I recently listened to a Think interview (10 Jan 2018) where the author of Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics discussed her new book on the history of the sexual revolution in America. In the interview, R Marie Griffith, explained that Protestants and Catholics were both generally opposed to birth control until a Catholic priest took a stand and then Protestants were galvanized to support birth control just because it was opposed by Catholics.
In many ways, the debate in the public square over sexuality and social justice continues to galvanize people. I have observed how same sex marriage has not been an issue people put out of their minds. Instead they take sides and defend their position with very little common decency. There appears to be no middle ground in today’s debate.
If as Marie Griffith has written, that the sexual revolution fractured American Christianity in the 1920’s, than it is amazing that, in contrast, these social changes are unifying American Mormons. Our position on permissible sexual activity limited to heterosexual marriages and chastity before marriage has not changed. In fact, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have strengthened their resolve to defend the position that sexuality is a divinely authorized privilege by which the unborn spirit children of a Heavenly Father are welcomed into this Earthly mortal life. All varieties of sexual deviancy which included adultery, prostitution, pornography, sexual abuse and perversion are unauthorized uses of the physical body and we will be held accountable for our actions in a post-mortem interview with our Father God.
November is the time for heavy Christmas marketing and very few advertisers are interested in the major US Holiday of Thanksgiving. However, I think a lot of people have good feelings about Thanksgiving because family gets together and people feel more connected to each other. This playlist will help you get in the mood to really enjoy this special holiday. I purposely omitted songs about the fall season/autumn because they are neutral. These types of songs can be added to your playlist if they remind you of home. If you desire to celebrate this holiday but you live in another country, be sure to add songs of thanks or harvest from your country's folk traditions. Feel free to submit the name of a special song to you in the comments section.
Feast Songs
Thanksgiving (Instrumental) performed by Michael Silverman
Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie Polka performed by The O’Neill Brothers Group
Fly, Turkey performed by Geof Johnson
Food, Glorious Food performed by Cantus
Pass the Peas (instrumental) performed by the J.B.’s
Meat and Potato Man performed by Alan Jackson
Prayer of Thanksgiving (instrumental) performed by David Tolk
Last September, I was invited by my local church leaders to attend a preparedness workshop offered by the city of San Antonio, TX. At this meeting I learned about the plans the city has to prepare for disasters. I learned about different recent disasters and how to get notifications during upcoming disasters. I also signed up to volunteer with the Red Cross. At the time, my local church leaders were also encouraging us to be more active in our communities.
Damage to a home in Port Aransas, TX after Hurricane Harvey
I trace my involvement with the Red Cross to these events but in addition, I must mention that I attribute divine intervention to my choice to volunteer at this time since I have so many young children at home. In December or January, I began to wonder what kind of disaster God was planning to send on my area. Not knowing the answer, I held that thought.
In August, we had three hurricanes hit the United States one after the other. In addition, Mexico experienced two earthquakes greater than 6.5 magnitude on the richter scale. Then we had a series of fires in California that burned many acres and displaced 100,000 people. While each disaster was regional, the effect was far reaching. Every disaster affected the local population as well as the family and friends who live elsewhere. In a sense, they have affected all of us. As one friend posted on Facebook before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, “I don’t know if I have the emotional energy to handle another hurricane.”
This is Day 12 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
The fact that life has choices means there are more than a thousand ways to go about it. In giving us a world of choices God surely knows that some will be bad, some will be good, and some will be "best." His written law, the ten commandments, his beatitudes and other parables point the way to the choices that lead to the "best" outcomes. His prediction is that "few there be that find it (meaning the best path)." This speech encourages us to be strategic about our use of time and resources so that we are on the best path. 1. Read the Speech: Speech 2. Take the Quiz Quiz 3. Personal Challenge Statement: I will take responsibility for my past choices by making better choices today. 4. Goal: Make a plan to align your inner desires with your outward choices. 5. Dig Deeper: Best Family Councils Do You See Small Enough? Course Correction image credit: flickr/Steven Guzzardi
This is Day 10 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
I have many choices. I also have troubles that oppose my state of peace and joy. As I walk in step with Christ he lightens the load I must carry, removes my desire for evil and changes my weakness into strong characteristics. This is how my faith in him grows. I see the change inside my heart. To learn more... 1. Read the Speech: Speech 2. Take the Quiz Quiz 3. Personal Challenge Statement: I am turning away from evil by faith in Jesus Christ 4. Goal: Choose three ways to take tiny steps towards a closer relationship with the Lord. 5. Dig Deeper: "Do You See Small Enough?" "You Can Have What You Want or You Can Have Something Better" "True and Perfect Worship"
This is Day 5 in a challenging new series of posts. Each post will focus on a way to increase spirituality, focus or efficiency in dealing with life. Each post will provide a speech or essay to read, a 5 question quiz and a personal challenge statement or goal. The hope is that through self-directed learning and some coaching from me, you will grow in refreshing new ways.
Life is a journey. I begin as a child and grow into adulthood. My identity is formed by my childhood experiences together with my emergence from youth into adulthood and the definitions that I accept about myself. My identity is strongest when it incorporates a knowledge of my divine worth. Next I must have a safe harbor so that the inevitable storms can't sink my ship. Today I want to discuss the idea of balance. No ship will stay afloat if it has too much weight on one side. Balance is an oft-debated topic and it would be difficult to summarize the theories out there. Today I will propose the ideas for staying balanced from the speech The Tradition of a Balanced, Righteous Life by L Tom Perry. 1. Read the Speech Speech 2. Take the 5-question quiz Quiz 3. Personal Challenge Statement: I can succeed in all aspects of life as I balance my efforts to feel, learn, do and share. 4. Goal: I will evaluate my life and focus on one way that I can be more balanced. 5. Dig Deeper into other blog posts on this topic: Prioritize Spirituality The Greatest Work Spiritual Self Reliance
This life is full of choices. We may choose to be friendly or prickly. We may choose to work hard or to take it easy. We may choose to believe God or to believe the hypotheses of men.
Choices are the gateways to paths that lead us to different outcomes. People who say they have no choices have forgotten that choices made in the past have led to that outcome. People who feel discouraged by life have made choices that led to that discouragement. I know this may sound harsh. I have been discouraged myself and I really had to search for which choices I made that took me there.
This post is about the Ten Commandments. Each item corresponds to one of the ten in order as described by Moses in Exodus 20.
You can believe in many gods or no god at all; you can look to horoscopes and scientific hypotheses for explanations or — you can have something better: a rock solid belief in God and trust that He will explain everything in his own due time.
You can have your big house, fast car, and all the distractions of life or — you can have something better: a relationship with God.
You can make your point with profanity or — you can have something better: reverence for the source of true power in the universe.
You can vacation, work, wash your car and a hundred other things on the Sundays of your life — or you can have something better: nourishment that comes from worshipping in church and studying God’s word privately.
You can harbor hatred towards your parents for all the mistakes they made — or you can accept their gift of life and the things they did right as the gift they truly are.
You can take your frustrations to the extreme and kill either yourself or someone else or — you can learn to be happy by dealing with your emotions.
You can have an affair, an open relationship or experiment with same gender attractions or — you can have something better: a marriage to someone who also keeps the law of chastity.
You can take what you want or think you deserve with no thought for the consequences to others or — you can earn your daily bread through honest labor and gain the satisfaction that comes from a job well done.
You can pretend to be who you aren’t, offer what you can’t deliver, and say what you don’t mean, but there is something better: one heart and one mind at peace with yourself and others.
You can have a negative perspective preferring to focus on all the things you don’t have — a house as big as your neighbor’s, a husband or wife as good as someone else, a lack of health, wealth or talents and you can become bitter and resentful of God — or you can have something better: faith in His purposes for your life, hope in a brighter tomorrow, love for your neighbor and yourself and a sense of contentment and happiness.
Life is undoubtedly hard. The trials we face force us to use all our resources, develop resources we never had and discover our own grit and stick-to-it-ness. These Ten Commandments (as with all commandments) point the way to happiness.
This video is an excellent speech given to an audience of young BYU students but with a timeless message of hope and encouragement.
The title comes from Jeffrey R Holland as quoted here.
In this post: Paul's mission - changing course in midstream - turning from dark to light
Let’s talk about change. Paul started out preparing for life as a Pharisee, the spiritual leader of the Jewish faith at that time. He zealously enforced Jewish laws and customs. Then one day, an angel appeared to him and told him that he needed to change direction. His mission was to now spread a message in opposition to the Jewish laws and customs he had been defending. Paul is an example of courage and humility because he changed direction in front of all the people who knew him.
Paul describes his God-given mission to King Agrippa …"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Acts 26:18
I’d like to spend this post looking at Paul’s mission in depth.
What does it take to open someone’s eyes?
I have offered advice and been ignored.
I have led group discussions which were lively, given a challenge question, and come back next week to follow up and no one had taken the challenge.
I have spoon-fed the tastiest morsels and seen the baby spit them out.
Lots of people knew Paul and they may have been reluctant to believe him and listen to his message.
The right question and a desire to know the answer causes eyes to open and ears to listen.
How does someone turn from darkness to light?
Sometimes a passerby has a lantern
Sometimes a new idea throws light on an old problem
But always turning from darkness to light is a choice
It requires swimming against the current
shaking off the chains of old habits
washing off layers of grime and avoiding dirty places
He tells us lies and we believe them - “Satan seeketh to turn their hearts away from the truth, that they become blinded and understand not the things which are prepared for them.” (D&C 78:10)
He makes us fear the very thing that would set us free — honesty
He tries to keep us from accepting responsibility for our mistakes
But he can’t keep us from choosing to leave his sphere of influence
There is no Earthly hell where God will not come and rescue us if we ask for His help.
Nehemiah 1:9-10 ”But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
10 Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand."
How did Paul show the people that they might receive forgiveness?
I think Paul’s strongest case is made when he showed that God gave his own Son for us, so why wouldn’t he give us forgiveness when we turn to Him. (Romans 8:31-32)
And what does it mean to be sanctified by faith?
Paul uses the example of Abraham in Romans 4:16-22. Abraham placed his faith in the promise that he would be a father of many nations even though he and Sara had never had children. His actions show that he was “fully persuaded” especially when he obediently took Isaac up to the top of the mountain. His faith gave him the strength to be obedient even when obedience defied logic. The sanctification came as he trusted God time after time with his life, his wife and his possessions.
"I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”
Deut 30:19
It's ok to change especially if you realize that your mission is taking you somewhere other than what you had planned. Happiness is living your God-given mission. Challenge: Choose to leave Satan's influence by repenting of one sin today.
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