Basketball and Eternal Life

Growing up in my family, we loved to play sports, as a family and competitively. Throughout my childhood I participated in many sports. My two favorite sports today would be running, and basketball. My Mom is a Track fanatic and my Dad has always love basketball. He even budgeted and saved so he could put a basketball half court in his house. So obviously that is a sport we do a lot as a family.

I think basketball is a very interesting sport. In order to be a good shooter in basketball, we have to focus on the hoop. It is very difficult to make a shot if we are not focused on the hoop. What has always baffled me is the power of our mind. It calculates the exact amount of strength we need to put into the shot. It also calculates how the ball should come off of our fingers so it heads towards the rim at the right angle. It is a marvelous tool that we absolutely must use in basketball.

It is also much easier to make shots when no one is around, but when someone is trying to guard you, it is a different story. So in order to get a good quality shot, we have to use our teammates and create plays that help us get open and get a quality clear shot.

You are probably wondering what this has to do with eternal life? That is a great question. The hoop represents keeping God's commandments. And we need to focus all of our attention on the hoop in order to make the shot, otherwise it gets mighty difficult to make and easy to miss and break the commandments. Our mind represents the words of the prophet's. They are men called of God and lead by God to guide us and direct us on the paths we should go. We must utilize this tool.

Now, like I said, it is easy to make a shot when no one is guarding you. But when we are in a game, the defender is constantly trying to stop you from making it in the basket. The defender represents Satan. Satan is trying to do everything he can to distract your view from the commandments of God. He is trying to blind you, or do whatever it takes so you don't make the shot.

So how do we steer away from Satan and focus on the commandments? The answer is our team! Who is our team? Our team is Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, our family, and our friends. In Doctrine and Covenants 10:5 it says "Pray always, that you may come off conquer; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." We have to get their help. We have to pray so that we can come off conquer. A lot of times in basketball we will see that there is one player who tries to do everything himself. It often doesn't work and the team loses. We need to ask our teammates to set screens for us and block out the Devil so we can get an open shot at the hoop.

When we do everything we can to keep the commandments of God, God will provide that which you cannot do. But we must do everything we can first. God loves us and he wants us to succeed. He has given us prophet's to guide us. We need to follow the counsel of his prophet's. We have a wonderful opportunity to listen to the prophet's on March 31st from 12-2pm and 4-6pm EST, and April1st from 12-2pm and 4-6pm EST. You can watch it on BYUTV or you can go to lds.org. You can even go to your local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. To find your local congregation go to http://mormon.org/worship/. It will be a spiritual revelatory experience. They will guide us and tell us how we can stay clear from the path of Satan so the we can give ourselves the best opportunity to get open and make the shot, keep the commandments of God.

Don't Forget

How can we forget the Lord with all that he is given us?

"9 How is it that ye have not hearkened unto the word of the Lord?

 10 How is it that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord?

 11 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record?

 12 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him." 1 Nephi 7:9-12

Here, Nephi is asking Lamen and Lemuel how they can forget the Lord after all God has done for them. Often, I ask myself that question. We get busy with life and we forget to remember our creator who has given us everything we have. This is when all aspects of our lives start to decay. We see this happen all throughout the Book of Mormon where the Nephites REMEMBER God, they prosper and become powerful. Then sometimes they FORGET God, and they become weak and start to dwindle in unbelief.

God has given us everything we have. He has given us our family that we love, our friends, and anything you like to do. I personally like to run, obviously. God has given me the blessing of a strong and healthy body so I can go out and enjoy running. Since he has given me that, how can I forget him while I am running? Lets say my Uncle gives me a brand new Ford Mustang. I go out and I drive it and I completely forget about my Uncle and move on. It is the same thing with our Heavenly Father. We should always remember him because he has given us everything so no matter what we are doing, he has given it to us. Everything he gives us is for our good, even though it may not seem like it at the time.

I have found that the only time I am truly happy is when I constantly have my Heavenly Father somewhere on my mind. When I constantly have thoughts of gratitude and thinking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ I am happy. Nephi instructs us, "Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice." 2 Nephi 9:52. When we continually give thanks to God, our hearts will rejoice and we will truly be happy.

I like to think of running along the "Path of Righteousness". While we are running along this wonderful path, sometimes we might see our peers off to the side of the path who seem like they are having a lot of fun. We look at them and start to battle in our minds whether we should join them or not. Sometimes, we might make the mistake to go and join our peers and leave the path. I promise you all that if we constantly remember our Savior and our Heavenly Father it will be much easier to make the right choice and stay on the path. If we are constantly remembering him we will run right by the temptation that is off the path and keep running forward to eternal life.

 So lets make it a goal! Go throughout the rest of the day, always remembering God, and your day will be better than it has been so far.