Merging Monday brings thoughts of Sunday

Isn't it funny how the simplest things can often cause you to reflect upon a deeper life lesson? Well that's what happened this morning.

Every morning I make the long drive to work from Murrieta to Santa Fe Springs. Sometimes I carpool with my dad, which makes the commute shorter, but today I drove by myself!

Getting onto the 91 freeway from the 15 can be quite a chore, depending on the amount of cars and whether people remember how to merge that day. Lol!

As I sat on the onramp- dead stopped- I looked down and could see that the westbound freeway was barely moving of at all while the eastbound freeway had hardley anyone on it! I thought to myself, "Geez, the smart people are the ones who commute the opposite direction from the rest of the world!"

That's when it hit me:

If we move in the same direction as the world our spiritual progress ceases! We become stuck in a traffic jam that retards our celestial nature! However, if we move in the opposite direction of the world, we will have the freedom to progress at our own pace- fast or slow!

I think this could be one of the reasons Elder Eyring admonishes us this month to have moral courage! He says:

"One of the purposes of mortal life is to prove to God that we will keep His
commandments when that takes courage. We passed that test in the spirit world.
But a third of the hosts of heaven rebelled against the proposal that they be
tested in a mortal existence where there was a risk that they would fail."

"Before we were born, we knew God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ,
personally. We could see Them and listen to Them as They taught and encouraged
us. Now a veil has been placed over our minds and memories. Satan, the father of
lies, has an advantage because we must see the reality of who we are through the
eyes of faith, while our bodies make us subject to carnal temptation and to
physical weakness."

"We have great helps to give us courage in this
life. The greatest is the Atonement of Jesus Christ."

He continues by saying we also have spiritual gifts, the Holy Ghost, and the priesthood to help us be courageous.

Yesterday, I shared the lyrics of a song performed by Musical Truth, and written by Jolene Kanahele, entitled "Courage"

"Courage is doing what's right
In th prescense of fear
It takes courage
to do what I should when no one else is near
Courage is my way of saying
I will follow thee
When the world walks out on me"

We can find the courage we need to move the opposite direction of the world by relying on our Father in Heaven. Elder Eyring concludes:

"God has given us more than enough help to banish fear and give us courage, whatever we may face in life. As we reach out for His help, He can lift us toward that eternal life we seek."


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It may not be the most, but it’s definitely a Top 10er!

According to http://www.infoplease.com/ the most populated city in the world is Bombay, India with an estimated 11,914,398 people living in it. Sao Paulo, Brazil comes in a close second with a whopping 11,016,703 residents. Next in the list are Shanghai, Moscow, and Seoul which I’m pretty sure are followed by my parents’ house on Sundays! I know what you’re thinking: “Big Mormon Family’—if that was true I might be a little more used to the densely populated home that I grew up in; alas my biological family is far below your everyday Mormon's.

http://www.fairlds.org/[1] states that the average Mormon family has four children and in my family there is only me and my sister. So to compensate for their failure to multiply and replenish the earth, my parents have taken in every stray Mormon in Murrieta.

Typical Sunday activities for a Mormon family include reading scriptures, having a quiet family dinner, taking a leisure drive, or writing a letter to a missionary all of which are interspersed with several naps throughout the day. However, like I said before, my family is anything but average. Our Sunday activities include preparing enough food to feed a small nation and facilitating a plethora of games that extend far past the spirit’s (and my father’s) bedtime.

In all of the commotion surrounding my newfound Sunday experience, I manage to sneak away to my mother’s favorite corner, the computer room, where I can sit in the dark and take a much needed break from it all (if only for a minute). In the darkness, I have a second to ponder the complexities of my family dynamics. My mother, who hates crowds transforms into the ultimate hostess to feed the masses each Sunday. My father, who prior to the sudden population increase, seldom kept his church clothes on long enough to get through the front door, now sits in them and plays the role of the benevolent priesthood leader. My sister, ever longing to hangout with my friends when we were younger has replaced me in the popularity chain and reversed our roles. And as for myself, the formerly extroverted Murrieta socialite now sits in a darkened computer room at peace by himself—a routine I am most likely destined to repeat every Sunday I am home.

In all of my analysis on the over population of the Dowden home, I forgot to mention how proud I am to be a Dowden. I really do have the coolest parents because they accept everyone from Schizophrenics who like to play leapfrog to head cheerleaders who haven’t quite gotten over the glory days into their home and christen them family—which is probably what keeps attracting all these strays. Everyday is a new adventure filled with new people—tiring at times, like every Sunday afternoon, but just as exciting as the other most populated cities in the world. My house may not be the most populated city in the world, but it’s definitely a Top 10er!


[1] http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2002_Dealing_with_Demographics.html