Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. If any of you are listening for the first time to the podcast, I want to thank you for tuning in, and I appreciate you taking time out of your day to listen to the podcast. In today's episode, I'm going to be talking about management of self, or I like to call it soul. But most of us refer to it as self-management. The reason I like to refer to it as management of the soul is because I have this belief that none of us simply flared into existence. And because of that, I believe that all of us have divine potential to exceed even the things that we can only imagine or have a small belief that we could even do, that there is a divine creator and he wants the best for each of us, but he won't force anybody to do something that they don't want to do. So it's up to us to take control of ourselves and our lives and manage that life, our life, in the best way we possibly can. And in doing so, I think that that's a way we can honor the divine. Now I'm sure some of you are imagining what is going through my mind as I say this kind of thing. It does seem like a very challenging thing to live up to, but we have to break it down into small pieces. We have to take things one step at a time. And when it comes to managing ourselves, that can be very daunting because all of us inherently know of the weaknesses that we have. So no one can do it for us, nor should anyone do it for us. But when we're petty or selfish, prideful in thinking more about ourselves, even subconsciously, we will most likely be in a position to take offense at something another person does or says to us instead of consciously being the bigger person by quickly processing what took place, but then merely making the effort to let it go, which can be the most difficult aspect of all of that. I'm not saying it's easy by any stretch of the imagination, but what I am saying is it is certainly worth it. And the last time I checked, we don't necessarily have to shy away from something just because it's difficult or daunting. That's the time when we need to sort of take a deep breath and give it our best shot. And when we falter or fail, guess what? We get up and we keep trying. That's what it's all about. What I aim to do in this episode today, ladies and gentlemen, is to share with you a personal experience that happened to me not too many days ago. It is certainly not one of my most glorious moments, if I get to say it that way, nor was it very flattering. But to prove a point, to show you what it is I'm talking about, and to really encourage you to look at yourself and find ways that you can improve managing yourself. So a few days ago, four members of my family, including me, were playing a card game called Skull King. Now, if you've never played that card game, in a nutshell, it is a game in which you play ten rounds. You start with one card, and each successive round, it goes to two cards, then three, then four, all the way to ten. And there are different cards, some that can trump other cards, and what you have to do is by looking at the cards in your hand, you have to bid how many tricks you think you can take, all the way from zero to ten if you had an amazing hand. I've never played a game where somebody bid ten tricks and got them all, but I suppose it's possible. Anyway, I digress. We were playing this game and I acted in a way that was unbecoming someone who is trying to master themselves. At one point during the game, I was questioning something that I didn't understand, which seems to happen all too frequently in this game that I have played long enough to probably remember what certain cards do. But in any event, my daughter laughed at something that I wasn't understanding about a particular round. And as painful as it is to say this, I took offense at what my daughter was laughing about, though I now know she didn't mean anything derogatory by laughing, she just simply thought it was funny. And because I overreacted, that action seriously put a damper on the game. It created a very somber and awkward, uncomfortable moment, and it seemed to permeate the room for several minutes afterwards. Regardless of the situation, when we do something like this, we know we shouldn't have done it and we feel bad about it. If we still have a conscience, that is, if we think we're the most important person in the room, then we probably won't have that feeling. Or if we're a narcissist, it's definitely not going to be our fault because we're going to look to other people and say, yeah, it's on you. That you should have not done that, and then I wouldn't have had to do what I did. It's so convoluted. Anyway, I'm not going to digress on that part. But what I am going to do at this point is offer three suggestions on how we can overcome this kind of scenario so that we do less of it going forward. None of us are perfect. We're not going to get it right every time. But I sincerely believe that if we have something to work on, to improve upon, then we'll always be conscious about the ways that we can improve and what we can actually do better and be more harmonious in our relationships with those that we love. The first suggestion is to lighten up. Sometimes we take ourselves a little too seriously, especially during a family game or a game with friends. We just need to lighten up. It's just a game. There's no money writing on it. Well, okay. In a friendly family game or a friendly game with friends, there may be some money writing on it, depending on your flavor. So it's not millions of dollars, so it's not that big of a deal. The second suggestion is to learn quickly in the moment how to be proactive as opposed to reactive. Now, this may be the most difficult of the three suggestions that I'm offering today, but again, if it's important to us, then we'll find a way to not take ourselves so seriously. And then finally, the third suggestion is to seek to calm our soul by meditating, reading good works, if that's classic literature or other books that you enjoy reading that help you to be calm, the scriptures, that always helps. Then what we can also do is play these potential offense-taking scenarios in our minds first. And what I mean by that is think about things that could possibly go wrong during a game, something that you might take offense at, or something that another player did to frustrate you or to make it so that you were not able to do what you wanted to do. But we need to remember in these games, whether it's with family or friends, that that other player is, for all intents and purposes, someone who is important to us and the game's going to end. Do we want to do something during the game that would so fracture that relationship that it may be damaged in ways that we can't repair overnight? Those are things to think about, ladies and gentlemen. Now, in my experience with this game with my family, we were eventually able to talk about it and reasonably discuss it and understand the other person's perspective, and that's important to do. We talked it out after the game and we arrived at a good place, even though during the game an awkward situation was created, and again, by yours truly. So I guess what I'm saying is that by our talking it out together and by coming together and reasoning together, we were able to learn from it and then to grow so that hopefully the next time we play together, that kind of thing won't happen and I won't get bent out of shape because someone did something that I thought was inappropriate or whatever. It doesn't matter what uh what it is or was. What matters is how do I deal with it? That's the question we all have to ask ourselves when we're in situations that we can't control. What are we going to do to deal with it, to move on, to learn something, and to ultimately progress? It really does take courage to do the right thing. And this word courage I've thought about recently a lot, over the last several weeks, actually. What I've concluded has nothing earth shattering, but I want to talk a little bit about this word courage and all the other words that contain the word courage that may be either positive or negative. For instance, the word encourage is a good thing. The word discourage is well, can be a good thing if we take it the right way. Discouragement can be something that gets us down and may even get us depressed if we let it, then there are the words courageous and courageousness. Now, again, all of these words encourage, discourage, discouragement, courageous, courageousness, they all contain the word courage, but they have different meanings. As an example, for us to be courageous, we have to be faced with a situation that may be fearful, that may be uncomfortable, and that may cause us to recognize that there's something that we need to overcome. I believe that the importance of overcoming something is extremely important. And most of the time, we have to be courageous, we have to have courage to face those things. The easiest thing to do in the world is to run away from something that makes us uncomfortable. Well, guess what? We're never going to learn, we're never going to be able to overcome, we are never going to be able to master ourselves, to manage our soul if we continue to run away from things that are uncomfortable. Part of the reason why I do the podcast, ladies and gentlemen, is because I always want to be able to come before you and encourage you in your life and whatever it is you're doing, to recognize that we live in the greatest country in the world, as far as I'm concerned, that we have the freedom and liberty to choose to do whatever it is we want to do. And it's not always going to be easy. In fact, it's hardly ever easy. But as they say, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? But it's not that easy. It's something that takes concerted effort on our part, on really a daily basis. Now, this personal experience of mine is just that personal, but I wanted to share it with you to help you to see that there are times, and I know I'm preaching to the choir here, we all know there are times when we're in uncomfortable situations, and many times it's within our own family or our close circle of friends. Sometimes we treat strangers better than we treat our own family or our good friends. And I don't know why that is. I just know that that's been my experience, and I'm quite certain that each of you can relate to that as well. This experience of the game that I've just related to you is a micro level example. What about the macro level, the wider, the broader picture? Here's what I believe. In fact, I think it is universally accepted that there would be much less trouble and strife in the world if people managed themselves by exercising some self discipline in their lives. It seems to me, ladies and gentlemen, that there are some people who give in to whatever it is that gives them momentary satisfaction at the time, instead of seeking for that which will provide a lasting contentment or even happiness. I mean, aren't we all seeking to be happy, to find happiness and joy in something? Ideally, we should probably be seeking for happiness every day of our lives. But because we don't live in a perfect society, we're not always happy twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. We have discouragement, we have sadness, but overall, we ought to be striving to be happy in the things that we do and find contentment in those things. I believe we are blessed to live in a prosperous nation, one in which freedom and liberty abound, and we must do all we can to keep it that way. There are certainly a multitude of challenges that people face on a daily basis. I mean here in 2023, there seems to be much more of a problem with mental illness, and that is a problem in our society. Not that the people who have those mental illnesses are a problem, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying I really don't understand where all of these different mental illnesses come from. I certainly believe that social media has contributed to it in a big way, particularly among young people. Children are very susceptible to things that adults look at and say, pfft, uh, forget that, that's no big deal. But because children are learning, their brains are developing, they're influenced much more easily by social media. And in many ways, they gauge themselves and the worth of themselves by those things that they see on social media. And what about the typical things that young people go through? The things at their schools, whether they're bullied or not, the awkwardness of social situations face to face. A lot of children today still have to deal with that age-old form of peer pressure. It still exists face to face. When you add the social media aspect on top of it, it becomes more daunting, I think, for children to be able to deal with those things and to navigate their lives. All of this is not to say that adults don't have any problems. We certainly do. They're just dealt with in a different way. But if we can learn at a younger age to overcome these things, to be able to manage ourselves so that we're exercising self-control and self-discipline, then that'll carry with us into adulthood and it'll help us to overcome the challenges that we have as adults. I believe one of the most challenging things that people seem to face today in our society, and it's perhaps no more prevalent today than it was two or three generations ago, but that's the question of sexuality and the way that people view themselves, the way that people perceive themselves, because maybe they're not as confident as what they could be. And sadly, they may have a mental illness that they haven't yet received help with. The bottom line for me is that I believe we're here on this earth to achieve and to succeed and to overcome, to overcome the challenges that we face, not to succumb to those challenges and to give in to those challenges, but actually exercise self-control and self-discipline and manage ourselves and our souls in the best way that we possibly can. I believe that this best way is morality, that we need to make good moral decisions about ourselves and about others, which in my mind simply means just making the right decisions, being a good person. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, don't take advantage of someone else because you can. Yes, of course, morals have to do with sexuality. I'm not here to condemn anyone for the things that they do and the choices that they make that relate to their morality. I just know that being a moral society is much better than being an immoral society. I think history has shown us what happens when people make incorrect decisions regarding morals, and I'll leave it at that. I'd like to leave you with a bit of encouragement here at the end of this episode today, ladies and gentlemen, by reading from Psalms twenty three. Now this is from the King James Version of the Bible, and it says this The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. May you find ways to better manage yourself or your soul, and by doing so help others to do the same, is my hope and my prayer for each of you. If you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.