‘Forever Young’ Is Myopic

TheDiscipleMD

“Not long ago, the wife of one of our grandsons was struggling spiritually. I will call her “Jill.” Despite fasting, prayer, and priesthood blessings, Jill’s father was dying. She was gripped with fear that she would lose both her dad and her testimony.

Late one evening, my wife…told me of Jill’s situation. The next morning Wendy felt impressed to share with Jill that my response to her spiritual wrestle was one word! The word was myopic.

Jill later admitted to Wendy that initially she was devastated by my response. She said, “I was hoping for Grandfather to promise me a miracle for my dad. I kept wondering why the word myopic was the one he felt compelled to say.”

After Jill’s father passed on, the word myopic kept coming to her mind. She opened her heart to understand even more deeply that myopic meant “nearsighted.” And her thinking began to shift. Jill then said, “Myopic caused me to stop, think, and heal. That word now fills me with peace. It reminds me to expand my perspective and seek the eternal. It reminds me that there is a divine plan and that my dad still lives and loves and looks out for me. Myopic has led me to God.” (GC, Oct. 2020, ‘Let God Prevail)

The above story that occurred between Russell M. Nelson and his granddaughter brought to mind a conversation I once had with my then 92 year old father, who is now deceased. We were talking about the decisions and paths that some of his grandchildren had taken. He was not condemning but was concerned that the choices of some would lead to unhappiness. Then he said, “They think they will be young forever!” What he meant, from his vantage point, was that, like the above story, some were being shortsighted in their decision making, or in other words “myopic.” Approaching the end of his life, my father knew that there are consequences for our decisions and that often those consequences take years, or in some cases, a lifetime, to come to fruition. And I might add, depending on your belief system, consequences of our decisions and actions might not arrive till after we have died. Time is a reality and no one is ‘forever young’ no matter how many times entertainers sing it, or poets write it.

Lets not be ‘myopic’ in our view of life. Let us look at the long-term ramifications of the decisions we make and actions that we take. Our earthly and eternal happiness depend on it.

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