Print or Email

“You know, so much of the time we are lost. We say, ‘Please, God, tell us what is right. Tell us what’s true. There is no justice. The rich win, the poor are powerless…’ We become tired of hearing people lie. After a time we become dead. A little dead. We start thinking of ourselves as victims. And we become victims. And we become weak… and doubt ourselves, and doubt our institutions… and doubt our beliefs… we say for example, ‘The law is a sham… there is no law… I was a fool for having believed there was.’ But today you are the law. You are the law… And not some book and not the lawyers, or the marble statues and the trappings of the court… all that they are is symbols of our desire to be just…All that they are, in effect, is a prayer……a fervent and a frightened prayer.

In my religion we say, ‘Act as if you had faith, and faith will be given to you.’If… If we would have faith in justice, we must only believe in ourselves. And act with justice.” (Paul Newman, The Verdict, 1982)

As individuals, we sometimes feel helpless against the ‘system.’ In the above movie, an attorney addressed a jury, who had the power to administer justice, if only in that one case. We have been given the power to exercise our power through voting. If we act in faith, and exercise our power, we the people will prevail against the rich and the powerful. That is what makes America the home of the brave! Let us try to find truth in all things and then exercise our rights. We may not all see things the same, but that is what makes this country so great. We the people!

Print or Email

TheDiscipleMD

Before I was married I wondered how someone could love the same person for their whole life and beyond. As I have aged in wisdom I have come to discover that as time passes, this love becomes not only stronger but easier. The uniqueness and beauty of your spouse unfolds before your eyes as each day goes by. Things that you once viewed as a minor irritation became a characteristic to celebrate.

I don’t think you can understand the depth and beauty of your spouse without first seeing them presented before you in all its stages. Like a performance that plays out on the theater of life, as you age you don’t just see the first act. Your respect and admiration for them grows as the second, and third acts open and close.

The eternal nature of love is apparent to me each time I see a silent look exchanged between a husband and his wife. The exchange could be in a crowed room, at a public event or in an intimate moment at a home. It is that moment where, for them, time stops, and they are the only two in the room; and the only ones who understand the silent communication of love that is transpiring between them.

“Love,” wrote poet Emily Dickinson, “is life, and life hath immortality.”

History stands as a testiment of the power and endurance of love shared between a man and a women while in the bonds of holy matrimony. It’s grace and beauty is manifest in all walks of life. You cannot go a day without seeing the postivie affects of marriage upon our society and upon the individual. Each of us is a blessed recipent of the divine covenant of marriage given to man from God above, weather we want to acknowledge it or not.

 I have spent close to 47 years of holy matrimony with my wife. I am grateful to my ancestors who handed down from generation to generation the ideals and beauty associated with marriage and showed me, by example, why it is divine, and how it would bless my life. Therefore, I am in celebration of my wise ancestors who passed on to me an appreciation of the God-given union of marriage between a man and a woman and I give thanks to them for all the blessings that have come into my life by entering into such a covenant.

Print or Email

TheDiscipleMD

It was mid-July of 1977. I was driving cross-country on a tour of the Argentina Buenos Aires South mission with my companion and the Mission President.  The Mission President was riding in the front passenger seat, while my companion slumbered in the back seat.  It was nearing dusk as I peacefully drove along somewhere between the city of Bahia Blanca and Neuquen. Suddenly, out of nowhere I saw a slow-moving tractor pulling a wagon of hay directly ahead in my lane. I thought that I was traveling way too fast to avoid a collision, so I glanced at the other side of the single-lane highway, only to see a car coming in the opposite direction. I glanced to the right and found that we were coming right up to a small bridge and that veering towards the right would certainly result in the car going down the embankment and possibly overturning. No option seemed good so I slammed on the brakes hoping that I could somehow minimize the inevitable bad accident.

I really can’t explain what happened next, but when I put on the brakes, it seemed as if an invisible hand engulfed the car and brought it safely to a complete stop just in time to avoid rear-ending the slow-moving tractor. I remember sitting there and looking over at the Mission President, who looked as white as a ghost. I looked in the back-seat and saw that my companion was still sleeping undisturbed.  He was sleeping away without a care in the world. He never knew how close we came to a tragedy. I had no doubt then or now, that the Lord had a hand in protecting us that day. Why did He? Perhaps my companion at the time, Lloyd Newell, needed to fulfill his mission of being the spokesman for ‘Music and the Spoken Word’, which he just finished after thirty-four years.  Maybe I, or the mission president, had a greater mission here on earth. I guess the reason is only known to God. Yes, we were in his service that day, but the scriptures are full of accounts where faithful men and women have perished while doing the work of the Lord.

Why then, does the Lord allow tragedy, and or, wicked men to persecute the righteous and yet at other times He wields His power? I’m not sure I have the complete answer but I do know that the Lord is in charge. It is clear from the scriptures and from my own personal experiences that the Lord does intervene from time to time in the lives of his children. But when tragedy strikes and the Lord doesn’t intervene to stop it, we should count ourselves in good company. More importantly, we should remember that this life is not the end of our existence.  Oft times we do not see the “big” or “full” picture.  Tragedy that comes into our lives can be hard to accept at times,  but if we have faith in the plan of salvation,  I believe our hearts can be comforted.

When we pray for deliverance, we must always remember the model prayer given by the Savior in the garden of Gethsemane. He prayed: “…Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him”. (Luke 22: 42-43). I glean at least three things from this prayer. 1) He asked to have the cup removed. In other words, he believed in prayer and that it was effective. Why else would he have prayed! 2) He understood that his prayer was a request, but he was willing to accept whatever the Father decided, and 3) His father answered it in a different way than he wanted. He wanted the cup removed, but what he received was the appearance of an angel to “strengthen him.” There are valuable lessons to be learned from this exchange.

The right thing to do is to voice our desires to Heavenly Father in prayer. But having faith in His decisions for our life requires much deeper faith. May we have the faith to both pray and accept the answers that come from a loving Heavenly Father and the reasons that are only known to Him.

Print or Email

TheDiscipleMD

“There is almost always a price to be paid for declaring oneself a “lone wolf.” The risk of so doing far outweighs any benefit one could derive. Keep close to the family, keep close to the church; keep close to the Lord! We were never meant to travel the road of life as a ‘lone wolf.'”

“There is a certain inner strength that comes to those who don’t succumb to the daily grind of the adversary. In the end, the Lord will give us the strength to overcome all. It may not be in this life, but we are promised that that day will come. Until the sunrise of that day, we need to keep fighting even when we feel we are overmatched. It will build in us noble characteristics that are far more reaching than the momentary glory of man.”

“…it is important to make the Lord part of the process in our decision making, but going directly to Him, or His servants, without doing the necessary homework is making an end run around the learning process that the Lord intended. That intent is evident by the fact that a veil was placed upon our minds when we came to this earth. Personal development through decision making is a key part of our agency in this life.”

‘…the process by which we gain, and then become humble, takes time, experience, and faith. Perhaps that is why the Savior requires so much unrecognized sacrifice. It is the key to humility. I am sure that all of us will feel “overlooked” at sometime in our life. But remember, it is a good lesson in humility, and that “humility” makes someone the “greatest” in the kingdom of our Father, not an office in the church.”

“There are some individuals that don’t want to be found, or rescued. In fact when they see us they run as fast as they can away from us. Others are drowning and when you throw them a life ring they respectfully push it away: again and again. Moral agency is a gift from God our Father. We cannot “force” others to be “found.” We can only provide help and support.

“Often in life, we worry and fret as we enter new waters that hold the “unknown.” Most often ours worries are never realized. The stingrays swimming about are seldom as menacing as they seem. We need to be on alert as we go through life, but letting “fear” paralyze us will retard our growth and take some of the joy out of living.”

“Many of the lives of the prophets testify that life can be good even in rainy times. Certainly the greatest example is Christ himself. It doesn’t appear that he was “bitter” at how his life turned out. We need to grab our trials and make them work for us. As we travel through life, if we make them our friends, they can make us more Christ-like and bring salvation to our souls.”

“To be spiritual doesn’t mean we abandon the physical, we just need to keep it in perspective.”

“Listening to the philosophies of men is like eating cotton candy. When you take a big bite, it quickly dissolves in your mouth, leaving you with a taste, but nothing to swallow.”

“Many have sacrificed “all” for success in their respective fields. They stand tall in the ‘Hall of Fame’ for business, science, athletics, politics and the arts. But when the image is sharpened and magnified, they have oft times left behind fractured families, broken homes, and shattered lives during their quest.”

“It’s amazing what you can do when you have a positive attitude and you place yourself in the hands of a higher power. Miracles can happen and things that we never dream we can accomplish become possible when we walk with the Lord, hand in hand.”

“I think there’s nothing quite like, the warmth of a mother’s arms…I have no clue as to the enormous responsibilities and burden that come with motherhood. I only observe its influence and results. But I’m sure that it is God given, and that all mothers are given their special “guardian” angel to help them on their way, because it’s just too hard and wonderful of a call to do alone.”

“From my experience, there is nary a sermon given in church that in some way doesn’t cause painful memories to surface for at least one of the congregates. Over my life, I too, have felt the sting from time to time from messages or comments delivered that seem to penetrate a sensitive part of my soul. What do we do in such times? The answer was given by my sister some years ago! After suffering the loss of her husband she declared through her pain, “The only reason I go to church is because I have a testimony!” That seems like a simple statement, but it is filled with a profound message.”