Eternal Destiny

13 August 2011, Age 16

“Sometimes bad things happen to good people, and it doesn’t mean they did anything wrong to make this happen to them. It’s just Life. Life - the state of being alive (Urban Dictionary) so the question is: Does life continue after death? Because if Life is simply being alive, wouldn't Life continue after death? Or will we be placed in a grave and left there, lifeless, forever? Many people want to know the answer to this one simple yet extremely complex question: Is there Life after death? The simple answer is, Yes. The complexity of it is what type of Life will continue after death? Where will everyone be? Is everyone together? What will we do after death? How long will we live after we die? Well, to connect it all to my first statement, “Bad things happen to good people,” Life is a test. Every single human being will face trials and temptations, and depending on how they handle and cope with these trials and temptations, will determine what happens to them after they die. It will not only determine their future, but their Eternal Destiny. Eternal - lasting or existing forever; without end or beginning (Urban Dictionary). Your Eternal Destiny is without end. What you do now, even at this very moment will determine what you will be doing for the rest of Eternity. Not just tomorrow, not just next year, but Forever. What you do now, and what happens to you now, are two totally different things. One is what Life thrusts upon you, and the other is how you, personally, deal with what Life thrusts upon you, it is your choice. Control - the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events (Urban Dictionary) Can you control what happens to you in Life? 

There is one straightforward answer to this question, NO.

You most certainly cannot, so why try to?

Yet, you CAN control how YOU react to the things that happen to you. You can choose your attitude, you can choose your frame of mind, and you can choose a road that leads you to happiness vs. a road that leads you to despair. How can you choose the road of happiness? How can you be happy and positive when a family member dies?

How can you feel at peace when someone has done wrong to you?

How can you deal with being broke and not being able to provide for your family?

How can you deal with an addiction?

How can you control yourself and keep yourself on the right track when all of your friends are not?

How can you keep yourself happy, calm, peaceful, positive and clean?

The main thing you can do is to keep the Eternal Perspective in mind. Sometimes our problems seem like they are going to make or break us, but when you hold them back and look at the whole picture, they are nothing in comparison to the Eternal Perspective. Sometimes you just need to be positive, force happiness until you actually are happy, stay on the right track until it becomes easier and easier to resist the temptation. 

But then again, everyone makes mistakes.

Perfect- free from any flaw or defect, faultless (Urban Dictionary). Who do you know that is perfect? That is another straightforward answer: No one. If no one can be perfect, does that mean no one except for “you”? No, you are not exempt from the no one, you are not perfect and never will be. You might be perfect at certain things, like reading your scriptures morning and night, praying morning and night, not swearing, practicing your piano, doing your homework, but being perfect at some things does not make you perfect. So you will mess up, everyone does, and sometimes after you mess up you will think, “I will never do that again”. What do you know? The next day, you are doing it again. You are not perfect.

Yet, there is a plan for those of us who are not perfect, the repentance process.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ was not meant for the worst of sinners, but for the everyday human being, which includes you. Learn it, Love it, and Use it. Using the Atonement does not mean you are a bad person, it means you are human. Even for the littlest of things, like hitting your sister, or fighting with your parents, or forgetting to pay your tithing, repent and you will be forgiven. God is merciful and just.”