Proposition 8

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.

Chruch's Website on Proposition 8
www.protectmarriage.com
lds.com newsroom articles here and here
BYU Daily Universe articles here, here and here (bottom left of pg 1 on this last one -- I couldn't get the article all by itself)

"Come Listen to a Prophet's Voice"

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.

The Purpose of Life

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.


Related Talks: here, here, here, and here.