Warriors...

Warrior: a brave or experienced soldier or fighter.

I am a warrior! You are a warrior! We are all in war, both for good and for evil! Warriors are strong and courageous, they will fight for what they believe to the death. Being a warrior is a powerful calling one with which each of us have engrained in our inner soul. Some may choose to hide their inner warrior which makes it dull and less useable but one way or another we are all born with an inner warrior to face a life of pain and war. We wake up each and every morning ready to face another battle. We are brave individuals that leave the safety of our minds to enter a world full of bad guys in all forms. Each day we wake we somehow create some sort of armor to defend our hearts and souls. It's a painful obligation that will provide a fatal outcome if we do not do it! Are we putting on the right armor? Are we preparing ourselves for the right battles? Are we allowing the enemy in too much? More important than anything are we fighting on the right side?

What is the right kind of protection? 

We all have our different armors to defend us in the different battles of life. Sometimes this armor helps sometimes it hurts. There are forms of armor that are good. They are the ones that protect our inner spirit while also reflecting the morals and standards of the good part of us. 

There are other armors of emotion that hide our deepest pains and depression, those are strong and valuable, unfortunately if you leave them on too long it will begin to hurt you. You must let your emotions flow in the right times and the right places. The people who have mastered this armor hold in their emotions to the point of destruction. Emotions are not meant to be held in all the time, they sometimes need an escape. 

There are many bad armors that we use to protect us. These are damaging to our souls they will destroy us eventually. The bad armors are the Trojan horse of the adversary. They come in many common forms such as pride, addiction, anger, hate, resentment, guilt, sin etc.... We all have these bad forms of armor to make us seem cool and to fit in. These armors are hand crafted but the world and enemy to make us think we are defending ourselves. When used they give us the face of one who doesn't seem to care what others think. That we don't need to obey rules or cherish people we are too cool for that. For those that commonly use these armors only those who truly know them know their inner beauty and compassion. This armor will prove deadly to ones character. What you use to defend your inner self will eventually change you into that form of defense. 

When it comes to armor the greatest one we can have is the one that reflects our inner spirit. It's the one that lets us be who we are no matter what people say. It's the one the enemy hates the most. When you show your inner beauty you have true courage to defend yourself and over come the adversary. 

Are we fighting the right battles?

There are millions of battles to be fought everyday. Many times we tend to lean towards the easier battles, and the meaningless battles. Not only that but we tend to sometimes pick the battles that others will fight for us, which is irresponsible and pathetically lazy. Even worse then having others fight for us all the time is blaming them when that battle is lost or fought wrong. It's one of the worst victims mentalities you can have and it will destroy you in the end, not them. We must take this seriously because this is the war of our very souls. The adversary wants nothing more than to bring us down to his level. This is all very real. We cannot pick the easy battles for now and fight the hard ones later, there might not be a later. We have to be ready right this second the enemy will not wait. Lets not pick the petty things in life to fight for. We must reach deep in ourselves and bring to surface the true courage to win and fight valiantly with heads held high. When choosing our battles let us look to the meaning of the battle and the potential outcome. Is the fruit good? Will the winning of this battle bring forth good things for you and others. Or is it a battle that will bring forth bad fruit and let things into ourselves that will harm us? 

We are all going to have different battles sometimes we can have help in the fight from others who have previously fought in the same battle but in the end we have to draw the last arrow. Luckily those who choose have the opportunity to call upon a higher power to stand with us the whole way through. We have the choice to choose an advocate. This is entirely up to us, many will never choose the help of the advocate they will insist on doing it alone, I guarantee they will loose every time.Will you choose the advocate? Or will you die alone in the battle?

  

 What side do you defend?

We have established the armor the battle the help. Now we must discover the reason. What do you defend? Why are you fighting? You have to know every side of what you defend which means you have to educate yourself about what you defend. You also need to find the reason. Many in our lightheaded world do not know their reason they simple follow others and fight because, well that's just what they are supposed to do, but you need to discover your own personal reason, you have to find what you believe and decipher weather or not your fight and your belief match. All this goes back to my previous post about finding your character, they all link together in some way or another, when you know your character you know what side you are on. So how do you know what side you are on? It's what feels right for you and your heart. Back to the fruits if it brings forth good fruit then it's going to be the right side. This is something that one must ask and decide for themselves. 

As I rap up this long ramble of an evening blog I leave the words of one of my greatest heros Joan of Arc: 

"One life is all we have and we live as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying."

She is one of the greatest warriors of all time. There is great wisdom in what she says. I hope that we can all keep her words close to us as we discover our reason and as we fight this brutal war. Have courage keep going because we all know good will always win in the end. No matter how bad the battle seems, as long as we stand and fight for that which is good everything will work out in the end. Go fight! WIN in the name of the Father!!!!! 

More hero stuff...

This is something I wrote a couple years ago when I took TJYC! It is still something I try everyday to live by!

I have always loved history (personally I think that I was born in the wrong time) but I have always felt a spiritual closeness to those who have paved the way for me to be who I am. There are so many but ten hold a very special place in my heart: Jesus Christ, Joan of Arc, Captain Moroni, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Paul, . Of course there are many many others but those were the ones I felt connection to the most while studying TJYC! Another thing I thought of from what I learned was the traits of a statesman: “virtue, wisdom, diplomacy, courage, inspires greatness in others and moving the cause of liberty. But there are two more on my list and that is experience and Charity. To be a great leader you have to have all of these things.

Courage-Joan of Arc: “I know this to now… every man gives his life for what he believes, every women gives her life for what she believes. Sometimes we believe in little or nothing but we give our lives to that little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live as we believe in living it, and then it is gone. But to live without faith that is more terrible than dying even more terrible than dying young.” Maxwell Anderson took these words of the great Joan of Arc and expanded them for his amazing play. These words are the words that sent me to my love for Joan of Arc the young women who at 13 heard the voice of God, by 17 was head of the French armies and by 19 was burned by her enemy which made her a martyr, saint and for me personally a hero. When I think of the traits of a statesman I use courage to best describe Joan hers truly is a story of courage. She truly is a great leader in my eyes.

Defending the cause of Liberty-Captain Moroni: His story reminds me a lot of Joan’s he too became a military leader when he was very young and he too acted in the name of God! I think of him as the boy version to Joan. When I was learning the traits of a Statesmen I used Moroni for the defending the cause of Liberty mainly because of his love for Liberty as shown in his title of Liberty.

Diplomacy-Abraham Lincoln: I found a connection with Lincoln because he had a brain kind of like mine he had troubles with worry and depression and he overcame them to become who he was through God and knowledge. I chose him for the trait diplomacy because he was a diplomatic man who looked at all the different sides of things.

Inspire greatness in others-George Washington: George Washington holds such an important part in my heart because he is the father of our nation. I chose him for inspiring greatness in others cause that’s what he did. I am reminded of the story of him when he spoke to the troops and he had to use his glasses to read to the troops, because the war took such a tole on him. I don’t think one soldier listened to a word he read because of the inspiration they felt.

Virtue-Paul: Paul had the greatest virtue next to Christ in the whole bible. He is more quoted than anyone in the bible besides Christ because his words are full of such virtue.

Wisdom-Thomas Jefferson/King Benjamin: Thomas Jefferson is another father of our country he wrote the Declaration of Independence and helped create a foundation with his Wisdom that still holds today. King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon also was a man of great Wisdom. Him words are full of wisdom strait from heavenly father.

Experience-my community: this is one that I added in for me because I feel it is so important. There is no way that you can be a leader without having experience. I have seen this so well in my life through trial. (a little harsh I know) The best way to gain experience is through trial. I have seen death in my community and I have seen those with and without experience. Those with have found peace through their faith and those who do not have experience find hopelessness. I think this applies to all of us. Many get so caught up in only study and preparation that we forget to go out and experience the pains we need to feel in order to connect with those we lead. We have to fail, we have to become lost in order to be found and to become the best leaders we can be, so that we can lead others to light.

Charity-Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ, the first on my list, is the ultimate leader and he has mastered every one of the traits which makes him the perfect example. Of course the one I use for him is Charity because Charity is the pure love of Christ. We have to have Charity to become leaders.

I need a hero...

Heros! I love this topic it's one of my all time favorites and one that is pretty much always on my mind. I love and owe a lot of who I am to my heros. We all need heros but not many of us have them. The concept of heros is something of the past. We base ourselves on modern day celebrities who don't always emulate the characteristics of a hero. What are some of the characteristics of a true hero?

1. For me A hero is someone with an eye single to God.

All my heros have something in common they all have a Higher Power to base their foundations on. Each one of my greatest heros has given their lives for their God in some form or another. This is the most important characteristic when I look at someone who is a hero because it's what gives them their humility and their strength.

2. A hero is Courageous.

My heros are very courageous like I said before they have somehow given their life for their God this takes a lot of courage. They also give their lives for others. They have the courage to stand in the face of danger and defend what they are fighting for. They also have the courage to be exactly what God wants them to be even when the world doesn't like it. They are even courageous enough to have a fear, fear and courage stand hand in hand. If you aren't scared how can you have courage?

3. A hero has Virtue.

Virtue is a beautiful thing. Their are two kinds of virtue, moral virtue and public virtue. When you think of virtue the first thing that comes to your mind is moral virtue, keeping yourself virtuous is to keep yourself clean of immoral things of the world, both in mind and body, this one is very important thing to have in a hero. There is an even deeper virtue that many forget about. That virtue is public virtue Christ is the perfect example of public virtue In my personal definition public virtue is when “You act in the name of God.” Public Virtue is a combination of many of the good characteristics of a hero. I am going to do another post on virtue in the future to cover my love for virtue more in depth.

4. A hero has to have a reason.

A hero must have a reason to fight, live and stand. If they don't have a reason what's the point of living or fighting? They have to have a reason strong enough that they are willing to give every piece of themselves to defend it till the end. It should also be an honorable reason for everyone this is based on their hearts and what is truly important to them. Different people will have different heros with different reasons based on what they think is good.

5. A hero must be educated.

Education is a very key aspect of a hero. They have to know about what they believe they have to be educated on all sides to truly stand and be heard. There are many who do educate themselves, but it's usually just on one side, they don't look at all views and the big picture. A hero is someone who has taken education to another level. There are those who are close minded in their education and then there are those who take their education to wisdom thorough experience, open mindedness, searching and humility. Those who have achieved wisdom are true heros.

Well I have gone through 5 of my many characteristics of a hero, so who are some of my greatest heros? Who are the men and women I look up to to build me and my character? I have a never ending list of people but here are my top 10 heros:

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is obviously the number one hero he is perfect example of what we should look for in a hero. He has perfected every quality I can think of! He sets the bar for all my heros because he is truly the hero of heros!

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc is one of my favorites, if you know me at all you know how much I look up to and love her. She is an amazing women in history who worked in the name of God and went to the death defending his name. I love her because of her courage and strength to stand even when the fire came, even with her moments of humanity she still went back to God. She truly is one of my greatest heros and I hope and pray that I can have her courage in my hard times!

George Washington

George Washington is the father of the greatest nation on this Earth argue if you want but America is amazing and we would be nothing without this man. I know that he was chosen by God to come at that time to bring leadership and hope to a budding destined country. He was a brilliant man who was full of everything we needed to help build a country.

Abraham Lincoln

I love Abraham Lincoln because of his leadership, strength and his brain. He was a great man full of honesty and brilliance. He also had a brain that was often depressed and down but he overcame that hurtle and moved passed his own problems to help heal a broken country. He was the glue to help us stay one nation under God. We can all learn lessons from him and his skills of leadership and diplomacy.

Moroni

Moroni is another great hero. His story kind of reminds me of Joan's. He is from the Book of Mormon. He was a young man when he was called upon to lead armies into battle. He was another man of great courage and a true taste and knowledge of the sweet taste of liberty!

Thomas Jefferson

Much like George Washington we would not have this country without him and his education and his words. Unfortunately he and many of our other founding fathers tend to be trashed and forgotten by or system but we owe all we are to these men and what they did. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence words that we still live by and words that gave us our first taste of hope and liberty. I love him and look up to him and his wisdom so much!

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was quite awesome as well. He built one of the biggest entertainment companies of all time and all with a mouse. He was quite educated and quite American. He had ideas for family and togetherness that still live through his company. I love him and his inspiration to go the distance and Keep Moving Forward!

Family

My family, Past and present inspire me more than they will ever know. With their stories and examples I have grow to heights that I could have never reached without them and their incredible foundation. I am proud of my family both living and dead. They have found life, education, experience and God in a country of freedom so that I could blossom and be me. My greatest hope in life is that I can life my life to hour them and Father in Heaven.

John Wayne

John Wayne has taught me a lot about what I want for in a man. He has set the bar high for what I think a real man should be. Forget that Edward crap I'm on team John Wayne all the way. A true American cowboy that loves his God and his country!

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith brought about the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. He was prepared by the Lord to come a bring what I Michayla Egbert know to be true back to the Earth. He is one of my greatest heros because he gave his life to the Lord at a young age to bring me and everyone else the gospel that I love more than anything else!

I hope you have enjoyed reading about just a small handful of the thousands of men women and children who have impacted my life through their examples and their legacies. I hope that you all have your heros and I hope that all of us can do our very best to emulate them as we face the challenges of this life! Let us learn from the past and what they did to help brighten and change the future for good! Thank you to all my heros you mean so much to me!

Suffer the children to come unto me...

"Truly growing up is to become childlike, not childish." Michayla Egbert

Alright here comes one of my greatest passions of all time, children! I love children so very much, they are pure, happy, in tune and very honest. They are sweet and fresh with the spirit. Children emulate the light of Christ with their innocents. I love how deeply simple children are, they see life in such a simple way that is far too deep for adults to understand. Not only that but they trust and believe in everything. Children are perfect and I love to be with them, even more so I love to be like them.

Christ said become as a little child. Well how does that work as an adult? we are supposed to grow up and be mature, right? If you ask me to truly grow up and become mature is to become as a little child. We must look back to our youthful years and rediscover the innocence and simplicity of the mind of a child, only then will we discover the secrets of heaven and earth.

Of course we have to be careful and make sure that we become childlike and not childish. There is a huge difference and difference that one can easily slip into. As adults it is usually very easy to become childish. Childish is when you are immature and emulating the wrong aspects of becoming as a child, unfortunately many of us have perfected becoming childish.

On the flip side, becoming childlike is much harder to achieve it requires us to believe in things unseen, to imagine and to truly dream. It also requires us to be true to ourselves and to not hide our true face from the world. Becoming childlike requires us to open ourselves up to connecting with other humans and loving and trusting them. It requires us to think outside ourselves and to share with everyone. It requires us to see the beauty in every moment and to be happy.

To become childlike is near impossible but we can come close. It is a beautiful thing to become as a little child. We live in a world that tries to completely knock it out of us, it makes us feel stupid about being innocent and true. The world wants us to be childish and seek after childish pleasures. It wants us to "grow up" but are we really? No by being childish we growing down and becoming too dependent on worldly items that will not feed our inner self.

I am proud to say that I feel one of my most cherished spiritual gifts is the ability to see life in a childlike light. I think that's why I'm good with kids. I am far from achieving childlike perfection, but I would like to say it is one thing I am good at. It is very hard and I must say the world works hard to knock it out of me. The world tells me I am stupid and that I shouldn't be so sweet and innocent. Even more than that the world tells me that by being childlike I am weak. In reality I feel that my childlike self allows me a strength that many will never understand. I just have to remember that, too many times I slip into the world way of thinking. I start to hate my childlike side and regret being me. Then I remember how much I love that part of me and how sacred it is, this usually happens when I see children play or be them. They are powerful and filled with the light of Christ! I know that if we strive to become as a little child we will find great wisdom, light, happiness, excitement, peace and so much more! Now go and become as a little child...

True happiness is dirt under your fingernails.

"Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work"

Albert Einstein

So a few weeks ago I built a garden in my back yard! It was so awesome and I have a great pride and love for that little corner. That and a discussion with a fellow coworker helped me realize yet another awe-ha moment that brings me great joy! First I want to talk about the discussion with the coworker, I was just hanging out doing another task at work when she commented on what a hard worker I was. Sort of caught me off guard but I thanked her with the thought in my mind of how good it felt to have someone at work who I greatly respect give me such an amazing compliment!

This led to a good little discussion of hard work and how it seems to be dying more and more. Not only that but people always expect that they need to be rewarded right this second! They expect that they should be treated like royalty after doing one petty little job, they went to college they are better than that! Wrong, I believe that the petty small jobs are amazing opportunities to be able to watch the pros and learn. Not only that but it gives a chance to have a little humbling and real life experience. So many expect that with their education they should jump right into a CEO position, on the contrary we have to start at the very bottom in order to truly learn and to earn a higher position.

So how does my garden and this discussion mix? Well they both have one thing in common... Hard work! As I built this garden, and looked at this amazing compliment I realized how amazingly proud I am to know how to work hard! I honestly feel like my ability to work hard and get down and dirty is nothing short of a spiritual gift. I feel like it is a dying art and something that I have to continue to work on. I am so grateful for the parents that pushed me hard to feed that gift. Not only did they push me to work hard but they helped me to discover that hard work is enjoyable, there is nothing more rewarding then accomplishing something I have worked my butt off for.

Not only is hard work fun but it is so rewarding. I would rather work hard for something than having it given to me. I would not love all those belt buckles quite as much and I would not be where I am or who I am. Being able to taste the sweetness of earning something has given me an insight to our whole purpose on earth. I know with assurance that we are here to be tested and to learn and grow mortally and spiritually, all in order to return home to our Father in Heaven and later inherit the kingdom as his children. So why doesn't he just send us home? Well because he knows how much value it is if we earn it! He also knows the value of experience, we would be nothing without experience and we can't truly learn unless we have had experiences and hard work.

I have seen hard work as such a blessing. When I built my garden I was in a life rut. Being able to truly get down and dirty again brought my spirits up so high, it made me feel accomplished and purposeful. By the end of that day I was caked in mud, sweaty and had bug bites all over but I was truly happy. Just like working with cattle it centers and humbles with the greatest pride that one can experience. I am going to do my best to find things that make me work hard physically and spiritually all I have to say is bring it on! It will be worth it when I am finished!

Go now and work hard!

Character... Do you truly know your role?

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

Abraham Lincoln

If you know me at all you know how much I love theatre. One of my favorite things in the world is being in a play or musical, it centers me and brings me a great sense of joy and accomplishment. Not only that but I love to play different characters, I think one of my favorite parts of the performance process is creating and building the character I am getting ready to portray. I have played in quite a few different roles and I have created some fun characters, but the greatest and the hardest role to play has been me. Yup that's right playing Michayla has been the hardest role I have ever come across, she is such a complex, strange, interesting character that has left me stumped in many circumstances. All the world is a stage my friends, we must work to find our own character. Character is extremely important it is who we are and so much bigger than just likes and our dislikes, it is the deeper parts as well. It is so important for one to find their true character, for many of us we are most unfamiliar with our selves...

So I have created a in depth way to find one's true character. I warn you that this is not an easy path (if you do it right). Many will never go down this path, it is painful and probably the hardest thing you'll do. To truly know ones own character you have to know the deepest darkest most painful things about yourself. You also have to truly see your own weakness and your dark side. So in theatre we would often do a character analysts to know our character, it was usually a basic questionnaire to help us build a face and background to the fictional character. Well I have created over the last years a Self Character Analysts to help one find their own true character... It has taken a lot of work and there is much more to come but here it is (feel free to add questions, It would take too long to add them all)...

Section 1:

These are basic questions, hopefully the easy to answer ones. These are all things that make up you but they are more surface items. They are the things that others know and make up the social outer you. All good things and all good things to know when discovering one's true character.

What’s your name?

Where do you live?

How many members in your family?

Where did you grow up?

What’s your favorite food?

What’s your favorite color?

What’s your favorite animal?

What is your favorite song?

What is your favorite movie?

What is your favorite book?

What is your personal style?

Are you happy with your appearance?

Who are your top closest friends?

Who was your childhood best friends?

Section 2:

These are questions that take us a little deeper into you. They are they questions of what makes up our outer inspirations. These are the questions that help us see what and who has inspired and taught us what we know and believe.

What is your attitude towards others?

Who are your top three heros?

What’s your favorite quote?

What is your favorite scripture (if religious)?

What religion do you follow?

What do you think of your religion?

Do you have a mentor? Who?

If not what can you do to find an inspiring and good mentor?

What is a mentor to you?

Section 3:

Now we are getting a little deeper an darker, we are trying to discover the deeper sides of your character that no one else really knows but you. Many don't want to look this deep but it is necessary in finding ones self. These are important questions that the world does not want us to ask. These are the questions that helps us see and want to change our weaknesses and turn them to strengths, you can not become strong until you have discovered your weaknesses and your darker side.

What do you hate about yourself?

What can you do to change what you hate?

Do you want to change or stay the same?

What are your biggest weaknesses?

Why do you think those are weaknesses?

What can you do to change them?

What is your biggest failure?

How has it changed you?

What is the worst thing you have done?

What drove you to it?

What are your greatest fears?

Section 4:

This is when we get to your core. Many find these questions very hard. These are most necessary to find ones self. You have to know your foundation and you have to discover how much you really love your foundation. We live in a world where these questions are pushed away because they are less hip and a little more deep than we want to go. Not only that we naturally want to lean on others for these questions. It's easier than having to discover for ourselves. Let me tell you that you will not truly succeeded until you have discovered your foundation!

Who is your higher power?

Why is that your higher power?

What or who do you owe all of your success to?

What is your core book?

Why is that your core book?

What experiences have you had that define you?

Why is experience important to you?

Why do you believe in what you believe?

Why is what you believe true?

What are you willing to die for?

Why would you be willing to die for that?

Section 5:

Here is the big bang to finding you! This is where we fall in love with ourselves and realize how amazing we truly are! Many will never truly make it through these questions! We live to hate ourselves. We are our own worst enemy. These are the questions that tell us exactly who we are and what we live for. This is where we decide how deep our character goes. Just remember it is okay to love ones self, it's always easier to find what we hate about ourselves but it's okay and it's healthy to find what we love. I wish you luck it is not easy to love ones self! Now discover and fall in love with your character, you are your own character and you are like none other!

What do you love about yourself?

What are your talents?

How have you perfected those talents?

What are you passionate about? Why?

What is your mission?

If you don’t know what can you do to find your mission?

What is important about having a mission?

What is your personal manifesto?

Well friends I hope you have enjoyed your character analysis. I hope that you took the time to journal each question and add to the questions. This analysis will never end. The greatest thing about finding your character it is a journey through life. It is beautiful and dangerous but it is well worth the every hard time. You can not change the world for good until you know yourself and what you are capable of. I don't know about you but I am far from fully discovering my character but I will continue to search and enjoy the journey of finding me! Good luck to both of us!

The great cycle of life!

Sir Alex Fraser Tytler quote:

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complaceny to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again into bondage.

The Tytler Cycle is probably one of my favorite topics in the entire world. I find it to be so true that's it's scary. I absolutely love cycles because I think we as humans move in cycles, everything we do in life some how has a cycle. Not only do we have our own personal cycles for life but they go much bigger, I'm talking state, country, world and universe. If we knew more about these cycles I'm convinced that maybe we can change the workings of them to benefit us a little more. In fact we have but sadly the knowledge is dying which throws us right back into the cycle. Now let me explain...

The Tytler cycle is proof that history truly is repeated and obviously those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it. Alexander Tytler used his vast knowledge of history to find a common cycle, a cycle that has repeated itself almost from what Tytler figured the beginning of time. Tytler came to the conclusion that his cycle happened about every 200 years sometimes it happened in much less time, but never more than 200 years. In 1776 a new nation was formed that would for the first time break this famous cycle. That nation is America, she has gone 234 years before finishing the cycle. So what was it that made America so different? Who helped us last so long? Who built this so strong? Why have we lasted so long? Well first lets go through the cycle using the magnificent United States of America as an example;

Bondage:

First we start in bondage just like the early Americans to England. A society must start with bondage begin the cycle. Bondage is an awful state. It's a state that leaves humans unable to rule their own lives and to worship their own God. What most in bondage don't realize is that they have the power of freedom, they just have to choose, unfortunately because of a lack of knowledge they don't always know they can choose. We must remember in the end it has to be up those enslaved to choose their freedom, if someone else does it for them they are a) Essentially enslaved to that person and b) They will go through the cycle again much more quickly.

Spiritual Faith:

This is when the people start to get smart and start to think for themselves usually this means they turn completely to a higher power. This is such a powerful part of the cycle it's that moment when they gain enough knowledge that they know they have the choice. Again it's all through that higher power, when we choose to turn to a higher power it allows us to step outside of the situation and see a bigger picture.

Courage:

They then gather the strength and the knowledge and the drive to do something about their situation, no matter how scared they may be. Nothing else matters but sweet Liberty and Freedom.

Liberty: “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” as stated in The Declaration of independence as being our God given rights. Which means we naturally want Liberty. Liberty is the sweet taste of freedom after being in bondage. I think this is one of my favorite parts about the Tytler cycle because there is nothing more perfect in society or a person than truly finding liberty!

Abundance:

America has stayed here for the longest time of any society. Around the US it is known as the American dream. This is a wonderful place to be but as humans we quickly begin to take our abundance for granted. Good job American people for working hard to keep us here so long. We all have reaped incredible blessings and achievements that has brought our race far.

Selfishness:

Ha, now comes pride a society has been sitting in the high seat and they start to think they are all that. They also start to lose connection to their core belief and their higher power. Well my fellow American's I am bold enough to say that we are at least here... maybe further. We have without a doubt reached a selfish state. We are drowned in our abundance and our "I need it right now" attitude and it is bringing us down as a country. Pride and selfishness are the most dangerous traits we have to deal with during this mortal life.

Complacency:

Pride takes hold and some sort of government has become too strong and starts to take advantage of the pride of the people. They also start to forget the knowledge passed to them. Okay maybe we are here... Again those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it. We have allowed our pride to take a hold. The worst thing part of this stage is that we put education into the hands of the Government. This is wrong, our founding fathers knew the destructive power of letting federal government run the education. It is meant to be governed on a state local level. This is a major part of society break down, when the education becomes controlled and corrupted the people become controlled corrupted, it's as simple as that.

Apathy:

The people start to slowly give up their God given rights without even knowing it. They bow more and more to a new power a government or tyrant. They become too lazy to know things for themselves and start to just fall to the good things the leaders say. It's easier when someone does the work for you. This is the death of the American dream!

Dependence:

This is the last straw according to Tytler’s cycle. This when the Society has let the government or tyrant get so big that it rules their lives. This is when the people have given up all God given rights and have stopped learning and thinking for themselves. They depend on their Government or leader to take care of everything so they don’t have to.

And right back to Bondage....

So where are we now? Well my friends that is up to you to decide...

So back to the cycle. What factors have created a society that can beat this cycle? Our founding fathers were brilliant men I don't care what you may say about their life styles, i honestly feel that those men were prepared by God to create this country on the promised land. Yes they were not perfect but that is simply because they were men! I will go to the grave defending the character and honor of these men. They pulled lessons from the civilizations in the past on what not to do. In other words they knew their history, very well.

After we had the men we needed wise words to keep us grounded. Words that had base of good things from the past all equalling up to new ideas. Of course there is the Declaration of Independence, a diplomatic way to declare to the king "hey dude we want our independence." Not just that but a inspiring fuel for the people. Then there is The Constitution an iron clad document to ensure that the people always be more powerful than it's Government, that is as long as the people remain educated. Along with the Constitution is the Bill of Rights, another new idea for the people to easily and simply remember that they have God given rights! All these were new things based in old wisdom to help build a country to last!

So I know you are getting a little board but hey this is my blog, but one more thing to be known about what has made us last! Here is a list of ideas, documents, peoples and other sources that helped educate our Founding fathers!

Former ideas that we took from:

Iroquois nation:

- A great many thoughts that became a permanent part of our constitution were gathered from the Constitution of the Iroquois Nation.

-An agreement that bonded together, at first five, and then later, seven different tribes together under one confederacy.

-Guaranteed peace and prosperity and a united force from Upper state New York, down to Florida

John Locke:

Researcher, philosopher, economist, physician, political operative

Writes many works that influence founding fathers

Statue in Jeffersons home

1632-1704

brought new ideas of government

brought new ideas about people and how they think and religion

- “All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

John Locke“ (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_locke.html)

-God given rights

Thomas Hobbes:

Leviathan most famous work

Moral and political philosopher

1588-1679

New political ideas still seen today

science as part of government

new way of human nature

Laws must be based on understanding human nature

David Hume:

Scottish enlightenment

politics, history, economics etc.

1711-1776

most famous for ideas of economics

Gives a powerful understanding of the importance of a free market system.

The Roman Republic:

Not the empire the republic

What did and did not work

The road system

the ways to fight

voting

government for the people

Works that helped inspire our actions:

The Bible:

The core book of the founders

Their moral code

God

history

spiritual faith

higher power

humility

foundation for everything they wrote and stood for

The Magna Carta:

- 1215

A law above the king

first protection of the people

bound the tyrant

really new ideas of maybe the people having a bit more power

rights

founders used this as base to write the Constitution

still lives today

a moral code

The founding fathers used their knowledge of the past and what has and has not worked and they built a new country on all of these ideas. They took the new ones as well and meshed them into the mix to create the longest lasting society, a society which has yet to fall into bondage again. Let us educate our selves in order to speed through the nasty parts of the cycle. That is Michayla's passionate moment of the day! Hope you all enjoyed!