Because You Will Live to See Tomorrow

Much has been said of the question, "If you knew that you were to die tomorrow, what would you do today?" There are even songs about it. Songs like, Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw. And while I think this is good and all, I think there is a better way of looking at life.
Because you will live to see tomorrow, what are you going to do today?
There is no challenge in living your last day to the fullest, because you have nothing to lose; you're on your last day. The challenge comes in learning to live every day to the fullest not because it could be your last, but simply because it's another day! Living every day to it's fullest because you will live tomorrow requires optimism and hope. It requires a purpose and a mission in life. It also requires strength and endurance. Being happy is hard, it really is. Even for me, and I'm naturally a very, very happy and optimistic person. There is just so much to be sad about. Think for a moment. America is dying. Morality and decency is dying. Common sense is dying. Go look at the news, they will tell you all about it. But what goodness and joy can we glean from the world? That's the hard part. In the moment that you learn to see and focus on the good things in the world all around you, you expand your potential in an infinite way. And that, that is when you learn that you really can make a difference in the world.
Now go find the good things.
Love,
Dallin

Compromise

Compromise is one of the great plagues in America today. It's everywhere. Principles are compromised, values are compromised, morals are compromised.

Now don't get me wrong, compromise can be a very good thing, but not when it's dealing with morality or principle. Here's the problem.

When you're compromising your morality, you're compromising with the devil. The devil does not compromise. He pretends to though. Let us imagine for a moment that there is a mountain, and that this mountain is your morality. You're standing on the very top of it refusing to go any lower, and the devil is at the bottom calling you, asking you to come down just a little and talk to him. You refuse, and so he does what the devil does. He comes up to you. Now in coming up to you he is not raising his moral standards. No, he is too evil to raise them at all. So him coming up to you is all a ruse conceived for the sole purpose of leading you down the mountain and away from your standards and morality. Now it might not be the devil himself that comes up to you. He might come by way of an ambassador in the form of a friend of yours whose morality has already been compromised. And this ambassador will come right up to almost the top of the mountain. We're talking withing feet, and inches if he's clever enough. And he will say so gently and innocently, "Hey friend, it must get lonely up there all by yourself. Why don't you come down just a little bit to here with me? No? Well hey, I came all the way up this mountain just to see you. The least you can do is come down a couple of feet to see me. Ok, look. I'll come up to within 2 inches of where you are, and at the same moment, I'll step up an inch, and you'll step down one. We'll be together for a while." And so it starts. The devil is a very patient being. If it takes him a lifetime, he will lead you one inch at a time down even a mountain the size of Everest. One compromised inch is never okay, because the devil's standard moves. He is not rooted in principle. So when he tells you that he's okay, and a nice guy, and has come all this way up so he must be a good guy, know that he's lying. As soon as you step down, he will step down as well and invite you to join him once again. And if you move up, he will follow you. He's relentless.

The same applies to America's government. Those fighting for freedom were once so strong. They stood on the top never moving. Then they started to give things away, and started to move down the mountain of freedom, liberty, and justice. Things like the right to work were given away by way of labor laws. Then came educational reform, the government funded schools, government owned land, and the growing control of the people by the government. And then welfare, gun control, and anti discrimination laws along with new regulations, requirements, and taxes. And those ambassadors of the devil just keep moving down. They might not even know that they are ambassadors of the devil, that's how clever he is. But anyone, Republican or Democrat, who gives away the freedoms of the American people is working for the devil, because captivity is a thing of the devil. And so when people like Mr. Obama complain about Republicans such as Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Rand Paul not compromising, they're wrong. The freedom fighters and their predecessors have compromised already. Almost to the point of total loss of American freedom. 

Please, America. No more compromise. Stand firm on your principles and never move. Because any more compromised morals or freedoms could result in the loss of your freedoms, and your soul.

Be strong, my friends.

-Dallin

What I Learned From Dumb and Dumber

So I watched Dumb and Dumber for the first time today. I hope it was the last time.
The title of this article is misleading. I didn't learn anything from that movie. Absolutely nothing. The whole point of the story dies in the end. The guy doesn't get the girl, the briefcase full of money that they were trying the whole movie to return gets spent without the owner's consent, and they end going right back to where they started. There is no character development, nothing worth seeing. I mean, there were a couple of really, really funny parts. I'll give the movie that much. But not enough to be worth watching. Here are the opening and closing scenes for those wondering exactly how dumb this movie is. (As a side note, there is content of questionable moral character in this movie as well as it being just plain dumb.)

I stood up from watching this movie having gained nothing and having wasted two hours of my life. It was a terrible feeling. My friend, do yourself a favor. Don't waste a piece of your life with this movie. There are much, much better things to do. Anyways, I guess I did learn one thing from all of this. I learned that the human soul does not like to waste time on frivolous things. I learned that it desires to learn and grow and improve, and time wasted on things such as this movie dampen it's joy. Maybe that's just my soul, but at any rate, I at least learned something about me. :)
Have a good life, my friends.
Go be awesome.

The Abstraction of Marriage

This video makes me so sad.

It is sad to me that these kids don't see what is happening here. It is even sadder to me that their parents haven't taught them what is happening. The whole gay marriage battle... It's not really about people wanting to be legally bound as gay couples. That's just what is seen on the surface. There were civil unions for those who wished to be legally bound gay couples. The true battle here is the abstraction of marriage. Because once marriage is an abstract concept, what is the significance of it any more? It becomes meaningless. All the sacredness that marriage once held... It would be lost. The abstraction of marriage would make it okay for a man and an animal to be married too, using the basis of, "Whatever makes them happy" that is so often used to support gay marriage. Marriage is a bonding covenant between a man and a woman. Civil Union is the proper term for that covenant between members of the same sex. Oh my friends, please do not allow this abstraction of marriage to take place. Please love gay people, do not hate them. Help them realize that they have a special union all for themselves. They do not need the word marriage to describe their relationships. And if they don't like the name of their type of union, then let them vote to change the name; but marriage, marriage is something different entirely. Please do not be fooled into thinking otherwise.

If You Don't Look for Something, You're Probably not Going to Find It

I sometimes look at pictures of the stars and of other things and think, "Why aren't the stars ever that clear to me?" and "Why don't I ever see things like that?"
Today as I was looking at some spectacular pictures of the stars, I figured it out.

I never really looked. I've seen the stars thousands of times, but I can count on my hands the number of times that I've actually looked at them. In my rush to live life, I've missed it. Because life is all about the little things, and I'm missing a lot of them. So maybe I need to slow down a little, and take more time to look at, rather than just see the world around me. Because that is how life is lived at it's greatest, and I want to live a great life.