Make Good Choices

I'm always telling my kids, "Make good choices. You know you have the choice, so make it a good one." Recently, Elder Bednar spoke at a CES Fireside at BYU-Idaho (Sunday, May 3rd, 6:00pm. Google it...or LDS.org it). He had a lot of great advice. One part of his talk, which I stood up in my apartment and screamed "AMEN!!! AAAAA-MEN!" was about technology and how it can be good, but it's deteriorating our relationships with each other. We are consumed by fast-pace, new age technology that takes our time away from face-to-face contact.

I've never been a huge fan of text messaging. I just think, if you're both sitting on your bums watching "The Office", you might as well save your thumbs and talk to each other. Now, in class or at work, texting is great and can really make the day go faster (haha! totally kidding, halfway. Elder Bednar would say this takes away from you making good relationships at work or school. I agree.) But, texting, I'M-ing, online chat rooms, FACEBOOK, all things that kind of got out of hand, in my opinion.

So, I'm siding with Elder Bednar on this one and I'm limiting my text messages to 3 a day plus emergencies. Kind of like a salary for my texting, with benefits! I've also recently done away with facebook for the ump-teenth time. But this time, I'm for real! I've noticed ever since I've been working 42-hour weeks between the school and after-school program, I rarely have time to check my own email let alone waste precious time on facebook. I might have to go back on briefly to collect a few email addresses of people I want to keep in touch with, but ultimately, I feel good about de-technologizing my life.

Another good point he made was how our bodies are temples, and sitting in front of the computer for hours not only turns us into doughy-doughpeople, mentally and spiritually it really harms us. Then, he had a little plug about not doing things that put our bodies into extreme danger. Well, here I have a little problem. My friend, Mandy, has sent me a letter with the brilliant idea to make a list of 101 goals to accomplish in 1,001 days.

Well, goals 11-20 for me contain things such as bungee-jumping, sky diving, swimming with the sharks, hang gliding, etc. All things that Elder Bednar might argue put my body in extreme danger. I'm working on a little query to send him on that.

Anyway, it's all about making good choices. I just hope I don't get fired for teaching my second and third grade clients how to steer and drive stick, race up three flights of stairs at the counseling office, and playing hide-n-go seek in the library. Again, it's all about making good choices!