This quote was found and given by my sister for her talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. It struck me because I feel an enjoyment of Newness is of vital importance in our making the progress the Lord desires. Clinging to our comfort zones is natural and very difficult to overcome. But when we learn to enjoy doing things we have never done before, our life will rapidly expand. This was a tenet of President Osguthorpe, my first mission president, and it led our mission to achieve new heights in teaching and baptisms – heights we had never reached before. It was taking this tenet home that got me to overcome my fear of heights and get a good job installing internet on roof tops. It got me on a horse for the first time, engaging in the first date I have ever set up, with the incredible woman I would eventually marry. To face the new with a grin builds faith. The ability to continually face the new, and to recognize why even things that seem common are, in this instant, important and unique, is empowering and can fill the life with joy.
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. - Alan Cohen