When I write, I usually write in pencil or on the computer, rather than in pen. I do this because I occasionally (frequently) make mistakes. With an eraser or a Backspace key, it's easy to correct mistakes made in pencil or in a word processor. Mistakes made in pen are not so easily fixed. Often, one has to cross out a word or sentence and try to squeeze a correction in among what has already been written. One can, supposedly, correct one's mistakes that way, but that doesn't take away the mark of a mistake or the additional marks made in correcting it.
There is a clear spiritual message here. Two, in fact. And I'm not sure which is more important.
The first is that the Atonement is wonderful. Through the infinite power of the Atonement, our sins can be washed away so completely that God will forget we ever committed them. In that way, repenting is like erasing something written in pencil or on the computer. Once the correction process is finished, the marks of our mistakes are completely gone.
Except that they're not. The second lesson is that, even after we've repented, the memories of our sins stay with us, even if they don't remain with God. God may only concern Himself with the final draft, but we still remember all the mistakes and corrections we've made in the revision process. This is probably important because it helps us remember our mistakes long enough to learn from them, so we can learn to do better in the future. We can't help making mistakes, so long as we're human, but if we remember how and why we made such mistakes, we can gradually learn to make them less frequently until we reach the point where we don't make them at all.
At times, I'm glad I remember the mistakes I've made (and how to avoid them), and sometimes I'm happier when I can forget that the mistakes ever happened. I'm not sure which is better, in the long run. Learning from one's past mistakes is important, but it's also important to eventually let them go. I'm not ultimately sure, then, whether it's better to write in pen or in pencil. It may depend on the job. It also may depend on how many mistakes one makes and how much one still needs to learn. Both pens and pencils have their pros and cons. I'm thankful that God can help us remember what we need to remember and forget what we can afford to forget.
Friday, October 13, 2017
Thursday, October 12, 2017
What Would You Put on the Ark?
My laptop is having trouble. Actually, it has been having trouble since I got it from my brother a few years ago. You see, up until that point, my brother was letting me borrow the laptop so I could use it for school, but I left it on a table that also had a vase of flowers on it, and evidently, one of our cats got too close. The vase fell over, spilling water on the laptop, which was shut off, but plugged in. As soon as I realized what had happened, I did what I could to hopefully save the laptop, and then made my brother a deal: I would pay him for the laptop in a way of making reparations, and he would let me keep the laptop if it survived the water damage I had unwittingly subjected it to. Luckily for me, the laptop did survive, and I jokingly named it Noah, because it survived "the flood."
Now, my laptop's fan is wearing out. It has had trouble with overheating in the Summer, and I've taken to keeping it on a cooling rack to help it radiate the heat its processors make. So far, it's been working - so long as I don't mind the white noise of the whirring of the fan. But I know that laptops don't last forever. And, now that I'm blogging about this, I realise that my laptop has been sharing a table with another vase of flowers since my dad's funeral. Noting my computer's fan trouble, Mom recommended that I find out if I have any files on this computer that I would like to save, in case my laptop dies sometime soon.
I saved four folders. Two of them have to do with Magic: the Gathering and D&D, admittedly. They include character sheets, rulebooks, and collections of images that would be difficult to replace. I also saved a General Conference folder, which contains my notes from the last few General Conferences, and a folder labelled "Blog," which contains blog posts I wrote when I didn't have access to the internet and images that I either used or thought of using on my blog. I shared one of those blog posts with my family tonight because I felt that it was good enough to be worth sharing, and I certainly think it's good enough to be worth keeping.
Hearing about the natural disasters that have been happening everywhere, including wildfires in my state, has given me cause to think "If I were to lose everything except what I could put in a suitcase or backpack, what would I put in that suitcase or backpack?" I made a similar (though far less wrenching) decision when I looked through my files, thinking "Given the limited space on my storage drive, what files would I most like to keep?" I found some files that were worth keeping and some files that weren't, so I stored some files in a folder named "ARK" on my flash drive, and I moved others into a folder named "Trash" on my computer.
As we examine our lives, as we occasionally should, we will find some things that are worth keeping forever, and some things that aren't worth keeping at all. Some things should be abandoned, and some things should be preserved. So the question for all of us becomes, "If you were going to change over time and gradually lose everything you don't make a conscious effort to keep, what would you choose to keep?" What would you put in a suitcase or a flash drive? If you knew a spiritual flood was coming, and you had to choose only the best parts of you to keep, what would you put on the ark?
These are, naturally, very difficult questions to answer. To even begin to answer them, we need to establish our highest priorities, which is difficult enough. And the fear of losing the parts of ourselves that we may or may not want to keep can be paralysing. For example, I know I'm not going to take my Magic or D&D stuff into heaven with me. Does that mean that I should give them up now? Even if I should, I'm not sure I'm willing to do that.
Thankfully, we all have some time on Earth to enjoy the things that won't last forever, but we should put some thought into deciding what we'll try to keep with us when our time on Earth is over. We'll want to keep our family relationships (at least some of them) and our testimonies and spiritual knowledge. We'll want to keep at least a few precious memories and experiences from our mortal lives. We'll want to keep much of what we've learned about almost everything we've learned about.
But what else? What other priorities should we have? What else should we try to hold on to forever? I hate to be a doomsayer, but the world isn't becoming any more stable any time soon. The floods are, eventually, going to come up. When that happens, what all are we going to try to carry with us onto that Ark?
Now, my laptop's fan is wearing out. It has had trouble with overheating in the Summer, and I've taken to keeping it on a cooling rack to help it radiate the heat its processors make. So far, it's been working - so long as I don't mind the white noise of the whirring of the fan. But I know that laptops don't last forever. And, now that I'm blogging about this, I realise that my laptop has been sharing a table with another vase of flowers since my dad's funeral. Noting my computer's fan trouble, Mom recommended that I find out if I have any files on this computer that I would like to save, in case my laptop dies sometime soon.
I saved four folders. Two of them have to do with Magic: the Gathering and D&D, admittedly. They include character sheets, rulebooks, and collections of images that would be difficult to replace. I also saved a General Conference folder, which contains my notes from the last few General Conferences, and a folder labelled "Blog," which contains blog posts I wrote when I didn't have access to the internet and images that I either used or thought of using on my blog. I shared one of those blog posts with my family tonight because I felt that it was good enough to be worth sharing, and I certainly think it's good enough to be worth keeping.
Hearing about the natural disasters that have been happening everywhere, including wildfires in my state, has given me cause to think "If I were to lose everything except what I could put in a suitcase or backpack, what would I put in that suitcase or backpack?" I made a similar (though far less wrenching) decision when I looked through my files, thinking "Given the limited space on my storage drive, what files would I most like to keep?" I found some files that were worth keeping and some files that weren't, so I stored some files in a folder named "ARK" on my flash drive, and I moved others into a folder named "Trash" on my computer.
As we examine our lives, as we occasionally should, we will find some things that are worth keeping forever, and some things that aren't worth keeping at all. Some things should be abandoned, and some things should be preserved. So the question for all of us becomes, "If you were going to change over time and gradually lose everything you don't make a conscious effort to keep, what would you choose to keep?" What would you put in a suitcase or a flash drive? If you knew a spiritual flood was coming, and you had to choose only the best parts of you to keep, what would you put on the ark?
These are, naturally, very difficult questions to answer. To even begin to answer them, we need to establish our highest priorities, which is difficult enough. And the fear of losing the parts of ourselves that we may or may not want to keep can be paralysing. For example, I know I'm not going to take my Magic or D&D stuff into heaven with me. Does that mean that I should give them up now? Even if I should, I'm not sure I'm willing to do that.
Thankfully, we all have some time on Earth to enjoy the things that won't last forever, but we should put some thought into deciding what we'll try to keep with us when our time on Earth is over. We'll want to keep our family relationships (at least some of them) and our testimonies and spiritual knowledge. We'll want to keep at least a few precious memories and experiences from our mortal lives. We'll want to keep much of what we've learned about almost everything we've learned about.
But what else? What other priorities should we have? What else should we try to hold on to forever? I hate to be a doomsayer, but the world isn't becoming any more stable any time soon. The floods are, eventually, going to come up. When that happens, what all are we going to try to carry with us onto that Ark?
Thirteen Basic Statements
I'm teaching a lesson in Primary again next Sunday, and I, thankfully, have a fairly simple lesson to give. The lesson is about the thirteen Articles of Faith, and normally I would want to make sure that I cover the historical aspect of the lesson so the children could learn about the sequence of events in church history, but this time, there is almost no history to cover. A man was writing a history about New Hampshire and wanted to mention the Mormons who lived there. He didn't know a whole lot about the church, so he asked a Mormon friend of his about the church, that friend then asked Joseph Smith a question that amounted to "What should I tell my friend to tell the world about Mormons?" and Joseph Smith responded with the story of the First Vision, an account of church history up to that point, and the thirteen Articles of Faith. The story has virtually no impact on later events in church history, so I barely need to teach it.
What I do need to teach the children is a lesson about the Articles of Faith themselves. I might start off by asking my Primary kids questions that are answered in the Articles of Faith, such as "Who are the members of the Godhead?" and "What are the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel?" Then, I'll explain that the answers to these questions, which may or may not come easily to us, are completely unknown to many people who don't know about our church. I'll then explain that the Articles of Faith were written to explain our basic beliefs to those who don't know about us. I might share a story about a girl who told a man about the church using the Articles of Faith. Toward the end of the lesson, I might have the children play a game that tests their knowledge of the Articles of Faith. The lesson manual gives several options for such a game. I'll pick one and possibly adapt it.
By the end of the lesson, I'll want my students to know and understand the thirteen Articles of Faith, or at least understand why it's important to know and understand them. These statements, though fairly plain and simple to us, form a basic foundation of our faith and highlight several of the key differences between our church and many others. If we or someone we know wants to know the basics about our church, , the Articles of Faith are a good place to start.
What I do need to teach the children is a lesson about the Articles of Faith themselves. I might start off by asking my Primary kids questions that are answered in the Articles of Faith, such as "Who are the members of the Godhead?" and "What are the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel?" Then, I'll explain that the answers to these questions, which may or may not come easily to us, are completely unknown to many people who don't know about our church. I'll then explain that the Articles of Faith were written to explain our basic beliefs to those who don't know about us. I might share a story about a girl who told a man about the church using the Articles of Faith. Toward the end of the lesson, I might have the children play a game that tests their knowledge of the Articles of Faith. The lesson manual gives several options for such a game. I'll pick one and possibly adapt it.
By the end of the lesson, I'll want my students to know and understand the thirteen Articles of Faith, or at least understand why it's important to know and understand them. These statements, though fairly plain and simple to us, form a basic foundation of our faith and highlight several of the key differences between our church and many others. If we or someone we know wants to know the basics about our church, , the Articles of Faith are a good place to start.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Beloved
This morning, I rewatched Elder Russell M. Nelson's General Conference talk. In it, Elder Nelson mentioned God and "His Beloved Son." When I heard those words, I thought about how that description applies to literally half the people who ever lived, and the other half are only excluded from this description because they aren't "sons." God loves all His children, not just Jesus, and Jesus loves all His disciples, not just John. We are all "beloved."
I think that's something that's important to remember. We've always been taught that Heavenly Father loves us, but we regularly forget that, despite our many flaws, God loves us just as much as He loves anyone - Infinitely.
Of course, His loves sometimes manifests itself in His withholding of blessings from those who are unworthy. This doesn't mean that God loves them any less. On the contrary, it shows that He loves us enough to do whatever it takes to convince us to choose the path that leads to happiness. Thus, even when He has to punish us for wrongdoing, that punishment is actually a manifestation of His love.
God love all of us, no matter who we are of what we've done. His love, as mentioned previously, is infinite and eternal. And, notably, it extends to literally everyone.
I think that's something that's important to remember. We've always been taught that Heavenly Father loves us, but we regularly forget that, despite our many flaws, God loves us just as much as He loves anyone - Infinitely.
Of course, His loves sometimes manifests itself in His withholding of blessings from those who are unworthy. This doesn't mean that God loves them any less. On the contrary, it shows that He loves us enough to do whatever it takes to convince us to choose the path that leads to happiness. Thus, even when He has to punish us for wrongdoing, that punishment is actually a manifestation of His love.
God love all of us, no matter who we are of what we've done. His love, as mentioned previously, is infinite and eternal. And, notably, it extends to literally everyone.
Monday, October 9, 2017
Patching a Slow Leak
For a long time now, my bike's front tire has had a slow leak. For most of that time, I just tolerated it. It wasn't too awfully annoying to have to pump my tire full of air each morning. In fact, thinking back on that, I could have blogged about it, with the message being something about having to stop to repent or regain our spiritual strength periodically in order to proceed in our mortal journeys. However, given the cause of the leak and how easy it was to fix the leak (hopefully) permanently, that may be a bad analogy.
The leak had been caused by a small thorn - a tiny thing no longer than half the width of a pinkie fingernail. I had seen it in my tire some days ago, but I knew better than to pull it out right there on the road, and since then, I had always felt too tired or busy to deal with it. I knew the thorn was there, but it didn't annoy me enough to prompt me to do anything about it.
The longer I ignored the thorn, the more annoying it became. Soon, it wasn't enough to just pump up the tire every morning; I had to pump it up again each afternoon as well. Riding home from school, the "slow" leak was so bad that I had to pump it up again halfway home. (Thank goodness for portable bike pumps!)
When I got home, I decided that I couldn't ignore my tire's slow leak any longer. I removed the thorn, patched the tire, and filled the tire with air again. That was a few hours ago, and the tire is still holding air. The slow leak has been fixed. With any luck, I won't have to reinflate the tire again tomorrow morning, or for quite some time after that. After weeks of just living with the problem, I finally got around to solving it, and it really only took about an hour, if that, to truly solve it.
I think the analogy here is that we shouldn't let small problems fester. Problems tend to grow with time, and even if they don't, we really don't want to have to spend time periodically dealing with the symptoms of the problem without addressing the problem itself. If we know our tires have slow leaks, we should patch them up rather than continually reinflating them. Yes, dealing with the problem itself takes more time and effort, and sometimes we don't have the time or energy to solve a problem at a particular time, and the wisest (or only) course of action at that time is to deal with the problem as well as we can and make a mental note to solve the problem later. But the thing is that we are probably going to have to solve the problem sooner or later, and the sooner we get around to solving the problem, the sooner the problem will be solved.
We shouldn't procrastinate repentance the way I procrastinated fixing my bike's tire's slow leak. I know that we only have so much spiritual energy and that we have SO many sins to repent of, but we shouldn't let our inability to repent of all our sins prevent us from even trying to repent of any of them. We can work on one sin, for starters, and when we've completely overcome that one (or whenever we feel ready, whichever comes first) we can move on to the next one. We owe it to ourselves to try to make some progress on this eternal, perfecting project. Every day we choose to live with having spiritual problem is another day that we go without the spiritual blessings we'll get for solving it. We spend so much time and energy dealing with problems that we wouldn't have, or wouldn't be as bad, if we repented. We eventually get to the point where repenting is less difficult and less time-consuming than dealing with the continual consequences of not repenting.
Sure, we could keep pumping air into our tires again and again every day, but it might be wiser to take the time out of one day in order to patch the slow leak for good.
The leak had been caused by a small thorn - a tiny thing no longer than half the width of a pinkie fingernail. I had seen it in my tire some days ago, but I knew better than to pull it out right there on the road, and since then, I had always felt too tired or busy to deal with it. I knew the thorn was there, but it didn't annoy me enough to prompt me to do anything about it.
The longer I ignored the thorn, the more annoying it became. Soon, it wasn't enough to just pump up the tire every morning; I had to pump it up again each afternoon as well. Riding home from school, the "slow" leak was so bad that I had to pump it up again halfway home. (Thank goodness for portable bike pumps!)
When I got home, I decided that I couldn't ignore my tire's slow leak any longer. I removed the thorn, patched the tire, and filled the tire with air again. That was a few hours ago, and the tire is still holding air. The slow leak has been fixed. With any luck, I won't have to reinflate the tire again tomorrow morning, or for quite some time after that. After weeks of just living with the problem, I finally got around to solving it, and it really only took about an hour, if that, to truly solve it.
I think the analogy here is that we shouldn't let small problems fester. Problems tend to grow with time, and even if they don't, we really don't want to have to spend time periodically dealing with the symptoms of the problem without addressing the problem itself. If we know our tires have slow leaks, we should patch them up rather than continually reinflating them. Yes, dealing with the problem itself takes more time and effort, and sometimes we don't have the time or energy to solve a problem at a particular time, and the wisest (or only) course of action at that time is to deal with the problem as well as we can and make a mental note to solve the problem later. But the thing is that we are probably going to have to solve the problem sooner or later, and the sooner we get around to solving the problem, the sooner the problem will be solved.
We shouldn't procrastinate repentance the way I procrastinated fixing my bike's tire's slow leak. I know that we only have so much spiritual energy and that we have SO many sins to repent of, but we shouldn't let our inability to repent of all our sins prevent us from even trying to repent of any of them. We can work on one sin, for starters, and when we've completely overcome that one (or whenever we feel ready, whichever comes first) we can move on to the next one. We owe it to ourselves to try to make some progress on this eternal, perfecting project. Every day we choose to live with having spiritual problem is another day that we go without the spiritual blessings we'll get for solving it. We spend so much time and energy dealing with problems that we wouldn't have, or wouldn't be as bad, if we repented. We eventually get to the point where repenting is less difficult and less time-consuming than dealing with the continual consequences of not repenting.
Sure, we could keep pumping air into our tires again and again every day, but it might be wiser to take the time out of one day in order to patch the slow leak for good.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Worth and Worthiness
In her talk, Value Beyond Measure, Sister Joy D. Jones taught that there is a critical difference between the words worth and worthiness. She reminded us that our spiritual worth is based on our Heavenly Father's love for us. Thus, our worth, in His eyes, is infinite, and nothing can change that. Our worthiness, however, is based on our behavior, and is much easier to change. Sister Jones offered us this encouraging, yet sobering reminder: "If we sin, we are less worthy, but we
are never worth less!"
Sin does not decrease our spiritual worth, but it does decrease our worthiness. This loss in worthiness often results in a loss of blessings, and some people, including the adversary, would have us take that as evidence that God loves sinners less than He loves the righteous. However, Sister Jones testified that God loves all His children, regardless of their behavior or worthiness: "No matter what, we always have worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father."
Yet, that doesn't give us a free pass to commit sin, trusting that God's love alone will redeem us from it. We must choose which path we follow and which destination we reach. To gain the greatest blessings God offers us, we must strive for a worthiness that matches our spiritual worth. Like any good parent, God rewards His children for goo behavior, and He trusts with responsibility only those who have proven worthy of that trust.
God will always love us, but He will not always bless us. God's love does not have to be earned, but His blessings do. Nothing we ever say or do will ever affect the amount of love God has for us, but it may affect the amount of blessings we receive from Him.
But being unworthy and less-blessed does not mean that God loves us any less. His love is infinite and unchangeable, as is our spiritual worth. God will never stop loving us or stop wanting to bless us, so He will never stop urging us to repent and prove worthy of the blessings He wants to give us. We must try to be worthy so God can give us blessings equal to the worth He sees in us.
Sin does not decrease our spiritual worth, but it does decrease our worthiness. This loss in worthiness often results in a loss of blessings, and some people, including the adversary, would have us take that as evidence that God loves sinners less than He loves the righteous. However, Sister Jones testified that God loves all His children, regardless of their behavior or worthiness: "No matter what, we always have worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father."
Yet, that doesn't give us a free pass to commit sin, trusting that God's love alone will redeem us from it. We must choose which path we follow and which destination we reach. To gain the greatest blessings God offers us, we must strive for a worthiness that matches our spiritual worth. Like any good parent, God rewards His children for goo behavior, and He trusts with responsibility only those who have proven worthy of that trust.
God will always love us, but He will not always bless us. God's love does not have to be earned, but His blessings do. Nothing we ever say or do will ever affect the amount of love God has for us, but it may affect the amount of blessings we receive from Him.
But being unworthy and less-blessed does not mean that God loves us any less. His love is infinite and unchangeable, as is our spiritual worth. God will never stop loving us or stop wanting to bless us, so He will never stop urging us to repent and prove worthy of the blessings He wants to give us. We must try to be worthy so God can give us blessings equal to the worth He sees in us.
Saturday, October 7, 2017
Reprove in Private
Another lesson we can learn from Sister Marriott's experience that it's wiser to reprove in private than in public. Human beings are proud creatures, and we don't take well to being humiliated. When correction is needed, it's best to offer that correction in a way that allows the person being corrected to "save face." Otherwise, the individual's pride may prevent them from accepting the correction that is needed.
I hate to give so much advice that sounds like we're skirting around the issues or softening our stance. We must not do that, and thankfully we don't have to. We can be firm, yet gentle. We can be tactful without backing down. We're not toning down our message; we're striving to be mindful of when and how we say it. We're not changing our message; we're trying to convey it in a way that'll make it easier to receive. Kindness and thoughtfulness are virtues that this world could use a lot more of. Let's try to exercise those virtues, even when offering reproof.
I hate to give so much advice that sounds like we're skirting around the issues or softening our stance. We must not do that, and thankfully we don't have to. We can be firm, yet gentle. We can be tactful without backing down. We're not toning down our message; we're striving to be mindful of when and how we say it. We're not changing our message; we're trying to convey it in a way that'll make it easier to receive. Kindness and thoughtfulness are virtues that this world could use a lot more of. Let's try to exercise those virtues, even when offering reproof.
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