"Thanks for the Light"

A few days ago, I mentioned having said a heartfelt prayer of thanks to God for keeping a traffic light green long enough for me to pass through it. I think I should tell you more about that experience.

As I was biking to school one morning, I was having a mental conversation with God, something like a prayer, but more casual, and I would sometimes hear replies in my heart, just like having a real-time conversation with someone, as if over the phone. In essence, I was simply directing my thoughts to God, and He was directing some of His thoughts toward me.

One of my thoughts that morning was "I hope that light stays green." I wasn't asking God to keep it green. In fact, I think I made a point of telling Him that I wasn't asking for a miracle or anything. Whether the light stayed green or not, I would be okay with it. The light stayed green anyway, and I assumed that it was God's will that the light stay green that long, or maybe it was fate or luck, but I thought that it had nothing to do with my prayer or the blessing that I had made a point of not asking for.

Yet, as I ascended the bridge beyond the intersection, I felt the impression that I should thank God for keeping the light green. I thought that I would remember it in my evening prayer, but then I thought that I might forget about the experience by that night, if I even remembered to say an evening prayer at all (I had been slipping up lately). Besides, why wait? I decided to thank God for keeping the light green for me, while I was still climbing the bridge. Specifically, I said "Thanks for the light."

That instant, the phrase "Thanks for the light" took on a whole new meaning to me. I thought about the light of the Gospel and how much guidance it has given me in my life. I thought about the Light of Christ, and how it has led me away from temptation. I thought of light as symbolizing righteousness and purity, and I had to acknowledge that any righteousness or purity I may have now, I only have because of the influence of God. With these new meanings echoing in my mind, I reiterated my mental prayer of thanks to God. "Thanks for the light."

As we now enter the Christmas season, we will see a great number of lights. Some of them will represent the light that shone over Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born. That light, I believe, represented the light that shines in our hearts, lighting our path to follow the Savior. This is a light that God gives to all people, so that all of us will have a light to follow that will bring us to Jesus Christ. This is the Light of Christ.

All people are born with the Light of Christ as a guiding influence in their lives. Some people call it their conscience. Whatever you call it, it is that still small feeling inside of you that encourages you to do what's right. It is your moral compass, and whether you know it or not, it points to the Savior. All people, Christians and non-Christians, have a symbolic Star of Bethlehem inside of them, pointing the way to God. All people have at least one reason to pray and tell God "Thank you for the light."

Doffing and Donning the Armor of God

While preparing for my Sacrament Meeting talk, I came across an insightful quote from my May 15, 2015 blog post: "The one weakness of the armor of God is how easy it is to accidentally, foolishly, recklessly take off. God's power can protect us, but it won't prevent us from distancing ourselves from Him and giving up that protection."

I went on to say that, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, "The armor that we may have foolishly damaged or lost can be repaired and replaced when we repent." What I failed to mention then is that putting that armor back on, or putting it on in the first place, is harder than it is to take it off, and it takes longer as well.

In Dungeons and Dragons, it takes ten minutes to put on heavy armor like plate mail or chainmail, but only half as much time to take off. Similarly, it takes five minutes to put on a breastplate or scale mail, but only one minute to take off. With the armor of God, I believe that the time difference is even more pronounced. It can take quite  some time to build up a resistance to Satan's influence but only a few moments of foolishness to give it up.

We must be vigilant to maintain and strengthen our armor consistently, and we need to be careful not to take it off when we need it most. The armor of God can help to keep us out of danger, but only when we are diligent enough to keep it on.

One of the Many Blessings of Blogging

Last night, I wrote that I had been asked to give a talk using Elder David A. Bednar's talk, "Therefore, They Hushed Their Fears." Actually, it had been last night when I was asked. (The person who had asked me had been unable to contact the person whom he had originally asked earlier in the week.) This short notice might have made the preparation of this talk difficult, but fortunately, I had already blogged about this talk at least twice. I hope not to recycle too much of the material from those two blog posts, but it certainly helps that I had already done the work of studying the topic and recording my thoughts.

I wonder if studying the scriptures could be done in the same way and produce similarly beneficial results. How hard would it be to fill a folder with word documents, with each folder representing a chapter of scripture, and each word document  representing a passage of scripture about which you had something to say? With such a system of files and notes, one could look up a scripture and view their past insights about it any time they wanted to, including at such times as when they wanted to find insights they could share with others.

Because I have already blogged about this talk, and could search through my blog posts for key words and phrases, I was able to quickly find noteworthy thoughts which I can share over the pulpit at church tomorrow. Having insights is good. Recording insights where you can quickly find them again when you need them can be even more helpful.

Green Eggs and Informed Opinions

I've been asked to give a talk in Sacrament meeting this Sunday. The subject is "Fear Not," and I was asked to use Elder Bednar's talk titled "Therefore, They Hushed Their Fears." Knowing that I had blogged about that talk before, I searched my recent posts for "fear," and when I did, I found this. It was a draft of a blog post that I had written, but not completed or posted for some reason. When and almost-fully written blog post just fell in my lap like that, I thought I'd finish it off and post it, so here it is:

On Facebook, I saw a photo showing the cover of Dr Seuess's book, Green Eggs and Ham, retitled as "How Fear of the Unknown Hinders the Development of Informed Opinions." To me, this new title and the book to which it was given seem to imply that fear of the unknown and uninformed opinions are bad things, but I'm not sure how much I agree.

In the book, Sam-I-Am persistently offers a seemingly unnamed character green eggs and ham, despite sturdy resilience to the unprovoked offers, until the unnamed character relents and partakes of the green eggs and ham. The unnamed character is pleased to discover that the strange food is actually delicious, and he ends up thanking Sam-I-Am for sharing it with him, but what if the offering hadn't been so innocent? What if the green eggs and ham were poisonous or addicting? If Sam-I-Am had been a drug dealer, offering the unnamed character substances that would create momentary feelings of pleasure and then cause his life to spiral out of control, the unnamed character's initial resistance would have been seen as wise. He didn't need to try the green eggs before he could "just say 'no'" to them. And neither do we.

Fear of the unknown may still be somewhat irrational, but we don't need to experiment with something in order to develop an informed opinion about it. We have Prophets and the experiences of others to tell us or show us what things are bad for us. They can help us gain greater wisdom than we could have gained in our own lifetimes. They can help us know to stay away from mind-affecting substances and potentially poisonous foods. Not having experienced something doesn't necessarily mean that our fears about them are completely irrational or that our opinions about them are completely uninformed. We have more sources of knowledge and wisdom than just our personal experiences, and they can help us learn of things that we haven't personally encountered yet, and help us avoid things that would have turned out to be bad for us. We don't need to experiment with everything personally; when we learn about something elsewhere, especially from the prophets, our opinions about those things are no longer completely uninformed.

How to Celebrate the Holidays

This evening, it occurred to me that, despite having the traditional Thanksgiving experience, with the food prep and the family gathering and the parade and, of course, the meal, at no point did I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. When I realised that, I said a mental prayer of thanks and for thankfulness. That's when I felt what some have called the spirit of Thanksgiving.

We have certain holidays for certain reasons. Thanksgiving is, theoretically, about giving thanks. However, observing a holiday by honoring its traditions isn't always going to fulfil the purpose of that holiday. I did all of the traditional Thanksgiving things, but I didn't feel a real sense of gratitude until I prayed. By some standards, I observed Thanksgiving better earlier in the month, while riding my bike, when I said a heartfelt prayer of thanks to God for keeping a traffic light green for me.

By some measures, I failed to truly celebrate Thanksgiving this year in the way that it was intended. That will not happen with Christmas. This Christmas season, I will make a strong effort to not just go through the motions. While I do the normal, Christmassy things like buying gifts and singing Christmas carols, I'm also going to try to really get into the Christmas spirit, to really celebrate the birth of Christ, rather than just following traditions. I basically failed to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. I'm not going to fail to celebrate Christmas.

A Familial Reception

Before I move on from Elder Holland's talk, I want to point out something that Elder Holland mentioned almost in passing that stood out to me as a confirmation of something that many people I know had already believed:

Now, I am absolutely certain that upon his passing, his mother received my friend with open, loving arms; that is what parents do.

It is my opinion that, when an Apostle says, over the pulpit during General Conference, that he is "absolutely certain" of something, we can pretty much take it as gospel truth, and this particular truth is a pretty cool one. Judging by this, the mother of Elder Holland's friend was met and embraced by his mother at or very shortly after the moment of his death. Assuming that this occurrence wasn't exceptional, we might expect that our beloved family members will be right there with us when we die, that when we pass on, those who have already done so will be there to welcome us to the other side of the veil.

This is a pretty awesome idea, and it's especially comforting for those who have lost people they deeply care about. Thankfully, we now know that this isn't just wishful thinking or something that people hope is true. If the Apostles are to be believed, and I personally believe that they are, this has happened before. We now know that at least one person has gotten a familial reception into heaven. I imagine that most people do.

Blogging at Night Isn't Working

Maybe it wasn't just that one General Conference talk, and maybe the problem wasn't just that I wanted to wait until I could do it justice. Maybe the problem, or at least part of the problem, is that I don't blog in the mornings like I should (and often don't have time to), so I end up blogging at night, before and/or after doing homework, when I'm suffering from a severe lack of inspiration. Maybe that's part of the reason why I haven't had many really interesting blog posts lately.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's much I can do about that problem. I could try to blog in the mornings, but I often don't have time to. I could try to blog as soon as I get home from school. That might work. But there will always be the question of inspiration. My daily life experiences haven't been very blogworthy, and I haven't been able to focus on the things that are. You can't force inspiration to come, so I end up spending hours trying to stimulate it or simulate it. Often, I don't do a very good job. In the future, I'll try to do better.