At the funeral of the late Stephen R. Covey, his family shared how he had made it a habit to spend at least 20 minutes in solitude, contemplation, and study of the scriptures at the start of every day. He coined this his "personal private Victory." I feel as if the past months have been that for me. Every day, I wake up to a new day filled with opportunity to continue in the habits I am trying to form, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually: weight training/hiking/running and eating healthy, job skills to learn and remember, putting into every day practice communication skills newly learned, praying for and loving my neighbors, family, friends and strangers. I am reading and trying to understand about having a heart at peace versus a heart at war. Every day I am trying to be true to the things that I know are right and appropriate. How does that fit in with every thought and every deed? How do I humble myself and allow Christ's atonement to work in my life? Every night I ask myself, what was good about the day and what was not so good about the day? If/when I find myself sliding down the path of comparison, I stop myself in my tracks. For me, comparison and self pity are the most dangerous places for my thoughts to go. Instead, I remind myself that I have a Father in Heaven who knows, loves, and supports me. He is the same Father to all I meet, therefore, I need to try to know, love and support them. I am finding that anger and conflict leave when I can do that. And that has become my own personal, private Victory.
