"conformity the day the Red Sea opened"

Our bishop chose the message from A Prayer for the Children by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland for our fifth Sunday lesson in August.

Parents simply cannot flirt with skepticism or cynicism, then be surprised when their children expand that flirtation into full-blown romance. If in matters of faith and belief children are at risk of being swept downstream by this intellectual current or that cultural rapid, we as their parents must be more certain than ever to hold to anchored, unmistakable moorings clearly recognizable to those of our own household. It won’t help anyone if we go over the edge with them, explaining through the roar of the falls all the way down that we really did know the Church was true and that the keys of the priesthood really were lodged there but we just didn’t want to stifle anyone’s freedom to think otherwise. No, we can hardly expect the children to get to shore safely if the parents don’t seem to know where to anchor their own boat. Isaiah once used a variation on such imagery when he said of unbelievers, “[Their] tacklings are loosed; they could not . . . strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail.” Isaiah 33:23

Also

Nephi-like, might we ask ourselves what our children know? From us? Personally? Do our children know that we love the scriptures? Do they see us reading them and marking them and clinging to them in daily life? Have our children ever unexpectedly opened a closed door and found us on our knees in prayer? Have they heard us not only pray with them but also pray for them out of nothing more than sheer parental love? Do our children know we believe in fasting as something more than an obligatory first-Sunday-of-the-month hardship? Do they know that we have fasted for them and for their future on days about which they knew nothing? Do they know we love being in the temple, not least because it provides a bond to them that neither death nor the legions of hell can break? Do they know we love and sustain local and general leaders, imperfect as they are, for their willingness to accept callings they did not seek in order to preserve a standard of righteousness they did not create? Do those children know that we love God with all our heart and that we long to see the face—and fall at the feet—of His Only Begotten Son? I pray that they know this.

This talk reminds me of a story my dad often told me. His grandma lived next door to him as a teenager. One day as he was visiting with her she asked him if he had a testimony. He responded in a somewhat affirmative. She said to him that until he had a testimony of his very own. She wanted him to know that she knew.

I am beginning to carry this tradition on to my children. There are many things I do not know. At the root of it all, I know my parents love me. They have been good examples of what a disciple of Jesus is. Because of their model, I wanted to know for myself. I know that as I have practiced the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I have overflowed with happiness. My mind is clear. I am confident in all my doings. In short I have come to know as I know day from night that God lives (Mor 7:15). Jesus is His Son and my personal Savior. Joseph Smith was his prophet. Thomas S. Monson is his prophet today.

My knowledge comes from doing His will (John 7:17). Trying the word He has given me. The fruits of exercising my faith have been the proof. I hope to live my testimony by being increasingly constant in following the promptings I seek from Him.

Elder Holland related, "Elder Neal Maxwell once said to me in a hallway conversation, 'There didn’t seem to be any problem with conformity the day the Red Sea opened.' " I hope to by humble and reduce my need to be humbled as Israel was. To lead my children to the source so they need not look elsewhere for their thirst.

"Ask in Faith and Act"

David Bednar gave a great talk in April about asking in faith. It was easy for me to get his message because he repeated it so often. As you see below in italics, there are at least 32 times he repeated the principle "Ask in Faith and Act".

what we know is not always reflected in what we do
Ask in Faith and Act *
not only express but to do
plead and to perform
communicate and to act
that I might know which to join
now but also on what was to be done!
“Which church is right?”...“Which church should I join?”
True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ and always leads to righteous action.
“faith [is] the first principle in revealed religion” ... “the principle of action in all intelligent beings”
Thus, “faith without works is dead”
faith is not only the principle of action, but of power also
faith in Christ leads to righteous action
Understanding that faith is a principle of action and of power
holy communication and consecrated work *
prayer, as “a form of work
prayer, after we say “amen,” by acting
Asking in faith requires honesty, effort, commitment, and persistence.
you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-time missionaries to do our work!
pray with the expectation to act and not just to express
Asking for courage and boldness to open our mouths
Entreating Heavenly Father to help us identify
Pledging to do
Praying fervently for the strength to act
Gratitude would be expressed, ...And then the consecrated work of that prayer
same pattern of holy communication and consecrated work *
prayer becomes meaningful as we ask in faith and act *
pray in faith about our divinely given mandate to proclaim the gospelif he would like to pray with her... they needed to continue to act

*=Phrase written or spoken twice
More thought I liked:
After the Trial of Our Faith persevering through the trial of our faith
“dispute not because [we] see not, for [we] receive no witness until after the trial of [our] faith” (Ether 12:6).
the healing of this 13-year-old boy did not occur until after their faith [was demonstrated]
Not My Will, but Thine, Be Done -recognizing and accepting the will of God in our lives

LDS General Conference Audio Podcast

I found this a few months ago, http://feeds.lds.org/LDSGCComplete_eng.

I used http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/ to subscribe. For some reason it did not work on my other computer.

"If you Believe in Love"

On the way to work this morning I listened to If you Believe in Love from Colette Call's Power in His Touch album. I was moved more this morning by this song than by many times as I listen to the scriptures during my commute.

I can't find anywhere with lyrics. Here are some of them that touched me.

Can you believe in a Love so strong
It carries you through every day
Can you believe that one night so long ago
A Child was born, the Savior came

Nothing can take this light
You will be strong enough
If you believe in Love

It carried to my heart the message of Moroni 7:47-48 (emphasis added)

if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him

The Inexhaustible Gospel - behaving and knowing are inseparably linked

I just listened to "The Inexhaustible Gospel" a talk given by Neal A. Maxwell as a BYU devotional 18 Aug 1992 (text, media). It has been sitting on my iPod for months now. I woke up in the middle of the night so I decided to take a walk and listen to it.

Elder Maxwell has such a way with words. There is enough inspiration in this talk for many many blog entries. Inexhaustible.

For the last several months, I have been trying to keep in my mind what the word gospel means. In Mormon culture, gospel is sometimes loosely used to refer to the Mormon way of life, or any number of many teachings of the LDS church. It is helpful to me to remember that it means the good news from God. The central teaching of the LDS church. That Jesus is my Savior if I will have Him to be so. If I will enter into the agreement He offers. The phrase, Inexhaustible Gospel means more to me in this light. I am energized when I think about being saved.

Neal Maxwell describes how behaving and knowing play in the process of being saved.

gaining knowledge and becoming more Christlike "are two aspects of a single process" (Warner, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 4, p. 1490). This process is part of being "valiant" in our testimony of Jesus. Thus, while we are saved no faster than we gain a certain type of knowledge, it is also the case, as Richard Bushman has observed, that we will gain knowledge no faster than we are saved (Teachings, p. 217). So we have a fundamentally different understanding of knowledge and truth--behaving and knowing are inseparably linked. (emphasis added by me)

This truth that particularly interests me. My wife likes to tell the story of one night when I was falling to sleep as we prayed together. I said, "let us take in information as the air flows". I love information. I love learning all sorts of things. I often let this distract me from the weightier matters. Weightier matters sounds more interesting than it often is. The weightier matters sometimes is to change a diaper, to focus my energy to finishing a project for work. To be happy as I make lunch for my children 10 minutes before I want to leave for church. (Because I had not planned well for lunch.) As I do what I know is right in the moment I am in, I gain access to knowing. More, I become as that Savior is, step by step. I gain access to the help and joy and happiness He has.

Neal Maxwell states this principle again in relation to wisdom:

In gospel wisdom, knowing and behaving are irrevocably linked!

One basic limitation of worldly wisdom is its lack of longitudinality and of precious perspective. Worldly wisdom cannot "see afar off," and, without a spiritual memory, past mistakes are repeated; folly is resumed! Winston Churchill chose, by the way, as the motto for his last volume of World War II history these words:

"How the Great Democracies Triumphed, and so Were able to Resume the Follies Which Had so Nearly Cost Them Their Life." [Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 6, Triumph and Tragedy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1953), p. ix]

Maxwell further describes this kind of discipleship as orthodoxy, "Ultimate orthodoxy--and orthodoxy isn't a popular word nowadays--is expressed in the Christlike life that involves both mind and behavior." Later he continues,

How intellectually amazing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is! The gospel is truly inexhaustible! It is marvelous! It is a wonder!

Yet orthodoxy is required to keep all these truths in essential balance. In orthodoxy lies real safety and real felicity! Flowing from orthodoxy is not only correctness but happiness.

It is in the doing that I become safely and permanently saved. By persisting in doing good, I gain integrity. It becomes part of my character. If I persist in learning His law, I come to understand how inadequate I am in doing it. I call upon His name as Alma did and He saves me. I am only required to do my best. I continue to call upon Him. I work hard. I rest and study and do all things in balance and order. I continue to cry unto Him and he saves me. When I stumble, He is there for me.

Minute after minute, hour, day, month and decade, I call upon His name. I renew my promises to Him each week. He fulfills His part of our bargain. As I continue to repent, my life fills with more joy and meaning. Intellectually, physically, emotionally and in all ways, he makes my life more enriched and satisfying. Bit by bit, He and I whittle away all that is not holy. All that prevents fullness of laughing and smiling.

That is enough for now. It is getting light outside and there are other things I am to be doing. I will list below more quotes from Neal Maxwell's talk. Perhaps I will write more about them later.

Brilliance, by itself, is not wholeness, nor happiness. Knowledge, if possessed for its own sake and unapplied, leaves one's life unadorned. A Church member, for instance, might describe the Lord's doctrines but not qualify to enter the Lord's house. One could produce much brilliant commentary without being exemplary. One might be intellectually brilliant but Bohemian in behavior. One might use his knowledge to seek preeminence or dominion.

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Truth includes, but is not limited to, knowledge that corresponds to reality--things as they were, things as they are, and things as they will be (Jacob 4:13; D&C 93:24). Gospel truth is "morally richer," therefore, than the world's definition of truth, as Terry Warner has written (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 4 [New York: Macmillan Co., 1992], p. 1490).

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you and I should be fully qualified and certified in traditional education and its processes for yet another very good reason: bilinguality. The men and women of Christ should be truly educated and articulate as to secular knowledge but should also be educated and articulate in the things of the Spirit!

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What does it mean to despise the shame of the world? (2 Nephi 9:18)
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"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" (T. S. Eliot, The Rock [1934], I).
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I have always had a special appreciation for my friends who, though resolutely irreligious themselves, were not scoffers. Instead, though doubtless puzzled by me and their other religious friends, they were nevertheless respectful. I admire the day-to-day decency of such men and women. Though detached from theology, their decency is commendable.

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"It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule." [Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), p. 190]

He closes, "by speaking further of Jesus, our Perfect Shepherd".

But If Not

I was reading the lesson I think we have in priesthood today, Words of Hope and Consolation at the Time of Death. I thought of a talk given recently in General Conference that references Daniel chapter 3.

Centuries ago, Daniel and his young associates were suddenly thrust from security into the world—a world foreign and intimidating. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to bow down and worship a golden image set up by the king, a furious Nebuchadnezzar told them that if they would not worship as commanded, they would immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. “And who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”

The three young men quickly and confidently responded, “If it be so [if you cast us into the furnace], our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand.” That sounds like my eighth-grade kind of faith. But then they demonstrated that they fully understood what faith is. They continued, “But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” Dan. 3:18 That is a statement of true faith.

They knew that they could trust God—even if things didn’t turn out the way they hoped. They knew that faith is more than mental assent, more than an acknowledgment that God lives. Faith is total trust in Him.

Faith is believing that although we do not understand all things, He does. Faith is knowing that although our power is limited, His is not. Faith in Jesus Christ consists of complete reliance on Him.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego knew they could always rely on Him because they knew His plan, and they knew that He does not change. They knew, as we know, that mortality is not an accident of nature. It is a brief segment of the great plan of our loving Father in Heaven to make it possible for us, His sons and daughters, to achieve the same blessings He enjoys, if we are willing.

They knew, as we know, that in our premortal life, we were instructed by Him as to the purpose of mortality: “We will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them.”

So there we have it—it’s a test. The world is a testing place for mortal men and women. When we understand that it’s all a test, administered by our Heavenly Father, who wants us to trust in Him and to allow Him to help us, we can then see everything more clearly.

His work and His glory, He told us, is “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” He has already achieved godhood. Now His only objective is to help us—to enable us to return to Him and be like Him and live His kind of life eternally.

Knowing all this, it was not difficult for those three young Hebrews to make their decision. They would follow God; they would exercise faith in Him. He would deliver them, but if not—and we know the rest of the story. (Dennis E. Simmons, “But If Not …,” Ensign, May 2004, 73. Bold added by Rich)

There is another GC article that also references "But if not".

Too often we offer our prayer or perform our administration and then wait nervously to see whether our request will be granted, as though approval would provide needed evidence of His existence. That is not faith! Faith is, quite simply, a confidence in the Lord. In Mormon’s words, it is “a firm mind in every form of godliness” (Moro. 7:30; emphasis added). The three Hebrew magistrates expressed trust that the Lord would deliver them from the fiery furnace, “but if not,” they said to the king, “we [still] will not serve thy gods” (Dan. 3:18; emphasis added). Significantly, not three but four men were seen in the midst of the flames, and “the form of the fourth [was] like the Son of God” (Dan. 3:25). (Lance B. Wickman, “But If Not,” Ensign, Nov 2002, 30)

Update 2011-05-17
As I was searching for this talk I found out that Martin Luther King Jr. had given a speech on was seems like the same theme.

"Power...given by God so universally"

What power was Jeffrey R. Holland speaking of?

I submit to you that no power, priesthood or otherwise, is given by God so universally to so many with virtually no control over its use except self-control. And I submit to you that you will ever be more like God at any other time in this life than when you are expressing that particular power. (Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments. BYU Devotional. 12 January 1988.)

This is one of the quotes one of my favorite people has on the inside of her kitchen cabinet door.

This puts in perspective the patriarchal order for me. Yes the man is the head of the home (not the neck). Yet he cannot excercise this, one of the most sacred and potent of powers, without a woman. We excercise it most strongly when the man and woman are married. When they are committed to each other. When they have made solemn commitments to God.

All of us will be held accountable for how we excercise the power of life within us. A man and woman who make covenants with God and to each other has the benefit of His power to fulfill the raising of the children in a Christlike home. To pass on a legacy worthy of Him.

I know that I cannot live up to this standard. I must do my best and leave the rest to His grace. I must call upon Him before I can even have the hope of doing His work in my home.

There is so much joy in raising children. I say often that one of the wisest things God did for us is allow us to become parents. How better to give us perspective; to let us know how it is like for him? We are responsible for children with their own wills. We can learn how to lead and inspire them to live according to the plan of happiness.

Now to attend to the little one in my lap.

LDS Ordinances

Here is a reference I found useful.

“Chapter 21: Ordinances,” Gospel Fundamentals, 115

Inspired Family Planning

Today I found an "I Have a Question" article from the Aug 1979 Ensign. The question was "Is it our understanding that we are to propagate children as long and as frequently as the human body will permit? Is there not any kind of 'gospel family-planning,' for lack of a better way to say it?"

There is a part in it that is in line with a discussion we had in our ward in a fireside we had before our 2007 Ward Conference. The stake presidency was there and was taking questions about church policy. They were answering them from the General Handbook of Instruction. It is funny how many times the answer was, pray about it together.

I recall a President of the Church, now deceased, who visited his daughter in the hospital following a miscarriage.
She was the mother of eight children and was in her early forties. She asked, "Father, may I quit now?" His response was, "Don't ask me. That decision is between you, your husband, and your Father in Heaven. If you two can face him with a good conscience and can say you have done the best you could, that you have really tried, then you may quit. But, that is between you and him. I have enough problems of my own to talk over with him when we meet!" So it is clear to me that the decisions regarding our children, when to have them, their number, and all related matters and questions can only be made after real discussion between the marriage partners and after prayer.
(Homer Ellsworth "I Have a Question," Ensign, Aug 1979, 23–25)

Keep in mind that the "I Have a Question" articles always has had a disclaimer at the top like "Questions of general gospel interest answered for guidance, not as official statements of Church policy." That being said, these sources have been a welcome confirmation to me as to the principles behind inspired family planning.

The short answer I give to people when they ask "Are you going to have more?" is "We'll see". It is something to be considered carefully, "after real discussion between the marriage partners and after prayer".

My wife has been much more inspired as we have considered "Do we have more?" I always wanted a lot of children. Yet when the time came, almost always there was some consideration keeping me from wanting to. Can I provide for them physically, emotionally, etc.? I remember one such time when my wife felt like it was time to stop preventing. I said that I would go pray about it. I went in the other room to kneel. I was not there 1 or 2 minutes when I felt foolish. I knew the answer was that there were more to come for our family. My selfish reservations did not stack up.

The Lord does not want us to run faster than we have strength. Yet in more than one passage, this counsel is followed by "be diligent" (Mosiah 4:27, D&C 10:4). The Lord lives in a state of unending happiness. As we trust in Him and seek His counsel, as we seek answers to difficult questions, seeking answers with the determination to follow, we will be led to the kind of happiness He enjoys.

- Jul 2015

We claim the privilege of choosing the number of children we have according the dictates of our own conscience and allow all parents the same privilege let them have or not have who they may.