What will ye that I shall give unto you?

I was reading How To Win Friends, and principle 3 is to find out what people want and figure out how to align it with what you want. It's true. And it's also cool because Jesus used the same concept, and, in thinking about it even more, Heavenly Father does that with me. He gives me basically whatever I ask for and need, especially whatever I have the faith to ask for. 

"What will ye that I shall give unto you?" 3 Nephi 27:2. 

He asked them a question, what do you want, then He listened to their answer and responded exactly to it. Really interesting. Dale Carnegie knows what's up. 

Quelling anger

Sometimes when I feel really angry, I figure i should give myself time and wait for tre anger to subside. Like I don't feel the Spirit at the moment and don't feel sincere enough for prayer or scripture study or anything else that would incite it into my life. Although this may be true to a certain extent, I have been taking it too far. When I feel angry, perhaps I can do something for a few minutes to calm down...exercise, do a breathing routine, close my eyes and think of nothing, allow it to burn out a little...but then very quickly I need to fill my heart and soul and mind with good and dispel the anger before it takes hold of me. In this way, it will never become anger...just a temptation to be angry. A temptation I will quell with the help of grace and the Spirit. 

Then I won't have to wait around and then have something to repent about. Instead, I will feel better and stronger sooner. 

God wants me to succeed

Everything that happens is to help me grow spiritually.

Essential to our personal faith and development is the unmistakable knowledge that our Father and our Savior want us to succeed. 

Heavenly Help for Our Mortal Journey

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/07/heavenly-help-for-our-mortal-journey?lang=eng

This was a good article about this idea. 

Rejoicing at Jesus's birth

I love Luke 1. Zacharias and Elisabeth and Mary all rejoice that their Lord will finally come. It's so sweet. It is neat to think back on all the centuries and how many people rejoiced because of the Savior. Now I feel like not very many really know Him. And therefore aren't experiencing the joy that knowing Him brings. I feel so privileged and blessed. And it makes me want to share my knowledge of Him with others and help them grow their faith in Him.

Compassion vs. righteousness

Sometimes I wonder where the line is between establishing what is right and just being compassionate and understanding. Here is some insight from Elder Holland:

I know of no more important ability and no greater integrity for us to demonstrate in a world from which we cannot flee than to walk that careful path--taking a moral stand according to what God has declared and the laws He has given but doing it compassionately and with understanding and great charity.

The Call to Be Christlike

http://www.lds.org/ensign/2014/06/the-call-to-be-christlike?lang=eng

We can change...and fast

Yesterday in the temple I was thinking about the Atonement and change. I too often use phrases like "I have his weakness" or "I may always struggle with it." I am mortal, but Jesus isn't and He will help me overcome weaknesses. I don't want to think that way, to assume that I will always struggle with something. I want to believe that there are some things I won't struggle with, because through the grace of the Atonement, I can completely overcome it. It requires faith and humility, according to Ether 12:27. I want that thing that I don't always struggle with to be getting insecure around people or caring what others think of me. 

"If there is one lament I cannot abide—and I hear it from adults as well as students—it is the poor, pitiful, withered cry, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” If you want to talk about discouragement, that phrase is one that discourages me. Though not a swearing man, I am always sorely tempted to try my hand when I hear that. Please spare me your speeches about “That’s just the way I am.” I’ve heard that from too many people who wanted to sin and call it psychology. And I use the word sin again to cover a vast range of habits, some seemingly innocent enough, that nevertheless bring discouragement and doubt and despair.

You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast. That’s another satanic suckerpunch—that it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say, “I’ll change”—and mean it. Of course there will be problems to work out and restitutions to make. You may well spend—indeed you had better spend—the rest of your life proving your repentance by its permanence. But change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come for you as instantaneously as for Alma and the sons of Mosiah. Even if you have serious amends to make, it is not likely that you would qualify for the term, “the vilest of sinners,” which is the phrase Mormon uses in describing these young men. Yet as Alma recounts his own experience in the thirty-sixth chapter of the book that bears his name, his repentance appears to have been as instantaneous as it was stunning."

*I know that when there is lots of love of God in my heart, there isn't contention (4 Nephi 1:4). So I need to love Him more and love myself more, or rather, feel His love for me. Then I can more easily feel love for others instead of nervousness or intimidation.