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Murphy’s Law or a Higher
Law?
By Vickey Pahnke-Taylor
Editor's Note:
If you've always wanted to sail through the Panama Canal, you can
do it in the company of Vickey Pahnke-Taylor and Meridian Magazine.
Click
for information.
Two men looked out
From the selfsame bars,
One saw mud,
The other saw stars.
That’s a great little poem with
a big message. What do we see when we look out and around us? Is
what we see more a reflection of how we are than how other things,
people, or circumstances are?
There are plenty of difficult things
that come our way, and no amount of Pollyanna attitude will make
them go away. The decision to control our reaction to negative circumstances,
however, may result in a much better ability to see good things
and feel good feelings even when we are in the midst of those difficulties.
Murphy’s Law suggests that whatever might possibly go wrong,
will. Seeking for a higher, more soul satisfying approach to our
lives offers a lot more sunshine and an improved ability to see
stars rather than mud.
Nephi reminds us, in 2 Nephi 10:23,
to “cheer up [our] hearts and remember that ye are free to
act for [ourselves] — to choose the way of everlasting death
or the way of eternal life.” On a daily basis, freely choosing
to rid ourselves of the negative approach — the Murphy’s
Law mentality — will strengthen our cheer factor. That factor
grants us more strength to continually see the good in others and
in ourselves.
Over time we see that we cling to better
ideas and thoughts, and grow gracefully into those higher ways our
Savior offers — and we more closely approach incorporating
the laws that will grant us eternal life!
If “life consists of what a man
is thinking all day” (Ralph Waldo Emerson), how is your life
going? What blessings are waiting for you as you add to your faith
and build on a higher way of thinking?
Amulek tells us that we should have
faith and patience so that we can plant the word in our hearts,
that we may try the experiment of its goodness. (See Alma 34:3)
He is speaking of Christ and of His gospel. Can we not exercise
that same kind of patience and faith in other things, once we have
built a strong foundation on the Rock of our Salvation, and follow
Christ’s example of seeing the good?
Surely, it is a higher way of living.
Certainly, it presents to us a higher, sweeter law by which to govern
ourselves.
Mud and stars. Amazing that two people
in the same place can see such a different picture. One is looking
up and the other down. Does Murphy’s Law grow because we are
looking down — at the world, at ourselves, at others, or at
life in general? Looking at the sidewalk may offer up a penny now
and then. But by not looking up, we miss the smiles of others walking
along, near us. We miss the trees and flowers and animals. We miss
the sky. We may miss the beauty of the whole life experience.
The difficulties will come and go.
The gospel principles are constant. Others may come and go, or fluctuate
in their integrity or mood. We may choose to be constant. We may
choose to see more clearly and more positively. It offers us the
opportunity (and blessings!) of enjoying the higher laws!
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© 2007 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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