Magnify our callings

“What does it mean to magnify a calling? It means to build it up in dignity and importance, to make it honorable and commendable in the eyes of all men, to enlarge and strengthen it, to let the light of heaven shine through it to the view of other men. And how does one magnify a calling? Simply by performing the service that pertains to it. An elder magnifies the ordained calling of an elder by learning what his duties as an elder are and then by doing them. As with an elder, so with a deacon, a teacher, a priest, a bishop, and each who holds office in the priesthood.”

Source: President Thomas S. Monson, “The Call of Duty,” Ensign, May 1986, 38–39. 

Success means trusting in God's plan

I thought my athletic career was over.
 
I played soccer in high school and even set a state record in the high jump. Then I broke my leg and had to pivot to sprinting. 

I walked onto a college team and worked my way into school records in second in the 200-meter and 4x100-meter relays. 

I graduated in exercise science in 2024 and figured that chapter was closed. I was ready for a "real job."
 
Then a friend invited me to a bobsled combine.
 
I didn’t know much about the sport, but I showed up. The first time I pushed a sled, it felt familiar and completely new at the same time. The same explosive power from track, but now it depended on four of us moving as one.
 
Now I’m a push athlete on a four-man US bobsled team at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.
 
My wife, Brynlee, and I were married in the Cedar City Utah Temple in 2023. Through every pivot and every unexpected turn, our faith has anchored us. When I thought I had reached a dead end, the Lord opened a different path.
 
I used to think success meant finishing first.
 
Now I think it means trusting God when your plans change and being willing to keep running anyway.

- Caleb Furnell

Source: https://x.com/Ch_JesusChrist/status/2024220449081594113

When God needs something to happen in the world He sends a baby

Frank W. Boreham, an English Baptist preacher was speaking of events during the Napoleonic Wars and the early part of the 19th century. He said, men were following with bated breath, the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for the news of the wars and all the while in their own homes, babies were being born, but who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles.

In one year between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes. In 1809, Gladstone was born in Liverpool. Alfred Tennyson was born at the Somersby rectory. Oliver Wendell Holmes made his first appearance in Massachusetts. Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at old Kentucky. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was born at Durham. But nobody thought of babies. Everyone was thinking of battles. Yet which of the battles in 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? He goes on to say, we fancy that God can only manage his world by big battalions when all the while he is doing it by beautiful babies.

He says, when a wrong wants righting or work wants doing or truth wants preaching or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it. That is why long, long ago a baby was born in Bethlehem.

God's view and planning are long term. His timing is often not as quick as we would like. The things we often think are most important in the moment may end up being of little importance in the long run. We need to learn patience. Trust the Lord and His timing.

Psalm 46:10 - "Be still, and know that I am God"

Proverbs 3:5-6 - "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

Source: Bonnie Cordon, Follow Him podcast 

The Power of Being 100% Responsible

This story is paraphrased from a BYU devotional given by Elder Lynn G. Robbins.

In 1983, I co-founded a company that taught time-management seminars and sold day planners. Our distribution center shipped seminar materials, but frequent errors - missing items, late deliveries - caused frustration and embarrassment. When confronted, the employees always blamed others: incorrect forms, freight delays, or mistakes by other departments. They never accepted responsibility, so the problems continued.

One day, a major client invited us to teach a pilot seminar for its top executives. When the consultant opened the boxes, the seminar guidebooks were missing. The training director was furious and vowed never to hire us again. We risked losing a million-dollar account.

I didn’t want to fire these employees, so I implemented an incentive system: bonuses for error-free shipments and penalties for mistakes - regardless of who was at fault. “You are 100 percent responsible for each shipment,” I told them. At first, they protested, saying, “That’s not fair!” But I insisted.

What happened next was fascinating. They began double-checking forms, verifying freight details, labeling boxes clearly, shipping early, and confirming deliveries. Errors stopped, and they earned their bonuses month after month. It was life-changing for them to learn firsthand the power, control, and reward of being 100 percent responsible.

What these two employees learned is that when they blamed someone else, they were surrendering control of the shipment’s success to others - such as the seminar division or the freight company. They learned that excuses keep you from taking control of your life. They learned that it is self-defeating to blame others, make excuses, or justify mistakes - even when you are right! The moment you do any of these self-defeating things, you lose control over the positive outcomes you are seeking in life.

It is empowering to search for solutions rather than to look for excuses. 

Source: Elder Lynn G. Robbins, "Be 100 Percent Responsible"

Life is about what we become, not what we do

 

The Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts — what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts — what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.
- Elder Dallin H. Oaks

I tend to get caught up in the mindset that judgment will be some kind of point-based system where all of our actions (good and bad) are tallied, and the final score will determine our fate. Instead it is based on our desires and our trajectory. 

Repentance is therefore not so much about trying to wipe specific sins off our balance sheet, as it is trying to refocus our desires and thoughts back towards the Savior.

Source: Dallin H. Oaks, “The Challenge to Become”

There are always flowers for those who want to see them

Henri Matisse, the French artist, had a prolific and influential art career spanning over six decades.

But by the time he reached his 70s, illness had confined him to a wheelchair, and surgery had left him too weak to hold a paint brush. But instead of quitting art, he decided to focus on what he could still do. Matisse looked inward and forward rather than backward.

He began using scissors instead of a paintbrush. He cut vibrant shapes from painted paper and arranged them into "cut-outs." This wasn’t a compromise — it was a reinvention. His art from this era of his life was still radiant, uplifting, and full of life. They pulse with joy — not despite his limitations, but through them.

One of the most stunning pieces from this era, La Gerbe (The Sheaf), is a cascade of colorful leaves dancing upward.

Another is Icarus. The figure appears to be falling — or maybe flying — against a deep blue sky, surrounded by stars. Matisse could have made it tragic, but instead he made it electric. He gave Icarus vitality and courage, even in descent.

Matisse was asked why he didn't express his struggles or sorrow in his art. He answered that there was enough sadness in the world already and that art should instead celebrate and focus on the happiness and beauty of life. He said, "There are always flowers for those who want to see them." His later works weren't an escape from reality but a choice to seek light even in shadow. They were declarations of optimism crafted with conviction.

So if life pushes us into unexpected corners, maybe the lesson is this: We don’t need the perfect conditions to create beauty. We just need the will to keep cutting shapes from the vibrant paper of what we still have.

Source: The basics of the story were told to us by our tour guide in France.

Turn your pain into power

True superheroes aren’t born, they’re forged through adversity. The song "Superheroes" by The Script, has these words in the chorus:

When you've been fighting for it all your life
You've been struggling to make things right
That’s how a superhero learns to fly
Every day, every hour, turn the pain into power

When you've fighting for it all your life
You've been working every day and night
That’s how a superhero learns to fly
Every day, every hour, turn the pain into power

It is by overcoming adversity that we find our own superpowers.
Source: Superheroes lyrics