Alma 13: 27-29

Since my last few blog posts have been pretty long, I'm going to try to keep this one short. Let's see how that goes.

When I listed those scriptures for Watch and Pray Always, I must not have been paying very much attention to the surrounding scriptures, or I would have seen this then rather than just this morning:

And now, my brethren, I wish from the inmost part of my heart, yea, with great anxiety even unto pain, that ye would hearken unto my words, and cast off your sins, and not procrastinate the day of your repentance; 

But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering; 

Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest.
Alma 13: 27-29

Repentance means change - A change of behavior, a change of attitude, and eventually a change of heart. Often, we think of repentance as relating to specific sins or actions, but in a more general sense, repenting leads to a change of character. When a person repents repeatedly, they become a better person - not just in their deeds, but in their hearts. They become more humble, more patient, more loving, more faithful. They come to feel greater faith in the Lord, greater hope that they may gain Eternal Life, and greater love from their Heavenly Father. When people truly repent, they not only abandon un-Christ-like behavior and habits, they become more Christ-like people themselves.

I guess I lose sight of that sometimes. I focus so much attention on what I do or don't do that I lose sight of who I am and who I'm becoming. On February 22nd, I quoted the old saying:

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

At the time, I was mostly concerned with the link between thoughts and actions, but now I'm thinking more about the link between actions, habits, and character. It's still all part of the same formula - just on a different level. On the micro level, our thoughts influence our actions on a daily basis. On the macro level, the things we do each day determine what kind of people we are and what kind of people we become. So, if we change our daily thoughts, actions, and behavior, we can change our habits, our character, and even our destiny. That's big. And it all starts with individual thoughts and actions, just like a sand dune is an enormous pile of countless individual grains of sand. It's incredible that things that seem so small can have such a large effect, but I guess that's the power of little things in large numbers. I'm rambling, and I wanted to keep this short.

Those who struggle with bad habits and sinful behavior (which includes all of us if we set our standards high enough and are honest with ourselves about it), we may have trouble seeing that our daily attempts at repentance are making a real difference. If we slip up, we may think "I'm still slipping up, so all that repentance I did or tried to do didn't mean anything," but the truth is that it means a lot. Taking steps in the right direction is always a good thing, no matter how hard the progress comes. It takes a lot of individual instances of repentance to change a person's heart, but such changes do happen, and God, who sees everything from an eternal perspective, encourages us to keep trying. We may not see the sand dune while we're dealing with individual grains of sand, but He does. Only He knows how much progress we're really making and how much we really change.

"I Can Do All Things"

Last night, in family scripture study, we read Philippians chapter 4, which included the popular line, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (verse 13). Later, I opened up the Book of Mormon and found Alma 26:12

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. (Emphasis Added)

I think God's trying to tell me something. Maybe I should blog about it.

I understand that miracles can happen and that they do happen sometimes. It's just that they're usually subtle, and they're usually done by God, behind-the-scenes so to speak. I understand that nothing is impossible for God. But is God really able and willing to share that power with us? There are some things that we just can't do, even with God's help, aren't there?

Since typing that made me feel unbelievably stupid, I'm guessing that A) God is definitely able and probably occasionally willing to share portions of His power with us and B) that when we have God's help, we'll have all the power/wisdom/will-power to do anything we really need to do. I wonder why this is such a hard concept for me to grasp. Perhaps I've spent so much time being a human that I can't imagine myself ever actually wielding a portion of the power of God. And just now, it hit me - I already do.

The Priesthood (according to the Sunday School answers I memorized as a child) is defined as the power and authority to act in God's name. Mostly, this involves standing in God's place to perform sacred ordinances, but there are times when the Priesthood is used to work miracles, usually healing. Still, I mostly see it as asking God to do the healing, rather than being given the power to do the healing myself. Healing another person seems so magical that I can hardly imagine any real person actually having the power to do it. Sure, people's bodies naturally heal themselves, and doctors have the skill and knowledge to help the process along, but no one can really heal someone else by putting their hands on their heads and saying a few words, can they? That's... difficult to swallow.

Yet, the theory is sound. If God can really do whatever He wants, if He actually is omnipotent, which I truly believe He is, then couldn't He, if He chose to, give a normal person even a "magical" ability, like healing? And if He can give someone healing powers, then couldn't He also give someone the ability to move mountains or part oceans or any other power God wanted to give them? Theoretically, God's power includes the ability to share His power, even with normal, everyday people like us. Sure, God could just move the mountains and part the waters for us, but if He wanted us to do it, He could certainly give us the power to.

That's... amazing. To think that God not only works miracles in our favor, but that He also, sometimes, might let us work a few miracles. It seems unreal. It seems too good to be true.

My only hang-up with this concept now, now that we've established that God could share His power with us, is the question of whether He would do it. I don't think God is selfishly hoarding His power by holding it back from us, but I'm also pretty sure that He's not stupid. You don't give magical powers to people who'll misuse them, unless you're actively trying to cause random chaos and destruction, and that doesn't match up with what I know of God. There's no way God is foolish enough to hand out superpowers to anyone and everyone, which may be part of the reason He doesn't often share such power with us. We need to show we're wise enough to handle such power (which in fact, is a large part of the reason we're here on Earth - To show how we use what power we already have before we're granted any more).

Another part of the reason that God doesn't share such power freely is because we don't really need it. I can think of dozens of reasons why it'd be nice to have telekinesis, but none of them are really all that important. We can all make do without it. In fact, most of us manage to get by using only the powers we already have. Sure, there are some exceptional circumstances that require divine assistance, and if at that time, we're ready and worthy, God may see fit to work the miracle through us rather than doing it Himself, but in most cases, we already have all the power we need.

But that's a miracle in and of itself, if you think about it that way. The human body can do extraordinary things (if you don't believe me, watch the Olympics), and the human mind can do even more. Watch a rocket take off, or try to figure out how your computer works. People invented those things using the knowledge and intelligence God gave them. Doctors heal people with knowledge. Preachers inspire people and change hearts with a combination of knowledge and wisdom. That's some incredibly powerful stuff that regular human beings can already do. And God's offering us more power on top of all that? That's incredible!

Yes, we have to prove worthy of it, and yes, it can take a long time to do that, but in the meantime, we're not as powerless as we think we are. Yeah, we're a long way from being omnipotent, but there are lots of amazing things we can do, and with God's help, we can do even more, even anything. God has plans for us, and if we follow His plans, we'll end up being so amazing, we won't even recognize ourselves. God wants to share His power with us as a part of giving us all that He has. And the fact that we have the potential to live up to that... That's absolutely incredible.

Act According to Your Beliefs

The funny thing about looking for something to blog about on Facebook is that I don't usually find anything, at least not anything that really grabs me. Today was different. Today, I found something that I really want to blog about in the form of an opinion that I really want to express. Don't hate me.

That's actually the bulk of the message: Don't hate me. We don't need to hate each other just because we disagree on some things. Even if we both believe that those things are of vital importance, and even if we each believe that the other is, through their ignorance, paving the way for the destruction of the universe, that doesn't mean we need to hate each other. As I've blogged about before, we can agree to disagree.

I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinions and that everyone has the moral obligation to act according to their beliefs. Some people disagree with me. Some people believe that certain opinions are just wrong and that certain actions should not be performed, not matter whose heart says it's the right thing to do. I say that they have the right to that opinion. I'm probably confusing people, aren't I?

Let's say that a person, let's call them Jesse, believes that it is morally improper to chew bubblegum. James, on the other hand, doesn't think there's a problem with chewing bubblegum, and he even does it on occasion. If Jesse saw James chewing bubblegum and felt a moral obligation to tell James that chewing bubblegum is wrong, I believe that Jesse should act according to his or her conscience and tell James what she believes.

It really is common courtesy, in a sense. If Jesse felt that chewing bubblegum would be harmful to James, spiritually, nutritionally, physically, or in any other way, I think that it would be more kind of him or her to warn him of the consequences that he or she believes are coming than it would be for him or her to keep quiet and allow him to fall into the potential consequences that he may not see coming. James still has a right to chew bubblegum - That's his risk to take - But it would be more kind for Jesse to warn James of the risks of chewing bubblegum than for him or her not to.

Let's take it a step further. Let's say James feels a moral obligation to chew bubblegum. Let's say that he believes that not only does he have the right to do it, he should do it. He may even believe that all good people should chew bubblegum. I say that if he truly feels that way, then he should chew bubblegum, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody. If he wants to chew bubblegum and encourage others to chew bubblegum, let him. If he feels that's what he ought to do, I think that's what he ought to do.

Yet, that doesn't change what Jesse should do. If Jesse still feels that chewing bubblegum is morally wrong, even if James believes that chewing bubblegum is morally right, he or she should still tell him of his or her beliefs. At that point, James may tell Jesse of his belief that chewing bubblegum is morally right and that all good people should do it, at which point, either Jesse and James will discuss their opinions with each other until one of them changes their minds, or they will have to agree to disagree with each other, with or without a lengthy discussion on the moral pros and cons of chewing bubblegum. They should each act according to their beliefs, and so should we.

Going back to being ambiguous, some of us believe that certain actions are morally wrong, and others believe that those actions are morally acceptable or even the right thing to do. In each case, I believe that everyone should act according to their moral beliefs whether other people agree with those beliefs or not. Laws may be passed to make certain things allowed or prohibited, but that doesn't change whether those things are wrong or right, and it shouldn't change people's actions unless those people feel morally obligated to obey the law, as I do.

If there was a law passed against chewing bubblegum, and James felt it was better to obey the law and not chew bubblegum than to break the law to chew bubblegum, then he should stop chewing bubblegum, even though, on a certain level, he still feels that chewing bubblegum is the right thing to do. But if James had a friend name Butch, and he believed that it's better to chew bubblegum (despite it's being illegal) than it is to obey the law, then he should act according to his belief and go on chewing bubblegum.

However, if a police officer named Cassidy (regardless of whatever opinion she may or may not have had on the subject of chewing bubblegum) felt a moral obligation to uphold the law, and if she caught Butch chewing bubblegum, despite it's being against the law, she should act according to her beliefs, uphold the law, and probably arrest Butch for committing the crime of chewing bubblegum.

Please note that, through all of this, I haven't stated whether chewing bubblegum is the right or the wrong thing to do. In my opinion, it doesn't matter. People should act according to their beliefs whether I agree with their beliefs or not. If someone feels morally obligated to kill me, they should try to kill me. I don't agree with murder and I don't want to die, but if a person believes in their heart that they should murder me, I think they're morally obligated to try. Of course, I will feel obligated to defend myself, and I'll feel morally justified in harming anyone that attempts to do me harm. I'll even feel morally obligated to uphold the laws against murder against anyone who tries to kill me, whether they feel morally obligated to kill me or not. To reiterate, if a person feels morally obligated to kill me, I believe that they should try, though I will feel morally obligated and will do everything in my power to stop them. This isn't about what's right or wrong. This is about what people believe is right or wrong. And I believe that people should do what they believe in, whether I agree with their beliefs or not.

So what does this have to do with hating each other? The specific issue I'm speaking of is, of course, same-sex marriage, and on this matter, I take an opinion that's similar to Cassidy's. While I personally don't see anything wrong with same-sex marriage, I believe that it's against God's laws and that God gave us those laws for good reasons. I may not know what all His reasons are, but I believe that He has His reasons, and that's good enough for me. I oppose same-sex marriage, but if you support it, I feel that you should. I believe that if you feel morally obligated to support same-sex marriage (which I find much less objectionable than being murdered, by the way), then you should support it in any and every way that you feel you should.

I don't hate homosexual people and they don't need to hate me. We can disagree all we want. We can, and perhaps should, tell each other that we disagree with each other. We might even try to persuade each other to change our minds. And we certainly ought to vote against each other every time the issue comes up. I'm not saying this in any hateful way, and I hope I'm not coming across as hateful. All I'm saying is that we should all act (and vote) according to our own beliefs and not hate each other for doing so.

Watch and Pray Always

Prayer has been on my mind a lot lately. One of my favorite aspects of prayer is it's connection to resisting temptation. I know that several scriptures say to watch and pray always that we may be able to resist temptation. I'd like to make a list of those scriptures; a list that I can edit and add to as I find more scriptures to put on it. I guess I'll put that here, since I can edit blog posts after I've posted them. I'm not sure it really counts as a blog post, but if I copy and paste the scriptures themselves and not just the references, you should get something out of those, assuming you decide to read them. I've only done a basic search so far and I've already found about a dozen of them. This is going to be a long list.


Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Mark 13:33 Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.

Mark 14:38 Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Luke 22:40 (No reference to watching in this one, but it's about resisting temptation, so it still fits, I think.) And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

Ephesians 6:18 (Right After the Armor of God) Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Colossians 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.

1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

Mosiah 4:30 (No reference to prayer in this one, but it's too good not to share.) But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.

Alma 13:28 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;

Alma 15:17 Therefore, after Alma having established the church at Sidom, seeing a great check, yea, seeing that the people were checked as to the pride of their hearts, and began to humble themselves before God, and began to assemble themselves together at their sanctuaries to worship God before the altar, watching and praying continually, that they might be delivered from Satan, and from death, and from destruction—

3 Nephi 18:15 Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him.

3 Nephi 18:18 Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.

In the Doctrine and Covenants, there are many good scriptures that admonish us to "Pray Always," but very few of them also mention watching. For the rest of this list, I'll include scriptures that have "pray always" in them whether they have "watch" in them or not.

D&C 10:5 Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

D&C 19:38 Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.

D&C 20:33 Therefore let the church take heed and pray always, lest they fall into temptation;

D&C 31:12 Pray always, lest you enter into temptation and lose your reward.

D&C 33:17 Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom—

D&C 61:39 Pray always that you enter not into temptation, that you may abide the day of his coming, whether in life or in death. Even so. Amen.

D&C 75:11 Praying always that they faint not; and inasmuch as they do this, I will be with them even unto the end.

D&C 88:26 Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold, and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen.

D&C 90:24 Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.

With all these scriptures that reference watching and praying and/or praying always, usually so that we won't fall into temptation, I get the feeling that one of the best ways to avoid and resist temptation is to watch out for it and pray for the strength to resist it. Hymn 259, Hope of Israel, uses "Watch and Pray" as a war-cry in the battle against evil, and I think that I should, too. I know that when I have the most trouble resisting temptation, it's when I haven't been praying and reading the scriptures. There has to be a connection there. I'm thinking that if you want greater power to resist temptation, watching and praying always sounds like a pretty good idea.

Some Great Messages From Yesterday

Yesterday was good. There were many lessons that spoke to me, giving me the kind of encouragement I need to face my specific challenges, but as I read and listened to Decisions of Eternity, the talk from which one of our lessons was taken, I realized how generic the message was and how broadly it related to all of humanity, though it felt like it was speaking directly to me.

One thing I love about this talk is that as soon as Elder Nelson opened his mouth to speak, he said something that's not only worth quoting - It's worth printing up an taping to the bathroom mirror so you can see it every day. "My dear brothers and sisters, each day is a day of decision." Then, at the end of his talk, he repeats and expands on that quote. "My dear brothers and sisters, each day is a day of decision, and our decisions determine our destiny." Though I felt that this message was aimed at me, I now can't help thinking that there isn't a single person on earth who wouldn't benefit from hearing that message and taking it to heart.

There are other great quotes from this talk, too. Some of them speak directly to things I've blogged about recently, such as the following paragraph.

We can change our behavior. Our very desires can change. How? There is only one way. True change—permanent change—can come only through the healing, cleansing, and enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

So, we can change, but only through the power of the Atonement.

He also spoke on the subject of self-mastery, which I feel like I've touched on from time to time, but he said it better.

A pivotal spiritual attribute is that of self-mastery—the strength to place reason over appetite. Self-mastery builds a strong conscience. And your conscience determines your moral responses in difficult, tempting, and trying situations. Fasting helps your spirit to develop dominance over your physical appetites. Fasting also increases your access to heaven’s help, as it intensifies your prayers. Why the need for self-mastery? God implanted strong appetites within us for nourishment and love, vital for the human family to be perpetuated. When we master our appetites within the bounds of God’s laws, we can enjoy longer life, greater love, and consummate joy.

I can think of at least two of my blog posts and a talk I once gave that could have benefitted from quoting this paragraph. At this point, I feel a little tempted to quote the whole talk, though perhaps I'll limit myself to sharing a link to the text of the talk, and embedding the video below.




This is a good talk, and yesterday was a really good Sunday. I feel like I benefitted a lot from yesterday. One good quote that was shared yesterday that wasn't also shared in this talk was this one:

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

But while I was looking for that quote, I found a better one and many others.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
- Thomas Edison

Many, many good messages - Most of them along the same lines. Every day, we have decisions to make. Many forces attempt to persuade us one way or another, but we are the ones who make the decisions. Will we do what we know we should do, or what we're tempted to do? Choosing the right takes great will-power, or in other words self-mastery, which can be difficult to develop (Though Elder Nelson gives us a pro tips in the form of Fasting). Once attained, that self-mastery can help us resist all temptations so we can consistently make good decisions (which we must make every day), and eventually inherit Eternal Life.

I think we can all benefit from messages like that. At least I certainly can.

Talking To God

Last night, I heard of an experience of someone who talked (or talks?) to God. Now, talking to God may sound strange (it did to me at first), but when you think about it, that's exactly what praying is. When we pray, we are literally talking to God. Sure, there are a few formalities, like addressing Heavenly Father at the beginning of the prayer, closing in the name of Jesus Christ, and using Biblical pronouns (Thee, Thou, Thy, Thine), and of course, it's more respectful to pray while kneeling or standing than while in a more relaxed position, like laying down. But to be honest, I think that most of the time, God's just glad that we're talking to Him and He's not too offended if we don't pray "properly." What's more important is what's in our hearts. I think that if we open our hearts to God and share our inner-most feelings with Him, it won't matter so much to Him which pronouns we're using or if we forgot to address Him first.

One thing we'd do well to remember is that God isn't only our God - He's also our Father and our Friend. Sometimes, we just need someone to talk to, and He'll always be there for us, whether we're kneeling, standing, sitting, or lying down. His love for us allows Him to look past those formalities and just listen to what we say.

The person I mentioned was told by her religious leader that we should only pray properly, using all those formalities (or whichever formalities her specific religion teaches). I'd like to rephrase that advice. It's better to pray with those formalities than without them, but I'm sure that God will listen whether we use those formalities or not. As far as I care, she can go on talking to God in whatever we she feels most comfortable. Personally, I think that most of the time, God's just glad that we're talking with Him, no matter how we phrase what we say.

Control Your Thoughts - Control Yourself

Some ancient wise man gave us this famous quote that's been repeated so many times that it's difficult to tell who said it first. We can probably chalk it up to being an "old saying" by now. Anyhow, whoever said it, it goes something like this.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Much more recently, another wise man, whose identity is clearly known, gave us the following quote that compliments the first very well.

One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.
- Boyd K. Packer of the Council of the Twelve Apostles

In both of these quotes, the controlling of one's thoughts is given special importance. In Elder Packer's talk from which this quote was taken (I think he was only an Elder at the time), Packer stresses the importance of controlling one's thoughts as a way to resist temptation and gives us one strong method of controlling one's thoughts through the utilization of music.

He taught that the mind is like a stage that permits only one actor on it at a time. Shady thoughts may creep onto the stage, but we can force them out by replacing them with a powerful, positive thought, and Elder Packer's whole talk, Inspiring Music - Worthy Thoughts, was about the power of music. Said he:

This is what I would teach you. Choose from among the sacred music of the Church a favorite hymn, one with words that are uplifting and music that is reverent, one that makes you feel something akin to inspiration. Remember President Lee’s counsel; perhaps “I Am A Child of God” would do. Go over it in your mind carefully. Memorize it. Even though you have had no musical training, you can think through a hymn. 

Now, use this hymn as the place for your thoughts to go. Make it your emergency channel. Whenever you find these shady actors have slipped from the sidelines of your thinking onto the stage of your mind, put on this record, as it were. 

As the music begins and as the words form in your thoughts, the unworthy ones will slip shamefully away. It will change the whole mood on the stage of your mind. Because it is uplifting and clean, the baser thoughts will disappear. For while virtue, by choice, will not associate with filth, evil cannot tolerate the presence of light. (Italics in the original) 

... 

“Music,” said Gladstone, “is one of the most forceful instruments for governing the mind and spirit of man.”

While I don't have a strong testimony of this myself, I do know that when I listen to good music, I feel the Spirit, and when I have the Spirit, I have an easier time controlling my thoughts and resisting temptation, so this sounds like good advice to me.

I think I got off-topic somewhere back there. Anyway, the message I'm trying to convey is that good music can help you control your thoughts and that your thoughts strongly influence your actions, which dictate your very character. So, watch your thoughts. And if you struggle with that, as many people do from time to time, put on a hymn. I'm pretty sure it'll help.

Irresistible vs Infallible

In an Exodus class at Institute, we talked about the magicians of Pharaoh, who duplicated a few of Moses' miracles with their enchantments. Our teacher thought it would be helpful to define the word "enchantment," and identify some of the enchantments of our day.

I'm not sure where our teacher found the definition he did because I haven't been able to find it, but the definition he found included the word "irresistible," and, relating that to our day, he spoke of temptations that are so prevalent and persuasive that they could be called irresistible.

I took issue with that. No temptation is completely irresistible.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:13

God wouldn't allow us to face a temptation that we literally could not resist. That would take away our agency, and as far as I know, He was and is against that idea.

Of course, I've also heard that yielding to temptation can be habit-forming and addicting and can lead to a loss of agency. Still, I don't think that there will every be a complete loss of agency, no matter how addicted a person becomes. Yes, yielding to temptations can make temptation more difficult to resist in the future, but it will never be impossible. I think that God will always make a way to escape.

In a similar way, keeping the commandments makes it easier to continue keeping the commandments. It's habit-forming, in a sense, but it's a good habit. If a person keeps the commandments consistently, they'll have an easier time keeping the commandments, and Satan will have a harder time tempting them. But still, I don't think it will be impossible.

Just as I think that no temptation is truly irresistible, I think that no person is completely infallible. We're all subject to temptation, no matter how good we are, but we can always escape those temptations, no matter how strong they are.

"So," you and my Institute teacher may ask, looking for ways to draw practical application from these principles, "what can we learn from all of this and how can we apply it?" My answer to that can be summed up in two words, "Keep Fighting."

Because no temptation is truly irresistible, your situation is never hopeless. No matter how strong the temptation is or how weak you feel, you can defeat it. Keep Fighting. And because no person is completely infallible (aside, perhaps, from those who have already achieved godhood), you're never fully safe from temptation. No matter how strong you think you are, Satan will find something that will tempt you and you need to be on guard when he does. Keep Fighting.

I've been in both of those situations, sometimes feeling hopeless and sometimes feeling undefeatable. It's never true. As long as we're alive on this earth, we'll always be somewhere between those two absolutes. There will always be a reason to keep fighting against temptation. So whether you're doing well or poorly, keep fighting. This battle isn't over yet.

Meh - Better Luck Next Time

Sometimes, I spend long periods of time on the internet, looking for something worth blogging about, but then I pick up a set of scriptures and find something right away. Today is not one of those days. I have no ideas. I can't think of anything I want to blog about this morning, and I'm running out of time. I have to get to class, and I have some reading to do before class. This isn't a great morning.

But it still can be. Of the things that I have found on the internet that are vaguely inspiring, most of them have to do with attitude and staying positive, and while I don't think that just thinking happy thoughts can change how the world really is, I do think that having a good attitude can affect how you see the world. If nothing else, it can help you to be more happy. I should try that. There are a lot of things that I should do.

I should get going. This blog post stinks, but that's okay. I'll write a better one tomorrow. I promise.

That reminds me - We had a good discussion about promises and being trustworthy in Scouts last night. Maybe I should have blogged about that. Maybe I'll blog about it tomorrow, unless I think of something better today. I'll try to find something better. I need to find more ideas to refill my list. I've been struggling pretty badly without it.

Anyway, sorry this blog post is lame. Tomorrow's should be better.

Happy Are We! Happy Are We!

I came across something strange in my personal scripture study:

But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni, yea, even at this time, in the twenty and first year of the reign of the judges.
Alma 50: 23

So, at first, I thought Okay, they were happy. That's great. But then I thought about their circumstances; "...in the days of Moroni..." And that's Captain Moroni. The Nephites were at war. "But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi..." Something doesn't add up. How could they have been so happy while they were at war?

Granted, this war wasn't as bad for them as their previous wars had been, thanks to the armor and strongholds Moroni had made for them, they were actually doing okay. Not as many injuries and deaths as usual. But still, they were still plenty of injuries and way too much death by my standards. And yet, they were happy. Did they like being injured and killed and/or being at war?

Maybe I'm misreading that "happier" part. There's a footnote for it. Let me check it out.

Okay, it gives references to two other times the Nephites were happy, (I suppose I could dig deeper and find out why they were happy all those times, but) a third reference gives us this:

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Mosiah 2: 41

Come to think of it, the verse just before "There never was a happier time" mentions that "those who were faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord were delivered at all times," so it seems that the Nephites were being righteous, and thus blessed and delivered, and that's why they were happy.

But still, they were at war.

In life, we have a great variety of challenges, from spiritual battles to struggles against the natural afflictions of mortality. We face near-constant hardship and opposition in many forms, and often, those challenges can cause emotional injuries and even spiritual death. How can we be happy in circumstances such as these? By being righteous.

When we are righteous, were are blessed with the companionship of the Holy Spirit, who is also appropriately called The Comforter. He can comfort us in our afflictions and let us know that we are not alone, that God is watching over us and that He loves us and is with us.

Sometimes, afflictions are necessary for spiritual and personal growth. "Our Heavenly Father, who gives us so much to delight in, also knows that we learn and grow and become stronger as we face and survive the trials through which we must pass" (President Thomas S. Monson, "I Will Not Fail Thee, nor Forsake Thee"). It is essential that we face hardships and struggles, but that doesn't mean we need to be miserable. Just like the Nephites, we can put our faith in the Lord and His promises to get us through the trials life has in store for us.

We are at war. We face many varieties of foes and opponents, and they seem to outnumber us by a great number, but we are not alone. As long as we are righteous (or at least are trying to be), God will be with us to help us fight through our challenges and emerge victorious. As long as we are on God's side, He'll be on our side, and with God on our side, we cannot fail. And for that reason, we may rejoice.

People Do Really Change

Okay, I'm being extremely honest right now. I swear I was already thinking about blogging about this before I read the comments on Middle-Aged Mormon Man's blog post.

Another little thing to get hung up on in a Frozen song - a line from the song, Fixer Upper. Here's the context: The lead female character meets the lead male character's family. The family assumes there's some romantic interest between the two of them, and when they're told otherwise, they ask the lead female character why she's not interested in the lead male character. Then they try to guess. They lyrically list a number of the lead male character's minor flaws, explaining "So, he's a bit of a fixer-upper, but this we're certain of, You can fix this fixer-upper up with a little bit of love!" The message of the song is that true love brings out the best in all of us. No one - as far as I know - has a problem with that part.

The line I (and some others) have a problem with comes when a woman who seems to be the matriarch of the family and/or the male lead's mother pulls the lead female character aside and says, "We're not saying you can change him, 'cause people don't really change. We're only saying that love's a force that's powerful and strange," and then she goes into the line about true love bringing out the best in people.

"People don't really change"? Really? I can kind of agree with that to a certain extent, but not only is change possible, it happens frequently. I might even go so far as to say that it happens all the time. In fact, President Thomas S. Monson shared the following story:

During the 1940s and 1950s, an American prison warden, Clinton Duffy, was well known for his efforts to rehabilitate the men in his prison. Said one critic, “You should know that leopards don’t change their spots!” 

Replied Warden Duffy, “You should know I don’t work with leopards. I work with men, and men change every day.”

So people can and do change, but there are still two reasons why I kind of agree with what the matriarch and/or mother said. One of them is because we can't change other people. We can teach and encourage others, we can tempt them and try to influence them, but if a change is to happen within someone, it has to come from them (with possibly some help from God, but I'll get to that later). If the lead female character had been romantically interested in the lead male character, but thought that he was a bit of a fixer-upper, as his family assumed, it would have been foolish for her to think that she could change him with "a little bit of love." He would need to make those changes himself. Granted, love can be a powerful motivator to spur on change, but it's still up to him to make the choice and the effort.

But the fact is that he could change, if he really wanted to, and so can each of us. Shortly before he died, President James E. Faust wrote:

Each one of us has been given the power to change his or her life. As part of the Lord’s great plan of happiness, we have individual agency to make decisions. We can decide to do better and to be better. In some ways all of us need to change; that is, some of us need to be more kind at home, less selfish, better listeners, and more considerate in the way we treat others. Some of us have habits that need to be changed, habits that harm us and others around us.

To quote Middle-Aged Mormon Man, "Change is not only possible – it is expected!" Change is essential to salvation. If "people don't really change," we're all in serious trouble.

Though, to be fair to the matriarch/mother, there are some things that we can't change. At least, not easily, and not by ourselves. The "natural man" is a collective term for the natural urges and tendencies that all humans share, and we're not going to get rid of those urges or tendencies any time soon, unless of course, a miracle occurs in our favor and/or we die. Speaking of this life only, and not expecting any miracles, there are some things that just aren't going to change.

However, miracles happen. The scriptures are filled with examples of people who have had a mighty change of heart, including Saul/Paul of the New Testament and the people of King Benjamin from the Book of Mormon. The mother/matriarch in Frozen may not have known about or believed in such miracles, but we do. And when miracles happen, anything is possible, including any kind of change.

But even without a miraculous, mighty change of heart, we can change our natures eventually. It may take years, decades, or even centuries or millennia, but we can do it. Thanks to the principle of eternal progression, we have that kind of time. If we just keep working at it and make a little bit of progress every day, in time we can work massive changes in even our very natures. By the time we're finished, we might not even recognize ourselves.

So, yes, people do really really change. People change every day, and we won't stop changing until long after we die. We can't change other people, and we can't always change everything we'd like to about ourselves (at least, not in one lifetime), but God can. With a little bit of faith, patience, and diligence, and maybe a few miracles here and there, anyone can change.

Let What Go?

Middle-Aged Mormon Man, a blogger my Mom follows, recently wrote a blog post about Let It Go, a song from Disney's Frozen. I have not yet seen Frozen (though I have every intention to watch it later), but I've seen many clips from it on Youtube, including the song that MMM was blogging about. I found it just as catchy as everyone else did, and had some of the same concerns as MMM did.

The concern mostly stems from a few lines in the song, which, taken out of context, are much scarier than they were when I considered them as a part of the song and the story.

No right, no wrong, no rules for me.
I'm free.

It's so wrong that I can feel the wrong-ness as I type it. Mom pointed out to me last night that those lyrics are even scarier when we consider that the song they're in is very catchy and popular. Those words are floating through dozens, if not hundreds of people's heads, mostly without their knowing it, subconsciously teaching them that abandoning rules and moral accountability leads to freedom.

I don't know what to say about this. On one hand, I could suggest that Disney included those lyrics and other bad messages in this and other movies intentionally, purposefully trying to manipulate our children into more and more worldly ways, but I honestly don't think that's the case. Personally, I see Disney as a business. They want to sell movies (and toys and books, etc). Sure, they could influence the rising generation through their movies, for good or evil, but why would they? What's in it for them? I don't think they would slip subtle messages into their films unless it would lead to them making more money.

But I know someone who would.

I think that there's good and bad in everything, if you look hard enough. Sometimes, you don't have to look very hard because the messages are obvious. Sometimes, the messages are more hidden. We could focus on the negative message, or we could counter it with our knowledge of eternal truths (all actions have consequences, obedience to the commandments leads to freedom, disobedience leads to bondage), and pull positive messages from the song and the story instead.

Though the song's title is "Let It Go," it's never clearly specified what "It" is. It could be several different things at once. Right now, I'm choosing for it to refer to fear, specifically the fear that holds you back from being honest with yourself. Elsa had magical ice powers, but for all her life, she tried to act like she didn't. She was afraid of her powers and tried to suppress them. Many of us have traits that we try to suppress or hide. That could mean burying our talents or hiding our faults. Either way, once we get those traits out in the open and have the courage to be honest with ourselves about them, we can begin to make positive changes concerning them.

Using myself as an example, on the plus side, I have some talent for writing. When I acknowledge that, I can improve that skill and polish that talent. On the other hand, I also have my faults, including one that vexes me in particular. I could try to bury it, or I could acknowledge it as something I have to deal with and work on. Whether Elsa saw her powers as a blessing or a curse, she wasn't able to learn to control them or use them until she acknowledged that they existed and let go of her fear of them.

The song, Let It Go, then could refer not to letting go of rules and restrictions, but rather letting go of the fear of failure or of criticism. The song can still be liberating in a positive way, and that's the way I'm choosing to see it and the message I'm choosing to learn from it.

A Different Kind of Difficult

I suddenly remembered an hour ago that we have Church at 9 o'clock this year, so I really can't afford to sleep in like I did yesterday. I also remembered at that time that I didn't know what I was going to blog about this morning. I thought I'd get an idea while I was showering, or while I was getting breakfast, but I didn't. So I did a quick search on LDS.org and Facebook for something inspirational, but I found this instead.

That's not very encouraging.

I think she's basically saying that salvation is hard. The harder you try to be righteous, the more you're going to be tested. Like an athlete lifting weights, the stronger you are or want to be, the heavier your weights are going to be. The result of those struggles is that you'll become stronger, but that extra strength will demand that your burdens get heavier. The more you succeed, the harder your tests will become.

But what's the point of telling us this? To discourage us? No, that's what Satan would want. He knows how strong we really are (even when we don't), and he tries to convince us that we're weak so we don't even try to challenge him. The truth is that we're strong enough to succeed if we try to. Perhaps the purpose of some of our tests isn't to make us stronger or to teach us a lesson when we fail, but for us to prove to ourselves that we were strong enough to pass that test all along.

I think the reason Sister Dew gave us that quote is so we can prepare to face the challenges that she sees coming. Life is hard, and certain aspects of life get harder for those who try to choose the right. She may be telling us this just so it's not a surprise if things get rough right after we commit ourselves to being more righteous. Now that we know that we're going to face harder challenges, we can prepare to overcome them.

When I first read this, I took it the wrong way. I thought 'Damned if you do (try to be righteous), damned if you don't. Life's hard for everyone, and it's even harder for those who are trying to be good, so why not take the easy (read "less difficult") way out and just give up now?' The answer to the question "why not give up?" came when I remembered what I'd be giving up. Happiness, Peace, Spiritual Strength, A Chance to Inherit the Celestial Kingdom, Heavenly Help in my Mortal Struggles, just to list a few things. And the Heavenly Help is worth singling out, too.

Yes, life gets trickier for those who are trying to keep the commandments, but those who make that choice can get help. Miracles can be worked in the favor of God's children. When we try to do what's right, we can have the Spirit with us, who can help us choose the right. And the stronger the challenges we face and overcome, the stronger we, personally, become. So, yes, we face hard challenges, but we can also receive the strength and help we need to overcome those challenges, and those are blessings that we won't receive if we're not trying to be righteous. I'm not sure if it balances out to being harder, easier, or about the same difficulty as going through life without trying to choose the right, but it's definitely more worth it, and even if it's still harder than regular life, it's not as much harder as I thought it was.

Scriptures - Worth (More Than) Their Weight in Gold

Part of my problem is that I get an ideas for things I can blog about, but if I don't blog about them right away, I sometimes forget why I wanted to blog about them. For example, yesterday I mentioned an insight that I had gained the previous evening that I wanted to blog about then, but didn't because it was Valentine's Day. Now, no more than 36 hours after the insight was gained, I've forgotten why I thought it was so insightful and blog-worthy. To be honest, like many of the things I blog about, it seems more like something everyone already knows.

In my house, around Thanksgiving and Christmas, we make a Thankful Chain. Each link is a strip of paper on which we've written something that we're thankful for. Two nights ago, I saw a link that was partially concealed by another link, so I could only see the last four letters, "-URES." I wondered what the word was. I thought it might have been "Treasures," but that didn't make much sense. I looked at the link more closely and saw that it actually said "Scriptures." Close enough.

The scriptures we have a very valuable. The books themselves may not be worth much, but the information they contain can be used to obtain blessings on which no monetary value can be placed. Do you want to live forever is a state of peace and ultimate happiness? Let me rephrase that. Is there anyone on earth who doesn't want to live forever in a state of peace and happiness? We need to read these books.

But just having them, or even just reading them, isn't enough. We need to apply the messages they carry and incorporate their principles into our lives for them to do us any good. We watched the first half of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King a while back, and one line that stood out to me was where Gandalf said "Foreseen and done nothing," complaining about how Lord Denethor had foreseen the destruction of his city and had done nothing to prevent it. Just having the scriptures, or any other prophesies or eternal principles for that matter, isn't going to do us any good unless we actually apply what we learn. In that sense, the scriptures have no value to those who don't use them, though they still have tremendous value to those that do.

As Mormons, we've been blessed with more scripture than any other religion. We have the Bible, which most other churches do, and we have the Book of Mormon, which no one else has except a few Ex-LDS groups, and we have  General Conference, which nobody listens to but us (not that they're not allowed to listen to it - They're more than welcome to, really - It's just that no one cares about it but us). With stacks and archives of hundreds of God-inspired messages, we have the potential to be the most blessed people on earth. But of course, the hold-up occurs when it comes to application. Unless we're actually listening to and trying to apply the many inspired messages we receive, all the scripture in the world isn't going to do us any good.

So we need to read and apply these many messages, but at the same time, we shouldn't wear ourselves out trying to read and apply every inspired message we have access to. We're blessed with too many heavenly messages for that to be practical. Personally, I'm going to try to focus on the Standard Works and the most recent General Conferences, with maybe a few other specific messages as chosen by inspiration to meet my specific spiritual needs. We have a wealth of inspiration available to us. Let's tap into it.

A Blog Post on Love on Valentine's Day

I was going to blog about a small insight I gained yesterday evening, but this being Valentine's Day, I figured I should blog about love instead. But what, specifically, about love should I blog about? Love One Another? Love God With All Your Heart? God's Love for Us? There are a number of things about love that I could blog about in a gospel-related setting. Perhaps that's because love is a central attribute of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love is the first and greatest commandment, and also the second one. Love is a defining characteristic of the Savior. "Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship. Love is the way of the disciple" (President Deiter F. Uchtdorf, The Love of God, October 2009). I get the feeling that love is kind of important.

If love is so important that it's a central feature of nearly all religions, including our own, it may be important to get a good definition of love, so we all know exactly what we're talking about. However, finding a good definition for love in the dictionary or online can be difficult because, as the Wikipedia article on the subject points out, "Love refers to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection ('I love my mother') to pleasure ('I loved that meal')." The article goes on to say that "Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape)." What we're looking for is probably closest to that last one, Agape, but to understand the meaning of love, as it's used in the scriptures, perhaps a better source would be from LDS.org.

Deep devotion and affection. Love for God includes devotion, adoration, reverence, tenderness, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, grace, service, gratitude, kindness. The greatest example of God’s love for his children is found in the infinite atonement of Jesus Christ. 

We manifest our love for Heavenly Father by keeping His commandments and serving His children. Our expressions of love for others may include being kind to them, listening to them, mourning with them, comforting them, serving them, praying for them, sharing the gospel with them, and being their friend.
- Gospel Topics, Love

These paragraphs place an emphasis on application, so I guess I'll talk about that next. On Valentine's Day, we traditionally think of expressing our love by giving our loved ones love notes, gifts of chocolates and/or flowers, hugs and kisses, and acts of service such as a massage or special meal. I suppose those would fall under the categories of "being kind to them" and "serving them," as listed above, but there are many other (and usually less romantic) ways to show love for your friends, family members, and acquaintances, many of which are also listed above. We can show love for someone simply by listening to them and comforting them, or by praying for them (or perhaps with them) and sharing the gospel with them, if they don't have it already. There are many ways to express love to the people you love.

How do we express love for God? This can be a little trickier, since we can't give Him chocolates or flowers, like we might give someone else, but there are some things we can do for Him, and He has given us a few ideas, a wishlist, if you will.

As quoted above, "we manifest our love for Heavenly Father by keeping His commandments and serving His children."
If ye love me, keep my commandments -John 14:15

Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? ...Feed my sheep -John 21:16

There are also a few ways in which we can show love for God that are similar to ways that we can show love for others. We can listen to Him, perform acts of service for Him, and spend quality time with Him. The more we do this, the stronger our relationship with Him will become and the more we will feel His love for us.

I just accepted a last-minute invitation to go teaching with the missionaries, so I had better wrap this up and get ready.

Love is a big part of our religion and nearly all others. It's a defining characteristic of God, so as followers of God, we should make it a defining characteristic of us as well. Love should be something we preach and practice frequently. I think everyone would agree - the more love there is in the world, the better off the world will be.

Planning Ahead

Last night, in Scouts, we talked about how to prepare for a back-packing trip. Tips included bringing everything you're sure to need, but not much more than that, wearing comfortable hiking boots, and (this is something that was new to me) try to put most of the weight of what you carry as high in your backpack as you can - It's easier to carry there than lower down your back. Above all, the tip that came up most often was to plan ahead. Where are you going and what will you need to be comfortable there? What sort of wildlife (including bugs) can you expect to encounter there? What will the weather be like? Look forward, plan ahead, and pack what you need.

It's also note-worthy that the Scouts met in the Primary room of our church building, and on the wall there was a scripture that the Primary-age children in our ward are learning about, 2 Nephi 9:13, which begins, "O how great the plan of our God!" The connection between that thought and the discussion that the Scouts were having there last night was striking to me.

I'm sure that God was thinking ahead when He formed that plan for His children to come to Earth. He knew we'd need guidance and commandments. He knew we'd need motivation in the form of promised blessings and threatened punishments. He knew we'd need help and forgiveness from time to time. I wouldn't be surprised if He literally thought of everything. So He formed a plan that includes all of those elements, and presented it to us as the Plan of Salvation, or the Plan of Happiness, or whatever we called it back then.

But Satan had another plan. He wanted (and still wants) to take our essential freedom of choice out of the equation. So he presented a plan by which he'd basically mind-control all of us into going through the motions of righteousness, and thus technically qualify for the Celestial Kingdom, being justified by the law which we would literally have been forced not to break. The problem with this idea is that it would neither test nor strengthen our character and we wouldn't learn anything from the experience. For that and other reasons, Satan's plan was rejected. Feeling bitter about this and about the other consequences of his proposal, Satan formed another plan, a more subtle plan, one that would ensnare many people with figurative chains that would be to light to feel until they became too heavy to carry and too strong to break.

But of course, God saw that coming, so He factored Satan's plan into His own plan (astonishingly before Satan's plan was even formed. How's that for forethought!) God knew that Satan's temptations would be subtle, so He warned us about that and gave us the Spirit, by which we could be warned of otherwise undetectable dangers. God knew that we would all commit sin at certain periods of time, so He provided a Savior for us. God also knew that many of us would become so trapped by Satan's temptations that it would be difficult for us to choose the right, so He made sure Christ's Atonement would have great liberating power, and that there would be help on both sides of the veil for those who had become trapped by sins and addictions.

God has a plan for our salvation, and Satan has a plan for our destruction. We had better form our own plan, too.

One of Satan's greatest advantages is that he often catches us off-guard. He uses subtle tactics and attacks us when we're not paying attention. We need to be sharp to recognize his temptations and see them coming. Often, we need the gift of spiritual discernment in order to be that sharp, so developing a good connection to the spirit is important.

Satan also attacks our weak-points. Some of our weak-points are the results of our personalities, others are the results of our physical natures. We need to find out what our weak-points are, what temptations we most struggle with, and form plans for how to resist those temptations specifically. Since everyone's weaknesses are different, I can't give you specific advice, but the Apostles and Prophets can. This morning, I watched a General Conference talk that spoke about my specific problem and gave me some solid advice. I'm sure you can find such advice for your situation if you look for it on LDS.org.

Another thing we need to know in forming our plan is exactly who we are. I'm sure that most of us are already aware that we are mortal, fallen, weak, imperfect people. That is currently a part of our identity, and Satan goes to great lengths to make sure that we're aware of that. He uses the fact that we're mortal to try to discourage us and make us give up. I'm human. Humans are imperfect. As long as I'm human, I'll never become the kind of person I'd like to be. That is both discouraging and true, but it's not the whole story! We were not always mortal, and we won't be mortal forever. Mortality is part of our current identity, but we are all destined for immortality. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (which was also part of God's plan), Jesus broke the bands of death and promised that everyone who has ever been born will also be resurrected. Everyone who has ever been mortal will one day become immortal, and we can be free from Satan's influence.

And here's another thing about our identity that we desperately need to remember: We are children of God. That implies a number of glorious things about us. God loves us as any good father loves his children, and He always will, no matter what mistakes we make. Because God loves us, He's willing to help us, so long as we ask for His help through prayer. As His children, we have inherited a portion of His tremendous spiritual power, giving us more than enough power to resist and overcome temptation when we really put our hearts into it. And that's not all we've inherited from Him! We have the potential to become as strong, as wise, as loving, and as perfect as God Himself is.

Satan would do anything to make us forget those glorious truths about ourselves, and all too often, he tragically succeeds, so I'm going to make it a part of my personal plan to remind myself who I really am and who I have the power to become. I am a son of God and I have the potential to become like God. And so do you. Remember that, and form your own plan to follow God's plan for you.

Ready When You Are

Yesterday, at Institute, we were learning about the children of Israel, specifically about the part where they reached the land of Canaan (the promised land) the first time, but found that it was already possessed by giants. The Lord had already done many terrific miracles for the Israelites and had promised that they would inherit the land, but the Israelites were too afraid of the giants to face them, even when the Lord was on their side. I could draw a lesson from that in facing fears in the strength of the Lord, but there was a different lesson I learned yesterday that I want to share instead.

The Israelites could have entered the promised land at that time, if they had had enough faith. I fully believe that God was ready to give them Canaan and victory over the giants, but the Israelites chose not to proceed. God was ready to bless them, but they weren't ready to receive the blessing.

I think that may sometimes apply to us. God wants to bless us, but we may not be ready for the blessings. Some blessings depend on obedience to commandments that we don't feel ready to keep, or require a state of mind that we don't possess. In such cases, the one holding us back from receiving those blessings is us. I think that if the Israelites had enough faith to believe that the Lord would work a miracle in their favor by helping them defeat the locals (which He eventually did), they could have inherited the promised land without having to wander in the wilderness for 40 years first.

At Institute, one of my classmates made a comment that I felt was particularly profound; "It's going to take as long as you want it to take." If you want to inherit heavenly blessings now, all you have to do is show that you're ready and worthy for them. Alternatively, if you're not ready yet, the blessings can wait. It may take 40 years or more, but if you're trying to get yourself ready and worthy, the Lord will wait for you. I personally believe that God won't shut the door on anyone who's trying to go through it.

I also don't think that we necessarily have to wait for 40 years before we receive the blessings God has in store for us. I think that if we prepare ourselves and exercise faith, God will give us the blessings He has prepared for us as soon as we're ready to receive them. So let's get ready and be ready, and we might end up in Canaan a lot sooner than we think.

Some Thoughts on Repentance and Punishment

Yesterday afternoon, I had a brilliant idea. What if, instead of scouring (and becoming distracted by) the entire internet for something to blog about, I simply look at my own profile page to find spiritual photos that I've shared, but haven't blogged about yet? I decided to test that idea this morning, and was surprised at how few photos I found that I could blog about, but haven't yet. However, I did find this.

When I shared this image, I made the comment "Repentance evokes a change of heart that makes punishment unnecessary." This should tie in nicely with what I blogged about yesterday.

The purpose of divine punishment (including the withholding of special blessings, if you want to consider that a punishment) is to inspire change. God doesn't want to hurt us - He wants to help us become better people. Sometimes, we get comfortable where we are, doing what we do, and God gives us a little reminder that we can't stay here (Well, we can, but it won't work out for our greatest happiness). God knows that if a little bit of pain now can prompt us to be better people who will find true happiness later, then our well-deserved spanking will have been worth it.

That should answer the question of the purpose of punishment on Earth, but what of Eternal Punishment, i.e. Hell?

I believe that the desired effect is the same, but that the method is different. Instead of giving us a kick in the pants here and now, God warns us that we're going to get our pants kicked if we don't straighten up. The ideal in this situation is that, by warning us about a potential, severe punishment, we repent to avoid the punishment, so the punishment never has to actually happen. But for some people, it does. What then?

I find it hard to imagine a loving God subjecting His children to the endless torture of undying flames that some people believe hell to be, even if they deserve it. I personally think that any pain that goes on in hell will be emotional and self-inflicted. I'm sure this idea didn't start with me, but I can't remember where I got it, so I can't cite the correct source, but I'm sure I've heard that the pain of hell is actually not externally-sourced torture, but the internal pain of regret. If, in hell, we know what choices we made and what happiness could have been ours if only we had made wiser choices, merely having that knowledge might be punishment enough.

Whatever hell is, God knows, and He wants us to avoid it, so He warns us about it, and does all He can to steer us away from it. By our behavior, many of us occasionally take steps toward hell, and God tries to discourage that as much as He can, and if He has to hurt us sometimes to keep us away from even greater hurt, so be it.

But really, I'm sure He'd rather not hurt us at all. He wants us to do good for the sake of doing good, not just to avoid punishment. He wants us to willingly walk in that hope-filled path and to have a more glorious future. As always, God knows and wants what's best for us, and sometimes He makes it painfully clear that He really, really wants us to repent.

Last-Minute Blog Post - Hope Vs Hell

Some days, I know what I want to blog about before I even wake up and I get my blogging done in about an hour, tops. Other days, I have no idea what I want to blog about, so I search around for anything inspirational, sometimes get distracted by whatever else I find, and eventually get very close to my self-imposed blogging deadline (I try to blog each morning, which "morning" meaning any time before noon), still having no inspiration about what to blog about.

At that point, I typically pull out an image that I thought had some blogging potential, but which didn't really grab me, like this one:

This is a great quote and all, but it leaves something out: REPENTANCE. Sure, thanks to the Lord's Atonement, we can have any sin or transgression wiped off of our permanent record and forgotten about, and yes, that's a wonderful, inspiring, and hope-full thing, but there is a cost and there are conditions. I suppose that as long as we know that forgiveness only comes with sincere repentance, this quote can give hope to those who feel that they're beyond saving, but while people sometimes need messages of hope that any sin can be forgiven, sometimes people need messages of warning that all sins need to be repented of or there will be serious consequences.

Some people believe that because God is merciful, we don't have to worry about repenting of our sins because God will just forgive us anyway, but I don't think that's true. Yes, God is merciful, and He offers us much more mercy than any of us deserve, but He is also just, and if we don't meet the conditions of repentance, the consequences of our sins will fall on us. Some people need to hear about hope, but some people need to hear about hell.

A large part of the goal of this life is for us to progress spiritually and become better people. We can't do that if we give up because we think we're hopeless, but we also can't do that if we're not motivated because we think we'll be okay whether we try to make progress or not. The truth is that there's hope for all of us, but there is hell, too. Any sin can be forgiven if we repent, but if we don't repent, there will be consequences.

A Habit of Blogging

Yesterday morning, I had an eye-opening moment. As I was blogging about inspiring commercials, and almost done with the blog post so I didn't want to change it at that point, I realized that we were already a week into February, meaning that we had passed February 3rd, meaning that I had blogged for 365 consecutive days and had failed to note when we reached that milestone. Looking back at when I should have blogged about a full year of blogging, I see that I blogged about towels taking upon themselves our wetness, just as Christ took upon Himself our sins, so at least it was a decent blog post. But I think I want to blog about my first anniversary of blogging before another day goes by.

When I started blogging, I honestly didn't know when I would stop. I half-way figured that I'd lose steam eventually, or that I'd forget, and I did almost forget to blog several times toward the beginning, but since I had committed myself to blog daily, both to God and in public, I managed to blog each morning for a sufficient number of days that I didn't want to lose that streak. At first, I was blogging only because I had committed to blog, but now I've made a habit about it. Now I blog each morning because that's what I do.

A number of years ago, in an Institute class, I was given two sheets of paper covered in quotes about habits, how they can be "either the best of servants or the worst of masters," (Nathaniel Emmons) and "first we make our habits, then our habits make us," (John Dryden). I held on to those pages because I felt that they were important. Some people say that our habits form our character, and I think I agree. As I've said before, probably long ago (during my Identity Crisis blog post, perhaps?), "We are the kind of people who do the things we do," (Andrew Robarts). For example, if you ride your bike to work, regardless of the weather, then you're the kind of person that rides their bike to work, regardless of the weather. If you like to play computer games with lot's of complicated puzzles, then you're the kind of person that likes to play computer games with lots of complicated puzzles. In essence, we are what we do, and habits are things that we do so regularly that we start to do them automatically.

I've blogged so regularly that I've started doing it without needing to be reminded. I'm not sure how many months ago that started, but by now, blogging is part of my daily routine. I share usually-spiritual thoughts on my blog every morning, and now I have become (or am becoming) the kind of person that shares usually-spiritual thoughts on my blog every morning, and that sounds like a kind of person I'd like to be.

Commercial Inspiration

For the first time ever, I'm going to post a commercial advertisement on my blog.





Life doesn't play nice. No matter how well you prepare, you're going to be caught off-guard. You'll be kicked, knocked down. But you get back up. You think you've hit rock bottom? Life will push you down again, and leave you there. You can't outrun pain, and you don't get to choose how you fall, but you decide whether you give up or get up. Remember, you are not alone. Help will be there to lift you farther, and higher than ever before. We believe with every setback, there's a chance to come back. RISE

I wonder if we were told anything like this in the pre-mortal world. I wonder if we were warned how hard life would be. We probably wouldn't have understood it, even if we had been told, but it seems to me that it would have been somewhat dishonest for God to give us this opportunity without telling us what we were getting ourselves into. Did He warn us that when our Earth-lives started to get rough, many of us would want to give up? I can kind of imagine a message like the one you just listened to being some sort of pre-Earth seminar. "On Earth, you're going to fall down countless times, and it'll hurt (literally "like hell," at those times when we fall spiritually), but you need to get back up."

Speaking of which, there's another commercial video that I like enough to share. This one takes longer to get to the point, but it's along the same lines of the last one. (Plus the music is terrific.)





For teaching us that falling
only makes us stronger,
Thank you, Mom.

So, yes, life is hard. There are many long years of struggle and pain involved. There will be frustration and disappointment. All hearts will be broken, and many dreams will be crushed. But some dreams will come true. The ones we work for, fight for, and never give up on; the ones that really matter to us and to the people who love us most, will come true. The greater challenges we face along the way, the greater the victory will be when we achieve it. Never give up. Keep getting back up and keep trying. You may never win a Gold Medal, but you will gain victory over yourself, and that's what we're really here for.

High Standards

Last night, Mom, Joe, and I watched some of the Olympics; a little bit of figure skating and a few runs of snowboarding, but it's the figure skating that I want to blog about. The commentators were some kind of perfectionists. The first skater was pretty much perfect. The commentators said he was a little shaky at one point, if I recall correctly, but I didn't notice any shakiness. The second skater, though, fell down. To be fair, he fell down trying to land an impressive spinning jump maneuver that most people on earth don't have enough skill to even attempt. But this is the Olympics. The standards are set impossibly high. The commentators spoke of a terrible year for this certain Olympian where he landed all the way down in 15th place. That's 15th place out of the entire world. This man has nothing to be ashamed of. He's one of the greatest figure skaters in the world as far as I'm concerned. Sure, he got tripped up when he got nervous, and he fell down once. The commentators said that, during the practices, he was making (and successfully landing) jumps like that with ease. The man is an incredible athlete and anyone who otherwise has their standards set extraordinarily high.

We have some pretty high standards in the church, too. We have missionary standards and temple standards and standards for entering the Celestial Kingdom. The highest standard of all is perfection, which we don't demand, even from Olympic athletes, but is what's asked of all of us. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." - Matthew 5:48 Why do we have such high standards, and how can anyone ever hope to reach them?

I believe that the reason for the high standards is to bring out the best in us. We can't reach our full potential unless we really strive for it, and the standards in the church give us something to shoot for. The more we strive for perfection, the closer we get to achieving our full potential. But do we really have the potential to become perfect, or is the standard literally set impossibly high?

The commandment asks us to be perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect. As children of our Heavenly Father, we were born with a seed of His divinity in us. Just as any child has the potential to grow up to become like their parents, we have the potential to become like our Heavenly Father, who is perfect. We can reach the goal of perfection. But it's going to take a lot of time.

Just as a person doesn't become an Olympic athlete overnight, we (probably) can't become perfect within one lifetime. Thankfully, we have more than one lifetime to work with. We will have some time (God only knows how much time) after we die to continue progressing toward the goal of perfection before the final judgement. So what does that mean for our goal of perfection in the here and now?

As I'm sure I said in a previous blog post, our goal down here is to get the ball rolling. We don't have to achieve perfection now, but we do have to commit ourselves to that goal and make the first few steps. We have to be humble enough to accept the Lord's reproof and guidance, and faithful enough to follow that guidance. We don't have to become perfect now, but we do have to make progress.

In the meantime, mission and temples standards are high, but still achievable in this life, and will help us along the path to our eventual goal of perfection. The Lord asks great things of us because He knows that we're capable of great things and He wants us to reach our full potential. I hope that I can someday have enough faith and diligence to accomplish what my Heavenly Father knows that I can do. Our standards are set impressively high, but only because God knows that we can reach them.

Faith and Fate in Beowulf

In my english Literature class, we're currently in the process of reading Beowulf. It's a story of a man (named Beowulf) who goes and helps a king named Hrothgar get rid of a monster named Grendel who had been attacking a place called Heorot for twelve years. Dozens of people in Hrothgar's own country had tried to kill Grendel, but none were successful. But still, Beowulf counted himself "as dangerous any day as Grendel" (Line 678), so not only did he decide to fight Gendel, he decided to fight him without weapons.

This isn't my first time reading Beowulf; my first reading of it was about two years ago in a Mythologies of the World class. What sticks out to me most in this reading that I had forgotten since last time is how many references to God and fate there are. When Beowulf arrived in Heorot, Hrothgar said "Now Holy God has, in His goodness, guided him [Beowulf] here to the West-Danes to defend us from Grendel" (381-383). Prior to his battle with Grendel, Beowulf said "Whichever one death fells must deem it a just judgement by God" (440-441), and "May the Divine Lord in His wisdom grant the glory of victory to whichever side he sees fit" (685-687). Beowulf knew he was an incredible man; as the narrator said, "There was no one else like him alive" (196), but he also knew that he might lose this fight, and his life, to Grendel, describing in gory detail the results of that possibility (442-450). Nevertheless, Beowulf "placed complete trust in his strength of limb and the Lord's favor" (669-670), and he, being the hero of the story, was victorious.

After the battle, Hrothgar commented "now a man, with the Lord's assistance, has accomplished something none of us could manage before now for all our efforts" (938-941), then, to Beowulf, "May the God of Ages continue to keep and requite you well" (954-955). Of this battle, Beowulf said, "We have gone through with a glorious endeavor and have been much favored in this fight we dared against the unknown" (957-959), seeming to give credit to the favor of the Lord. He then described how he had planned to wrestle Grendel down and perhaps strangle him, "But I couldn't stop him from slipping my hold. The Lord allowed it, my lock on him wasn't strong enough; he struggled fiercely and broke and ran" (966-969). However, Beowulf's grip was strong enough to break the monster's arm off as the rest of him fled, and the loss of blood soon ended Grendel's life. The narrator had even more to say on the subject; "The monster wrenched and wrestled with him, but Beowulf was mindful of his mighty strength, the wondrous gifts God had showered on him: he relied for help on the Lord of All, on His care and favor. So he overcame the foe, brought down the hell-brute" (1269-1274).

The moral of the story, in case it's not already overwhelmingly obvious, is explicitly stated by the narrator at least twice: "The truth is clear: Almighty God rules over mankind and always has" (700-702); "Past and present, God's will prevails" (1057). According to the narrator and the characters in the story, God wanted Beowulf to go to Heorot, wrestle with Grendel, defeat the monster by pulling his arm off, but fail to stop the dying hell-brute from escaping, leaving Beowulf holding his arm, so that's exactly how it happened. While I personally don't think that God's influence in our lives is that controlling, I do believe that God has a plan and that He's not afraid to pull a few strings when He has to. He certainly would have had to pull a few strings to help Beowulf defeat Grendel with his strength alone, and perhaps He's pulling a few strings in our own lives as well. Maybe the author intended to use this story to help it's hearers and readers to recognize God's influence in their own lives, and to actively follow God's plan for them.

As a result of reading this story for the second time, I'm going to try to look for the hand of God in my life and give Him credit for the help He gives me. I'm sure that many of my blog posts have received heaven's help in their writing, and perhaps this one has as well. I'm certain that most of the good things in my life are gifts from God and that He's trying to guide me down whatever path He has laid out for me. I pray that I may have the wisdom to see it and the faith and courage to follow it.

War Chapters - Zarahemnah's Integrity

I said I might blog about the reason Zarahemnah initially refused Captain Moroni's terms of surrender, and the good things it said about his moral character. Here are his own words on the subject.

And now it came to pass that when Zerahemnah had heard these sayings [Moroni's surrender terms] he came forth and delivered up his sword and his cimeter, and his bow into the hands of Moroni, and said unto him: Behold, here are our weapons of war; we will deliver them up unto you, but we will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break, and also our children; but take our weapons of war, and suffer that we may depart into the wilderness; otherwise we will retain our swords, and we will perish or conquer.

Alma 44: 8

In essence, he attempted to haggle with Moroni over the terms of their surrender, but what I love about this is why he didn't accept Captain Moroni's terms fully. "We will not suffer ourselves to take an oath unto you, which we know that we shall break." Zarahemnah was a man of his word. Though he was talking to his enemies and it would have been SO easy to just lie to Captain Moroni, Zarahemnah was an honest man and refused to take an oath he knew he would break.

I hear that there was once a time when a man's word was his bond, when honor and reputation were paramount. Back then, if a person took an oath or made a promise, you knew you could trust it, and a handshake was as good as any contract. You don't see that kind of integrity so much anymore, yet Zarahemnah was willing to die for his.

But as the story goes, Zarahemnah did eventually take that oath and was, with the remainder of his men, allowed to return to the land of the Lamanites. And once he made that covenant, did he keep it? I believe so. The record we have is told from the perspective of the Nephites, and Zarahemnah is never mentioned in their records again. I fully believe that he kept his promise.

Now, contrast this to Amalickiah! We don't know Zarahemnah's genetic origins, but Amalickiah was an apostate Nephite. He tried to overthrow the Nephite government, and when that didn't work, he went and stirred up the Lamanites to war against the Nephites. He was made the leader of half of the Lamanite army, then tricked the other Lamanite war leader into putting him in charge of the whole army. He murdered the former war leader,  then murdered the king of the Lamanites, lied to the queen and everyone else to become king of the Lamanites, then went to war against his own people.

Amalickiah had absolutely no honor or integrity at all, while Zarahemnah kept a promise that he had made mostly because his life depended on it. Zarahemnah may have been on the wrong side of the battlefield, but I respect his integrity. He may have been an enemy, but he's a man that I can trust. I don't know if he ever converted to the church of God, but I hope he did, because when he makes the covenants of the temple, you can bet that he's going to keep them. And by the way, so should we.

War Chapters - Zarahemnah's Second Chance

My (very slow) reading of the Book of Mormon has taken me to the part where Captain Moroni, after giving his troops the Timely Reminder I blogged about which turned the tides of the battle in their favor, gave Zarahemnah, the leader of this army of Lamanites, an opportunity to surrender. Moroni's proposed terms said nothing of capture. He had the Lamanites surrounded and pretty well beaten, but he was willing to let them go. All he wanted in exchange for their lives was their promise that they wouldn't attack the Nephites again, surrendering their swords to Moroni as a token of that covenant.

One thing to remember about this conflict was that the Lamanites had started this fight. They were invading Nephite lands with the intention to end Nephite lives. They were going to war, so they must have accepted the risk that this little excursion of theirs might cost them their lives, yet they attacked the Nephites anyway. Captain Moroni had every right to kill Zarahemnah and all his men, and it might even have been a smarter thing to do, from a certain point of view.

This was the first battle among the children of Lehi in which armor was used. If the Nephites had killed all the Lamanites who saw them in armor (and miraculously kept all of the Lamanites from escaping), they could have used the advantage of using armor against unarmored opponents again the next time the Lamanites decided to attack them. Speaking of which, if an army of Lamanites go to war against the Nephites and never return, it might have discouraged a few future attacks of Lamanites against the Nephites. It probably would have been wise of Captain Moroni to kill all those Lamanites right then and there - no mercy. But in his own words, "Behold, Zerahemnah, that we do not desire to be men of blood. Ye know that ye are in our hands, yet we do not desire to slay you."

Captain Moroni showed Zarahemnah mercy that I, personally, don't think he deserved. He knew he was going to war against the Nepthites. He knew he might be killed in battle, yet he came to battle anyway. That was a risk that he knowingly took, and if the battle went badly for him, that's just how things go. I don't think Zarahemnah deserved the opportunity to just walk away from this. In fact, I don't think he deserved mercy here any more than we do. We know what God's commandments are, or at least we have a basic knowledge of what's right and wrong. We know that God punishes sinners and that His punishments are just, and many of those who don't believe in God at least have some belief in karma, or in legal justice. When people do bad things, bad things happen to them. That's just how things go. And yet, just like Captain Moroni, God often grants us opportunities to repent, whether we deserve them or not.

God's terms are much the same as Captain Moroni's terms. We don't have to face severe punishment, we can walk away from this and leave it behind us, but God asks that we promise that we won't do it again, and He sometimes requires a small sacrifice from us, just so we can show that we're serious about our desire to repent.

But at this point, Zarahemnah wasn't. He didn't like Captain Moroni's terms, and the fighting continued. (Actually, Zarahemnah's refusal to accept Captain Moroni's terms said a lot of good things about his moral character. I should blog about that later. In the meantime, for this blog post, his refusal of Moroni's terms represents times when we choose not to repent.) Well, the Lamanites didn't suddenly regain the advantage. They kept losing until, over the clamor of war, Zarahemnah shouted to Captain Moroni that he had changed his mind and would now accept Captain Moroni's terms.

But let's think about this. Zarahemnah had a chance to survive this battle by, in the first place, not starting it. But he invaded Nephite lands anyway, at the risk of his own life. Then, when the battle was going badly for his army, the people he had chosen to attack, many of whom had friends and brothers whom he and his army had killed, offered him an opportunity to give up his conquest and escape with his life, a very generous offer! But he rejected it, further risking his own life. Now, only when all hope was lost and he seemed completely doomed to die right then and there, he said, essentially, "I'd like to surrender now."

And Captain Moroni let him. Zarahemnah and at least part of his army survived that battle, despite having foolishly caused it, then even more foolishly continued it despite it going badly for them and them being given an opportunity to give up and go home (alive).

Hopefully, this doesn't sound too familiar to anyone's personal lives, but just in case it does, I'd like to explain the parallel that I drew from my most recent re-reading of this story. We do stupid things. Sometimes, the stupid things we do are sinful. Sometimes we foolishly, knowingly, break God's commandments. Yet, God is often merciful, and gives us an opportunity to repent, but He leaves the decision in our hands. He doesn't take our swords away from us and kick us out, He asks us to drop our swords and walk away. He leaves it up to us, and that means that we can still be stupid, if we really want to be. We can keep fighting against God and rebelling against His laws and seeing how well, or rather how poorly, that works out for us. The choice is up to us.

We know that if we break God's laws, we become worthy of punishment, and if we reject God's offer to forgive us when He offers forgiveness to us the first time, we have further doomed ourselves and are even less deserving of mercy than we were when He first offered it to us. Yet, to paraphrase Captain Moroni and apply it to the Almighty, God does not desire to be a God of blood. And to quote Elder Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy, "The Savior wants to forgive." So, He gives us a second chance. And a third chance. And a fourth chance. And as many other chances as we need. His arms are always open. He wants us to repent before it's too late.

And just to make it clear in case anyone reading or writing this blog post takes this message of hope as some kind of license to delay repentance, I testify that it will eventually be too late. Zarahemnah could have surrendered at any time, and he eventually did, but if he had waited until he had been pierced by a Nephite blade, he would have been too late. And every time we reject an opportunity to repent, it becomes even harder for us to repent later. We need to repent, and for our own sakes, we need to repent as soon as we can. Consider this your second chance (or third or fourth - Who's counting?), and take it. Right now, God is offering us all mercy that we don't deserve. Let's take it. Let us accept His most generous offer and live.