A Desire, a Duty, a Discussion, a Decision

Earlier today, I had a decision to make. I was torn, as usual, between what I wanted to do and what I thought I should do. I weighed some of the pros and cons, trying to either build up the will-power to do what I should do or decide that my desires were important enough to cut myself some slack. Following some wise maternal advice, I took the matter to the Lord. I shared my dilemma with Him, weighed my options a bit longer, then came to an important realization: It didn't matter what I wanted to do, and it didn't matter what I thought I should do.

God's job is not to excuse us in doing what we want or to convince us to do what we already think we should do. His job, when we turn to Him for advice, is to give us the best advice possible. Instead of telling us to do what we want or to do what we think we should, He tells us what would be best. He tells us to do whatever would work out best either for us or for the people around us.

So, in response to this epiphany, I changed my question and got a better answer than "Yes, you should do this" or "No, it's okay if you do that." God told me that I would benefit from following a specific course of action, so I followed it, and I, in fact, benefited. But in addition to the benefit I gained from following that course of action, I also benefited from taking this question to the Lord. In doing so, I learned that some of the things we think are important, like our own desires and duties, might not actually be so important after all. God knows what's best, and He will tell us, if we ask, even if what's best isn't what we want to or think we ought to do.

The Elijah Lesson Plan

The Hangman phrase this week will be Exodus 20:3 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." I'll remind the children (if they don't remember on their own) that this is the first of the Ten Commandments, and that it basically means that we should worship God and no one else. I will then ask the children why we should worship God instead of a rock or a statue. Answers may include that God loves us and has the power to answer our prayers, whereas other things don't. God is the one true God.

But some people disagree. In Elijah's time, there were people who believed in a false god named Baal. In fact, Baal had a lot of followers, including 450 prophets, while Elijah was the only prophet of the Lord. So Elijah presented a plan to convince everyone that the Lord was the one true God and that Baal wasn't. At this point, it would make sense to turn to the scriptures. 1 Kings 18: 21-24 would be a good place to start. Those verses give a pretty clear image of what was going on and what the challenge was. In Kings 18: 25-26, the prophets of Baal perform their part of the test, but they get no response. Elijah mocks them a bit in verse 27. In verses 28 and 29, they try even harder to get Baal's attention, but they still fail.

In the next several verses, it's Elijah's turn. He rebuilds the altar in verses 30-33. In verses 32-35, Elijah makes his task even harder for himself, but he prays in verses 36 and 37, and in verse 38, God answers so spectacularly that everyone accepts Elijah's God as the one true God in verse 39.

I won't make a point of bringing up 1 Kings 18:40, but if it comes up, I'll tell the class that, at that time, following the Lord meant obeying the Law of Moses, and in at least two places (Exodus 22:20 and Deuteronomy 18:20), the Law of Moses states that anyone who offers sacrifices to a false god or prophesies in the name of one shall die.

After those scriptures, I'll tell the kids that we should worship God and not anyone or anything else. We'll probably discuss what "worship" means, how we worship God, and what things some people are tempted to worship instead, like money.

I'll plan to leave some time after the lesson to play some more hangman, largely because next week is Fast Sunday, and I think it would be nice to let the kids spend a bit more time playing a game, since they won't have their usual treat. Plus, hangman is flexible. If we need to quickly wrap up a game of hangman and go to closing exercises, we can do that instead of rushing through or skimming over the last few points of the lesson. It makes sense to plan for some flexible time after a lesson, time that can be sacrificed if the lesson goes longer than expected, and time that can be stretched out if the lesson runs shorter than expected. Potential additional hangman phrases include "worship," "sacrifice," and the phrase the people said when the Lord proved Elijah right, "The Lord, he is the God."

Overall, I'm feeling pretty confident. It's a fun and exciting story, and as long as I don't present it badly, it should be able to hold my class's attention. There's plenty of scripture in it to go around, which is good, since a lot of my kids enjoy reading, and there's some practical application to it as well. I think it'll be a good lesson.

Worshiping Idols

I feel pretty confident about my Elijah lesson. It's a fun story that I'll enjoy sharing, and, thanks to some help from my friends, I now have a good answer to a concern I had about how the story ends.  However, there's one thing that we haven't discussed about this lesson yet: the moral. The story's great, and I think it'll maintain the class's attention, but I need some message to leave them with. I don't want to just inform or entertain my class; I want to instruct and inspire them. Most stories in scripture, and perhaps elsewhere, leave the reader with some wisdom regarding what the y should or should not do, or some examples that we should or should not follow. The story of Elijah and the false prophets is no exception. From this story, we learn that it's foolish and sometimes dangerous to worship false gods. However, it takes a bit of interpretation in order to learn how to apply that moral.

Most people know better than to worship idols these days. At the very least, I'm pretty sure most of the kids in my class don't pray to statues. But prayer isn't the only way to worship, and statues aren't the only things we idolize. People commonly worship idols by spending too much time on and showing too much devotion to anything other than God. There are a handful of things that I spend too much time on, and probably a few things that I am too devoted to. I would do well to spend less time on the internet and to care less about certain games and webcomics. In moderation, such things can be wholesome, but when we consume too much of anything, our lives will be thrown out of balance.

So, this Sunday, I'm going to teach my class that, while we should obviously avoid literally worshiping actual idols, we should also avoid figuratively worshiping anything other than God.

Christ Paid the Price for All Our Sins

In his recent talk on The Atonement, Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf said that "Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins. All of them." This is not a revolutionary claim. Many prophets, ancient and modern, have said words to the effect. But I want to take a few moments to consider what that means.

Jesus paid the price for all our sins, whether we want Him to or not, whether we repent of them or not. We cannot spare Jesus from the pain caused by any of the sins that we commit, even if we, too, end up having to pay that price. When we sin, Jesus suffers. Every time.

So, if we want to spare Jesus the obligation of paying for our sins, our only option is to prevent them. We can prevent Jesus from having to pay for our sins only by preventing ourselves from committing them. If we fail and sin, there will be a price to pay, and Jesus will pay it (or will have paid it. The sin-predicting effect of the Atonement makes this a little bit weird).

I love my Savior. I feel sorry that being my Savior was such a burdensome task for Him. When I add up all of my wrongdoings and imagine what sorts of punishments would be just punishments as penalties for my sins, I can hardly even begin to estimate what price Jesus must have had to pay for me. I don't want to make Him have to pay for any more than He has already had to. I don't want to sin because I don't want Jesus to have to pay for those sins, and I know He will (have), whether I repent of those sins or not.

Sin is tempting, but one thought that makes it less tempting is knowing that Jesus will (have had to) pay for it.

Elijah Justified

I tried and failed to find anything in Elijah's story that justified killing the 450 prophets of Baal, but my mother also decided to study this, and she found two Old Testament scriptures that might be helpful.

Deuteronomy 18:20 "But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die."

Exodus 22:20 "He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed."

The Deuteronomy verse may or may not count. Deuteronomy is after Kings, where Elijah's story is found, but many of God's laws are eternal. [CORRECTION: I have been informed that Deuteronomy is, in fact, before Kings. I'm not sure why I thought it came after.] However, the question of whether the Deuteronomy verse counts or not is moot because the Exodus verse certainly does. Exodus was well before Kings, and the Law of Moses wasn't fulfilled until Jesus' time. The question now is whether or not it means what Elijah seems to think it means.

When my mom shared Exodus 22:20 with me, she added that we sometimes think that this is referring to eventual, spiritual destruction, and I think that she's mostly right. God is certainly capable of executing His own judgments, and He would probably rather we not take matters into our own hands. Certainly, is this law was/were in force today, it would almost have to be interpreted spiritually. However, the Israelites lived in a different time, a time when stoning people wasn't as unthinkable as it is now. Perhaps, when God gave the Israelites this law, He intended for them to enforce it.

And enforce it, Elijah did. In fact, that might be part of the reason he chose that particular challenge: attempting to sacrifice a bullock each to their respective gods. These Baalish prophets, all 450 of them, participated in a sacrifice, or at least an attempted sacrifice, to a false God. This would, theoretically, make all 450 of them worthy of death, a sentence that Elijah then carried out.

So it seems that, according to at least one interpretation of one aspect of the Law of Moses, Elijah's actions may have been justified.

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

I'm kind of excited for my next Primary lesson. Or I was, until I started studying for it.

I get to teach about Elijah and the prophets of Baal. I get to teach about Elijah's challenge, how Baal failed to respond to his prophets (because he doesn't exist), and how God sent fire down from heaven to consume Elijah's offering, providing some fairly solid evidence of the existence and power of God.

It's an exciting story. It has a challenge and some trash-talking in it, and it ends with a large fireball burning up the offering. If only the story ended there.

As far as the manual seems to be concerned, the story does end there, or rather, it jumps forward to a time when Elijah heard the Lord through a still, small voice rather than through a number of natural disasters. The lesson manual seems to gloss over the part where, after the pyrotechnics display, Elijah had all the prophets of Baal killed.

This is, in my opinion, a controversial decision. It'd be difficult to argue that Elijah's actions were justified, and it's not very well established that the manual is justified in leaving that part of the story out of the picture.

Personally, I have half a mind to include it anyway. It's not like the kids will hear something they haven't heard already. They know about deaths sometimes being necessary and justified, like when Nephi killed Laban, and they know about otherwise good people sometimes making terrible decisions, like when King David committed adultery with a woman and had her husband killed. So, whether the false prophets' deaths were justified or not, there is some precedent for including them in the lesson.

Plus, it seems a little bit dishonest not to include that part. It seems like a pretty critical detail that was intentionally cut off to avoid making Elijah look bad. Deliberately omitting this part of the story is almost like saying that it didn't happen or that it wasn't important, but the deaths of 450 people would be a fairly significant part of any story it was part of. While the deaths themselves may have been justified, it don't think that neglecting to mention them is.

I'll have to think on this further, but right now, I'm leaning toward teaching that part of the story anyway. Elijah must have had good reasons for what he did, and it's not hard to think about what a few of them might have been. Maybe the false prophets would have killed Elijah, or maybe they would have plotted something to deceive the Israelites again. Not knowing the exact reason(s) for the killing is a bit concerning, and that's part of what makes me hesitate to share this part of the story, but it seems a bit too important to leave out.

Ministering - What Is and Is Not Flexible

I was not surprised to rediscover that President Jean B. Bingham, the Relief Society General President, shared some remarks six months ago that are similar to the ones I shared last night. She listed several ways the Savior showed love for His fellowman, and then she listed several additional ways we can show love for and minister to each other. This all served to reiterate the point that practically anything can "count" as Ministering, so long as it is motivated by love.

Naturally, I'm still working on that, but I find it comforting that Ministering can be so flexible, adapting to the needs, interests, and abilities of the Ministering Brothers and Sisters and those to whom they Minister. The one essential element of Ministering is Christlike love for one's fellowman, as it is or should be the motivation behind nearly everything we do, especially when Ministering.

"As I Have Loved You"

In his General Conference talk, Elder Holland spoke, as President Nelson said he would, of Ministering. He started by explaining a few of the details and telling us where further information could be found. He then reminded us that this new method of Ministering is similar in its simplicity to the "new commandment" Jesus gave His disciples:

As He prepared to leave His still-innocent and somewhat-confused little band of followers, He did not list a dozen administrative steps they had to take or hand them a fistful of reports to be filled out in triplicate. No, He summarized their task in one fundamental commandment: “Love one another; as I have loved you. … By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

There's a phrase (or, technically, a clause) in there that I want to highlight, and since you read the title of this blog post, you already know which. Jesus' command to His disciples to "Love one another; as I have loved you" at once tells us how simple and yet how complex discipleship is or can be. Loving one another is simple enough as a concept, but the concept gets tricky when we think about what it actually means, practically.

Jesus Christ loved people in many ways. He loved them by teaching them, serving them, forgiving them, chastising them, driving them out, and welcoming them in. Everything Christ did was an example of His love for everyone whose lives He touched. Everything Christ did is an example of one of the countless ways to express love. So, how do we Minister? By doing, as directed by the Spirit, just about anything Jesus ever did, or perhaps something else entirely.

Jesus did not have access to the Internet. Through it, we can send people kind thoughts and heartwarming messages.  Basically, we can use the internet to do the sorts of things Jesus might have done with the Internet, if He had had access to it. This can help make our Ministering even easier and more convenient than ever before.

As always, the main root of the matter is love. However we do it, we should show love for those to whom we have been asked to Minister. That love can be shown in any of the many ways Jesus showed love or in any other way we can think of, as prompted by the Spirit.

Unlike Home and Visiting Teaching, Ministering isn't a single, specific type of action. Rather, Ministering can take the form of nearly any action, so long as that action is motivated by love.

Ministering - What Has and Hasn't Changed

I have now gotten to the talk in which President Nelson announces the change from Home and Visiting Teaching to "Ministering." In practicality, I'm not sure how much has changed. There's less of an emphasis on visiting homes now, and it was made clear that more actions count as Ministering than have counted as Home or Visiting Teaching. In fact, perhaps considering the actions one does is the wrong way to look at Ministering. Ministering seems to be more about caring for people than about what we do to show that we care for them. As I'm sure the next few talks will explain, Ministering can take any number of forms, whereas Home and Visiting Teaching consisted almost entirely of making monthly visits. However, the heart of the practice hasn't changed, even though the name has. It has always ultimately been about love and support. Sure, anyone who visited their charges every month could report 100% Home or Visiting Teaching, but they couldn't legitimately claim to be good Home or Visiting Teachers unless they cared about their Home or Visiting Teaching families. With Ministering, the emphasis is more clearly on lending support. It's self-evident that, in order to be a good Ministering Brother or Sister, one has to minister to their brothers, sisters, and/or families. In purpose, the two systems are perfectly identical, despite how different they may be in name and practice.

Modern Prophets for Modern Challenges

Elder Ulisses Soares gave a short talk testifying of the value of prophets, especially in these days. He said:

Isn’t it a blessing to have prophets, seers, and revelators on earth in these days in which we live, who seek to know the will of the Lord and follow it? It is comforting to know that we are not alone in the world, despite the challenges we face in life.

The challenges of Earth life are great, and some of those challenges seem especially difficult in modern times. Thankfully, we have the counsel of wise and inspired leaders to help guide us through the obstacles of life, and this counsel is especially useful because it is current. The ancient prophets in the scriptures offer us timeless counsel that applies to every age, but the modern prophets can also offer us specific counsel especially for our age. We face unique circumstances, and God's counsel for us today is as unique as our situations are. Thankfully, we have modern prophets who can tell us, clearly and frequently, what God wants us to know and do about our modern challenges.

"Everything Worthy and Eternal"

In the first talk of the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2018 General Conference, Elder Gerrit W. Gong said the following:

Everything worthy and eternal is centered in the living reality of God, our loving Eternal Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, and His Atonement, witnessed by the Holy Ghost.

This is quite a statement. Whenever a General Authority uses an absolute like "everything," it often pays to take a closer look. The part that got my wheels turning was the "Everything worthy and eternal" part. There are many things that are "worthy and eternal" including sealed families and our testimonies. We, too, are to become worthy, and our spirits are eternal, so, according to Elder Gong, we too should center our lives on the Godhead and the Atonement, just as we should make sure that our families and testimonies are centered on the Godhead and the Atonement.

The Godhead and the Atonement are the most important things in the world, so it makes sense that "Everything worthy and eternal is centered [on them]." I'm glad I learned this rule. It seems like a good measuring tool to learn which things are important and which things aren't. If it isn't centered in the Godhead and/or the Atonement, that means that it is either unworthy or temporal or both. This is good to know, especially when one needs to discern which things are truly worthy and eternal.

Nelson Holy Ghost Quote

Shortly after blogging about President Oaks' talk, I hoped that President Nelson's Sunday Morning talk would involve, or at least mention, the Holy Ghost, so I could blog about the Holy Ghost three nights in a row (as long as you don't count the blog post about the shape-shifting alien robot that I wrote when I was really sinking tired). Sure enough, on the talk's webpage, just before the talk proper, there is the following quote: "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost."

First of all, I would like to register a little bit of cautious skepticism on the subject of "days." According to several scriptures, we've been in "the last days" for about 200 years, so forgive me if I don't take President Nelson's assertion about "coming days" literally. If he had meant it literally, those "coming days" should have happened by now since he said that nearly six months ago. I think that God and I have different ideas about the definition of the word "soon."

But other than that, I think that the rest of President Nelson's quote can and should be taken seriously. The Holy Ghost is a powerful force for good, and it can easily become essential as the world slips further and further away from the way we are supposed to be. As the world becomes more spiritually dangerous, we're going to need the guidance of the Holy Ghost more than ever before, so it's essential that we do those "small and simple things" that invite the companionship of the Holy Ghost.

Life is challenging, and it seems like it's only going to get worse as time goes by. We're going to need the guidance, direction, comfort, and influence more and more as the rest of the world slips farther and farther into darkness. We can't afford to go down with it. So, we need to hold on to the Holy Ghost like our spiritual lives depend on it, because if they don't already, they soon will.

The Mimic

I just played through a scene in my head to imagine what would happen if a shape-shifting alien robot decided to introduce itself to humans by imitating the first humans it met upon landing here. The troubling thing is that I imagine that the first humans who would approach an alien robot would probably be the military. Before seeing a human, the robot wouldn't know what form to take, but when it saw armed men approaching it with weapons drawn, it would assume a humanoid shape and form a gun out of its arms. If any of the soldiers shot the robot and the robot survived, the robot would shoot back, not in retribution but in imitation. After that, the situation would escalate quickly. As the humans tried ever more deadly methods to destroy the "hostile" robot, the robot would form ever more deadly weaponry to shoot back with until one of the surviving humans finally threw down his gun and surrendered, after which the robot would do the same, and the conflict would end.

This is a tragic story especially since, depending on the humans' first reactions to the robot, this encounter could have gone very differently. If the soldiers had decided to great the robot with a handshake and a "hello" instead of with a gun pointed at its face, this first encounter would have gone a lot better.

This has lead me to wonder how the robot would end up acting if the first person it met was me. What would it see me doing? How would I respond to seeing a robot imitate me? Fortunately, I don't think the robot and I would end up killing each other, but it's still interesting to imagine what might happen in this scenario. And all of this has reminded me to behave well, just in case something (or, more likely, someone) decides to mimic me and to act in such a way that I wouldn't mind if others behaved the same way.

Growth through the Holy Ghost

President Dallin H. Oaks titled his Sunday Morning remarks "Small and Simple Things." In those remarks, he spoke of many "Small and simple things" we've been counseled to do, such as reading scriptures, saying prayers, visiting sacred places like the temple and Sacrament meetings, and so on. President Oaks said "Though each of these practices may seem to be small and simple, over time they result in powerful spiritual uplift and growth." But what I think is most notable about this quote is what follows: The reason the growth happens. "This occurs because each of these small and simple things invites the companionship of the Holy Ghost."

Last night, I wrote about how the Holy Ghost is more than just our conscience (I think. I was dead tired last night). Now, I'm learning, the Holy Ghost isn't just a comforter or a revelator either. He is also a driving force behind our spiritual growth.

In order for us to grow to become more like God, we need to identify specific changes we need to make and then have the will-power to work on that. The Holy Ghost can help us with both of those things. He can inspire us to know how we should try to improve ourselves, and He can inspire us with the motivation to get started and/or keep going.

I am grateful for the gift and power of the Holy Ghost in my life, and I know that I have a lot of growing left to do, so I had better watch myself and try to regularly do the things that invite the companionship of the Holy Ghost. They may be "small and simple things," but by inviting the Holy Ghost into our lives, they can gradually bring about great spiritual growth.

More Than a Conscience

The lesson went smoothly. Back to Conference.

In the Sunday Morning Session of the April 2018 General Conference, President Henry B. Eyring spoke about the Holy Ghost, reminding me yet again what an astonishing blessing the gift of the Holy Ghost is. I sometimes, mistakenly, think of the Holy Ghost as a force similar to a conscience, and He certainly does much of what a conscience does, but the Holy Ghost is so much more than a conscience. He doesn't just teach us right from wrong or help us recognize when we've done right or wrong, though the Holy Ghost certainly does that. In addition, the Holy Ghost can convey revelation, which one's conscience cannot do. The conscience can only react to what it has seen, but the Holy Ghost can reveal things that have yet to be seen. He can warn us of bad situations, even if we don't know yet how or why those situations are bad, whereas the conscience would need to pick up some clues about the situation before passing judgment and giving us warnings.

The gift of the Holy Ghost is a marvelous gift, one that we shouldn't overlook or cheapen by comparing it with something lesser. The Holy Ghost isn't just a conscience. The Holy Ghost is a direct link to God. I hope that we can prove worthy of it.

The Rehoboam Lesson Plan

I'll start the lesson just as the manual recommends, with hangman, hunting for the phrase "Peer Pressure." We'll briefly discuss what peer pressure is, that it can be positive or negative, that it can influence us if we let it, and that we can use it to influence others. Then I'll use the transition that the manual so generously provided me by saying that this lesson is about a king who was influenced by negative peer pressure, to disastrous results.

That'll be a good time for a recap. Last week's lesson was about Solomon, who, as we remember, was fairly wise. And, I can't remember if we covered this last week, but he also built a great temple using lots of gold and precious stones. (Tangent: Nephi builds a similar temple in the Americas later.) However, all that gold and precious gems cost a lot of money, and government leaders like kings get their money through taxes. King Solomon had his people paying pretty high taxes, so when Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became king, the people asked him to lower the taxes. In fact, they made him a promise.

And we can turn to the scriptures from there. 1 Kings 12:1-5 sees Rehoboam become king, and Jeroboam (along with the rest of Israel) says "Hey, if you lower our taxes, we will serve you." And Rehoboam says "Uh, let me think about that for a few days." In 1 Kings 12:6-7, Rehoboam asks Solomon's counselors what he should say, and they say basically the same thing: If you lower their taxes, they will serve you." But in 1 Kings 12: 8-11, Rehoboam asks people his own age what he should do, and they tell him that he should actually raise the taxes and increase the penalty for not paying it. Rehoboam tells everyone his decision in 1 Kings 12: 12-14 , which leads to a rebellion  in 1 Kings 12: 18-20, ending with Jeroboam becoming king of most of Israel, while Rehoboam only retained the loyalty of a handful of tribes.

Then we can explain that Rehoboam lost his position because he listened to the wrong people instead of listening to the right people and that we, too, need to listen to the right people. We should make sure that we're following righteous influences, and we should make sure that we are righteous influences. We might do the Enrichment Activity in which I describe situations in which the kids and their friends might have opportunities to influence each other, for better or worse. That should probably eat up the remaining time, especially if we spend enough time on each scenario, describing what we should do and why we should do it. There are five given scenarios. That should eat up a decent amount of time if we need it to.

I'll conclude with my testimony of the importance of following and being good influences. I'll remind the students that we all have more influence than we probably realize, and it's our responsibility to use our influence for good. I might say something cheesy like "Being a good friend means being a good friend." That'd be alright. Mostly, I want to encourage the kids to only follow those who encourage them to do good and to encourage others to do good as well.

"Moral Honesty"

You know, it's kind of funny that I'm going to be teaching about Peer Pressure because, for a while, I toyed with the idea of writing some kind of satire about the evils of yielding to positive peer pressure. I was going to call it "Moral Honesty." The argument would have been that is is dishonest to be a better person around other people than you normally are. We should behave no differently around others than we behave when we're alone, so if someone tries to bring out our best, we should resist that urge and instead show them how we really are. To do otherwise would be dishonest, especially because we would then be on our best behavior specifically when at least one other person was around to see how good we were being. It is, according the the satirical argument I'll probably never write, better to be honest about our faults and misgivings than it is to try to overcome those faults when, and only when, others are around to see it.

Of course, that argument is completely wrong. We should let others influence us for good, even if that means behaving differently than normal. "Moral Honesty" isn't a thing. But goodness is goodness, whether others are around or not.

The Wisdom of the Elders

My Primary lesson on Peer Pressure will follow the story of Rehoboam, the son of King Solomon, who became king after Solomon died. Now, King Solomon had apparently laid heavy taxes on his people, so when Rehoboam became king, the people, led by a guy named Jeroboam, who'll become important later, thought that now would be a good time to lower the taxes. Rehoboam counseled with his advisors, with mixed results. The older advisors said to reduce the taxes, as the people had requested, but the younger advisors, Rehoboam's peers, said that he should actually make the taxes worse and also increase the penalties for not paying them. Unfortunately for just about everyone, Rehoboam listened to his younger counselors and made an announcement that sparked a rebellion that drove Rhoboam from the throne and put Jeroboam on it instead.

All this to say that it's probably wise to listen to your elders. They've been around the block a few times. They've had more experience. Generally, experience begets wisdom, making the elder counselors far more useful than the younger counselors. Of course, no one knows everything, and even the wisest people can occasionally be wrong, but one should not dismiss the counsel of their elders without giving it a good deal of consideration.

This is partly why the church works as well as it does: Most of our main leaders are elderly. Naturally, they are inspired and regularly receive revelation, but even without all that knowledge and wisdom given to them from God, they've already stockpiled an impressive amount of knowledge and wisdom on their own. The General Authorities frequently draw from their own experiences to teach wisdom and moral lessons in their Conference Talks, and while it could be argued that they have the Holy Ghost's help in finding good insights in their experiences, it's also true that they've spent decades learning how to hear and follow the voice of the Spirit. Their lives have given them wisdom and experience, making their counsel valuable enough to listen to even if it weren't inspired.

Rehoboam should have listened to the wisdom of his elders, and so should we.

Peer Pressure

The lesson manual's guidelines for my next Primary lesson begin with an activity that I was already going to to anyway: Hangman, and the phrase of the week is "Peer Pressure."

Peer Pressure, as my class will learn, can be positive or negative, good or bad. And, just as peer pressure can be used to influence us, we can also use it to influence others. As with many other supposedly good or bad things, it just a tool. The only thing good or bad about any tool is how that tool is used.

Peer pressure has a bad reputation, but it can be used for good, not to "pressure" others into "doing good," but to use our influence to encourage others to do good. There's a fine line there, but if we stay on the right side of it, we can become a force for good in the world without actually exercising force.

I will have to choose my words carefully as I teach about Peer Pressure, just as my kids will need to learn how to be careful with how they influence others. But everyone has an impact on everyone around them, so no one is able to completely stop influencing others. The best we can hope for is to learn that influence in the right ways and to the right degree.

Peer Pressure is often seen as negative force, but, in the right hands, it can be the exact opposite: Positive Persuasion.

No Excuses

In his recent Conference Talk, Elder Claudio D. Zivic of the Seventy gave voice to a truth with implications far broader than the situation to which he applied it:

I have heard many justifications from those who have stopped participating actively in the Church and have lost the correct vision of the purpose of our journey on this earth. I exhort them to reflect and to return, because I believe that no one will be able to make excuses before our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I especially wanted to highlight that last part: "I believe that no one will be able to make excuses before our Lord, Jesus Christ."

There will be no cheating through the Final Judgment. We won't be able to have past sins or bad behavior excused just because we ask nicely or have a good excuse for it. We will be held to a high standard, including complete moral honesty. If we have fallen short, and we all have, we will be compelled to admit that. We won't be able to argue that our actions were justified if we know in our hearts that they weren't.

So, instead of finding excuses to justify our behavior, let's try to make sure our behavior doesn't require justification. And when we fall short, let's seek justification through the only means by which we can get it: Repentance, which includes an honest and humble admission of fault.

We won't be able to make excuses at the Final Judgment. Let's stop trying to make excuses now.

Serving God

Today was a busy day for me. I spent basically all day serving, tutoring, and studying, with only a few short breaks mixed in. I'm  tired, and I want to go to bed, but first I'll pretend to be inspired/inspiring by reminding you all (and myself) that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17).

I served God today. I helped Him write an outline for His next writing assignment. I helped Him figure out what Wilson, Armstrong, and another author whose name has escaped me, thought about art. I picked up some trash for Him. I wished Him a happy birthday. And I served Him dinner, twice.

It's kind of weird to think about service that way. It's sort of motivating. I may not know well many of the people I serve, and I may not feel like I owe them much, but I owe God everything. I owe Him a debt I can never repay, and He has asked me to pay it forward. So, out of service to Him (and because Mom raised me well), I serve others. And when I am in the service of others, I am also serving God.

Which Love is the Foundation?

As I looked at Elder Massimo De Feo's talk again, I noticed what I think was a slight error on his part. He quoted a talk from Elder Holland, and then made a comment about one of the subjects of Elder Holland's remarks. The thing is, I think Elder De Feo got one subject mixed up with another.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “The first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life.”

Being the foundation stone of our daily life, pure love is a requirement for every true disciple of Jesus Christ.

My question is: Which love did Elder Holland say was "the foundation stone of our daily life"? He spoke of two loves in this quote. The first is the love that we are commanded to have for God. The second is the love that God has for us. Since the phrase "that love" follows Elder Holland's description of God's love, I have to assume that that love was the "that love" to which Elder Holland was referring.

"That love [God's love] is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life."

Now, I'm not saying that pure love isn't "a requirement for every true disciple of Jesus Christ." It probably is. I would bet that Elder Massimo De Feo is right about that part. However, I am less certain that the required love is "the foundation stone of our daily life." At least, I'm not sure Elder Holland ever said it is.

Still, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. After all, loving God is the first and great commandment. Why wouldn't it be the foundation of our daily life? While our lives, physical and spiritual, depend mostly on God's love, our eternal well-being depends largely on our love. Our love motivates our actions, which largely determine our outcomes. We cannot be saved if we do not love God.

So, maybe Elder De Feo was right and love of God should be the foundation stone of our daily lives. Or maybe Elder Holland was right that God's love for us should be the foundation stone of our daily lives. Either way, it's clear that Love shoud be at the center of our lives, whether that means God's love or ours.

A Pep Talk from a Cough Drop, a Message from God

A few days ago, I mentioned being ill. Most of the symptoms have passed by now, but I'm still holding on to some congestion and persistent coughs. To mitigate this, I've been using Halls cough drops. I like Halls, not for their flavor (I'm sure I could get equally good flavor elsewhere) or for their effectiveness (ditto), but for their trademarked "PEP TALK IN EVERY DROP."

The wrapper of each Halls cough drop has encouraging phrases like "You got this!" and "Go get it!" One that I've gotten frequently recently, the last three times in a row, in fact, is "Hi-five yourself." I kind of figure that, when the universe gives you such advice three times in a row, it's time to start taking a hint. So I did it.

Giving myself a high-five wasn't just clapping. When I clap, I bring the palm of my left hand together with the fingers of my right hand. I get some pretty good sound that way. But when I high-five someone, I try to make my palm hit theirs, so that's what I did.

I brought my palms together.

And it turned out that just high-fiving myself was not the hint that "the universe" wanted me to take.

Too often, when I have a problem, I just deal with it as well as I can. I endure it, I muscle through it, or I may make some small effort to solve it, but I almost never ask for anyone's help with it, not even God's. Bringing my palms together reminded me that I haven't really been praying for help overcoming my illness or any of my other problems for that matter, even though I could really use it. I've been to stubborn and proud to ask for help, and I assumed that my problems and I were unworthy of God's attention.

But I was wrong. God, somehow, bent the laws of probability to arrange for a "random" phrase to come to me three times, knowing that doing so would lead me to the message He really wanted me to hear.

I should pray more often. And I'm impressed that God found a way to use the wrappers of a handful of cough drops to tell me that.

"True Disciple"

Early in his talk, "Pure Love: The True Sign of Every True Disciple of Jesus Christ," Elder Massimo De Feo of the Seventy listed several traits of what he called "true disciples."

True disciples love to serve.

True disciples love to forgive.

True disciples are quick to forgive and quick to ask for forgiveness.

True disciples love to submit themselves to the Lord with peace in their heart.

True disciples know that the real blessings are not always what they want but rather what the Lord wants for them.

True disciples love the Lord more than the world and are steadfast and immovable in their faith.

True disciples love to listen to the voice of the Spirit and of the prophets and are not confused by the voices of the world.

True disciples love to “stand in holy places” and love to make holy the places where they stand.

True disciples love to obey the Lord’s commandments, and they obey because they love the Lord.

And these are only the traits he listed that began with the words "True disciples." There were several other qualifications that started with "They" or referred to "them," but for the sake of brevity, I left them out. I think that even just these nine qualifications are enough to disqualify almost all of us from being "true disciples."

I serve, but I don't love to serve, except when I'm serving certain people. I don't love to forgive, not that I have to do it often. I don't know if I forgive quickly, but I know that I'm slow to ask God for forgiveness. I definitely don't love to submit myself to the Lord. I know that the real blessings are the ones the Lord wants for me, but that doesn't mean they're the ones I want. I can't say whether I love the Lord more than the world, but I have not been steadfast, and I don't feel immovable. I love to listen to the voice of the Spirit, when I can hear it, but I am often confused by the voices of the world. I love to stand in holy places, but I haven't made my home one. And I don't love to obey the Lord's commandments; when I obey (if I obey), I do it because I "should" or "have to."

So, there we have it. Nine qualifications, and I only half-qualify for three of them. I am not a "true disciple." With those qualifications, I'd be surprised if many of you are. Discipleship is, apparently, a rather high bar, and only a relatively few people measure up.

But that doesn't mean that we ought to give up. Just like perfection, discipleship is, by this set of qualifications, a more long-term goal than a shot-term goal. It's something to work toward, one step at a time. Any of these nine qualifications would make good starting points. Maybe I ought to pick one and start working on it. I'll choose one that I really struggle with, which is probably all of them, except the three I half-qualify for. Nine minus three leaves six. I'll roll a (digital) six-sided die, and work on whichever qualification the die (or fate, or God) picks.

The die rolled a five. "True disciples love the Lord more than the world and are steadfast and immovable in their faith." Okay. Not the worst result the die could have given me. I'll have to figure out what all is included in "the world" and what it means to love the Lord more than it. "Steadfast" and "immovable" seem pretty straightforward, though I may need to check a dictionary to brush up on the exact definition of "steadfast." All in all, it's not a bad goal.

I am not what Elder De Feo would call a "True disciple," but as of right now, I'm working on it.

Household Unity

In her Conference talk, "With One Accord," Sister Reyna I. Aburto, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, spoke of the need for unity. This need has arisen in my immediate family. In my household, we help each other. We rely on each other. We get on each others nerves sometimes, but we try not to let that become apparent because we need each other. We work together in unity because if we didn't, we would all be in serious trouble.

This may not be the healthiest form of, or motivation for, unity. Ideally, we would each be able to stand on our own two feet, and we would help each other because we want to, not because we need each other. But it's not the least healthy form of unity either. I Googled the term "codependency" because I thought that it might be a good term for our relationship, but it isn't. What we have is mutual dependence, and when I Googled that, another term that popped up was "symbiosis." Like other organisms, we depend on one another for our physical and/or spiritual/emotional survival.

Of course, this mutual dependency won't last forever. We will all eventually reach a stage of life where all of our physical needs are met, and by then, we might not rely on each other as much emotionally or spiritually either. We will all eventually become physically, spiritually, and emotionally self-reliant.

In the meantime, I'm glad that we all have each other. I'm glad that we can all lean on each other and support each other. I hope it lasts as long as we need it to. I will try to outgrow my dependency on others, but in a way, I'm reluctant to let it go. The relationship I have with my family right now is beautiful. I hope that its beauty doesn't get diminished when we overcome our mutual dependence and our unity becomes less than necessary.

"What Can I Do?"

In "Take the Holy Spirit as Your Guide," Elder Larry Y. Wilson of the Seventy told the story of Ensign Frank Blair, the informal chaplain of a troop transport ship stationed in Japan during the Korean war. A terrible storm arose, and the captain asked Ensign Blair to pray for the ship.

"At that point, Ensign Blair could have simply prayed, 'Heavenly Father, please bless our ship and keep us safe,' and then gone to bed. Instead, he prayed to know if there was something he could do to help ensure the safety of the ship."

As an answer to Ensign Blair's prayer, he received a prompting, which he obeyed, which was followed by another prompting, more obedience, and more prayer. After many prayers, promptings, and acts of faith, Ensign Blair was given instructions to relay to the captain, who followed Ensign Blair's (or rather, the Spirit's) counsel. As a result of all that prayer, prompting, and obedience, the lives of the entire crew were saved.

Of course, none of that would have happened if Ensign Blair had simply prayed for protection and gone to bed. Elder Wilson counseled:

"Instead of just listing our problems in prayer and asking the Lord to solve them, we ought to be seeking more proactive ways of receiving the Lord’s help and committing to act according to the Spirit’s guidance."

The Lord often wants us to solve our own problems. After all, that's why we have many of them: so we can gain experience by overcoming them. God's not going to take all our problems away simply because we ask Him to. Rather, He's far more likely to inspire us with the wisdom to know what we ought to do about our problems, especially if that's what we ask of Him. Ensign Blair didn't ask for God to calm the storm or protect the ship, though there's scriptural precedent for both of those miracles. Rather, he asked what he could do about it, and God told him. Perhaps God will be willing to tell us how to deal with our problems as well.

I'm grateful to Ensign Blair for setting a good example for all of us, and I'm thankful to Elder Wilson for sharing that story with all the world. We need to remember that there is a God out there who cares about our problems and who is willing to help us solve them, or at least tell us how to solve them or how to live with them, as the case may be, even if He's not always willing to eliminate the problem directly. We have problems, and God wants us to overcome them, but the best way to do that isn't to ask God to solve our problems for us. Instead, it would be far wiser to ask God what we can do about our problems and then be wise enough to do as He prompts us to do. It worked for Ensign Blair; it might work for us as well.

Miraculous Recovery

I am sick. It's probably just a cold or something, but it's pretty debilitating. I had to call in sick today, and I'll probably have to call in sick tomorrow. But the good news is that I will get better. My immune system will defeat my illness, and I'll go back to normal. I thank God that I have such a miraculous body that I can be confident that it will overcome whatever challenge it's currently facing. My recovery will be miraculous, and the fact that it won't take a miracle makes it even more so.

The Power to Bless

President Nelson's Priesthood Session talk involved some instruction about Priesthood blessings. President Nelson didn't want Priesthood holders to underestimate or underutilize their capacity to bless others. As I read through this talk, I was surprised at some of the phrasing President Nelson used:

Brethren, we hold the holy priesthood of God! We have His authority to bless His people. Just think of the remarkable assurance the Lord gave us when He said, “Whomsoever you bless I will bless” (D&C 132:47). It is our privilege to act in the name of Jesus Christ to bless God’s children according to His will for them.

President Nelson seems to be saying that the holders of the Priesthood are capable of blessing others directly, not just asking God to bless them. Anyone can ask God for blessings, but holders of the Priesthood can give blessings themselves. In a way, this makes sense. The Priesthood is the power and authority of God. Those who hold the Priesthood hold at least a portion of the power of God, including the power to perform miracles and blessing others.

It sometimes surprises me how much faith God puts in people and how much power He lets many of them have. President Nelson was right; we do often underestimate the power we hold. This was a good reminder that, although I am far from Godhood, I do have some God-like powers, including the power to bless others, so long as I am worthy to exercise it. And I'm not just talking about Priesthood holders. Everyone has the power to make decisions and influence others and the world. We all have great power. And with that power comes the responsibility to use it to bless others.

With Great Power...

Now that I've given my lesson, I should blog about more General Conference talks. In Elder Oaks' talk, The Powers of the Priesthood, he seemed to carry a common theme throughout much of his talk: "The Melchizedek Priesthood is not a status or a label." The Priesthood isn't something a person holds in order to benefit or elevate themselves. The Priesthood isn't a badge of honor used to show off how righteous or worthy a person is. Rather, it is a tool for helping others. And with this tool comes a responsibility to help others. Historically, many men have used various forms of power to get others to serve them, but the best men have used what power they have to improve the lives of others, as holders of the Priesthood should. Priesthood holders have not just the ability but the responsibility to bless others. To do anything else with the Priesthood is practically priestcraft. Priesthood callings and offices and the Priesthood itself are not given to men so that others will serve them. Quite the opposite, men are given those things in order to give them the power and the opportunities to serve.

The Bathsheba Plan

Before I go to bed tonight, I should make sure that I actually have a solid plan for my Primary lesson tomorrow.

I'll start with "Cliffman." I'll have to remember to cut a piece of paper into the shape of a person and bring some tape to stick it to the chalkboard. After the cliffman game, I'll explain that bad choices lead us into temptation while good choices lead us away from it. Then I'll say that the scriptures tell us how an otherwise good person started making some bad decisions which lead him into serious sin.

Then I'll go into the summary. After Saul died, David became king. One night, while he was high up in the palace, David looked down and saw a beautiful woman. He asked who she was and learned that her name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. David wanted her to be his wife, so he invited her over and had her pretend that they were married (let's just leave it at that). Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, was a soldier, and David wanted to get Uriah out of the way so Bathsheba could marry him, so David had Uriah carry orders to Joab, a military leader, saying that Uriah should be put on the front lines and that everyone else should retreat so Uriah would be killed. David's bad choices lead him to commit some very serious sins.

I'll spend any and all remaining time on the Application part of the lesson. Where did David go wrong? What should he have done instead? What can we do to avoid falling into temptation and sin?

It's not much of a lesson plan, and it has some tricky transitions in it. I'll have to navigate this lesson carefully. But to do that, I am first going to need to rest. I'll need all my mental faculties to help me pull off this lesson, so if I want this lesson to go well, I had better go get some sleep.