Times of Faith Blog

When you hear the words, “New Year’s Resolution,” what comes to mind? Guilt? Excitement? Apathy? Energy? The emotions that come from New Year’s Resolutions might be the result of what tends to motivate you. Gretchen Rubin wrote a New York Best Seller book titled The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) . In this book she offers a quiz to discover what motivation works best based on your tendency. She says people tend to fall into one of four categories: Obliger, Upholder, Questioner, or Rebel. While we slide around all four of them, we tend to land in one of them most of the time. If you would like to talk the quiz and see what your tendencies are, click here. It’s completely free but does require that you submit your email to get the results. How we feel about New Year’s Resolutions can reveal our tendency. Obligers – “I don’t like to make New Year’s Resolutions. I never k...

7 Life Lessons Learned Decluttering my Home

A few weeks ago I hired a couple to come help me declutter my home. Jake and Rachel Whiting Seriously, how cute are these two? Photo: Whiting Organization Services It turned out to be not only a transformation for my home, but also for me. Here are seven lessons I learned from the experience. #1 - Don't be satisfied with what the public sees. When I told people that I had hired an organization service, I was usually met with something like this: "But your home is so clean!" "You don't have any clutter." "What could you possibly have to get rid of?" It's true, my home is pretty organized and clutter free—at least the parts you can see. My closets and other private spaces are a different story. For years it has bothered me that I have unorganized chaos in the nooks and crannies of my home. Same with our lives. It's easy to believe "our own press" as my former student likes to say. We post photos of o...

God Wants You to Die

A few weeks ago I had a chance to attend a Jewish Shabbat at an Episcopalian Church. It was a true interfaith gathering. Rabbi Joe Charnes, a great friend of the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, conducted the service. Rabbi Joe has spent his life exploring the comparative study of Christian and Judaism. If you’d like to read his thoughts on attending his first General Conference, click here . Rabbi Joe explained the meaning of the word Shabbat as three letters that mean stop , return , and restore . He said that our Sabbath day should be one where take the time to stop what we are doing, consider what we need to return to, and use the day to restore us. In the last LDS General Conference (October 2024), Bishop L. Todd Budge taught a similar concept. To read his full talk, click here . He taught a Japanese word mui (無為)which means “non doing” or as Bishop Budge explains, “a reminder to slow down and to live with greater spiritual awareness.” As I tho...

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