All My Strength

His father watched for a while, then came to his son and said, “You need to use all your strength to move a rock this large.”
The boy responded, “I have used all my strength!”
His father corrected him: “No you haven’t. You haven’t had my help yet!”
They then bent down together and moved the rock easily. 
("Drawing Closer to God" Elder Terence M. Vinson, Oct 2013)

This quote from Conference reminds me that all my strength includes those around me that willingly offer their strength to me in doing good. I can call on them and they will happily give their effort and heart and soul to my cause. And me to them.

Maybe this is what the Savior was referring to when he said, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (Matt 17:21) We must draw our will to His through prayer and fasting. Tap into power beyond our our own. Then we can cast out the demons in our lives.

It also means that we take the following kind of oath.

Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to fellowship, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen. (D&C 88:133)

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The Law of Chastity Is Not Changing

The Law of Chastity Is Not Changing. Jeffrey Thayne. Oct 2013

Responding to Heresy and Apostasy

A great post on Responding to Heresy and Apostasy.  I think it perfectly captures what I think the spirit of President Uchtdorf's Saturday address.

I am a Mormon and I have questions

I am a Mormon and I have questions

I posted this article on Facebook and it generated a dynamic of comments among some of my friends that caused me to write this.

The fact that there will always be people that are willing to share their doubts publicly is a genie that is out of his box and cannot be put back in. We are responsible as parents and stewards of others to arm them with the ability to navigate the Internet age where the imagination of nearly every heart is public.

I have questions but that does not mean I share them with anyone. Why pull up the vegetable plants just to see if the roots are growing well? Some investigations can be destructive. We live in this life looking through a glass darkly 1. We do not know things with complete certainty.

Except there are whisperings of the Spirit of God that reaches beyond reason and facts. We must use all tools available to us including facts and reason. There is the ineffable though that whispers to my soul of the Good I see and have experienced. I hope to teach that to my children.

Steady Trouble?

"But if we have to be in trouble to want the Holy Ghost as a constant companion, then to have that steady desire we will have to be in steady trouble. There has to be a better way."
(“Raise the Bar” Brigham Young University–Idaho Devotional, January 25, 2005 Elder Henry B. Eyring)

Nephi's Keys to Understanding the Isaiah Chapters

1. Learn the manner of prophesying among the Jews
2. Have the spirit of prophecy
3. Know the regions round about (or the geography)
4. Live in the last days (2 Nephi 25:1-8)

(Nephi's Keys to Understanding the Isaiah Chapters by John Bytheway)

The Calculus I Want

Calculus has been a theme of my writing here. Not the kind we normally think of. The awesome math one. This is another awesome concept that has just as much power. This kind means the character we build for ourselves from the live we choose to live.

I attended a Boy Scout training, Little Philmont today. For a lot of it, negative self talk ruled my mind.  You see, I did not have the best Scouting experience growing up.  I have long attributed it to myself.  And that is an accurate assessment.  I wonder if my negative self assessment of my scouting diligence is serving me today?  I am sure it does not.

If I believe that Jesus can do what He says he can do, then I know that he can heal me of the deficiencies I have in being a scout leader. That I can incrementally and sometimes, perhaps miraculously fast, I can serve the young men that I have been called of God to serve.

That is my duty to God. To learn what to do and how to do it. Act on my learning.  Day by day, week by week, year by year. Until I have become the man of God that includes the Scouter our prophets, seers and revelators have asked me to be.

Am I to be patient with myself? Yes. Am I to be diligent? Yes. Only time will tell what I have chosen for the next several years. And that result begins with a decision to move in that direction in the next days and weeks.

Buy Her Chairs

I great lesson to learn.

He "buys my chairs." It's one of my favorite scenes in the movie Phenomenon. Robert Duvall's character, Doc, is talking to Banes, a man who's having trouble with his woman: 

Doc: Banes...how's your lady love?
Banes: We... um... we broke up.
Doc: Really? That's too bad, yeah. Now George has a love at his side and she is sticking with him. You know why? Because he bought her chairs. That's pretty smart to me. You ever buy Lisa's chairs?
Banes: Doc's real drunk tonight.
Doc: Every woman has her chair, something she needs to put herself into, Banes. You ever figure out what Lisa's chairs were and buy 'em? 

"Every Woman Has Her Chair". I love this quote because I truly believe that every woman has that "something" that she needs to put herself into. And blessed be the man that buys her chair. (Phenomenon (1996), IMDB)

Edifying Communication

A great article about the dangers of using sarcasm. "No Corrupt Communication" Aug 2013 Ensign. Some quotes from it:

"Not all sarcasm is intentionally sinister, but it has a hypocritical edge because it requires us to say the opposite of what we mean."