Desire - If it's meant to be it's up to me!

Isn't this a great picture! It's of one of my sons on the island of Kauai. I wanted to capture how cool it was to be with family, in such a beautiful place! Shortly after this picture we made a small fire, s'mores and then watched as the stars appeared and the splendor of the heavens came to life. It was an amazing time and one I will not soon forget.

This is another great picture I love! It is a painting by Julie Rogers. She titled it 'Determination'. It depicts James Kirkwood (11) who had the great responsibility to look after his younger brother, Joseph Smith Clements Kirkwood (5) in their immigration with the Willie Handcart Company in 1856.

During a 15 mile day during a bitter Wyoming blizzard they were separated from their family. At some point small Joseph was too weak to walk. Knowing Joseph would not make it if he did not keep going James carried his younger brother. The 15 mile day was up Rocky Ridge.

When James finally made it to camp at Rock Creek, he collapsed. With the desire and determinate to care for his younger brother he made it back to camp and saved his brother. The biography of young Joseph by his daughter, Mary, states, "Next morning when arriving in camp, the brother James fell dead due to starvation and cold. He was buried on the banks of the Sweetwater in a grave with twelve others."

This story has always touched me. I have always loved Julie's painting. It hangs in my home on the wall in a prominent location for all to see. It reminds me of the bond of family and of the need to faithfully fulfill our duty. To successfully do so, we must start with our desires.

As I grew up the concept of desires was more of instinctual – meaning they are what they are. But as I have painfully and not so painfully come to believe is that you can shape, change and create your desires. This should give us all hope because if you can’t change our desires then you are simply here to be reactive. If you can’t create your desires than you are stuck with an attitude of “it is what it is”. I believe desires influence priorities which impact your choices/actions and ultimately your achievements/failures.

When I was younger, I wanted to be good at wrestling. I remember having some natural talent, but I didn’t understand what it took to be a great wrestler. I desired rest, food and relaxing more than I desired to be good at wrestling. I remember a moment of clarification after a match. One of the coach’s, Coach Potts, took notes on my match and during the match had comments about specific moves and the situation. Then in big bold letters, “YOU QUIT”. If you have ever wrestled, then you know what this means. I was so mad! At first I was very mad at Coach. But the moment came, I did quit, long before that match. If you really desire something it has be more than “In The Moment Desire” (ITMD). Every athlete, every match of live, each competitor has ITMD. In my book, each person cannot have more ITMD than another. ITMD does not help you win. Rather you need to have “Prior To Moment Desire” (PTMD). PTMD leads one to prepare for the moment. This is the key, to determine your PTMD and allow this to influence your priorities, choices, actions and ultimately your success.

Christ had the ultimate PTMD. He wanted long before coming to earth to follow and act only in accordance with His Father. He was not a novice when He came to this earth! He said, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise” (John 5:19). To be more like Him we can look to shape our desires. But shaping our desires to be like the desires of Jesus Christ is not easy. But it’s been done before and the way is sure and known. Dallin Oaks in his talk, ‘Desire’ in the April 2011 spoke about various examples of righteous desires. He uses Alma 22:16 were Aaron is teaching and states, “If thou desirest this thing, … if thou wilt repent of all thy sins, and will bow down before God, and call on his name in faith, believing that ye shall receive, then shalt thou receive the hope which thou desirest”. Receive what one desires!! As one hope grows so does ones desires to continue in that hope and ultimately we become what we focus on.

Elder Oaks continues, “The prophet Alma had a great desire to cry repentance to all people, but he came to understand that he should not desire the compelling power this would require because, he concluded, ‘a just God … granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life’ (Alma 29:4). God grants us our desires!!

Similarly, in modern revelation Jesus Christ declared that He ‘will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts’ (D&C 137:9).”

Desire in the scriptures is often interchanged with the word seek. Like, ‘whatsoever thou seeketh...’ or ‘seek and he shall find’.

Elder Oaks said, “We should remember that righteous desires cannot be superficial, impulsive, or temporary. They must be heartfelt, unwavering, and permanent.” Isn’t this the true characteristic of Christ. Christ was the ultimate example of heartfelt. Christ was unwavering in His desire to obey and follow God the Father. Christ’s life was all about eternity significance. And Christ was focused on the everlasting consequences of His life.

If our desires are not up-to-par, we can realign and adjust. Realigning our desires to give highest priority to the things of eternity will never be easy. We are all tempted to desire that worldly P’s – Power, Pride, Prominence and Possession. Though it is okay to desire the 4 P’s let us “check our egos at the door and not fix them as our highest priorities....

A powerful story about desire is that of Aron Ralston. While Ralston was hiking in a remote canyon in southern Utah, an 800-pound rock shifted suddenly and trapped his right arm. For five lonely days he struggled to free himself. When he was about to give up and accept death, he had a vision of a three-year-old boy running toward him and being scooped up with his left arm. Understanding this as a vision of his future son and an assurance that he could still live, Ralston summoned the courage and took drastic action to save his life before his strength ran out. He broke the two bones in his trapped right arm and then used the knife in his multitool to cut off that arm. He then summoned the strength to hike five miles for help.

Jospeh Smith taught that ultimately this characteristic, the desire for righteousness, will lead us to “overcome the evils of [life] and [lose] every desire for sin.” We can “lose the desire for sin”! Seriously, that’s great because poor desires have left us all too addicted to poor behavior and outcomes.

Let’s take an inventory of our desires. Where are they pointing us? What are they requiring of us? We’re do we spend our time? What are we focusing on? Let’s look to become a master of desire instead of being mastered by our desires.

For me, I have spent way too much time chasing the mighty dollar and not enough time as a son, husband and dad!

“It is our actions and our desires that cause us to become something, whether a true friend, a gifted teacher, or one who has qualified for eternal life.”

Are our desires the same as Christs’? Ponder the question for a minute. What would He have us desire? When James and John expressed their desires Christ taught them, “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister”. Christ taught our desire must be holier; to bless, strengthen and love.

My desire is to raise my desires! To be more genuine, heart-felt, honest and willing to follow the Savior. I know I must balance the temporal worldly aspect of life with the spiritual aspect of eternity. For me the thing that helps me have greater PTMD is to start each day with PREP – Prayer, Reading, Exercise and Planning/Pondering. When I pray, read, exercise and plan out my day I am 1000% more likely to create the desires of my heart and pattern my desires, choices, actions and ultimately consequences after the Savior; to do what He would do; and to say what He would say.