About Me

First of all, one of the biggest identities that we carry around with us in life is our name. It's what we use to introduce ourselves, it's what people call out when they want to get our attention. We put it on all of our stuff, and use it to sign important things. So my real name isn't Davin. I made it up. Are you mad? I hope not. A lot of authors have pseudonyms, right? For the time being, this will be mine. Everything else will be true, I promise. I also promise that I do have a real name and I like it. I identify myself by my name because that's me. On this blog I want to be able to talk about things that I'm not extremely open about but I'm getting there.

After our name, there are tons of different things that we could use to identify ourselves depending on who we're talking to. Some of my choices are that I am somebody's son, brother, or friend. I'm an engineer. I'm a musician. I'm a Mormon. I like ice cream. And I'm...gay. Yeah, that's the one that I have had a hard time with and I'll talk about that more soon.

So, to pick a second thing that I would use to identify myself, I think it would be appropriate to use the big picture that I talked about in my previous posts. I am a son of God! That's really cool to me, because it means that I have great potential. I'm going somewhere. I'm proud to have that relationship with my Heavenly Father. I belong to and I am a part of Him.

Third I would identify myself by my family. My last name isn't Garrett, but I identify myself with my real last name that I got from my father and on up the line. I am his son, I'm a grandson, great grandson, and so on. I enjoy looking at my family history and learning about those people that came before me and made the choices that influence my life. I'm here because of them. I have a great immediate family. I'm a brother. They have taught me a lot growing up and now that we're all grown, we're all in the same boat of going through life enduring to the end. I'm thankful for them and their love for me. I'm also an uncle and a nephew. I'm surrounded by people who are stuck with me, but we like it.

Fourth, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I'm a Mormon. This means that I have made sacred covenants with my Heavenly Father to repent of my sins and follow His commandments. This does not mean that I am perfect (or that I think I am), or that I am better than those who aren't members of this church. Remember that we are all still children of God working on the same goal.

Fifth, let's throw in the engineer thing. I went to school and got a degree and now I have a job. Engineering interests me and I love designing and building cool things. I want to make a difference in the world and I want to do well in my career.

Now that we're getting down far in the list, things aren't as important as an identifying feature. Walking down the street and introducing myself, I would use the above 90% if not more of the time. I like those identities and I believe that they are the real me. They aren't everything that makes me who I am though. I have character and personality. I like movies, ice cream, Italian food, music, hiking, biking and a lot of other things. Deeper than that, I love people. I love connecting with people and being a part of their lives. I love seeing them overcome difficult things and become better people. I feel like I can understand people. I also am a listener. I like to listen more than I like to talk. I like to enjoy the moment. I also like to lead. I like to see things organized and working well. I like to solve problems. I could go on, but I hope that you get the point. I'm me, all those things in one individual person that I get the pleasure of being forever.

An important thing that I've realized though is that there are parts of me that just aren't quite there yet. For example, I'm lazy sometimes. Sometimes I don't want to do things because it's easier to relax. I know that I need to get up and out and do more things, and that's something that I want to change. I also need to work at getting better at learning engineering. I'm getting experience while I work, but I need to do better at wanting to put in some extra time to really learn more things. This life is about learning and changing and developing ourselves into something greater. I would hope that I'm not finished becoming who I am going to be for the rest of eternity. Seeing my potential, that would be a let down. There are definitely things in my character that I'm going to keep though. I want to keep my piano skills and make them better. I want to learn how to play more instruments and sing better.

And then we come down to that gay thing. I find myself attracted to men rather than women. Where does this fit? I don't think that I'd put it in my list of things that I like in normal conversation. Yeah, I like ice cream, Imagine Dragons, good looking guys, Italian food, and riding my bike. At the same time I can't put it in the list of things that I don't like because that would be lying. Do I put it in the list of my character traits that I want to stay around forever, or do I put it in the list of things that I want and plan to change? And more importantly if I put it in my list of things that I want to change, can it really be changed at all?

For most of my life, it has been put in the list of things that I would like to change about myself. I wanted it gone. I didn't want to deal with it. I didn't want it affecting my other goals and dreams of growing up, serving a mission, getting married, getting a job, and living life the way I always wanted to. But no matter how much I tried to get rid of it, it stayed. On the other hand, I could never really add it to the list of the things that I wanted to have stay around forever because it did not fit with the plan that Heavenly Father and I have for myself.

So, maybe it get's put in a new list. I think that Paul had a list like that, his thorn in the flesh. Do I accept that I'll have this with me throughout my life until the end? And then maybe then it will go away with the resurrection? So, this new list...I'm putting being bald in there too because this hair just isn't growing back. Can I put my lack of skill at basketball in there as well? Is this a place where I'm putting things that I've given up hope on? That doesn't quite seem right to me. Because unlike basketball, having same gender attraction affects my life a lot. It affects my desires and what I want to choose. I also think that same gender attraction is not just one thing. It can be broken up and exploded into many little things that could go in a lot of different lists of things I like, dislike, can change, can't change, and maybe new lists altogether.

I don't think I'm going to figure this out right now. This is definitely what I'm trying to work out, so maybe it will make more sense next time I write.

Challenges and Trials

So in my last post, I laid the foundation of what the big picture is. In a few short words, it's basically that Heavenly Father created a plan for us, His children, the become like Him. That plan includes us coming to this earth and going through life, with all of its experiences. One aspect of that plan is that we are given complete freedom to act and choose whatever we want. You can do anything you want right now, you can say anything you want, you can think anything you want. We are given responsibility to choose the right things to do, say, and think. We will also have to face the consequences.

So what about all these challenges and trials that we have? All the things that just don't seem fair and we ask, sometimes in frustration, why me? Why do I have to deal with this? We may go a long time without knowing the answer, but I have found that it helps to remember that big picture.

There are different categories that these challenges and trials fall under.

1. We do something wrong and the trials are the consequences of that.
2. Someone else does something wrong and that affects our life.
3. Nobody does anything wrong, and the trial is just part of life.

We could get into deep doctrine quickly, but I want to try and keep this simple and investigate deeper further in the future.

For now, let's talk a little about each case.

1. When we do something wrong or make a mistake, we need to repent and change. If we truly want to make good choices, we need to learn from those mistakes and do our best not to repeat them. The atonement applies here because as we repent of our sins and mistakes, they will be taken care of.
2. When someone else does something wrong and it affects our life, our first reaction is to blame them, to hate them, and maybe to seek out revenge. That does no good. We have to realize that we only have control of our actions, words, and thoughts. We must forgive and let those people work out their repentance and change. And if we're remembering the big picture, we'll help them by letting them know that we love them. The atonement will cover their mistakes as well as heal and cover the wrong that was done in our life because of them.
3. When nobody does anything wrong, it is easy for us to get angry at God and blame Him. Why would He let this happen to us? We cannot forget the big picture. As with the first two cases, our reaction and attitude makes the difference in what we become. We can become angry and bitter or we can become stronger and more able to overcome. The atonement covers all of the unfairness of life. If we trust it and have faith in Christ, all things will be for our good.

So, what are you struggling with? I'm sure you have more than one, but there may be one big issue that is on your mind that you can't forget and get rid of. It might affect you every day and make you feel like you don't even want to go forward one more step. You might be confused, discouraged, and afraid that you aren't going to make it. I've definitely been there with my challenges. But I want you to know that there is hope through the atonement. 

For God hath not not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. - 2 Timothy 1:7

We are children of God, we have a potential to be like Him and we have the power to overcome that one, or two, or ten challenges that we feel like we can't overcome. God loves us and we are loved by many others. We can let our minds be calmed and feel peace because there is healing and help and good on the way. Even if the challenge doesn't go away today, we can feel that peace, love, and power today, right now.

Blog Introduction

Welcome!

I'm glad that you found this blog and I'm hoping that it will help you in some way. I don't know where you're coming from or what you might have searched for to find this blog, but first of all, I want to be your friend. You might be just like me, or you might be completely different. I have a lot to learn from you, and I hope you can learn something from me.

The main purpose of this blog is to talk about something that is bigger than all of us. It's bigger than our successes and failures and our strengths and weaknesses. It's bigger than whatever we choose to identify ourselves as. It brings us together, it gives us meaning and purpose, and it changes our perspective of life. It's what's really important, it's the big picture, it's the reality outside of our perceived world and experiences. Sounds important, right? I believe that it is.

Here's the foundation:

1. There is a God. He is perfect, all-knowing, and all-powerful. He created everything, but more importantly, He created us. He is our Father and He has a love that transcends everything that we can imagine.
2. Heavenly Father knows you and me perfectly. We have had a Father-Child relationship with Him for a long time. Before life on this earth, we lived with Him. We had an identity.
3. Heavenly Father created a plan where we as His children could grow up, learn, get better, and eventually become like Him. It a perfect plan and the only way to accomplish that goal.
4. A big part of that plan was agency, the freedom for us to choose what we do, good or bad. Agency is the only way that we can learn to make the right decisions and make them all the time.
5. The difficult thing is that with agency, we will make mistakes. Even one mistake will keep us from our goal. We will all fail (and have already failed) many times. As you've probably noticed, this life is hard!
6. Because the plan is perfect, Heavenly Father provided His son, Jesus Christ, as a Savior. Jesus Christ's atonement covers our sins, our mistakes, and every unfair thing that comes in this life.
7. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ taught us the Gospel, which is the way that we accept and use the atonement to have affect in our lives.
8. We must stay true to and have hope in that Gospel if we want to accomplish our Heavenly Father's plan, which will bring us eternal happiness.

Are you interested? I hope so. Heavenly Father wants all of us to make it. I want to make it, and I want to help others make it as well. I want you to make it.

In this blog, I want to share my experiences of following this plan and striving to stay true to the Gospel. I'll be upfront right now though, I make mistakes. I am not perfect. I am often confused to how I fit in and how this plan will work for me. I don't always feel hope. But the one thing that I do know is that this plan is perfect for me and learning about it and following it will be the only way for me to go.