A very interesting question is: How will we spend our final hours in this world? Several years ago, a friend of mine, Doug Smith, here in Bountiful, put it very well when he simplified the answer with two powerful principles: Love God and love our fellow men.  As I thought about this response, it would appear that these two principles are closely related. Specifically, if we love God, we will want to repent in order to be with Him. And if we love our fellowmen, we will learn to forgive them. To the principles mentioned above, it must be remembered that all too often we react as if we’re robots, ultimately being controlled by what others do and say to us. But we are not robots. We have a well-defined set of standards and ideals that we draw from to take charge of life. To these ideals, we need to add numerous principles that define our reality. Life does not simply happen to us. We create the life we decide to live by. And we decide which laws will form the foundation of that life.

Some of the laws we follow include: We have a choice in how we manage life. Stay on good terms with the person we used to be…How do we do that? Repentance and forgiveness set the stage for everyone, including ourselves. We are the ultimate deciding factor. In life, mistakes are made. We can grow beyond them. We are the ultimate deciding factor. We are not controlled by our perception…We create it. The Law of fear tends to confuse us. The Law of Faith tends to clarify our priorities. The Law of Scarcity tends to make us selfish since we may believe that everything is limited. Accept yourself, trust yourself, keep yourself grounded. Get rid of words like “I can’t” “It’s impossible” “It’ll never happen.” The past is past and now is now…Remember there’s a difference. Get along with difficult people but keep your principles as a guide.  

The Story of the Mouse 

The mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see what the farmer and his wife open in a package.  And the mouse thought “What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mouse trap.  

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning. “There is a mousetrap in the house!”  The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern for you, but it is of no concern to me. I cannot be bothered by it. The mouse turned to the pig and said,” There is a mousetrap in the house!” The pig sympathized, but said, ”Mr. Mouse, there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.” The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house.” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you but there is no skin off my nose.” So, the mouse returned to the house – alone. That very night, there was a sound in the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows that you treat a fever with chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them. The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness. So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn’t concern you, remember – when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

Remember: each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry; our lives are woven together for a reason.   

John Waterbury is a retired Clinical Mental Health Counselor who has lived in Utah since 1984 when he moved to Bountiful with his wife and four children. Since then, he has written a weekly column for several years for the Davis County Clipper titled “The Dear John Letters” which was also used throughout the intermountain West focusing on addiction and mental health problems. This new column will focus on mental health and life management issues.