All Wound Up

I realize that many of you may be wondering why I haven't posted anything about Christmas yet, considering that it's now 9 days away!  Forgive me for being a Scrooge (which is really a misnomer because Scrooge ended up changing his ways and becoming a pretty okay guy... but I digress--again).

I was talking with my trusty companion, Elder Wright today about our life here on Earth.  We are all progressing or "marching toward" something while we're here; our purpose is to progress toward God and live with Him when we die.  I made a comment that we're like little wind-up toys, or like a toy train.  We all start out the same (though our circumstances vary, of course).  Our early choices and the influence of others kind of "wind us up" or set us on a certain track.  We are all marching toward one end of the spectrum, whether it's toward God or Satan is based on our choices.  Sometimes we get a little unwound--the choices we make determine who winds us back up, God or the devil.  We can always change, whether for good or ill, because of our free will.  Christ invites us to come unto Him and His Father with open arms; Satan deceives and entices us toward destruction with momentary pleasures.  We have the scriptures, the words of prophets ancient and modern, our families, and friends to motivate us and move us in the right direction.

"Elder Spendlove!  What on Earth does this have to do with Christmas?!"

I Will Choose Free Will!

Sometimes as missionaries we get little "freebies"--we were at this burger joint in Ukiah on Monday with a local member of the Church (I had an ostrich burger.  Yeah.  That just happened), and there was all this classic rock playing (Aside: as missionaries we don't listen to the radio or music that draws us away from Christ.), and I loved classic rock back home.  I was trying not to listen to it!  I promise!  Anyway, this song by Rush comes on and as I "wasn't listening", my ear caught hold of some of the lyrics, which are as follows:

"I will choose a path that's clear--I will choose freewill!"

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill.

In between bites of ostrich, I really pondered the meaning behind those words.  We as humans value free will.  We (LDS people) believe it is one of the basic reasons we're her on Earth--to use our free will to choose God instead of Satan; we use our free will to"come unto Christ and be perfected in Him", like I posted last week.