What’s in My Travel Bag for my Adventure through Life

Whenever you go on a trip, you pack all the things you think you’ll need while you are away from home. Let me tell you what I have in my travel bag for my earthly travel—away from my real home in heaven.

DESTINATION & GOALS: Before you can begin your travel then, you must decide on a destination—in our case, to return to our Heavenly Father. Not only do you need a final destination, such as “Return to God,” you must also plan for the intermediate points on your way to there, such as our covenants--baptism, confirmation, temple, faithfulness, etc. Our personal plan to Exaltation tells us where to go.

MAP YOUR JOURNEY:  Maps can help us reach our intermediate goals, as well as plan the long range trip. It is important to have a map of where you are going, and how to get there. The scriptures, the prophets, the church, education are our maps.

PREPARATION;  Once you’ve decided where to go and how to get there, preparation is essential. Having a destination, having maps helps us plan each portion of our journey. But we must prepare so we don’t get confused or miss scheduled points along the way.

I like to plan very detailed plans whenever I travel. On a trip to Denmark, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland that Ed & I went on, I had a loose leaf notebook that had pockets. Each day’s agenda had all the tickets, plans, times, reservations and receipts for that day’s activities. It also had a list of other activities we could do in the area if my husband wanted to vary the plans. That way I did not have to search through everything to find all the information I needed for each day.

RESEARCH WHERE YOU WANT TO GO:  Not everyone needs to plan as detailed as I like to—my husband loved to “Travel by the Seat of His Pants,” and decide each day what to do, so whenever we traveled, I had already researched and had information about each area so he could be spontaneous. Education, both temporal and spiritual helps us be prepared for all contingencies along the way. Knowledge helps us meet life’s challenges.

GOALS:  Our life’s plan should be as detailed or loose as we each prefer, but it is important to plan ahead for our goals—to go to college, go on a mission, marry in the temple, retire at age 65, get skills and training to do the work you like, or you’ll discover years later that you missed your opportunities because you were so busy living life that you hadn’t set goals. Dedication and perseverance to achieve our goals are our intermediate smaller stops along our trip. Enduring to the End--Our dedication to them, help us achieve our final destination.

FLASHLIGHT:  I always put a flashlight in my travel bag. The path here on earth is difficult and many signposts are indistinct, or outright false.  At times we may find it difficult to interpret the maps, and the path may become dim, our way unclear. We may become lost and uncertain of the trail. We may reach a dead end or a one-way street when we need to go the other way. A flashlight is for those dark, gloomy times when I can’t see my way, and need the assistance of something more than my mortal eyes. The gospel is my flashlight; it allows me to see the eternal perspective, and not just the few feet (or years) ahead of me that the life often does.

CAMERA & TRAVEL LOG:  Make sure you have a camera and a make a log as you travel, so you can share your journey with others. A personal journal helps us remember our successes and failures, and learn from them.

GPS:  I can’t imagine traveling without a GPS to help me find my way through the maze of this world. The Holy Ghost and our faithfulness to access it is invaluable.

   

   The GPS gives guidance in a calm way, and never gets yells at us or get angry when we go the wrong way.

       When we make a wrong turn, The GPS continues to direct us how to get back on track. It does not nag or blame.

        If we miscalculate and misdirect the GPS, so it keeps reminding us to go the wrong way, it is easy to get irritated and “shut off” the GPS. When the spirit and others we love try to direct us back to the correct path which we’ve strayed from, we often become irritated, and eventually “shut them out.”

      When we turn off the GPS or are in an underground garage where the satellite signal can’t reach us, when we turn it back on, it doesn’t automatically bounce back up immediately. It must find the signal. When we turn off the spirit, we must work hard to regain the signal and get its guidance back.

       I don’t like how the GPS rarely shows us the whole picture of our journey. It will only show us what lies along the way, and to the next marker, whether it is 8 miles or 80 miles further along our trip. The Holy Ghost does not show us the whole plan of our eternal journey, but we see our progress only step by step.

       Lastly, the GPS needs power to help us navigate our personal path through life, just as our spiritual communication needs power—faithfulness, worthiness of the spirit, keeping covenants helps power our spiritual GPS. 

 But despite our wonderful personal GPS, all our plans, goals, education, preparation, maps, we alone determine where we go and where we end up. The GPS (Holy Ghost) can only guide—it cannot control our destination. We are the drivers of our destiny.