and make it through our trip safely.  My parents wouldn't have allowed all of us to go on a trip without having the right supplies and someone to help us make it through the journey.  Our Heavenly Father loves us just as our parents here on earth love us.  He has provided that equipment to help us make it back safely and he has provided many tour guides.  He gives us a manual to teach us how make it back safely.  This manual is the Book of Mormon.  He gives us gear to help us make it back safely.  For rappelling you need:  ropes, anchor materials, rappel device,  harness, sling and locking carabiner, gloves (optional), and a daisy chain.  I didn't know all this (and to be honest I just googled it to see exactly what you needed).  My guide took care of this.  He carried it and set it all up.  He made sure that when I got all ready that I was going to be safe when I stepped off the edge and put all my weight on the rope.  That's why we need our guide.  To help us know what we need to do and how to do it.  Isn't is great that we have a modern day prophet to be our guide?  He gets the "gear" that we need and then helps us operate in the correct way.  We have so many more tour guides that are more experienced and know the gear and how to set it up and work it properly.  We have parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas, grandpas, and so many more people to help us with the things we need to do.  Our Heavenly Father who loves us has given us everything we need to make it back safely.  Not to say we won't be sore at times and wonder, but he has.  I was very sore after rappelling, but I used the gear and I made it down safely.  I know that we have everything we need to return back to our Heavenly Father safely.  If you have questions about the "gear" we've been given there are answers.  You can ask me or you can go to mormon.org and look at the answers there.