Enjoy to the End

I apologize for not posting during November and the first part of December. I had surgery on my Carotid Artery to remove plaque that was causing it to be 90% blocked. Through a very fortituitous set of circumstances, the blockage was discovered and removed before it caused a major stroke. I am now blockage free all over my body. I bear testimony that the Lord is involved in our lives. I was greatly blessed to have been saved from a very possibly debilitating or life-threatening outcome.

The Ultimate Conceit

When I was younger, in my twenties and thirties, and even when I was serving as a bishop, I believed that only the people of the LDS church were righteous. I was sure that the Lord did not care about those that did not embrace the gospel. I was convinced that he did not answer prayers except for those who were members in good standing of the Church. I really thought that prayers were answered in direct relation to one’s standing in the Church.

Bear One-Another’s Burdens

This week in our priesthood group meeting, we had an excellent discussion about Alma’s charge in Mosiah 18:8 to:”…bear one another's burdens, that they may be light.”

Thoughts on Immortality

Recently, my wife and I rode through the cemetery past her parents’ graves, and as we drove around and past the graves of others, including President Lorenzo Snow, my mind turned to the people who are interred there. I thought about them living and loving, and earning a living, about their joys and sorrows, about their children and the legacy they might have left. Some folks had small stones, and some were considerably bigger and more ostentatious than President Snow’s stone. I wondered if their stone represented the only heritage they had to offer those left behind.

LO, WO, O

Often, there are interesting patterns in the scriptures. Recently, I was watching one of the great programs on BYUTV where three or four BYU religious scholars sit together and discuss certain passages of scripture. This particular program dealt with 2 Nephi Chapter 9. One of the men, (lamentably, I do not recall his name) suggested that the chapter had a lot of “WOs” and “Os” in it. He said that the WOs (wo unto…) identified things that take us away from the Lord, and that the Os (O the wisdom of God) identified things that bring us closer to the Lord.

Our Glorious Mother Eve

The LDS view of the role of “our Glorious mother, Eve” (D&C 138:39), is strongly opposite to the beliefs of most of the Christian world. We are considerably more optimistic because we understand that Adam and Eve went into the Garden to fall. We understand that the Fall was part of the foreordained Great Plan of the Eternal God (GPEG) (Alma 34:9) devised in the great council in heaven in which we as spirits participated and God the Father and his son presided. Joseph Fielding Smith said:

Shoes

My Mother told me a story recently about a new pair of shoes. It seems that, during the depression, when she would have been about 10 years old, like a lot of others their family had little money to spare. Some kind friends in the Church bought her a new pair of shoes.

The Father withdrew his spirit

Two discussions, one with my oldest daughter, and one with my son, clarify my thoughts for this letter.

My daughter mentioned that her Relief Society teacher stated in class that God the Father withdrew his spirit from The Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane as well as while he was upon the cross, because he could not tolerate the sin that Christ took upon himself. This intrigued me, since I had never heard this particular facet of the atonement expressed before.

Stern impassioned stress

One phrase in the song, America the Beautiful, by Katherine Lee Bates uses the words “whose stern impassioned stress a thoroughfare of freedom beat” to describe the path the feet of the pioneers made crossing the wilderness to the west.

My philosophy

Below is a part of my philosophy of life. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read it and you'll get the point.

The Abilene Paradox

Sometimes, in our family, we decide to do something that is agreed upon by all concerned, but seems to be a less than optimum use of our time and resources. At those times, one or more of us might say, “Is this an Abilene Paradox?”

Opportunity cost and agency

I learned in Economics 101 about the concept of opportunity cost. In general, economists define the "opportunity cost" of any good or service as the value of all the other goods or services that must be given up in order to produce that good or service – a cost that can be unimaginably great.

The age of accountability

The doctrine of an “age of accountability” is as old as the foundations of the world and was taught to and accepted by Adam himself. On the 5th of April, 1831, as Joseph Smith was translating the 17th Chapter of Genesis, Verse 11, he was inspired with the following insight concerning The Lord’s covenant with Abraham:

The root beer incident

By way of introduction to the root beer incident, I offer the following from another of my ruminations, Unheralded Stalwarts, from November of 2009:

“In 1953, when I was about 10 years old, we were a young family living in LaVerkin, Utah, a farming community of about 150 people. We had little money (my father was a schoolteacher/farmer) but I look back on that time as one of the best of my young life. I roamed the hills and orchards with my great friend, Leon Duncan; we had no television, no video games, no IPODs, no cell phones (we did have a 4-party line phone), and the movies were 5 miles away in Hurricane in a small building with a pot-bellied stove for heat. I had no idea that I was deprived of the finer things in life, and indeed, I was not.”

This country will never fail

I was inclined to apologize for the length of this article, but on second thought, it is probably not long enough.

I have read a great deal recently about the dire straits our great country is passing through.

I have read that our present leadership will, in fairly short order, cause the demise of democracy as we know it, that we should probably start building underground shelters again, and stockpile food, weapons, and ammunition against the coming anarchy.

The peace that passeth understanding

We had a great tragedy this week in our family. My 18-year-old nephew took his own life on Sunday morning. He had great potential. He was handsome, intelligent, talented, funny, liked by everyone. He was a high school football star, excelled at all sports, was loved by his classmates and family, and was a budding artist. He made some mistakes, but was recovering from them.

Personal mountains

In our bishopric meeting last week, it was the second counselor, Brent’s turn to offer a spiritual thought. He quoted a scripture:

… verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17:20)

Moroni tells us in Ether 12:30 that the brother of Jared had this kind of faith:

For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith.

Indecision becomes decision

When I was in my mid-teen years, we were blessed with a family doctor who was a dedicated member of the Church. His name was Dr. Milton H. Brinton. He was a wise man and a strong supporter of the Word Of Wisdom. So much so, in fact, that he prepared a slide show of the effects of smoking and use of alcohol and presented it to all who would listen. As a doctor, he had seen firsthand the effects of these things on people’s lives and happiness.

Heart scriptures

In Church today, our High Council speaker, Rulon Gardner, asked a question that seemed to me to be worthy of serious consideration and introspection. He said: “What are your 'heart' scriptures?” He defined heart scriptures as those that touch your heart in a personal way. He said that they are probably scriptures that struck you spiritually the first time you read them.

The Savior's Testimony of the Book of Mormon

At the afternoon session of our Stake Conference on the 13th of January 2008, our Mission President’s wife, Sister Joyce, pointed out to us that none other than Jesus Christ himself bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The Lord said, speaking of the prophet Joseph:

Gates and branches

There is a very interesting structure to be found in many passages of scripture. Being an old retired computer geek, I recognize these patterns as gates and branches. Gates allow choices to be made and alternate paths can be taken based on the information given to the computer program. The path taken is called a branch.

A child’s color palette

I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting this week when the sweet young lady of about seven years of age in front of me got out her magic markers (after the sacrament, of course) and proceeded to create a beautiful picture of her mother and father, her, and her brother. She labored intensely for 20 minutes or so to produce something her mother would love. It said “my family” in German across the top.

Choose the right trail

In our priesthood quorum meeting last week, our instructor, Brother Clark Moss, led us to formulate three questions as part of the lesson he was teaching. As I thought about these questions during the week, they seemed more and more profound and basic to our understanding of our journey here on the earth. This brought to mind my post in December 2009, called The Path. So this discussion seems to be a further expansion of my thoughts on that occasion. The three questions were: What trail am I on? Who is on it with me? Who is following me?

The Lord's employment benefits

In a post in December 2009, called The Rule of Mercy, we discussed the fate of those who die without the law. We talked about the wonderful mercy for them and us that pervades the scriptures. We concluded that all those who die without the law will have an opportunity to accept the gospel at some future time. This facet of the GPEG leads me to wonder if in fact, we would be better off without knowledge in this life. If we were ignorant of the Father’s plan and our part in it, if we were ignorant of the Savior’s unfathomable sacrifice for us, we could live as we chose on this earth and learn the gospel in eternity. Seems a lot easier.

You must build your own armour

In June of 1961, in a Baccalaureate speech at BYU, President Henry D. Moyle said:

Never be afraid. Your hearts are brave, your arms are strong, and God is your defense. Put on the whole armour of God.

Murmur not

One of my favorite words is “onomatopoeia” (a Greek word meaning name-making ). It describes words that imitate or reproduce the sounds they describe. The sounds literally make the meaning in such words as "buzz," "crash," "whirr," "clang" "hiss," "purr," "squeak," "mumble," "hush," "boom." Another word that sounds like its meaning is “murmur.” In Volume 8 of The Work and The Glory by Gerald Lund, Lydia teaches her children about this word:

Satan: point and counterpoint

Satan is a dark and fearsome creature; one whose greed and lust for power even in the pre-existence caused him to exercise his agency to defy the “Great Plan of the Eternal God” (GPEG) (Alma 34:9) and seek glory for himself. He has great power and subtlety. He can plant thoughts in our minds that seem harmless. Thoughts that lead to action and a small, seemingly harmless deviation from our eternal goals.

Arrivals and departures

Last Saturday, with my mother, I attended my Great Aunt Nora Bradshaw’s funeral. She was 101 years and 7+ months old when she passed away. Her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandchild gave her a wonderful tribute.

I said at the time that her husband Preston, who preceded her by fifteen years or so into the spirit world, was certainly waiting with great anticipation for her to arrive there. I suggested that when she did, he might have said: " ‘Bout time you got here.” He was a man of few words.