I Am Not Ambitious

Elder Kazuhiko Yamashita gave a talk titled Be Ambitious for Christ, an admonition that he borrowed from Doctor William Clark. Since that's not an admonition we receive often, Elder Yamashita was kind enough to explain what he meant by that:

What does it mean to “be ambitious for Christ”? Being ambitious for Christ means being motivated, focused, and dedicated to His work. Being ambitious for Christ will seldom mean that we are singled out for public honor. Being ambitious for Christ means that we serve faithfully and diligently in our wards and branches without complaint and with joyful hearts.

Beside the part about not being singled out for public honor, there's not a lot in that description that I feel applies to me. I don't feel motivated or focused. Dedicated, maybe, but only to a certain extent, which may prove how little I know about the meaning of the word "dedicated." I serve faithfully, but not as faithfully or as diligently as I should. And though I rarely complain, it is also rare for me to feel joyful about my service. All in all, I'd say I match about 50% of Elder Yamashita's definition of "Ambitious for Christ."

Altogether, I'm not a highly ambitious person, and I wonder how strongly I should desire to change that. Practically all of the great men from history were ambitious, but I don't want to be great; I want to be good. Does one need to be ambitious to be good? I don't think so. Does one need to be ambitious to do good? Perhaps not, but I can see how it would help. In addition to being good for myself, I also want to do good for others. If being more ambitious would help me accomplish more good, then perhaps I should look into that.

Unfortunately, Elder Yamashita spent most of his talk sharing examples of people who were ambitious for Christ, and he didn't explain much, if anything, about how to become and remain ambitious. Maybe I could learn that elsewhere. In the meantime, perhaps I could fall back on the method of "faking it until you make it." I could merely try (or pretend) to be ambitious until I actually become ambitious and "trying" and "pretending" are no longer required.

Ambition is a personality trait that I don't feel that I possess, and I'm only barely convinced that I even want to possess it. Developing it might be tricky, but I think it might do me some good. A little bit of ambition can make everything else easier because it incorporates motivation, focus, and determination, along with other admirable traits. I think that I would like to become ambitious, especially for Christ. Now I just need to build up enough ambition to take the first steps to becoming ambitious.

The Unsealed Portion

At the beginning of Elder W. Mark Bassett's October 2016 talk, he talked about a model of the gold plates which he had when he was young. Both the model and the original had many metal pages with writing on them, some of which were sealed and thus impossible to read.

Now, I could spend a minute or so talking about what's written on the sealed portion of the plates, as we have been given a little bit of information about that, and Elder Bassett admitted to having been intensely curious about that sealed portion when he was young. But in his talk, Elder Bassett argued that more important than learning what's in the sealed portion is paying attention to the portion that isn't sealed. We have a lot of scripture available to us. We would do better to read and learn from the scripture we do have than speculate on what we might learn from the scripture we don't have.

Besides, in many of the places in the scriptures where we learn about the sealed portion of the scriptures, we are also told that there will come a time when all things will be revealed, including what's written in that part of the book. We don't need to know what's in the sealed portion just yet. When we do need to know, God will tell us.

In the meantime, it would be best for us to learn what we can from the rest of the scriptures. As long as we don't have access to the sealed portion of the scriptures, we might as well try to learn what we can from the unsealed portion. Elder Bassett confessed that, in his eagerness to see what was in the sealed part of his model scriptures, he completely ignored what was written in the unsealed part, and he urged us not to make the same mistake. The scriptures were given to us for our spiritual development and learning. Let us make good use of the scriptures we've been given, and not fret too much about the scriptures that we have yet to be given.

Giving Up On Working It Out

Try as I might, I've been having a hard time wrapping my head around the concepts of justice and mercy and God's infinite love and the importance of keeping the commandments. It seems that there are too many absolutes, too many unstoppable forces and immovable objects, and I have no idea how they all interact.

If justice was the only force involved, then we would all be in big trouble, because none of us could qualify for heaven by merit alone. We might as well not even try to be righteous, because we would always fail, and even one failing could damn you for eternity. However, if mercy was the only force, we still wouldn't need to try to be righteous, because it wouldn't matter whether we were righteous or not. If mercy completely overpowered justice in every situation, then no amount of sin could keep us from being forgiven. Yet, God's love is somehow reflected in both His justice and His mercy, and because both of those forces are in effect, it becomes imperative to strive to keep the commandments.

Actually, I think that part is starting to make sense to me. You see, if justice was the only force, our good behavior wouldn't matter because we'd be damned anyway, and if mercy was all that mattered, then our bad behavior wouldn't matter because we'd be forgiven anyway. But since the laws of justice are immutable, but can be satisfied by mercy on conditions of repentance, it becomes vital to repent and to keep the commandments because the fates of our souls depend on it. At the end of our final judgement, either justice or mercy will have the final say in how the rest of our lives will go, and our behavior now will determine which force has a greater effect on us then.

There's still a lot I don't understand about justice, mercy, love, and keeping the commandments. Thankfully, I don't need to work it all out. For now, I just need to keep the commandments and trust that it all will work out somehow. God knows how all these forces work, both individually and with each other. I just need to trust God and act according to the light and knowledge that I have. I don't need to figure out the laws of justice and mercy. I just need to be righteous and let God take care of the rest. When the time is right, He'll mete out justice and mercy as needed and deserved. To deserve as much mercy as possible, and need as little as possible, we don't really need to know anything about justice or mercy; we just need to strive for righteousness and trust in God's love. I can't work out the forces of the universe, but I think I can do that.

Team Robarts Rocks at Chair-Folding

I love my brothers. We work so well together. Our different strengths allow us to excel in a variety of situations, and our experience working together allows us to function well as a coordinated team.

Case in point, there was a fireside tonight, and, as usual, my brothers and I stayed together to put away the chairs afterwards. As Team Robarts, we knew the drill. The gold chairs went into a locked room on the stage and the brown chairs went onto carts that went under the stage. The first challenge was getting all the other volunteers on the same page. That was where I came in. I communicated the plan to the masses and got groups working on folding the chairs and getting them where they needed to be.

As for the actual execution of the plan, that largely rested on my younger brother. He was and is a powerhouse. His strength, speed, and ambition made it possible for him to work with extreme efficiency. I'm pretty sure he folded and carried more chairs than anyone else did tonight. He was a powerful and invaluable member of the team.

Meanwhile, my older brother was the brains of the outfit. He was the one who spotted problems and worked out solutions to them. He was a solid worker as well, folding and moving about as many chairs as anyone. His intelligence and wisdom kept the team running smoothly and made him a valuable member of the team as well.

There are other members of Team Robarts, and the team keeps growing every year. Each member of my family who was there this evening contributed to the chair-folding in their own way, and the each made Team Robarts stronger.

I love my family. I love that we have different and well-practised talents. I love that we work so well together in so many different situations. And though it may seem silly, when firesides end, one thing that makes me proud of my family is that we are really good at putting away chairs.

The Bucket by the Fireplace

Our ceiling has a leak in the roof near our fireplace. As a temporary solution to this problem, I put a bucket on the mantle under the leak. Even after a few days, and some overnight showers, the bucket has managed to catch all the water that leaks in through the roof. Feeling grateful for this, I noted that the bucket was doing its job even though the roof wasn't.

I should be more like that bucket: trustworthy, dependable, and diligent, even when others aren't. In life, there are many unfortunate circumstances, and it's easy to shift the blame when things go wrong. It's not the bucket's fault that the roof has a leak in it. However, in the end, it won't matter what caused the situations we find ourselves in. What'll matter is what we did when we were in those situations. The bucket proved faithful, even when place in unfortunate situations of others' makings. We should follow its example by also being faithful, not matter what circumstances we're in or how we came to be there.

See, Ask, Serve

This afternoon, I overheard some children ask their mom for help getting a ball out of a tree. Figuring that I would see if they needed help, I came over, and sure enough, the ball was out of the mother's reach. I asked them if they could use a hand, and when they accepted my offer, I borrowed a stick from one of the kids, jumped, and poked the ball out of the tree. Then, in response to their thanks, I answered with what is now my catchphrase, "That's what I'm here for."

Now, what I did was almost intrusive. In fact, I still feel like it was a little intrusive. After all, I had no idea who these people were, and they had no idea who I was. I was a stranger, lurking around a mom and her kids. But I stated my intentions, asked for their permission, and thus validated both my presence in their midst and my interaction with them.

I don't know how many of you have the same problem as I have, a compulsive habit of helping others, but if any of you suffer from that condition, just bear in mind that the people you feel compelled to serve might not actually want your help. They might be intimidated by you, and they may misinterpret your intentions, so it's important to state your intentions clearly and ask for people's permission before you jump in and serve them.

Service is good, but consent is important. Before you help someone, ask them if they want you to help them or at least if they're willing to let you help them. And ask them politely and respectfully, and back off if they say no. Otherwise, your pull toward their service might be seen as more creepy than helpful.

Just Thank Him and Use it Well

When I think about God's blessings to His children, particularly to me, I sometimes wonder how we can repay Him, and it frustrates me that we pretty much can't ever repay Him for what He does for us. No matter how much we do for Him, it will never measure up to what He does, or even has done, for us. Unfortunately for those of us who want to repay God, there's no really way for us to do that. All we can really do, and all He really wants or expect us to do, is thank God for the blessings He gives us and strive to use them well.

There's an analogy of a parent who buys piano lessons for their child. There's no way the child can repay their parent at their age. The parent asks their child to make use of the lessons by practising and playing the piano, but that doesn't put money back in their parent's pockets. All it means is that the child is making good use of the lessons their parent paid for.

Similarly, we can't offer God anything of equivalent value to the gifts He gives us, but we can thank Him for those gifts and use them as He would want us to. Doing so doesn't repay God in any way, but it does make His blessing us worth His while. So, this Thanksgiving, as you're expressing gratitude for the blessings in your life, also ask yourself how God would like you to use those blessings to bless others as well. Many blessings can be shared, and many others can be used in other ways. Though we can never repay God for the many blessings He gives us, but we can at least thank Him for them and pledge to use them well.

"If You Feel the Spirit..."

In response to yesterday's blog post, my sister shared many excellent scriptures and quotes which combined formed an excellent answer to many of my concerns. The most striking of these quotes came from Elder Tad R. Callister, and it's amazing enough that I just have to share it, even though Miriam already did.

If you feel the Spirit—when you pray, read the scriptures, teach, testify, or at any other time—then that is your witness that you have been forgiven or, alternatively, that the cleansing process is taking place, for the Spirit cannot dwell in an unholy tabernacle.

 That is an amazing thing to hear a general authority say. There have been many, many times when I have sinned and felt unworthy, and I usually pray to God in those moments, apologizing yet again for my weakness, and telling Him that I wouldn't blame Him if He gave up on me. But each time I do that, I feel His Spirit assure me that He hasn't given up on me yet, and now I know that even just feeling the Spirit at all is proof of that glorious reality. God doesn't give up on people nearly so readily as He forgives them, and feeling the Spirit is an excellent indicator that, despite everything, you're still on the right track, that your past is not your future, and that God is still pulling for you, just as He always has been.

Thank you, Miriam, for sharing that quote with me. It is definitely a message worth sharing.

More Than Was Asked and Asking for More

While I was riding the train home today, someone asked me for money. He asked someone else first, but they turned him down. I felt some pity for him, so, being a sucker generous person, I gave him some money. He wasn't asking for much. I gave him a little more than he had asked for and thought he would be satisfied. But before I even got off the train, I heard him ask someone else for money as well.

I felt a bit miffed as I got off the train. I felt like I had been duped and cheated. I thought about the kind of people who make pan-handling their profession, and I felt annoyed and a bit guilty that I'd had a hand in enabling that kind of lifestyle.

But as I got closer to home, I thought about what lessons I might learn from this experience, besides reluctance to give money to a pan-handler again, and it quickly dawned on me that I'm not much better.

I frequently turn to the Lord for blessings, and He regularly gives me more than I ask for or deserve, yet I always want more. More blessings, more patience, more mercy. I wonder if God ever gets tired of helping an unprofitable and insufficiently grateful servant like me. What worries me is that He probably does. He probably does get tired of continually helping people who just take advantage of Him, and I really can't blame Him for feeling that way.

So, I'm going to try to be more grateful and stay generous. I need a lot of blessings from God; it wouldn't be right of me to be stingy with my charity to others. Now, that doesn't mean that I'm going to hand out insane amounts of money to people on the streets. God frequently withholds such blessings from people, and with good reason. But I'll try to be less grumpy when I'm called upon to serve others, because God already gives me even more than I ask for, so I kind of owe it to Him to give what He asks of me, and maybe then some.

Justice, Mercy, and Ceasing to be God

I want to explore the concepts of justice and mercy and ceasing to be God. A few days ago, I noted that Alma chapter 42 mentions the possibility of God ceasing to be God, and I kept a tab open on that chapter because I thought it might be able to shed some insight on what conditions might cause that to happen. As it turns out, three verses do:

Verse 13 . . . Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

Verse 22 But there is a law given, and a punishment affixed, and a repentance granted; which repentance, mercy claimeth; otherwise, justice claimeth the creature and executeth the law, and the law inflicteth the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God.

Verse 25 What, do ye suppose that mercy can rob justice? I say unto you, Nay; not one whit. If so, God would cease to be God.

So, God would cease to be God if the work(s) of justice was/were destroyed, or if justice was robbed by mercy. But what does that mean for justice and mercy?

I can understand justice being one of those eternal laws that even God Himself could not break (without dire consequences). Mercy cannot rob or destroy justice. However, in Alma 34: 15-16, we learn that mercy can "overpower" and "satisfy the demands" of justice:

And thus he [Christ] shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.

Mercy cannot destroy justice, but it can overpower it. Mercy cannot rob justice, but it can satisfy its demands. Am I the only one who's somewhat confused by this? I am sure I am not the only one to ask how justice and mercy are supposed to work, and I'm sure that someone who is smarter and/or more spiritual than I am, who asked the question before I did, has already found a satisfactory answer.

Perhaps I could find the answer through a more thorough reading of Alma 42 or by reading Elder Dalin H. Oaks' talk Love and Law. Someone must know something about how justice and mercy interact, other than that they destroy or demote God if they interact badly. I look forward to learning more about this topic in the near future. But in the meantime, I'll just be grateful that God knows how it all works, and that He knows that, ultimately, everything will work out. I don't really need to know the details, but I plan to study them later anyway, just because I'm curious. And who knows? Maybe I'll find or learn something important, or at least noteworthy and blogworthy, in my search to find out more about justice, mercy, and how God could cease to be God.

Sharpening the Axe

Several days ago, my mom told me a story that I think she said she heard in a General Conference talk. In this story, two men were chopping down trees with axes. The burlier of the two worked relentlessly, ceaselessly hacking down tree after tree, while the more wiry man took breaks periodically, but at the end of the day, the wiry man had cut down more trees than the burly man had. The burly man asked how the wiry man had managed to cut down so many trees despite taking all those breaks. The wiry man explained that he spent those breaks sharpening his axe.

Taking occasional breaks is a good way to refresh one's energy, especially if he or she spends that down time making sure their tools are sharp. My mom and the person from whom she heard this story went on to say that, in this case, sharpening the axe was an analogy for studying the scriptures and praying to God. Doing these things help us to be more capable, and they elicit God's help in our endeavours. Basically, when we take the time to read our scriptures and say our prayers, everything else goes more smoothly.

I could really benefit from taking this advice. I could use more down time, and if I spend it doing something that helps me more than just resting does, that'd be even better. I often find myself feeling like I need more time and energy, but maybe what I really need is to use my time and energy more efficiently, and one way I could do that is by investing some time into my spiritual upkeep. At the very least, it would help me have the Spirit with me more, which could help me manage my stress. It'd probably help me in other areas of my life, too. At any rate, it's worth a shot. I need rest, but my rest time might be even more effective if I spend some of it sharpening my axe.

Cutting Back on Commitments

I feel like I would do well to uncomplicate my life. I have to many obligations to too many people / groups. Frequently, my obligations come into conflict with each other, if for no other reason than that I lack the time and energy to keep them all. When that happens, I have to choose which obligations to keep and which obligations to break, and for someone who wants to be like a Paladin, the idea of breaking any commitment is a terrible one.

I would like to do all the things I'm supposed to do. I would like to be able to. I wish I had enough time, energy, and will-power to meet all my commitments. But I don't. Maybe I could, if I had better time-management skills, or simply more skill in general, but I don't. And I need to accept that I might just not be able to complete all my homework or do all my chores. It's not the end of the world. (Especially if all of my homework assignments combined only make up about 12% of my grade in that class, in which I am doing rather well. I can afford to lose a few points for an incomplete homework packet.)

So, I understand that I may need to make cuts, and it might even be okay for me to make a few cuts, but how do I decide what to cut and what not to cut? Which obligations can I afford not to meet? Not spending hours completing the last few pages of statistics homework might not have too bad of an effect on my grade, and the floor might be able to go without sweeping for another few days, but I really do need to practice my persuasive speech for my public speaking class (that's worth a few more points than my statistics homework), and, of course, my religious obligations are inviolable.

But which of my obligations count as religious ones? I have to keep my covenants, and I have covenanted to obey the commandments, and we have all been commanded to magnify our callings, which can include any number of obligations. Beyond the magnification of my callings (which is challenging enough), there are countless commandments, including several daily and weekly obligations which can take up several hours each week. Even just considering the religious obligations, there may be too much.

I need to cut back. I need to stop making so many promises. I need to stop holding myself to so many commitments. It sounds horrible, but it may be necessary for my emotional health. I need to not try to do so much. If I had fewer, easier homework assignments; fewer, easier callings; fewer family members to serve; and fewer commandments to keep, I might be able to do it all. But I don't, and I can't. Something has to give. But what can I give? What can I afford not to do when I have too many things that I have to do? Which, of my too-many-commitments-to-even-keep-track-of, can I afford not to keep?

God Is Not Omnipotent

In my notes on Elder D. Todd Christofferson's October 2016 talk, I go off on a mini-tangent about how God is not actually omnipotent. Here are two examples, taken from said talk:

"God will always love us, but He cannot save us in our sins."

"Indeed, God does rain down upon all His children all the blessings He can—all the blessings that love and law and justice and mercy will permit."

It's odd to think that there is anything that God cannot do. I'm so used to thinking of Him as omnipotent that the idea of Him having limitations, inabilities, seems impossible. But I believe that there are laws which govern the universe, much like the laws of physics do, which God literally cannot break.

Heck, I'm not even sure He can break the laws of physics. Whenever He seems to, it could simply be that we don't fully understand the laws of physics and that He's using a special trick we haven't figured out yet. I'm sure that if we went back to the 1700s and told people that we'd figure out a way to keep huge, metal contraptions in the air for hours at a time, they'd tell us that that defies the law of gravity. But this is all beside the point.

There may be Eternal laws, like the law of justice, which God cannot break. Or, it may be that, if God did break such a rule, He would "cease to be God," which possibility is hinted at in Alma 42. It could be that God could break some of those "Eternal laws," like the law of justice, but He would face consequences if He did. Which means, at the very least, that He cannot escape the consequences of doing something that He may or may not be able to do. Any way you look at it, if any of this is true, God's power is limited.

Yet, I think I can be okay with that. It's still true that God has great power, even if He doesn't technically have all power. And His limitations don't detract at all from His other traits. He can still be omniscience, for example. And any reference to God as being "almighty" could be a slight exaggeration, as the few things He may not be able to do are things He probably wouldn't want to do anyway. Besides, in terms of this universe, God is powerful enough that we could consider Him all-powerful, and we'd be close enough to being right, even if it's not technically true. Calling God omniscient may be like saying that pi is equal to 3.14159265359. Technically, the digits go on much longer, so that figure isn't perfectly accurate, but still, it's close enough.

So God may not be omnipotent. There may be some things He can't do. But that's okay. God's supposed omnipotence is not part of His core identity. I don't consider Him any less godly for having a few limitations. And I am sure that God still has all the power He needs to keep His promises and do almost anything else He could ever want to do. It was surprising to realize that God may not be omnipotent, but His non-omnipotence doesn't really matter. God is still God, whether He's omnipotent or not.

A Power in the Book

In Elder Gary E. Stevenson's October 2016 talk, he spoke of the Book of Mormon. In doing so, he shared a partial quote from President Ezra Taft Benson of thirty years prior. Titled The Book of Mormon—Keystone of Our Religion, President Benson's talk included the following paragraph:

It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.

Both Elder Stevenson and President Benson listed many more blessings that come from studying the Book of Mormon. In truth, there are countless blessings that can come from reading it. I should do that more often. And Elder Stevenson gave me a no-excuses suggestion for how I could. He noted how much time young people, like myself, spend in front of TV, Smartphone, and computer screens, and he recommended spending 10 fewer minutes pursuing electronic entertainment and spending 10 more minutes pursuing the blessings of the Book of Mormon. I've decided to renew my decision to follow that advice. Starting tonight, I'm going to try to go to bed a bit earlier and spend a few minutes reading the Book of Mormon when I get there. I'm not sure what all blessings I'll get through doing that, and I'm not even sure what all blessings I want to get from it, but I know that there are many blessings that one could get from studying the Book of Mormon, and I intend to get a few of them.

Universal Values

In his recent talk, Elder Cook spoke of how difficult it is to establish universal values about proper behavior, particularly when there are so many conflicting thoughts on the subject. As part of an exploration of those thoughts and others, I have been watching a Youtube series called Crash Course: Philosophy. (This is where I learned about the Euthyphro Problem that I blogged about a while back.) While watching this series, I've learned that the are many, many different ways of thinking, and there are great merits to most of them. Many of them seem reasonable and almost convincing, which is troubling because, as Elder Cook said, many of them conflict with each other.

I think it would be nice if everyone believed in God and His teachings (and interpreted those teachings in the same way) so we could establish some universal values and a common moral code. But that's not the way God made the world, and that's not the way He made us. He sent us to Earth with blank slates, so to speak, to figure out what we can on our own and to learn how to learn from revelation. He also gave us the freedom to believe what we wish to believe and reject the beliefs that we wish to reject. Still, I believe that God's values are universally applicable, whether they're universally accepted or not.

The world we live in is a tricky one, mostly because most people behave according to different sets of moral rules. Sure, it would be nice if everyone would accept the same values, but what we value is part of what makes us unique as individuals. We each have our own beliefs about what we and others ought to do, and that can be a beautiful thing, assuming we can all still manage to work together most of the time. None of the values a person cherishes may be universally accepted, but many core values are widely accepted, such as the values of freedom and of life. Perhaps if we, as individuals and as societies, placed more emphasis on these core values than we place on some of the less widely accepted ones, we could get more people to accept those values until they become truly universal. Elder Cook said that it is hard to establish universal values, but he didn't say it was impossible. If we all accept a set of values, and encourage others to do the same, perhaps they could become universal values.

"If I Die Tonight..."

This afternoon, an elderly lady handed me a card which reads "'If I die tonight, my soul will be in H__________ tomorrow morning!' If you are not sure, visit the website on the other side of this card!" I have no intentions of visiting the website on the back of the card, but I thought that the question raised by the card was worth considering. How sure am I that I would go to heaven if I were to die right now?

Before having heard Elder Cornish's talk, I don't think I would have been sure at all, and even now, I'm not completely sure. Everyone sins occasionally, and I try to repent continually, which should answer the "will I make it" question, but I can't say whether or not I rationalize or rebel. Doing either of those things could be a deal-breaker, and I'm not 100% sure how those terms are defined. Elder Cornish never made it clear. But from what I gathered, rationalization and rebellion basically both mean saying "I don't need to keep trying to get better." As long as we acknowledge our need for spiritual improvement, and keep trying to act on that need, we should be alright.

It's hard to imagine getting into heaven being that easy. All we have to do is keep trying, and not claim that we don't have to keep trying? It seems too good to be true. But, if I'm interpreting Elder Cornish's message correctly, it is true, and we can be certain of entering the Celestial Kingdom as long as we're pointed in that direction. That kind of confidence is something we should all strive for. Even in this world of uncertainty, God's laws are constant, and if we obey them, the outcome is sure. We can become sure that we will go to heaven when we die, and we don't have to visit BBNradio.org to gain that surety.

Stumbling Blocks Into Stepping Stones

One of the best things about the gospel, which Elder Cook mentioned in his talk, is that God can turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones. The things that are currently holding us back can be used to propel us forward. This is largely done by our overcoming our obstacles. If, say, a person struggles with strong feelings of anger, God can help them overcome that emotion and actually grow to become an especially patient person. Similarly, any vice we struggle with can be used as training weights to help us develop its opposing virtues.

There are certainly some vices you struggle with. Use them. Use your vices as opportunities to develop the opposite traits. God will help you. With His help, you can grow beyond the point of merely overcoming a vice to the point where you possess a good measure of the opposite strength. Those who are selfish can become generous. Those who are proud can become humble. Those who are miserable can become joyful. Working on overcoming your challenges will make you a better person. By helping you recognize and overcome your stumbling blocks, God will help you take the steps you need to take in order to come closer to Him.

The Power Pole Perspective

In the Saturday Afternoon Session of the October 2016 General Conference,  Elder Quentin L. Cook spoke of a power pole on his father's ranch. This power pole was given a rather prominent position in the center of one of the main vistas of the ranch. Elder Cook noted this to his father, complaining that the power pole ruined the view. His father replied "Quentin, that power pole is the most beautiful thing to me on the entire ranch!" He then explained that the power pole meant that we wouldn't have to light candles or oil lamps and that he could use electricity to cook his food and pump water to the cabin. That power pole was a reminder of his blessings, which is probably a big part of why he said "I want to see that power pole right in the middle of the view window."

We, too, have things that seem unpleasant to us, but which bring great blessings. Many of our trials meet that description, as do some of our callings and/or service opportunities. These things are ultimately of great benefit to us, but temporally, they seem to merely get in the way. Instead of seeing our trials as eyesores spoiling our views of life, we can use them as reminders of the blessings we have that make life easier. Seeing our trials as blessings, or at least as means by which we can obtain blessings, can help us improve our attitudes about them.

Since we are all going to have trials and obstacles in our lives anyhow, it is a good idea to find ways to look at them more favorably and to learn to see them from a more positive perspective, thinking not of how ugly they are or how much they get in the way, but of how beneficial they are and how many blessings they bring into our lives. No one is exempt from trials. We will all have power poles on our ranches. However, those power poles and the energy they bring into our lives can be wonderful things. We just need to practice looking at them that way, so we can improve our perspectives and see our trials in a more positive light. Elder Cook's father had the right idea. Rather than focussing on the negative things in our lives, we need to focus on the positive things they bring into our lives, so we can be grateful, even for the power poles that spoil our vistas.

Guilt Isn't Gas - What Is?

In the concluding talk of the Saturday Morning Session of the October 2016 General Conference, Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke of the limitations of guilt:

Guilt has an important role as it awakens us to changes we need to make, but there are limits to how far guilt will help us.

Guilt is like a battery in a gasoline-powered car. It can light up the car, start the engine, and power the headlights, but it will not provide the fuel for the long journey ahead. The battery, by itself, is not sufficient. And neither is guilt.

But what is? I understand that feeling guilty will only get a person so far. To experience enduring change, a person needs something else. But what? If guilt is the battery, what is the gas?

It must be some motivating force, since it provides the fuel to drive change. It must be powerful enough to actually bring about change. And its effects have to be long-term, since a lack of longevity was the main problem Elder Andersen had with guilt.

There are many feelings and conditions that could meet those criteria. Of those many, the first two that come to mind are duty and love. Our duty to God can compel us to repent of our sins and endure on His path, while our love of God can make us want to repent and follow Him, even to the ends of the earth. Of these two, I think that love makes a better "gas," but I would think that either one, or any combination of the two, would work.

There are other forms of spiritual gasoline, I'm sure. If you find that a sense of duty isn't very compelling, or that your love for God isn't strong enough to bring about the changes you know you need to make, perhaps you need to find another form of fuel. God can help you do that, if you want Him to. We're a long way away from where we need to be; we're going to need some kind of fuel to get us there.

But more to the point that Elder Andersen was trying to make, guilt is not the fuel that we need. It may help motivate us at first, but it won't make for good motivation forever. Either it'll stop working on us, or we'll get sick of it and reject it. We need a fuel that we won't grow to resent. In that case, duty may not be the best answer, but perhaps love is.

Whatever fuel we end up relying on, it'll have to be something that can last. It'll have to be something that sticks with us, something we can refresh regularly. It'll have to be something strong enough to motivate us, but something that doesn't leave a bad taste in our mouths. Guilt doesn't work for that because it's a negative emotion; it wouldn't be healthy to use guilt as our motivation constantly. The same goes for any negative emotion, and it may extend to duty as well, depending on how you feel about it. Love is a good motivator, but it may not be the only one. Find a fuel that works for you, and that keeps working for you, and use that as your motivation.

We all need some kind of motivation to help us make the changes we need to make, and since we can't make all those changes overnight, we're going to need a motivator that'll last. Guilt doesn't meet that requirement, so we're going to need some other fuel that does.

The Worst Kind of Sin

One final thought from Elder Cornish before I move on. While warning us against sin in general, he took a moment to say specifically what the worst kind of sin was:

And the worst kind of sin is premeditated sin, where one says, “I can sin now and repent later.” I believe that this is a solemn mockery of the sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus Christ.

While we talk about the power of the Atonement and God's willingness to forgive sin, we should be careful not to think that we can get away with abusing that power. God gave us the Atonement so we could have a chance to become better, not so we could perpetually live in sin. God wants to save us from our sins, but even He can't do that unless we forsake them, or at least try to forsake them.

Willingly committing sin with the understanding that we can just repent of that sin later is counterproductive. Repentance means change. If we truly want to change, why not try and start today? Why persist in the sort of behavior that you'll want to change later? Most sinful behavior is habit-forming (Heck, most behavior of any kind is habit-forming), so it is foolish to reinforce the habit of sinful behavior just before trying to break that habit.

Also, it doesn't work. God's not interested in lip service. Saying "Please forgive me" is not enough to constitute true repentance. We have to actually want and try to change. We have to actually want to try to stop engaging in sinful behavior. Actions speak louder than words.

I understand that some people struggle with sin. Some people want to repent, but are already caught in the habit of sinful behavior. I believe that as long as a person genuinely wants to repent and are trying to repent, then they are actually repenting. There is a big difference between slipping up and giving in. It's a matter of heart. Trying to forsake sin and failing is very different from trying to sin and get away with it.

We are not going to get away with sin. God is not so easily fooled and God's Atonement will not be mocked. The Atonement covers all true repentance, not the phony repentance of premeditated sin. It is always possible to repent, but for repentance to be effective, it must be sincere and genuine. We must not make the mistake of thinking that we can sin and repent later. That doesn't work, and it certainly isn't going to work out very well for us.

Sin Always Has Consequences

One of the scriptures we read in family scripture reading tonight mentioned the consequences of sin, which reminded me another quote/concept/concession that I wanted to share from Elder Cornish's talk. Elder Cornish's talk was mostly a hopeful message about our fairly good prospects of being "good enough" to enter heaven, no matter what we've done, but he added this word of caution:

This does not mean in any way that sin is OK. Sin always has consequences. Sin always harms and hurts both the sinner and those affected by his or her sins. And true repentance is never easy. Moreover, please understand that even though God takes away the guilt and stain of our sins when we sincerely repent, He may not immediately take away all of the consequences of our sins. Sometimes they remain with us for the rest of our lives.

In short, don't do it. Sin always has consequences. Some of those consequences are the natural consequences of trying to break absolute moral laws, just as injuries are sustained as natural consequences of trying to break the law of gravity. Sometimes, the consequences of sin are designed to persuade us not to repeat the sin. Sometimes, the consequences of our sins take the form of the difficulty of repenting from the sinful behavior. And sometimes, the consequences of our sins take the form of the painful memories of the mistakes we've made and the effects those mistakes have had on others.

Even after repentance, and even with the infinite power of the Atonement doing all the good it can in our lives and in the lives of others, there are still consequences for sin. So don't do it. Resist the temptation. Save yourself and your loved ones and The One Who Loves You the pain of having to deal with the consequences. Because when we sin, there are always consequences. Let's try to avoid them by refraining from sin.

Healing Over Time

I have a few more points from Elder Cornish's talk that I could blog about, but I feel like I've spent enough time on him, and I should probably move on for now. I also have other things on my mind right now, which things I definitely do not want to blog about. So, for tonight, I'm going to blog about something easy: Magic. Specifically, healing magic.

Most games that involve taking damage also include ways to heal that damage. Often, that healing is instantaneous. You drink a potion or cast a healing spell, and your health is restored immediately. But in the real world, healing isn't like that. Real healing takes time. Whether our wounds are physical, emotional, or psychological, it will take time to recover from them. Even spiritual healing takes time.

Granted, some forms of spiritual healing can take place rather quickly. For instance, when God forgives our sins, that forgiveness takes place instantaneously, though changing our sinful behavior may take months or years. Also, some games have abilities that allow players to heal gradually, but even with Healing over Time abilities, the healing that takes place in games happens much faster than healing in real life.

In real life, as in some games, we must be patient and wise as we heal. We must be careful to make sure we don't continually reopen wounds that are trying to heal or take on more than we can handle while we're healing.  You may have a healing spell that will eventually restore you to full health, but in the meantime, you'll still be low on Health Points for a while, so you should still be cautious.

Likewise, we should be careful to not re-damage healing relationships, to be wary of the temptation to commit the sins of which we are currently repenting, and to be patient as we wait for our various wounds to heal.

However, the good news is that even though most healing takes time, healing also comes in time. As time passes from the moment the injury took place, to the future, the wounds that we've received will heal, as long as we don't continually reopen them. You may be hurt now, but, in time, you will grow strong again. And when you do, you will become stronger from the experience.

It is somewhat unfortunate that healing usually takes time, but it is wonderful that with time comes healing. No matter how badly hurt we are, we won't stay hurt forever. God is working His magic, and we will heal over time.

How the Balance Between Grace and Works Works

Another profound quote from Elder Cornish's talk:

None of us can do this on our own power. None of us will ever be “good enough,” save through the merits and mercy of Jesus Christ, but because God respects our agency, we also cannot be saved without our trying. That is how the balance between grace and works works.

Because none of us can become perfectly righteous on our own, we need grace.

Because God won't carry any of us down the path of righteousness unless we choose to follow it, we need works.

Grace is not enough on its own because God will not force salvation onto those who don't choose it by their actions.

Works are not enough on their own because we cannot earn our own salvation after we've sinned.

And all of us have sinned.

We all have fallen short of the ideal of perfection, and we need the Lord's grace to intercede for us and forgive our sins, but to satisfy the terms of the Atonement, we must strive to repent and keep the commandments of the Lord. We need both grace and works. By our works, we can show the Lord that we are worthy of His grace which, in turn, makes up for the imperfections in our works. Without works, we cannot obtain grace, and without grace, no amount of works would suffice.

Thankfully, God is willing to grant us all the grace we need, provided that we bring forth our share of good works.

Repentance, Rationalization, and Rebellion

One of the most profound things Elder Cornish said during his talk Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It? is a formula which, he said, would guarantee that we would qualify for the Celestial Kingdom: "Yes, you are going to make it as long as you keep repenting and do not rationalize or rebel."

At the end of his talk, he reiterated this affirmation:

I witness to you that if you will really try and will not rationalize or rebel—repenting often and pleading for the grace, or help, of Christ—you positively are going to be “good enough,” that is, acceptable before the Lord; you are going to make it to the celestial kingdom, being perfect in Christ; and you are going to receive the blessings and glory and joy that God desires for each of His precious children—including specifically you and me.

This is an amazing promise, but what, exactly, does it mean?

I think we understand what repentance means, since we hear a lesson on it at least two or three times every year, but it wouldn't hurt to refresh our memory. Repentance means change, or, more specifically, trying to change. It means recognizing that some of the things we're doing are bad and trying to stop doing those things. To make it to the Celestial Kingdom, we must repent (apologize for and try to abstain from) all our sins, including sins of omission. James wrote, "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" (James 4:17). Thus, we must really try to do good and to stop doing bad.

Of course, we are not perfect, and we are not going to become perfect in this lifetime. We may wish to do good things and to not do bad things, but we will slip up and fall short from time to time. That is why repentance is more accurately defined as trying to change, and it's also why it's important to avoid those other two actions that Elder Cornish mentioned.

He warned us against rationalization:

What we cannot do is rationalize rather than repent. It will not work to justify ourselves in our sins by saying, “God knows it’s just too hard for me, so He accepts me like I am.”

Some people, upon discovering how difficult it is to repent, and having accepted that they will never become perfect in this life, take that as an excuse to stop trying. This will not do. Because repentance means trying to change, we only fail at it when we stop trying. But that is exactly what rationalization tempts us to do. When we attempt to rationalize our sins, we stop trying to overcome them. This causes us to become unrepentant and halts our progress, and it can even lead to the other action Elder Cornish warned us against: rebellion.

The other thing that will surely keep us out of heaven and separate us from the help we need now is rebellion. From the book of Moses, we learn that Satan was cast out of heaven for rebellion. We are in rebellion any time we say in our hearts, “I don’t need God, and I don’t have to repent.”

Despite having a few problems with the concept of obedience, I'll admit that it is dangerously foolish to rebel against God, and not just because He has the capacity to be vengeful. God's commandments warn us of danger and help us to live a happier and more successful life. Furthermore, obeying God and not rebelling against Him are essential to our salvation. As Elder Cornish put it, "when we rebel against God, we reject our only help and hope, who is Jesus Christ, which leads to spiritual death."

However, on the brighter side, rationalization and rebellion are quite possibly the only two things that could keep us from qualifying for the Celestial Kingdom. As long as we keep repenting and don't try to rationalize our sins or rebel against God, we will make it. We will eventually become like God and spend eternity in heaven, as long as we keep trying to get there and don't let rationalization or rebellion hold us back. We don't often hear promises this powerful or this direct, but Elder Cornish has made his point very clearly: "Yes, you are going to make it as long as you keep repenting and do not rationalize or rebel." I hope that we can resist the occasional urge to rationalize and rebel, so we can maintain our motivation to repent so we will eventually "make it." The way I see it, there are only a few things that could possibly hold us back, and now that we know what they are, we will be better prepared to avoid them.

Really Trying to Blog

In his talk, Elder Cornish quoted President Hinckley as having said that "all the Lord expects of us is to try, but you have to really try!"

Elder Cornish went on to explain that "'Really trying' means doing the best we can, recognizing where we need to improve, and then trying again."

By this definition, I haven't been "really trying" to blog every day. Yes, I get a blog post posted each night before I go to bed, but it frequently happens that a given day's blog post isn't posted until after midnight, which is technically the next day.

I have decided that this is a problem for a few reasons. First, it means that I am technically not living up to my commitment to blog each day. Second, it means that I frequently end up stay up way too late because I know that I can't go to bed until I've blogged.

The solution, as I've said here several times before, is to blog earlier. If I blog earlier in the day, I can actually post it on the day it's due, and then I can go to bed at a reasonable hour.

But I haven't been doing that. I know what I need to do; I just haven't started doing it yet. I'm not "really trying" to blog daily because even though I "recogniz[e] where [I] need to improve," I haven't yet started "trying again."

I'm not going to make any empty promises. Not tonight, anyway. I'm not going to make some New-Year's-like resolution to blog earlier again from now on. I think I've learned better than to make a promise that I lack the willpower to keep.

But what I will promise is that when I shut down the computer a few minutes from now, I'm going to leave either this tab, or the tab with Elder Cornish's talk on it, open, so the first thing I'll see when I open up my web browser tomorrow is either my blog or the talk I'll want to blog about.

And I will try, really try, to blog earlier tomorrow.

Better Than We Know Ourselves

Several times recently, I've mentioned that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that got me thinking as to why that might be true. The easy answer is that God is omniscient and we are not. The reason God knows us better than we do may be because God knows everything, including everything there is to know about us, and we don't.

Another easy answer is that God has known us longer than we have known ourselves. The longer you know a person, the better you get to know them, and God has known us since before we were born. Meanwhile, the veil of forgetfulness has made us forget everything from before we were born, including everything we may have learned about ourselves up to that point, and our earliest childhood memories take place probably long after we were born, and our memory is probably patchy, at best, so there are tremendous gaps in our knowledge about ourselves.

But God isn't the only being who has known us since before we passed through the veil. Satan also, for that reason alone, knows us better than we know ourselves, but I don't think he knows us as well as God knows us, and there are a number of possible reasons for that as well. For example, I'm sure Satan knew us before we were born, but I'm not sure how much attention he was paying to us. As I understand it, he had bigger fish to fry. God, on the other hand, would have taken the time to get to know each and every one of His children before sending them to Earth. And that's assuming that He didn't already know us perfectly through his omniscience, which Satan doesn't have. Satan may know us better than we know ourselves, but I'm sure that God knows us even better than that.

So, if you have a question about yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your gifts, or your role in the universe, God would be the right person to ask about all that. God knows thing about us that we don't yet know about ourselves, but He is willing to teach us as long as we are willing to ask and listen. It's slightly unsettling to know that there are beings in the universe who know me better than I know myself, but when He who knows me best is willing to share His information with me, I guess I can't complain. God knowing me better than I know myself is a temporary truth. As I come to know myself, and as the veil is removed, I can eventually know myself about as well as God knows me, which is far better than I know myself now. For one reason or another, God currently knows us better than we know ourselves, but as we get to know ourselves, we can eventually come to know ourselves just as well as God does.

How to Escape the Trap of Self-Esteem

 Self-Esteem is a trap. High or low doesn't matter. Either way, it's a trap.

It's easy to identify low self-esteem as a trap because it has a debilitating and discouraging effect on a person, but high self-esteem isn't much better. It gives a person confidence, but it can also give them arrogance or complacence. A person with a high opinion of himself may think that he's already good enough, and a person with a low opinion of himself may think that he never will be. Both are wrong.

As Elder Cornish put it in his recent and excellent General Conference talk, "Of course, there is no such thing as 'being good enough.' None of us could ever 'earn' or 'deserve' our salvation," so thinking too highly of ourselves doesn't make much sense. But he also said:

The answers to the questions “Am I good enough?” and “Will I make it?” are “Yes! You are going to be good enough” and “Yes, you are going to make it as long as you keep repenting and do not rationalize or rebel.”

So we don't need to be down on ourselves just because we're not perfect yet, or because we're so far from being perfect, or because we're not making progress toward perfection quickly enough, or because we're not making progress at all. God is patient. God is working with us. And because of Eternal Progression, we literally have all the time in the world. As long as we don't give up on the idea of making progress, it's not too late for us.

But giving up on the idea of progress doesn't always mean "giving up." Sometimes, it means thinking that we've already made all the progress that we need to make. Those who think that they are already good enough don't have any reason to try to get better. Thus, those who think too highly of themselves are just as stuck as those who are crippled by low self-esteem.

The solution to both high and low self-esteem is humility. In Pride and the Priesthood, President Uchtdorf taught us that humility doesn't mean thinking less of ourselves, but thinking less about ourselves. Our self-esteem, our opinion of ourselves, doesn't matter. As Elder Cornish said, "The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us." He is the only one who has an accurate knowledge of where we stand and how far we still need to go.

So, whether you think you're already good enough or you think you never will be, think again. Or better yet, ask God what He thinks. He may offer correction or encouragement, but whatever He tells you, it will be true, it will be accurate, and it will be exactly what you need to hear. I truly believe that God knows us better than we know ourselves and that His opinion of us is far more accurate than ours is. We shouldn't think of ourselves too highly or too lowly. Instead, we should follow Elder Cornish's counsel to "sincerely ask [God] what He thinks of [us]."

God Has Faith in Us

Most of Elder J. Devn Cornish's talk is good enough to blog about (play on words intended). I'll probably end up blogging about it multiple times. The hard part is choosing which part of his talk to blog about first. I suppose I'll start at the beginning.

At the start of Elder Cornish's talk, he spoke of facing an intimidating challenge and expressing his apprehension to a respected colleague. In response, the colleague told Elder Cornish expressed confidence in Elder Cornish's abilities and potential. In Elder Cornish's words, "he believed in me at a time when I didn’t even believe in myself."

God often does that for all of us. In life, knowing that this life is a test and seeing first-hand how often we fall short of the ideal, we often get discouraged and lose faith in ourselves. But even when we don't think we have any value, not even any potential value, God sees us from an eternal perspective. He sees us as beginners. We are inexperienced and often weak, but we are not hopeless, and we are often far more capable than we believe.

If a man who can lift 10,000 lbs tries and fails to lift a weight that weighs 50,000 lbs, he may, in that moment, feel weak, but God will know that He is not. When facing life's challenges, we often feel incapable of overcoming them, but that may say more about the difficulty of life than it says about our strength or weakness.

Another tangential example before I get back on topic. At my school, there's a teacher who likes to challenge her students by assigning them homework assignments that would be very difficult to them to complete proficiently. While discussing this matter with another student, I theorized that that teacher may grade her students leniently, judging them on how close they come to achieving greatness rather than on how far they fall short of it.

God may be doing the same thing - giving us tough challenges to see how close we can come to overcoming them. Of course, at the end of the day, we're going to need God's help, no matter how strong we are, but I think that we earn the majority of our credit by proving that we're willing to try to overcome our challenges, even if we don't have a prayer of succeeding.

But the glorious thing is that we do have a prayer of succeeding, especially if we make it a matter of prayer. We may not be able to fully overcome all of life's challenges, especially if we try to do it alone, but God knows that we are far more capable than we sometimes think we are, and He sometimes gives us intimidating challenges so we can impress ourselves with how much we can actually do.

God knows our strengths and limits better than we do, and He has confidence that we can achieve every goal He has set before us, even the goal of eventually becoming like Him. Naturally, we will need His help for some parts of the journey, but we may need His help less than we think we do. We are not as weak as we sometimes feel. God knows how strong we are and what we're capable of. If He thinks we have the strength we need to face a certain challenge, than we can at least have the courage to try. God knows us far better than we know ourselves. When He demonstrates His faith in us, we should have faith in ourselves as well.

Life Is a Test

Life is a test. Every part of it. Every decision we make, every reaction we have to every situation life presents us with, everything is part of the test.

Since I know I'm being tested, that gives me some incentive to want to pass my tests. I want to make good decisions. I want to become the man that God knows I can be. I want to be good. Part of that involves standing on principle in every situation. Some of that includes always trying to be polite. I feel like I do pretty well at those things, but there are other tests that I regularly fail. Tests of patience and diligence, mostly. I need to work on those.

I think it's important to bear in mind, and far too easy to forget, that God is watching us and making note of our actions. He keeps a record of everything we do and say. Then, wouldn't we want our record to be full of good things? Wouldn't we want to be able to say that we did good? As long as we're being judged, we should try to perform actions that we wouldn't mind being judged by. We should try to do as much good as we can as often as we can muster the courage to try.

Thankfully, God is patient with us. I am confident that He remembers what it's like to be human, and though He asks a lot of us, I think that His expectations of us are actually fairly realistic. God is known for His justice, but He's known for His mercy as well. We are being tested, but we are being judged fairly, if not generously.

Life is a test, and we should remember that, but we should also remember that it's a test that we can pass.

Wisdom and Order

One of the recent Daily Messages was from Elder Richard G. Scott's talk For Peace at Home. He said:

We need not worry if we can’t simultaneously do all of the things that the Lord has counseled us to do. He has spoken of a time and a season for all things. In response to our sincere prayers for guidance, He will direct us in what should be emphasized at each phase of our life. We can learn, grow, and become like Him one consistent step at a time.

This is comforting news to many of us, especially those of us who are acutely aware of how far we have to go toward our goal of becoming like God. God did not gain all His attributes overnight, and we don't have to, either. We can work on developing those traits one at a time. Of course, there is a question of priorities. God sometimes has an opinion on which Christlike attribute we should develop next. But like King Benjamin said, "all these things are [to be] done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. [Instead], it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order" (Mosiah 4:27).

God doesn't expect us to become perfect right away, and He doesn't want us to try to work on everything at once. Some things are more immediately necessary than others, and which traits should be developed first may well depend on the individual. Perhaps I need to work on diligence right now, while you may need to work on charity. Or maybe I need to work on obedience, while you need to work on faith. Only God knows what we each need to work on at any particular moment, but we can each learn what we need to work on now, if we ask Him.

I know it sound dangerous to ask God which Christlike attribute you most need to work on, but God's not going to give us more homework than we can handle. He won't overwhelm us by telling us that we need to work on everything. Rather, He is far more likely to give you one or two Christlike attributes to focus on. Once you've developed those, God may direct you to work on others. Becoming like God is an ongoing process, and only God Himself can tell us with certainty what our next step should be. Thankfully, though, we only have to take those steps one at a time.

My Answer to the Euthyphro Problem

This evening, I watched a video about the Divine Command Theory, which is defined as "The belief that what's moral, and what is immoral -- is commanded by the divine." God and philosophy don't always get along, partly because philosophy keeps finding problems with God's existence and the idea that we should listen to Him. One problem philosophy has with the Divine Command Theory is called "The Euthyphro Problem," named after the man to whom Socrates was speaking when he brought it up. Euthyphro believed in the Divine Command Theory, believing that everything we need to know about what's right and wrong, we can learn from God, but Socrates asked Euthyphro two questions which some philosophers believe that we have not yet adequately answered:

Are right actions right because God commands them?

Or

Are right actions commanded by God because they are right?

The narrator of the video briefly described the meaning and implications of each possibility, describing it as quite possibly being a true dilemma, with each option having their downsides. Personally, I find the latter option far more palatable than the former.

I would go into detail, but it's late, and I'm tired, and I don't want to try to explain my position only to end up doing so badly. Suffice it to say that I believe that there are absolute moral laws and that God's laws merely describe those absolute laws, not determine them. Of course, other people have their own answers to this dilemma, and their beliefs may certainly differ from mine, but I personally believe that the second option is the more correct one. Actions don't become morally right just because God commands them; God commands us to perform those actions because those actions are morally right.