Overworked

I've been focused too much on work lately. Business has been great and although I much prefer that to the alternative, it sure makes it difficult to balance other priorities.

Thankfully my children have been very understanding and supportive. We've had some time on weekends to play and although the work week gets very long, they seem to be ok with it as long as I wrestle with them, tickle them, and play with them on Saturday and Sunday and occasionally on weekday evenings when possible. My kids are so fun to play with.

And Emily is a gem. She has been so supportive of all the time I've spent away from her lately and really sweet to welcome me home with a smile and a kiss every night instead of a guilt trip. Thanks, pretty lady. Remind me to pay you back later.

Business goes in cycles. This crazy period won't last forever. I just need to keep my focus on the important things and fight through the busy time.

School Board Meeting

Emily and I took our oldest son to a school board meeting last night. He was presented an award for being one of the top readers in his school. The district uses a computer-based testing system to evaluate how well the students have understood the material in various books they read. Depending on how well they do on the test, how difficult the book is judged to be, and their current age/grade, they are assigned a certain number of points for each test they pass. My son read all of the Harry Potter books over the summer and since they were judged to be several grade levels above my son's current grade, he scored big points on each of those tests. That series gave him a big head start, but he didn't stop there. He reads all the time and just keeps racking up the points. The superintendent presented awards to the top four students based on the points they had earned so far during the year.

My son received a certificate stating he had about 230 points. Apparently he was the top scorer; the second student had about 140 points! Wow. I think it's great that he has learned to read so well and he loves it so much! I don't think there's any academic skill more valuable at his age and I think it's great he has embraced it so well.

Swimming

For about the last twelve months, I have been swimming pretty regularly to try to get back in shape. After several years of a full schedule including work, school, family, and other stuff, I was a mess physically. I used to swim in High School and although I was never very fast, it's nice to have that background to help me feel comfortable enough to make swimming a regular workout. It's great because it works just about every muscle in my body and stresses my heart and lungs at the same time. I'm still not a great swimmer, but I love the way it works my body and I love the way I feel after I'm done.

One of the things I never got used to as a teenager was the lack of air. Swimming long distances always forced me to take a breath every other stroke because I never felt like I had enough oxygen to keep my muscles moving if I didn't. The oxygen problem got worse when I learned to do flip turns because there were stretches of time at each end of the pool when I didn't get any oxygen as I flipped, pushed off from the wall, and kicked under water as far as my momentum would take me.

For the last year, I have been avoiding flip turns because of that problem. But my lung capacity seems to be improving with time and this last week, I did flip turns during the entire workout. It sure hurt my lungs, but it felt really good afterward! I don't have a racing suit, just a regular swimsuit with drag, but it works. In 30 minutes, I'm able to swim as much as 1500 yards, though I don't always do that. Last week, with flip turns wearing me out and a few sprints, I swam 1200 yards in 30 minutes. I'd like to swim for 45 or 60 minutes, but it's tough with my schedule right now.

I love that I'm getting stronger. I love that my endurance for physical activity has increased dramatically. I love the way I feel when I'm (sort of) fit. I love being able to see my distance go up, my times go down, my strokes improve, all that good stuff. That kind of growth is really satisfying to me.

Run!

My third child ran about 1.5 miles this week at school in about 12 minutes. That's about an 8 minute mile. For a boy his age, that is pretty amazing! This is the same child who figured out how to ride a bike without any instruction. I don't want to pigeonhole any of my children, but I can't help but think this child is going to be very athletic.

His PE teacher was so amazed that he called him into his office after the run and gave him a free T-shirt. Apparently, no one his age ever runs so far in the allotted time. Pretty cool, huh?

Priestcraft and Idolatry

The LDS Church has a rather unique definition of the term 'priestcraft'. A Book of Mormon prophet named Nephi tells us, "priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world" (2 Nephi 26:29). Sometimes people with good intentions see the value they can offer to others with their wisdom, faith, or other gifts God has given them, allow pride to creep in, and begin to set themselves up as a light to others. Rather than walk by the light of God, they begin to walk after their own light and fulfill the words of Isaiah: "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow." (Isaiah 50:11).

On the flip side, we may look up to leaders, whether political, religious, or whatever, and allow their influence to displace the influence of God as the primary influence in our lives. If we look up to someone so much that we become dependent on them in a moral, religious, intellectual, or other similar way, we may be in danger of allowing our regard for them to displace our worship of God. If anyone becomes more important to us than God, we have probably fallen into the trap of idolatry. God told Moses: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). God didn't say that because He needs our worship to feel validated. He said it for our benefit. We need to look to Him in order to find truth, joy, and all that good stuff He offers us.

It occurred to me recently that priestcraft and idolatry are two sides of the same coin. On the one side, priestcraft is setting yourself up to be a god to someone else. On the other side, idolatry is looking up to someone as if they were God. Either one of these is harmful to all parties involved. Priestcraft may exist without idolatry (in which case, the priestcraft is unsuccessful and the would-be 'priest' probably ends up frustrated or clueless) and idolatry may exist without priestcraft (maybe a more common occurrence), but when they are combined, I think they tend to reinforce each other and all parties involved may go down in a spiral of pride and destruction.

I'm afraid both priestcraft and idolatry are alive and well in our world today. Though we don't bow down before statues of stone, golden calves, or other man-made deities, many of us do worship the works of our own hands (or the works of others). We may worship cars, jewelry, fancy clothes, or other status symbols. We may worship wealth, power, fame, prestige, praise, honor, etc. Or we may feel a sense of comfortable pride that we avoid all these things and yet still fail to keep our focus on the one Being who can teach us all truth and guide us into happiness and joy. Perhaps we worship leaders, whether political, religious, scientific, or otherwise. If our number one priority isn't God, we have probably fallen into the trap of idolatry. And if we seek to displace God in the life of someone else, perhaps someone who looks up to us, even our spouse or our own children, we are doing them and ourselves no favors. Idolatry and priestcraft sever us from the most important relationship in our lives. They can kill us spiritually. And yet I am convinced that they are very common.

Hold My Heart

I heard a beautiful song on the radio this morning. I think I had heard it before, but this time, I listened to the lyrics. The chorus really got to me:

One tear in the driving rain
One voice in a sea of pain
Could the Maker of the stars
Hear the sound of my breaking heart?

One life, that's all I am
Right now I can barely stand
If you're everything you say you are
Would you come close and hold my heart?

Excellence

One of my employer's organizational values is 'Excellence'. I've never thought much about it until recently, but I've realized it's a very important value to me personally. I have been expressing the concept to myself as: 'if I'm going to spend my time and energy doing something, I might as well do it well ... or at least give it my best.' If I'm going to go to work 40 or so hours a week, that's a significant investment of my time, and I might as well do the best I can during the time that I'm there. If I don't, what the heck am I doing there? If I'm going to be a husband and father, going to all that work to build a relationship with a wonderful woman and working hard to create and nurture new life with her, I might as well do the best I can with those relationships and, during the time I'm with them, give my best to them. If I'm going to participate in church, community, school, or other volunteer activities, I might as well do the best I can in planning, organizing, executing, and enjoying those activities. When I don't give these and other areas of my life the best I can offer, what is the point in investing my time and energy in them? If I do less than my best, those activities tend to become empty and meaningless and I would be better off dropping them from my life altogether.

So, here's one of the things that's been near the front of my mind for several years now - especially since many of those years have been so crowded with responsibilities. If we divide our time and energy among too many activities, we won't have enough invested in any of them to make any of them successful. We won't have achieved 'critical mass' in any area to make sparks fly and make magic happen. If that happens, we're in danger of having a totally meaningless existence since we can't do our best in any of the areas with which we engage. Once again, we're better off dropping a few things and investing enough in the remaining activities to make most or all of them successful. Otherwise, what the heck are we doing playing around with them in the first place?

On the flip side, if we focus all our energies on very few tasks, we may do them exceptionally well, to the point of being obsessed with perfection, and waste our resources when they could have had a broader impact. I've experienced both of these extremes and I have to say I am much happier and feel more fulfilled when I can find that balance of 'excellence' between the extremes of spreading myself so thin that I fail and focusing so narrowly that I become obsessed with perfection.