Blue Angels

 

On one of our family road trips to California as a child, I distinctly remember looking out the window of the station wagon, and seeing a group of planes flying together in an awe-inspiring formation.

At first I thought the planes were crashing and was terrified but then they swooped back up and continued the show.

My dad explained who the Blue Angels were and I watched until they were no more than tiny white puffs on the horizon as we continued on our journey.

This morning as I was rocking my grandson, I turned on a documentary about the Blue Angels.

It was well done and at one point the Boss quoted Coach Vince Lombardi saying, “Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.”

We also can chase perfection, as we emulate the 

Savior.  

We can choose to do so sporadically, or relentlessly, and it is this choice that will determine to a great extent our final performance.

While we also can be absolutely assured that we will never attain perfection, we can catch excellence as we work hard and with the Savior’s help become all that we were created to be. 

As the Blue Angels pilots learned, it can be discouraging to constantly be aware of mistakes, but it’s also the only way to get better.  Once they accept that and learn to  trust each other, foundational adjustments are made and their formations grow tighter until the jets flying 400 mph are less than 18” apart.

Elder Holland reminded us of the potential the Lord sees in each of us when he expressed, “Come as you are,’ a loving Father says to each of us, but He adds, ‘Don’t plan to stay as you are.’ We smile and remember that God is determined to make of us more than we thought we could be.”

We also may not love recognizing (or simply admitting what we already saw and knew) where we need to improve, but it’s the only way to adjust OUR foundations so that we fly ever closer to the Savior, by far the best flight pattern in this life.