Can't, or Won't?
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· 8 viewsMost times we say we can't do something, we're really saying we won't do something
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Body
Body
There are some things that, as human beings, we simply cannot do
We can’t lift Mount Everest
We can’t walk through walls
We can’t decide to split ourselves into two beings
We can’t fly
No matter what I do, no matter how much I study or exercise or motivate myself, I will never be able to do these things.
However, if we’re physically capable of doing something, there’s really nothing holding us back from doing it, other than the will to.
Aron Ralston was a pretty normal guy, but he always had an extremely adventurous streak and a desire to travel and see the world.[1] During his childhood, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, a place offering many opportunities to climb mountains, explore, and ultimately become the adventurer he’d always wanted to be. Back in 2003, Ralston was climbing in the remote, mountainous wilderness of Southwestern Utah, when the unthinkable happened: Aron became trapped in a crevice in the rocks and pinned by a boulder that weighed over 360 kilograms (800 lb). The weight of the rock crushed his arm, and he was pinned by it. Aron took photos of his bad situation (which was going to get a lot worse) as he waited for rescue teams to come remove the rock so that he could get out and home safe.
But rescuers never came. Aron waited for them for days as his hope faded. He knew he had to do something. He was 18 meters (59 ft) above the floor of the chasm he’d found himself pinned in, and he had a pocketknife. He made what must have been one of the most difficult decisions of his life: to amputate his own arm beneath the elbow in order to survive. Aron cut the lower part of his arm off, having to wrench his forearm against the boulder to break the bones, and then got himself down to the bottom of the canyon, where he would begin to walk and search for help. Luckily, help arrived in the form of a helicopter that spotted him, covered in blood. Aron had tied off the wound to keep himself from bleeding to death pretty successfully and would eventually make it out alive.
Ralston went on to become a motivational speaker and continued to travel and climb mountains—he didn’t let an incident that forced him into the most strenuous of circumstances, cutting his own arm off, stop him from doing what he really loved.
—www.listverse.com 10 Unbelievable Cases Of Self-Amputation For Survival
Helen Keller
Deaf and Dumb
How do you communicate with someone when you can’t see OR hear?
She developed home signs, over 60 of them, to communicate with her family
Later Anne Sullivan taught Ms. Keller hand signs
Sullivan arrived at Keller's house on March 5, 1887, a day Keller would forever remember as my soul's birthday.[16] Sullivan immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller was frustrated, at first, because she did not understand that every object had a word uniquely identifying it. When Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for "mug", Keller became so frustrated she broke the mug.[20] But soon she began imitating Sullivan's hand gestures. "I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed," Keller remembered. "I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation."[21]
Keller's breakthrough in communication came the next month when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water". Writing in her autobiography, The Story of My Life, Keller recalled the moment: "I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!"[16] Keller then nearly exhausted Sullivan, demanding the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.
She learned to “hear” people’s speech using the Tadoma method, which means using her fingers to feel the lips and throat of the speaker
She could read braille and used fingerspelling to communicate
She went on to become a world famous speaker and author.
She travelled to 25 different countries to speak, and published 12 books and several articles
Grandpa quitting smoking
Bro Jeff Arnold quitting smoking and drinking before receiving the Holy Ghost
We have the ability to choose to do all kinds of things, and it’s not at all dependent on if we want to or not
Pay the bills
Go to work
Resolve an uncomfortable situation
Go to the doctor/dentist
Get up extra early/stay up extra late
Stop drinking/smoking/doing drugs
Get along with someone you despise
These are all things we can do if we choose to.
We don’t need to be inspired
We don’t need to be in the mood
We don’t need anyone to help us (although for a lot of these, this would make things a whole lot easier!)
We don’t need the Holy Ghost
We can do anything we desire to do
We can learn a new trade
We can learn to play an instrument
We can get good at a sport
“But I don’t have any talent in that area!”
“God hasn’t gifted me in that!”
Baloney!!!
We serve God ultimately because we choose to
Why did Noah obey God?
God forced him to preach
God told him “preach, or else!”
God held his family captive
Why did Joseph obey God?
Why did Moses obey God?
Why did David obey God?
All of these without the Holy Ghost!
Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
Jesus chose the plan of God over what He wanted
Don’t believe for one second that Jesus couldn’t have just walked away from the plan of God
53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?
54 But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
We walk away from God ultimately because we choose to
Why did Cain slay Abel?
Why did Esau lose the birthright?
Why did king Saul lose the kingship?
Commitment
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
God gives us the desire and the ability to accomplish His will
However, we still have to make the choice to move forward in God’s plan
In other words, ability and desire are meaningless without choice!
The “I can” and the “I want to” come from God, the “I will” comes from me
Most people “want” to be rich. Most people possess the ability to get rich. But most people aren’t rich, not because the can’t but because they won’t