Obeiscence, Overview, Opportunity, Operation, Original, Outflow, Omniscience, Offering, Optimism

Obeiscence
A bow or courtesy;  an act of reverence made by an inclination of the body or the knee.  Gen. xxxvii
I guess there is a time and a place for this.  It is always when I pray.  But I don't feel inclined to go there with mortals.  In my heart I know that we are much the same...just a different levels of progression.

Overview

From Dictionary.com a general review or summary of a subject.

This word is so self-explanatory.  Having an overview of any plan or situation is a desirable thing.  

Opportunity

1.       Fit or convenient time;  a time favorable for the purpose;  suitable time combined with other favorable circumstances.  Suitableness of time is the predominant signification, but it includes generally circumstances of place and other conveniences adapted to the end desired.

Convenient means.  I had an opportunity of sending the letter, or no opportunity to send it.  Opportunities rarely occur or frequently offer.

This word makes me think of the hymn "Have I Done Any Good?"  The second verse in particular.

https://www.lds.org/music/library/hymns/have-i-done-any-good?lang=eng

There are opportunities all around, just now!  It is hard for me to think of all the time I waste, and all the opportunities that I allow to slip by.  Opportunities for growth, service, etc.  Gotta watch for them and jump on them if I want the blessings of real growth that come from them.

How often do you miss the opportunity to make a new friend?  To learn a new skill?  To repent?

Operation

1.       The act or process of operating;  agency;  the exertion of power, physical, mechanical or moral.

2.       Action;  effect.

3.       Process;  manipulation;  series of acts in experiments;  as in chemistry or metallurgy.

4.       In surgery, any methodical action of the hand, or of the hand with instruments, on the human body, with a view to heal a part diseased, fractured or dislocated, as in amputation, etc.

5.       Action or movements of an army or fleet;  as military or naval operations.

6.       Movement of machinery.

Movements of any physical body.

Agency...that strikes a cord.  I am all for agency.  It is lacking in our current political climate.  We are losing more and more of our agency...no let me say that our society is GIVING it away...to these, these...(Tari, remember that you are a lady.) puffed-up, self-serving, over-paid, amoral, creatures that have been voted and/or assigned to office.

Agency, we lose more and more every day.  The only place we are safe is in our hearts.  But I have to say that the heart is a really good place to have it.  Choose who you serve, love, are kind to , listen to, etc.

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

Original

1.       First in order;  preceding all others;  as the original state of man;  the original laws of a country;  original rights or powers;  the original question in debate.

Primitive;  pristine;  as the original perfection of Adam.

I think the woman who put this list of words together has been working out how to win in a court battle that she has been involved in for some years now.  I know that these words help her and give her a degree of power.

I am not sure how they should resonate with me at this particular time in my life.  Oh, some of them really have and continue to even now.  I am really not sure how this applies to me unless I embrace my own uniqueness.  If I go there then I know this word fits me.  I am an original...as is any who are reading this blog post...original.  We have thoughts of our own, dreams and desires of our own, even styles of behavior and expressions of our own.

I like that.

Outflow

n.

1. the act of flowing out.

2. something that flows out.

3. any outward movement.

[1790–1800]

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

I like to link this one to opportunity...and to offering.  

I also like to think of it in connection with the Light of Christ.  I believe that the Light of Christ is in all of us.  True, some have added wattage to that light while others haven't quite figured out how to do that, but we all have it.  What do we do with it? 

I used to live in a city called Bountiful, Utah.  I loved living there.  My children were happy there.  

There is a hill near the house we lived in that my husband and I would walk up every day.  It is quite steep.  It was so hard for me to navigate in the beginning.  I just could NOT get up that hill without many, many stops to catch my breath.

A few days in to our plan to walk every day I was kind of discouraged so I decided to start waving to everyone who passed by.  These people were in their cars taking their kids to school or on their way to work.  Many of them looked so grumpy, sad, preoccupied...not many looked very happy.

Some of those people would go out of their way to totally avoid eye contact.  Others would look at me like I was half crazy.  Others would give a little half-hearted wave.  On occasion there would be someone who would really be happy to wave back.

As time passed more and more of those people would happily wave good morning to me.  Smiling.  Some of the drivers would even encourage the passengers in their car to wave as well.  It was very gratifying to see the change.  I think it brightened everyone's day.

That is the outflow of love for others that comes via the Light of Christ.

The story continues...One day I was walking and I was very sad...crying in fact.  Not feeling like waving, lost in my thoughts.  And what happened?  People would honk to get my attention and smile and wave!!  I am not kidding.  It was amazing to me.  It was not long before I forgot my troubles for the duration of my walk and got lost in the joy of greeting "friends."

The magic of that story is that I never met a single person in those cars.  But we were friends.  Lifting each other up and creating a bright spot in one anothers' lives.

THAT is outflow.

Omniscience

The quality of knowing all things at once;  universal knowledge of all things;  knowledge unbounded or infinite.  Omniscience is an attribute peculiar to God.

I wonder of this is a skill we should be working to acquire.  And if it is how on earth do we go about acquiring it.

I think this word is in this list to remind me that God knows me...inside and out, past, present and future.  I can't fool Him.  He knows.  I can call upon Him for advice, comfort, encouragement, and endless love.  I know He is there and waits for a daily visit.  He knows my heart.

Offering

ppr.  Presenting;  proposing;  sacrificing;  bidding;  presenting to the eye or mind.

noun.  That which is presented in divine service;  an animal or a portion of bread or corn, or of gold and silver, or other valuable articles, presented to God as an atonement for sin, or as a return of thanks for his favors, or for other religious purpose;  a sacrifice;  an oblation.  In the Mosaic economy, there wer burnt-offerings, sin-offerings,  peace-offerings, trespass-offerings, thank-offerings, wave-offerings, and wood-offerings.  Pagan nations also present offerings to their deities.  Christ by the offering of himself has superseded the use of all other offerings, having made atonement for all men.

That walk that I took daily up that hill got easier and easier...until I could do it without even being winded...because I offered a little love along the way.  Oh, you can choose to say that I just got into shape because I didn't give up...but I assure you that if I hadn't made a game of waving at others and then got caught up in the joy of seeing a smile come across a sad face, I never would have kept walking up that hill.

Blessings come from offering service.  My blessing ...I had many from that experience...the memory.  The warm feeling of happiness that comes with the memory.

(this was our walk:   https://www.google.com/maps/dir/E+1850+S,+Bountiful,+UT+84010/Bountiful+Utah+Temple+-+The+Church+of+Jesus+Christ+of+Latter-day+Saints,+640+Bountiful+Blvd,+Bountiful,+UT+84010/@40.876541,-111.8646027,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x8752f7dc68e998f3:0x761ec2cba316536e!2m2!1d-111.864635!2d40.870135!1m5!1m1!1s0x875257ff92ad7077:0x1f8a2b7c85cbe833!2m2!1d-111.846799!2d40.882867   )

Optimism

Noun – From the Latin optimus, best. The opinion or doctrine that every thing in nature is ordered for the best;  or the order of things in the universe that is adapted to produce the most good.

I like this word.  I choose to believe in the best in others and I have chosen to find the best in every situation that I have ever been in.  I have had some very hard things happen in my life.  I know I am not alone in feeling this way.  And I assure you that I am not going to compare my hard times with your hard times in any other way than to say this....

Every hard time has a lesson.  Every lesson can be learned.  When we learn the lesson from that hard time we feel less and less like a victim and more and more like a victor.

I love the movie "PollyAnna" for this very reason.  My favorite part is when she goes to visit the preacher and lets him read her locket...

“If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.”

She taught the whole town how to look up and smile...and then when she was miserable they brought a smile to her face...just like the folks in Bountiful did for me that day.

There is always, always room for optimism.

Here's to Growing and Glowing!!

Onward and Upward!! ™

Tari