With God as Our Guide

A few days ago, I had a conversation about travelling with or without a guide or tour group. Travelling without a guide or group allows a greater degree of freedom, but it also carries a greater risk of things going wrong. If you travel with a guide or group, you still get to have an adventure, but it's safer than going alone.
On Earth, we're all going on a sort of adventure. We're all spending time away from our eternal homes, having experiences we couldn't otherwise have had. At this point, we can't choose whether or not to go on this adventure; we already made that choice, but we can still choose whether or not we'll follow a guide, and which guide we'll follow.

If we go without a guide, we'll be able to go wherever we want, including straight into danger, if we're not careful. If we choose the wrong guide, we will almost certainly be led into a trap. But if we use God as our guide, we can still have all the adventure of a mortal life without causing problems for our eternal lives. We can travel through mortality and still make it home safe and sound.

Travelling is fun, and I am attracted to the idea of travelling without set plans. It's liberating, but it's also somewhat dangerous. And when you're travelling through an area as dangerous as mortality, it's critical that you have and follow a good guide. I wouldn't wander through an African jungle without a good guide, and it's just as important, if not more so, not to travel through mortality without a good guide. So, as tempting as it is to choose my own paths, I'm going to try to be wise enough to let God guide me. Life is an adventure either way. There's no need to make it a dangerous one by abandoning my guide.

Keeping Commitments

I'm tired, but I made a commitment to blog, so I guess I'll blog about the importance of keeping commitments. Normally, I'm pretty big on freedom. I think that people should be able to make their own decisions, and change their minds if they want to. There may be repercussions, but even if people have the freedom to break their word without repercussions, they probably shouldn't. It's not polite. It's not fair to those who were counting on them to keep their promises. And it's probably not healthy for the individual. The word "discipline" left a sour taste in my mouth when I was very young, but I've since learned the importance of self-control, and one way to develop discipline and self-control is to keep your promises, even when you don't want to. Plus, it's dishonest not to. When a person says they're going to do something, they're making a statement that's either honest or dishonest, depending on whether or not they actually do what they said they were going to. Honesty has its own benefits, independent of self-discipline, and dishonesty has its own consequences as well.

Some years ago, I made a commitment to blog daily, and, for the most part, I've kept that promise. I've missed a few days for forgetting. I've missed several days from camping. And I've missed at least one day by being too sick to blog. But almost every day, I've kept my promise to post a semi-spiritual blog post each day. Part of me wants to keep that going, just for the sake of keeping that going, but I also want to keep blogging for the sake of keeping my commitment. I made God a promise, so even when I'm tired, and even when I have nothing to say, I think it's worthwhile to keep my commitment.

Our Creations and His

Today, I spent most of the day on a boat, taking pictures of animals and islands. As I did, I thought about how amazing it was that we, mankind, had made machines that, in addition to aiding in travel and image-capturing, also help us better observe and appreciate nature. I felt good about how much we, mankind, had accomplished, and how we were, at that time, using what we had made to better appreciate what God had made. Of course, the things we've made can't hold a candle to the things He has made, but we are still able to do good with them, and I'm sure that's what God wants us to do. I think that I, and the other passengers on that boat, made good use of technology today, mostly because we spent most of our day using technology to help get us closer to nature. God's creations are wonderful, and I think God is pleased when we use our creations to better observe, protect, and admire His.

I Would Like To Bear My Testimony...

I know that God lives and loves us. I know that the scriptures are true. I know that families can be together forever. I am grateful for my family and for the love I feel from them and from my Father in Heaven. I know that the Holy Spirit speaks to us. He gives us guidance and comfort. He helps us know what's true and right and good. It takes continual effort to keep Him with us, to stay worthy of His companionship, but I testify that it's worth it. The blessings we get from the Spirit are worth the time and effort it takes to study the scriptures, pray, and exercise self-control. And having a testimony you can lean on is worth the time and effort it takes to grow one.

To Grow a Testimony

This morning, I heard that the best way to grow a testimony is to share it, and hearing that made me immediately think of my blog. When I started this blog a few years ago, I used it to share my testimony and insights. Since then, I've also started using it to share my questions and doubts. Now, there's nothing wrong from having questions. Some of the best revelations come from asking the right question at the right time. But there's nothing wrong with having faith, too, even when things don't seem to make any sense. It want this blog to help me grow my testimony, not weaken it. So, let me grow my testimony by sharing it, or at least a part of it.

I know God is real. I know He reaches out to us to guide us. I know He wants to help us because He wants what's best for us, because He loves us.I know that we can trust Him, even when we have questions and doubts. We may wish that He would answer more of our questions, and when He doesn't, that may leave us with even more questions, and even some doubts, but even then, we can trust Him. I can trust Him.

As you may have gathered (and as I may have stated), there's some stuff I've been working through. I've had a personal concern and an unanswered question turn into a larger concern and a good deal of frustration on my part. I'm going through a trial of faith. And I want to pass it. Or at least a part of me does. But to pass it, I'm going to need more faith and more trust. So, over the next few days, I'm going to try to grow my testimony here, by bearing it.

The Example of Family

Last night, I literally saw "my mother kneeling . . . as she bowed her head to pray," and tonight, I heard my brother-in-law read, pray, and sing a Primary song with my niece. It was wonderful to see the example of faithful family members keeping up the daily traditions that strengthen testimonies and familial bonds. Watching them filled my heart with the Spirit and with motivation to follow their good examples. I'm grateful for my family and for the good examples they set for me. I want to follow their examples so my testimony can grow as strong as theirs are. May we all set good examples for our friends and family members so we can all motivate each other to make the daily decisions that will help us be strong in the gospel and have strong family ties as well.

Faith and Fruit

I think Miriam went a long way toward explaining the connection between certainty and faith. She shared Alma 32: 33-34:

And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good.

And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand.

As I understand the analogy from just a cursory rereading, the seed is Christianity or becoming a Christian. The seed sprouting and growing might represent feeling the Spirit, or any of the other blessings that come through membership in the church. Once we've received those blessings, we can be certain that the church is good. However, where I got confused was how we can have that certainty and still need faith.

Alma explains it later. In verse 36, he says that we must not lay aside our faith. Continuing the analogy, he says that, even once the tree begins to grow, we must nourish it, "looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, [or we] can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life."

The fruit, if I understand it correctly, represents the eternal blessings the faithful will receive in the next life. Even when we are certain that the church is true, we still need to have at least some faith that the promised blessings will eventually be ours. Then again, if we know that the church is true, that must mean that we know that the promises are true, so we would, theoretically, "know" that we will receive the promised blessings.

Perhaps that's what President Burton mean about certainty. We can have an evidence-based certainty that the church is true, as well as an inner certainty that the church is true, but we cannot have an evidence-based certainty that we will receive the promised blessings, because we haven't really seen a lot of evidence about that yet, so we still need to have faith in it. Still, we can have an inner certainty, an assurance borne by the Spirit, that the promised blessings are real. Thus, we can be certain of the promises, but that certainty still requires faith in the witness of the Spirit.

It's a bit strange, but I guess that explanation works. If you're still confused, I don't blame you. But I think I've reconciled, at least for myself, how one can be certain of something but still need to have faith.