Looking for the positives

     As I reach to focus on the reason for the upcoming world-wide celebration being, in truth, originally the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, I have purposely avoided knowing too much about what events are occurring in the world and bitter feelings continuing. Even on Facebook, where I mostly see posts by people I know, there are some who cling to hostile feelings about the election we just had. There are sometimes requests to pray for tragedies people are enduring. I love to help anyone whenever I can, including simply praying when that's all I can do. Otherwise, focusing my attention on more and more gory details or reading angry insults or fatalistic prophesies of doom makes it impossible to be happy or even to want to get up each morning. So amid this awareness of so much negativity around me, hovering in the background, we went to the movies today. I know I ended up very upset a couple of years ago and did a post about the cruelty of humans toward other humans precipitated by going to see a movie "based on real events" during WWII. You'd think maybe I need to stop going to the movies! Well, this time the movie was "Rogue One" which is totally fictitious. However, the 10-15 minutes before the movie started was filled with flashes of scenes previewing upcoming films. The volume level was excessive. (Our seat actually vibrated as if we were having earthquakes.) But out of the 7 or 8 upcoming movies, there was not one that I would consider seeing. They were all about anger, war, hate, destruction, fear, and chaos. Even the warped animated movie about babies involved a "baby" who was trying to destroy the affection people feel toward puppies. So you take the one tiny shred of innocence left in the world, babies, and make a conniving, sadistic, manipulative ogre out of one! All I could think of was- THIS is what is being provided as entertainment?? THIS is what our entertainment industry has determined "people want" and are willing to pay for? There is a scripture about the last days, "And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men's hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people." (D&C 88:91) The feelings being portrayed as well as those evoked in the spectators fit that prophecy to a tee! Gone are the days of "Lassie" or "Leave it To Beaver" where people care about each other, parents are respected, and love encompasses families and neighbors. Few people could tolerate the boring sappiness of such "entertainment" today. We have truly become jaded in so many ways. While people are in reality living through the hell of war, children are starving to death, and hate rages in the hearts of men, we are wanting more and more violence in order to satisfy our lust for entertainment.
     There may be some who would suggest that I "toughen up" and not be so bothered by all of it. I could choose to be more cynical, more jaded, more ready to accept or tolerate anger, hatred or destruction. But I just can't do that. I look at children and grieve that they are losing their innocence long before I did or most people I knew as a child. We have always had wars but, for the most part, they were tragic events people would have preferred to avoid. But, wait, I remember going to Manassas and hearing about the Civil War and how people tried to take picnic lunches to spend an afternoon being spectators of the battle. Are we just unavoidably beastly?
     Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." The longer I'm in this world, the more anxious I am to leave it. I really enjoyed the peace and love I felt while serving as a missionary in the Nauvoo temple. I enjoy the love I feel most of the time in the homes of my family and friends. I find no thrill in contention. I have no desire for rebellion, not that I would bend to anything that is unjust or immoral. I have a greater and greater desire to listen to uplifting music and avoid loud, banging, angry music. I have a greater and greater desire to see movies with only slightly bad guys and they have a happy ending. I have a greater and greater desire to read words of the Lord, promises of peace and comfort. I know that prior to the return of the Savior, Satan is going to get more and more anxious to wield his influence before his opportunity is gone and he is bound and isolated from us. I am determined to be a light in the darkness of his influence. I pray that I, and others who have this same desire, will have the strength to follow a better example, choose a better way.