Why my Christmas Tree is a Holiday Tree

Sometimes I put my Christmas tree up before Thanksgiving, quite common in my old age actually, and I have left it up till Easter a couple of times.  I know there are people out there who find that offensive.  Why?  I would say because they do not understand the holidays involved, or perhaps they don’t understand the tree.

Anticipating Christmas before celebrating Thanksgiving does not diminish the November holiday, which became a national holiday when President Lincoln declared it a national day of “Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”  It instead gives focus to the day that is meant to be spent in prayer and worship.  I honestly don’t know anyone who really celebrates Thanksgiving the way it was meant to be.  It has become all about gathering, eating, watching and/or playing football. Many say what they are thankful for, but I don’t hear much talk about who they are thankful to.  I don’t see the outpouring of worship for that God who has given us everything. But I’m okay with that.  Just as I don’t fault people their celebrations of Christmas that have nothing to do with Christ, I don’t want to spoil the fun of those celebrating Thanksgiving without giving praise to our Heavenly Father.  I am no better than anyone else in that regard.  My Thanksgiving is quite secular.  However, celebrating Thanksgiving in anticipation of Christmas has turned my thoughts clearly and distinctly to that for which I am most thankful, my Savior.  There is nothing I am more thankful for than the plan of salvation which he has brought to pass through his atonement that overcame death and sin and offers me complete forgiveness and redemption.  And the centerpiece of that is his mortal life which began with what we celebrate at Christmas and ended with what we commemorate at Easter.

We use evergreens as Christmas trees to symbolize eternal life, the gift we are offered through the sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas, whose death and resurrection we remember at Easter, the gift for which we should give more thanks than for anything else.  Why then should we not have a beautiful, gloriously decorated evergreen tree as the centerpiece for each of those holidays?

My Thoughts on the Election

When a group of people who had been incredibly wicked were converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, they buried their weapons of war and covenanted with the Lord that they would never take up weapons again to fight against anyone.  Then their own people who were not converted started to kill them.  After some of them were slaughtered, the survivors went to live with their former enemies, who were also Christians, and they were protected by these Christians who fought for them, dying for them in a great war that was worse than any ever known by those people in that land.  Still the new converts to Christianity kept their covenant to not take up arms.  It must have been quite a trial for them to allow others to fight and die for them.  There may have been some among those who fought for them who thought they needed to set aside their “high-minded ideals” because the events of the day demanded that they not sit by and allow these evil savages to win and gain control over them, but they trusted in God to support and protect them, and he did.  

Some are telling me that I need to set aside my “high-minded ideals” of honesty, integrity, morality, and loyalty to the Constitution and join them in choosing the lesser of two evils to be President of the United States.  Some go so far as to say that if I don’t do so, it will be my fault that the most dishonest and despicable person will win the race.  That kind of thinking shows a fear of man more than a fear of God, as well as a lack of faith in the promises of our God. 

If we elect someone who is known to be a power-hungry, money-hungry, selfish, dishonest bully who is always in it for what he/she can get and verbally, and any other way they can, attack anyone against them, then we will have a leader who “teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness”, like those who wrote and upheld the divinely-inspired Constitution, “ and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God; he enacteth laws and sendeth them forth among the people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he causeth to be destroyed …. [and] doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.” (Mosiah 29:22-23)

That is why we must choose those who uphold and protect “the laws which have been given [us] by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord,” the Constitution. (Mosiah 29:25)  We must fear God more than man.  We must not rely on the arm of flesh to take care of us but rely on God’s mercy and protection.  He has promised to uphold his people, to fight their battles, to deliver them from evil and to bless them immensely.  Is this the time spoken of as the time when the voice of the people chooses iniquity?  Do we join our voices to those choosing iniquity, or do we stand with our God and put our trust in him and rely on his promises? 

I cannot vote for either of the two main candidates, because everything I know of them says they are wicked.  They will continue the current trend of disregarding and throwing out the rights guaranteed us in the Constitution.  They will use their power to further corrupt the system.  They will offend our allies and enrage our enemies, and because they have shown such prideful disregard for the blueprint God gave us for how to govern, He may not be there for us.

I realize that one of these two candidates will most likely be our next President.  I see no way of preventing that, but that does not mean that I have to participate in the selection.  Since I see either choice as being an affront to who and what we should be, I have to hold to my conviction that God means it when he says if we humble ourselves and put our faith in the Lord, he will deliver us from our enemies by “extending the arm of mercy towards them that put their trust in him.” 

I guess some will say I’m being defeatist or I’m refusing to participate in the process, and yes, some will say I’m allowing the one they don’t want to be elected.  No, I’m just voting my conscience and trusting in the promises of the Lord.  I don’t believe a person can destroy our country or our way of life no matter how powerful they are unless God allows it to be so, and He will allow it to be so only if that is the choice of the people.  If enough of us stand against this evil that is before us in this election, He will protect and sustain us in ways I can’t imagine.  If we throw in behind the “lesser” of two evils, we may find we have been left to our own devices. 

I am hoping there are still enough of us who fear God more than man that we can still claim Him as the God of our land.  We do that by fearing Him more than man, by holding to our ideals, by voting our conscience even if that means we vote for someone who has no chance of winning. 

Maybe you believe your choice is righteous, does have the best interest of us all at heart and is going to do what is best for the country.  If you do, then vote your conscience.  I don’t really want to stand in judgment of what others believe to be the “right thing” to do.  I just question the response of Donald Trump supporters when Ted Cruz encouraged them to vote their conscience and vote for someone who would uphold the Constitution.  They booed him.  They must not believe a vote for Donald Trump fits that description.  And those who want Hillary Clinton, have you honestly considered all that she has done and her reaction when confronted with those things?  The FBI told us that she was guilty of something that others would be indicted for.  Those aren’t my words.  She won’t be indicted, but if someone else were to do this, they would be.  That was the decision that came after an extensive investigation into her time as Secretary of State.  There is so much more that could be said about both candidates.  Look at their records, their words, their actions.  Evaluate without prejudice.  Don’t decide based on Republican or Democrat.  Don’t say, “But I have to vote for one of them.” 

Imagine the power of the people if the next President were elected by a small number of votes because most of us refused to support either.  That would embolden members of the House and Senate and even the Supreme Court in standing against the President when he/she does something unconstitutional.  It would be a message to the world, to our allies and enemies, that our President doesn’t represent us when he/she acts in a way that is reprehensible.  Most importantly, it would say to God that we still recognize Him as the greatest power in this land. 

Please pray before you vote.  Please don’t be afraid to allow the “wrong” person to become President.  If that’s what the voice of the people chooses, so be it, but let’s show with our vote for a third party candidate or a write-in vote for someone of character not on the ballot that we do not sustain the iniquitous choice that has been placed before us. 

And if you disagree with me, that’s okay.  Vote for the candidate of your choice.  I may be completely wrong on this, but at least now you know why I will vote for neither of the two major party candidates for the first time in my adult life. 

Harry Potter: A Parable of Good and Evil

When I read the end of the final book in the Harry Potter series, I saw right away that Harry was a type of Christ.  I thought I might be seeing something that was never intended by the author, making it even more fantastic, or something that she had intended all along.  If it was something she meant to portray, I reasoned, there must be other things in the series that would fit into the comparison.  After much pondering, I find that I see even more in this grand parable than I did initially.   (It’s more apparent in the books than the movies.)

The community of witches and wizards represents those in the world who are aware of the true God and His powers and His influence in this world, that He created it and continues to watch over it and that He guides us in all we do.  You might say they are the House of Israel, or the kingdom of God on earth, and the Muggles are the Gentiles.  Now among those who know of God and His power there have always been those who have turned away from Him and sought to live according to their own desires, relying on their own strengths and knowledge, not seeking to know or to do the will of the Lord.  They begin to believe they don’t need Him and they move away from the light until they are living in darkness.  Gentiles can find their way to the Lord and accept Him into their lives and rely on His power to get them through life.  They are those in the community who were born to Muggles but find they have special powers.  They are not relying on the arm of flesh but the arm of God to protect, guide and eventually save them, and so they are adopted into the world of special powers.

There you have the premise of the entire series.  The battle for good and evil is not among all who live on the Earth but among those who know that there is something more than what we can see and hear on this plane we exist on, those who have either been born into or who have joined themselves to the kingdom of God, and those who seek to destroy the kingdom of God, knowing that it exists because they were at one time a part of it.  The others on Earth just get pulled into the battle unknowingly, thinking they are fighting for some other reason.

I know there are Christians who believe these books are evil, and I know where they get that from:  the condemnation of witches, wizards and sorcery that you find in the Old Testament.  I submit that the problem here lies with the author choosing to call them witches and wizards, but because of our language and our stories and so on, those were the words that worked to explain their powers.  Really, these powers represent the power of the priesthood, the powers that are used with authority to do God’s will on Earth.  If they had been called priests and priestesses and had attended Hogwarts School of the Priesthood, the confusion might be dimmed but probably not done away with completely.  Children who have the inclination to turn to the Spirit for their guide are sent to this school to learn to make the connection, to learn how the Spirit works and how to use it throughout their lives as a protection and a guide as they face the rest of their lives.  They learn of the power, how it works and how it is to be used.  They also learn that it has been perverted by some who seek not to do God’s will but their own.  They learn of the false prophets, so to speak, who misuse the power, therefore losing their right and authority to use it, and then receive a dark, evil counterfeit of the power that causes misery and destruction, not just in the kingdom but also in the rest of the world among those who are not a part of this inner community.  But the majority of the evil, the worst of the problems do occur in the community of those who know of and recognize power outside themselves. 

As for Harry, he believes he is nothing special at first, just a regular boy growing up in a family that he does not really belong to, one where he does not fit in, is not understood and is not appreciated.  When he is about to reach the age of one who can receive the priesthood, he begins to learn who he is and what he can do.  He learns little by little, you might say line upon line, precept upon precept, that he is different, that he does have special powers, that he has an important role to play in this battle between good and evil and that there are things that he must do, that no one else is capable of doing.  Even at a very young age, he is the one who is doing God’s work, fighting evil, while those in the kingdom who are older and should be wiser seem to be going about oblivious to the great danger of the Evil One trying to get the power over death – which by the way is the power that is reserved only for the Lord, the one that Harry will eventually have in this parable.  Those older and wiser ones actually have put some protections in place but know they will not always be enough.  Harry must provide that extra protection by stepping in and being the final line of defense, just as we need the Lord to be our defense against Satan.  We cannot do it alone, no matter how hard we might try to rely on willpower to resist temptation.  He can get through our defenses but not that of our God.

I skip ahead now to the climax of the whole story, which was the most amazing part of this parable to me.  Harry must face Voldemort alone.  He must willingly die so that those who are fighting on his side will not all be destroyed.  He, however, has the power over death because he is in control of all three of the Deathly Hallows.  He allows himself to be killed, and then he comes back to life.  He is resurrected per se.  He is then invincible.  He has died for those who are on his side.  He has paid the price so that they might all live.  He has given them the power now to overcome evil.  The book tells us that from that point on, Voldemort’s followers could no longer do harm to those they fought.  The dark ones begin to fall quickly.  Harry is able to defeat Voldemort because he has taken all his power from him.  This is what Jesus will do when He comes again.  He will take away all the power that Satan has been allowed to have in this world.  All those who do evil will be destroyed.  Only the good will remain. 

Jesus has already defeated Satan.  He has already overcome death and sin and stands ready to extend blessings to each of us as we choose His side.  As I said earlier, the real fight between good and evil is going on among those who recognize there is something other than just what we can see and hear on this plane.  We are sometimes distracted by what unbelievers are doing and think that is where the battle lies.  The real battle is among those who are spiritually led by the light and those who are spiritually led by the dark.  There is crossover all the time.  Light can be dimmed and diminished.  Dark can be dispelled.  Never think you have it made because of where you are right now.  We must make sure that we endure to the end. 

Anyone feeling evil when reading any book or watching any movie or doing any activity, should stop and remove themselves from the situation.  There is evil in these books, the dark wizards.  Here is what Isaiah says about them. 

Isaiah 8:19-22

19¶And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have ^afamiliar spirits, and unto ^bwizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? ^cfor the living to the dead?

20 To the ^alaw and to the testimony: if ^bthey speak not according to this word, it is because there is no ^clight in them.

21And ^athey shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and ^bcurse their king and their God, and look upward.

22And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and ^adarkness, ^bdimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

The dark wizards have no light in them because they think they are better than everyone else because they are “pure blood” wizards.  They place themselves higher than God, thinking their powers make them special.  They are the ones looking to themselves and those like them to give them all they need, cursing their king and their God, looking to the earth instead of to heaven and all they see is darkness and dimness of anguish.

There is also great good in these books.  There are those who have powers, who are called witches and wizards, who do not rely on themselves as they should rely on God.

Isaiah 47:12-14

12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the ^aastrologers, the stargazers, the ^bmonthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

14 Behold, they shall be as ^astubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.

Those fighting against Voldemort are doing what they can, but they realize enchantments and sorceries cannot prevail.  They know they cannot deliver themselves.  They are relying on Harry to save them.  They have been told he is their best hope.  They are fighting to give him time to do what he has to do.  Harry, as Christ in this parable, is the one who can and will deliver.

 This is all I will cover because of length.  I will also say that all this is my opinion, what I have seen in reading and re-reading these books and watching the movies.  I love the books.  I abhor evil.  I try to live always in the light.  

What is food in God's plan?

What we focus on becomes our reality.  Our thoughts and attitudes shape our days, and our desires determine the direction of our lives.  Some might think this is just the positive thinking that has been stressed by self-help gurus, but there is scriptural support for this method of seeking change. 

“…I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea I know that he allotteth unto men, yea decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable according to their wills…” (Alma 29:4)
“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:4-5)

I suggest that if this is true, if our thoughts determine our reality, and I believe they do, then it is our attitude about the food we eat that makes us fat.  This is popularly termed emotional eating.  As I’ve studied how this applies to me, I have come to some conclusions that go beyond, “I eat too much because I’m eating for emotional reasons instead of only eating when I’m hungry.”  I can’t possibly put everything I’ve learned in one essay, so this is the first of many, and where I need to start is with examining what is food anyway.

I have felt that food was my enemy.  It hounds me, controls me, makes me miserable, even while promising to make me happy.  So it betrays me, lies to me, misleads me.  It’s been a long time since it actually made me happy or lived in the positive part of my thoughts.  No wonder it’s a problem. 

Food is one of the few things we absolutely must have to stay alive.  Our bodies were made to depend upon food as a source of energy and nourishment.  To have optimum health and function properly, our bodies need quite an array of vitamins and nutrients.  God made our food sources such that we have to eat a variety of foods to get what we require. 

In Genesis 1:29, God said, “I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” 

In Genesis 2:16-17, he said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest there of thou shalt surely die.” 

But that didn’t stop us.  Satan came with his lies, contradicting God’s warning, and he made the tree look good.  He got Eve to desire it.  And she ate and got her husband to eat, and the first confession of sin or transgression was “I did eat.” (Genesis 3:13)  And so it began.  Eating something that was not to be eaten was the first temptation Satan used against us.  It was very successful.  Is it any wonder he has continued to employ such a useful tool?

Heavenly Father, however, never meant for food or eating to be bad for us.  It was always His plan that we would have to eat consistently to live.  In fact, he said, “Thou mayest freely eat.” (Genesis 2:17)  In Moses, we learn a little more about the restriction he placed on that one tree.  “…nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself…” (Moses 3:17) and the warning was given that there would be consequences for making that choice. 

God’s lesson on food continues when he chastises Adam and Eve for eating of the forbidden tree.  “…in sorrow shalt thou eat of [the cursed ground] all the days of thy life…in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”  (Genesis 3:17, 19)  So we went from, “Here’s a great and beautiful variety from which you can eat freely,” to “You’re going to have to work hard so you can eat to stay alive.”  We have to do it, but it’s going to be a chore and really our life’s work to get the bread we need to stay alive. 

Food is not only a necessity; it’s a powerful tool for good as well as evil.  It does keep us alive, and God has given us a huge variety of food to choose from.  He provides for us and uses food to remind us of our blessings.  Food is good.  It’s wonderful.  We should enjoy it, and we should be grateful for it.  We should be grateful for the part it plays in God’s plan for us — making sure we always have to do something to stay alive, something that can be pleasurable or not, something that can demonstrate blessings or not.  

When the Israelites left Egypt and went off in search of the Promised Land, they were told it was a land of milk and honey, “a land of wheat and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of oil olive and honey…” (Deuteronomy 8:8), where they could eat without scarceness and lack nothing, and “when thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.”  (Deuteronomy 8:10).

Before the Israelites reached the Promised Land, however, they spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and they ate manna (meaning what is it).  It was miraculously provided for them for 40 years.  They did have to work for it.  They had to gather it — it was tiny — and they had to prepare it.  But they never lacked, and it tasted like wafers made with honey — not bad.  Manna was a representation of Jesus Christ (bread from heaven).  It was something given to sustain when taken internally.  It was freely given by the Father.  There was always enough, and they were warned not to take more than they needed.  They needed to use it correctly and be grateful for it. 

Food was never meant to be bad or a burden, even though we have to work for it.  Satan has taken a great gift from God and turned it against us.  He uses it to keep us away from Heavenly Father.   He makes of it a distraction, a weapon, a false god even.  It’s all in our attitude — how we think of food.  It is either something Satan uses against us, or it is something Heavenly Father blesses us with.  The decision is ours.

Why do we bless our food?  Is it to make it safe?  If that were the case, we wouldn’t be careful to not eat food that has spoiled or for some other reason would make us sick.  Is it to make it taste good?  We choose to eat what we already believe tastes good.  We should in the blessing give thanks for the food we are about to eat, but what is the blessing?  What we have a habit of saying is that it nourish and strengthen our bodies.  Some mock saying that kind of a prayer over something known to not be nutritious, such as donuts or cake and ice cream.  Maybe we should not mock that.  Maybe we should have the attitude that God is all-powerful and can do whatever he wants to do, include bless any food to nourish and strengthen our bodies.  If we truly believe what we are about to eat is not good for our bodies, maybe we shouldn’t eat it.  Remember, our attitude about food is what makes us fat.  That doesn’t mean that we should eat all kinds of junk and expect that our prayer will make it healthy for us and there will be no consequences. 

In future writings, I will address how the right attitude about food will actually change what we want to eat and therefore lead us to make healthier choices, but for now, I think we should adopt the attitude that what we eat is going to be good for us, because we want to create that positive relationship with food.  We want to create that reality for ourselves.  God blessed the tiny flakes the Israelites referred to as manna so that it nourished and strengthened their bodies every day for 40 years.  He did not have to give them a variety of fruits and vegetables and whole grains.  He blessed what he gave them. 

We need to realize that the diets based on today’s scientific facts, which will most likely change again at some point in our lifetime, just as they already have many times in mine, are not necessarily what we need to have a good, healthy, happy, blessed relationship with food.  The desire for that kind of relationship with food can make it so.  We have to follow God’s laws and act in faith, and he will bless us according to our desires and his will.  We must truly come to believe that food is not our enemy.  We can enjoy it.  We can be free from obsessive thoughts about food.  We can eat and be healthy.  We can eat and be a healthy size and shape.  We can let go of the need to eat too much and be happy with just enough.  Eating can and should be a spiritual experience.  Desire it, pray for it, have faith, and it will be so.

Be Forgiving

In The Greatest Story Ever Told, Peter says, “A thief has stolen my coat.”  Jesus asks, “Is that all?”  “Is that all,” asks Peter.  “It was the only coat I had.”  Then Jesus begins to teach an important lesson while Peter, who I see as representing all of us, continues to whine about his coat.  Jesus says, “But of what value is a thing which can be stolen by a thief?  Go and find that thief.  Give him your cloak also, and give him anything else he wishes, within your power to give him, for he is poor in spirit and in need.”  Peter responds, “But if everyone did what you say, thieves would soon take over the world.”  Jesus says, “Thieves and murderers walk in darkness.  You must be their light, not their judge.”  Peter says quietly, “All I am saying is someone has taken my coat.  I think it wrong to have taken it.” 

Finally Jesus gets to the point of the lesson.  “All I am saying, Peter, is that, as you have been judging, you will be judged.  With your measure, it will be measured to you.”  Like many of us, Peter continues to talk about what has happened to him as though he has not heard Jesus at all.  “Best coat I ever owned.”  Jesus goes a little further with His lesson by reminding Peter about how God will take care of us.  “Be not troubled about your coat.  See the lilies of the field grow.  They neither toil nor spin, but even Solomon in all his glory was never arrayed like one of these.”  Peter continues to whine, saying, “How am I to keep warm?” Finally Jesus offers His coat to Peter, who backs away, too ashamed to accept that which is offered to him. 

Jesus is not condoning the sin of stealing.  He is teaching Peter a higher law, and that is that we should be compassionate and forgiving.  He is teaching that we should not judge the sin of another, because we do not know why they committed the sin, what drove them to it, what circumstances they are struggling with.   

If Jesus were talking to the one who stole the coat, His lesson, I am sure, would have been quite different.  He would have taught what the thief needed to hear to help him overcome his weakness and repent of his sins. 

I’m not going to get into the question of legal punishment or personal responsibility to earn what one needs in this life.  All I want to discuss now is the blessing that is called forgiveness.  We all want, at various times in our lives, to be forgiven.  We regret what we have done.  We want to escape the consequences of bad choices we’ve made.  We want to go back to the way things were before we made a mistake or hurt someone.  We would like to erase what we did so that there would be no knowledge of it for us or anyone else.  And of course we want to escape God’s punishment for our sins. 

The only way that can be done is through the atonement.  Jesus took upon Himself all the sins that any of us have ever or will ever commit.  That means that, if we allow it to be so, He satisfies justice for what we have done.  Then He offers us mercy, forgiving us, wiping away the eternal consequence of our sin and then forgetting whatever it was we did. 

So how do we allow it to be so?  We must accept the sacrifice Jesus made for us.  We must partake of the atonement by repenting and doing all that He has taught us to do. 

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.  (Omni 1:26)

If we accept His sacrifice, we are accepting that He paid the price for our sins, that with His suffering and death, He wiped away the consequences, and that He made us clean.  As such, we are no longer accountable for our sins.  Jesus is.  If we accept His atonement, we accept that it applies to everyone.  Therefore, we accept that those who sin against us are also forgiven of their sins.   

Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.  And ye ought to say in your hearts--let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.  (D&C 64:9-11)

When we refuse to forgive someone without conditions, we are denying the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We do not accept that He paid for their sins.  We pass judgment and require that they suffer for what they did.  We want them to be punished.  We wait for them to show remorse, make restitution and prove that they have changed. 

Jesus illustrated the error in this in the incident of the woman caught in adultery.  Her sin merited death by stoning according to the Law of Moses.  He did not deny that.  He just said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) 

We cannot deny the redeeming power of the sacrifice of the Savior for someone else while at the same time accepting it for ourselves.  We either accept this gift of redemption or we do not.  This great blessing relieves us of the responsibility to make sure people are punished for their sins.  We leave it in the hands of He who knows all things. 

If we are forgiving, relinquishing all the hurt and resentment and anger that results from the sins of another, we can experience the love of the Savior healing our broken hearts and our injured souls.  We can be Happy Like Jesus.

Be Obedient

Jesus Christ said, “I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.” (D&C 82:10)  What has He said?  “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”  (John 14:15)  And what is He bound to do?  Bless us.  Obey the commandments, and you will be blessed.  Seems pretty simple, and yet how often do we fail to be obedient?  The all-knowing, all-powerful God has said He will bless us, that He must bless us, if we obey Him.  And we mere mortals, who only wish we knew what the future holds, choose time and time again to say, “No, thanks.  I can get by without those blessings for now.”  

If you search the scriptures, you can find many blessings that are promised to those who are obedient, but since the overarching topic here is being happy like Jesus, let’s look at what He’s said about that.

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him…..These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.  Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  (John 14:23-27)

If we are obedient, the greatest gifts promised to us for this life are the Holy Ghost, and through Him, peace.  This is the kind of peace which shields us from depression, hopelessness, sadness and despair.  Some of the emotional upheavals we suffer are a necessary part of our life experience, and they cannot be avoided.  Others are brought on by our choices and our failure to be obedient to a loving Heavenly Father who has provided guidance through the commandments.  When we choose to disobey, we choose to relinquish His divine protection from misery. 

In “Mere Christianity,” C.S. Lewis writes about the law of gravity and the moral law we all live under and contrasts them as one allowing us to choose whether or not we will obey and the other giving us no choice.  Man did not make either of these laws, but he finds himself subject to both of them. 

The moral law is inside us.  We know it because we feel its influence.  It would move us to always choose the right, do the humane thing, be charitable and care about others as we care about ourselves.  There is an outside force that is prodding us to not respond to the promptings to obey that moral law.  We have a choice to make.

The law we cannot choose to disobey is the law of gravity.  However, there are outside forces that play with that law.  Those forces allow planes to fly and feathers to float on the wind.  Eventually gravity will have its way, but the other forces appear to defy the law for a time.   If a rock is dropped, it falls to the ground.  If it hits something on the way down, its course may be changed or slowed, but it will still go where gravity takes it.  Something like a feather, however, plays with the law of gravity.  It may fall gently to the ground.  It may be carried about by the wind, up, down, around in circles, even across a long distance if it is light enough and the wind strong enough.  The feather appears to have a little bit of freedom, deciding if and when it will obey the law of gravity. 

We are not forced to obey the moral law, God’s law.  God gave us agency, freedom to choose to obey or not, freedom to choose good or evil, freedom, it seems, to choose which external force will control where we go.  We can go straight down like the rock as we obey perfectly His law, or we can float around like a feather as we allow our choices to carry us about on the wind. 

Because none of us are perfect, none of us is the rock.  The rock is Jesus.  He perfectly obeys the moral law.  We are all like the feather.  We all start out free and enjoying the opportunity to make our own choices.  Then the wind, that outside force, blows us, perhaps gently at first.  Then the wind gets a little stronger, and we get whipped around a little more than we find comfortable.  We try to get some control over our direction, but different ideas, experiences, even people blow us one way and then the other.  We may find the external force leading us to go far from where we started, or we may just get tossed around in circles, moving only a short distance.  We may get blown against some hard object that prevents us from going anywhere but does not allow us to land.  The wind just batters us over and over against the immovable object. 

We learn that our freedom to choose does not make us free at all if we make the wrong choices.  When we cannot stand being blown about anymore, we might choose to bind ourselves to that rock that will weigh us down, seemingly forcing us to obey the law and freeing us from the battering wind.  It is not really force, though, because we choose to be bound to the rock.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.  (Deuteronomy 32:4)

The rock is always completely obedient, and if we are attached firmly to the rock, so are we.  If we are lightly attached, we may be held somewhat in place, but the wind will continue to move us around until we finally choose to firmly attach ourselves or completely let go of the rock.  Letting go could be a conscious decision, or it could just be the natural consequence of trying to have both the anchor of the rock and the freedom of the feather in the wind at the same time.  It just cannot be done.

We have our freedom to choose.  We can choose to not obey the commandments, and we will be buffeted by the wind, losing our freedom to progress to consequences of bad choices.  Or we can choose to obey by surrendering our will to the Father.  Then we attach ourselves completely to Jesus Christ, and through the atonement, the consequences are wiped away.  Just as a rock may be kicked around, we may have a hard time of it.  We may have difficult experiences and tough trials that toss us here and there, but as long as we are firmly attached to Christ, it will only serve to send us in the right direction as we progress toward perfection. 

So if we choose to stop allowing the wind to batter us against all the barriers in life and instead firmly attached ourselves to the rock and guard that attachment with obedience to God’s laws, we can be Happy Like Jesus. 

Be Fruitful

It’s taken me a while to get my head around what the difference is between being serviceable, which I already wrote about, and being fruitful.  I’m not talking about having children.  I’m talking about the other fruit that the Lord talks about us bringing forth.  After studying all the scripture references on the subject, I realized that being fruitful means to live in such a way that the footprint we leave on the world is positive and uplifting.  We participate in building the kingdom of God on earth.  We don’t just pray that his kingdom come on earth as in heaven.  (Matthew 6:10) We do our part to make it happen. 

Yesterday I spent some time outside enjoying a gorgeous, sunny day.  I noticed that the grass in our backyard is green with a very healthy-looking patch of clover growing right in front of the patio.  The bamboo across the back fence, which was brown all last summer, is green and bushy.  Purple and yellow wildflowers are scattered across the yard.  I watched several small yellow butterflies fluttering around.  I could hear birds singing nearby.  It was ideal: peaceful, tranquil, beautiful.  But when I turned my head to the left, I saw, against the blue sky, the barely moving, gray, lifeless, bare limbs of trees in the neighbor’s yard, which reminded me it is still winter.  As I looked back and forth a couple of times from my yard in spring to their trees in winter, I thought what a great analogy it is for what is happening in the world today.

The world is in winter.  Everything is growing old, wearing out, decaying, or just failing to produce.  There is so much ugliness, despair and seemingly little hope of improvement.  The economy is bad.  People are losing their jobs, their homes.  Families are breaking up.   We have the possibility of our entire economic system collapsing, of the money being worth nothing.  Violence and discontent are being bred in the streets of most major cities by young people angry about life being difficult for some while others have too much ease because of their money. We watch the results of economic crises in the rest of the world as they affect us here.

More and more states are redefining marriage.  Religious freedom is being threatened by the federal government as laws are considered that would force people to do that which goes against their moral values.  The government has already put many programs into place that are systematically robbing us of our rights – telling us what our children can and cannot eat at school, what they can wear (going way beyond a dress code for decency).  They want to tell us what we have to buy and what we can’t have because they think it’s not good for us.  They threaten to take away our right to protect ourselves at the same time that they refuse to do so themselves, ignoring the violence coming across our mostly unprotected southern border.  Freedom of speech is under constant attack at schools, in the media, in the military, at places of employment. 

We have terrorists and even nations who hate us and threaten attack.  Many Muslim countries are overthrowing dictators and are ripe to be taken over by Islamic extremists – Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Turkey.  Iran, whose president has said he wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and destroy the United States, will soon have a nuclear weapon. They are already taking aggressive action around and against Israel, which stands ready to defend itself.  Hatred against the Jews has risen all around the world, it seems, including here where we used to believe that all men were created equal and had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as well as the right to worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.  Now the hate that is spewed forth in the name of religion isn’t even disguised.  We have people judging who is and is not Christian, saying that some are not, even though they believe in Jesus as the Savior.  We have too many people focusing on what they don’t like about someone else’s religion instead of doing their best to live up to their own.  Jesus’ admonition to “judge not that ye be not judged” is being ignored, which is a shame, considering what the next verse says.  “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”  (Matthew 7:2)

What passes for entertainment now is often the worst of what our society has to offer – violence, hatred, abuse, torture, murder, promiscuity, lust, greed, adultery, gluttony, blasphemy, ridiculing everything that is good and glamorizing all the sins that have brought so many nations, kingdoms and empires in the history of this world to destruction.  Yes, it is winter in this world, and not much good fruit is forthcoming.  

However, as winter rages on all around the world, there are some spots, like my backyard, where spring is bringing forth fruit.  There are still people who love God, whatever they call Him, who are trying to do what would please Him.  They are trying to do His will, to serve Him by serving others.  They are looking for a way out as calamity approaches, but they are not leaning to their own understanding (Proverbs 3:5) or trusting in the arm of flesh (2 Nephi 4:34, Psalm 44:3).  They seek guidance from the Holy Ghost.  They try to live God’s law so they can count on God’s protection.  They obey His commandments so they can receive His blessings.  They notice the miracles that happen around them, and they thank the Lord for His Mercy.  They don’t lose hope because they know that those who are with us are more than those who are against us. (2 Kings 6:16)

While Satan is strong in the world right now and his plan is moving forward with increasing speed, we know he will ultimately lose.  I am so grateful for this very real reminder I got yesterday that, even as Satan rages in the earth, I can find peace, hope and happiness in my own little Garden of Eden if I live so as to enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost and the protection of the Lord’s omnipotent power.  At the same time, I am reminded that I am not completely protected from harm as I continue in my mortal probation.  There is one tree in the far left corner of my yard that looks like those dead trees of winter in my neighbor’s yard, and there is a dead vine under the bush just outside my bedroom window.  But the bush is green and healthy, and the dead tree rises from a garden plot that has green plants growing in it, even all around the bottom of that barren tree. 

So as the evil in the world tries to infiltrate my righteous realm, I am fully dedicated to putting on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11) and living in faith.  Instead of giving in to fear, despair and hopelessness, I will cling to peace, tranquility and security that come through living with an eye single to the glory of God.

And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things. (D&C 88:67)

If we abide in the Lord and He abides in us, we will be fruitful, bringing forth goodness, righteousness and truth, by obeying the Lord’s word, living by faith, being cleansed of sin and walking worthy of the Lord.   When we are fruitful, then we will be saved by the Lord, be worthy of the kingdom of heaven, enter into the Lord’s rest and have joy.  That truly is being Happy Like Jesus.