Jet Mariano

Tag: Agency

  • Waiting for Wings: Patience, Light, and a Morning Butterfly

    Morning butterfly perched on a dew-tipped blade of grass, reflected in still water as sun rays break through—an image of quiet patience and light.

    Excerpt

    Patience is not indifference—it’s caring deeply and trusting God’s timing. This image came from quiet hours beside dew and light, waiting for a butterfly to choose the leaf.

    Intro

    Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that patience is “caring very much” while submitting to “the process of time.” It partners with faith, agency, humility, and love. Photographers know that rhythm: you prepare, you wait, you don’t rush the scene—and grace arrives.

    Link to the Devotional

    “Patience” by Elder Neal A. Maxwell (BYU Devotional)

    Notes from Elder Maxwell

    • Patience isn’t passive; it’s faithful submission to God’s wiser timetable.
    • We “run with patience,” not a sprint—enduring well, not merely long.
    • Patience protects agency—we don’t force outcomes or people.
    • It ripens discernment: we learn what matters most and let lesser things rest.
    • Tribulation “worketh patience,” which yields experience and the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.”

    Photo Field Notes

    Early-morning dew, low angle, and stillness. I set a full-frame body with a Nikon 105mm f/2.8G on a spider tripod, remote trigger attached. I hid off-axis, letting the leaf steady and the light settle. The butterfly came only when the world quieted enough to feel safe. Exposure and focus were ready—the rest required waiting.

    Perspective

    Macro work is a sermon in inches. If I keep opening the “oven door,” the scene falls flat. When I trust the light, honor the creature’s freedom, and wait, the frame fills with reverence. So it is with discipleship: God’s work in us is real but rarely rushed.

    Practice (today, not someday)

    • Replace one hurry with one holy pause.
    • Let someone else’s agency breathe; resist “fixing.”
    • Choose one worthy thing and stay with it past the fidgets.
    • Pray, “Let patience have her perfect work in me.”

    Final Reflection

    Patience is obedience prolonged—faith that keeps the shutter half-pressed until grace enters the frame. God’s timing is not late; it is luminous.

    Pocket I’m Keeping

    “Patience makes possible a personal spiritual symmetry.” (Maxwell)

    What I Hear Now

    Wait with Me. I’m shaping both the moment and you.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts” (Neal A. Maxwell)

    Waxing gibbous moon peeking through stormy blue over the Jordan River Utah Temple, Friday night (9/5/25), framed by leaves and looking East South East of the sky.

    lle’s “preconditioning,” included the Power of Now reference, and linked the YouTube clip you gave me:

    Excerpt
    Desire steers destiny. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that God judges “according to the desire of [our] hearts”—and helps us train those desires toward Him.

    Intro
    Maxwell reframes agency at its core: desires are the drivers. Genes, circumstances, and environments matter, but—as he reminds us—“there remains an inner zone in which we are sovereign, unless we abdicate.” In that sacred space lies our real agency.

    Eckhart Tolle explains the other side of the equation in what he calls preconditioning:

    “Mental and emotional filters: our minds are filled with ingrained narratives, beliefs, and emotional patterns that act like lenses through which we view the world.”

    (The Power of Now; also shared in his YouTube talk on preconditioning)

    Those filters shape perception, just as culture, family patterns, and past wounds bend behavior. Yet, as Maxwell insists, they cannot erase that sovereign inner zone. What we persistently desire is who we become—and what we receive.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Desire is more than preference; it’s a real longing that directs agency and outcomes.
    • God mercifully considers our desires, works, and degrees of difficulty—yet won’t force us.
    • Satan desires our misery; wrong desires make us our own victims.
    • Lukewarmness flattens the soul; righteous desires must be relentless, daily.
    • Education of desire = learn truth and learn to love it; small acts create spiritual momentum.
    • “Do you,” President Brigham Young asked, “think that people will obey the truth because it is true, unless they love it? No, they will not” (Journal of Discourses, 7:55).
    • Some desires must dissolve (envy, self-pity); weak righteous desires can grow strong.
    • Parents teach and model, but each soul must choose; God’s arm is stretched out still.
    • In process of time, holy desires produce holy works.
    • Preconditioning may set the stage—but the sovereign inner zone decides the play.

    Final reflection
    My outcomes track my appetites. When I aim my wants at ease or applause, I drift. When I aim them at Jesus, momentum returns. Desire is today’s steering wheel. Elder Maxwell’s reminder of the inner zone keeps me accountable: I can’t blame culture, genes, or preconditioning. They explain, but they don’t excuse. Tolle helps me name the filters that fog my lens, but Maxwell reminds me that God still waits on what I choose to desire.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Pray, then plan by desire: “More holiness give me” → schedule one aligned act.
    • Replace envy with intercession: bless the person I’d be tempted to compare with.
    • Feed the flame daily—scripture, sacrament, service—before screens.
    • Name one mis-aimed desire and starve it for a week.
    • Measure progress by direction and devotion, not dopamine.

    What I hear now
    If I train my want-to, God will shape my able-to. Even a spark—“I desire to believe”—is enough for Him to begin multiplying light.

    Link to the talk
    “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked In Time: “The Tugs and Pulls of the Word” – Neal A. Maxwell

    When the sky sings, even the moon waits its turn. Saratoga Springs Temple at dusk.

    Excerpt
    Many aren’t in transgression—they’re in diversion. The world tugs; disciples choose differently. My notes and how I’ll apply them this week.

    Intro
    Elder Neal A. Maxwell warns that diversion wastes “the days of [our] probation.” God’s plan isn’t pleasure—it’s happiness. The difference is discipleship.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • The lures are old; the amplification is new—tech, media, hype.
    • Diversion builds “personalized prisons”: “of whom a man is overcome…”
    • Mortal honors are transient—“they have their reward.”
    • Remedies: Holy Ghost, family, worship/prayer/scripture, wise friends, Joseph-in-Egypt reflex (flee).
    • “Far country” is measured by fidelity, not miles—return is possible; resilience is covenant DNA.
    • God prizes who we become more than rank—our real résumé is ourselves.
    • See things as they really are/will be; give glory to God.

    Final reflection
    My risk isn’t rebellion; it’s drift—scrolls, refreshes, small hungers for applause. Diversion is bondage with nicer branding.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Access the Spirit first (scripture, prayer, sacrament), then apps.
    • Family first—real talk over parallel scrolling.
    • Choose friends/inputs that aim at Zion.
    • Flee fast; repent resiliently.
    • Measure worth by being (meek, patient, submissive), not spotlight.

    What I hear now
    Say “stand aside” to the world. Post the image, close the tab, sit with gratitude. The moon keeps rising; I don’t need every notification to matter. Souls > stars > stats.

    Link to the talk
    “The Tugs and Pulls of the World” — Neal A. Maxwell.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “Free to Choose” (Neal A. Maxwell)

    September 3, 2025 — after ~20 listens/reads since last night

    Manila Temple × Milky Way. Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s “Free to Choose” reminds me that joy needs both agency and daily submission—souls matter more than stars.

    Intro

    Elder Maxwell’s final BYU devotional (2004) feels like a compass: agency = joy + daily submissiveness. The line that keeps ringing: “Souls matter more than stars.” Freedom to choose is breathtaking—and sobering—because God honors our desires and won’t force us. That means peace is possible without compulsion, and accountability is real.

    Straight Line

    • Agency is God-given and personal. “I have given unto man his agency” (Moses 7:32). “Thou mayest choose for thyself” (Moses 3:17).
    • Agency is complete—consequence included. We can “live and move and do according to [our] own will” (Mosiah 2:21), but “whoso doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself” (Hel. 14:30).
    • Opposition is required, not optional. We’re enticed “by the one or the other” (2 Nephi 2:16); no neutral exists.
    • Desires direct judgment. We receive “according to [our] desires” and “wills” (Alma 29:4). Educate desire = spiritual continuing ed.
    • Real risk: some are “not willing to enjoy that which they might have received” (D&C 88:32). Tragedy = turning down joy.
    • No decision is a decision. Delay discards the holy present; accountability stands “astride every path.”
    • Lucifer can tempt but not compel. God won’t force; the devil can’t force.
    • Patterns > moments. Repeated choices shape prayers, power, and promises kept.
    • Souls > stars. The cosmos is vast, but the gift to choose—and choose God—is vaster. Joy needs freedom and submissiveness.
    • God’s posture: “What could I have done more?” He gives the maximum reward and the minimum penalty justice allows.

    Final Reflection

    Agency isn’t adrenaline; it’s alignment. The Spirit clarifies; He doesn’t coerce. Maxwell hooks joy to two daily moves:

    1. Choose (don’t drift).
    2. Submit (trust the Father’s will), like the Savior did.

    That mix removes panic from decision-making. It reframes boundaries as worship, not deprivation. It also explains why I can feel peace while longing tugs—the peace marks my stance, not the absence of pressure.

    Pocket lines I’m keeping

    • No decision is a decision.
    • Educate your desires.
    • Souls matter more than stars.
    • He will not force us.

    What I hear now

    • Name the choice: I will use my freedom to choose covenant-keeping over compulsion.
    • Educate desire (micro-habits): one scripture paragraph; one honest prayer; one tiny act of service. Desires follow diet.
    • Boundary as submission: Not replying to triggering messages is choosing God now, not “avoiding.”
    • Presence over pressure: Wife is in town—people > stars (and > screens). Focus mode stays on; lock-screen previews stay minimal.
    • Work lens: In interviews, I’ll listen for agency patterns: signal → hypothesis → test → decision → ROI. Under heat, do they choose calmly and own consequences?
    • One-line prayer: Father, I choose Thy will in this hour; educate my desires and make my joy clean.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • The Quest

    Each step will leave its mark. “My footsteps are protected / By one who cares to see my life.”

    Intro
    “Though I am young, I know the way; the road lies marked before me.” Youth isn’t drift; it’s direction. And “I stand free to weave my life from my heart’s lovely pattern”—agency as craftsmanship. The quest isn’t loud or showy; it’s steady steps on a marked road, shaped with God.

    The Quest (full lyrics)
    Seminary Album, “The Quest,” 1977

    Though I am young, I know the way;
    the road lies marked before me.
    I can progress, rejoice, and grow—
    the sources given to me to know.

    That sweet, unchanging promise: the Quest.

    For I stand free to weave my life
    from my heart’s lovely pattern.
    I have a vague soft’s memory
    of what I was, yet cannot see—
    that helps me not to faulter.

    Often I stand alone,
    forsake the crowds around me;
    seek strength to live the truths I find,
    clothe modestly my flesh and mind—
    my spirit’s humble and refined.
    I can be pure because I see the joy
    that waits eternally.

    Each step I take will leave its mark,
    for each step leads me somewhere;
    and though the end is deemed to sight,
    the steps I take, if true and right,
    will bring me exaltation.

    I know I do not walk alone—
    my footsteps are protected
    by One who cares to see my life
    shine forth in beauty and love and light,
    exalted and perfected.

    Often I stand alone,
    forsake the crowds around me;
    seek strength to live the truth I find,
    clothe modestly my flesh and mind—
    my spirit’s humble and refined.
    I can be pure because I see the joy
    that waits eternally.

    This is my quest.
    This is my quest.

    Final Reflection
    “Each step I take will leave its mark… and though the end is deemed to sight, the steps I take, if true and right, will bring me exaltation.” Small, faithful steps compound. And “I know I do not walk alone—my footsteps are protected…” The hidden gem is how standards (modesty of flesh and mind, truth first, crowd second) are framed as joy: “I can be pure because I see the joy that waits eternally.”

    What I hear now
    • Agency is artistry: I’m weaving a life with God, not winging it.
    • Holiness is glad, not grim; joy powers obedience.
    • Standing apart is part of discipleship.
    • The Lord walks the road with me—protection, light, and finish.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Free to Choose

    Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple — double rainbow before the storm.

    Intro
    On the drive to my 7:30 pm proxy endowment, I played the Seminary song “Free to Choose” and felt the nudge to write. The song isn’t about doing whatever I want; it’s about turning agency toward the light—again and again. When it says:

    “So I choose freedom,
    and there I learn to walk within the light…
    what leads me to free to choose again—
    and again…”

    that’s discipleship: choices that keep future choices open. And when it warns,

    “If I refuse… don’t be confused;
    …can slip and fall—
    got to stay free to choose,”

    it’s honest about missteps. Freedom shrinks when I’m captured by habits, pride, anger, or appetite; it grows when I repent and realign with Jesus Christ. That’s why the temple fits this song so well.

    Song: Free to Choose (Seminary album, 1987)

    I’m free to choose,
    to win or lose,
    no matter who
    comes and tries to turn my head around—
    and I’ll be fine.

    I’m in control;
    I’m free to choose,
    I’m free to choose.

    I’ve heard the news
    that I can choose
    the song I sing and what I want to say—
    what I got tied.

    I will set my goals,
    ’cause I’m free to choose.

    So I choose freedom,
    and there I learn to walk within the light.
    He said I’ll choose
    what leads me to free to choose again—
    and again—so when I choose,

    If I refuse,
    don’t be confused;
    just understand that I can cross the line,
    can slip and fall—
    got to stay free to choose.

    Choose what I will be;
    I am free to choose.

    So I choose freedom—
    I am free to choose.

    How the song teaches agency (my takeaway)
    • “I will set my goals”—Agency is deliberate, not drift.
    • “Walk within the light”—Freedom is not rebellion; it’s alignment.
    • “Choose again—and again”—Agency is renewed daily on the covenant path.
    • “If I refuse… can slip and fall”—Repentance restores freedom; sin constricts it.
    • “Got to stay free to choose”—Guard the heart from anything that addicts, divides, or dulls the Spirit.

    Reinforced by Elder Neal A. Maxwell
    “[God] wants us to have joy. We cannot do that unless we are free to choose. But neither can we have that joy unless we are willing to be spiritually submissive day in, day out, and unless we exercise that grand and glorious freedom to choose in which people truly matter more than stars.”
    — Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “Free to Choose,” BYU Devotional, March 16, 2004

    “So, brothers and sisters, here we are in Eden, and Eden has become Babylon… Even if we leave Babylon, some of us endeavor to keep a second residence there… Babylon does not give exit permits gladly… No wonder Jesus’s marvelous invitation to leave Babylon’s slums and join Him in the stunning spiritual highlands goes largely unheeded.”
    — Elder Neal A. Maxwell, “A Wonderful Flood of Light,” BYU Devotional, March 26, 1989

    Final reflection
    Agency is God’s gift; joy is the fruit of using it His way. The world shouts for weekend commutes back to Babylon. The temple whispers, “Choose light again.” Tonight I choose freedom by choosing Christ—so I can keep choosing tomorrow.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

error: Content is protected !!