Recently, the state of Utah passed legislation, attempting to define what constitutes a person behind the wheel of a vehicle and distracted driving. The legislation includes items, such as operating the buttons of a cellphone (dialing), the operation of knobs (such as radio) to name just a few. The intent is noteworthy; to curb any kinds of activity that would deter a driver from undistracted driving. The issues with this this legislation is, while they spelled out some specific things that are now illegal, there remains many unanswered questions. Items, that I have personally seen while driving include:
  • Putting on makeup
  • Shaving
  • Reading the newspaper
  • Animated conversations with fellow passengers in their car
  • Animated conversations on the phone
And it has been deemed okay to use a phone as a GPS, but not okay to access the internet. Confusing, to say the least. But I would say it all boils down to two words: COMMON SENSE. It is very true that man cannot be commanded in all things. We should be able to use our God-given common sense to figure things like this out on our own. We all wish it was that easy, but the truth is that one person's common sense is another person's illogical decisions. So, we need to have legislation like this because we cannot agree on specific things, even though to me, they make sense. Taking your eyes off the road for ANYTHING is distracted driving. I have my peronsal opinions, but I will obey the laws. I can see the issues but still maintain that common sense prevails.

There are many parallels that I can use for this. We have been given commandments from our Heavenly Father. I have blogged about these before, but to summarize, those commandments are given to us for our physical and spiritual safety. They start with the basic Ten Commandments. The "Thou Shalts" and the "Thou Shalt Nots". They seem to be pretty straight-forward, but unfortunately in this day and age, every one of them is being contested. They are being picked apart, all in the name of self-justification; to justify ones actions by exposing grey areas. 

Just yesterday, I failed miserably with my own version of "distracted existence". I know in the scriptures that we are commanded to "...love one another..", to "keep watch of one to another..". My example I give is as follows:

My wife and I were in Sam's yesterday doing some of our shopping. It was very crowded in there (most Saturday's are). Every turn we turned were met with others busily doing their shopping. It seemed that every aisle that we needed to go down to get the item we needed was filled with others. Some with their entire families, some busy talking on their cellphones, and many gathered around the "free samples" areas. We eventually got what we needed and made our way to checkout. While we were putting our things on the conveyor belt, we were glad to be leaving there. I took notice of an elderly woman in a handicapped electric shopping cart. She was looking around , looking helpless. I then saw a fellow Mormon Tabernacle Choir member step forward and offer to help put the items on the conveyor for her. My immediate thought was, "Hey, that's Ray". As I dwelled on the scenario later in the day and throughout the evening, it was eating at me for some reason until I came to the realisation of why it was eating at me.

I saw the elderly woman, sitting there helpless and all I could  think of was myself and wanting to leave the rat-race of the shopping establishment. I saw my fellow choir member there step up and offer assistance. I should have been doing this. My shopping experiences and wanting to leave, was my mortal "distracted existence" from what I should have been doing. "...verily...if ye have done it unto the least of these.. ye have done it unto Me"

We all have our moments of our mortal existence that we are distracted. My recent moment illustrates (to me) that I have a loooong way to go in this area. Commandments are given, and reinforced. We are reminded often of these commandments, along with some further heavenly clarification on these. In short, when we stray from the commandments of The Lord, we are being distracted from our eternal pursuits. The commandments are "common sense". The more we lose ourselves in service to others, we will be find true Christ-like characteristics.

Just as the recent legislation and it's "it is against the law" and "it is not against the law" edicts, many can find personal faults in following the Lord's commandments, not heeding His chosen prophets, and finding faults in each other - our true brothers and sisters. we can try to justify what was and what wan't said in Conference talks. We can try to justify all we can, but in the end wrong is wrong. We all fail. We will all continue to fail, but through repentance and through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can find our way back from mortal distractions - those things which take our minds away from the ultimate roadway to eternity.

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