Do What You Can

Elder Gary E. Stevenson must have been terribly nervous about his call to the Quorum of the Twelve. He said that, immediately after accepting the call, he was overwhelmed by a wave of feelings of inadequacy. Admitting his weakness, he declared:

I stand before you as evidence of the words of the Lord recorded in the first section of the Doctrine and Covenants: “That the fulness of [the] gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the [earth], and before kings and rulers.”

However, he received counsel that is as useful to us as it is to him:

As I agonized over my inadequacies this week, I received a distinct impression which both chastened and comforted me: to focus not on what I can’t do but rather on what I can do. I can testify of the plain and precious truths of the gospel.

He then proceeded to do so.

Sometimes in our lives, we feel overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy and we worry about the things we can't do. But God didn't send us here to teach us all how weak we are. He sent us here to teach us how to exercise the power that we have, even if that power is limited. There are many things that we cannot do, but there are also many things that we can do. I'm sure that God is much more pleased when we do what we can do and leave the rest to Him than when we worry about not being able to do more.

God knows that we face great challenges and have limited abilities. He knows that we aren't always going to be capable of everything that we think we should do. He Himself has given us commandments that we may or may not be able to keep in this lifetime. There will be many times when we feel that we literally cannot do the things we should do, and there will be times when that is true. But during those times, God doesn't want us to focus on our limitations but to focus on our abilities and to try to make the most of them.

I can't d much. I don't have much time, talent, or skill. But I can do some things. I can clean up around the house. I can speak kindly and upliftingly. I can blog. If God can use me to lift another person's spirits, I'm sure He can work similar, if not greater, miracles through you. You can do great things, especially with God helping you. You don't have to be incredibly skilled already. God can use everyone, even Elder Stevenson, and even the likes of me and you.

Like Family

As I was pondering the kind of love which Jesus Christ has for us and which we should have for each other, one of the things I puzzled over was the motivation of His love. If it has so little to do with our actions that no amount of righteousness or wickedness could increase or decrease His love for us, His love must have a different motivation than because we do what He wants us to do.

I also wondered about the intensity and effects of His love. The love of Christ seems to mostly involve feelings of care and concern for us, but not attraction. It's clear that what we're talking about isn't a romantic kind of love, so what kind of love is it? I believe that Jesus Christ's love for us is familial, but in cause and in effect. He loves us as family, and He loves us because we're family. This, I believe, is the kind of love He expects us to have for our fellow man.

In reality, we are all family. We are all sons and daughters of the same Heavenly Father. We are siblings, so we should all love and care for each other as siblings, even if we're not fond of each other as people. Jesus loves us at least partly because He's our Brother. We can love our spirit brothers and sisters in the same way and for the same reason. Our love for each other doesn't have to be perfect or personal. Not yet, anyway. For now, I think the goal is for us to learn to love each other like family.

How Does Christ Love Us?

After President Thomas S. Monson spoke first in the Sunday Morning Session of the October 2015 General Conference, the three newest members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave their first General Conference talks as members of that Quorum. Of these, the first to speak was Elder Ronald A. Rasband, who in his talk, I Stand All Amazed, said:

Now, if I could leave one small message with you today, it would be this: the Lord has said, “Love one another; as I have loved you.”

What kind of love is that? How much is it? Is it even possible for one human being to love another that much or in that way? I suppose it must be, since we've been commanded to do it, but we've also been commanded to be perfect, and I don't see that happening any time soon. Maybe we can learn to love people in the same way and to the same extent that Jesus loves us, but I doubt it for two reasons: first, I'm not fully sure humans can produce love of that kind or quality, and second, I have no idea what kind or quality of love that must be.

Tomorrow, I'd like to look into the love of Christ, to try to find out how and how much He loves us. I'm pretty sure His love for us is infinite, but what does that mean exactly? How is His love defined and expressed? Once I find out the answers to those questions, I'll be in a better position to answer the question of whether or not it's possible for us to love others that much or in that way.

In the meantime, The purpose of my message right now is to remind us all that we should probably love our neighbors more than we do, or at least more purely than we do. Elder Rasband went on to say that nothing we do can affect the Lord's love for us. That may be a good place to start. Learning how to love others, even if you don't love their behavior, will help us develop a kind of love that's more like the kind of love Jesus has for us. Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to figure out something about exactly what kind of love that is.

A Selfish Reason to Share

In his Sunday Morning session talk, Be an Example and a Light, President Thomas S. Monson shared a poem, "Lamps" by Lon Woodrum:

I met a stranger in the night

Whose lamp had ceased to shine.

I paused and let him light

His lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on

And shook the world about.

And when the wind was gone

My lamp was out!

But back to me the stranger came—

His lamp was glowing fine!

He held the precious flame

And lighted mine!

In life, we never know who, among those we help, may return to help us or go on to help another. Yet, by sharing his light, the speaker of the poem not only spread light to another, but effectively preserved his own. Had he selfishly retained his flame, he would have lost it and not got it back. However, because he was willing to stop and share his light, it was restored to him after it had gone out.

Similarly, we have many opportunities to share light with others by treating them kindly and generally being a blessing in their lives. Though, theoretically, we're supposed to do this merely out of the goodness of our hearts, there are certain benefits we can get from it. First, we'll feel the warm glow of God's approval, and our light will grow brighter. That always feels good. Second, the person whom we help may return and help us. And even if they don't, the may go on to help another person, who may go on to help someone else, and so on. Eventually, this chain reaction of kindness will make its way back to you, or at least make the world in general a nicer place for everyone, including yourself.

There will be times when you struggle, times when you need the help of another, and when that happens, you'll be more likely to get help from others if you had helped others first. Of course, looking forward to getting help later isn't the best motivation for sharing your light, and if it's your only motivation, you may not have a whole lot of light to share, but I am certain that if you share goodness and kindness with anyone, for any reason, you're more likely to get help later, when you really need it.

Commandments for our Happiness

In his appropriately named General Conference talk, Keep the Commandments, President Thomas S. Monson shared with us some of the blessings promised to those who keep the commandments of God. Primary among those blessings is happiness.

God’s commandments are not given to frustrate us or to become obstacles to our happiness. Just the opposite is true. He who created us and who loves us perfectly knows just how we need to live our lives in order to obtain the greatest happiness possible. He has provided us with guidelines which, if we follow them, will see us safely through this often treacherous mortal journey.

...

May we realize that our greatest happiness in this life will come as we follow God’s commandments and obey His laws!

I would like to  share my witness that keeping the commandments does bring happiness into our lives and that breaking them always brings unhappiness. Some people may not understand how obeying rules can help us be happy, but when we consider that those rules were designed and given by Someone whose greatest desire is our ultimate happiness, we can be sure that keeping His commandments will be the one thing that brings the most happiness into our lives. I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to give us guidelines for our temporal and eternal happiness. May we be wise enough to follow them.

One Plus Infinity

In President Henry B. Eyring's talk, You Are Not Alone in the Work, he said that when we do our part, the Lord adds His power to our efforts. Our efforts don't often amount to much. Using our finite skills and abilities with our limited knowledge and wisdom, there's only so much we can do on our own. However, the Lord's power, knowledge, and wisdom are each infinite. When He adds His power to our efforts, the results can be incredible - far greater than anything we could have accomplished on our own. One plus infinity equals infinity. When we do our part, and the Lord gives us His blessing, we can reach an infinite potential.

Daniel and the Path of Difficult Discipleship

I recently saw a picture quote on Facebook which says that if a door doesn't open, it's not your door. President Uchtdorf's talk, Be Not Afraid, Only Believe, doesn't seem to be my door right now, because I've watched it several times, and no insights have jumped out at me, begging to be blogged about. Now, I'm sure that there are many fantastic insights in that talk, and if those insights stand out to you when you read of watch that talk, that's great, but those don't seem to be the insights I need right now. Either that, or I haven't been listening with the Spirit.

Having prayed and listened one last time, I did hear one insight I could share. When Jerusalem was captured by Babylon (or at least, one of the times when that happened; I think it happened more than once), Daniel was carried away captive, to be instructed in "the language, laws, religion, and science of the worldly Babylon." However, he stayed true to his faith and religion, and when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon demanded that his wise men interpret a dream of his or be put to death, Daniel still had the spiritual power he needed to receive personal revelation and interpret the dream.

President Uchtdorf mused on how easy and convenient it would have been for Daniel to accept the teachings of Babylon, or at least pretend to.

He could have set aside the restrictive code of conduct God had given the children of Israel. He could have feasted on the rich foods provided by the king and indulged in the worldly pleasures of the natural man. He would have avoided ridicule.

He would have been popular.

He would have fit in.

And he would have been cut into pieces when he had the rest of the "wise men" of Babylon failed to interpret King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. Instead of easy disobedience, Daniel chose the path of difficult discipleship, and that choice saved his life and the lives of his friends. Applying this message to us, President Uchtdorf said:

The ancient city of Babylon is in ruins. Its splendor is long gone. But Babylon’s worldliness and wickedness live on. Now it falls to us to live as believers in a world of disbelief. The challenge is ours to daily practice the principles of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and to live true to God’s commandments. We will have to stay calm under peer pressure, not be impressed by popular trends or false prophets, disregard the ridicule of the ungodly, resist the temptations of the evil one, and overcome our own laziness.

 It won't be easy for us, just as it wasn't easy for Daniel, but thankfully, our lives aren't likely to depend on whether or not we live righteously. However, our eternal lives do depend on it. Where we end up eternally depends entirely on how we act now. If we want to live on the highest layer of heaven in the afterlife, we need to be willing to go through a bit of discomfort now. But if we exercise the faith and courage to make the hard decisions now, the results of those choices will be a lot better than being allowed to continue to live in Babylon. If we live as disciples while we're down here on earth, we will be blessed with spiritual power and revelation, which will help us in mortality, and we will eventually be allowed to live with God.

If Daniel was able to maintain his discipleship, even while living in Babylon, we can certainly maintain our discipleship while living in the world of today.

The Present VS the Future - A Self-Evaluation

I recently turned in a paper about time perspectives. According to Philip Zimbardo's lecture, The Secret Powers of Time, the young people of today are spending too much time living in the present. Young men in particular are spending too much time playing video games. I mentioned in my paper that I don't want to be part of that trend, and my teacher tried to assure me that, since I expressed concern for the future, I wasn't the kind of person that Zimbardo was talking about when he was talking about people who lived only for the present. However, this wasn't as reassuring as my teacher wanted it to be.

You see, Zimbardo also said that present-oriented people may know about the future consequences of living for the present, but that knowledge doesn't necessarily factor into their decision-making. That sounded all-too-familiar to me. I know about the future consequences of watching too many Youtube videos and playing too many games. I know the consequences well enough to write about them in academic papers and to dread them. But apparently, I don't dread those consequences enough to do what it takes to avoid them. I still watch too much Youtube and play too many games. I do good things too, of course, but I could do more good things and I could do them better if I wasted less time on things I want to do, like watching Youtube videos and playing games.

Ironically, the games and Youtube videos I like best are the ones in which progress (or at least the appearance of progress) is made. I like watching Youtube serieses (or whatever the plural form of "series" is) in which a stories are told and information is given in parts. I like games in which you can level up and make progress within the game. If I understand Zimbardo's concepts correctly, these would be considered future-oriented things. I find it strange that I spend far too much time in the present, watching videos and playing games, but the games and videos I gravitate toward focus on the future. So where does that put me?

My teacher would probably say that, since I'm concerned about this, my mind is probably mostly in the future, but judging by my actions, I'd say I'm living too much in the present. I'll admit, my concern is a good sign, but it doesn't do enough to change my behavior.

I should probably pray about this. God knows what's out-of-balance in my life, and He probably has a few practical suggestions for how to fix it. It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a progress report, either, to find out how I'm doing in general. Should I be pleased with myself in a "keep up the good work" kind of way, or should I be more concerned about the things that concern me, and spend more of my time and energy working on them? I'm sure God wouldn't want me to feel overwhelmed or get too comfortable. I wonder which of those I'm at greater risk of right now. I should pray to find out.

Everyone needs to find balance in their lives. I can't live entirely in the present, and living exclusively in the future isn't a great idea, either. I'm sure God wouldn't mind me spending at least some time watching videos and playing games, but there's definitely a limit to how much is acceptable in His eyes, and I feel like I too frequently go past it.

It's a good thing that I'm thinking about this because I want to work on my eternal future. I just wonder how much I'm willing to make changes in the present to do it.

More Boating Insights

My lesson this afternoon went very well, mostly because of the comments, which kept the conversation moving and added some insights that I hadn't considered.

One of those insights is that rowing works a lot better when your boat is facing the right direction. Standard rowboats are pointed in the front so they can cut through the water, but flat in the back. If you try to row the boat backwards, you'll encounter a lot of resistance. You'll much better off if you keep the boat pointed in the direction in which you want to travel. Similarly, if you want to eventually reach the goal of Eternal Life, you need to keep your life oriented by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Another insight was adapted from the scripture about taking Christ's yoke upon us. When two creatures are yoked together, they can work together to pull a heavy load. Similarly, two people can work together in the same rowboat. When both people work row together with equal strength, the boat moves forward. To maintain a perfect balance, Christ matches our efforts as we strive toward Eternal Life. The harder we work for it, the more He helps us, and the faster we get there.

I also had one more insight as I was writing about making sure your boat is facing the right way. When a person rows a boat, they're usually facing backward so they can use their powerful back muscles to pull on the oars. This allows them to use their strength, but it also makes it difficult for them to see where they're going. Similarly, we are frequently called upon to act in faith, not fully knowing what lies ahead, but when we do so, our faith allows us to tap into greater power than we normally use.

These are just a handful of the insights I've gained from this analogy. I'm sure I could think of others later, but I'm too tired to now. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to teach this lesson. I feel like I gained a lot from it. I look forward to my next opportunity to teach a lesson in Elders' Quorum.

Minimizing/Maximizing the Effects of Affliction

This morning, I was asked if I would be willing to give a lesson in Elders' Quorum this week, so this evening, I would like to share the thoughts I've had as I've prepared for this lesson. The topic is Chapter Three of the manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Howard W. Hunter. The title of this chapter is Adversity -- Part of God's Plan for Our Eternal Happiness. The chapter begins with an experience that President Hunter, then Elder Hunter, shared in the April 1980 General Conference. A few years prior to that General Conference, Elder Hunter had witnessed a boat race after which one of the oarsmen described to Elder Hunter the basic design of the boats. He explained that the prows are pointed so they could cut through the water and reduce the resistance of the water against the front of the boat, yet the oars relied on water resistance to propel the boats forward. "Resistance creates both the opposition and the forward movement."

Relating this to adversity and affliction, my plan is to have the brethren list ways that adversity could work for us and ways it could work against us. Perhaps I'll make lists in two columns on a chalkboard. Then I'll ask the Elders what we can do to minimize the extent to which our adversity works against us and maximize the extent to which it works for us. After setting up the premise and drawing a few illustrations, I'll be relying a lot on group discussion, on our ability to collectively come up with many good ways afflictions can work for or against us and what we can do about it. Naturally, I'll do a lot of brainstorming first, when I'm not as tired, but the point I'll most try to drive home to the Elders is that the afflictions we experience are a necessary part of life, and whether they ultimately work for us or against us depends mostly on how we react to them. There is a lot of water resistance in the oceans of life; there's nothing we can do about that. But what we can do is, like well-designed boats, try to minimize the negative effects of our afflictions, and maximize their positive effects.

Faith and Critical Thinking

I'm currently taking a critical thinking class at school, and one of the things we heard on the first day of class is that we should, and over the course of the semester would, question our preconceived ideas and beliefs. At the time, I didn't think much of it. I didn't have a problem with examining my beliefs and reasoning. I expected that I would discover that I have very valid reasons to believe what I believe. Now, however, I'm not quite as sure.

While writing a paper about why facts sometimes fail to change people's minds, I read a pair of articles that basically state that people's strongly-held opinions can get in the way of their acceptance of truth. When they're faced with new information that contradicts something that they believe, some people disregard the new information and more firmly set themselves in their own opinions. No one likes being wrong.

The problem I have with this, apart from its implied argument against faith, is that I'm not sure how to tell whether or not I have this problem. Do I really have a good reason to believe the things that I believe, or have I been ignoring evidence that goes against my beliefs because it goes against my beliefs?

What the problem basically boils down to isn't that faith isn't logical; it's that I'm not sure that I can trust my own logic. If my biases are causing me to disregard facts, how can I know what's true? And this isn't just my problem. Everyone has their own biases. So how can anyone know what is or isn't true?

The funny thing is that even though the articles were mostly about the dangers of people disregarding facts because of their preconceived notions, what it has actually accomplished is the weakening of my faith in critical thinking. If our biases really do skew our thinking significantly, then we can't trust our logical thinking, so what we are left with is faith.

Then again, what if I only came to that conclusion because I already had a strong belief in the validity of faith? Maybe I'm only choosing to believe this interpretation because it supports my faith in faith.

Man, critical thinking is tricky! I hope I get better at it is the semester continues.

A Brother to Walk With

When I published Walking Songs several months ago, I almost titled it "Music to Walk by." Now, I wish I had. Last night, I had another walking-home-from-a-bus-stop experience, and again, I had something that helped me make the trip easier, but this time, it wasn't music that helped me; it was my brother.

We had just gotten off of light rail trains, and we were both hoping to catch a bus to get us closer to home, but we missed the bus and had to walk home. Actually, my brother didn't have to walk home. He had his bike with him, and he could have biked home and gotten there much faster, but he decided to stay by me instead. We put my backpack on his bike, which lifted my burden considerably, and we headed for home together.

I'm thankful that my brother was there for me, to keep me company and help me carry my burdens, but I'm even more thankful for my Heavenly Brother, Jesus Christ, always being there for me and helping me. I'm grateful that none of us ever have to go through life alone. We always have Someone who's willing to walk beside us and help us along (assuming that we're headed in the same direction, that is. Jesus will help us turn around, if we want Him to, but He won't help us head in the wrong direction). Just as my brother was there for me last night, we can always try to be there for each other, and I know that our Heavenly Brother will always be there for us.

Better Safe Than Sorry

You may have noticed that I didn't blog last night. That was mostly because the weather was rather stormy last night, with a risk of lightning, and I didn't want to risk causing damage to my computer. I understand that the risk was slight, and I wanted to blog despite the small risk, but I decided not to take my chances.

"Better safe than sorry" is also a good reason to keep a commandment you may not fully understand. God gives us commandments or a reason, usually to help us reach our full potential and/or avoid spiritual destruction. A given commandment, like paying tithing or not drinking tea, may not make perfect sense to you, so you may be tempted not to keep it, but why take the risk?

If you've ever kept any of God's commandments, you may have noticed that there are blessings for doing so, and if you've ever broken one of God's commandments, you may have noticed the consequences of doing so. Though they may not always make sense to us, and we may even think that there are no blessings to be gained or consequences to be avoided by keeping the commandments. We may think that we could get away with breaking a commandment "just this once," but why take the risk? We've been warned about the consequences, and I believe that they are real, so even if I don't understand a commandment and don't know what'll happen if I do or don't keep it, I'm going to try to keep it anyway. Better safe than sorry.

Good Friends

This morning, at Institute, the devotional we watched focussed on the importance of quality friendships. The speaker said that American young adults who use Facebook have an average of over 600 friends. I don't have that many friends on Facebook, but that's alright with me because the friends that I do have are good ones. In my opinion, it's not the number of friendships you have, but the quality of your friendships that really matter. I was recently shown that I have at least a handful of friends that are of the highest quality a man could hope for: friends who are uplifting, supportive, and encouraging. They helped me get through a little slump I was in, and it was really comforting to know that I know people who would take the time to do that for me. I'm really thankful to have such good friends to help me when I need them, and I hope that I can be there for them when they need me. I may not have the most friends in the world, but the friends I have are the best.

More Blessings of Living During the Last Days

Last night, I blogged about my lack of enthusiasm for living during the long-awaited Last Days, but over the course of today, a few of my followers have posted comments reminding me of some of the good things about the world today, of which I had forgotten. One of those blessings is having a living prophet. Last night, when I counted him as a source of scripture, I think I undercut his importance. He doesn't just give us new scripture; he gives us current scripture. The guidance he relays to us isn't just more of God's words; it's what God would say, or rather, is saying, directly to us, the people who are living here and now. If God had an important message specifically for His children of these Last Days, it would come to us through His living prophet. We are certainly extremely fortunate to have a watchman on the tower, relaying up-to-date messages from our Heavenly Father.

Another great blessing that I completely glossed over was the existence of temples and the availability of all the sacred ordinances we can obtain in mortality. I heard recently 85% of the members of the church live within 200 miles of a temple. Never in the history of the world have these sacred blessings been so accessible to so many. In fact, there were whole eras of the earth when these blessings weren't available at all, and I wouldn't be surprised if some spirit, having lived without access to these blessings, might have been frustrated with me for taking them for granted.

There are other blessings that I ignored or minimized. Technology is, or at least can be, more of a blessing than a curse, if we use it wisely, and my sister brought up a good point about how much freedom and opportunity we have in these modern times. I truly am very blessed, and I think I understand that a little better than I did last night. I still have a lot to learn, of course, and I'm sure I have many blessings that I still take for granted. I hope the deprived and impoverished souls or the past and present can forgive my folly. I wish I wasn't so desensitized to my many blessings so I could appreciate them more and thank God for them. I still have another concern, related to the one I shared last night, but I can blog about that another time. For now, I just want to thank my readers for sharing their insights and encouragement with me, and I want to thank God for the many blessings of living during the Last Days.

The "Blessings" of Living During the Last Days

There's something that's been bugging me, something that I should invest a good amount of time into studying and figuring out. My issue this evening has to do with the conditions of mortality, particularly now, during the Last Days. The main problem seems to be that now's not really a great time to be alive.

Sure, there's a lot of good things in the world now that didn't exist previously, but there's a lot of bad stuff in the world now that wasn't so much of a problem previously. Technological advancements have made many things easier and more convenient, but from a spiritual standpoint, it's as often a curse as it is a blessing. And it's not the only curse we have to deal with.

Prophecies about the Last Days have come with warnings of famines, plagues, earthquakes, wars, and other natural and man-made disasters. Despite the "progress" that society has made, suffering abounds as much as it ever has, and according to scripture, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Yet, we're told that we were blessed to have the privilege to live on the earth at this time, so I'm wondering what's so great about experiencing mortality during the Last Days. Could the reason be because of how much access we have to scripture? We do have more scripture at our fingertips than anyone in any previous age has had, and our advantage increases again and again every six months. Sure, most of those scriptures refer to commandments that we need to get better at keeping, but some of them are encouraging and helpful, so that's something.

Is the reason it's such a blessing to be on the earth right now because there's a chance we'll still be on the earth during the Millennium? I doubt it. Even if we survive all the wars and disasters, which we've been told will only get worse, there's no guarantee we'll live long enough to see the Second Coming. We've been in the "Last Days" for about 200 years now. Countless people have died of old age during that time. Sure, the Millennium could happen during our lifetimes, and if we're righteous enough and lucky enough, we might just survive long enough to be a part of it, but you'll have to forgive me if I don't hold my breath.

Another possible reason it's a blessing to be alive now is because we were told that God saved some of His most valiant spirits to be born during this time, but that's both a blessing and a curse as well. What that essentially means is that it's an honor to be considered valiant enough to stay faithful even during the trials and tribulations of the Last Days. I may be misinterpreting this, but it seems like God is basically saying "Yeah, life during the Last Days is gonna be rough, but I think you can handle it." Yes, that is quite a compliment, but it doesn't exactly imply that being born during the Last Days is a great blessing.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. While I think I might have done better, spiritually, without the distraction of technology pulling my mind away from the things of the spirit, I'm very grateful to have electricity, plumbing, and access to scripture. Being alive during the Last Days isn't the worst thing in the world, and I'm sure that I'm lucky to have been chosen to live during this period of time. Still, I'm not fully sure of why living during the Last Days is supposed to be such a wonderful blessing.

Two Kinds of True

This morning, I sang hymns while I did some cleaning. One of the hymns I sang was Search, Ponder, and Pray (from the Children's Songbook), which goes:

I love to read the holy scriptures,
And every time I do,
I feel the Spirit start to grow within my heart-
A testimony that they're true.

Search, ponder, and pray
Are the things that I must do.
The Spirit will guide, and deep inside,
I'll know the scriptures are true.

At this point, I could point out that the punctuation indicates that it's not that the Spirit is growing a testimony in the singer's heart, as I had always believed, but rather that the growth of the Spirit within the singer's heart is the testimony. However, this was not the insight that I was intending to share, which is fortunate because I have no idea what that means.

The insight that I had this morning was that there are more than one definitions of "true." The most obvious is the opposite of false. A statement is true when it is factual and accurate. In this sense, the scriptures being true means that they contain true stories about real people and events that actually happened. It also means that the prophecies and predictions made in the scriptures are sure to be fulfilled, which leads me to the next definition.

Another definition of true is dependable, sure, and trustworthy. A person that is true can be counted on to do what they say they will do. A wheel that is true will roll straight - not wobble or waiver. Advice that is true is good advice. The scriptures are full of advice and counsel that, if followed, will work out to the benefit of the follower. The guidance in the scriptures is worth following, and the promises are sure.

I believe that the scriptures are true in both of these senses of the word. The stories in the scriptures are fantastic, but nevertheless true, and the counsel in the scriptures, while requiring an element of faith on our part, is worthy of our trust. We can be sure of the goodness of the advice given in scripture and of the promises made to those who follow it. I know that, if we follow the guidance offered in the scriptures, we will one day be please to discover that that counsel and the blessings associated with it are true.

On (Not) Getting the Plates

There's something that I've wanted to blog about for about a week, but I knew that I could only blog about it when my mind was awake enough to process my thoughts about it. In Institute a while back, we were talking about how, at the beginning of the Book of Mormon, Nephi and his older brothers were sent back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. They fail in their first two attempts to obtain them, but succeed on the third, which begs the question: If God wanted them to successfully retrieve the plates, and He did, then why didn't He help them the first time(s)? I think that  the main reason is that God was training Nephi to be a leader.

Just before the Lord commands Lehi to have his sons go back for the plates, Nephi prays out of his "great desires to know the mysteries of God" (1 Nephi 2:16). I'm sure that one of the matters that was most pressing on his mind at the moment was why Lehi had been commanded to take his family out of Jerusalem in the first place. It must have been a troubling time for all of them, Nephi included, so Nephi would naturally want to know that there was a good reason for them to do this. As a result of his prayer, Nephi was blessed with a testimony of the importance of what they were doing.

Meanwhile, Nephi's brothers, Laman and Lemuel neither prayed for nor received a witness of the Lord's plan for their family, so, not fully knowing why God was leading them out of Jerusalem or how great a blessing this would be for them, they murmured and complained the whole way. For this reason, Nephi was promised that, as long as he was righteous, the Lord would make him "a ruler and a teacher over [his] bretheren" (1 Nephi 2:22).

Bear in mind that Nephi was the youngest of his brothers, and the mantel of leadership typically fell to the eldest, which would have been Laman. Without their father to lead and guide them, Nephi and his brothers at first "cast lots" to determine who should take the lead in their first attempt to get the plates. "And it came to pass that the lot fell upon Laman" (1 Nephi 3:11), so he went first to try to obtain the plates. If he had succeeded, the victory would have been his, not Nephi's, showing the position of leadership should fall to Laman, either because he was the eldest, or because he was chosen by fate or luck.

When he failed, Nephi really began step up to the plate. While the others wanted to go back, saying that they had tried, Nephi put his foot down, saying that he wasn't go to go back to his father without those plates he'd been sent to obtain. For their second attempt, though, it isn't clear who plays the role of the leader. It's possible that Nephi led that attempt, but it's equally possible that the leader was Sam or Lemuel, or maybe Laman again. Whoever was in charge, they followed Nephi's idea to attempt to trade their family fortune for the brass plates, and they failed,  leading many to believe that the reason they succeeded the third time was because they were acting on faith, whereas the first two times, they were acting on the wisdom of the world.

Rather, I think that one of the main reasons these brothers failed in their first few attempts to get the plates was so Nephi could gain experience and confidence in following the Spirit and in being a leader. The third time, Nephi went alone, "and [he] was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which [he] should do" (1 Nephi 4:6). This time, Nephi was given mental instructions through the Holy Spirit, and as he followed those directions, he was able to secure the plates.

If Laman had succeeded in getting the plates on their first attempt, the victory of obtaining the plates would have been his. If the brothers had succeeded the second time, it would have been a victory for all four of them, following Nephi's idea, which would have been alright, but God wanted something better. Because Nephi succeeded on their third attempt because he followed the Spirit, he received undeniable evidence that he could do great things, as long as he followed the counsel of the Lord. The was Nephi's first great test of faith, and it proved to him that as long as he had faith, he could do anything. The fait and courage of Nephi went on to carry Lehi's family through many trials and afflictions, any one of which could have resulted in their family's death, or at least their failure to reach the promised land. But because of Nephi's faith and courage, they all made it, and I offer as my personal opinion that Nephi's faith and courage gained their unshakable strength when he successfully used them to get the plates.

Procrastination Is Bad

There are basically three times in a day when I could blog on most days. I could blog in the morning, before I go to school, I could blog while I'm at Institute, between classes, or I could blog when I get home from school in the evening.

Blogging in the morning would be best. I usually have an hour or two between the time I wake up and the time I leave for school. Yes, I have things that I need to do then to get ready for my day, but most mornings, I also spend some time on Facebook. I could spend that time blogging instead. That way, I could get my blog post in early and not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

Blogging at Institute isn't too bad either, and it's a good fallback plan if I fail to blog in the morning. Again, I'll have an hour or two to blog between classes, and there's usually something blogworthy being discussed at the Institute. If I pay enough attention, I could gain an insight, then share it on my blog moments later. Of course, that means I'd need to take my heavy computer to school with me, but I usually do that anyway, and on the days that I don't, I could go to the school's library to blog, like I did when we went without the Internet for a few days.

The worst time for me to blog is in the evenings. There's usually too much going on at home, and I tend to get distracted. Plus, that's the only time (other than weekends) that I get to hang out with my family. I should really spend that time with them, not on my phone or computer.

So, I tend to put off blogging until the last minute, when it's late, and I'm tired, and I don't know what to blog about, and I end up posting something really lame. We all deserve for me to be a better blogger than that.

In light of all of this, I'm going to start making more of an effort. I'm going to try to blog earlier. I won't make a goal to always blog before I come home, because then I'll end up in the library at 6pm, trying to think of something to blog about so I can go home, but my original agreement was to blog before noon each day, and I should try to honor that. Maybe I'll go beyond that deadline by up to an hour, but I'll try to get a blog post in before then. I won't always succeed, but when the alternative is posting a lousy blog post minutes from midnight, I think it'll be worth the effort.

The moral of this story is that procrastination is bad. When I procrastinate, I end up stressing out about the deadline, losing sleep, and generally feeling like a terrible blogger. However, if I blog earlier, when my mind is still awake, I should be able to produce better blog posts and get more sleep. President Deiter F. Uchtdorf said that "now is the best time to start becoming the person we eventually want to be, not only twenty years from now, but also for all eternity." I don't want to be a procrastinator for all eternity, so I had better start working on that now.

Praying for Help with Blogging

I wonder how much of life we make harder for ourselves by not asking for help. I just spent an hour not knowing what I should blog about, then I finally said to myself, "Oh, come on. I've got to find something to blog about." That was about as close to a prayer for help as I had gotten up to that point, and the answer was "Well, have you prayed about it?" No, I had not. I now wonder how quickly I might have thought of something if I had.

As I occasionally remind myself, I need to get into the habit of praying more. I'd like to strengthen my relationship with God, and I think that praying regularly would help with that. Plus, I'm sure there would be other benefits, such as getting help seeing spiritual messages and remembering them when it's time to blog to blog about something. Praying frequently, especially when we could use a hand, is a great way to draw closer to God and encourage Him to help us.

Plus, there's almost never a good reason not to ask for help. Even if we could do a thing on our own, and even if God expects us to do it without help, it couldn't hurt to ask. So often, we think that we can handle our problems ourselves or that God doesn't care about our problems, but neither of those ideas are true. God knows that we could use a hand from time to time, and He's perfectly willing to lend it, but, respecting our agency, He waits for us to ask Him for help, which we then almost never to.

God's never going to leave us helpless. He will always be there for us, willing to lend a helping hand. All we have to do to get God's help most of the time is to remember to ask for it.

Symbiotic Spirit

I'm not sure why, but some of the superheroes/supervillains I've found most interesting over the last few weeks have been alien symbionts. These include Marvel Comic's Venom, DC Comics' Blue Beetle, and most recently, DC Comics' Dr. Fate. Perhaps part of the reason I think symbiotic superheroes is a cool idea is that any human being can be a superhero, if paired with the right extraterrestrial. Also, it's interesting to see people interact with another individual inside their heads, trying to decide what they, as a dual-entity, should do.

Inspired mostly by Dr. Fate, I've been making up a superhero with the powers of a Paladin, as granted by a sentient ring who insists that its wearer try to act like a Paladin, but in combat and out. This idea has been fun for me because it allows me to put an honor-bound Paladin in the same headspace as a normal guy who doesn't care about heroism, chivalry, or following the path of light. Their mental conversations have been fun to play out in my mind, and it's been interesting watching the ring try to win its wearer over to his way of thinking. Also, it gave me an excuse to make an under-powered Paladin superhero whose only abilities are super strength, super durability, and the ability to make and use medieval weapons, with possibly a little bit of healing on the side, whereas my other Paladin superhero ideas have been more like DC Comic's Green Lantern in terms of what they could do. I like heroes that are down to earth, so this new guy has been refreshing.

I'm sorry; I've been rambling. I'm tired. I'll get to the point.

The main reason I like this new Paladin superhero is that it's very easy to draw a comparison between the relationship between the ring and its wearer and the relationship between the Spirit and us. The Holy Spirit is, in some ways, an alien symbiont. He isn't native to this world, He can't do much on His own, and He relies on us to do His will for Him. In return, He offers us the blessings of spiritual protection and guidance. It's a pretty good deal for both of us, which is why the symbiotic relationship between man and spirit can work out to achieve wonderful results.

However, just like the ring's wearer, we're sometimes reluctant to do what the Spirit asks of us. We don't always want to do what the Spirit wants us to do. So, we are occasionally in a state of conflict; the natural man v.s. the Spirit of God. We, as dual-entities of bodies and spirits, sometimes end up at war with ourselves.

Maybe that's why I like the symbiotic superheroes/villains: I feel like I can relate to them. I feel like there is more than one part of me, and each part is fighting for control. There are parts of me that want to do well in school and parts of me that want to watch Youtube videos. There are parts of me that want to do what's right and parts of me that want to do what's easy. Even when I can get my selves to agree on a goal, I can rarely decide on a best course of action to achieve it. As with many of the symbiotic superheroes I've seen, the battles I face are internal as much as external.

Hopefully someday I'll learn to listen to the Spirit and let it control most of my actions. While I'm not ready to swear off Youtube, it would be nice if I could convince myself to do what's right more often than not. I won't get any actual superpowers out of it, but spiritual guidance and protection would be more than enough benefits to make it worth it to follow the spirit. Now, if only I could convince myself to do it.

Earth is Beautiful

Every once in a while, I see a Facebook photo of a beautiful landscape like this one, and I think of what a beautiful world this is. When God made the world, He filled it with such a magnificent variety of wonderful things. This is a wonderful world to live in. So, as much as I may go on about how breath-taking Zendikar is, and as much as I may wish to visit it or another of the fantastic worlds I've heard or dreamt of, I really can't complain. God made earth (and especially California) a beautiful place to live, and I'm lucky to have been allowed to live here.

Keep on Believing in the Atonement

One more post from Elder Randall K. Bennett's talk, Your Next Step, before I move on. On the subject of believing in dreams, Elder Bennett had an experience where he met a group of people who had stopped.

My heart sank during a recent meeting with wonderful Latter-day Saints. The question was asked, “Who desires to live with Heavenly Father again?” Every hand went up. The next question was “Who has confidence you’ll succeed?” Sadly and surprisingly, most hands went down.

Going back to live with our Heavenly Father again is one of the great goals of mortality. To achieve this goal , one has to be worthy of it, which typically involves being very righteous. That's where we mess up, I think. We think that the entire plan hinges on whether or not we can behave perfectly, and we can't, so even though we wish with all our hearts that we could live without Heavenly Father again, we don't think we can do it.

And we're right, almost. We can't be perfect; it's too late for that. We have all sinned and become imperfect. Even when we consider that God cares much more about the future than about the past, we're in trouble. Many of us struggle to be as righteous as we think we need to be, and we don't see ourselves making any progress in the future. We're not perfect now, and we don't think we'll ever be perfect, so the dream must be impossible.

Miraculously, the dream of becoming perfect and living with Heavenly Father again is not impossible. It'll take diligent effort on our part and repeated forgiveness on God's part, but both of those things are achievable. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven for all our sins, as long as we try not to repeat them. As long as we never stop striving for perfection in our behavior, we never have to fear that we'll never achieve it.

The dream is possible. We just have to keep working at it. And to do that, we need to keep on believing in the infinite power of the Atonement.

Keep on Believing

This evening, I went to see a play in which my brother's sister-in-law (or my sister-in-law's sister) was performing. It turned out to by a double-feature; before the play I had gone to see, Bye Bye Birdie, there was a children's performance of Cinderella. Both plays were very good, particularly the singing.

If you've seen Disney's Cinderella, you probably remember that, toward the beginning of the film, the title character sings a song about dreams. "A dream is a wish your heart makes," she sings. She goes on to sing, "No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true." Though the performance of that song was beautiful and mesmerizing, I couldn't help thinking afterwards that there's a lot more to it than that.

Believing that something will happen isn't enough to make it happen. It takes effort and dedication to make dreams come true. However, I also kind of get Cinderella's point. That much effort requires a strong source of motivation, and one source of motivation is a belief that you can succeed. It's easier to chase a dream when you believe that you can catch it. In fact, if you don't think that the dream will ever come true, you might not be able to muster the motivation to pursue the dream at all.

Believing in our dreams isn't enough to make them a reality, but it is a good place to start. Having motivation is essential, and believing that we can make our dreams come true may give us the motivation we need to actually make it happen. While we can't just wish and hope and wait for our fairy godmothers to magically make our dreams come true, we need to believe in our dreams, and keep on believing in them, in order to make them come true ourselves.

Hold Your Ground

During the war chapters of the Book of Mormon, the Nephites were mostly on the defensive. They sometimes fought to retake cities that they had lost, but they spent most of their time just trying to keep the cities they had or had retaken. This was especially true at a certain point in the war, when their government was facing internal struggles that prevented the Nephite armies from getting much-needed supplies.

When we face hardship, it can be difficult to make progress, but during those times, it may be wiser to simply try to hold our ground, rather than risking burning ourselves out and backsliding. Sometimes, just not losing ground is victory enough.

This isn't true all the time, or course. The usual, day-to-day amount of adversity is meant to be overcome, so we typically try to forge on through them. But if our trials are much stronger than normal , and we run the risk of moving farther away from the completion of our goals, it may be best if, to ensure that we don't lose the progress we've made so far, we focus on just holding our ground.

Trees in the Wind - Learning from Adversity

In his April 2014 General Conference talk, Spiritual Whirlwinds, Elder Neil L. Andersen shared an interesting science lesson about trees and wind:

In nature, trees that grow up in a windy environment become stronger. As winds whip around a young sapling, forces inside the tree do two things. First, they stimulate the roots to grow faster and spread farther. Second, the forces in the tree start creating cell structures that actually make the trunk and branches thicker and more flexible to the pressure of the wind. These stronger roots and branches protect the tree from winds that are sure to return.

Naturally, there's a lesson in here about how adversity can strengthen us, but that's not what I'd like to focus on this evening. That's a lesson we've all heard a dozen times before. Instead, the lesson I really want to share is that our trials can teach us where we need to improve.

In an area without wind, a tree might think that the best way to grow would be to stretch their branches as tall and as wide as possible, so they could collect more sunlight, but this could make the tree top-heavy and may even cause it to fall over, even without wind. But if the tree experienced wind while it was growing, the tree may feel the need to shift its priorities from growing higher and longer branches to growing deeper and wider roots. It may seem funny to think of a plant making decisions about its priorities based on its circumstances, but it certainly makes sense for us.

We have full control over how we live our lives and what areas of our lives we develop. There are those who devote their lives to gaining more intelligence or more strength, for example. In the gospel, it's intended that we eventually develop all of the Christlike attributes, but it can be important to know which Christlike attribute we most need to work on right now, and adversities can help teach us that.

A tree that grows in a windy area needs to grow strong, deep roots, while a tree that lives in a cloudy area may be better off focussing on its branches. A tree that gets little water would try to grow its roots as long and as deep as possible, to collect as much water as it can, while a tree that grows where parasites are common would do well to build up defences against them.

Similarly, the trials we face can help us learn which Christlike attribute we personally need most at this stage in our lives. By testing our abilities, our trials can show us our weaknesses and the areas in which we most need to improve. They can help us adjust our priorities so we develop ourselves in a healthy and balanced way.

I don't know what Christlike attribute you most need to work on right now, but God does, and you can bet that if this is what it takes to show you what attribute you need to work on, God will send you a personalized trial that will teach you just how badly you need it.

Rejoice in Every Effort

My favorite sentence from Elder Bennett's talk is "Our loving Heavenly Father rejoices in each and every faithful step, and if we fall, He rejoices in each effort to get back up and try again."

Think of it: Any time we do something right, no matter how small, He rejoices. Any time we fall short, but decide to try again, He rejoices again. He rejoices every time we take a step in the right direction and every time we even just attempt to take a step in the right direction. As long as we are making any attempt at all to follow Him, He's happy.

So why aren't we? Maybe we focus on our shortcomings rather than on our victories. Maybe, with the limited perspective of mortality, we think that we only have a limited amount of time to reach the goal of total perfection, and we think we're not making progress fast enough. Maybe we think we're backsliding faster than we're moving forward. Whatever the reason we think we're not good enough is, we're wrong.

We don't have to be perfect right now. We don't even have to be "good" in the sense of doing what we might call the "bare minimum" of what we think a good person should do. We just have to keep trying to take steps in that direction.

For example, I'm willing to say that most of us don't have exceptionally meaningful scripture study every day. Do we at least think about the scriptures sometimes as we read them? Do we read the scriptures regularly, or even occasionally? Do we ever read, or even just think about, any scriptures at all? No matter how small our steps toward righteousness are, God rejoices in them. If we ever read or think about any scripture or other spiritual truth at all, that's a good thing and God will appreciate it. Maybe we should, too.

In life, it's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to think of something we did wrong or something we didn't do as well as we could have. If we focus on our failures, it would be easy to think that we're not doing very well at all.

Thankfully, God doesn't do that, and neither should we. God focusses on the positive, and we can, too. Instead of kicking ourselves over the things we do poorly, we could praise ourselves for what we do well. I don't mean that we should become complacent, be we don't have to feel discouraged, even if it doesn't feel like we're making any progress. God, who knows exactly where we are and where we're going and how long it'll take us to get there, rejoices whenever we take even the smallest step in the right direction. Even when we fall, spiritually, God rejoices whenever we try to get back up.

Life has a lot of ups and downs. We're always taking two steps forward for each step back or one step forward for every two steps back. However many steps forward or backward we take on a given day, God rejoices in every step forward, whether we're truly making progress or just trying to recover from a backslide. Every faithful step forward brings us one step closer to Him. And according to Him, even a small victory like that is enough of a reason to rejoice.

Not Content With Crawling

Like other Apostles before him, Elder Randall K. Bennett compared our attempts to become like Heavenly Father to a toddler learning to walk. In His General Conference talk, Your Next Step, he shared the example of his youngest grandson:

After learning to crawl and then stand, he was ready to try walking. During his first few attempts, he fell, cried, and gave a look that said, “I will never—ever—try that again! I’m simply going to keep crawling.”

Of course, with some coaching from his parents, Elder Bennett's grandson did try again, and I'm sure that he has learned to walk, and even run by now. But I'm equally sure that we sometimes feel as hopeless as that child apparently felt. We all stumble and fail. We all sometimes see how far we have to go and get discouraged. When that happens, we're tempted to give up, to quit trying, and to be content with being imperfect. But God knows that we can accomplish much greater things than the crawling we manage to do down here. So, just like any other father, He continues to reach out to us, urging us to keep trying to walk in His footsteps.

We can't give up. We can't afford to. Giving up on our eternal and infinite potential would be much like a child giving up on ever learning how to walk. To remain as we are, in light of what we can become, is unthinkable. We can become so much greater than we are now. We have to try.

The hard part is that we do try, and we fail far more than we would like to. That's why I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father who keeps pulling for me, who keeps working with me, and who "rejoices in each effort to get back up and try again." He is the light at the end of the tunnel. His are the arms that will embrace me when I get there. He is the one who encourages me to get up each and every time I fall short of my true potential. Right now, I may only be able to stumble a step or two before I trip myself up, but I'm making progress. Slowly but surely, God is teaching me how to walk in His light.

Misery is Optional

It's late, and I'm kind of tired, so I think I'll just share an image that I found on Facebook, maybe write about it for a paragraph or so, and then call it a night.

The bad news is that we will all have problems in our lives. The good news is that those problems don't have to define or ruin our lives. We can choose to be optimistic and cheerful, despite our trials. Sometimes, that is a very difficult choice to make, but it's always a choice we can make. In God's perfect plan for our ultimate happiness, we will have to experience trials and tribulations, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we'll also have to experience misery.