Ever struggled with reconciling family bonds or grappling with forgiveness? We've all been there. In our latest episode of More Than Coincidence, we sit down for an intimate chat with Chris as we delve deeper into the Two Great Commandments and their guiding principles for harmonizing our relationships with God, our peers, and ourselves. Tune in to this insightful episode and experience a fresh perspective on the impact of these Gospel principles in your life!
Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)
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Facebook: More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story Instagram: mtc.rememberingjesuschrist
Ever struggled with reconciling family bonds or grappling with forgiveness? We've all been there. In our latest episode of More Than Coincidence, we sit down for an intimate chat with Chris as we delve deeper into the Two Great Commandments and their guiding principles for harmonizing our relationships with God, our peers, and ourselves. Tune in to this insightful episode and experience a fresh perspective on the impact of these Gospel principles in your life!
Please reach out to me if you are interested in sharing your story! I would LOVE to hear from you. :)
Follow us on Social Media:
Facebook: More than Coincidence: Remembering Jesus Christ in Your Story Instagram: mtc.rememberingjesuschrist
Hello everyone and welcome to. More Than Coincidence, Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story as the author and finisher of our faith, our Savior writes personal experiences into each of our lives which can later strengthen, empower and bring us peace upon reflection. This podcast is dedicated to sharing these anchoring memories from everyone's unique stories in order to collectively remember and testify of the reality of Jesus Christ and His presence in our lives. I'm your host, Lily, and I'm very excited to share these experiences together. Thank you, Chris, for coming on to our show today. I'm really excited to talk to you and to hear your story. So do you want to introduce yourself a little bit?
Speaker 2:
Yes, thank you Lily. I'm Chris, I'm a dad, I'm a grandpa. I've been many other things occupationally. I've been a ditch digger, I've been a soldier, been a pizza cook, been a shoe salesman, been a door-to-door book salesman, been a student. I've loaded trucks. I've done a lot of things in my life.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome. Sweet Regular, like the rest of us right, just a regular Joe named Chris. That's our regular Joe named Chris. I like that. So what is your story you'd like to share with us today? I should say what experience has our Savior Jesus Christ written into your life that reminds you of Him and pricks your heart in remembrance of Him?
Speaker 2:
Just my relationships with my brothers, because I love them a lot. I love my brothers Over the years when we were little we were just in each other's lives.
Speaker 1:
You were stuck together, whether you wanted it or not.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you just you live with the guys and you established those relationships with your brothers. I did. I established my relationships with my brothers and over time, just because of the choices we've made and the places we've gone and the things that we've done, geographically we've grown apart. I think in some cases, emotionally, we've grown apart, we've grown apart. To me that's sad, because I've had a part in that too, but I still love my brothers. I'm also that way about my dad. I love my dad, but because of the choices that we've each made over the years, geographically we've been apart.
Speaker 2:
We're apart and I know emotionally we're apart, but we're making both of us are making strides in getting back to each other, and I think the Savior has a big hand in that, because one of the main principles of the gospel is forgiveness. It's not only the Savior's and the Heavenly Father's forgiveness of us, but the things that we do, but it's also offering forgiveness to our family and others. I think a lot of people don't look at it that way and when they think about forgiveness and repentance, they often figure it, see it in the relationship between us and our Father in heaven and the Savior, and somehow it's different between people, and I would say it's even different between who you know and how well you know them, because, depending on the person Like I said before you know in our conversation before about you know, with people you know all pets are off. Say, for example, you're at odds with a family member.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's, it's either going to be really easy to forgive them or it's going to be really hard, or it's more personal, yeah, and if you're the one that's done the offending, it may be hard for you To ask for forgiveness, or maybe really easy. And then you compare that to the total stranger. Well, it may be easier for you to ask for forgiveness from somebody who's a stranger, or it may be easier for you to forgive somebody who's a stranger, or it could be really difficult. Just depends on that relationship, you know.
Speaker 1:
So you feel like you've seen upon your reflections of your relationships with your brothers and your dad and with other people you've, you know, interacted with. It's it's those relationships that remind you of of our savior. Is that? Is that kind of what you're trying to get at?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think so, Because I see the gospel in my life, though, because I have a relationship with my father in heaven and my savior, and I try to be like my savior you know, I think everybody does, and in in in trying to do that. I think that's when you've got those opportunities for repentance and forgiveness, in those relationships with with those people, with family members I mean even my kids.
Speaker 1:
So you've seen the savior in your life through your relationships with your brothers and your dad and your family and other people.
Speaker 2:
I think so.
Speaker 1:
And one of the only things that you take with you into the, into the eternities, is the relationships.
Speaker 2:
Right, that's as far as we know, it's really the only thing.
Speaker 1:
It's one of the things you take.
Speaker 2:
Because you're not going to take your riches with you. And there's that little joke about the guy who you know, who was buried with, you know, gold bars in his casket. I mean, you know, he gets up to the pearly gates and he's got this big old suitcase full of gold bars and the angel at the gate says hey look, there's another guy, he brought a pavement.
Speaker 1:
Because heaven's paved with gold. Yes, that's funny.
Speaker 2:
And I think that's kind of going back to that previous statement that that's that's why we're here is so that this is kind of like you know, for all the gaming enthusiasts, this is sandbox.
Speaker 1:
It's the ultimate sandbox experience.
Speaker 2:
It is.
Speaker 1:
Minecraft's got nothing on this, right, yeah, the original Minecraft. The original Minecraft mortality, the original Minecraft there you go.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we've got this relationship with our Father in Heaven and our Savior, and those same principles that are at work with that relationship are at work in our relationships with our family, our friends and strangers. And because we are experiencing mortality from our perspective, sometimes it's hard to recognize that and we don't treat people the way we could and someone, I would argue, the way we should. And we treat people the way we treat people, you know, treat our family a certain way, treat friends a certain way, treat strangers a certain way. But I think if we, if we all had the principles of the gospel in the forefront of our mind, just have that be the stereotype Rather than Like have a child of God be the stereotype, yeah.
Speaker 1:
That we see each other through.
Speaker 2:
And ourselves and that's a whole other discussion that oftentimes it's easier for us to afford other people who are not us forgiveness and repentance, and sometimes we don't afford that to ourselves, and that causes problems Not only for ourselves but for those people that we interact with.
Speaker 1:
I feel like I've learned in my life that we have the two greatest commandments, and the first is you know to love God. And then the second is, like unto it, that you have to love thy neighbor as thyself. And I think when we see those two greatest commandments, there are three relationships that are listed there. We have our relationship with God, we have our relationship with ourselves and we have our relationship with others, and I think it is within those three relationships that we can find the most happiness and the most joy. And, at least for me, the way I have seen the Savior's hand in my life the most because it's my relationship with him that helps, I think, in a lot of ways, keeps me grounded and reminds me of my intrinsic value as a child of God, right, as a divine daughter of God. And then, you know, I am my own worst critic as well, and so I've had to learn to have that positive relationship with myself and to afford myself mercy, right, I'm always ready to bring the hammer down of justice upon myself, and I've had to learn too that I need to see myself in a positive light. Like you were saying, I need to afford myself forgiveness, I need to allow myself to ask in a weird way, ask myself for forgiveness of I'm sorry that I thought of myself that way in the past. I treated myself like that in the past and I want to become better. I want to be a child of God. I want to see myself as that and I want to treat myself as that and I want to base my relationship with myself off of that intrinsic value that the Lord has given to me right and that God, through that relationship, has given to me. And I feel like when we are square with the Lord and we're square with our Father in heaven and it will really our heavenly parents, and then with ourselves, I feel like we are then more able to see others in those lights and afford others those mercies or forgiveness. I don't know if that makes any sense, but I've just noticed, at least for me, I don't see others as NPCs anymore.
Speaker 1:
When I'm right with the Lord, when I'm right with myself, others aren't non-player characters, they're not NPCs, they're literal children of God. You know and so I'm glad that you brought that up that it's the relationships in your life and the relationships in all of our lives that we've been given. That is how the Lord works through us. A big part of this podcast is that the Lord is the author and finisher of our faith and he writes the stories. And not only does he write these events and plot lines into our stories, but he writes the cast. He writes these other people into our story as well. I wouldn't call them side characters necessarily, because nobody's lesser right, but other main characters. Maybe we are all protagonists in the story, right? Maybe we can look at it that way.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we are. Well, we depending on the situation and the relationship.
Speaker 1:
We are either the protagonist or the antagonist, maybe a little bit of an anti-hero. We could dive into that as well.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and that's it. We're all down here questing, if you will, you know, and there's the main quest, and oftentimes we get sidetracked by the side quest.
Speaker 1:
Right. So I really like how we're talking about this idea of relationships and how it's through these relationships that we are able to remember our Savior. Are there any other times in your life where it was really your relationships that the Lord gave to you that kind of pulled you through things, got you through things?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, now that I see that the Lord's hand is in my relationships with people, I think about what difference I've made in other people's lives sometimes. If I happen to have one of those days where I'm beating myself up about something and I know we all have those days it helps sometimes to remember those times where I've been an instrument in the Lord's hands to help others, and we need that sometimes. We need to remember that. You know, sometimes it's not just you know other people being instruments in our lives, but it's us being instruments in other people's lives. I remember when I was in Bosnia on my first deployment, I was with a group of guys and there were four of us that were members of the church together and we had four other guys on our team that weren't members of the church and there was another group of soldiers, another small group of soldiers, and I think there were four or five of those guys and they weren't members of the church, but that didn't matter because we were brothers in arms. You know, we're soldiers together and as soon as we met each other, we had that instant bond and we're going through our deployment and a couple of the guys that weren't members of the church at different times had some hard times there on the deployment and we would me and the other guys, the other three guys that were members of the church every Sunday we would hold church in our office, just a little short sacrament service, just an hour long, and one of the guys from the other team, who wasn't one of our guys on our team, he was having a really hard time and he knew that we were having church service and we'd put out the invitation to everybody you know to come. You know we're doing church service, you guys are welcome to come.
Speaker 2:
And this one day he decided to take us up on that. You know, and you know he came in and sat down with us and we had church service and at the end of it he said he really felt good being at church with us and he then told us about his struggle that he was going with having at that moment. And we sat and talked with him for a long time and we asked him if he would like to have a blessing and you know, not being a member of the church, he asked. He says, well, what's that? And we told him and he says, well, yeah, I think I'd really like that, and so we gave him a blessing and he was happy.
Speaker 2:
It was almost like in that instant he was able to find the solution or the courage or whatever it was that he needed at that time to help him through, and it was a really good thing for him, and it was a really good thing for us To be of service to him, and that's what the Savior wants. Those are gospel principles in action, you know, and it doesn't matter whether he joined the church later on or not. What matters is that the Lord's work was being done, that his children were helping each other.
Speaker 2:
And we had a couple of those experiences like that. You know, on that deployment. It was really interesting to see that and it helps firm up in my mind the gospel principles that are the foundations of a relationship with our Father in Heaven and our Savior, are also the foundations of the relationships with us as individuals and everybody else as well as ourselves. And kind of going back to that part where we were talking about how we need to keep that in mind, you know, have that stereotype of everybody as a child of God, including ourselves. You know, like you said, we are our own worst critic and we're always ready to pounce on ourselves and beat ourselves up. I think it's critical to remember that, and somebody told me this once, and I can't remember who it was, but I've used it, this axiom, if you will, I've used it with my children, I've used it with my friends, I've used it with the students that I've taught.
Speaker 2:
It's okay to beat yourself up a little bit to spur you on to success, but as you do that, as you beat yourself up about that, whatever it is, don't beat yourself down. There's a difference, you know. You can say I'm not happy with what I've done, I'm not happy with the way this turned out. I need to do this better. You know I'm going to do this better next time, and that can be productive to spur yourself in the right direction.
Speaker 2:
But then sometimes we go overboard with that and we beat ourselves down and tell ourselves, you know that we're not good enough, that we shouldn't have done that, to the point to where we are demoralized and we make ourselves feel like we're not worthy of love, of success or whatever it is that we are. We find ourselves lacking at that point in time. On the other side of that coin. We can't let ourselves get away with stuff, and sometimes we do that too, and we've got to find that balance between the two. And that's our relationship with ourself. And if we apply gospel principles there, then it will be easier to find that balance and not let ourselves get away with stuff, hold ourselves accountable.
Speaker 1:
Because we're the ones that truly know our own intentions and motivations right.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and we lie to ourselves.
Speaker 1:
I have done that.
Speaker 2:
They were good at it. I've done that, yeah, and that's. I think people don't see it that way. Sometimes they see relationships as their interaction with other people. But, yeah, there are clearly three relationships, three types of relationships Our relationship with deity, our relationship with others and our relationship with ourselves. And if we applied gospel principles two of those relationships I think we'll have more of the quote-unquote success that we so desire. And that's just me thinking out loud, that's just me, you know.
Speaker 1:
I agree. So you think that possibly if we all try to focus on those first two relationships and be honest with those first two relationships with God and with ourselves, that maybe we would treat like naturally treat others differently, you think?
Speaker 2:
I think we'd stand a better chance to, because we have our agency. I was thinking about that the other day when Heavenly Father put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, gave them two things gave them agency and a job to do, gave them agency to choose between keeping the commandments and disobeying them, and told them to take care of the Garden. And we're still doing that as people today. We still have those two things and I would submit to you that the Garden that we are attending are these relationships.
Speaker 1:
That's awesome. Well, do you mind sharing with us a brief testimony and then call it good? I've really enjoyed our conversation. This has been really nice and enlightening and not provoking, at least for me.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, me too, because I've finally been able to put words to the things that I felt. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us and I know that the Savior loves us. I know that the Savior loves me, and some days I'm better at remembering that than others, but I've always got that next moment to remember. You know, a lot of people say, well, tomorrow is going to be better, tomorrow is going to be better. Well, okay, yeah, that's true, but for me, I think sometimes it's moment to moment. The next moment is going to be better. You know, and I you know, and that helps me keep going, and I think it helps me remember the Savior in my life.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. Thank you, Chris, for your time and thank you for your service and for all the thoughts that you've shared, and I have definitely felt the spirit while we've been talking and I'm excited to share this with everybody else too. So thanks for thank you.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for talking with me.
Speaker 1:
Thanks again for tuning into More Than Coincidence, Remembering Jesus Christ in your Story. Please follow us on social media or share us with a friend. If you have an experience you'd like to share, feel free to reach out to morethancoincidencerememberhimcom. I can't wait to hear all of the amazing memories you all have of our Savior. See you next time.
