Raise the Bar

Tonight, for family home evening, we talked about going beyond the mark.  I read portions of Jeffrey R. Holland's address he gave BYU students in 1980 when he became president of BYU.  I won't go into all the details, but to summarize here are two quotes.  "It has made a wonderful difference in my life to have demanded just a bit more of myself."  "Work hard, work early, be honest, knock on one more door before quitting, stand out in the crowd through extra effort and personal commitment."  We then talked about a talk L. Tom Perry gave called Raising the Bar.  His son was practicing high-jump.  He asked him what height.  5 feet, 8 inches, that is the height to qualify for the state track meet.  Elder Perry wanted him to raise the bar and see how he would do.  His son didn't want to because then he might miss.  Elder Perry asked him, "If you don't raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?"

Mike then gave examples from his work.  He talked about being the new guy and figuring out how they do things.  He would notice something that could be done better and work at home on a way to figure out how to accomplish that.  Then he would bring it back to work and present it.  He has done that several times.  Now, he has a lot of freedom at his work because they know that whatever he does, it is going to be well above the minimum required.  We decided this is going to be our family theme for the year.  Raise the bar.  Jorja wanted to make shirts.  Ha!

I tried and tried to find a good ponderizing scripture to go along with this.  We have dropped the ball on the ponderizing scriptures, but we're starting again.  I couldn't find one that I liked to go along with this lesson.  I ended up choosing a scripture that in a round about way relates to what we were discussing.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;" --Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

I want them to spend this year raising the bar, but I also need them to know they do not have to be perfect.  If they try to raise the bar in every aspect of life they might become frustrated.  It is important to know where to put your effort.  Things that are required for me are not required for them.  Also it's important to know when to put effort into designing video games and when to put effort into schooling.  Elder Holland said in his talk, "You can get it all if you decide now to study first and play later.  The alternative is, as so many come to learn, to play now and study never.  You'll be surprised at how much time you then have at your disposal.  If you loaf early and try to work late, you'll be surprised at how much of your time has gone down the disposal."