This time of year is, personally, one of my favorites. I grew up in an area that, honestly, didn't have much of a Fall. We joked that the weather went from August to Winter. Now that my family and I are living here in the Midwest, I've really come to appreciate Fall. About my favorite part of Fall is, and has always been, Thanksgiving.
I know that for most people Thanksgiving is about Turkey, football, and a few days off of school, but I think that's along the lines of saying Christmas is about gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers and cheap Santa Claus hats. Just as we try every year to remember the true meaning of Christmas, I try to make a special effort to remember the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
Just like "Christmas" is the day for the "Mass" about "Christ", "Thanksgiving" is the day for "Giving" "Thanks". We all learn about the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and the celebration with the Native Americans in 1621, and that gets close to the point, but it doesn't quite hit is. The point is that we have so much to be grateful for. We have so many blessings that we would do well to remember from day to day. It is wonderful thing to celebrate how much we have to be grateful for, and to remember Him from Whom we receive it.
In 1789, George Washington proclaimed a national "day of public thanksgiving and prayer" to commemorate the end of the Revolutionary War, and the new Federal Constitution. In his proclamation, he reminds us the reason for such a celebration -- that we may "[acknowledge] with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God".
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor-- and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be-- That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks--for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation--for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted--for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually--to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed--to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord--To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us--and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
The Lord has also reminded us to "live in thanksgiving daily" (Alma 34:38) and that "he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more" (Doctrine and Covenants 78:19).
Someone once taught me that if you want to feel hear the Lord speaking to you, kneel and pray in thanks, thanking Him for every blessing you can think of. When you have thanked Him for every blessing you can think of, His Spirit will whisper to you, reminding you of other blessings that you can be grateful for. (Suffice it to say, you need to allocate a good deal of time for such a prayer.) This year, let's spend a little less time counting how many calories we can consume, and a little more time counting how many blessings we can remember.
In the comments, I'd like to start a list, with whoever would like to contribute, of all the blessings we have to be grateful for. Perhaps by remembering how much we have, we can take our minds off of how much we want. I don't think it should come as any surprise that by remembering the true meaning of Thanksgiving we are better prepared to remember the true meaning of Christmas.
As you all surely know, this November, voters in California and other areas will have the chance to vote to determine, in large part, the future of marriage in this country. Of all the issues this fall, this is the one which will have the most lasting and profound effect on what kind of world our children grow up in. Presidents come and go. Economies rise and fall and rise again. Funding programs and international relations and all of these things are really very temporary when compared to the eternal Divine Institution of Marriage. I've blogged on this subject before. First of all, the most important thing we can do is get out and vote! and encourage others to vote! We need to vote and make sure that this proposition passes. This is not just a California issue. This is an issue for the entire country. We have seen very clearly how the issue of marriage cannot be simply left to the states. (Marriage opponents will surely make very obvious use of the Constitution's "Full faith and credit" clause (Article IV Section 1), notwithstanding the Defense of Marriage Act.) Fortunately Massachusetts law has prevented exportation from that state, but California has no such statute.
In a letter from the First Presidency, we have been asked to "do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman." In the early days of the church, members were asked to live the Law of Consecration and give of their skills, labor, time, and earthy possessions (sometimes even all of them) to the work of the Lord and for the building up of the Kingdom. The church today has generally asked very little of us, but shouldn't we be willing to give and live and fulfill our covenants of discipleship to the same measure as our ancestors did?
Once again, I'd just like to encourage all of us to do everything we can to see that this Proposition passes. "Behold, I sent you out warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor. " (D&C 88:81) Let us each do all we can to "warn our neighbors" and fulfill the call that we have been issued.
This weekend is a special event that happens only twice each year. This weekend is the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those who aren't members of this faith, this may not, at first, seem like a big deal. However, those of us who belong to the church know how significant and important this weekend is. Every six months we have the privilege of hearing from the men and women that God has selected to represent Him on earth.
We all know the power and inspiration that can come from reading the words of Isaiah, Paul, Peter and Moses. We know that the Lord was able to use these people to speak to us, personally, even though we live centuries after them and in a culture that is completely different from the one they knew. God can do this because He is the same, and He cares about and sends His words to all His children. God sent His words through His prophets anciently because He cared about His children and desired their salvation. He again sends His words through His prophets today because He still cares about His children and still desires their salvation.
The prophet of God today is Thomas S. Monson. The Lord leads His church through His prophet, as well as through those others whom He has chosen for this work. We are so blessed to have a prophet on earth today, and even more blessed that, through modern technology, he can speak to the whole earth at once. Peter, Paul and the other apostles struggled to visit and write to the members in their relatively limited geographic area. They knew that even though these people had the scriptures and their earlier writings, they needed continual admonishing to help keep them in the right way. We are the same. God loves His children now just as much as He loved His children then. He knows that they still need His continual reproving and reassurance, His hope and guidance, His nourishing "by the good word of God." Today we have the great blessing of hearing the word of God through a living prophet. The Savior invited everyone to come and hear His words. Similarly, everyone is invited to hear the words of God's prophets today. "Come listen to a prophet's voice, and hear the word of God."
Conference sessions will be held from 10am-12noon and 2pm-4pm Mountain Daylight Time on Saturday and Sunday, 4-5 October 2008. In addition, a General Priesthood Meeting will be held Saturday night at 6pm MDT. Information about how to attend, watch or listen on-line to General Conference. Also, General Conference will be broadcast by satellite to most LDS Meeting Houses and on BYUTV (General Conference page here). The priesthood session will only be available in person or at local meeting houses. If you have any questions, feel free to ask a representative here.
And we see that death comes upon mankind, yea, the death which has been spoken of by Amulek, which is the temporal death; nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead. -- Alma 12:24
Well, this last month or two has been rather interesting. I'm a graduate student, and as part of the program I'm in I need to pass a major test known as the qualifying exam. Part of what makes this exam so stressful is that you only get at most three chances to pass it. Now, most people do end up passing, but, honestly, it's hard to really feel accepted in the program, like I'm really a degree candidate, until I get this out of the way. Another part of being in graduate school is, of course, finding an adviser to work with. I've been looking around for about a year now, and I think I've finally found someone that I really think would be a good match. He doesn't have money to hire me right now, but he basically said that we can try it out and see if it works. If I can do good work during this semester, hopefully I'll be able to get funding in the group later.
About now, you might be wondering what all this has to do with "The Purpose of Life" or with the scripture that I posted above. This morning I was reading the scriptures, and I ran across Alma 12:24. One of my first thoughts was "That is just about exactly how I feel." I felt like I had been given a finite (and often seemingly all too short) space of time in which to prove myself, a space of time to prepare, a space of time on which a lot of stuff depended. Just like with my qualifying exam, and just like my search for an adviser, this life is a time to prepare.
In this life, we're not really in any way trying to "convince" God that he wants to "hire" us to return to live with Him, nor is it true that He only has enough "funding" for so many of us. What we're really trying to do here is to become the type of person that we need to be to be able to enjoy living with Him again. I would really not enjoy working with my adviser or my research group if I couldn't contribute. I would always be struggling to understand what was going on, feeling guilty about not contributing, etc. Similarly, we wouldn't really enjoy living with Heavenly Father and Jesus if we couldn't present ourselves before Them with a clean conscience. It's not like They wouldn't love to have us there, just like I'm sure my adviser would love to have as many people participating in his group as possible. But we wouldn't enjoy it. We wouldn't be happy. God's plan is all about trying to make His children happy forever. He wants us to be happy. That is why we need to prepare for happiness. That is why we need to prepare to meet God.
The next question is "So, how do we prepare to meet God." This has been the theme of many of the prophets throughout history. John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way before the Savior. "As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Luke 3:4) John taught the people how to prepare for the ministry of the Savior by "preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" and telling them to "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance." (Luke 3:3,8) About a century earlier, another prophet named Alma taught his people how to prepare for the coming of the Savior.
For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people. Behold, I do not say that he will come among us at the time of his dwelling in his mortal tabernacle; for behold, the Spirit hath not said unto me that this should be the case. Now as to this thing I do not know; but this much I do know, that the Lord God hath power to do all things which are according to his word. But behold, the Spirit hath said this much unto me, saying: Cry unto this people, saying—Repent ye, and prepare the way of the Lord, and walk in his paths, which are straight; for behold, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and the Son of God cometh upon the face of the earth. -- Alma 7:7-9
In the end, what Heavenly Father wants for us is what any father wants for his children: to grow up, do what's right, and be happy. The Gospel, the Atonement, the commandments, repentance, the scriptures, prophets, and everything else is really to help us grow to overcome all the weaknesses and problems that we need to get rid of anyway. It's not in any way God trying to impose His will on us or trying to go on some sort of power trip. Quite the opposite. It is about helping us be better people and helping us be happy. It is about teaching us to love and be happy like He does.
God lives! He loves us! His love is so incredible and incomprehensible that it really should help us focus our every day to be a little better. God loves us so much that He sent His Son so that we can overcome our weaknesses and prepare to meet Him. His plan is the Plan of Happiness. Happiness will follow us if we follow the plan.
My wife and I were reading tonight in Ether chapter 12. It was pointed out to me once that since Moroni didn't originally think he would life long enough to write anything beyond the Book of Ether (Moroni 1:1,4), Ether 12 was originally Moroni's finishing words for the Book of Mormon. Reading it this way, I could really see the first part of this chapter as Moroni's summary of the Book of Mormon as a legacy of faith.
"For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him ...
"Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith.
"And behold ... so great was [the brother of Jared's] faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared, because of his word which he had spoken unto him, which word he had obtained by faith.
"And after the brother of Jared had beheld the finger of the Lord, because of the promise which the brother of Jared had obtained by faith, the Lord could not withhold anything from his sight; wherefore he showed him all things, for he could no longer be kept without the veil.
"And it is by faith that my fathers have obtainedthe promise that these things should come unto their brethren through the Gentiles;" (Ether 12:7-22)
And he could have gone on:
And it was by faith that Lehi was warned to take his family and flee Jerusalem.
And it was by faith that Nephi obtained the Brass Plates and found food for his family and was guided by the Liahona in the wilderness and built a ship to cross the sea and was warned to depart from his brothers.
And it was by faith that Mosiah I was warned to leave the land of Nephi and found the people of Zarahemla and translated the stone containing the "account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people."
And it was by faith that King Benjamin was able to give his people a "name ... that never should be blotted out, except it be through transgression", and it was by faith that his people were able to make a righteous covenant with the Lord.
And it was by faith that Abinadi prophesied to King Noah and his people. And it was by faith that Alma believed him and established a church in the land of Nephi. And it was by faith that the people of Alma were warned to flee, first out of the land of Nephi and Mormon, and later out of the land of Helem.
And it was by faith that the people of Ammon "buried the weapons of war, for peace."
And it was by faith that the young warriors, sons of the people of Ammon, were delivered.
And it was by faith that the people of the judge Lachoneus were delivered and were able to defeat the Gadianton robbers.
And it was by faith that Ammaron was able to hide up the records, and it was by faith that he was able recognize Mormon as the boy who would become the man to whom he should deliver the records.
And it was by faith that Mormon and Moroni were able to survive the destruction of the Nephites "to write the sad tale of the destruction of [their] people."
The list could be much, much longer, but these all add to Paul's great "cloud of witnesses" that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Let us always remember that "faith, hope and charity bringeth unto [the Savior]—the fountain of all righteousness." So, after we see this faith, what should we do? Moroni gives us the answer to this as well, "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen." (Ether 12:41)
First of all, I want to apologize for what a slacker I've been. When I realized it had been over a month since I've posted, I felt really bad. At first I wanted to blame it on the rigors of grad student life, or the fact that I've been spending so much time with my family, but to be honest, the reason I haven't been posting is because I've been slacking off. I need to change that.
Speaking of my family, I was reading with my two-year-old little boy in the Friend, and I really started to realize how simple the Gospel is. It's like the saying "Everything I needed to know I learned in kindergarten." Well, it's kind of like "Everything I needed to know I learned in Primary." Now, I'm not saying that there aren't complicated things in the Gospel, nor am I saying that we don't need to learn anything beyond Primary, nor am I saying that there isn't an immense, infinite, beautiful expanse of important and essential truth beyond even what we can learn here on Earth, but rather that the essence, the core of the Gospel is beautiful and simple.
Primary may not teach us everything we need to know to get through this life, but it seems to me that the foundation for the solution to any problem we might have can be traced back to the pure, simple, fundamental and beautiful truths that we have in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope that we can all "humble [ourselves] as [our] little children, and ... be saved with [our] little children." (Moroni 8:10)
My institute teacher recently gave us some material that made a lot of things make a lot more sense. A lot of times in the church we tend to split hairs over things like "What did Isaiah mean," or "What was Nephi trying to say with this." We also look very strongly at our own personal feelings and the impressions we get when we read Isaiah or Nephi or any of the other prophets. While I was at BYU, some students almost drew up battle lines over this issue, trying to divide the religion department into the more academically trained teachers and the more seminary / EFY type teachers. Each group of students had their own reasons for claiming that their teachers, and their corresponding methods of interpreting the scriptures, were superior.
In the end, we can all see that all these different methods have value in their own place, but sometimes it can be hard understanding how all the different ideas fit together. My institute teacher said that this was actually a problem that the Jews have had for centuries, and we can actually learn quite a bit from the way they approached it. (He also basically said that any time he wanted to understand academically how to deal with issues like this regarding the scriptures, he would usually look to the Jews because they have been studying the scriptures longer and more faithfully than just about anyone.)
Essentially, for hundreds of years the Rabbis had been interpreting the scriptures to help the people understand how to apply, and how the Law of Moses did apply to their lives. Then, about the 11th century, people began to take a more academic, contextual, historical, even archaeological view of the scriptures and they found that many of the interpretations were actually quite the opposite of what Moses probably meant in context. This caused a major controversy. What interpretation should the people use to guide their every day lives? Should they throw out the Rabbinical interpretations because of the work of the academics? After a great deal of discussion and debate, they decided that the Rabbinical teachings were still authoritative because (and this is the part that really hits home with me as a Latter-day Saint) the Rabbis held independent authority to interpret the scriptures. In other words, even though what the Rabbi said may not have been exactly what Moses meant, it is still the word of God, because he has authority to give (or at least interpret) the word of God. The work of the academics was still important, but it did not negate the Rabbinical interpretations.
This is a lot like what we see today. If we look at Isaiah 2:2, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it." We all know that this refers to the temple, or even specifically the Salt Lake Temple. (one reference here.) However, we read in verse 1, "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." Most likely, if we were to go back in time and ask someone who heard Isaiah speak, "What did he mean by this paragraph?", they probably wouldn't have understood it to be a talk about Utah or the Salt Lake valley. Most likely, they would have understood it to be a talk about their temple, in Jerusalem. (However, knowing Isaiah, he might have had both fulfillments (and several more besides) in his mind when he gave the talk. He was really good at keeping two or three different epochs straight in his head at any given time. The whole "eternal now" thing must have really rubbed off on him.) Nonetheless, I can say with complete certainty that Isaiah 2:2 refers directly to the Salt Lake Temple (as well as other temples), Utah, and the 2002 Winter Olympics, not because I have to go back and ask Isaiah or his listeners or some literary scholar what he meant, but because I know that the modern prophets have authority to interpret and give the word of God. (This exact example might not be the best one, but I hope my message is clear.) (Wow, I'm really getting long-winded on-line too.)
Well, this is summed up in two kinds of interpreting the scriptures that (according to my institute teacher) are known as Dera&scaron and Pešat (pronounced "Derash" and "Peshat").
Two kinds of interpretation
Pešat
Dera&scaron
When?
Then
Now (whenever "now" is)
Who?
As applied to, or understood by, original audience(s)
Us (whoever "we" are)
How do we get this interpretation?
Academic means (knowledge of languages, history, culture, etc.)
The Holy Ghost
Main Difference?
Contextual -- "What did Isaiah mean?"
Non-contextual -- "What does Isaiah mean to me?"
Examples?
FARMS, commentaries, scholarly papers, etc.
The scriptures, the Ensign, General Conference
How many interpretations?
One or a few
Many possible (The Lord can help different people understand the same scripture in different ways to give them the individual help they need.)
(Most of the previous table comes from a handout my institute teacher gave us, so this is not my original work.)
The main point of all of this is that both types of interpretations are important! Even though I doubt that Alma or Mormon had my, specific mission in mind when they penned Mosiah 24:13-14, doesn't mean that the Lord can't use that scripture to speak to me on that subject. (And I imagine the Lord had me, and each one of us in mind when He inspired those words -- He just might not have let Alma or Mormon know all the details, but that's beside the point.) So, that interpretation is valid and authoritative for me. Even Nephi did this exact same thing when quoting Isaiah. Elder McConkie tells us that Nephi "gave, not a literal, but an inspired and interpreting translation. And in many instances his words give either a new or greatly expanded meaning to the original prophetic word." (Source: "Keys to Understanding the Bible" in Sermons and Writings of Bruce R. McConkie, ed. Mark L. McConkie, 290-291.)
I guess the point of what has turned into a very long-winded post (my wife knows I get long-winded in real life too) is that we don't need to think that a personal, spiritual interpretation is any less authoritative then trying to understand what Isaiah "meant". Nor do we need to put down all the academic and archaeological scholars as second rate, because their work is valid and important too.
27 January 2008 -- President Gordon B. Hinckley passes away. President Hinckley was probably the most amazing man I ever knew. I have to confess, when I was little, while President Benson was the president of the Church, I remember always thinking of President Hinckley as the boring one in the First Presidency. I mean, President Benson was the prophet, so it was always neat when he spoke, especially when, later in his ministry, it got to be a much rarer occasion. President Monson has always been the story teller, so that has always been neat (especially if you're a five year old). President Hinckley always just seemed to be the one to deal with all the business and stuff like that. However, when he became the Prophet, I distinctly remember seeing the mantle fall on him, so to speak. His was always the voice of optimism, the voice of faith, the voice of motivation, the call to repentance, the voice of leadership.
He reached out to the youth at a time when I needed it most. I distinctly remember one conference talk while I was on my mission where I really felt the power of his loving, but firm, calls to repentance. I remember noting to myself that President Hinckley had gotten "Old Testament" on the bretheren -- i.e. he had spoken with the power and strength that we normally associate with prophets of the Old Testament. (In saying this, I do not want anyone to presume me guilty of the crimes of which he was speaking, but rather to illustrate the conviction that I felt that President Hinckley was a prophet of God just as much as were Moses, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, and all the rest.) His "six B's" have guided and refocused a generation of youth who will be forever grateful to him.
He was also a prophet who brought temples to the people. Under his ministry, the number of temples in the world nearly tripled from 47 to 124, with plans laid for 13 more. Under this surge of temple building there were many firsts. For example, 14 November 1999 saw the first time two temples were dedicated on the same day (Halifax Nova Scotia and Regina Saskatchewan). In speaking about these temples, President Hinckley said, "I wish to say to everyone here, come to the temple. Live worthy to come to the temple. Live the commandments of God so that you may come to the temple. Do those things which will make you eligible to serve in the house of the Lord. It has been built for you, my brothers and sisters, that you might have the opportunity of coming here and receiving the wonderful blessings that can be had nowhere else in all the world, except in other temples, where you may be sealed together as husband and wife, where your children may be sealed to you, where you may work in behalf of your forebears, who have gone beyond. That great and marvelous and wonderfully unselfish work occurs in the house of the Lord. Come to the temple" (meeting, Aba, Nigeria, Aug. 6, 2005).
President Hinckley refocused our attention on retention. He was always concerned with "the one," the individual member. I remember Elder Holland of the Twelve speaking of President Hinckley, "For the Church at large, we have so many things to associate in our minds with the visionary ministry of President Gordon B. Hinckley, including (perhaps especially) the vast expansion of temples and temple building. But I dare say for those of us on this rostrum, it is likely that we will remember him at least as emphatically for his determination to retain in permanent activity the converts who join this Church. No modern prophet has addressed this issue more directly nor expected more from us in seeing that it happen. With a twinkle in his eye and a hand smacking the table in front of him, he said to the Twelve recently, “Brethren, when my life is finished and the final services are concluding, I am going to rise up as I go by, look each of you in the eye, and say, ‘How are we doing on retention?’ ”"
There are many other things which I could list which President Hinckley can and will be remembered by, but this is what I have for now. There have been many tributes made by people much more talented than I am. One of my favorites is posted below. All in all, the long and the short of this, however, is that I know that President Gordon B. Hinckley was a Prophet of God.
Praise to the man... We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.
2 February 2008 -- Funeral Services for President Hinckley were held in the Conference Center. As with many others, I want to take one more chance to honor President Hinckley as a Prophet of God. It was impressive to see thousands of people waiting hours to pay their last respects to this great man. (As with many others, I wish I had been able to pay my respects personally, but living a couple thousand miles away makes that difficult.) It was so moving to see people lining the streets saluting the funeral procession with canes and white handkerchiefs. I will never forget that amazing man. He moved us to "stand a little taller" and "be a little better" (here, here, and here). He really made me want to be a better person. I hope, one day, to be able to tell him personally what his faith and example meant to me. I thank the Lord for His Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley.
4 February 2008 -- The First Presidency is reorganized with President Thomas S. Monson as President, President Henry B. Eyring as First Counselor, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf as Second Counselor. As always, I am impressed by the power in the First Presidency. From the start, this was a united team. I know these men are Prophets of God and serve under His direction.
2007 - 2008 -- The "Mormon Moment." I wasn't sure where to put this post, because the "Mormon Moment" is quite long for a moment. Every once in a while, we are presented with unusual opportunities for ignorance, "distrust and stereotypes to yield to understanding". Our task is simply to know what to do with these opportunities. We need to always reach out in love and understanding to our friends and neighbors. Let us "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you" (1 Peter 3:15), even to those who are simply "curious".
9 February 2008 -- A Worldwide Leadership Training Meeting of the Church focusing on the theme of "Building Up a Righteous Posterity" is held for all adult members. First of all, I was so impressed by the personal and familiar tone of the conference. I was also impressed by the spirit of complete unity and respect that I saw between the bretheren and sisters. You could tell that they knew why they were there and what their purpose was.
The continual and renewed focus on the family sent a message to me. We all want peace and joy in our family lives. I believe that we can all know that this is where real peace and joy in this life is to be found. As we read in The Family: A Proclamation to the World, "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ." I know that this is true. I am trying every day to live it. I can really tell the difference between those days when I am doing fairly well and those days when I am doing not so well. I am so grateful for the guidance of the leaders of the Church.
5 April 2008 -- A Solemn Assembly of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is held in which the new First Presidency of the Church is sustained, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson is added to the Quorum of the Twelve. As I said before, it is exciting to see the power and unity among the brethren. I was impressed how over and over again speakers in conference testified of the love that we all held and hold for President Hinckley and their testimony of him as a Prophet, and then testified of President Monson as our Prophet today. It is the same mission, the same course. I think this was a comfort and reassurance that the church needed to hear. I know I did.
What a blessing it is to be able to sustain our leaders, individually and independently! I am so grateful to be able to sustain these people as my leaders and pledge my faith, loyalty, and support for this work, recognizing them as the people that the Lord has chosen to direct the affairs of His church on the Earth.
I know President Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God. I have felt the power of his testimony. One of my favorite videos of the new First Presidency is posted below.
"We thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet."
May 2008 -- The California state Supreme Court rules that the California State Constitution requires that same gender "marriage" must be recognized by the state. This is an especially hard post for me to write about. I know this is a very hot topic, so for the time being I have set comments to be moderated. The Church has made repeated stands on this subject here, here, and here. I really can't express how much this ruling upset me. The official church news release said that "Yesterday’s California Supreme Court decision is unfortunate." I find that to be an extreme understatement. I am a firm believer in the democratic system and in the strength of diversity, but what is, by this ruling, being called "marriage" is not, never has been, and never will be marriage as the word was intended to be used. My wife and I have been married for four years this summer. We have a little boy who recently turned two and a half, and I sincerely worry about the type of world in which he will live. I do not want people trying to convince him that certain things are acceptable, when they are not acceptable.
I know many people wonder what the big backlash is about, supposing that extending the definition of marriage cannot harm traditional marriages, but I feel very strongly about this. Re-defining marriage does harm existing marriages. It is a significant harm. You cannot re-define an institution without changing those items already covered by that institution. I know many will decry traditional marriage as "discriminatory," but there have always been restrictions placed on what types of unions can be legally considered to be marriages. Laws exist restricting marriages to be monogamous. Laws exist restricting marriages prohibiting marriages between close relatives. I doubt that the natural restriction prohibiting "marriage" between a person and an animal has ever even been brought up in court, as it is such a natural restriction that almost no one would even think of it as a restriction. Up until recently, relationships between people of the same gender were considered in this category -- too obvious and natural a restriction to really be considered a restriction. There are many relationships, committed, enduring, reciprocal, loving, powerful relationships that cannot and should not be considered as a marriage.
The Family: A Proclamation to the World states, "We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.
"All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. ...
"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. ...
"We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society."
As with many others, I hold nothing but love and concern for those that have same gender attractions, but to love the person is not to condone the action, nor should love for the person be a motivation for us to seek to legally justify the action. Such is not acceptable. Marriage between a man and a woman is what has always been, and will always be the fundamental backbone of society. I urge all people everywhere to more urgently and diligently take those steps that will protect and establish the traditional family and marriage between a man and a woman as the fundamental unit of society.
Well, this year has been a big one. There have been a lot of major changes in the church and in the world. I figured, first of all, I would just go through some of them and give some commentary.
10 August 2007 -- President James E. Faust, second counselor in the First Presidency, passed away. For me, personally, this was one of the most challenging deaths to deal with in recent years. It was interesting that the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve under President Hinckley remained unchanged longer than at just about any other time. From the time that the First Presidency was organized under President Hinckley (12 March 1995) until the deaths of Elder Maxwell and Elder Haight in July of 2004, both quorums remained unchanged. President Faust's death in August was the first time under President Hinckley that the First Presidency needed to be reorganized.
For me, Presdient Faust could always be counted on to bring a smile and comfort in times of need. I remember seeing him during the last few general conferences, and I remember seeing how he was in obviously poor health, but he was always in high spirits. I can never really say how much his attitude and optimism meant for me. I thought that the last conference talk he wrote really summarized his ministry well. He was always helping people see that they had "The Power to Change" through faith on, and power from, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a powerful and loving servant of the Savior.
6 October 2007 -- President Henry B. Eyring was called to be the second counselor in the First Presidency, replacing President Faust, and Elder Quentin L. Cook was called to fill the resulting vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve. Remembering this General Conference was rather interesting to me, because I remember before the conference my wife and I were talking with each other, understandably guessing and speculating about who would be called to fill the vacancy in the First Presidency. (I have since learned not to do this, if nothing else because I never get it right.) I must confess that I never really suspected Elder Eyring. I always had thought him still very new as an Apostle, and never really pictured him in that position. I was clearly very wrong. I have since seen him as one of the most powerful leaders in a long time. He has a way of helping each individual member to connect with the power of the Holy Spirit and understand how the Lord really does reach to every person in every capacity. It really is true when the Lord says "For my athoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)
15 December 2007 -- Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve gives the commencement address at BYU-Hawaii and invites Latter-day Saints to "join the conversation about the church" especially using the "new media" of the internet. The next event is, honestly, the impetus behind why I and thousands of other Latter-day Saints are blogging about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Shortly after his address, may people paraphrased the request of his talk as "Thou shalt blog." Today is six months since that talk, so I can tell that I need to be a good deal more diligent and punctual in responding to spiritual promptings and the words of the living prophets. (Better late than never, I suppose.) To "join the conversation", I guess I mostly want to testify that I also know that this church is the work of the Lord. I feel it and have felt it frequently and strongly. Despite my inabilities in conveying that message, I just want to state that I know it is true, and I hope that I can be an effective participant in this regard.
January 2008 -- The Joseph Smith volume in the Teachings of the Presidents of the Church series comes out for use in Priesthood and Relief Society meetings for 2008-2009. Honestly, this was the book I thought would never be written. I even remember talking with my wife a year or so ago about the different manuals that had come out recently. The question came up as to whether there was a specific pattern that the church was following in these manuals. As near as I could tell, there wasn't. I did speculate, however, that there were a few manuals that we would not see. First of all, I doubted that they would ever come out with a manual covering the teachings of the current prophet, simply because they aren't done yet. It just didn't seem like that was something that they would do. Secondly, I doubted that we would ever see a manual on the Prophet Joseph Smith. I said this because we study his teachings every four years in the Doctrine and Covenants anyway, and because there is just so much! I figured that it would be nearly impossible to effectively contain his ministry in a volume that would be even approachable in such a format. Well, I was wrong. They did it. I am awed and inspired by the work that has been done in putting together this manual. I guess our challenge now is to teach and learn effectively from it and to apply what we learn.
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
Isaiah 30:8
Hi. My name is Bill, and this is my first blog post on my first blog. I have felt for some time that this is something I've needed to do, and I've finally gotten around to doing it. I will try to post regularly, but as a husband, father, member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and grad student, my schedule is often rather packed.
As the name of this blog implies, I'm intending this blog to be basically focused on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the scriptures, and other related topics. I don't claim to have any special knowledge or training in these areas. I am not a student of ancient languages, archeology, or anything like that. I don't know Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, or any of those other languages. (I do know Portuguese and a little bit of Spanish, but that's beside the point.) I have never personally met President Monson, President Hinckley, nor do I really have any special "in" with any of the general authorities of the church. I do not claim to be anything other than what one person called a "foolish mortal in desperate need of the Atonement." I have all sorts of my own problems and weaknesses and foolishnesses. However, I am a faithful member of the Church, I know it is true. Just like millions of other people, I'm trying my best to do what I know I should. In this blog, I hope to share some of my thoughts, feelings, ideas, and convictions about the Gospel and my Savior.
I welcome any comments or thoughts. I do not intend this to be a big discussion board, and I absolutely do not want this to become the battleground for contentious arguments. If you have any comments, questions, concerns, ideas, or other things that would be better served in an email to me, you should direct them to the email address that I set up for this blog, BillsLDSBlog at gmail. (That is at gmail dot com, of course. -- Sorry, just trying to stop bots and phishing, etc.) Other questions can probably be best served by visiting the official church websites here and here, or perhaps by visiting another blog by one of the many faithful Latter-day Saints. (A network site with links to many LDS and LDS-themed blogs can be found at lds.net. Unlike the official Church websites, these blogs are not to be seen as official statements by the Church.)
I take full and sole responsibility for what I post on this blog. My views are not to be construed as official Church doctrine or anything like that. I'm learning just like everyone else. I welcome any questions or comments.
