10 June 2025

Choice and Accountability

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday afternoon session of the October 2009 conference.

One of my pet peeves is members of the church who speed, never allowing enough time to drive somewhere at or below the posted speed limit. I find it rather disingenuous to pray for safe travels and then break the laws. I wonder how members can use justifications to break the speed limit laws that would sound comical to justify breaking other laws or commandments. "Well, I'm just stealing a candy bar, not a television." "I'm just having a little bit of coffee, it's mostly milk." "It's just one cigarette when I'm feeling really stressed." 

In Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk, Stewardship--A Sacred Trust, he says, "This feeling of accountability, which is encompassed by the first great commandment to love God, has been described by some as 'obedience to the unenforceable.' We try to do what is right because we love and want to please our Father in Heaven, not because someone is forcing us to obey." Isn't that how speed laws are? They are rarely enforced, we obey them because we want to be safe, and found on the right side of the law. How much more important are the commandments, especially the ones that will let us into or keep us out of the temple.

Elder Cook tells the story of his grandfather returning to his ranch in his old age to find that the fences protecting the spring had deteriorated and cattle had gotten into the spring and polluted it. The grandfather felt terrible that he hadn't been able to keep up what he felt was his stewardship to protect that source of pure water. Because of the grandpa's reaction to the polluted spring, action was taken to renew the fences and put in place protections to return the spring to its original loveliness and purity.

Elder Cook says, "I would suggest that if we think about giving an accounting of our actions to the Savior, our rationalizations will be seen in their true light."

Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk, Moral Discipline had similar themes. He said, "Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard."

Exceeding the speed limit is not necessarily a moral issue, except if you think about the example you are setting for your children. Especially if you think about saying to them at the time they get their driver's license--do as I say not as I do, because the insurance cost will skyrocket if you get a ticket.

If we are faithful in small things we are practicing to be faithful and obedient in larger things, especially in the arena of moral choices. 

Elder Christofferson told about President James E. Faust standing before a board of inquiry when he applied to officer candidate school and being asked "In times of war should not the moral code be relaxed? Does not the stress of battle justify men in doing things that they would not do when at home under normal situations?" And his answer, "I do not believe there is a double standard of morality."

Elder Christofferson ended with this timely counsel. "We cannot presume that the future will resemble the past--that things and patterns we have relied upon economically, politically, socially will remain as they have been. Perhaps our moral discipline, if we will cultivate it, will have an influence for good and inspire others to pursue the same course. We may thereby have an impact on future trends and events. At a minimum, moral discipline will be of immense help to us as we deal with whatever stresses and challenges may come in a disintegrating society."

Looking around at the world today we can see how our choices can either draw others to Christ or turn them away. There is no middle ground anymore. We can be moral beacons to guide others to the safety of the Gospel.

03 June 2025

The "ity" Virtues

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday morning session of the October 2009 conference.

I like Bishop H. David Burton. He just sounds like a good man, and a fun grandpa. In 1998 he gave a talk called A Season of Opportunity and shared a lesson he had learned from President and Sister Joseph Fielding Smith about patronizing stores that honored the Sabbath Day. That changed the way I shopped ever since. I wrote about it here.

This session's talk was about standing tall and being firmly fixed in perpetuating Christlike virtues. He called them the "ity" virtues because they mostly end in the letters "i t y". 

He spoke of many virtues and quoted President James E. Faust as suggesting "that integrity is the mother of many virtues." I find that to be true because a person of integrity is one whose actions match their words and beliefs. If I say I'm kind but my actions don't show kindness I'm not a person of integrity. 

We live in great and perilous times. The sides (good vs. evil) are polarizing with no middle ground. Either we follow Jesus Christ and practice what we preach, or we follow the other guy. It's becoming impossible to be neutral or to have one foot in each camp. We all must choose one or the other.

Bishop Burton said, "I testify and declare that our Heavenly Father expects His children to exercise integrity, civility, fidelity, charity, generosity, morality, and all the 'ity' virtues. May we have the humility to take the opportunity to act upon our responsibility to demonstrate our ability to do so, I pray in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I needed this reminder to examine my life, repent and bring it more into harmony with my covenants to follow the Savior. Studying the past General Conferences is such a blessing in my life! I recommend it to everyone. It's really like studying the scriptures, modern scriptures given in our very day. 

27 May 2025

Just Happy to Be Obedient

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Priesthood session of the October 2009 conference.

So many good talks in this session, I recommend them all! I'll just share one statement from one talk which I actually used in the talk I gave on Sunday, 25 May 2025. 

From Elder Yoon Hwan Choi's talk "I Love Loud Boys", 
. . . let us obey the leaders of the Church and be like Adam, who didn't always have to know the reason why but was just happy to be obedient.

And let's be like Nephi who prayed to know for himself that what the prophet said was true!

(Elder Choi is special to me because he is from South Korea, a land that I have visited and love.) 



20 May 2025

God's Love and Laws

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday afternoon session of the October 2009 conference.

Some of our children were easier to teach than others. One, especially, questioned everything and wanted to know why. Why did we have to obey the restrictive commandments? I often used analogies to explain things. Just as I am older and more experienced than my children, and can see a bigger picture, God is older, more experienced and wiser too. He sees an eternal perspective. His commandments are like our house and family rules, they are to help us be safe, productive, and happy living together.

Elder Oaks talk, Love and Law, reinforced this concept for me.
The love of God does not supersede His laws and His commandments, and the effect of God's laws and commandments does not diminish the purpose and effect of His love. The same should be true of parental love and rules.

One of the things that is hardest for parents is to allow natural consequences to follow the breaking of rules. Too often we extend mercy before the "weight of sin" is felt and we don't allow children to take some time to "come to themselves" and repent. We want to keep the peace, not interrupt or derail our plans. We don't want to get angry!

God's love is so perfect that He lovingly requires us to obey His commandments because He know that only through obedience to His laws can we become perfect, as He is. For this reason, God's anger and His wrath are not a contradiction of His love, but an evidence of His love.

I'm not trying to justify abuse, but there's nothing wrong with letting our children know how disappointed we are, or how unhappy, or upset we are when they deliberately disobey. (I'm not talking about untrained toddlers here. Sometimes we are impatient with a child who just doesn't know any better. We quickly find out where we need to do some teaching and training.)

God's choicest blessings are clearly contingent upon obedience to God's laws and commandments.

I know this to be true better than I know anything else. While I know I have been forgiven of serious sins as a young adult, I also know I have missed out on blessings, and have suffered the consequences of my sins for decades. Maybe God provides miracles for some in removing consequences, but He hasn't for me. I have apologized to my children who also have had to endure the consequences of my choices. 
God does not intervene to forestall the consequences of some persons' choices in order to protect the well-being of other persons--even when they kill, injure, or oppress one another--for this would destroy His plan for eternal progress. He will bless us to endure the consequences of others' choices, but He will not prevent those choices. 

Despite the somber tone of this talk I find it uplifting and hopeful. God's plan is working. And because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ all things will be made right in the end.

Recently I was pondering about our son James and the poor choices he made and how lost he was. Into my mind came his voice saying, "I'm not lost now, Mom." No, he's not lost anymore. The rescue of the Savior extends to all. James is safe from the power of Satan; he is endowed with priesthood power and able to move forward now. God loves all of His children and has provided a way for repentance and mercy through Jesus Christ.

God's love is evident through His laws. Our love should be evident through our obedience. I'm sure that once I make it through this life I will kneel at His feet and thank Him for His laws, and for His mercy in providing a Savior for when I wasn't strong enough or smart enough to obey those laws. 
 

13 May 2025

Be Still

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Saturday morning session of the October 2009 conference.

This year my children will be ages 36 to 27. Hardly seems possible! They were raised in a home where we didn't watch broadcast television. We had a TV but used it to watch VHS, then DVD movies. They were homeschooled and didn't get cell phones until they were on their own, earning their own way. (Once a 16 year old son having been told no, he couldn't have his own computer, asked accusingly, "Well, how old were you when you got your own computer?" My answer stunned him into silence, "Forty.") I read to them at bedtime until they were at least twelve. I tried to give them a good foundation of understanding that we all need quiet time to relax and listen. I not sure I did a very good job. All of them seem to be constantly on their phones, or computers, or gaming, or listening to raucous music while doing something else. To my eyes it seem that they never allow for stillness and quiet. 

Sister Vicki F. Matsumori, Second Counselor in the Primary General Presidency had this to say about it:

If we provide a still and quiet time each day when we are not bombarded by television, computer video games, or personal electronic devices, we allow that still, small voice an opportunity to provide personal revelation and to whisper sweet guidance, reassurance, and comfort to us.

As I listened to that this week I reflected on President Nelson's admonition "But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." (See Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives)

As missionaries we taught people how to recognize the workings of the Spirit through the many references in the scriptures. I thought I knew everything then; but I'm still learning, even now.

Sister Matsumori said, When we understand the whisperings of the Spirit, we will be able to hear Him teach us "the peaceable things of the kingdom" and "all things what [we] should do." We will recognize answers to our prayers and know how to live the gospel more fully each day. We will be guided and protected. And we can cultivate this gift in our lives as we follow those spiritual promptings. Most importantly, we will feel Him witness to us of the Father and of the Son.

I've tried hard to practice what I preach. Being quiet and still has sure helped me better hear instructional promptings, and to feel the comforting influence of the Savior through my grief and pain.

The Spirit is real and near if we'll just give Him the quiet and stillness He needs to get through to us.