When we're short

Doing more reading on the mysteries of God today. It's fun to be in a place where I am passionate about what I'm reading. I suspect that I could be reading about pretty much anything, and if I were passionate about it I'd think it was the awesomest thing ever. But my second grade level spiritual awareness likes this subject, and I'm learning at full gallop. It's a lot of fun.

Working on the words of Alma and Zeezrom today. The back story, to be brief, is that Alma was the chief judge, or the equivalent of the king/president of his nation. He gave it up to preach the word of God to his people as he believed (or was guided to understand) that he could better serve his people by preaching the gospel to them than by sitting in the capital.

So he shows up, starving, in the city where Zeezrom lived. Zeezrom had been notified by God's messsenger that Alma was coming. He fed Alma, then was fed by him. 

Alma 10:5, Zeezrom talking about what he learned. "...I never have known much of the ways of the lord and his mysteries..." then he corrects himself. Corrections in scripture don't happen much, but Zeezrom does just that - "I mistake, for I have seen much of his mysteries and his marvelous power" and in verse 6 he explains the difference "I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I woulds not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know...:"

The thought occurs to me: how often do we say we wish to know more of the mysteries of God, yet we will not allow God to provide that? How often do we envy someone else for more spiritual knowledge, strength of soul, and wish we had that, yet refuse to allow it to happen? 

Because I was in the meth remediation business for a number of years, I always go to the meth head. Not intending to pick on them directly, but I've seen many of them, and what they do to those who enable them. Most noticeably,  I see what they do to their homes. I have seen what they do to their wives and children, and people who they profess to love. I feel the evil in the homes they inhabited. For this reason, I go to the meth head as the best example to me as someone who might say "well yeah, if God showed up with an angel today, I'd be an apostle too". They think if God does, then they will. And it doesn't work that way. They still wouldn't, and they'd be further condemned as they had another witness against them.

But it's not just meth heads. How many of us, including me, yearn for greater spiritual depth, yet show up to church late, skip prayers or allow them to be less than a full conversation. How many of us allow ourselves to be tainted by what's around us because we like it? I know I certainly fit in that category. I am the person who says he wants more, but when the Lord tries to give it to us, we don't really want it. We all are in this place to some degree. The Lord gives us as much as we're ready for, and no less.

Here's an interesting insight for how the Lord sees things. He explains his insight by explaining what he'll allow his earthly servants to do in his name. Alma 12:9 "...they are laid under a strict command that they shall not impart only according to the portion of his word which he doth grant unto the children of men, according to the heed and diligence which they give unto him. And verse 10 "...he that will not harden his heart, to him is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full" 

To use a personal example, I play ultimate frisbee a lot. I've been playing it for many years, with guys who have also played for many years. We know what to do and when. Then you get some guy who is starting, and often they are very athletic. I'm old and slow, but I can throw. I see these guys get behind their defender and look at me like "are you going to throw it to me long?" It really frustrates me. Countless times I've told people "you run first, and then I'll throw it. I need to know what direction you're going, and how fast you're getting there - then I'll throw it." I see this in end zone plays as well. Guys have the corner of the end zone all theirs. They are a step in front of their defender, and the play is a lay up. All he has to do is run to the open corner, and it's a score. Instead, they look at me. Do you see the opening? Are you going to throw it there? Of course I do. Sometimes I throw it to the obvious location, and it's a turnover because they were looking at me and hoping I'd throw it rather than break to the location where the opening was. 

May we all go to the open spot. Full speed so the Lord knows what he can deliver to us. The field may be wide open, but if we go half speed, he'll throw something that we can get at half speed. Given that the Lord won't throw turnovers, it's up to us to prevent turnovers by committing ourselves.

The hard stone is better

It's not uncommon for me to get started down the road on the scriptures, then end up moving another direction because I get inspired by an easter egg I find along the way.

I'm not moving very fast through the topical guide any more. It used to be a number of verses per day. Not so no more.

The verse that stopped me is Jacob 4:17. It's about building on a sure foundation, and using Christ as our corner stone. It refers to making Christ the head of the corner. For me, that means that he must be the centerpiece of our structure, the base of the base, the one thing that all other things rely on for stability; the one thing that all other things draw strength from.

As a home inspector, foundation issues are not new to me. They have to be built right, and then they have to be managed right. As a kid I found out that if you over-dig a footing trench, you can't just backfill it with the dirt you just dug out. That dirt is now unconsolidated, and will settle over time as the foundation presses down on it. It will cause foundation stress, and structural damage as the home tries to move to accommodate for the moving and damaged foundation.

But that's just the original construction. Then you can have other issues - first among them would be drainage issues. Over nearly a quarter century as a home inspector, I find that the one thing that is most damaging to a foundation is water. Usually it comes from a roof, and without a proper rain gutter system, it lands near the foundation, making the soil beneath the foundation wet and undermining the structure. The soil becomes mud, the house settles, and there is structural damage. There of course can also be rot/mold/termites in the basement or crawl space as well. These also fit into this scenario, as there are examples of what spiritual rot, mold and termites are in the structure that we are building in ourselves.

Here's the scripture reference: Jacob 4:17 "And now, my beloved, how is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?"

I am reminded of someone I knew that didn't want to believe what I believe. For her, it was too uncomfortable. Instead, she wanted to pick a different foundation rock. One that wasn't so exacting. She wanted to pick one of her choosing. Rounded corners, better appearance, more accommodating to the lifestyle she wanted to live. From a right now point of view, it appears to me now that she wasn't building a temple to Christ, or consecrating her life to Christ, instead she was building a structure to herself. On occasion and when it was convenient, she would say she would perhaps call it adequate for Christ, as judged by herself. There is a massive difference I believe between making your life a temple of God; consecrating your life to that purpose, and just building something and justifying it as good enough for God - or anyone else who asks.

And how does one know? The answer is in the scripture. What is the head of our corner stone? Is it Christ, or is it what we perceive to be ourselves? It might go without saying now that if it's what we perceive to be ourselves, it's not us at all - it's Satan and his minions, getting us to use whatever marshmallow foundation he can sell us.

And then we wonder why God is so hard on us; why our structure has so many cracks, mold and termites. Why life seems so unstable. Why we don't get the breaks that that guy over there does. Why people around us are so easy to hate. Why the world seems so dark.

This may be a good time to mention that life can certainly throw some major stuff at us even when we have the proper foundation - but our ability to manage that is greatly increased, because as the cold winds blow, our structure is at least stable. We can heat the house once, and the warmth doesn't leave so quickly in the blizzard. There is interior warmth and stability.

To the reader who objects "well you don't know my life" - you're right. What I do know is that I am close with people who do have the right corner stone, and have endured well pretty much all and anything life can throw at them. Physical pain, abuse from others, money issues, I know them all. Their stories would make any of us quiver in fear. After knowing these people, we'd be thrilled to keep our own lives by comparison. These people are temples to the Lord, and I admire all of them. While my life has been relatively easy (except when I made it hard), these people show the strength that comes from the right corner stone.

The popular myth that any rock that works for us works for God is Satan's lie. May we not reject the sure foundation because it's too hard. May we embrace it, then find the stability it provides. That stability isn't hard - it's easy. Instability is hard.

All

So if you've read a few of these blogs, you'll know that I have a pattern: I go looking for one thing, then find the gem I'm looking for in a surprise location. It's like mowing the lawn, only to find a 20 dollar bill in the grass. After doing it for this long, I come to realize that those 20 dollar bills are everywhere.

So today I was researching mysteries of God. The second reference from the topical guide is 1 Nephi 10:19. But for context, I go before and after a bit. I had apparently been here before, because there's a word  that was underlined in verse 17. Just one word. That word is "all".

It's unusual to just underline one word, so I thought I'd spend a minute to determine why I'd underlined just that word.  17 "And it came to pass after I, Nephi, having heard all of the words of my father, concerning the things which he saw in a vision, and also the things which he spake by the power of the Holy Ghost..."

This reminds me of me. I know people with gifts that I've really admired, and I think it's fair to say I've coveted them. I know - that's wrong - but I did. I wanted those gifts.

Here's Nephi doing the same, but showing how to do it right. He didn't just listen to a small set of Lehi's words, decide that he wanted that too, and go to the Lord with a request. He did everything he could personally, then went to the Lord. He not only listened to his father, but he (Nephi) listened to all of his words. All of his words about what he saw in a vision, and all of his words that were prompted to him by the Holy Ghost. This is not an idle curiosity, this is not "hey, do that kind of fortune telling for me!", or "it's not fair! Why does he get that gift and I don't". This is a faith filled action based recipe. You want to become more like your father the prophet? That's awesome. You must follow the prophet's footsteps. You must do all you can for yourself, relying on the Lord to help you do that part right. Then you go to the Lord for the rest.

Of course, we know the end of the story. Nephi gets what he wished for - and more - from the Lord. Nephi knew that would happen, and that's were we get to my verse that I came to this chapter for. Verse 19: "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..."

I don't know why, but I feel the need to add verse 21: "Wherefore, if ye have sought to do wickedly in the days of your probation, then ye are found unclean before the judgment seat of God..." I guess this applies to our motivations. If perhaps we wish to have a gift so we can get it and criticize it, or if we go through the motions to get a gift, expecting not to get it and then feel licensed to criticize God for not receiving it- well, this may be what the Lord is referring to in this scripture.

We all have gifts - many of them - that were provided to us at birth. Most of course we will be completely unaware of. Some, we may have an inkling, but feel afraid to develop them. Or maybe our TV schedule prohibits developing those gifts. Whatever the reason is, we all have gifts. None of us are giftless (I know, I make up words). And the Lord is waiting to help us add to our gifts, to grow them like plants, and add new gifts. Greatness and completion of our personal missions await. May we do so.

#LDS
#scripture
#greatness
#giftsandguides
#1Nephi10:17

Sought me diligently

Yesterday I came across two gold nuggets and wrote about one of them. Today I was planning to write about the other, but without the reading first, it feels like I'm not prepared to write. I had to re-read a section before things started to come back.

Still in 1 Nephi 2, and we're researching the mysteries of the Lord.We have Nephi seeking to understand the dream his father had. There is a huge lesson here: we don't have to just accept the words of a man we know to be a prophet of the Lord.

Religion outsiders would call it blind faith, but I understand better what's happening. If, say, in a corporation the CFO comes to you and says that there is enough budget to build a store in Wichita, then you have reason to believe that there is enough money to do so. If you also respect the man who is the CFO, and find him to be an honorable man who knows his job and is not prone to false statements, then you have more reason to believe what he says. All that is more than adequate reason to believe that CFO's statements. This is similar to believing what a prophet says. That's one level of trust - there are many.

There would be believing that a person is of high integrity, and so you believe his words. That's a level. Then there is having had personal confirmation from the Lord - or in the case of the business the owner and CEO, confirming that this person is his trusted and direct representative. That's another level. But Nephi shows that it can go further. A person can go directly to the Lord for confirmation of what the prophets are saying. This is welcomed and encouraged in our church, and it provides much greater depth and growth to the individual seeking the personal confirmation.

Getting personal confirmation from the Lord? That would be kind of awesome. Can you do that? How?

Glad you asked. This is what Nephi shows us in these verses:

1 Nephi  2:16 "...also having great desires to know of the mysteries of God, wherefore, I did cry unto the Lord; and behold he did visit me..."

1 Nephi 2:19 "... Blessed art thou, Nephi, because of thy faith, for thou hast sought me diligently, with lowliness of heart..."

Looks to me like a person has to first have great desires. Curiosity doesn't cut it. I don't know to what extent worthiness may fit in, but I suspect that there's also a trust issue between the Lord and us that goes both ways: if he doesn't trust us to honor and use any gift he provides, he'll probably refrain from giving it. I've been down that road before in previous posts so I won't duplicate that here.

Then the simplicity kicks in. Nephi cried. He asked. I'm not going to go down the road of identifying the difference between crying and asking, but there's a difference. Next, the recipe is pretty simple. The Lord visited. The pathway is so simple: desire, ask, receive. The Lord certainly didn't put in any extra roadblocks on that recipe. Simple? Yeah. It doesn't get more simple than that.

So why doesn't every meth addict who beats and starves his wife and children receive similar treatment from the Lord? Couldn't he benefit from having a heavenly messenger visit him after he comes down from the latest meth high? Maybe they could answer his question about Joseph Smith's 3rd wife's brother's witch obsession. Yeah - I made that up.

That could be answered in verse 19. Faith, seeking diligently, and lowliness of heart. This goes back to my discussion above. A gift from the Lord must be valued by the receiver. If the Lord knows we won't value and develop the gift, then receiving it would be a curse upon us and we'd have to answer for it on judgment day. The Lord wouldn't do that to us.

Another example: say we have a person wants a gift or vision from the Lord because he wants to up his power level, or so he can add another bullet point to his spiritual resume. No lowliness of heart. Probably seeking less than diligently. And if he's seeking that knowledge so he can deliver it in an uppity "I'm above you because I know this" way, he'll never gain that knowledge from the Lord. Or maybe he'll just not gain further knowledge - I don't know - that kind of stuff is up to the Lord of course, and will be very individual specific.

The point here, I guess as I un-delve from the weeds, is that getting information from the Lord is as easy as the Lord can make it. We must be in a place where the Lord can trust us with the gift we request, then we have to decide what we want, and ask for it. It's that simple. I think some gifts are even more simple than that. We are born with some gifts that we didn't even have to ask for in this life. Being that now that we're all here, all we have to do is follow the simple recipe to receive more.

May we all do so. And yes, He's waiting.

#LDS
#scripture
#greatness
#giftsandguides
#1Nephi2:19

Dwelt in a tent

So I'm in 1 Nephi 2 today. I was on the trail toward researching mysteries of God, and of course I got hijacked with another subject as I was reading. The number of easter eggs in the scriptures just keeps getting bigger - this time I'd been through about 2 verses when I found this one.

I should probably provide some background to that - originally I was challenged to read the scriptures for half an hour, then write for 10 minutes. As I began writing, it turned into the opposite: read for a bit, then write for a long time. Today I felt inspired to write after about 1 minute, but then didn't want to do that because I felt the need to not rob myself the reading.

Background information done. So I ran across 1 Nephi 2:15 today: "And my father dwelt in a tent". This is not as short a verse as "Jesus wept", but it's pretty short. My first thought is why is this in the Book of Mormon in the first place, and why did it deserve its own verse? Of course he was in a tent! He's out in the middle of sand nowhere, and it's 600 BC. He has some sort of home that he left that was probably a mud castle, and that was high living to him. It's not that much of a step down, from my modern point of view, to go from a mud mansion to a tent. But it was pretty meaningful to Nephi. Why?

Because perhaps then, like now, people are measured by what they have. Society is not going to recognize greatness in a man who's homeless. If you're living in mommy's basement, nobody will hire you as a consultant.

This goes me back to an award Julie just received a few months ago. She got Doterra's highest award for some work she has done building schools in Madagascar. The only one of over 5,000,000 people to receive that award. I was brought up with her while tens of thousands of people, and the owners of the company, appreciated her work. The thought occurred to me then that whether or not she had received the award, the greatness still exists. The award didn't cause greatness, it only recognized it. And greatness usually goes unrecognized. It's still greatness whether recognized or not.

So Nephi was talking about how powerful his dad Lehi was. He wrote about how his dad talked with such power that he got his extremely wayward sons to let go of their personal poisons and listen. This is Nephi giving his dad his highest praise. Then he follows with "And he dwelt in a tent". Here is Nephi saying "Hey, my dad is one of the greatest individuals to roam the planet, and yet he looks homeless". Nobody who saw that family in the desert would have known from appearances about the greatness that they brushed past, nor the opportunities lost in travelling away from such great power.

It reminds me that greatness doesn't have a neon sign above it, pointing to the subject and saying "here's a great man". It doesn't come with a title, and riches are not guaranteed. It also reminds me that people with titles and money, who use those props to point out their greatness, are not and probably never were great. If you need to point to your title or money to prove you're a big shot, you might be an empty soul.

I believe that people who have true greatness may sometimes have titles and money, but those are gifts provided to the great to enable them to further the Lord's work. Lehi was great when he lived in his Jerusalem mud mansion with his gold and silver, and he was great while dwelling in a tent in the desert. May we all seek for true greatness.

#LDS
#scripture
#greatness
#giftsandguides

In all things

I was going to get started on my next assignment, which is the mysteries of God. It's fun when I learn a little bit about myself - the last segment was talents, which was short, and that was a disappointment for me when I was done after one day because I knew this was a course that I could never again read for the first time.

This time, I was getting started on another subject, and going to it in the index, I saw it was huge. Many days of study here. My heart sank because it seemed like a lot of work. It makes me realize that I'm not very consistent in my thinking: I'm disappointed when it's short, and I'm disappointed when it's long. This is something I get to work on. I reminded myself that this is a new, nice, long book that I can consume slowly and with relish, like I did gifts. I choose gratitude now after looking at my inner soul. Yep, still imperfect, but that's OK. It's why I'm here.

But as I was getting started, I got stuck on a subject nearby. This is a subject that a friend has dug deep into, and I wished to have the gift of knowledge that he had received on this subject - or part of it.

It's about there being opposition in all things. For him, the key word there is the word "in". The gem he described is that everything comes with its own choices, and anything can be used for good or evil. To illustrate, a person could go for a walk and choose to fill themselves with the joy of nature, of sunshine and good air, or they could go and do the same walk and notice the neighbor's uncut grass, be pissed off about loose dogs, complain about weeds, find opportunities to gripe about HOA inconsistency, etc.

Or a person could swim (me) and continuously remind themselves about the grind that each lap represents, vs perhaps enjoy the time with yourself and nothing pressing you.

The opposition isn't around the thing, it's in the thing. We can choose to respond to it or see it positively or negatively.

This reminds me of a story I heard from a friend a few days ago. He talked of a story where a person was talking to a farmer about recent events in his life. The guy explained that he was given a free horse. The farmer responded with "Good or bad? Who can say?" Then the story went on. The horse ran away. Same response from the farmer. Then the horse came back with another horse, same response: "good or bad? Who can say?" Then the story went on with the man's child being thrown from the horse and breaking his leg. Same response from the farmer. Then the army comes by and picks up all able bodied young men for impression into the army. Now the guy is grateful for his son's broken leg. The farmer's response of course was the same: "good or bad? Who can say?"

It tells me that the good or bad in any event is not the event, but how we deal with it.

This follows along with greek philosophers as well. They decided that what happens to us is neither good nor bad, it just is. What is good or bad is how we deal with it.

So now we have Nephi 2:11 "For it must needs be that there is an opposition in all things." The word is In - not to or of. Otherwise "...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead..."

This scripture goes deeper than I can go with it, and the extent of the verse is longer than I included, but it appears to me that the Lord is saying that if only good comes with a particular item, it's dead. If you can't choose good or evil from any single item, if you can only pick good, then you can't grow or claim any benefit from having that item. If the only pathway was the good path, you can make no claim for benefit from having followed it because it was the only path you could take. I suspect this is the deadness that this scripture is talking about.

Of course, this also applies to me and this blog very directly. This scripture is telling me that with this blog, there will also be good and bad that can be taken from it. A person may read it and open himself up to be guided by the Savior from these words, or a person may read it with the intent to criticize. Both will get what they were looking for.

This settles me greatly for calming my fears about being criticized. There will be criticisms, and some will be harsh. They may be aimed at me, but they don't have to affect me. I can understand that it's not about me, but about the angels or demons they may have. Christ was criticized and killed. The prophets have been criticized greatly. I am not comparing myself to them, but if they're not immune, then neither am I. If they can manage their critics, then my little issues can also be managed.

My response is to be a light, rather than curse the darkness, or fight it, or focus on it.

How to lose

So in a recent talk, I came to understand that in the new testament, a talent is a measure of money. Like - a lot of money. In the parable of the unforgiving debtor, what he owed the lord was astronomical - like 100 billion dollars - compared to the $100 that he would not forgive of the guy who owed him. A number that could never be fathomed, let alone repaid. So that's what a talent is.

A couple thousand years later, a talent is generally considered to be a skill. Most of us consider the word "talented" to mean they can sing, or have a well developed gift in music somehow. This is only the tip of the iceberg. I think a person can have a talent (or gift) in writing, speaking, interpersonal relationships, engineering, sales, technology or brick making.

So the key point is that we all have many talents, most of which are either hidden to us or known, but undeveloped. And no, I have no idea what the difference is between gifts and talents. They might be the same thing.

But today's scripture set deals with how to lose them. Working from the index, I'm in Ether 12:35 and Doctrine & Covenants 60:13. "..If the gentiles have not charity, because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent" and "...thou shalt not idle away thy time, neither shalt thou bury thy talent that it may not be known"

This reminds me that what I discovered and wrote about yesterday, now seems obvious to me. A talent can be discovered and developed, but it's still wasted until it's shared. Using me as an example, I can't bury a talent for expressing what inspires me just because it causes me discomfort that there may be unwanted or unpleasant consequences. I've got to unbury my talent and make it known. That's kinda like singing solo to a large group, knowing that your singing skills are weak at best.

So - ways to lose your gift. The first I found is to lack charity. Two would be idling away my time, and third - burying it.

To me, lacking charity is taking the gift and thinking you own it. Thinking that you're better than because you have something others don't. My best example of that is me giving a birthday present to one of my grandchildren. Let's say it's blocks of wood. Is he better than his brothers and sisters because he now has blocks? He didn't earn those blocks - they were given to him freely. There is now an expectation by the giver (me) that he will play with and use those blocks, and not flush them down the toilet or throw them at his friends. If he does so, the remaining blocks will certainly be taken away from him. We must avoid pride, and falsely assuming we're better than because we have a particular talent. We also have a responsibility to use our blocks in a constructive way.

The second would be to idle our time. If the blocks go in the corner and never get used, the gift was meaningless, and eventually the blocks will be cleaned out and thrown away, or given to another. And of course, when it is time for the next birthday, what we did with the blocks will factor in. This is called judgment.

Finally, burying our blocks. This is perhaps more of a problem than ignoring your blocks. Burying them is an act of isolation. "These are my blocks, and I'm going to make sure nobody else gets them". So out comes the shovel and the child digs a hole in the yard. This is one form of burying, but of course there are others. To bury a gift, like, say, me leaving this blog buried because I'd rather not receive criticism, would surely result in nothing. I wasn't given talents so that I could cause nothing to happen.

Most of us consider ourselves to be untalented. "I have no gifts, we can say". Not true - but we do have to search ourselves and find them. My lovely wife has said "I don't have any gifts". This is funny because she's one of the most talented people I have ever met. The first step in valuing and developing our gifts is to acknowledge that they are there - then we can develop them. May we do so with the joy that comes with discovering who you are.

Common property

So today's topic is talents. This warms my heart, as I had so much fun researching gifts of the spirit, and this is like the sequel to a great book. Sadly, I finished the topic in one day. There is very deep stuff here, and I feel like I'm guessing as to what is really going on in these verses. Nevertheless, my calling is to read and to write. It doesn't matter that my writing lacks perfect depth - what matters is that I do what I can do.

There are three sections to this, and all are deep. I'm going to start in Doctrine and Covenants 82:18. "And all this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord's storehouse to become the common property of the whole church"

I see things, just for a glimpse, from the Lord's perspective. He doesn't necessarily provide me with gifts just so I can develop myself, though that is a nice side effect perhaps. He provides me with gifts so I can develop them to a point where I can use them to lift others. To serve his children. The lifting me part comes not from having the gift, but from the service and lifting I can do when I use the gift. The gift is a shovel. The holes I can dig for others with it are the purpose.

This is a new headline for me. I've been developing these gifts that I've discovered in myself: the gift of Aaron being one of them. I had thought that if I just developed them and made them as precise and polished as possible, that I could be prepared to stand in front of the Lord and successfully report on my stewardship for those talents. Not so. I learn now that the measure is not how well I developed the gift, it's about how well I used it to benefit others.

And it tells me something about this blog. I had been concerned that publishing it to the world would change things. It might feel like serving myself as I attempt to gain a large audience. It might feel like I'm trying to elevate me. One thought was that maybe I just let it lie in a corner and keep writing. Thoughts occurred to me that my fears and motivations might result in a change in the writing if I knew a group was reading it.

But the purpose of the writing is to serve. Service doesn't happen if nobody reads it - that in itself would be hiding my candle under a bushel, but in a very different way than not writing at all.

It's gotta be published. It's gotta be "out there". I will have to be subject to the scrutiny of those who only wish to spill their poison on it. There will be ridicule, and it will be directed at me. I understand that I must accept this in order to serve. So. Guess I'll let people know. Here goes something.

No shocker here - nature is awesome

So this post definitely doesn't fit in to the genre of the other stuff I write about - everything else is about stretching oneself, about developing gifts and learning/listening to the voices of those who will guide us. I guess that applies to the servants of God both on this side of the veil and the other side.

But - the title of the blog for now is Scripture Study After Thoughts, so here's an afterthought. I guess in that way it "fits".

Alma 46:40 "And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land, but not so much with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases..."

Full disclosure here: my lovely wife is a hardcore believer in the miraculous capacities of natural oils. She does very well at it, and I've been very pleasantly surprised at what these products can do. I just now realize though, that the benefit of these products comes from the plant. It's not about the oil, or the essential oil - it's about the plant. To say the oils have great capacities is perhaps a misstatement. The plants do. It is true of course that the better the refinement to retain the essence of the plant, the more effective the oil.

I am reminded of something I heard - that if you encountered a bite or a poison in nature, the antidote is located nearby. Something of a yin and yang thing in nature.

God has placed plants on the earth, and in His wisdom, has surely placed in them more than just a stalk and leaves. I can't imagine that the greatest of all designers would stop there. May we look at nature with new eyes: that's not just a green thing growing, it's another one of God's many gifts to us, his children. May we be open to maximizing all of our gifts.

Going out of the world rejoicing

I have always found it curious that there are some who look at death with the greatest of fear, and that there are others who feel no fear at all. Some may even perhaps welcome it. An example of the latter is my dad, who at 91 years old has spent enough time alone. His favorite phrase, now spoken with gusto, is "the more I want to join my wife, the healthier I get!" This true for him. 10 years ago he was much less healthy than he is now. He is off his array of meds and his oxygen, and the task of filling his time becomes a day-filling job. Here is a man who welcomes death. He didn't fear it before, but here is a man who will be grateful for that day.

This may seem very unusual, but I don't think it's as unusual as many believe it might be. My reading today in Alma 46:39 indicates a group of the Nephites that welcomed death - because they were ready.

39: "And it came to pass that there were many who died, firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ; thus they went out of the world rejoicing"

How awesome is this? Of course none of us are perfect, or ever will be in this life, but how cool is it to know that you have developed yourself and your faith in your Savior (here's a subject: are those two phrases the same thing?) enough to be confident in your judgement day? To welcome the Lord with open arms, rather than fear and trembling? To look forward to that day, or to fear it like being thrown into a black swamp filled with predators?

How much more serene, calm, loving and future appreciating is it to not fear your future, but to embrace it? To look forward to it like a child looks forward to their birthday party? To not loathe each day passing, but to be able to celebrate it and use it as well as you can, knowing that the best of everything is ahead of you?

I believe that for me at least, one of the measures of how well I'm doing is to imaging myself being taken from here and being brought to meet my Redeemer. How would that moment go for me? Have I lived well enough to embrace him with all my being? Or would I prefer to hide? Do I have enough faith to know that he will cover in some way I don't understand the many weaknesses and failures I haven't perfected? Or is my faith lacking in that way? Will I know that I have developed the gifts he has given me enough to report that the talents have been successfully invested?

This is one way, for me at least, to gauge how I'm doing. I'm working on building my relationship with my Savior. I know him and love him, but I know that there is so much more that I can know and that I can love. May I and we be ready for that day, just as the Nephites were.