Mother Teresa

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."
-Mother Teresa

Destiny or Fate

My good friend Josh Wyciskalla asked the following question via facebook and this blog is to comemorate his question: I enjoy being able to choose my own destiny, but I thought: When we choose our destiny, do we also choose our fate? Are those things different, synonymous or entirely unrelated?

This is my answer:
But first a quote by Henry Emerson Fosdick: “Oh my soul, look to the road to which you are traveling on. He who picks up one end of the stick picks up the other. He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place to which it leads.” When you pick up one end of a stick you have no choice in picking up the other end as well. Every time you make a choice you cannot help the consequence that follows. Weither bad or good.

Fate is synonymous with consequence (Webster’s American English Thesaurus, New Edition, 2006.) But some people see destiny as synonymous to fate, as fate is to a final outcome regardless of choice. This is usually a statement that has been portrayed by those individuals who advocate that there is no God. For those who claim to believe such through both word and/or action, can’t help but think to themselves, what’s the difference? To them, after you die, that’s it. Ultimately, in the end we’re all ending up in the same place regardless of our choices here in life. To such an individual, fate and destiny might as well be synonymous. But for those of us who choose to believe that this life isn’t meaningless, that it isn’t going nowhere, or isn’t just some random fluke of chance, we not only exclaim there is a God (or some form of Higher Being) we show that we know it through our actions. By the choices we’re making to better not only ourselves, but also the lives all around us. Believing that our choices do matter is the difference of opinion our two views hold. Ultimately, our destiny IS whatever we choose to make of it. Despite all the foreknowledge God does have and any foreknowledge we could have. While fate is what comes as the consequences to both our actions and inactions. It is the consequence of forfeiting our agency.

In short the question we each need to ask ourselves isn't, What do we want our destiny to be? The correct question we should be asking oureselves is, Where do we want our final destin(y)ation to be? So let us look to the road which we are traveling on, and may the choices we make now lead us to where our hearts desire.
"But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

A Hot Stove

Most of us try to avoid touching a hot stove, but if it happens we recognize the problem and withdraw our hand quickly. The pain prompts swift action, which keeps us from damaging ourselves any further. Who among us is going to leave their hand on the stove, and then try to convince themselves that it doesn't really hurt? Committing sin is like touching a hot stove. In normal cases, the pain of guilt leads to recognizing the sin, which in turn leads to repentance. This is exactly what Alma taught when he said, "Let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance" (Alma 42:29). Refusing to recongnize sin can only lead to anger and defiance. Which in turn, leads to justification. Instead of looking for help, we look for excuses.
In the context of touching a hot stove, lets consider some of the most common excuses for sin:
-Just one touch won't hurt.
-I'm afraid if I take my hand off I won't be able to leave it off.
-I deserve this.
-The only reaon I feel pain is because of my religious culture/heritage.
-But I was born with the desire to touch the stove.
-It's my parents' fault. They're the ones who bought the stove.
-No one told me touching the hot stove was bad.
-It may hurt, but at least I am touching it with someone I love.
-It's not like it's totally wrong. It's a gray area.
-Everyone else is touching it.
-I'll touch it if I want. It's my right. Nobody is going to tell me what to do or not do.
-Stove? What stove? I don't see any stove.
-I just don't care anymore. I'm numb to it.
-I know it's wrong, but I'll move my hand tomorrow.
-You can't go without touching the stove all the time.
-I've blown it now. I might as well touch it more.
-Those who don't touch it are so old-fashoned.
-At least it's just my hand and not my whole face.
-How will I know it hurts unless I touch it myself?
-At least the other stove touchers accept me and don't judge.
-There are others who touch it more than I do.
-If God didn't want me to touch the stove, He wouldn't have given me a hand.
We can obviously see how much easier it is to find excuses than to humbly go through the repentance process. In the mean time, excuses can't help us, can't sustain us, nor are they able to love us as our Father in Heaven does. "Do not endeavor to excuxe yourself in the least point because of your sins" (Alma 42:30)