Good, Better, Best

I just had an experience that made this quote come to my mind.

"Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best." 
- Tim Duncan


I heard this quote a long time ago, and I thought it was good. I never really thought about it until today, however. We all want the best, but many times we settle for something less. You may want an A in your English class, but you don't want to put in the effort, so you settle for less.

 Many times it isn't as simple as this though. I'm a huge cold cereal fan. If you walk down the cereal isle at a grocery store you can be blown away with all the choices you have. Not only do you have the different types of cereal, but you have the brand name cereal and generic cereal. My family always got the generic kind because it was cheaper. For a long time I didn't even know that the name brands tasted better. It can be the same way with other aspects of our life. If we grow up thinking we have the best, and we never give other things a chance, we will never know how much better we could have had it. Even after we have tasted something better, we may not be willing to give up what we have for one reason or another. Now that I know the brand name tastes better, I still get the off brand because I'm not willing to pay the price for the best.

 Heavenly Father wants to give us the best. He wants us to be happy and through the scriptures and his prophets we can find out how we can be. What we receive all depends on how much we are willing to give. Many people have different pieces of Christ's gospel, and aren't willing to give that up for the fullness. They aren't willing to give up something good or better for the best. It may be because they aren't willing to pay the price (be obedient to it all), they may be comfortable and complacent with what they have, ect... When true happiness is the goal, shouldn't we be willing to pay any price for it?

If you are clinging to something from the past that is keeping you from Christ's best, let go. Whether it is the inability to be obedient or the fear of change, take that step of faith. Christ's true church has been set up on the earth today by one of his prophets, Joseph Smith. It brings greater peace and joy than anything else in this world.

The Assist

 I love to play basketball, and I love to score points. Sometimes however, you have to pass up a good opportunity for someone else to have a better opportunity. When this happens, and you pass the ball to someone who scores, it is called an assist. The principle of this is that you sacrifice something good (your shot), for something better (the higher chance to get points for your team).

We talked about sacrifice this past Sunday in class. At first I came in with the impression that sacrifice is something that is hard to do, but must be done because the Lord commands it. By the end of the class my perspective had changed. I want to focus mostly on attending church.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, "We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families." There are many good things that we could be doing on Sundays. Spending time with families, helping provide for our families, etc... But our Heavenly Father has told us that the best thing we could be doing is to keep the Sabbath Day holy, and attend church. It may be a sacrifice to give up some things that are helping us, but if we do sacrifice, we will gain a much greater blessing.

I now know that while sacrifices seem hard, they really aren't. If we can have the faith and trust in the Lord, we personally may not get the points, but we assist the Lord (the best shooter on our team) and he can make the basket for us. Because we sacrifice we and our families come out on top. I now know that the chance to sacrifice is a blessing, not a burden.