Speaking Against Popular Vices

I decided to wrap up this month by sharing something I saw shared on a friend's Facebook page.

Don't like the way society is headed? Get over it. Stop trying to change the world for the better. Just sit back and watch the world burn.

I posted the comment just below the photo on the copy of the photo on my friend's Facebook page, then deleted that comment, deciding that if I was going to argue against the points made by that image, I should do it in my own area, because my friend probably didn't want to start an argument by sharing that image.

In fact, the image itself seems very non-argumentative. We don't have to force people not to do things that we, ourselves, don't want to do. But I have at least two problems with that argument. One, each action has a ripple effect. If someone near you does drugs and alcohol, and happens to own a gun, that can have a very strong impact on your personal safety. Anyone who smokes upwind of you will have an impact on your quality of living. But, more importantly, as things become more and more accepted and acceptable by society, they become more and more attractive to my future kids. Yes, my kids will have the freedom to make their own choices, but as long as society is urging them to make bad decisions, I'm going to let them know that I think those things are bad decisions by voting and speaking against them.

My second problem with the photo's argument is that it only considers the rights of one side. As I said in the paragraph just above this one, "We don't have to force people not to do things that we, ourselves, don't want to do." And, in this case, "things we don't want to do" include voting and speaking against drugs, sex, and abortions. If you don't like that I vote and speak against those things then, by your own argument, all you have to do is not speak and vote against them. You can do what you want (drugs, sex, etc), and I can do what I want (peaceful protests, voting, etc.). Live and let live, right?

But what really grinds my gears about this image is that some of these things are just plain bad ideas. What are the benefits of smoking? It helps you relax? Learn some deep breathing exercises! Technically, you'll be "breathing deeply" anyway. And the detriments of smoking include lung cancer, poor breathing, and death. Nice trade-off. Plus, cigarettes are expensive. Honestly, why would anyone argue in favor of smoking? At least the detriments of the other things on their list are easier to hide under their supposed benefits. Illegitimate sex is fun, or so I'm told; never mind the emotional side-effects and risks of STDs and unwanted pregnancy. You could just get an abortion anyway. It's not like it would kill anyone or cause even more emotional scarring.

It occurs to me that I'm being extremely rude to anyone who has ever gotten an abortion and now regrets that decision. I'm sorry for being so crass. But the fact that such people exist kind of proves my point.

I believe that almost everything on the photo's list (with the exception of responsible gun-ownership) has a high chance of leading to regrets. I think that if a person participates in any of those things, they will eventually come to regret it. By speaking and voting against these things, I'm not trying to take away your freedom - I'm trying to dissuade you (and more importantly, my future kids) from doing things that'll cause regret.

I'm trying to make the world a better place, and it's my humble opinion that the world would be a better place without drug abuse, alcohol consumption, smoking, pornography, illegitimate sex, drop-of-the-hat abortions, and even same-sex marriages. If you disagree with me, feel free to speak and vote however your conscience dictates. But as for me, I have rights, too. And among them are the rights to speak and vote against the vices you support.

The Atonement Lesson - Forming an Outline

This is going to be another one of those days where I "cheat," types up something really lame (like literature homework), and call it a blog post because it touches on some spiritual things. Today, I'm going to write up an outline for the lesson I'll be giving today, using the manual as a framework, and filling in some of the things I wrote about over the last two days.

The Atonement is Necessary for Our Salvation
- The Fall of Adam and Physical and Spiritual Death

Jesus Christ Was the Only One Who Could Atone for Our Sins
(Maybe I'll cover this one after I talk about how much of a burden it was for Him)

Jesus Christ Suffered and Died to Atone for Our Sins
- The Price He Paid

Let's say each commitment of sin incurs a debt vaguely equivalent to one cent (though it's actually probably much more), and each person commits an average of one sin per day (though we all sin far more frequently than that). There are 365 days in a year, and let's estimate that the average person lives for about 50 years (I have no idea what the world-wide average lifespan is, so 50 is only a guess). One sin per person per day times 365 days per year times 50 years equals $182.50 worth of sin per person. That doesn't sound too bad, until you consider how many people there are. The current world population is over 7 Billion. $1, 277, 500, 000, 000.

According to WisdomJournal.com:

One trillion dollars today would allow you buy Coca Cola, Apple, IBM, Bank of America, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Motorola, AT&T, as well as Exxon Mobil and STILL have enough left over to live comfortably on just the interest from the billions left over– not to mention the profits these companies generate.

I also learned that $1.2 Trillion is, coincidentally, the cost of the war in Iraq, as of 2007, according to the New York Times, but I won't mention that in my lesson.

In other words, it was an unfathomably high price to pay, and the actual number, if Christ's suffering could even be measured in numbers, would actually be much higher than that.

The Atonement and Resurrection Bring Resurrection to All
- For Free

The Atonement Makes It Possible for Those Who Have Faith in Christ to Be Saved from Their Sins

- And now we get to talk about how we can "pay" our $182.50 back to Jesus Christ, which is mostly by trying not to incur any more debt.

I'd love to do more lesson planning right now, but I have to go get ready for church. I'd better Print this up and work on it more later.

The Price of the Atonement

We've all heard the parable found in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel Principles manual, the one about the man who incurred a large debt and was unable to pay it. His creditor demanded justice, the debtor begged for mercy, and neither could get what they wanted expect at the expense of the other. Then a mediator came, paid the creditor in full, and told the debtor that he would extend mercy to him, making it possible for him to repay the debt without losing everything he had and going to prison.

The parable is so familiar to me (and so long!) that I usually skim through it whenever I read this chapter, but this time, I decided not only to read the parable, but also the talk from which the parable came, which is appropriately titled The Mediator.

The talk made me think about the price of sin and the debt we owe to the Mediator for having paid that price for us. We all know that the penalty of unrepented sin will be terrible. Exactly how terrible is hard to say, but it goes without saying that we don't want to have to pay it. President Boyd K. Packer, the author of the parable and the talk, said:

Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing.

That sounds pretty bad. If you're not convinced, go look up any scripture that describes hell and the emotional state of those who end up there. It's not a pretty picture. And the only thing keeping us from ending up in the infernal pit is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

My favorite song from Handel's Messiah comes from Isaiah 53:6 "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." I like the song for two reasons. First, it starts off light-hearted and catchy and is fun to sing along with. then, second, they drop all pretense of fun to demonstrate the magnitude of the burden the Lord carried in Gethsemane, leaving me with the powerful realization that for every sin and transgression that any person (including myself) has ever committed or will ever commit has a price, and in Gethsemane, Jesus Christ paid all of it.

Think of every evil action that has ever been done. Every murder. Every rape. Every kidnapping. Every unkind word. Think of all the justice that is due to every person who has ever done such things. Then imagine, if you can, how the Savior must have felt when that entire burden fell unto His shoulders, and He carried it. That was the price of the Atonement. And Jesus Christ paid it for us.

Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice.

But that does not mean, as some Christians believe, that salvation is free, that it's already all bought and paid for, or that it comes at not cost to us. To think that Jesus Christ hands out salvation freely to those who don't ask for it and aren't willing to make any sacrifices to obtain it and aren't even willing to put forth any real effort to thank Christ for it, is an insult to the tremendous price Christ paid for it.

The extension of mercy will not be automatic. It will be through covenant with Him. It will be on His terms, His generous terms, which include, as an absolute essential, baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

Though Christ's terms are described as being "generous" (and, compared to being cast into hell, I'm sure they are), I feel the need to find out exactly what those terms are, which is especially important to those who desire to accept and meet those terms. For that knowledge, I return to where I started, the twelfth chapter of the Gospel Principles manual.

Our sins are our spiritual debts. Without Jesus Christ, who is our Savior and Mediator, we would all pay for our sins by suffering spiritual death. But because of Him, if we will keep His terms, which are to repent and keep His commandments, we may return to live with our Heavenly Father. (Emphasis Added)

In comparison to what we should be paying for our sins and to what Christ has paid for them,  forsaking our sins and striving to overcome them sounds like a very small price to pay. So, yes, I'd say Jesus' terms are very generous, but remember: we still have to meet them. The price we have to pay has been greatly reduced by the Savior, but we still have to pay it. We are getting the best part of the deal, but we still have to hold up our (much lighter) end of it.

So, there was a price to pay. We all owe a tremendous debt, and Jesus Christ paid it. So now we can choose whether we will meet the Lord's terms and pay our debt to Him or whether we'll reject His offer and pay the full penalty of our sins ourselves. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking of taking Jesus up on His offer, not only because it sounds a lot less painful, but also out of respect for the price He had to pay to make our salvation possible.

Hope Through the Atonement

I've noticed a couple of messages on the theme of hope on Facebook this morning, and I'm teaching about the Atonement in Gospel Principles this Sunday, so I'd really like to blog about something like that this morning, and possibly the next two days as well. The trouble with that is that while Hope and the Atonement are closely related and easy to talk about in the same sentence, they're both such broad topics that it's hard to pull a specific message out of them. Hope Through the Atonement isn't a blog post idea. It's an idea for the theme for a blog post. I suppose I could make the topic more specific by defining what it is we have hope for.

We can have hope for a remission of sins through the cleansing power of the Atonement. We can have hope for life after death through the resurrection (which is closely related to the Atonement and discussed in the same chapter of the Gospel Principles manual). And we can have hope for Eternal Life. Those are three ideas right there, but not all of them are things I want to blog about.

I want to talk about the hope that any sin, no matter how foul, can be forgiven, but to receive forgiveness for any sin, even the most minor ones, we must meet the condition of repentance. It's very much all-or-nothing, isn't it? Even the worst sinner in the world could be made clean if only they chose to repent, and the best saint in the world could be brought down for even just a single sin for which they refuse to repent. No matter how dire or minor the sins on your soul are, either you repent and are saved, or you don't and you're not.

It's also important to understand what repentance means. It's not just an apology. It involves a commitment to not sin again. However, that doesn't mean that you need to be perfect in order to truly repent. Despite you're commitment, you're still going to be tempted again and might slip. I've blogged about this before.

In rereading that blog post, I'm reminded of something I said almost a year ago:

In our hearts, there must be the willingness to forsake our sins, even if the ability is beyond us. If we have the willingness, God can give us the strength, with which we can truly forsake our sins.

So, can we and do we need to actually forsake our sins or not? I think the answer is "yes" in both cases, which is both encouraging and a little daunting. Yes, we're human, and we keep making the same mistakes, but with God's help, we can avoid those mistakes. We may not be strong enough or wise enough to make the right choices, but God can give us all the strength and wisdom we need. We have to ask for that help, which we can do while we make the commitment to forsake that sin, but God is willing and eager to grant it. The only reason He doesn't help us when we need it is because we choose not to ask Him to, and He doesn't often help people without their permission.

So, to recap, in order to repent, we need to confess and forsake our sins. If we do, we are cleansed through the power of the Atonement. The trouble is that forsaking our sins can be difficult and seemingly impossible. However, we can receive the help we need to forsake our sins through the power of the Atonement.

By tapping into the enabling power of the Atonement, we become capable of tapping into the cleansing power of the Atonement. To add another layer to this formula, becoming cleansed from our sins makes it possible for us to tap into the exalting power of the Atonement. In October 2004, Elder David A. Bednar taught:

The enabling and strengthening aspect of the Atonement helps us to see and to do and to become good in ways that we could never recognize or accomplish with our limited mortal capacity.

-David A. Bednar, In the Strength of the Lord.

Without the Atonement, there would be no hope. We would be damned to suffer eternally for even one human mistake. But because of the Atonement, we can have hope the receive strength beyond our means, to break free from our sins, and to receive Eternal Life and exaltation in the presence and glory of God.

Interpreting Isaiah - The Empathy of Jesus

Some of my best scriptural insights come from Institute. Recently, we've been reading in Isaiah, which has been going much better than I expected. By reading through the verses slowly, discussing them, and checking out different translations for other perspectives, we've been finding good, spiritual messages in almost everything we've read, including a scripture that, until recently, I only half understood. I'll share it here, along with the two verses that came before it, for context.

But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. 

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 

Isaiah 49: 14-16

I say I half-understood verse 16 because the first half of the verse is spelled out pretty clearly. In a very painful way, Christ has engraved us onto the palms of his hands, but what's all this about our walls being before him?

In our in-class discussion, the first idea that was suggested was that our "walls" are the barriers that we build up foolishly that separate us from the Lord, but considering the meaning of the rest of the message, that didn't seem to make much sense. Perhaps, if the word "yet," had been thrown in between the semicolon and "thy walls," then that interpretation would carry more weight, and certainly, the message of that interpretation is worth considering. Jesus Christ went through tremendous pain to help us; what right do we have to shut Him out?

But the interpretation that makes more sense to me and that I, therefore, like better came after considering possible synonyms for the word "wall." A wall could be a barrier, a dividing line, a thing that separates two people or places, or it could be an obstacle. Using the word "obstacles" in place of the word "walls," Isaiah 49:16 reads, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy obstacles are continually before me." It sounds like He's saying that our challenges are His challenges; that He knows what we're going through because He's facing it too, and that stands out as true and significantly for two reasons.

First, Jesus Christ already has faced all our challenges, and overcome them. Bringing up this empathy in consideration of his scars, symbols of the crucifixion, calls to mind an image of the Atonement in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus Christ felt all our pain and suffering, and all the weight of our struggles and sins, and overcame it all. He carried our enormous weight about 2000 years ago, and He's reminded of that every time He looks at His hands. He's not going to forget us in our afflictions now.

The second reason I find this interpretation as been both true and touching is that, if we are trying to keep the commandments, the Lord will stand by us and help us face our trials and challenges. In a very real sense, as we strive to be righteous, we are facing that struggle together, side-by-side with Jesus Christ, our Savior, who is helping us and strengthening us every step of the way.

As we face the challenges of life, it's easy to feel discouraged and alone. It's easy to think that nobody knows what we're going through; that nobody, not even Jesus, knows the weight of our burdens. But He does know the weight of our burdens. He knows their weight because He has carried them Himself, and because He's helping us carry them now. He has engraved us on the palms of His hands. Our obstacles are His obstacles. He will not forget us, nor forsake us, as long as we do not forsake Him.

A Few Retractions From Yesterday's Post

In response to my blog post yesterday, my mom called into question something that I had said, and now that I've reflected on her comment and mine, I have to agree with her.

I said "In the Green Lantern's oath, he recommits himself to the detection and opposition of evil. We don't do that." I had meant that we don't physically look for evil-doers to fight, but now that I consider it spiritually, I think we do (or at least should) try to detect and oppose evil - not so much in other people, but in ourselves.

Satan is very good at planting temptation into our hearts, and doing it subtly. Sometimes, we don't even know we're being tempted. Yet, we need to fight against that temptation in order to choose the right, so, in a sense, we need to detect and oppose evil on a regular basis, just to stay spiritually clean.

We all have vices. We each have some kind of inclination toward sin. If it wasn't already within us as a result of being born mortal, then Satan probably put it there. No matter how the evil within us came to be there, we need to fight it, and to do that, we first need to know that it's there. So the detection and opposition of evil is not only something we can do, but something we must do.

Mom also remarked on something I said about drawing closer to God not giving us super-powers. She pointed out that, being omnipotent, God can do everything the Green Lantern can do, and much, much more. When we draw closer to God, we become more like Him, and as we grow to be more like Him, we gain increasing portions of His power. By following this path, we will eventually gain all the power any Green Lantern ever had, and more. I had meant that we wouldn't gain super-powers in mortality, and that's still probably true, but that doesn't mean we won't get super-powers later down the road.

Man, I love our religion. From the Mormon perspective, humans are way more awesome than they are according to other religions. In mortality, we can receive inspiration and guidance from the Spirit, which essentially gives us a form of extra-sensory perception, and if we use that power to detect and oppose the evil within us, we'll eventually gain powers too incredible to imagine! Looking at it that way, we already do have super-powers, and if we use them wisely, we'll gain even more. That's pretty dang amazing.

Mom, thank you so much for posting that comment. What I learned just now is so awesome that I'm genuinely glad you pointed out that I was wrong.

Recharging the Ring

I started that blog post yesterday thinking that I'd write about the similarities between being a Priesthood bearer and a bearer of a Green Lantern ring, but I ended up talking mostly about that one critical difference. However, there is still one similarity that I've only lightly touched on (merely mentioned, really), and it applies not only to Priesthood bearers but to all Christians, so I think I'll blog about that.

The Green Lantern needs to recharge his ring every 24 hours or so to make sure it stays effective. The recharging process, I mentioned, involves a lantern-like device, though the power behind the device and, in turn, the Green Lantern ring, actually comes from a Central Power Battery on Oa. With a fully-charged power ring, the Green Lantern can use the amazing powers I described yesterday, including flight, force-field generation, shooting powerful energy blasts, and creating "solid light" objects, with the only limits to those powers being his will-power and his imagination.

What I didn't mention yesterday is that the Green Lantern has an oath he recites while he recharges his ring. I don't know if that's necessary, or just traditional, but for the sake of the analogy, I'll just say it's a good example to follow. It may or may not be important, but at the least, it's a good idea. The "every 24 hours" part is a recommended minimum frequency of recharging the ring. After intense usage, he may need to recharge his ring before the 24 hours are up, but even if he hardly uses his ring at all, it's still recommended that he recharge it at least every 24 hours to keep it fresh.

In a similar manner, we need to "recharge" our testimonies every 24 hours to make sure they stay strong. The recharging process typically involves reading scriptures, though the power behind the scriptures and, in turn, your testimony, actually comes from God. With a fully charged testimony, we can discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and enjoy the inspiration and guidance of the Spirit, which helps us increase in the will-power to resist temptation, and can even improve our imagination by giving us inspired ideas.

Wow, if the Green Lantern was a Mormon, he'd be unstoppable!

The oath part of the analogy requires a little more imagination to translate, so bear with me for a moment. In the Green Lantern's oath, he recommits himself to the detection and opposition of evil. We don't do that. Instead, we regularly (though not daily) recommit ourselves to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, and to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. We do that every week, when we take the Sacrament. For the daily, recharging-our-testimony part of the analogy, we pray. It doesn't matter a whole lot what we say for each of our prayers, though we're certainly not supposed to recite the same words every time. The purpose of the prayer is to strengthen the connection between ourselves and God. As long as the conversation bring us closer together, the words themselves don't matter all that much. Common tips are to be humble and respectful, to open by addressing Heavenly Father and close in the name of Jesus Christ, and to use biblical pronouns.

It is recommended that we "recharge" our testimonies every day through prayer and scripture study, though, as our circumstances allow (and may require), we can read the scriptures more often than that, and we're certainly supposed to pray more often than that. In fact, there are a number of scriptures that say we should pray always, especially in the face of temptation. I suppose that would be like actually using the power ring rather than keeping it charged, though, as with Green Lantern's power ring, if you find that you're using yours to resist temptation often, you should probably recharge it as frequently as you can. You might even consider tapping into a power that the Green Lantern never had: Fasting.

Fasting is a monthly ritual where we go without food or drink for 24 hours, skipping two meals, and using that sacrifice to draw our souls closer to God, but, as with scripture study, it can be done more frequently as needed to access greater spiritual power and/or to request special blessings, like healing for the very ill. Unlike scripture study, however, there is a recommended maximum for Fasting, so as not to harm our bodies. It's typically not a good idea to fast for more than 24 hours at a time, or to fast more frequently than once a week.

Those who normally ask a lot of their bodies, like construction workers, probably shouldn't fast while they're working, and there are some whose medical circumstances require that they don't fast at all. In those cases, you might consider a modified fast, temporarily giving up something other than what you need to stay healthy. A person who can't fast from food might still fast from certain kinds of food, or from certain activities, like non-essential computer-usage. A construction worker who normally listens to the radio while he works might sort-of fast by listening to hymns or General Conference talks on CD instead. The idea is to make a small, temporary sacrifice, and to have that experience bring you closer to God. Your Bishop can help you think of specific ideas to match your individual situation.

In whatever form it takes, fasting is a powerful way to recharge our spiritual power and to tap into even greater power, as it's needed. Which leads me to one last point I want to make today.

All of this recharging of testimonies and drawing closer to God is of vital importance, spiritually, but it won't get us any closer to being able to fly through outer space, make force-fields, or move objects with our minds. As fun as those abilities would be, we don't really need them. What we need in order to pass the tests of life and become more like our Heavenly Father is the ability to discern between truth and falsehood, avoid deception and temptation, and develop the will-power and self-mastery to resist temptation and choose the right. Those are the "super-powers" we need, and those are the super powers God is offering us. And all we need to do to access those powers is to keep our testimonies charged.

Green Lantern and the Priesthood

The Green Lantern is a superhero with a powerful, semi-magical ring. With this ring, the Green Lantern can do a number of marvelous things, including but not limited to, force-field generation, energy beam generation, flight (even in space), and creating solid objects that vary in size, shape, durability, and purpose, limited only by the imagination and will-power of the ring bearer. In fact, everything the ring does or can do is limited by the will-power of the bearer, and that's not the ring's only limitation.

The Green Lantern's power ring can only hold a limited charge, which is typically good for 24 hours, sometimes less. When the charge is depleted, the ring needs to be recharged by a special lantern-like device which in turn gets its energy from a Central Power Battery on a planet called Oa. I think it's notable that the energy for what the Green Lantern does doesn't come from himself or even from his magical ring. That was the thought going through my mind when I read Elder Neil L. Andersen's October 2013 talk, Power in the Priesthood. He said:

We sometimes overly associate the power of the priesthood with men in the Church. The priesthood is the power and authority of God given for the salvation and blessing of all—men, women, and children. 

A man may open the drapes so the warm sunlight comes into the room, but the man does not own the sun or the light or the warmth it brings.

So, a man with the Priesthood is much like the Green Lantern. He is just like everyone else in every way except that he bears a means by which he can access great power. Neither he nor his authority are the source of that power, but rather, the source is God, and the man and his authority are just a channel through which God does His work. A main difference between a Priesthood bearer and a bearer of a Green Lantern power ring is that the Green Lantern is given the power to do his own will (within limits), and a Priesthood bearer is only given the power to do the will of God.

In our discussion about the Priesthood in Elder's Quorum yesterday, we tried to define the Priesthood better by pointing out some things that it's not. One of the suggestions was that the Priesthood is not a super-power (just in case I wasn't already thinking about the Green Lantern before that moment), that is, it's not used for personal gain or to do our own will. We can't use the Priesthood to bless ourselves - it's not there for that. Men of the church are given the Priesthood for the purpose of blessing others.

Not everyone on earth is a Green Lantern, but when the Green Lantern saves the world, the whole world gets saved.

One of the things that the Priesthood is, that a super-power also is, is a responsibility. A bearer of the Priesthood must keep himself worthy to use that power, and must respond to opportunities to help others, even when it's difficult or inconvenient. Similarly, the Green Lantern must keep an eye out for evil and must do all he can to stop it, even if that puts him in harm's way.

There are some women in the church who want to hold the Priesthood. To them, I say "be careful what you wish for." The Priesthood isn't as awesome, or as wonderful, or as fun as some people think it is. It doesn't give us the ability to work miracles at our own will. Instead, it makes us like tools in our Heavenly Father's hands and gives us the responsibility to always be ready to serve as the channel through which God does His own will, whether or not it matches up with ours. The Priesthood doesn't give its bearers any power for their own use, but it does give them the responsibility to live worthily and always be ready to serve.

To be honest, though, even without the Priesthood giving its bearers super-powers, it's still kind of cool. Though we can't just use the Priesthood whenever we want to (and are expected to be ready to use it even when we don't want to), it's still pretty amazing when moments like that happen. Though we can't choose if or when or what blessings will come from our use of the Priesthood, it's incredible when miracles do happen, and it's inspiring to think that we may have had some small hand in making it happen.

But really, women, if you want to feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself, if you want to have a hand in working miracles, if you want to change the world, there are easier ways to do those things than by holding the Priesthood. Join a charity group, like, say, the Relief Society, and be active in it. It's the largest women's organization in the world and it does a tremendous amount of good for the world. If that's not enough for you, there are millions of other charities in the world. Find one you like and pitch in.

Want to be part of a miracle? Raise a child. It doesn't even have to be your own child, though giving birth as about as much of a miracle as anyone could ask for. You can adopt a child, or act as a mentor for someone else's child. You could be a teacher, especially in Primary if you feel like tackling a great responsibility. Changing a single person's life can be rewarding in and of itself, but seeing that person go on to help others is priceless.

You don't really need to hold the Priesthood to do great things. In fact, if you did hold the Priesthood, you might find that the added responsibility slows you down and pulls you away from the other good you can do. Being a bearer of the Priesthood isn't what some people think it is. It's not just power and privileges. In fact, there's very little personal power and few privileges at all. More than that, it's a responsibility, and I think most women already have more than enough of that.

Rejoice and a Redirection

Apologies. I was looking for something inspiring, but I couldn't find anything that I really wanted to share. I had an idea, but I thought I posted about it before, so I searched for it on my blog and ended up reading a few of my blog posts, taking up even more of my little time. I'm not ready for church yet, and my ride is coming in half an hour. I'm glad I took a shower yesterday, because I certainly don't have time now! Anyway, here's what I wanted to blog about. Sorry if it's a repeat.





The first line of this hymn is "Rejoice, the Lord is King!" What stand out to me about this is that the fact that "The Lord is King!" is never going to change, and it's certainly not going to be changed by minor daily difficulties. Jesus Christ will always be our Savior, no matter what bad things happen to us, so we will always have a reason to rejoice.

In looking for a previous version of this message, I found this: The Components and Blessings of Daily Worship, a blog post in which I repeated a simple formula by which we may "always rejoice," in addition to enjoying other, even more glorious blessings. I highly recommend that you check out that blog post, rather than wasting your time with this one, especially since this blog post is so unspeakably lame and I don't have the time it would take to make it better.

On the Subject of Sources of Truth

There's a man named Joel Osteen. He's something of a television preacher guy. I've listen to parts of a few of his sermons, and it seems like most of the time, he has wise and intelligent things to say, and most of it sounds true. Like this:

That sounds good, right? It's inspiring, and it makes sense, but is it true? Joel Osteen is not a Prophet or an Apostle. This quote wasn't taken from a General Conference or the scriptures. We can't take this quote as gospel doctrine, but on the other hand, it might be true anyway. This may be a controversial statement, but not all truths are found in the scriptures or in General Conference. Some truths aren't important enough to be included, like truths about mathematical equations. Some truths haven't been revealed yet. Who knows? Maybe Joel Osteen was unwittingly quoting a General Conference talk that hasn't happened yet.

What I'm saying is that we don't know for sure whether the quote above is true or not. At least, I don't. As far as I know, it might be true, but it also might not be true, so while I might take some inspiration from it, I'll also try not to put too much stock into it. Of course, we'd all be much safer taking our life-changing, inspirational doctrine from a source that we know we can count on. The scriptures are true, and the words of the Prophets and Apostles at General Conference are true.

Joel Osteen...? Well, I'd say his sermons have about as much doctrinal validity as my blog posts do. Which is almost none. When we quote Prophets and Scriptures, you can know that those quotes are doctrinally valid, as long as we're using a correct translation and aren't misquoting anything. Our commentary on those quotes, however, are not doctrinal, though they may still be inspired. I'm pretty sure any person can be inspired.

So if my blog posts of Joel Osteen's sermons inspire you, that's a good thing, but don't believe everything we say. I've been wrong many times before, and I'm sure Joel Osteen has been wrong a few times, too. The ones you really ought to trust as dispensers of eternal truths are the Prophets and Apostles, and even then, only when they're speaking as such, like when they're giving talks.

If Thomas S. Monson said, in a casual conversation, "I think the Patriots will win their next football game," do not take that as a prophecy. They might still lose, and it won't suggest that President Monson is a false prophet if they do. Even prophets have the right to speak their own minds (and sometimes be wrong) on occasion. He has the freedom to make guesses and share opinions just as the rest of us do. So, even with prophets, you can't take every word that comes out of their mouth to be the very absolutely true word of God. On the other hand, even when they're not dispensing gospel truths, they're still fairly wise men and should be listened to.

So, what can you trust to be true? When there are so many uninspired teachers, such as myself, and even God's own chosen spokespeople have the right to speak for themselves sometimes, how do you know if the messages you're receiving are really the word of God? Well, for one thing, what's written in the Scriptures (assuming you have the right translation) and what's said at General Conference are true. You can trust messages from those sources. For everything else, you don't have to just guess. If you really want to know whether something's true or not, you can pray and ask God if it's true. He can tell you straight to your heart whether something is true or not, and that way, you can test inspirational messages before you take them to heart.

I hope that my messages are inspired more often than not. I try not to say anything that I don't know is true, but I sometimes give my own guesses and opinions, and I have to admit that those guesses and opinions may be wrong. So, if I'm not directly quoting an Apostle or a Prophet, please understand that what I'm saying may not be 100% correct. My advice is to trust only the sources you know you can trust and to second-guess and double-check all other messages and suggestions, including this piece of advice. That way, you can be pretty sure that the messages you receive into your heart are true.

Fire - Uses and Symbolism

Fire is a chemical reaction that converts chemical energy into light and heat, and is my favorite of the classic elements. I think that fire has an undeserved reputation as a wholly destructive force. Fire is best known for turning things into piles of ashes, but I think that people have forgotten about the good things that fire can do (mostly because we have electrical devices that can do most of those things much more effectively and safely).

Back in the days before electricity, fire was your electricity. It was the light that brightened your home and the heat that cooked your meals. Back then, fire was an element that made life more comfortable and enjoyable. It even kept people alive. Today, as well as in olden days, fire is used to purify and work metals, which we, then and now, find essential for nearly every aspect of life.

From a religious perspective, fire still has a bad reputation. It was with fire that the people of Ammonihah destroyed so many recently-converted Christians. It was with fire that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorra. And hell is traditionally described as a lake of unquenchable fire, signifying eternal torment. Fire's bad stuff, right?

But fire can also be good stuff. The Lord used fire to protect Lehi and Nephi while they were in prison (Helaman 5), and to hold the Egyptians at bay while the Children of Israel were escaping through the Red Sea. In addition, the Holy Ghost is often described as being similar to a fire, causing feelings of light and warmth, the process of building and maintaining a fire is often used as an analogy for growing and maintaining a testimony.

So, fire has a dual nature. It can have a positive influence on some people at some times or have a negative influence to other people or at other times. And to add to that duality, sometimes fire is both a good and a bad thing at the same time.

The scriptures frequently refer to the "furnace of affliction" and "purifying fire." With the furnace of affliction, we face hardships that are meant to strengthen us and refine us. In a similar manner, the purifying fire signifies a purging of our sins through the sometimes long and painful process of repentance. In both cases, the fire symbolizes short-term pain, which intends to yield long-term gains, similar to the purification of ore into metal and the working of metal into tools. The end result is far more favorable than our current state, making the process ultimately a good thing, but it also involves a certain amount of pain - and pain is usually bad.

Though it's reputation for pain and destruction isn't entirely undeserved, fire has its uses and can be used for good. I think that fire, with regards to references to it within the scriptures, usually symbolizes the power of God, both in destruction and in protection, both in enlightening and in refining. God works in mysterious ways, sometimes blessing us, sometimes cursing us, but the funny thing is that it all works out to be blessings in the end. Unlike many real fires, there's always a purpose to God's influence in our lives. It only destroys the parts of us that aren't really worth keeping, leaving the best parts of ourselves more pure and of greater value for having passed through the fire. Whether God seems to be hurting us or helping us by exposing us to the fire, He is always, with the proper perspective, helping us. Let's try not to lose sight of that when we pass through the furnace of affliction or are asked to put our dross on the alter. Remember, though it may be painful, it'll all work out for our good.

Deceiving and Being Deceived

If you've ever read 2 Timothy, Chapter 3, it probably stood out to you that there were some verses there that you were already familiar with because people like quoting them, from the first few verses...

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 3:1-5

...to the last few verses.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
2 Timothy 3:16-17

But between those sets of verses, there are a few verses that stand out to me, and I'd like to share one of them this morning.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
2 Timothy 3:13

It doesn't surprise me that "evil men" and "seducers" are deceiving others. I mean, they're evil. Treachery and deception are hallmarks of evil men and seducers. But what's this about them "being deceived"? Who's deceiving them and what lies are they falling for?

The deceiver of the deceivers is Satan, "the father of all lies" (unless, of course, my interpretation is incorrect). What lies does he tell his followers? "This will lead to peace and happiness. There's nothing wrong with what you're doing. And even if there were, no one will ever know you did it." And there are many others.

Until now, I've thought of evil men and seducers as villains - people who know that what they're doing is wrong and evil, but that just don't care. I thought they were utterly lacking in empathy or humanity. But now I'm not so sure. The problem could be that they are all too human. Yes, they do evil things and, having been born with a conscience in them, they do, on some level, know better, but what if they have been blinded and deceived into doing what they do? What if they, having fallen for the lies of Satan, have started to lose sight of the fact that they're hurting other people? What if they are being deceived and hurt just as they are deceiving and hurting others? Wouldn't that make them a kind of victim as well?

I'm not trying to excuse or justify the kind of people who do terrible things. I'm just trying to point out  that sin is a terribly tragic thing. It's tragic for the victims of such evil doings, but it's also tragic for the souls of the evil-doers. Sin is destructive to everyone involved, including both the people who do it and all those who suffer as a result.

I've been told that I'd gain an understanding of the human condition. Perhaps that means I'll gain some empathy for my fellow human beings, including the sinners. And perhaps a part of that gaining of empathy is learning, first-hand, how blunderingly stupid human beings can be and often are. I've been fooled by Satan before. I know how cunning he is. I know how easy it is to fall for his lies and be tricked into doing things that are stupid, self-destructive, harmful to others, and generally evil. I'm starting to feel sorry for the people who do horrible things, worse things than I have done, and more directly and deliberately harmful to others, because I know that that's a terrible burden to have on their conscience, and I know how easy it is to be tricked into putting it there.

We are all human - even those who behave as though they were inhuman. We all make mistakes in life, and we all, at one time or another, have been deceived by the evil one. Some mistakes are more evil than others. Some sins are more tragic than others. But all of us, especially the worst of us, have been deceived, so I'm not going to be too quick to label anyone as evil, especially since I believe they have felt, or will likely feel, as much pain as they ever cause. That's what I'd imagine hell is like - feeling all the paint that you've caused others to feel. And some people are being unwittingly tricked into going there.

Green Bands

I am currently wearing a "ring" of sorts. I think it was designed to hold hole-punched index cards together, but it turns out to be the perfect size to fit on my index finger, and it only cost about 70¢ to get, so I bought it and wear it as if it was a CTR ring. The one thing that concerns me about this "ring" is that I heard that cheap rings can leave a green band around your finger and 70¢ is about as cheap as rings come.

So I did a little research just now. The green band is created when acids from my skin (My skin is acidic?!) react with metals in the ring and oxidize them. The reaction forms a green residue that sticks to your skin but, I am told, is usually harmless and can be washed off with soap and water. Source: http://chemistry.about.com/od/jewelrychemistry/f/Why-Do-Rings-Turn-Your-Finger-Green.htm
I will need to conduct some tests to see A) if this "ring" will produce a green band, and B) if that band can be easily removed.

However, seeing that the ring itself can be easily removed and seems to be likely to form a green band, one might wonder why I continue to wear the ring. Having a green band on you, even if it washes off, would seem to be an undesirable quality.

Sir Gawain didn't think so. For those of you who don't know the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Gawain and the other knights at the Round Table were challenged to a sort of "game" by a hulking warrior whose complexion matched his adjective. The terms of the game were that any of the Round Table knights could deliver a single blade-stroke to the Green Knight, who would be kneeling still to receive the blow. Then, in one year's time, the Green Knight would attack the knight that struck him in a similar manner, and the knight would have to be still for it.

Though this "game" was quite insane, and King Arthur himself said so, the Green Knight taunted that they were all too chicken to go along with it, so Sir Gawain reluctantly stepped up to the plate and chopped the Green Knight's head off. The Green Knight then picked up his head, reminded Sir Gawain  that he'd have to receive an attack in return next year, and left.

A year passed, and Sir Gawain made his way to a castle near the Green Knight's dwelling place. There, shortly before the fated confrontation, the king of that castle offered Sir Gawain another game. This time, it was a simple trade. The king would go out for a hunt and would give Sir Gawain whatever he caught, and Sir Gawain would give the king whatever he had received while he waited at the castle. Sir Gawain kept this agreement by giving the king whatever he got (which was next to nothing), until he was given a magical green scarf/belt/sash that, supposedly, would protect him from the Green Knight. Sir Gawain held on to that, and wore it when he faced the Green Knight for the second time.

The Green Knight then revealed to Sir Gawain that this was all just a test. He was actually the disguised king of the castle Sir Gawain had visited, the scarf had no magical power, but Sir Gawain wasn't going to die anyway. The Green Knight/King, whose actual name was Bertilak, told Sir Gawain that even though he had kind of failed the test, he had only lied to save his life, so it really wasn't so much of a big deal. Yet, Sir Gawain took it as a big deal anyway, and decided to where the green sash as a mark of shame and as a reminder to never lie or be cowardly again.

And really, apart from the "mark of shame" part, isn't that what a CTR ring is? It's a physical, sometimes green, reminder to live up to your ideals and stay true to your standards. Granted, what I'm wearing is not a true CTR ring, but it serves the same purpose. And as long as it functions as a CTR ring, I'll continue to wear it for now, potential harmless, removable, strange, green band notwithstanding.

Guess and Check

Usually, we have a pretty good idea what we are or are not supposed to do. We know the basic commandments. We remember (some of) the counsel of the prophets. We also have access to the Spirit, through which we can gain guidance for our personal lives. But what if that guidance doesn't come? What if you have to make a decision, and there is no commandment saying what "thou shalt" or "thou shalt not" do, no prophet has ever spoken on the issue, and the Spirit's choosing to keep His silence as well?

Supposedly, that's supposed to be encouraging, because unless you've driven the Spirit away recently, silence on His part means that He trusts you to make the right decision. Still, in no way does that help you figure out what the right decision is. You could consider what moral principles might be involved in the decision, and what the results of each decision might be and how that might affect your future self or others. It basically boils down to making your own decision with your own logic, but that's a problem, because our logic is often flawed.

But on Facebook, I found a way to test your decisions to see if they were the right ones or not (albeit after the decision has been made).

Peace is a feeling that is often associated with the Spirit (though the people who wrote this probably don't understand that). The Spirit is often with us when we make good choices. Thus, if we've made a good decision, we'll likely feel the Spirit, which will give us a feeling of peace. The message above just cuts out the middle man, but the end result is the same. One way we can know if our decisions are the right ones is by how we feel about making them. If we feel peace, it's probably a good decision. If we feel uncertain, or a lack of peace about the idea, either before or afterward, it's probably not the best decision.

It can be hard sometimes to discern the voice of the spirit, or even our own feelings, but if the decision really matters (not all decisions do - you won't get guidance for those ones), you're certainly going to feel something. You may not feel clear guidance going into the decision, and that can be frightening sometimes, but trust your own judgement, as God apparently does, make the decision you feel is the right one, and then check with your feelings again. When the Spirit speaks peace to your soul, you'll know you're on the right track.

Pride Wants More

Just turned in a Midterm paper a little after midnight last night (or this morning?), two days before it was due (I'm anticipating technical difficulties, as this is my first time submitting a paper online, and I had to do it through Google Drive because my preferred word processor, Appleworks, won't work for this). For part of this Midterm paper, we were given a list of quotes from books we've read so far for this class and were asked to pick three, analyze them, and tell how they fit in with the overall theme from the texts from which they came. One of those quotes was from Utopia:

Pride measures her advantages not by what she has but by what other people lack. Pride would not deign even to be a goddess if there were no wretches for her to sneer at and domineer over. Her good fortune is dazzling only by contrast with the misery of others, her riches are valuable only as they torment and tantalize the poverty of others.

I almost used this quote in my paper, but I realized that whatever I wrote about it would A) involve quoting President Ezra Taft Benson and C.S. Lewis, and B) have nothing to do with the book Utopia because I haven't finished reading it yet. So in its place, I wrote, in my own words, about a quote telling how Beowulf was so strong, even the strongest swords would break when he tried to use them because his strokes were too hard. I also decided to share the pride quote here, as well as another few quotes on pride that back the first one up perfectly.

In his well-known talk, Beware of Pride, President Ezra Taft Benson said:

Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. ...
Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
The central feature of pride is enmity... Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” ...
Pride is essentially competitive in nature.

All of this led up to a quote that President Benson shared:

In the words of C. S. Lewis: “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. … It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.”
Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10.

Almost exactly what was said in Utopia. Part of me is thinking that great minds think alike. Another part of me is thinking that wise men come to the same conclusions, especially when they're right. Of course, wise men also learn from the wise men of the past. And the wisest of all men, including President Benson, C.S. Lewis, and Utopia's author, Sir Thomas More, often receive inspiration from the very same source.

Given all of that, I'd say that these people are probably right about pride. Pride is never satisfied with what she has. She always wants more. More than what she has now, and especially more than other people have. But last night, in family scripture study, we read 1 Timothy 6: 5-8:

Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. 

But godliness with contentment is great gain. 

For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 

And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

We don't need to have more than what other people have, and we often don't really need any more than what we already have. Let us be content with the rich blessings God has already given us and beware of the competition of pride.

How to Pass the Tests of Life

I have half an hour, at the most.

My dear friends and bretheren, no matter how many times you have slipped or fallen, rise up!
Your destiny is a glorious one!
Stand tall and walk in the light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!
You are stronger than you realize.
You are more capable than you can imagine.
You can do it now!
- Dieter F. Uchtdorf (From his October 2013, Priesthood Session talk, You can do it now!)

Sometimes, I struggle with feelings of weakness. We all have challenges in life, and some of them are, well, challenging. We fail sometimes. We tend to fail more often than we'd like to. But as I was writing a short essay on the subject of the purposes of tests (moral tests, not academic ones), it occurred to me that we're not trying to prove what we're capable of, but what we're willing to do.

God has given each of us a decent amount of power. That power takes different forms for different people, and some people were given more power than others. The test is not to see how much power we were given, but what we're going to do with that power. It's not a question of whether we can do a great deal of good in the world, but whether we'll do as much good as we can.

I think I believe that God has given us (or will give us) all the power and/or help we need to do whatever He wants us to do. If He commands it, He'll make it possible, one way or another. The question then becomes whether we'll take courage, put our faith in the Lord, and put forth the effort to do what He has asked us to do.

I no longer think that life is a question of ability. Now, I believe that if we sincerely try to choose the right, it doesn't matter whether we succeed or fail; we will have already passed the test because we made the right decision and tried.

Inspiration

There are, as far as I know, two main definitions of Inspiration. The first comes to mind very readily, especially on a blog that usually focuses on spiritual matters. Acording to the Miriam-Webster online dictionary, this kind of inspiration is described as "a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation."

The other definition seems to be merely an attachment of the word In to the word Respiration. Miriam-Webster describes this as "the act of drawing in; specifically : the drawing of air into the lungs." Looking at these two definitions side-by-side can help us understand the first definition of Inspiration much better than we did before.

My first thought in linking the two definitions of inspiration gives us a method of recognizing the first kind of inspiration. Actually, it was Alma who gave us that method first.

Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.
Alma 32: 28

I know that the presence of the Spirit feels different for different people, but with me, and perhaps with others, the experience of feeling the Spirit usually comes with the impulse to breathe in deeply, causing me to feel a literal "swell within [my] breast" that "beginneth to enlarge my soul."

Now, I understand that that could be some kind of psychological or subconscious response to some other stimulus besides the presence of an invisible spirit, especially since the act of breathing in deeply can be done manually even without the presence of the Spirit. I could just be fooling myself. But I feel like whenever I feel the Spirit, I feel like breathing in, and I don't think that's a coincidence.

Another insight we can draw from the relationship between the two definition revolves around how essential it is to repeatedly breathe in. If a person stopped breathing in, they would be physically dead within minutes. Could that say anything about how vital it is to our spirits to constantly be in the presence of the Holy Spirit? Physical death is a separation of one's body from their spirit. Spiritual death is sometimes described as a separation of a person's spirit from God's. If that's an accurate description, then a loss of the Spirit would result instantly in a form of spiritual death. If that's true, then with either definition, a cessation of inspiration is followed quickly by death. What a frightening thought!

Both air and the Spirit are invisible, and taking them into our lungs or heart nearly constantly is essential. I have one last connection to make before wrapping up this blog post. In some places, the air is better than others. Fresh air is better for us than air filled with smoke. In fact, breathing air that's too smokey can kill you about as quickly as not breathing at all. The Holy Spirit isn't the only spirit out there, and breathing in the wrong spirit can kill your spirit as quickly shutting out other spirits altogether - maybe even faster.

But I want to end this blog post on a positive note, so I'll close by pointing out that where the air is best, the Holy Spirit tends to be strongest. I'm referring mostly to the outdoors, where the presence of trees, flowers, grass, and other plants freshens up the air considerably and can help us to feel the Spirit. Our Heavenly Father created all of nature and all the beauty that's in it, and I think that a person can get closer to God by enjoying nature whenever they have the chance. If you get the chance sometime this weekend, I'd encourage you to find a place with trees and grass and breathe in deeply. You may find that more will have entered your heart and lungs that just a breath of fresh air.

Countering Discouragement - Impossible Logic

Why is it that all the best quotes come from President Uchtdorf?

But honestly, there are many good quotes like this, from Elder Holland's quote, "God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go," from a talk titled Remember Lot's Wife, to a Japanese proverb, "Fall down seven times, get up eight."

It seems that life is fraught with struggles, and in those many struggles, we occasionally fail. What happens then is that the strong, persistent people get back up, dust themselves off, and move forward. The people who learn to do that as frequently as they fall are the ones who really get places in life. I want to be more like them.

When I hear about people who do great things, I see that it's often the case that they have strong motivation, that they know what they want and they want it badly enough to push through the struggles, pick themselves up whenever they fall short, and keep trying to do what to others may seem impossible until they actually accomplish their goals. I could really use that kind of motivation, that drive, to push through the discouragement of the occasional failure and reach for the unreachable success. That reminds me of a song - The Impossible Dream, from The Man of La Mancha.

I first memorized and thought about the lyrics of that song while I was on my mission. My companion at the time (I can't remember who it was exactly) thought that the lyrics were discouraging, thinking that if the dream is impossible and the start is unreachable, why should a person even bother trying? My thoughts is that life isn't so much about reaching our goals or accomplishing great things, though it's absolutely wonderful when those things happen. I think that the purpose of life has more to do with the strength we gain as we struggle to accomplish things that may be impossible and are certainly nearly so.

To me, the song helps me come to grips with the fact that what we're trying to do, overcoming human nature and achieving self-mastery and, ultimately, perfection, may be impossible in this life, so if you fail, don't worry about it. Like my post from ages past, Dare to be Awesome, said, when we set impossibly high goals for ourselves, and we know that those goals are unreachable, it's not so much of a let-down when we fall short of those goals. It's not so discouraging as if we try to do something we know can do, and fail, because when we know that what we're trying to do is impossible, we've accepted the failure and come to grips with it, even before they happen.

Maybe that's been my problem lately. Perhaps my goals have been too realistic.

This may not make sense to most of you. It could be that my thought process is staggeringly abstract, or that I'm actually slightly insane, but when I realize that what I'm trying to do is actually really hard, it makes the occasionally set-back that much more understandable, so rather than beating myself up about not doing something that I easily could have done, I can dust myself off, admit that I'm still human, and try again. And since I know I'm just going to fail again, I won't be so discouraged when I do.

Does that logic work? I don't know. But who cares? I'm the one who's using it, and it feels like it works for me.

Tough Love

Has Procter and Gamble always made such good commercials, or is it just an Olympics thing?

When I first saw what you're about to see, I didn't think it really applied to moms as well as it applies to God and the form His love for us most often takes.





Just like the two videos I shared in my February 8 blog post, Commercial Inspiration, the message is about the same. God lets us struggle and He lets us fail, because He knows that struggling is how we become strong. Even though He loves us enough to want to protect us, He loves us enough to do what's best for us anyway. He gave us our freedom because He was strong enough to watch us make bad choices and learn from the consequences. That's how we gain wisdom. There are less painful ways to gain wisdom, by listening to wise people or learning from the mistakes of others, but ironically, we're usually not wise enough to. We often need to make our own mistakes, and God lets us. Someday, I'm going to be grateful that God loves me enough to let me make mistakes and learn from them, but for now I'm afraid I'm not quite that wise. Nor am I yet strong enough to stop making mistakes. But I'll get there. At least, that's the plan.

Thermoregulation is Not Blogworthy

Some days are better than others, especially with regards to whether I have anything I want to blog about or not.

I had an idea to blog about toucans as as Analogy Challenge, and I thought I was going to blog about their bills and how they give them a distinct advantage in some way, and how everyone has different talents and abilities just as they have different trials and opportunities. The trouble with that idea is that it's not really clear what toucan's bills are good for. There are some ideas, like the ones listed in the Wikipedia, but none of them seem useful enough to make for a good reason for having such large bills.

Researchers have discovered that the large bill of the toucan is a highly efficient thermoregulation system, though its size may still be advantageous in other ways. It does aid in their feeding behavior (as they sit in one spot and reach for all fruit in range, thereby reducing energy expenditure), and it has also been theorized that the bill may intimidate smaller birds, so that the toucan may plunder nests undisturbed. Also, the beak allows the bird to reach deep into tree-holes to access food unavailable to other birds, and also to ransack suspended nests built by smaller birds.

Maybe it's mostly a thermoregulation thing, which sort of makes sense since the tropics of Central America and northern South America, where toucans, live can get pretty warm. Following a link to a BBC News report about toucans' bill's role in thermoregulation made the subject seem a little bit more interesting, but it's still hardly anything worth blogging about. I can't even think of a spiritual application for this trivia.

So, toucans are still on the list for the Analogy Challenge. I'll find something blogworthy about them eventually, or maybe I'll find a way to make thermoregulation blogworthy. Either way, it's going to take more research, and I have other things to get done today. The toucans will have to wait.

Oh, and just so this doesn't feel like a complete failure of a blog post, we all have unique talents and traits. Some people seem to have more talent than others. But what we don't often see is what trials those people have to deal with and what God expects them to accomplish with the talents that He gives them. In the church, we understand that where much is given, much is required, so if some of us seem to have larger, more colorful bills than others, it may be because God has bigger plans for what we should do with them.

Life is full of tests and trials for everyone. Everyone has different tests, trials, and talents, and I might even go so far as to say that some people may have more or harder tests and trials than others. To make the test fair, God offers us strength and ability equal to the tests He expects us to pass. To paraphrase Peter Parker's uncle, Ben, "With great [ability] comes great responsibility." The more you have of one, the more you'll have of the other (if I'm not mistaken). So, if you have a lot of blessings, God expects you to do a lot of good with them. If you don't, try not to be jealous of those who do - they may carry a greater burden than you know.

It's just too bad that that has so very little to do with toucans.

My Glass or Plastic Heart

On special occasions, like family gatherings, we use glass stemware from IKEA to hold our drinks. We also have plastic stemware for the kids to use, and they look exactly like the glass stemware while they're on the table or in the sink. While I was washing these glasses, I sometimes had a hard time telling the difference between the glass and the plastic stemware, even while I was holding them and washing them. Then I thought, why do I even want to know? What difference would it make? You can be rougher with plastic than with glass, but I could just be gentle with all of the stemware, and it really wouldn't matter if the glass I was washing was made of glass or plastic.

I think that some people are made out of tougher stuff than others, emotionally speaking. Some people are harder to upset or offend than others, but really, why would you even want to upset or offend them? Why would I want to wash the plastic stemware more forcefully than the glass ones? Just because I can? That's not a good enough reason, in my opinion, to risk damaging stemware, and it's certainly not a good enough reason to risk hurting someone's feelings.

Now, with some people, it's not much of a risk. You could say things bluntly to them and they won't take offense. You can give them hard criticism without making them upset. Some people are more like plastic than glass. But you have to really know a person to know how tough they are. It's not usually obvious whether our emotions are fragile or not. We all look the same on the outside. At least, I'm not trained at spotting the difference. Even if I know a person as a friend, I don't always know how much verbal or emotional abuse they can take, and I don't need to know that any more than I needed to know whether the stemware was made of glass or plastic.

In most things, it's best to err on the side of caution. Sure, there are some people you can be blunt with, and maybe there are times when that'd be best, but I think that in most cases, it's better to respect each other's feelings and try not to hurt them. Treat them as though their emotions were made of glass. You won't always be right. There are some plastic-hearted people out there. But for the sake of the glass-hearted people, try to be kind. Kindness is a virtue anyway, no matter what kind of person you're talking to.

Mistranslations and Misinterpretations

How well do you know the lyrics to the song Part of Your World from Disney's The Little Mermaid? I grew up listening to Disney sing-alongs and watching Disney movies, so I'd say I know the lyrics pretty well, but even if you don't know the lyrics at all, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell that this isn't how it's supposed to go. And I just noticed that the original lyrics are in the description, along with the four languages they were translated into before bringing them back to English. Enjoy!




By the way, if you want to watch the rest of this lady's videos (and after watching this, how could you not?), her youtube name is Malinda Kathleen Reese. There should be a Youtube link on the video itself, but in case that doesn't work, you can just go to youtube and do a search for her name with "Part of Your World" or "Google Translate Sings." If you like Frozen, I recommend checking out her two (so far?) Frozen parodies. I laughed until I cried, just as I did with this one.

But mistranslations, especially with something more serious than Disney songs (like, say, religious texts), is no laughing matter. Let's imagine, for a moment, that this mistranslations parody was how a significant portion of the world thought the song was supposed to go, and they went into great detail to interpret what these lyrics might mean.

They might speculate on Ariel's involvement with the Department of the Treasury, with it being, perhaps, the source of her "enormous treasure." The interpreters would certainly try to identify "the disease of the sponge." They may even diagnose several people (especially "bright young woman") with such a disease, even if it didn't exist (Don't believe me? Ask the witches). I'd hate to think of what treatments they might come up with!

And as for Ariel herself, who or what is she? In her own words, she's "whoseits whatsits positive and negative," as well as "devices," and "20 this," with "this" possibly referring to "thingamabobs." She also mentioned that she wanted to be "some parts of the world." The past tense used here could mean that she no longer wants to be some parts of the world, or that it's no longer possible for her to be them. I'm not sure which.

Now imagine what might happen if someone tried to form a religion using such mistranslations. It would certainly involve the worship of idols, 20 or more of them, both of the positive and negative variety. And beyond what I've already mentioned concerning the Department of the Treasury and the Disease of the Sponge, there would certainly be some dancing involved. In fact "dancing is required," which is ironic because idols don't move, and she seemed to express some surprise when she learned that we move.

Perhaps, in this religion, Ariel is not a spiritual manifestation of the Twenty Plus idols, but rather a prophetess who attempts to interpret the will of the idols ("I think they want to see dancing to look at") and through whom the idols occasionally speak ("Power, it's easy, and I'm devices").

The more I think about this new, strange religion, the less strange it seems. It's almost as if the idea is growing on me, which is insane, since the "religion" is literally based on a deliberately mistranslated Disney song! I can only imagine how bad it would be if people took an actual religious text, or several differing mistranslations of one, and built hundreds of religions based on the various interpretations of the mistranslations of the text. I could see it quickly becoming extremely confusing, with millions of people eventually giving up on ever learning what God really teaches or even what He (or She or It) even is. All I can say is thank goodness for modern revelation and a religious text that only had to be translated once or twice! Without them, we would be so unspeakably confused.

Jesus Once Was a Little Child

I've been asked to help teach a Primary class today. I've never taught in Primary before, so this should be a good learning experience for me, especially since the topic of the class this week is Jesus Christ Was a Child Like Me. Teaching that lesson to a group of children ought to help me get a new perspective on Jesus Christ.

The trouble is that the scriptures don't really say much about Jesus' childhood. Most of what we "know" about it comes from reading in-between the lines, such as we know that Joseph was a carpenter, so we guess that Jesus might have learned some carpentry. We even have a picture of Jesus and Joseph cutting some wood, but we don't actually know if that kind of thing ever happened.

Another thing we don't know for sure is wether Jesus was born perfect or whether He learned to be perfect within his first few years of life. We no that He had no sin, but we also know that children below the age of accountability aren't held accountable for any sins they might commit, basically because at that age they don't know any better. We also know that "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." (Luke 2: 52)

To increase in something means to get more of it, meaning that you have more of it after you increased in it than you did before. Or, put another way, you had less of it before you increase in it, and more afterward. Does this mean that Jesus had less wisdom and less favor with God early in His life than later? That would suggest that Jesus was not born with infinite wisdom and that young Jesus might have done things that His Heavenly Father might have wished He hadn't. Of course, it might also mean that I'm reading WAY too much into that short verse.

We know that by the age of twelve, Jesus had a good understanding of His identity as the Son of God, and a good understanding of the scriptures, because He was found teaching teachers in the temple. (Luke 2: 46) And, I just realized, the verse that tells us that came before the verse that says that Jesus "increased in wisdom and stature," etcetera. So, He may have been born with great wisdom, and gradually accumulated more.

But while it's interesting to learn about Jesus' childhood, what does it really teach us? In Primary, the lesson manual and a few of the songs speculate that Jesus was probably a really good kid. He probably listened to His earthly parents, played nicely, did His chores, etcetera, and the lesson and songs encourage the Primary children to follow that example, and I don't want to step on the manual's toes or anything, but do we really know that Jesus was a good kid? I'm not sure that we do. We know that He was a good man - a perfect man, in fact - but I'm thinking that if there was ever a time in Jesus' life where He made a mistake and had to learn from it, just as everyone else does, His childhood would have been the perfect time for that.

Then again, since we don't know much about Jesus' childhood, I don't know that He wasn't perfect even then. He might have been. We don't know. But while we don't know if Jesus was perfect during His childhood, we can be pretty sure that He was probably a good child, and He'd probably like the Primary kids I'm going to help teach to try to be good, too. So, that's what I'm going to teach them. Try to be the kind of kid that Jesus would like you to be and that He Himself probably was.

Still, I have to include the word "probably," because we don't know. Jesus once was a little child, and that's pretty much all we know about that.

The Smoke Detector of the Spirit

Last night, we changed the batteries in the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in our house. Those vapors are often invisible, usually difficult to smell (I think), and impossible to breathe. I hear that the people who die in house fires often dies of smoke inhalation before the flames even reach them (making it a slightly less horrible way to die, in my opinion, than being burned alive). The potential presence of invisible, odorless, unbreathable gases in our air is why we have smoke detectors in the first place. Without them, we could easily not realize such gases are in our homes until the smoke inhalation kills us.

The trouble with smoke detectors is that they're easy to forget about. They're battery-powered, so they don't rely on power from the grid, but that means that they have a finite life-span. We need to keep their batteries fresh so they can keep scanning for bad gases. If we let their batteries die, we put ourselves in danger of dying, too.

The spiritual forces that threaten us are also invisible and difficult to detect, and they can be just as dangerous to our souls as carbon monoxide is to our bodies. To help us recognize and avoid such spiritual dangers, we need to have the influence of the Holy Spirit to guide us away from dangerous places and situations. But just like the batteries of our smoke detectors, we need to keep our connection to the Spirit fresh, or we'll become less able to feel its influence. If we allow our connection with the Spirit to fade, we'll be putting ourselves in spiritual danger.

Though the threats to our well-being and happiness aren't always apparent, they are real and we need to protect ourselves from them. A warning from the Spirit may make the difference between remaining spiritually clean and falling into the invisible trap of sin. I advise you, and myself, to frequently do things that will strengthen and reestablish your connection to the Spirit. Strong spiritual sensitivity might just save your soul.

The Patience of Ammon - Listening With The Spirit

You know what happens when I go half a day without any meaningful thing that I want to blog about? I open the scriptures.

It's not that I haven't been having any spiritual thoughts or discussions lately - I have been. But many of them seem too specifically directed toward me, while others seem to have no practical application. For example, I could tell you that the third chapter of Isaiah, while specifically written about Judah and Jerusalem, might as well have been written about us, describing how wicked people would be in the last days and in what ways they would be wicked, but while that's very interesting, what could we possibly do with that information? Perhaps I got too caught up in how the two societies paralleled each other so well, that I never bridged the gap between "Huh, that's interesting"  and "How do we apply this?"

Now I'm realizing that I could have brainstormed application ideas and called that my blog post, or I could have blogged about how we need to not only learn from the scriptures but also find ways to apply them, but I already opened the Book of Mormon, selected a random verse, and saw a perfectly bloggable message with a clear method of application, and now I kind of want to blog about that.

The verse I found was Alma 18:14

Therefore Ammon turned himself unto the king, and said unto him: What wilt thou that I should do for thee, O king? And the king answered him not for the space of an hour, according to their time, for he knew not what he should say unto him.

 There are a number of messages we could take out of this verse. It's polite to look at the people you're talking to. If you don't know what to say, it may be best to just not say anything (which doesn't apply to my blog). The descendants of Lehi probably measured time differently than we do, reminding us that time is measured differently to different people, as it certainly is for God and us, and what we do with our time is much more important than how much time we actually have.

But the message I first thought of after reading this verse was patience - specifically, the patience of Ammon in waiting for an hour(ish) to receive and answer from his king. We all are probably aware that prayer is how we talk to God and that conversations (especially meaningful conversations) tend to go both ways. Both parties take turns talking and listening to each other talk. God certainly is listening to us when we pray. The real question here is "Are we listening to Him?"

A lot of non-Christian religions, especially those that don't think of themselves as "religions," promote the concept of meditation, which is essentially and activity that consists of nothing but listening, with maybe some stretching and/or deep breathing thrown in. Some feel that they gain enlightenment through meditation, and right now, I'm not surprised. I think that people who meditate, whether they know it or not, are listening to God, so I'm not surprised at all the God, in His own way, might speak to them.

There are other ways God can speak to us, thankfully, besides touching our hearts directly. I say "thankfully" because it takes a certain amount of spiritual sensitivity to receive direct revelation, and it usually takes a good deal of time to reach that level of sensitivity, and we usually don't have that kind of time. When tend to get busy or distracted. Life's good at that. So God gives us more clear messages through prophets and apostles both ancient and modern. It's one way of getting a message across, and it's how God got across to me just now the message of the merit of listening during and after our prayers.

While scripture study and General Conference are great for giving us clear messages, they're not always as deep or as personal as the messages God wants to share with us. For example, you can hear an old man standing at an oak pulpit say "God loves you," and you might believe it, but it's another thing entirely to feel the love of God fill your heart while you pray.

Another blessing of listening to God through prayer is how frequently we're able to do it. We have General Conference every six months, we have church every seven days, and some families have scripture study every single day, so we can listen to God every day, sometimes multiple times per day, all without ever listening with the spirit. But when we listen with the spirit by connecting to God through prayer, we can talk and listen to God any time we want. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's possible to do it at all times.

As I said before, it takes sensitivity, and it's easy to get distracted. I struggle with that sometimes, as do we all, I think. But when God has something to say to us, and we take the time to listen, then we learn the true meaning of inspiration, and it is a beautiful thing.

Birds on The Wires - Music from Nature

I found a link to this short, but beautiful piece of music on Facebook. I find it very soothing and inspiring. This music puts me in the kind of mood where I can feel the spirit. Though, if I may be hyper-critical of an already-excellent piece of musical art, I feel like it could use another chord or two at the end, though maybe that hanging ending was intentional. It leaves our hearts open, wanting to hear more. Then, perhaps, we may hear the voice of the spirit.





The story behind this piece is that Jarbas Angelli was reading the newspaper, saw a picture of birds sitting on telephone or electrical wires, and decided to play what he saw, "just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating." I love the credits at about 1:05:

Arrange and orchestration by Jarbas Agnelli

Photo by Paulo Pinto

Music by Birds

This isn't the first time that nature has inspired good music and other forms of art. I don't know whether it's the design of the Creator that put music into His design or whether it's the Spirit that we feel when we observe nature that puts into our hearts music that resembles nature. Either way, there's an awful lot of beauty in nature, and not all of it is visible at first glance. Sometimes it takes creativity, ingenuity, and inspiration of the spirit to unlock the beauty hidden in nature, but it's there. And when something this beautiful comes out of something that seems random, I can't help thinking that God had a hand in it.

The Only Thing We Take With Us

I don't know who J. Christopher Lansing is, but I think he was right when he gave us this quote. It strikes me as odd how much time some people spend acquiring material possessions, when we really only have them for a short period of time. Even if the things themselves don't wear out, which most things do, we we eventually become separated from them, in this life, or at the very latest, when we pass into the next. There are really only two things we get to take with us into the next life, and those things are our families (assuming we've been sealed to them in the temple), and the other one, the one that I want to focus on for this blog post, is ourselves.

Though we will temporarily lose our bodies when we die, we'll get them back through resurrection, and when we do, they'll be at their prime. I don't know if whether or not we took care of our bodies will matter at all at the resurrection, since I'm pretty sure they'll be in good condition when they get back to us, but it definitely couldn't hurt to try to take care of ourselves.

A second part of ourselves that we get to keep is our minds. D&C 130: 18-19 says:

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. 

And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

Therefore, we should take care of our minds as well, and fill them with good things, like a knowledge of the gospel and the eternal principle it teaches. Perhaps a bit of science and math wouldn't hurt, either, if we do eventually end up designing and creating worlds. And communication is a good thing to study as well, as I'm sure that God is something of a master of language, as evidenced by the scriptures. I don't imagine geography will help much, since the earth, I hear, is going to undergo dramatic changes, physically and politically, but it would be helpful to learn how the world works and how societies work as well. I'm not sure what else it'd be helpful to study, but I'm pretty sure that most of the knowledge you could gain here will give you at least some benefit in the world beyond.

But the most important thing we take with us, in my opinion, is our spirits. In Alma 34: 34, we're told that "that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." That, I assume, will include our personality traits and attributes, our habits and attitudes, our beliefs and behaviors, and everything else that makes us us. I also assume, and have a very good reason to believe, that part of that condition will include whether we have past sins on our consciences or not. So, it seems to me that one of the top priorities of mortal life isn't to obtain wealth and possessions (though a certain amount of wealth is necessary for survival), but rather to repent as often as we need to and become as Christ-like as we can before we die.

I hear that life is pretty short, and that the eternities that follow after death can feel like a very long time in comparison. Perhaps we ought to spend at least a part of our brief time as mortals preparing for the time when material possessions aren't going to matter at all.