Temperance in All Things

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“That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to DO is increased.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Have you found yourself sometimes doing something out of character, something that if you told your friends they’d say, ‘that’s not you’? We all do it, at some point. Well, our contributor Cami Checketts, who blogs at Fitness for Mom, wrote her article “Lessons Learned from The Biggest Loser.” She’s always said that she doesn’t like watching TV, however, she’s watched the show ‘The Biggest Loser’ with her husband and she’s been impressed by the way those people push themselves to achieve a goal. She tells us what she’s learned from it, things like ‘Believe in Yourself’ and ‘Never Give Up’, counsel that just makes sense. Cami Checketts is an author, exercise scientist, wife, and mother of four children.

Another thing: have you ever tried to do something really, really hard? I mean, hard for you, not someone else. For example, running a mile non-stop is hard for me to do, whereas it could be easy for someone else (you maybe?). At Mormon Women, contributor Jen H. talks about her experience as a runner, and she tells us: “I gained a simple appreciation for what runners call the “runners high,” the moments of euphoria that come after enduring and succeeding in doing a very hard thing. Those feelings are great but not nearly as rewarding as choosing the right and persevering through tough trials, that is powerful, beautiful.”

We have been instructed to do a lot of things. Some of them seem easy enough for most of us, although I don’t want to give an example because someone will probably say “that’s hard for me!” In November 2009, one of the Church magazines published Elder Kent D. Watson’s talk, “Being Temperate in All Things.” In this talk Elder Watson explains: “The instruction on being temperate in all things applies to each of us. What is temperance, and why would the Lord want us to be temperate? A narrow definition might be “exercising restraint when it comes to food and drink.” Indeed, this meaning of temperance could be a good prescription for keeping the Word of Wisdom. Sometimes temperance might be defined as “refraining from anger or not losing one’s temper.” Even though they’re not commandments, these recommendations have been given to us for our benefit and improvement.

Images from www.sxc.hu/ and http://www.thinkstockphotos.com/  

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Wednesday, 11 August, please click here.