Pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas, which the pancreas can heal on its own.  But to do so, it must be allowed to focus on that task.  Calling it away for its usual duty of producing digestive enzymes or insulin will distract it and thereby prolong healing.

That restriction has wrecked some havoc on my diet.  Initially I was on a liquid diet and then slowly graduated to more solid food.  So long as I stay within my restrictions and keep my meals small (this also helps the pancreas to focus on healing), I should be fine.  That said, I still feel swings in my abdomen.  Some moments feel better than others.

I have even worse swings from my pulmonary embolism.  The blood thinners I’m on have some funky side effects, one of which is lightheadedness.  It comes and goes, some moments being better than others.  Today was particularly bad.  The lightheadedness was extreme as I’d never before felt in my life, and it stayed with me the whole morning.  I spent much of the day today in the emergency room, where the doctor finally concluded I was experiencing a side effect of my meds.

How do I deal with a condition that not only constantly changes but changes so often I don’t really know how I’ll be the next day?  The only real option I have is to do the best I can to attend to the demands of the moment.  My condition forces it on me.

But that’s not very different from what I’ve been sharing here on Joy in the Journey Radio.  We find our best joy in life from living in the moment.  Letting go of what things will mean tomorrow opens a door that otherwise remains closed.

For example, LDS singles leave much joy on the table when dating by worrying about what different social interactions will mean for them tomorrow.  “I don’t want to sit next to those people because then they’ll think I’m interested, and I’m not.”  We think we know so much, yet in truth, we don’t know that much, and we see even less.  There’s countless tales of couples who didn’t think they were right for each other but who are very happy today because they let go of what they thought they needed and embraced the opportunity in the moment.

Of course, letting go of what things will mean tomorrow isn’t license for leaving the covenant path.  I’m in no way suggesting we ignore the consequences of sin.  What I’m saying is that within the confines of our covenants we too often focus outside of the present moment, and that focus leaves a lot of joy on the table we could have every day by living in the present moment.

By embracing the moments that come within the confines of our covenants, we position ourselves for maximum joy.  Redefining what we consider opportunity to be reveals more pathways to experience that joy.  The road can still be rough, as I can attest.  Some of the moments that confront me are less than pleasant.  But I know by doing my best with each moment, I know I’m making my journey as good as it can be.

Embrace your life one day at a time.  When you stop living in some future that never seems to come or the past that you cannot change, you find more possibilities in your life.  You’ll gain more perspective that breeds more hope for the future.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

That attitude can greatly bless the lives of us LDS singles as we interact with each other.  Too often we see opportunities to interact through the lens of dating, which often pulls us away from blessing others’ lives.  Seeing through the lens of friendship, we’ll more often provide needed assistance.  It’s time for LDS singles to re-hoist friendship in dating and singles groups.

In the video, John admits he couldn’t “fix” Troy, nor did he attempt to.  In fact, the casual observer might conclude John didn’t do much at all.

John certainly wanted to help, but given everything so many others were doing, John didn’t see much for him to do.  Then he started doing something more of us need to do more often; he listened.  John invited Troy to ride with him in his truck and let Troy say whatever he wanted.  John simply listened.

There’s probably a lot the video doesn’t show.  But the simple act of listening is beyond profound.  We all have a basic human need to be heard and to feel understood.  By not directing Troy or trying to give him something, John showed complete respect for Troy’s agency.  And by simply listening to Troy, John declared he would stand by Troy regardless of the path Troy chose or what pace he pursued.  That’s the mark of a true friend.

What blessing could we be to other LDS singles if we simply listened more?  Instead of interacting only with those whom we want to date, what if we interacted with everyone with an interest in understanding them or simply letting them be heard?  By putting aside the personal agenda, we re-hoist friendship to its rightful valued place.

Many LDS singles see a duality in their local Church community, especially in geographic wards.  There’s the singles and the marrieds.   It’s an extremely common perspective among singles.

But the story in the video takes a different  perspective.  The two groups there were the grieving (Troy and his family) and the supporters (everyone else trying to help).  That’s significant.  John viewed Troy as a brother, not someone fundamentally different.  If we LDS singles could see one another more as brothers and sisters, we could re-hoist friendship in a new culture of togetherness.

Now, I know some of you are saying.  “Yeah, but John and Troy are both married, so of course John would see Troy as one of his group.”  Perhaps, but John could’ve found a substantial enough difference if he looked for it.  The point is he didn’t.  He saw Troy as just as much a person as he was, and that view allowed him to feel more compassion and more desire to be the true friend he was.

John also involved others in demonstrating support for Troy.  The scene where John and the group present the jersey to Troy just jerks my tears.  Then there’s what appears to be his ward releasing balloons in celebration of his son’s birthday.  As John continued standing by Troy, many other opportunities to show support probably presented themselves.  And they all helped Troy along his path.

What if we singles involved one another in supporting each other?  What if, instead of everyone doing their own thing, everyone reached out to include everyone?  What if we each told each other, “Come talk with me,” “Come sit with me”, and “Come do what I’m doing with me”?  Real friends bring everyone in.  That may be the best support for singles dealing with their pain and grief, many of whom struggle unbeknownst to those around them.

Let’s re-hoist friendship in all our interactions with each other.  By listening to one another, seeing one another as brothers and sisters, and involving others in building community, we not only embrace but also embody true friendship.  By bringing ourselves closer to each other, we bring ourselves closer to God.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

When you pray, what do you intend the result to be?  Surely we can all think of prayers we offered simply because it was time to pray.  We had a habit of praying upon getting out of bed, for instance, and we were simply going through the motions when the time came.

And what resulted?  We could cross morning prayers off our to-do list.  When you think about it, that was the result intended by just going through the motions.  If all you wanted was to go through the motion, then in the end that’s what you got — a completed motion.

That approach with prayer — or anything else in life — will never result in a growing relationship with anyone, let alone the Lord.  To have the result of an improved relationship, your approach must invite that result.  You must approach with the intention of securing your desired outcome.  That doesn’t mean merely wanting your desired outcome as you approach the moment.  That means your approach leverages the moment to turn your intention into your desired result.

How would your prayers be different if you approached them with the intention of building a relationship with the Lord?  Would you use the same tired phrases over and over?  Would you deliver a laundry list of desires?  Or would you open your heart, share your hopes and fears, present more of a conversation than a monologue, and spend more time listening for the Lord’s voice after you concluded your prayer?

Scripture study goes the same way.  Your time with the scriptures will build a closer relationship with the Lord when you approach it with intention.  Don’t just read.  Actively look for the Lord in the scriptures.  Seek Him out by trying to understand His character, His qualities, His perspective, and His perfection through the written words.

Thus it goes for anything in life.  Don’t just collide with the waves in the waters of the moment.  Approach the moment before you with intention. Planning the moment in advance can help you do that.

Modern life tends to have so many currents pulling you in so many different directions that, unless you’re intentional about your day, opportunities for improvement will pass you by and you’ll find yourself no closer to your goals and dreams.  It’s hard to approach the moment with intention when that moment doesn’t happen.  Schedule it so it will.

That’s not to say every moment you plan will go as planned.  Life is about change and learning how to adapt to change.  But if you don’t schedule time for producing the results you want, you’re not likely to take the actions that will give you the results you desire.

Thus, to develop a relationship with the Lord, schedule the time you will spend building that relationship.  But if you really want to get serious, schedule not just time for activity but time to become more like Him.  What will you need to do to become more holy?  Pray with real intent?  Schedule that time.  Search Him out in the scriptures?  Make that time.  Devote yourself more in His holy house, a.k.a. the temple?  Schedule that time.  Spend more time serving others?  Schedule that time.

Take time to be holy.  As you schedule your moments and then approach those moments with intention, you’ll bit by bit strengthen your relationship with the Lord.  You’ll feel more of His love, which will strengthen you as you confront your challenges in life.  You can then approach with intention every other area of your life — your career, your social life, your dating, whatever — and start having more of the results you intend.  That’s not just going through the motions of life.  That’s living your life.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

We all judge too much by what we see directly around us, and this feature especially manifests itself in dating.  Far too often LDS singles look around for someone they’d like to date and, not seeing what they define as acceptable, quickly become discouraged.  That scene repeated often enough leads to hopelessness in the future.

Bright futures start with faith.  Faith helps you see what’s there but not readily seen.  In the context of dating, this could mean, first, you don’t see that acceptable candidates around you because they aren’t doing what you normally do and going where you normally go.  When you branch out and see new vistas, you’re more likely to cross paths with them.  The world is a bigger place than your own backyard.

Second, faith helps you see the person you discounted may be the one you’re looking for.  So many singles insist on having the “perfect” partner that they reject knowing many less-than-top-shelf candidates who’d make good partners.  Falsely assuming only the best can produce joy in life has kept and continues to keep many LDS singles single long than need be.

Lack of hope in the future often attends feeling powerless.  A focus there will lead only to despair.  To change your reality, you must change your focus.  Instead of focusing on the “evidence” for why what you want won’t happen, seek out reasons to believe.

Those reasons to believe will be easier to embrace when you take proper action.  I’ve never seen anyone busy working to make his or her dreams a reality feeling powerless, and neither have you.  That’s because it’s impossible.  When you busy yourself with the business of doing, you’re so immersed in evidence of your own power you can’t feel powerless.  It’s when you’re not doing anything that feelings of powerlessness can take hold.

Start feeling that power and savoring your life by listing what makes up your best life.  If you could have your best life, what would it look like?  What would you be doing?  Put those activities on your list.  Then start to fill your calendar with those activities.

So if you think your best life involves horse riding, great.  When are you going to ride that horse?  If you think your best life involves learning how to crochet, great.  When will you learn that?  Whatever you want your life to be, start doing what you can to live that life.  Don’t let what you lack prevent you from embracing — and finding joy in — what you already have.

While you’re making that list, don’t forget to partner with the Lord.  When you include Him in crafting your best life, you’ll get there much more easily than if you go it alone.  He might even help you see that what you think is your best life really isn’t.  Make the course correction He suggests, and you’ll not leave any joy on the table.

The key to maximizing joy in life is focusing on fundamentals.  Far too many LDS singles focus on finding ways to cross paths with that special someone, all the while forgetting that if they aren’t agreeable enough, no quantity of paths crossed will produce the desired result.  When you focus first on living your best life as much as you can, you make yourself more agreeable and your life more inviting.  That life is also the more joyful one, and that joy will only increase your attractiveness to a potential companion.

The future really is as bright as your faith.  When you focus on fundamentals, you can take more effective action.  More effective action produces more effective results.  More effective results will help you feel more powerful and desirous to do more, and thus the cycle continues ever upward.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Understanding the two parts of making a dating connection is fundamental.  The first part involves being agreeable enough.  The second involves crossing paths with someone who’s agreeable enough to you and who thinks you’re agreeable enough.

This is where many LDS singles put the cart before the horse.  They completely skip over making any changes in themselves to become more agreeable, focusing instead on finding the right singles ward or attending the right activity or joining the right online dating site.  They jump ahead to the point of crossing paths with the right person.

Here’s the problem with that approach.  Even if you do cross paths with the right person, that person won’t connect with you if you’re not agreeable enough.  The fundamentals of the dating journey always operate regardless of whether we attend to them or not.  You won’t progress to any stage of the dating journey without the agreement you need to be in that stage, and you don’t make agreements if you’re not agreeable enough.  Cross paths with the perfect companion and it won’t make any difference to your dating journey because you won’t secure the agreement you need to progress without being agreeable enough.

Accepting the truth that most of us aren’t agreeable enough as we are now is a hard pill to swallow.  We want to think we don’t need to change to be good enough, and it’s because we’re biologically hardwired to think that way.

The brain is designed to maintain a status quo, and it does this by establishing habits.  That’s why 95% of what we do everyday is out of habit; habits help to maintain a status quo.  The brain will dream of a “better” future; dreaming of a “better” future doesn’t affect the status quo.  But when it comes to taking action towards that dream, our biological hardwiring kicks in.  Taking action means change, and change threatens the status quo.  And so our brain, designed to maintain a status quo, fights the change.

It usually starts with “Yeah, but ...” self talk.  You feel the dream, and then your brain replies, “Yeah, but that’s too hard.”  “Yeah, but you can’t do that.”  “Yeah, but it’ll never work.”  “Yeah, but you’ll get hurt.”  “Yeah, but ...” on and on and on.

And so it’s easy to believe someone should just love us for who we are with no change required on our part.  That belief maintains our status quo, encouraging us to skip ahead to how we’re going to meet that special someone.  We focus on that second part of making a dating connection without considering the first part.  We put the cart before the horse.

How much progress do you think you’ll make with that?  The horse can’t pull from behind and doesn’t push very well.  Putting the horse ahead of the cart promotes better progress.  Likewise, you’ll make better progress in dating when you attend to making yourself more agreeable before focusing on finding ways to cross paths with that special someone.

As I said earlier, the fundamentals of the dating journey operate whether or not we attend to them.  They even operate whether or not we know about them.  Dating is not only hard but confusing when you don’t know the fundamentals.  The different parts tend to work better when you place them in the proper order.

So don’t put the cart before the horse.  If you aren’t agreeable enough as you are now, then you need to spend less time looking for ways to cross paths with a potential partner and more time improving yourself to become more agreeable to a potential partner.  Master the fundamentals of what you’re trying to do, and you’ll find more success in your efforts.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

Yes, I know how incredible that may sound to some, especially if your life hasn’t gone the way you expected.  You’ve probably also had some painful experiences involving either someone else deciding against you in a single instance or many others using their agency across multiple instances.  Maybe you’ve experienced both.  But even if you’ve had the whole world against you, I still say seek and expect miracles.

We typically think of miracles as events that defy the laws of nature.  For me, miracles are manifestations of one or more universal laws we don’t understand fully.

This shift in perspective is essential to why I say we should seek and expect miracles.  The perspectives we take and the assumptions we embrace are everything; they’re key components of our thinking, which produces our actions, which in turn produces our results.  In the end, we all want results, so when we don’t get desired results, we need to examine our thinking.

President Nelson begins his comments on miracles with this declaration:

First, he illustrates his concept with the words of a single adult!  And this wasn’t just any single.  No, Moroni had everything ripped from him.  He witnessed the destruction of his people in a horrible war, leaving him to wander alone for the safety of his own life.  Yet he still declared fervent belief in miracles.

All lives have painful disappointments, but most don’t compare to Moroni’s.  If in his circumstances he could find the strength to believe in miracles, could we not muster the courage to do the same?

President Nelson continued,

It’s not just Moroni but every book of scripture declaring belief in miracles — all the more reason to question our perspectives and assumptions leading us to disbelieve in miracles.  While we question, we should remember the Prophet’s caveat: Miracles can take time and may not unfold how we expect.  So often LDS singles seeking a miracle expect something so inconsistent with universal law they take the absence of their miracle as evidence against miracles.

That last phrase caught my attention.  How many LDS singles have approached their desire for a miracle “doubting nothing”?  Most of us have doubts, some so much so they’re consumed by them.  And yet “doubting nothing” is part of the price of faith we must pay for admission to the miracle show.

That means we’ve got work to do.  It’s no surprise then to see President Nelson’s next words:

How often have we advocated taking ownership of your life, or doing what’s in your power, or partnering with the Lord?  Results come from only one thing — action.  To score points, you must quit sitting on the sidelines and get on the field.  So often the miracle we want is perfection delivered to our doorstep.  In reality, we need to partner with the Lord, accept His guidance, and do the work that will create our miracle.

So many LDS singles wanting a miracle are faint.  They’re weary.  They’re beat down by the vicissitudes of life that point their gaze towards their weaknesses and imperfections, leaving them to wonder how their miracle could ever happen.

But none of that matters when you partner with the Lord, for He “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”  With Him, we can do anything, even move the mountain seemingly standing before us.

So yes, even if you’ve had the whole world against you, I still say seek and expect miracles.  Believe they can happen for you.  Partner with the Lord and do the work you must do to have your miracle.  You can then live with confidence that in time your miracle will happen.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

It takes practice, but it’s not difficult to think like the opposite gender.  Both men and women think logically and rationally.  Yes, it’s true.  Men use intellectual logic based in reason.  Women use emotional logic based in feeling.  Once you understand these principles, remembering five magic words can help you experience more dating success.

Of course, men and women have their own five magic words because men and women think differently.  So first, brethren, let’s be gentlemen and help the ladies understand the five magic words for men: It must make intellectual sense.

Now, I can already hear some of you objecting, “Men are always following their hormones.  They’re always chasing the hotties!  Where’s the intellectual logic there?”

All men do think with their head.  Unfortunately many don’t use the one between their shoulders.  But let’s get real, ladies.  Those are natural men chasing youth and beauty.  Once you lose yours, they’ll lose you.  What you really want is a covenant man who’ll prioritize making and keeping sacred covenants, take ownership of his life, and demonstrate leadership by making something of himself.

These men aren’t following hormones as much as they follow what makes sense.  That’s how masculine men process thinking — with intellectual logic.  If it makes sense, they accept it.  If it doesn’t make sense, they reject it.

So ladies, stop, for example, trying to attract a man by increasing your own status.  That works to attract a woman because it aligns with how a woman thinks.  But men don’t think like women.  It makes no sense to follow status because that doesn’t offer a man anything he values.  And what sense does it make to chase after something of no value?  It must make intellectual sense.

Of course, women have their own five magic words.  So brethren, let’s huddle around and learn the five magic words for women: New experience with desired emotion.

Once you understand these five magic words, you’ll have come a long way towards understanding women.  That may surprise men fooled by the common myth that women are illogical and irrational.  That’s simply not true.  Women are completely logical and totally rational.  Their logic simply has a different base.

Where men base their logic in intellect, women base their logic in emotion.  Just as men accept what makes sense and reject what doesn’t, women accept what feels good and reject what doesn’t, because feeling good is the emotional equivalent of making sense.  That’s why the five magic words for interacting with women are new experience with desired emotion.

Any man who’s had any experience with women can understand that experience better after applying the five magic words to view it.  Once he does, he’ll understand why women always chase the bad boy, the muscle man, the money man, or the famous man.  These men offer new experience with desired emotion.

There’s so much more about the five magic words that we’ll get into in the course of the broadcast today.  They represent the key to learning how to think like the opposite gender.  And it’s that type of thinking that can unlock the door to greater success with dating.

After all, it all goes back to the fundamentals we’ve discussed so often on this program and The World of TED.  Every stage in the dating journey has an agreement.  If you don’t secure the agreement for a particular stage, you don’t progress there.  And the way to secure an agreement is to be agreeable enough.

Women who can offer men what makes intellectual sense and men who can offer women new experience with desired emotion have a huge advantage in being perceived as agreeable enough.  So remember the five magic words.  They’ll help you see the world through the eyes of the opposite gender.  That perspective can help you approach dating prospects more effectively, encouraging better results.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

And with the world becoming more and more chaotic, life will become more challenging for everyone.  Singles will feel those challenges more poignantly.  It’s one thing to have a companion to share your burdens and support you.  It’s quite another when you don’t.  To all my single LDS friends, here’s all the more reason why you need to shore up your spiritual foundation by including the temple more in your life.

President Nelson began his remarks by sharing some progress made in strengthening the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple.  I love how he draws a ready metaphor for establishing a foundation for our own spiritual lives.  To that I would add the need for each of us to establish a solid foundation in every part of our lives: the emotional/social, the mental/intellectual, and the physical.

But clearly the spiritual foundation is the most important.  The spiritual aspect of life contains the beliefs, values, and ethics that drive behavior in every other life aspect.  We need to ensure the spiritual area of life is firmly founded.

President Nelson understood as much when, speaking of the Salt Lake Temple, he shared

President Nelson then shared the perfect place to build that solid spiritual foundation we all need — inside the temple.  In reality, it’s living inside temple covenants that lays the actual bricks of our spiritual foundation.  But all of that comes together in the temple.  President Nelson taught

All the blessings LDS singles look to receive are connected with the temple.  Indeed, many of these blessings are the same blessings Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sought and obtained — blessings available to all who make and keep the sacred covenants available only in the House of the Lord.

Those blessings came to those early fathers not all at once but incrementally.  Likewise, the blessings LDS singles seek to obtain in their lives will not come all at once but “here a little, and there a little” (Isaiah 28:10).  President Nelson extended that idea to the great blessing of the Restoration:

If something as important to our Heavenly Father’s plan as the Restoration is still ongoing, His plan for each of us is surely ongoing as well.  That thought prompts patience in LDS singles who yearn to have desired blessings now.

Including the temple at the center of our spiritual foundation can provide the faith needed to choose not only patience but also perseverance.  Within the temple we learn of Christ and His Atonement, our Heavenly Father’s plan, and the connections He intends to forge across generations of the human family.

The temple also helps us navigate the road of life to as yet unrealized blessings.  As chaos in the world grows, we can have the peace that surpasses all understanding, a quiet confidence God will support us when we feel all is lost.  The temple and living inside the covenants made there can fill us with that faith.

That faith can help us resist fear.  President Nelson counseled,

How many LDS singles live in fear the blessings they desire will not come to them?  The temple and temple covenants provide the solid spiritual foundation from which we can each take needed action in the other aspects of our lives.  We can trust Christ and His power to change us so we can more easily receive the blessings we seek.

So include the temple more in your spiritual foundation.  The unprecedented times President Nelson foresees will call for unprecedented measures in the attention we give to our foundation and the renewal we provide daily to it.  In so doing, we can live with greater confidence and optimism as our fears become memories of a distant past.  And that will bring us more joy in our journey.

The problem LDS singles have comes when they give too much prominence to what they want.  Then dating becomes all about satisfying their demands to the exclusion of what they have to offer.  As we discussed last week, taking your dating focus off of what you bring takes you out of alignment with the fundamentals of the dating journey.  That’s why you need balance to find the right place for what you want in dating.

As we’ve discussed more times than I can count, your focus determines your reality.  So you won’t truly enjoy your dating journey with the wrong focus.  Enjoying your dating journey requires a focus leading to that reality.

What’s that focus?  There’s a huge clue in the definition of happiness we’ve discussed so many times on this program.  Happiness is giving your all to all the right things for you.  That definition applies just as much to dating as it does to any other part of life.

Being the best complement to your eternal companion, whether or not that person is now in your life, is one of those right things for you.  And happiness comes when you give your all to that and every other right thing for you.  That’s why truly enjoyable dating is about what you bring.

Yet too often LDS singles focus solely on themselves.  They think of their dating journey as the search for what they want, so much so they think little if at all about what they bring to a potential relationship.  As we discussed last week, it’s not about what you want.  When you align yourself with the fundamentals of what you’re trying to do, you find your path to success easier.

Notice I said easier, not easy.  The propensity to approach dating with the focus of what you want is rooted mainly in the natural mindset, which will dominate you if you don’t dominate it.  And that fight for domination isn’t always easy.

That’s because the natural mindset always prioritizes self-gratification over all else.  The natural mindset also always leads to misery.  What else do you expect from a constant focus on taking in order to satiate one’s own desires?  We’ve all been around people who constantly take and give little if anything in return.  No one wants to be around those people.

We all want to be around those who constantly give and take little if anything in return.  So your dating focus should be on being that person.  Be the complement your companion needs, and you’ll more easily find the complement you need in a companion.

This isn’t to say that what you want plays no role in dating.  You’ll of course make choices in who you decide to date, both casually and exclusively.  In these two stages of the dating journey, you have many opportunities to express what you want and the individual uniqueness underlying those inclinations.

But ultimately what you want from your dating journey is a thriving, enriching relationship.  What you want is a complement.  Yet too many chase complication by focusing their efforts too much on what they want to receive and too little on what they have to give.  When you adjust your focus to align with the fundamentals of the dating journey, you’ll stop embracing complication in your dating life because you’ll quit chasing after it.

Balancing what you want in a companion and what you should be in a companion isn’t easy.  But LDS singles who strive to strike that balance center their efforts around complementation.  They focus on being a better complement for the person they want in their life.  This is the right place for what you want in dating.  When you embrace it, dating really will become more about what you bring.  You’ll find it easier to make you a better you and make your life more interesting, thereby making you more agreeable to a potential partner.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.

On the surface, that may sound counterintuitive.  How can dating not be about what you want?  How could dating even pretend to bring any semblance of happiness without accounting for individual preference?  Am I suggesting we’re all interchangeable parts or that we should embrace arranged marriages?

No, we’re not interchangeable parts.  And although there have been days I wished I could have an arranged marriage just so the frustrations of my dating life would end, those days are far behind me.  Now I approach dating differently, and my approach comes from more effective thinking which aligns better with the fundamentals of the dating journey.

We’ve discussed countless times in previous broadcasts about one such fundamental: To progress to any stage of the dating journey, you must have the requisite agreement.  And how do you secure that agreement?  How do you secure any agreement?  You do it by being agreeable enough.  So if you aren’t progressing in your journey, you need to become more agreeable.

This is why dating isn’t about what you want.  You can want all you want, but no amount of wanting will compensate for not meeting the other person’s definition of agreeable enough.  It’s easy to focus on how the other person’s standards are unrealistically high.  But even if they really are, you still won’t progress in your dating journey if you aren’t agreeable enough.  That’s why it’s called a fundamental.

Yet many LDS singles approach dating with the assumption it’s about what they want.  And many LDS singles experience great frustration with dating.  That’s not a coincidence.  The one follows the other like night follows day.

Instead of approaching dating with the idea it’s about what you want, focus instead on what you bring.  Think about it.  The ideal marriage is the union of two imperfect people who help each other achieve perfection.  That last part — “help each other achieve perfection” — isn’t based in either partner taking.  It comes from each partner giving.  It’s about what you bring, not what you want.

Of course, to give, you must have something to give.  That’s where working on yourself and having a personal ministry take center stage.  When you improve upon yourself and devote yourself to making your own unique combination of goodness to the world, you build an interesting life that others find more inviting.  Fundamentally, you become more agreeable.

I’m not saying what you want doesn’t factor into dating at all.  There is a place for expressing and acting on personal preferences.  It’s just not behind the driver’s seat of the most effective approach.

And you do have the option of finding someone whose standards of acceptance are low enough to admit you just as you are, but that’s not the more satisfying route.  You’ll likely attract only others who want to stay as they are, and a union with such a person is just a mediocre existence.  The real relationship is one that leaves you better for being a part of it.  That’s one where each partner gives freely to the other, not just exist in the same space.

Dating is not about what you want but about what you bring.  Embracing that truth allows you to adopt a more effective approach to dating.  You’ll more easily embrace the work needed to make you a better you.  You’ll put yourself in service to others.  Then you’ll experience the satisfaction of making progress.  You’ll piece together your best life and thereby increase your probability of finding the companion who will with you make an truly real and ennobling relationship.  And that will bring you more joy in your journey.