This picture shows the four of us in Matt and Michelle’s Sand Rail. This vehicle took the dunes with power and speed and had enough momentum to do whatever the driver wanted to do on the dunes.  (We wore helmets and had 5-point restraint systems in addition to roll bars.)

Later in the day, Matt and I took quads out and Matt taught me the concept of dune “bowling”.  Some of the large sand dunes were shaped as crescents or partial “bowls”.  In sand dune bowling, the quad rider builds up momentum then climbs straight up one side of the sand dune.  As the rider nears the top, and before momentum is lost, the rider turns to one side, and rides along the inside ridge of the sand dune bowl.  However, bowling only works if the rider keeps momentum.  If momentum is lost, the rider must quickly turn the quad down the sand dune to regain momentum. If momentum is not regained, the rider and the quad may tumble down a steep sand dune.

The momentum required for sand dune bowling has made me think of the importance of momentum in business and life, and I have been particularly thinking about the correlation between momentum and hope.  When our lives and our businesses are moving forward and progressing, we have momentum.  As a result of this momentum, we have hope for a better future than our present circumstances.

If we are feeling hopeless, it is often because we don’t have enough momentum in our life, or because our momentum is going the wrong direction.  Conversely, if we want to add more hope into our lives, we can often accomplish this by adding more momentum.

We can add momentum in our relationships by being more selfless, attending marriage education or counseling, spending more time with the people we love, expressing our love, etc.  We can add momentum in our career by improving education, enhancing job skills, reading industry books and blogs, improving the quality of our work, etc. We can add momentum in the physical area of our life by exercising, eating better, etc.   Businesses can add momentum through improving marketing effectiveness, innovation, user experience, viral advertising, etc. We can add momentum in the spiritual area of our life through scripture study, prayer, personal worthiness, etc.  We can even help add  momentum to the lives of others through mentoring, volunteering, helping the needy, making charitable contributions, etc.

We can’t just coast or maintain without regressing in our lives and businesses.  “If you’re coasting, you’re either losing momentum or else you’re headed downhill (source: Joan Welsh).”  

Even though most of us set well-intentioned New Year’s resolutions, studies show that most of us do not succeed in completing those resolutions.  If we really want to achieve our resolutions, we need to effectively convert a desire to change into a system or pattern in our lives.  Anthony Robbins said, “The most important thing you can do to achieve your goals is to make sure that as soon as you set them, you immediately begin to create momentum. The most important rules that I ever adopted to help me in achieving my goals were those I learned from a very successful man who taught me to first write down the goal, and then to never leave the site of setting a goal without first taking some form of positive action toward its attainment.”

As our goals become patterns in our lives and businesses, they add momentum, and the momentum increases our hope.

Warning: The movies I like the best generally get poor reviews with movie critics.  “It’s a Wonderful Life” is one of my all-time favorite movies.  I love the epic battle between good and evil and do not think it is “over the top” when good triumphs.  I love movies that make me want to be better.  I realize these kinds of movies aren’t for everyone.  So, if you don’t agree with my cinematic preferences, you’re probably not going to like this movie.

Forever Strong, is a movie (based on a true story) about Rick Penning, a self-centered, out-of-control, star rugby player who lands himself in a juvenile corrections facility after a repeat drunk driving accident in which he almost killed his girlfriend.  The director of the corrections facility notices Rick’s love for rugby and offers Rick the opportunity to play for the longtime rival Highland Rugby team, and its legendary Coach Gelwix. 

This coach has a philosophy that he would rather help young men to be champions in life than to be champions on the field.  This core philosophy is demonstrated when the coach allows Rick to stay in the first game even though the team is being destroyed because of Rick’s “me-first” mentality.

Gelwix emphasizes team play and has a policy prohibiting, liquor, drugs, cigarettes and fooling around with girls, as he tries to teach his players to be “forever strong” in life and not just on the field.  Rick struggles with the dichotomy of the person he was and the person he is becoming. Rick’s evolution as a team player is symbolized through his participation with the team in the Maori war dance, the Haka. 

Rick is finally released from the corrections facility and returns to his home and his old team.  However, when he doesn’t fall back into his old ways, his old friends mock him and plant drugs and alcohol on him so that he ends up back in jail.

The defining scene shows Rick’s father visiting him in jail.  Rick’s father won’t believe that Rick has changed, but Rick stands and declares that he is a Highland Rugby player and would never do anything to disgrace his family or his team.  Rick ends that scene by telling his father “Kia Kaha” which means “forever strong” in Maori.

I enjoyed Rick’s strength to change despite intense pressures. I loved the strength of the Coach Gelwix character in shaping young rugby players to be champions in life.  Kia Kaha.

If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. (Alma 48:8-19)

For many years I have read and pondered this scripture and tried to emulate Moroni, albeit unsuccessfully. Years ago my wife even gave me a painting of Moroni with this scripture for my office because she knew how much it meant to me.

However, though the years of focusing on this scripture, I failed to connect it with the full context of the situation in which this description of Moroni is given.  Moroni was the army captain of a group of Christians named Nephites who lived in the ancient Americas shortly before Christ’s birth.  Moroni’s people were ruled democratically by elected judges, yet on multiple occasions Captain Moroni had to put down revolutions from a faction of the people who wanted to appoint a king.  The man who started this internal revolution, and who desired to be the king, was named Amalickiah.

When Amalickiah realized that he could not prevail against Moroni, he fled with a group of followers and joined the Lamanites, who were the eternal enemies of Moroni’s people.  Amalickiah poisoned the leader of the Lamanite armies so that he (Amalickiah) could become the leader of the army.  Then, he killed the Lamanite king and married that king’s wife so that he could become the king of the Lamanites.  Then, with control of the Lamanite armies Amalickaiah waged a horrific war against Moroni and his people that lasted for many years.

I have often (and correctly) associated Christianity with Christ’s teaching such as “turning the other cheek”, “not returning evil for evil” and “forgiving”. So, the dichotomy of Moroni’s description as such a strong Christian that Satan had no power over his heart, shook my understanding of Christianity.

How did Moroni find peace while at war?  The following verses help explain the answer to this paradox:

He was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of the Christians. And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery; Yea a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.  Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ. (Alma 48:10-14)

They were sorry to take up arms against the Lamanites, because they did not delight in the shedding of blood; yea, and this was not all–they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God. Nevertheless, they could not suffer to lay down their lives, that their wives and their children should be massacred by the barbarous cruelty of those who were once their brethren. (Alma 48:23-24)

Moroni wasn’t seeking revenge or to force his will upon anyone else.  Instead Moroni was reluctantly fighting a battle to stand up to evil, to defend his people from oppression and abuse, and to eradicate the horrible influence of the Lamanties in their lives.  He wasn’t trying to change the Lamanites, he was just trying to be free of the Lamanites, and was forced to fight to secure that freedom.  Moroni didn’t hate the Lamanites, and was genuinely concerned about the enternal welfare of their souls.

War and fighting is often at odds with the way that Jesus Christ would like us to live with our fellow man. War should be a last resort. However, sometimes as Christians we have to stand and fight evil.  When war does become necessary in our lives, though, it is important that our motives and hearts are right with God, and that we can find peace while at war.

I clearly understand the importance of forgiving and I want to forgive. I know that Jesus Christ expects us to forgive everyone, whether or not they have repented, and if I do not forgive others, a greater sin is upon me than whatever the other person did (D&C 54:8-9). I know I need to keep forgiving others even if they keep hurting me (Matthew 18:21). I know I will receive forgiveness only to the extent I forgive others (Matthew 6:12) and that to become worthy of the atonement of Jesus Christ and to be forgiven of my sins, I must forgive others (Matthew 18:23-35).

I know that holding on to offense and not forgiving can rob me of happiness and the light of Christ, and that the path to the greatest joy and peace in life includes frankly and immediately forgiving others. However, I don’t remember any Sunday School lessons teaching me how to forgive.

What do I do if I feel I have forgiven the offender, have prayed for God’s help in forgiving that person, yet when that person continues to commit similar offenses, the feelings of animosity return? I think those feelings are a sign I have not completely forgiven that person despite my desire and efforts to do so. I don’t want to feel those negative feelings. I want to forgive . . . but how do I forgive more deeply and permanently?

I have been struggling with this question for more than a month, and studying to understand “How do I forgive?”. My answer came through the scripture “Charity suffereth long and is kind” (1 Corinthians 13:4). As someone continues do things that cause me to suffer, I need to have charity towards that person and be kind. Saying I forgive someone, and stopping to have negative feelings towards that person is not enough. I must fill the void left by the abandoned negative feelings with feelings of love, charity, kindness and compassion towards that person. When I fill that void with the pure love of Christ for that person, it becomes almost impossible for those feelings of animosity to return when the person trespasses against me again.

The love for that person make it easier to bear any additional offenses, helps us to minimize the severity of those offenses, and helps us to understand where that person is coming from so we might not even need to take offense.

It is important to note that forgiveness does not mean we must continue to allow abusive behavior. We have a right and a responsibility to protect ourselves and others within our stewardships from dangerous situations. For example, we might forgive someone who has abused one of our children, but we might wisely choose to never let that person babysit our children again.

It is also important to note that forgiveness and trust are not necessarily the same. It is required of us that we forgive everyone (D&C 64:10). However, we and those within our stewardships deserve to be treated respectfully. It is reasonable for us to respectfully set healthy boundaries for our association with those people who have not acted respectfully. For example, if a child yells at my wife and hits her, it is appropriate for me to remove my child from that situation, explain the behavior unacceptable, and let the child know that they can return to be with the family when they are ready to act respectfully. Forgiving someone does not mean allowing unacceptable behavior to continue.

As we seek to forgive it is also important that we stop talking bad about the offender, even if it is true. We also need to stop blaming the offender and take back ownership in our lives.

I am grateful for the gift of forgiveness. As I fill my heart with charity and forgiveness towards others I can receive the peace that comes from forgiving others, and qualify for forgiveness from the Savior.

What have you done to help you to forgive, and how has forgiveness blessed your life?

One of the most surprising results of this research was the finding that virtually all of the companies which experienced this “Good to Great” transformation had a different kind of leader at the helm during the key transformation years. In Good to Great, they refer to this type of transformational leader as a “Level 5 leader”.

LEVEL 1 LEADERS are highly capable individuals who make productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills and work habits.

LEVEL 2 LEADERS are contributing team members who add their individual abilities to the group objectives and work well with others as part of a group.

LEVEL 3 LEADERS are competent managers who effectively organize people and resources to achieve pre-determined objectives.

LEVEL 4 LEADERS are effective leaders who catalyze commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision, stimulating higher performance standards.

Level 4 leaders sound like the type of leaders that elevate the performance of everyone around them and can effectively get priorities done. What more can we ask for than this? The research from Good to Great indicated that ALL of the leaders of the Good to Great companies had something more than their Level 4 counterparts at the less-successful companies. The attributes of this elite group of leaders is described as “Level 5 leadership”.

LEVEL 5 LEADERS build enduring greatness in their companies through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. Level 5 leaders demonstrate a duality of being “modest and willful, humble and fearless.”

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious–but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Level 5 leaders often were described in interviews as: “quite, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated, did not believe his own clippings, etc. They seek to give the praise to others when things go right, and give the blame to them when things go wrong.

Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly.

Conversely, Level 4 leaders often have enormous egos that contribute to the demise or continued mediocrity of their companies.

For example, the CEO of Bethlehem Steel (a less-successful company), blamed all of their company problems on steel imports from foreign companies. Conversely the CEO of Nucor (a Good to Great competitor who thrived during the same era), saw the challenges faced by steel imports as a blessing, because their overseas competitors would have to ship heavy steel across the ocean, giving Nucor a large advantage.

However, Level 5 leadership is not just about humility and modesty. It is also just as much about “ferocious resolve, an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great… Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results.”

Level 5 leaders help their successors to have even greater success than they had, and are not threatened by the success of these successors, because their goal is the long-term success of the company. Level 4 leaders often set their successors up for failure.

A damaging trend was identified by Good to Great, in which boards of directors tend to select larger-than-life, dazzling CEOs instead of the more reserved Level 5 leaders, passing by the individuals with the greatest chance to help create an enduring great company. These larger-than-life leaders are actually negatively correlated with going from good to great. Nearly all Good to Great CEOs were hired from within their companies.

So, what can I do to become more like a Level 5 leader? According to Jim Collins, some Level 5 leaders develop this skill through life challenges they have faced. Others were blessed with mentors or parents who helped teach them these principles. In my goal to be more like a Level 5 leader, I need to be better about giving credit to others when things go well, yet accepting the blame myself when things don’t go well. I need to be modest, and never boastful. I also need to be willing to pay the price to help the companies achieve the best long-term results.

Find Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t at Amazon.com.

(Source: The source for much of the content of this post came from Good to Great, by Jim Collins.)

This week Crystal and I listened to Leadership & Self Deception again. This is an amazing book by the Arbinger Institute, which works to help people see themselves, others, problems and solutions in a different way.

Leadership & Self Deception teaches about self-betrayal, the process by which we each participate in self-deception and get “into the box”. This book makes the following major points about self-betrayal.

1. Self betrayal is an act contrary to what we feel we should do for someone else.
2. When we betray ourselves, we begin to see the world in a way that justifies our self-betrayal.
3. When we see a self-justifying world, our views of reality become distorted. We inflate the faults of others, and at the same time inflate our own virtues.
4. When we betray ourselves, we enter the box.
5. With time, certain boxes become characteristic of us, and we end up carrying them with us.
6. When we are in the box, we provoke others to be in the box.
7. When I and others around me are in the box, we mutually mistreat each other, which then gives us mutual justification to continue to mistreat each other. We collude to give the other person a reason to remain in the box.

How do we know if we are participating in self-betrayal and are “in the box?”

• Do we treat people as people or as just objects? Do we take the time to remember their names? Are we truly interested in others, or just interested in what they think about us? Do we manipulate others to get what we want in relationships? If we don’t truly care about others, they can almost always feel the hypocrisy in us. If we are not treating people as people it is a good indication we are “in the box.”
• Do we inflate the faults of others and inflate our own virtue? Do we inflate the value of things that justify our self betrayal? If so, this is a good indication we are “in the box.”
• Are we blaming others? If so, this is a good indication we are “in the box”.
• Are we feeling a desire for the welfare and good of others, and a desire to be out of the box in that relationship? Do we have feelings about kind things we can do for the other person? If we are not having these feelings, it may indicate that we are “in the box” towards this person.

What doesn’t work when we are in the box?

1. Trying to change others
2. Doing my best to cope with others
3. Leaving
4. Communication – this doesn’t work when we’re in the box, because we communicate the negative things we’re feeling.
5. Implementing new skills or techniques
6. Changing our behavior

How Do We Get Out & Stay Out of the Box?

According to Leadership & Self Deception, when we’re feeling we want to be out of the box towards someone, in that moment we’re already out. We’re feeling that way because we’re now seeing him or her as a person. In feeling that way toward that person, we’re already out of the box.

Once we are out of the box, the question then is how to stay out. At times we have specific impressions of things we should do for others, particularly toward friends, family or work associates. We know these people and many of their hopes, needs, cares, and fears. We’re also more likely to have wronged them. To stay out of the box, we must honor what our out-of-the-box sensibility tells us we should do for these people.

However, this doesn’t mean we need to do everything we feel would be ideal for everyone, because we have our own responsibilities that sometimes take a position of higher priority. We do the best we can under the circumstances, and we do that because when we’re out of the box we see other people as people.

In short, I need to follow the feelings of kind things I should do for others so I can stay out of the box in those relationships. I need to not blame others, but I need to do what is in my power to stay out of the box so that I can have a better perspective of reality and the solutions available to solve the problems I’m facing.

Find Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box at Amazon.com.

(source: Leadership & Self Deception)

Variety

Did you know there are more than 100 wild species of roses and thousands of rose hybrids developed for gardening based on bloom shape, size, fragrance and even lack of thorns? Sometimes people feel that they “don’t fit in” at school, work or church because they aren’t like the popular people, or they waste time trying to be like everyone else. Think of how boring it would be if every rose in a garden was identical. Even the most beautiful rose, if it was identical to every other rose, would be boring and redundant. I prefer the beauty of a rose garden that has roses of many different colors, shapes and sizes. I celebrate that God made us unique and not exactly the same as everyone else.

Thorns

Not long ago I was planting roses with my oldest daughter, when she asked, “Daddy, why do we plant roses if they have thorns?” That profound comment caused me to think. Every rose has its thorns; just like each of us have our mistakes or imperfections. Each time we give someone a rose, it is a combination of a beautiful blossom, and a stem with thorns. The same is true of our relationships. I’ve heard it said that every marriage has 10 irreconcilable differences. Sometimes people get divorced because of these differences, and enter another marriage with a different set of 10 irreconcilable differences. Nobody is going to be perfect. In the same way we can overlook the thorns on a beautiful rose, we need to become better at focusing on the beauty in each person and be better at overlooking their imperfections.

Outward Appearance

Twentieth-century rose breeders generally emphasized size and color, producing large, attractive blooms with little or no scent. Many wild and “old-fashioned” roses, by contrast, have a strong, sweet scent. When I have to choose, do I choose to focus on the outward appearance so that I can look good to the world, or do I prioritize the inward things that cannot be seen but truly matter?

Law of the Harvest

If I plant a cactus, I’m not going to get a rose. If I want roses to grow in my garden, I need to plant roses. The same is true in my life. If I want good things to happen, I need to plant the seeds of goodness .

Matthew 7:16 – “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?”

Soil

Nitrogen is an essential part of amino acids and nucleic acids, both of which are essential to all life. Without nitrogen, roses languish and die. Nitrogen is the largest single component of the Earth’s atmosphere (78.082% by volume of dry air). Literally tons of nitrogen are directly above a single rose bush struggling for this basic nutrient to survive, but roses do not have the ability to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere. This is a poignant example of “so close but so far.” How often in life are we so close yet so far from the spirituality which we really need to thrive and grow? Do we focus on the things of the world and make ourselves unable to receive spiritual nourishment?

Roots

My neighbors have a rose bush that is very wide and more than 6 feet tall. The newest rose bushes I just planted are less than a foot tall with just a few stems. The biggest difference is the root structure. My neighbor’s roses has had years to build a large, stable root structure, so that even if it is cut back, it can still quickly grow a large and beautiful rose bush. Just like rose bushes, spiritual roots don’t grow overnight. Spiritual roots come from years of faithful church attendance and participation, striving to keep the commandments, daily scripture reading, fasting and prayer, and lifelong service.

Photosynthesis

Each rose is a compact chemical-processing factory. Using sunlight, the green leaves take carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with oxygen, which we breathe. When other chemicals within the plant react with sunlight, it produces starch that becomes the plant biomass (roots, stems, leaves, and rose blossoms). This process is called photosynthesis, and without it the earth’s atmosphere would soon be devoid of oxygen, and most living things would disappear from the earth.

Rose rust is one of the most serious diseases to which roses are susceptible. Rust fungus that can defoliate the rose and make it unable to receive light. Rose rust can occur in many different ways in our lives, making us unable to receive light, such as pornography, and inappropriate music, television, and movies.

Climate

Roses thrive in temperate climates. One year I bought some roses from Sam’s Club, but waited nearly 2 weeks to plant them. Because they sat for weeks in an Arizona summer before being planted, nearly all of those roses died.

When Gordon B. Hinckley was young, he and his wife danced to a song with the following words:

Is love like a rose
That blossoms and grows,
Then withers and goes
When summer is gone?

This same question has been asked for centuries by men and women who love each other and want to know if that love can continue after this life. President Hinckley responded to that question:

“We…reaffirm that love and marriage under the revealed plan of the Lord are not like the rose that withers with the passing of summer. Rather, they are eternal, as surely as the God of heaven is eternal. But this gift, precious beyond all others, comes only with a price—with self-discipline, with virtue, with obedience to the commandments of God. These may be difficult, but they are possible under the motivation that comes of an understanding of truth.”

Law of Abundance

In Christ’s first recorded miracle where he turned water into wine at the request of his mother, Christ made sufficiently more wine than was necessary. In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, more loaves and fish remained after all were fed than when he began. Why did the Lord make more wine, bread and fish that were necessary in these miracles? Did he miscalculate? Or, was the abundance part of the lesson he taught through the miracle?

Modern rose hybrids have a complex genetic background that almost always includes China roses. China roses were evergrowing, everblooming roses from humid subtropical regions that bloomed constantly during the growing season. Modern hybrids bloom continuously (until stopped by frost) on any new canes produced during the growing season. They therefore require pruning away of any spent flowering stem, in order to divert the plant’s energy into producing new growth and thence new flowers.

“Deadheading” is the simple practice of manually removing any spent, faded, withered or discolored flowers from rose shrubs over the course of the blooming season. This is done to promote rebloom, to keep shrubs looking tidy, and to eliminate stem dieback.

What would be examples of “spiritual deadheading” in our lives? As we give of ourselves through love and service, it doesn’t take anything away from us, but instead more love and goodness are abundantly replenished in our lives.

Ivy

In our first home we had 26 rose bushes. A very healthy and aggressive ivy vine grew near a few of these rose bushes. This vine grew up the rose bushes and grew leaves outside the leaves of the rose bushes, in competition for the light. I noticed when started growing on the first rose bush and I didn’t do anything about it.

More than a month later the ivy had begun to suffocate the rose bush. I then had a substantial project to remove the ivy which was then completely intertwined with the rose bush. This would have been a simple project if I would have done it when the ivy had first started to grow on the rose bush.

This ivy is like the entangling of sin. If we deal with sin immediately it is much easier and less painful to resolve. However, the longer we allow sin to grow and entangle itself in our lives without removing it, the harder and more painful it becomes, and the longer we allow it to block light from entering our lives.

Pruning

Roses need to regularly be pruned for a variety of reasons. This week we had to cut back three very healthy stems on our rose bushes which were growing well, but were growing in the wrong directions. Roses usually require a “hard” annual pruning to reach their full potential. This pruning requires cutting the stems back to 8″–12″ in height in early spring. Also, any weak, damaged or diseased growth should be pruned away completely, regardless of the time of year.

The Master Gardener in our lives regularly prunes us back and shapes us through trials, challenges and adversity. He knows this is the only way that we can achieve our full spiritual potential.

Positive or Negative

Did you know that you can change the PH of the soil and alter the colors of the rose blossoms? This can be done by increasing the PH with an “acid” such as lemon juice, or decreasing the PH with a “base” like milk.

A positive or negative outlook on life can drastically affect the nature of the blossoms in our lives.

Potential / Self Realization

Inside each rose is a giant storehouse of genetic coding that develops a seed or a slip into roots, stems, thorns, leaves, colors, and blooms. Each of us has a spiritual genetic blueprint of talent and potential with which God has endowed us. We are seeds with beautiful potential.

Conclusion

I am grateful for those who have been patient with me despite my thorns, and accepted me even though I am not the typical variety of rose. I’m grateful for good friends and family who have been there us during our regular prunings and planted an abundance of kindness in our lives.

(Sources: Portions of this article came from the Wikipedia rose article and talks from LDS.org.)

The cloud of ash and smoke caused pitch darkness for two days as far away as 370 miles. The clouds of thick ash were still covering the summit more than a week later. The eruption reached the stratosphere. Course particles fell for 1-2 weeks, but some of the finer particles of ash stayed in the atmosphere for more than a year.

The number of direct deaths was about 10,000. On the Sumbawa and Lombok islands, 48,000 people died as a result of starvation and disease. Average global temperatures decreased slightly, but enough to cause agricultural problems around the globe. Abnormal weather, including frost and snow, lasted for 3 months and destroyed most agricultural crops in North America. The climate abnormalites were blamed for a severe typhus epedemic in Europe and the Mediterranean. Cool temperatures and heavy rains caused wheat, oat and potato harvests to fail in the British isles. The 1810s are coldest decade on record.

Although tremendous death and devastation was caused by the erupting magma, a much greater destruction was caused by the sulpher ash which was projected into the atmosphere, blocked light from reaching the earth, and resulted in severe weather abnormalities.

What are the spiritual clouds of ash in our lives which block a portion of God’s light from reaching us?  Any form of sin could act as a spiritual cloud that prevents light from blessing our lives.  Inappropriate media influences are an example. Many movies, television shows, books and other forms of entertainment are otherwise good except for one or two inappropriate parts. Those inappropriate parts may be like clouds of volcanic ash, blocking a portion of God’s light from shining down into our lives. As a result, our lives are a little colder and a little darker, and the consequences can be tragic, just as with the Tambora volcanic eruption.

John 12:46 – I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

We demonstrate that we believe Christ by abiding in His light and not the darkness. Another volcanic cloud which blocks light from Christ in our lives is hatred or refusing to forgive:

1 John 2:9-10 – He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

As we follow Christ by keeping his commandments, and as we love others and forgive, we can avoid unnecessary darkness and live in His light.

(The source for much of this article was the Wikipedia Tambora article.)

In the movie there is a scene with a woman selling bread crumbs to feed the birds. She says “Feed the birds–tuppence a bag.” To Walt, that was the metaphor for the whole film. “Tuppence” is a very small amount of money and it doesn’t cost us much to show a little bit of kindness.

Often, after a crazy week during the making of Mary Poppins Walt would ask for a status report from his team. Then, he’d ask them to play the song “Feed the Birds”. Walt loved that song. As it played he would look through the north window wishfully. Then, he would turn around and say, “That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?” It wasn’t just message of the film. To Walt, the simple message of kindness was what life was really about.

According to Newsweek, the Disney brand is the 9^th most valuable brand in America, with a value exceeding $29 billion. The Walt Disney Company owns thousands of brands such as: ESPN, ABC, Mickey Mouse, Disney Princesses, The Muppets, Pixar, The Disney Channel, Touchstone, Miramax, Winnie the Pooh, Disney Cruise Line, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mary Poppins, Family.com, Movies.com, Club Penguin, The Lion King, Toy Story, Cars, Peter Pan, High School Musical, and Hanna Montana. Walt Disney has brought happiness to hundreds of millions of people.

With that said, Walt Disney was a failure. I say that with all due respect to the father of family entertainment, one of history’s greatest innovators, and one of my heroes. My point is that when we think of Walt Disney we think of his amazing successes. However, most of us have never even heard of his failures, which tremendously contributed to his phenomenal success.

Here are a few of his failures or challenges which I discovered recently from reading Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney.

• Walt was laid off from his first job as an animator after only one month.

• One of Walt’s first business ventures, Laugh-O-grams, was a financial disaster. Walt couldn’t pay his rent, and wound up living in his Laugh-O-grams office. He ate on credit at a little coffee shop. “I was all alone” Walt later said. “It was lonesome. When my credit ran out I was tempted to go into a restaurant and eat, and then tell them I couldn’t pay. But I didn’t have the nerve. I was so [bleep] hungry.” Laugh-O-grams filed bankruptcy.

• When Walt moved to California he wanted to be a “movie director”. He tried to get any job he could with the studios to get his foot in the door. Walt said, “I went from one studio to another and I went to the personnel departments and it was pretty cold.”

• Mickey Mouse was not Walt’s first cartoon character. Walt Disney’s company designed a character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and partnered with Charlie Mintz as the distributor. Charlie went behind Walt’s back and signed most of the top Disney artists to come work for him and took control of the Oswald character and brand. Charlie wasn’t the first to underestimate Walt Disney and he certainly wouldn’t be the last.

• Walt Disney later used another distributor named Pat Powers. Pat began withholding payments and stopped giving Walt any reports. It ended up that Powers, like Charlie Mintz, wanted to take over Walt’s operation, guaranteeing Walt a hearty salary to come work for him. As leverage, Powers hired away Walt’s best animator.

• Walt and his wife struggled with infertility.

• After the movie Snow White had been a success, the next three Disney films were not immediate financial successes. Even before the United States entered the Second World War, the studio’s revenues declined 40% with the loss of the overseas market.

• The Second World War essentially shut down the Disney Animation Studios, except for government projects. In addition to drafting many company employees, the war caught the studios in a financially vulnerable period of growth. In 1941, his employees formed a picket line to strike. This perceived betrayal from his staff was cataclysmic for Walt.

Walt obviously rebounded from each of these challenges or failures. After the Oswald character was seized by his distributor, he created Mickey Mouse, and protected his creative work much better in the future. After struggling with infertility, Walt and his wife were able to adopt. It was on outings with his girls that Walt’s ideas for Disneyland began to develop. After being unable to get any job in a movie studio, Walt eventually became a very successful movie director. After lean years from the war, Walt Disney Studios eventually rebounded began creating even better movies than they had previously.

How often in our lives do we compare our weaknesses, challenges and failures to the successes and strengths of others? How often do we not remember that the people in our idealistic comparisons have weaknesses, challenges and failures of their own? I am guilty of doing this regularly.

After the Laugh-O-grams bankruptcy Walt said, “And I came to Hollywood. I was just free and happy. I was 21 years old. But I’d failed. I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you’re young.”

Roy Disney, Walt’s brother said the following of Walt’s early business skills, “If Walt had gone on like that he never would have gone anyplace.”

We all have to have weaknesses, challenges and failures or we cannot grow. A tree planted in the middle of a clearing grows fat, while the tree planted in a forest grows tall because it has to fight for the sun light. Challenges help us to also grow taller and closer to Heaven. If Walt had not had challenges, he might have retired as an animator in Kansas City. His weaknesses became important catalysts and growing experience to help him achieve the great things he did.

Ether 12:27 teaches, “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

Weaknesses, trials and challenges are part of our mortal existence on this earth, and they are some of the primary ways that God uses to shape us into what he needs us to be. Through these difficult circumstances we can humble ourselves, and receive the divine assistance we need to make those weak things strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 teaches, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

In this scripture, the Apostle Paul teaches that the Lord’s strength is made perfect in weakness. I believe that this means our weaknesses help us realize how much we need God, and encourage us to turn to Him to receive strength from Him. Paul even rejoices in the weakness, because he knows that this weakness is what makes him strong. God gives us weaknesses so that we can triumph over them, and He wants us to be able to recognize His hand in that victory when it comes.

Walt Disney was a failure at first, but he used those challenges as opportunities to learn and grow. Those failures were some of the most important reasons why he was such a phenomenal success.

Find Inside the Dream: The Personal Story of Walt Disney at Amazon.com.

(Source: Inside the Dream)

]]> http://gwilliam.com/nathan/walt-disney-was-a-failure-which-helped-him-succeed/feed/ 0