Software and Skittles
As a software engineer I have come to understand the importance of asking the right questions. When you build software it's important that you build something useful. Most of the time you are building software for someone else, known in inner circles as the "user". This user's job is to give you something called "requirements". Your job as a software engineer is to take these requirements and turn them into "software". But this process can break down fairly quickly if you don't ask the right questions. From the perspective of a user, in order to get software that's useful to me, I need to keep the focus on what I truly want the software to do. Software engineers are notorious for starting to build the software and getting sidetracked with the phrase "You know what would be really cool....". Too many of those conversations and you end up with Windows ME. Looks cool, has a lot of features, but ends up virtually unusable.
The inability to focus on what we truly want is, ironically something that we learn over time. Children hardly ever suffer from this. For example, my wife will occasionally bring treats home from the vending machines where she works for the kids as a reward for good behavior or not setting the house on fire. One night our 3 year old volunteered to say the blessing as we were sitting down to eat dinner. She was very careful and thoughtful in the things she said and this time she decided to enlist some help from above to get something she really wanted. "Dear Heavenly Father, Please bless that Mom can bring home Skittles from work for me."
How often does it occur to us to enlist our Heavenly Father when it comes to the things we truly want. In teaching our daughter to pray we had taught her to thank Heavenly Father the things he's given us and to ask him to bless us with the things we need. She needed Skittles. If you've met her, you'd understand. She's a Skittles junkie. She would eat them for a meal if we let her. But it was as simple to her as that. I want them, so I'll ask for them.
And she's right. It is as simple as that. The Savior himself tells us multiple times throughout the scriptures to ask and we shall receive. There are numerous images of Him standing on the other side of a closed door, waiting for us to open it and let him in. So why are we so reluctant to ask? Do we lack the faith to open the door?
The scriptures are filled with examples of the Lord answering prayers. There are many examples of people getting exactly what they ask for. The brother of Jared asked the Lord to touch 16 stones with His finger to illuminate them and provide light and the Lord did exactly that. We hear stories like that and while they inspire us and teach us I think we view them as unattainable. We convince ourselves that we could never have such a remarkable experience. And it's true that most of us never will, but remember that it was the faith of the brother of Jared that allowed him to see what he saw. It's the same faith that each one of us can grow within ourselves.
The two lessons I've learned as a software engineer and as a father are these: Focus your energy on what you truly want and ask the Lord to help. The Lord answers our prayers and will grant us the righteous desires of our hearts. We need to have faith and trust in the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. If we have enough faith, the Skittles will come.
The inability to focus on what we truly want is, ironically something that we learn over time. Children hardly ever suffer from this. For example, my wife will occasionally bring treats home from the vending machines where she works for the kids as a reward for good behavior or not setting the house on fire. One night our 3 year old volunteered to say the blessing as we were sitting down to eat dinner. She was very careful and thoughtful in the things she said and this time she decided to enlist some help from above to get something she really wanted. "Dear Heavenly Father, Please bless that Mom can bring home Skittles from work for me."
How often does it occur to us to enlist our Heavenly Father when it comes to the things we truly want. In teaching our daughter to pray we had taught her to thank Heavenly Father the things he's given us and to ask him to bless us with the things we need. She needed Skittles. If you've met her, you'd understand. She's a Skittles junkie. She would eat them for a meal if we let her. But it was as simple to her as that. I want them, so I'll ask for them.
And she's right. It is as simple as that. The Savior himself tells us multiple times throughout the scriptures to ask and we shall receive. There are numerous images of Him standing on the other side of a closed door, waiting for us to open it and let him in. So why are we so reluctant to ask? Do we lack the faith to open the door?
The scriptures are filled with examples of the Lord answering prayers. There are many examples of people getting exactly what they ask for. The brother of Jared asked the Lord to touch 16 stones with His finger to illuminate them and provide light and the Lord did exactly that. We hear stories like that and while they inspire us and teach us I think we view them as unattainable. We convince ourselves that we could never have such a remarkable experience. And it's true that most of us never will, but remember that it was the faith of the brother of Jared that allowed him to see what he saw. It's the same faith that each one of us can grow within ourselves.
The two lessons I've learned as a software engineer and as a father are these: Focus your energy on what you truly want and ask the Lord to help. The Lord answers our prayers and will grant us the righteous desires of our hearts. We need to have faith and trust in the love that our Heavenly Father has for us. If we have enough faith, the Skittles will come.
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