2: WIN

Recently my Book of Mormon teacher, Brother Johnson, gave a lesson that really hit me hard. The lesson was right after our football team had lost so he was showing us the best way to get over the losses in our lives. He told us the story about Lou Holtz, one of the greatest coaches ever, who coached for Notre Dame's football team. His team was one of the best so they rarely lost. When they did though, he would sit down with his team and tell them what they needed to do next after losing the game. He simply wrote the word WIN on the board which at first seems like an obvious statement. The coach went on too explain te this stood for "What's Important Now". The team was not going to benefit from being down about the loss and in reality they would actually do worse by dwelling on the past. On the other hand, the team couldn't just say that they would be happy for the next season to start and write off te rest of the one they were in. They had to focus on working for the very next game and for everything else that mattered in their lives beyond football.

Brother Johnson went on to tell us how our life in college is what is important now. We can't look back and wish we were still in high school and at the same time we can't look forward and say that we'll be happy once we get on our mission. He said, "If you're livving for the future, you will never be happy in any present time, no matter how far into the future that may be." It could not have been said any better. If you have a bad roommate or a class you don't like the best thing and the only thing to do is to be positive about it. If you say that you'll be happy once you get to your mission, you'll soon realize that your roommate there stays with you all day. Bad companions in the mission field will come, but the most effective way to get through it is to like where you are in life NOW.

My favorite talk is one by Dieter F. Uchtdorf called "We Are Doing A Great Work and Cannot Come Down". He talks about finding out what matters most in life and sticking to it. He told a story of a plane that crashed in the Florida Everglades one night. The plane was working fine, but one light that had burned out wasn't signaling that the landing gear had come out. In the end while they were trying to fix this problem they slowly descended and crashed to the ground. All I can say to back this up is to take the big picture in life and focus in on the present time. Make your situation positive and fun and you won't have to worry about waiting for a better time. I guess we'll see if our Cougars take the advice of Lou Holtz and concentrate on today's game instead of the rest of the season. GO BYU!