advance planning for plan of salvation


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I’m in the early stages of doing some advance planning for how my own plan of salvation might work. I know its still a fair way off yet, and a few things need to be done before I actually reach that point, but I see no harm in giving it a bit of thought now. Does anybody have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/recommendations about how my plan of salvation might work? Personally, I’m giving some thought to the idea of either not having any periods of apostasy, or making them much shorter. I suspect that the duration of a period of apostasy is a circumstance that at the least can be influenced, and possibly even controlled, by the author of the plan without imposing too much on the agency of the people. I’m also thinking about making gravity a bit weaker so that clumsy people, like I sometimes am, won’t be causing things to fall so frequently, and so that they will have more time to react when something does fall.

So what are your thoughts/ideas/suggestions/recommendations. Should I start from scratch, with a completely clean slate on which to build, or should I modify what we are already familiar with, or should it all just stay the same on an endless repeat? What say you?

 

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4 hours ago, askandanswer said:

I’m in the early stages of doing some advance planning for how my own plan of salvation might work. I know its still a fair way off yet, and a few things need to be done before I actually reach that point, but I see no harm in giving it a bit of thought now. Does anybody have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/recommendations about how my plan of salvation might work? Personally, I’m giving some thought to the idea of either not having any periods of apostasy, or making them much shorter. I suspect that the duration of a period of apostasy is a circumstance that at the least can be influenced, and possibly even controlled, by the author of the plan without imposing too much on the agency of the people. I’m also thinking about making gravity a bit weaker so that clumsy people, like I sometimes am, won’t be causing things to fall so frequently, and so that they will have more time to react when something does fall.

So what are your thoughts/ideas/suggestions/recommendations. Should I start from scratch, with a completely clean slate on which to build, or should I modify what we are already familiar with, or should it all just stay the same on an endless repeat? What say you?

 

I would say that it all depends on what you want to achieve and accomplish with your advanced planning.  If you want mediocre results - you can have a mediocre plan.  There is a very old saying about sailors.  The old saying is that expert and great sailors are not made by sailing on calm seas - the greater the storms the greater the sailor that sails through them.  However, when I teach a beginner to ski - we begin on the easy slops and when confidence builds and greater challenge is needed - we go to more difficult terrain.  When even the double black diamonds are mastered - if so desired we can jump out of airplanes.   Basically one's limits are defined by what they will themselves to take on.

 

The Traveler

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5 hours ago, Fether said:

I’ve always liked the idea of raining money and lightsabers. Maybe incorporate those?

I'm opposed to the idea of money reigning, I think we've all seen the problems that arise when that happens. I need to give further thought to how trade and exchange can be facilitated without all the problems that money brings. I'm looking for a way to exclude from my plan of salvation something which causes so much grief and trouble

As to the idea of lightsabers, I'm thinking of having them emerge from the ground at the tops of the highest mountains as a reward for those who have made the effort to seek them. 

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I'm also thinking of having just one universal language. I can think of few ways more likely to cause misunderstanding, suspicion, fear, division and disunity among people than making large groups of people mutually incomprehensible to each other. It's not easy for me to see from my current limited perspective how the benefits of a multiplicity of languages, in either preventing something bad from happening, or helping something good to happen, outweigh the disadvantages of fear, distrust, disunity, and fragementation that seem to be the inevitable consequences of having so many langauges.

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1 hour ago, Traveler said:

the greater the storms the greater the sailor that sails through them

I suspect that this is an unnecessarily expensive way of producing great sailors because from every great storm there may well be some sailors who never return home or other sailors who, after a great storm, are no longer willing to venture forth into the waters. I think there might also be some scope to adjust the balance between trials and growth. In preparing for my own plan it may be necessary at some point to redefine the ratio that determines how much growth results from how much hardship. For me, I'd like to achieve a greater amount of growth with less suffering. It also might be desirable to make the ratio more consistent, because under the current version of the plan we are living with, some people only achieve growth after decades of hardship and suffering while for others, growth seems to come much more quickly. Or perhaps do away altogether with the idea that links growth to suffering and hardship. Surely there are better ways to learn. 

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30 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

some people only achieve growth after decades of hardship and suffering while for others, growth seems to come much more quickly. Or perhaps do away altogether with the idea that links growth to suffering and hardship. Surely there are better ways to learn. 

I think that is spot on. I can’t remember who, but there was a leader I heard once suggest removing trials and temptations all together. When the only thing you can do is good and grow... everyone is saved!

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2 hours ago, Fether said:

I think that is spot on. I can’t remember who, but there was a leader I heard once suggest removing trials and temptations all together. When the only thing you can do is good and grow... everyone is saved!

Strangely, I can’t remember either, even though I may have been present at the meeting or participated in the discussion.

Perhaps the non-acceptance of the suggestion you refer to was more to do with poor salesmanship of the suggestion or a disagreement over who should get the credit rather than a result of any inherent deficiency with the suggestion itself. 😊

Being saved is the most important thing, and should therefor take priority over all else, even growth. It makes sense that everything should be subservient to the highest priority and directed towards the achievement of that priority. Once you are saved, everything is possible, if you are not saved, everything is no longer possible. Once you are saved, you will have eternity to do whatever growth is needed or desirable or to pursue any other priorities that may be of interest.

If necessary, we could retain some sort of connection between trials and temptations and growth. But perhaps we could also rewrite the equation that determines how much trial and temptation results in how much growth. At the moment, I’m not sure what determines the relationship between these variables. When I do know, in my plan, I might seek to redo that relationship.

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19 hours ago, askandanswer said:

I suspect that this is an unnecessarily expensive way of producing great sailors because from every great storm there may well be some sailors who never return home or other sailors who, after a great storm, are no longer willing to venture forth into the waters. I think there might also be some scope to adjust the balance between trials and growth. In preparing for my own plan it may be necessary at some point to redefine the ratio that determines how much growth results from how much hardship. For me, I'd like to achieve a greater amount of growth with less suffering. It also might be desirable to make the ratio more consistent, because under the current version of the plan we are living with, some people only achieve growth after decades of hardship and suffering while for others, growth seems to come much more quickly. Or perhaps do away altogether with the idea that links growth to suffering and hardship. Surely there are better ways to learn. 

I think you are leaving out the most important element of success.  But this will take some explaining and careful consideration to get right.  Many years ago my goal entering college was to become a teacher - something that I failed miserably but I learned valuable life lessons along the way.  As part of the teaching curriculum students were encouraged to include a "specialty".   Most teaching students selected what is called teaching special learners.  Special learners are in essence underachievers.  I had no interest in underachievers and as far as I know was the only student seeking a teaching career to select a specialty of exceptional learners which is another phrase for geniuses.    As part of my training for working with exceptional learners I took a class in identifying and teaching exceptional learners - or how to handle an exceptional learner in a class room of students. 

So then, what is the number one most common denominator of the world's highest achievers?  I have posted this several times because I was very surprised to learn this for myself and I doubt very many understand the importance of this one most common denominator.  The greatest achievers have a mentor - someone that helps them along the way and teaches them how to achieve greatness.

The skier that as a beginner takes on a double black diamond run all on their own - will most likely end up just as you have pointed out - which is, in short, failure.  Here is something to think about - I doubt that in the last several decades that anyone could provide a single Olympic gold medalist that did not have a coach that taught them how to improve in order for them to achieve the gold.

The great life lesson in all of this is that if anyone is going to achieve - it is best that they seek to learn from the best achievers.  I have been dumbfounded how many students choose the easiest class to get the "A" grade.  Or go to work where they get the most $$$$.  Or they chose a religion that is easy for them to live up to.  If someone wishes to achieve - then they must learn from the best.  It is true that a sailor is made great by sailing through a storm - but the sailor that survives the storm is likely to make it through their first storm by the example of a great sailor.  

More than selecting a job with a company - I have selected my mentor (boss).  But perhaps the most important choice in life is one's partner in life.

 

The Traveler

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