My First Hinge Point

Helaman  5:12

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

My spiritual journey started early in life.  My mother took me, my two brothers and one sister to church every now and then.  She had no attachment to the church we attended.  It was just the church my grandparents had picked.  I really didn’t know what the beliefs of that particular Protestant church were apparently, because when I witnessed a couple joining the church, I was taken aback by what the preacher said.  I was still quite young, not even a teenager.  This new couple stood in front of the congregation while the preacher read the formal doctrinal statement of the church, which included reference to everyone being born in sin.  When the preacher said we must all do something in life to overcome that original sin or we will go to hell, I remember thinking that he was saying that those who die as babies would go to hell, because they obviously did not have the chance to meet the requirements for forgiveness.  I looked at my mother sitting next to me and said, “I don’t believe that.”  

I don’t know if that had anything to do with the change in our church attendance, but after that Sunday, I no longer wanted to attend any meetings there.  At some point, my family started visiting various non-denominational churches, looking for something, but I was clueless as to what it was my mother was searching for.  I believed nobody knew the truth, and I had no desire to sit and listen to someone teaching me as though they did.  My mother believed that the non-denominational churches were admitting that no one knew the truth.  I was not finding the answers to my questions, so I started reading all kinds of books on religion, and the more I read, the more questions I had.  Being depressed at times, one of the biggest questions was, “Why am I going through this?”  In other words, what is the purpose of life?  I also wondered about where we came from and where we would go after life was over.  I believed no one had the answers, but I thought if I read enough and thought enough about it, I might get an idea as to what the answers might be.  

When I was 15 years old, I was in the tenth grade.  The previous year I had missed 30 days of school because of depression.  I was desperate for relief or at least knowledge.  I experienced the first hinge point of my life when I found it.  It was the beginning of everything I am now.  Even at that stage of my life, I somehow instinctively knew that the only way for me to learn the truth was through personal inspiration.  I was studying and pondering and praying without ever being told that was the way to get answers or even knowing that was what I was doing.  I was driven by the need to find a purpose in the pain of depression.  I was trying to determine why I had to suffer through this life and if it was worth it.  I never expected to find the answer that I eventually received.  I certainly did not expect to get it the way it came to me, and I never imagined it would have such a profound impact on my life.

It is incredible how vividly some events in life are ingrained on our memory.  It is not just a thought but more like a movie clip that plays when the moment is recalled.  They are not always the most important, exciting or breathtaking times in our lives.  They are more likely to be rather mundane and seem quite forgettable at the time that they take place, like taking a book off the top shelf in the religion section of my high school library.  I was looking for something for a class assignment.  I don’t remember the assignment or if I even found what I was looking for.  What I remember is seeing the Book of Mormon and wondering what it was.   I have a very clear vision of myself standing there and reading the introduction to the book.  When I read that it had come from an angel, I thought, “If that’s true, this is very important.”  Since I was a reader, I knew that I had to read it to find out if it was true.  

I checked the book out and started to read it as I would any book, cover to cover, whenever I could, as fast as I could.  I read it when I finished my class assignments.  I read it while waiting for the bus after school.  I read it at home.  I found it easy to read and very exciting.  In fact, I had to share it with someone, so I told a friend about everything I read.  She never showed any interest, but that had no apparent effect on my enthusiasm.  I remember telling my mother about Helaman and the warriors who could not be killed.  I thought that was amazing.  Every story I read seemed to touch my heart.  Nothing I had read before had ever affected me like this, but I thought it was just a great book, the best I had ever read, until I read the promise in the last chapter of the book. 

Moroni 10:4-5

And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.  And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.  

As a missionary, I was asked if someone can know the Book of Mormon is true without praying about it.  Yes, they can.  I did.  As soon as I read that passage of scripture, I knew that what I had been feeling as I read the book was the Holy Ghost telling me it was true.   When I read those verses, I felt the same excitement I had felt as I read the book.  I felt the intense warm feeling expanding and pulsating in my chest and knew it was the Holy Ghost.  I had never heard of the Holy Ghost witnessing of the truth in that manner before, but I knew it when I felt it.  I was astonished to realize that my expectation of reading and knowing if it were true was realized in such an undeniable and fantastic way.  It was the first truly spiritual experience of my life.  It was unforgettable.  Since then my testimony has been unshakeable.  No one could ever convince me that I was mistaken.  When the Holy Ghost lifts and fills your soul the way it did mine through the Book of Mormon, it is an experience that cannot be denied or forgotten.

I immediately told my mother that I wanted a copy of the book.  She started looking for it but couldn’t find it in any of our regular bookstores.  She went to a Christian bookstore and asked about it there.  That was a dead-end.  Then she saw a small announcement in the newspaper about the ward in our town dedicating a new chapel.  The address and phone number were included.  She called the church and asked how she could get a copy of the Book of Mormon.  The man who answered the phone told her he would send someone out.  The missionaries came to our house on Friday evening, October 22, 1976.   As a member of the marching band, I was at the high school football game that night.  

Sunday morning, October 24, I turned 16.  My mother came to my room and sat on my bed.  She said, “Happy birthday,” and gave me my present.  I opened the most inexpensive and most priceless present my mother has ever given me.  It was a Book of Mormon along with a Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price.  I was so excited.  I asked, “Where did you find it?”  She told me about the missionaries and said they wanted to meet me.  Years later as a missionary, I realized how much they wanted to meet me.  At the time, however, I had no idea.  I was just thrilled to have the book that I knew had come to the earth by way of an angel.  

I was completely out of the habit of going to church by then and had not even thought of taking that step.  I had done the next best thing.  Earlier that month I had watched one Sunday session of General Conference on TV and was amazed at how positive, uplifting and relevant the messages were.  I met the missionaries the day after I turned 16, and when they told me I should go to church, I agreed to go.  I was ready to do whatever they said.  My mother, younger sister and I were all baptized on December 4, 1976.  

I still suffered depression after that.  In fact, there were times when it was much worse.  It seems knowing the answers to all those questions about the purpose of life does not end the depression.  Having the gift of the Holy Ghost does not end depression.  Righteous living and an eternal perspective do not even put an end to depression.  It could seem hopeless, but it is not.  There is a purpose to everything we go through in life, and thanks to finding the gospel of Jesus Christ, I was on my way to learning the purpose of my emotional weakness and how to handle it.  

Keeping Christ in Christmas by Believing in Santa Claus

I’ve watched a lot of Christmas movies this year, and so many times someone says, “That’s what Christmas is all about,” but they’re wrong.  They say it’s all about family, friends, being together, giving, forgiving, sharing, etcetera.  That is not what Christmas is all about.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)  That’s what Christmas is all about.

For me, the most significant Christmas song I’ve listened to this year is “I Believe” by REO Speedwagon.  A little boy asks his dad if Santa is real, and the reply is, “I believe that anything is possible.  I believe in miracles, in the angels keeping watch, in innocence that is never lost.  I believe in Santa Claus.”  I talked in church earlier this year about believers in Christ and miracles.  We should not only believe in miracles, that anything is possible, .but we should expect miracles.  So maybe Santa is not just something for the children.  Maybe he’s not something that we should let go of as we get older.  Maybe we should come to understand that the excitement and joy he brings to children is what the mature believer should associate with Jesus Christ and the true meaning of Christmas.  

Could Santa Claus possibly be real?  Can one person know everyone by name and know if they are naughty or nice?  Can one person be everywhere in the world on one night and give everyone who believes what they most desire?  Can one person be powerful enough that having enough people believe in him creates a spirit of love and peace and goodwill to all men —enough to power a sleigh and reindeer to fly around the world?

Jesus Christ knows and loves each of us and is present all around the world constantly blessing all who have faith in him.  If enough people believe in him and live according to that faith, it can change the entire world and bring about innumerable miracles.  

At Christmastime we should use our stories and interactions with Santa to remind us of Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, a man who walked on water, fed thousands with a lunch made for a few, turned water into wine, made the blind see, the mute speak, the deaf hear and the lame walk.  Remember the man who suffered for our sins and then died so he could overcome death.  Remember that his spirit re-entered his body and to this day he still lives, immortal and glorified. 

Do you believe in Santa Claus?  Some say it’s too fantastic a story to believe in.  It’s impossible that his story is true.  Do you believe in Jesus Christ?  Some say his story is too impossible to be true.  I believe, because I have had so many proofs in my life in the form of miracles and spiritual experiences.  “I’ll tell you what I know.  I believe that anything is possible.  I believe in miracles, in angels keeping watch, in innocence that is never lost.  I believe in —“ Jesus Christ.  

And that is how you keep Christ in Christmas.

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.