On the athletic field

As I was reading and pondering through the assigned readings, story of Pahoran, Pacumeni, and Paanchi really stood out to me.  The story goes that these brothers were contending as to who should fill the judgment seat.  Pahoran ends up winning and getting the judgment seat.   Pacumeni, although a loser, recognizes that he lost the election and becomes a supporter of his brother Pahoran.  Paanchi on the other hand, becomes very bitter and does not like that he lost the election.  Paanchi is wroth to the point that he stirs up the hearts of the people to anger against Pahoran.  Kishkumen, being a devious and wicked man, goes to Pahoran and murders him.  Now Kishkumen was not at this time caught by the people.  Pacumeni was appointed to reign in his stead.  Now keep in mind that these are brothers that were contending for the judgment seat.  Very often when we are competing, it is easy to get mad and to hate the person that you are competing against. I want to relate this to the field of athletics.  I am a very competitive player on the field and I perform best with tough competition.  However, it is sad to me to see fathers, brothers, and coaches get so involved in the game that they become sore losers like Paanchi did.  In the grand scheme of things, it really is not important and we are all people that want to win.  When I play sports from now on I will remember to think of the wickedness and the sins of those who let a loss get the best of them like Paanchi.  This will help me to become a more tolerant athlete.  

BOM reflection

As I was reading through Alma chapters 60 and 61, there was something that really stood out to me about the way that Pahoran handles the accusations that Moroni writes to him in a letter.  In the letter to Pahoran, Moroni accuses him of using his position to get gain.  In Pahoran’s response he acknowledges that Moroni writes some strong accusations against Pahoran but instead of being upset with Moroni, he is not mad about it. 

When we were sitting in lecture, Bro. Griffin mentioned that Pahoran could have reacted in two different ways to the letter that Moroni wrote to him.  He could have used the experience to become bitter or he could become better from it.  I think that this is a really important concept to remember because every one of us faces this kind of choice many times.  Today when I went to the writing center, the girl who was helping me had an opinion almost completely contrary to mine.   She was quite combative when she was editing the ideas that I expressed in my paper.  I, like Pahoran, had two possible responses to her criticism.  I could have been bitter that she expressed her opposing point of view, or I could listen to her reasoning in order to strengthen my argument.  Since I have read the passage about Pahoran and saw his example in the way that he dealt with Moroni, I chose to listen to the criticism.  This helped me develop a better counterargument and rebuttal.