Michael J. Fox is credited with saying the following: “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.” Why is that such a difficult thing to understand? What is it in human nature that makes us feel that we have to fix everything, control everything, and be perfect yesterday? I consider myself to be a recovering perfectionist. How freeing it was the day that I learned that perfection is like a star by which I can steer my course. I can accomplish much good if I remember to guide my life by the star, accepting that I will not - in this life - ever reach it.

I am going public on Twitter and Facebook, so I will be depersonalizing references to other people in my posts.

A garden untended is like a bed unmade or a full head of hair uncombed. All are a little sad and neglected and speak to me of discouragement. Life can have its share of untended-garden moments, when nothing seems worth the effort to move upon it. But life also has a habit of sneaking in those tiny moments of hope. The water in the fountain running. The apple tree leafing. The hollyhock attempting to conquer the fence. I look for the tiny moment of hope in my untended-garden seasons. Each is a tender mercy from God who created me and who gave me stewardship over my garden. His grace gives me courage to move upon tomorrow and make it better.

Do you ever have days like this? When to keep things placid and calm, you have to feel like a jellyfish?

REMEMBERING

God uses challenges that we may grow by conquering them. Richard G. Scott What challenges have you conquered? How have you grown? What challenges do you face today? What opportunities for growth might thus await you? I've thought about my challenges today. Two things I've learned are patience and compassion. It's a gift of grace from the Savior that I am able to use the things I've learned to help others. I am called upon so often of late and I am grateful for the opportunities I have to serve. I didn't have the faith to thank God for those challenges while they were happening, but I certainly thank Him for them now.

Be a lighthouse, not a rocky shore. You may never know whose life you are impacting - or saving.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. Lao-Tzu

The Feast of the Bridegroom was wonderful. My lamp was full of pure olive oil and it burned all evening. I felt touched that the Savior used such simple things to teach such profound lessons. When the time comes, I hope that the lamp of my character and testimony are full of spiritual oil so that I can enter into that most important of feasts.

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies." Mother Theresa. DROP-BY-DROP: Tonight, we are attending the "Feast of the Bridegroom." We've been working all year to fill our lamps with oil - love, service, prayers, and so on. It has been a growth promoting experience to look at the choices of my life one small drop at a time. I think that is how life is measured - by the small things, the small choices, the small words. The Triassic breeze blowing across the Colorado Plateau had not idea of the beauty it was creating.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth . . . And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis 1:1; 2:2-3) . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:11). - - - I have always believed that if our Divine Creator was kind enough to give us one day in seven to rest from our labors, we should be wise enough to use it as He has designed. So why am I cooking for an even dozen?

Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain. Mark Twain I've made a habit of not shirking the tough stuff. That's the only thing that got me up at 1:30 a.m. to irrigate!

When I pray, it is often a monolgue. When I listen after I pray, it becomes a dialog. God grant me the internal quietness of being still so that I may know that You are God.

How do you picture serenity?

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