Why We Endure to the End

"sometimes we will get impressions and we just never really know why. Things happen that make no sense to us, but the Lord knows. While I've never seen lights and twinkles, I've definitely had times where I've had an impression that something is going to change, or a song or scripture will keep going through my mind. When events fall into place as they will, it all makes sense."

"That is the root reason for enduring to the end of trials and difficulties. If you don't endure to the end, you can't look back and understand your suffering."

Comment #11 & #12 by Angie Gardner and Me - Come Let Us Anew (Mormon Momma)

Teaching the Ideal

As a Primary, Sunday School and Seminary teacher in three different decades, I have taught literally hundreds of children and adolescents in the Church, and there is one constant for almost all of them. Almost without exception, they want to be taught an ideal that will help them be happy - either as happy as their own family example or happier than that example. That applies to BIC kids from traditional families just as much as kids from any other situation. Of course, we need to be sensitive, but we can't teach the ideal to some and a compromise to others - ironically, simply because those others haven't experienced the ideal.

This same issue applies just as much to YSA & SA members. How do you discuss the ideal family, when there is a significant percentage of adults in the congregation who are divorced, separated or never married (be they gay or straight)? How do you teach adults to honor parents who were abusive - especially if they were sexually abusive? How do you teach respect for Priesthood authority to adults whose fathers (active, inactive or non-member) exercised unrighteous dominion - or whose mothers were critical of all men? What about the women married to active men who don't feel loved and respected and valued - or are abused in some way themselves? How do you teach respect for modern prophets to a Black investigator who risked her life for equal civil rights and has a testimony of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon but has a hard time accepting pre-1978 church history?

You do it by being open and empathetic and aware and sensitive - and direct and frank and bold and unyielding - and, most importantly, in tune with the Spirit. You teach the ideal but recognize and acknowledge and don't trivialize the less than ideal. There is no collective magic bullet for all; there only is a caring heart and open mind and spirit for each individual. At least, that's my experience.

A Rare Sunday Post: Announcing the (Belated) Niblet Awards for 2008

The opportunity to honor unique and talented Mormon bloggers was sorely missed this year. So your friends at MORMON MATTERS decided to give you a chance to look back on 2008 and remember the great things that happened in the Bloggernacle.

Mormon Matters will be hosting this event to highlight your favorite 2008 Mormon blogs and posts, and we'll be back again in 2009 to do the same. We are pleased to announce our collaboration with Ziff of Zelophehad's Daughters, the mighty numbers cruncher, who will handle results presentation at the end of this event.

We'd love to have your help in publicizing this event! Please announce it on your blog, facebook, message boards, or other sites!!

The following are the Niblets categories for 2008. You can make nominations by going to http://mormonmatters.org after Sunday, June 27.

Best big blog:
Best group blog:
Best solo blog:
Best new blog: (must have put up its first post in 2008)
Best blog layout/graphics:
Best commenter:
Most memorable comment: (please include link)
Best overall blogger:
Best humorous post: (please include link)
Best historical post: (please include link)
Best spiritual post: (please include link)
Best doctrinal post: (please include link)
Best current events post: (please include link)
Most blatant example of navel-gazing: (please include link)
Best contribution to the Bloggernacle in 2008:
Write-in category:

Thank you for your participation!

An Epiphany Regarding "Ask, Seek, Find" - A Truly Beautiful Message

As I mentioned at the beginning of the month ("Accepting What Is Given, Found and Opened to Us"), I have had a hard time in the past with Matthew 7:7-8 - especially the way that it has been interpreted to portray God as a vending machine who "gives out" according to what we "put in". I also have struggled to reconcile the interpretation that, because of this passage, wealth is an indication of righteousness. I believe in blessings for obedience, but I also couldn't reconcile the passage with so many people's lives and experiences where they have asked and NOT been given, sought and NOT found, knocked and NOT had it opened unto them.

As I contemplated this issue throughout the month, something hit me that is elementary - so basic that I couldn't believe I hadn't had that epiphany much, much earlier. It is something I have taught my children and students for years, and it is something I have preached as a core, foundational study technique for as long as I can remember. Somehow, with regard to this particular passage, I have failed totally to incorporate this simple mechanism - and that is embarrassing to me. Greater than the embarrassment, however, is a sense of gratitude that the Lord would gently whisper to me somthing that deserved a good roundhouse kick in the head.

The principle I have taught is nothing more profound than the following:

"Context matters."

If the meaning of somthing is not clear immediately, or if there is something that simply seems "off" or wrong about a common niterpretation, I stress two things:

1) Parse the words themselves totally devoid of context, simply to understand the possible meanings.

2) Look at the context in order to narrow down the possible meanings to the most logical or plausible one(s) - often reaching the conclusion that there really is only one reasonable interpretation or meaning.

Frankly, when Matthew 7:7-8 is parsed without context, the beliefs I can't accept are the most apparent interpretations. They are worded in a very straightforward, unambiguous manner and appear to leave little room for interpretation. However, when the overall context (The Sermon on the Mount) is considered - and especially when the immediately surrounding verses are scrutinized - the straightforward conclusion is shattered totally, and a new understanding emerges.

To illustrate this, I am going to summarize and excerpt from the entire sermon, quoting only those verses or statements that influence directly Matthew 7:7-8 - then I will re-interpret those two verses in light of the overall message Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5 = Blessed are those who possess (obtain) certain godly characteristics; there used to be a standard (from which some specific examples are given), but now another standard is in place (from which the counterpoints to the examples are given); through acquiring these characteristics and acting in this manner, become perfected (whole, complete, fully developed).

Matthew 6 = Don't be hypocritical; tackle the process outlined in Matthew 5 as a personal quest, not as a public endeavor; you can't serve two masters - heaven and the world; therefore, choose to serve heaven.

Matthew 6:33 = "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Matthew 7:1-5 = Don't judge others' journeys along the process outlined in Matthew 5; you will be judged in the same manner you judge others.

Matthew 7:6 = Treat sacred things with great respect and care.

Matthew 7:7-8 = Those who dedicate themselves to this process (acquiring godly characteristics, living the new standards of interpersonal relationships, avoiding hypocrisy, choosing to serve God, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness, not judging others in their journeys and treating sacred things as sacred) will receive those things for which they ask (since they will ask only for God's will to be done - or for that which is proper), find what they seek (since they will be seeking internal godliness and interpersonal peace and fulfillment) and have heaven's doors opened unto them.

Matthew 7:9-12 = Those who reach this state will treat others as God treats them - as they want to be treated - in a godly manner.

Matthew 7:13-27 = This way to godliness is strict and there are many imitations. Follow the proper path and beware of false paths and guides.

Notice that the promise of Matthew 7:7-8 is at the tail end of the "path to perfection" - the ultimate result of that effort - a re-statement of the conclusion of Matthew 5 ("Be ye therefore perfect.") as a practical statement of what happens in that state of completion, wholeness and full development. In a way, the message really is that you get out of life what you put into it - but it is not a picture of a vending machine that emerges; rather, it is an image of a guide - a shepherd - a mentor - a teacher - someone who has laid out a clear path that leads to exaltation (real, practical, understandable, attainable "perfection").

In essence, in context, these verses say:

"As you journey on the path I have laid out for you, I will give you that for which you ask, allow you to find that for which you seek, open the door unto you as you knock."

What a powerful passage! What a beautiful message of inspiration and hope and empowerment - and ultimate, parental love!!

The Definitive Answer about Book of Mormon Geography

In the Book of Mormon, "this land" is not defined, but there are clear statements that many peoples were led to it - apparently, given the inclusion of the Jaredite record, over the course of thousands of years. The only obvious description is that it is separated by the great waters from the other lands from which the travelers were led.

My main question for those who want to limit "the promised land" to our current United States or to Central and North America always has been, "Are we really applying territorial boundaries that didn't exist at the time of the prophecies?" Without such arbitrary lines, every elementary school student looking at a map of the hemisphere would identify "the land" as the entire hemisphere, I think.

So, the authoritative answer about Book of Mormon Geography is . . . "We don't know." Personally, I see no problem applying the "promised land" designation to the entire hemisphere (even though I personally believe in the Limited Geography Model for the land of the Nephites) - and only philosophical, provincial problems with including the Mounties and our neighbors up north. (*grin*)

Embracing Others for Who They Are, Not How I Wish They Would Be

Generosity of Spirit - Seraphine (Zelophehad's Daughters)

More Perspective on Prophets

The most chastised and threatened person in the D&C is Joseph Smith - and it's not really very close.

What was the most common reason for early apostasy among the Saints? Joseph's weaknesses and the other leaders' inability to support him as a prophet when they disagreed with his actions and decisions. They accepted his visions of eternity, but they couldn't accept the uneducated and flawed nature that co-existed with the visionary.

I think there is a reason the chastisements were included in the canonized sections.

Why He Is Leaving on a Mission

My son entered the MTC yesterday. This link is in his honor.

Farewell Talk - Sam (The Liberated)

Elder DeGraw's mission blog is "Mrmn's Mission (Ryan/Citrus/etc)" - and has been added to my blog roll.

The Ideal: A Two-Edged Sword

I believe in preaching an impossible ideal for which we should strive, as long as it is coupled with an understanding that it’s okay to not be able to reach it. The ideal itself often is what inspires us to do and become what we wouldn’t do and become otherwise. (One of my favorite songs is “The Impossible Dream”, and one of my favorite books is Don Quixote.)

Having said that, preaching an impossible ideal without understanding it is only an ideal is destructive. Preaching a physical ideal based almost solely on a subjective and cultural standard of beauty - nope, I don’t like that. I have four daughters, and I hope they NEVER want to enter a beauty pageant.

The Gospel is not a beauty pageant, and too often we forget that.

"Judge Not" in Proper Context

Matthew 7:1-5 is the beginning of the wrap-up of the Sermon on the Mount. If it is taken as a stand alone passage, it loses the qualifying context in which it is recorded.

By that, I mean that Matthew 5 & 6 go into great detail describing characteristics of godliness and attributes and actions that a follower of Christ should pursue in order to "be ye therefore ("in this way") perfect ("complete, whole, fully developed")." Those two chapters lay out what KIND of person a believer should be striving to become and some of the ways that such an effort will be manifest to those around them. THEN, after laying out how to strive to become, Jesus IMMEDIATELY adds:

"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, even so shall ye be judged."

He then talks about motes and beams and ends by talking about hypocrisy.

Think about that context and what it means.

He's NOT talking about judging the correctness of what people say - about making an intellectual or emotional decision about whether or not something makes sense or someone can be trusted or whatever. He's saying, essentially:

"I just laid out what each person should do to become like my Father. That is a personal journey that each believer must undertake. HOWEVER, I'm not giving ANYONE permission to judge anyone else as that other person navigates his or her own path. When that happens, INEVITABLY hypocrisy occurs, since we can't know what that other person truly is capable of becoming in the here and now - and we INEVITABLY condemn others for faults we also possess. So, simply judge not others' journeys along their own individual paths, even as you make "normal" judgments about other things you simply must judge as a result of being human."

My take away is that Heavenly Father loves the drug addict or the hippie or the ultra-conservative LDS member (or anyone else) every bit as much as He loves me - and that He will reward those who reach Him in the 11th hour every bit as much as He will me even if I reach Him in the 1st or 3rd or 7th hour. It's all about letting go of the idea that I'm special in comparison to anyone else - in recognizing that I'm just as much of an inconsequential nobody as anyone else who needs grace and forgiveness AND that I'm just as much of a glorious god in embryo as anyone who stands and speaks for the Church in General Conference.

"All are alike unto God" is the essence, and until I stop thinking I'm better than those who don't see things as I do I'm violating the spirit of Matthew 7:1-5.