Friday, March 12, 2010
Monday, October 05, 2009
Never Speak Cross Words To Your Spouse
Shortly before I was married I was assigned with an older companion to serve as home teacher to an aged little lady who was a shut-in. . . .
We somehow learned that she was very partial to lemon ice cream. Frequently we would stop at the ice cream store before making our visit. Because we knew her favorite flavor, there were two reasons we were welcome to that home.
On one occasion the senior companion was not able to go, for reasons that I do not remember. I went alone and followed the ritual of getting a half-pint of lemon ice cream before making the call. . . .
After a prayer, thinking of my coming marriage, I suppose, she said, "Tonight I will teach you." She said she wanted to tell me something and that I was always to remember it. Then began the lesson I have never forgotten. She recounted something of her life.
A few years after her marriage to a fine young man in the temple, when they were concentrating on the activities of young married life and raising a family, one day a letter came from "Box B." (In those days a letter from "Box B" in Salt Lake City was invariably a mission call.)
To their surprise they were called as a family to go to one of the far continents of the world to help open the land for missionary work. They served faithfully and well, and after several years they returned to their home, to set about again the responsibilities of raising their family.
Then this little woman focused in on a Monday morning. . . . There had been some irritation and a disagreement. Then some biting words between husband and wife. Interestingly enough, she couldn't remember how it all started or what it was over. "But," she said, "nothing would do but that I follow him to the gate, and as he walked up the street on his way to work I just had to call that last biting, spiteful remark after him."
Then, as the tears began to flow, she told me of an accident that took place that day, and he never returned. "For fifty years," she sobbed, "I've lived in hell knowing that the last words he heard from my lips were that biting, spiteful remark."
This was the message to her young home teacher. She pressed it upon me with the responsibility never to forget it. I have profited greatly from it. I have come to know since that time that a couple can live together without one cross word ever passing between them.
I have often wondered about those visits to that home, about the time I spent and the few cents we spent on ice cream. That little sister is long since gone beyond the veil. This is true also of my senior companion. But the powerful experience of that home teaching, the home teacher being taught, is with me yet, and I have found occasion to leave her message with young couples at the marriage altar and in counseling people across the world. (Boyd K. Packer 72–05, pp. 89–90)
We somehow learned that she was very partial to lemon ice cream. Frequently we would stop at the ice cream store before making our visit. Because we knew her favorite flavor, there were two reasons we were welcome to that home.
On one occasion the senior companion was not able to go, for reasons that I do not remember. I went alone and followed the ritual of getting a half-pint of lemon ice cream before making the call. . . .
After a prayer, thinking of my coming marriage, I suppose, she said, "Tonight I will teach you." She said she wanted to tell me something and that I was always to remember it. Then began the lesson I have never forgotten. She recounted something of her life.
A few years after her marriage to a fine young man in the temple, when they were concentrating on the activities of young married life and raising a family, one day a letter came from "Box B." (In those days a letter from "Box B" in Salt Lake City was invariably a mission call.)
To their surprise they were called as a family to go to one of the far continents of the world to help open the land for missionary work. They served faithfully and well, and after several years they returned to their home, to set about again the responsibilities of raising their family.
Then this little woman focused in on a Monday morning. . . . There had been some irritation and a disagreement. Then some biting words between husband and wife. Interestingly enough, she couldn't remember how it all started or what it was over. "But," she said, "nothing would do but that I follow him to the gate, and as he walked up the street on his way to work I just had to call that last biting, spiteful remark after him."
Then, as the tears began to flow, she told me of an accident that took place that day, and he never returned. "For fifty years," she sobbed, "I've lived in hell knowing that the last words he heard from my lips were that biting, spiteful remark."
This was the message to her young home teacher. She pressed it upon me with the responsibility never to forget it. I have profited greatly from it. I have come to know since that time that a couple can live together without one cross word ever passing between them.
I have often wondered about those visits to that home, about the time I spent and the few cents we spent on ice cream. That little sister is long since gone beyond the veil. This is true also of my senior companion. But the powerful experience of that home teaching, the home teacher being taught, is with me yet, and I have found occasion to leave her message with young couples at the marriage altar and in counseling people across the world. (Boyd K. Packer 72–05, pp. 89–90)
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Our Own Gethsemane
In a talk written for, but not delivered in, the April 1979 general conference he (Bruce R. McConkie) said, "Life never was intended to be easy. We are here on probation. We need the experiences of mortality, experiences which could be gained in no other way." He then suggested that we must each face our own Gethsemane. We will all "be tried and tested to the full extent of our power to withstand," he wrote.
The Bruce R. McConkie Story: Reflections of a Son
JOSEPH FIELDING MCCONKIE
Chapter 23: His Final Testimony
Monday, August 10, 2009
Blessing Paradox
Toward the end of 1983 Bruce R. McConkie started feeling some symptoms that were later to be found as cancerous. Terrible struggles ensued full of faith and love until his final breath on Friday April 19th, 1985.
He was administered to numerous times for cancer. Often I have heard in the church that (1.) you don't solicit blessings (as the giver) and (2.) you don't annoint more than once for the same ailment or set of problems or problem. His first blessing was prior to his first surgery on January 20th, 1984 by Elder James E. Faust and Neal A. Maxwell. As near as the record shows (ref*) he had at least two annointings and eleven blessings.
2nd blessing by President Gordon B. Hinckley asked of by Bruce R.
3rd blessing by Boyd K. Packer asked of by President Packer
4th blessing by Britt asked of by Bruce or his wife
5th blessing by Missionary Executive Committee Packer, Faust, and Oaks (Packer was voice) asked of by Bruce
6th blessing by his sons and family members (annointing specifically stated) asked of by Bruce through his wife.
7th blessing given by President Hickley and the quorum of the twelve apostles (unknown who asked from the record)
8th blessing by a Dr. Maurice Taylor (stake patriarch)
9th blessing by Brit
10th blessing by Packer
11th final blessing by Packer who sent him home "yield to the will of the Lord", were his instructions to the family.
*Reference http://gospellink.com/library/document/132299
He was administered to numerous times for cancer. Often I have heard in the church that (1.) you don't solicit blessings (as the giver) and (2.) you don't annoint more than once for the same ailment or set of problems or problem. His first blessing was prior to his first surgery on January 20th, 1984 by Elder James E. Faust and Neal A. Maxwell. As near as the record shows (ref*) he had at least two annointings and eleven blessings.
2nd blessing by President Gordon B. Hinckley asked of by Bruce R.
3rd blessing by Boyd K. Packer asked of by President Packer
4th blessing by Britt asked of by Bruce or his wife
5th blessing by Missionary Executive Committee Packer, Faust, and Oaks (Packer was voice) asked of by Bruce
6th blessing by his sons and family members (annointing specifically stated) asked of by Bruce through his wife.
7th blessing given by President Hickley and the quorum of the twelve apostles (unknown who asked from the record)
8th blessing by a Dr. Maurice Taylor (stake patriarch)
9th blessing by Brit
10th blessing by Packer
11th final blessing by Packer who sent him home "yield to the will of the Lord", were his instructions to the family.
*Reference http://gospellink.com/library/document/132299
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Teach Your Children
Parents are commanded to teach their children to understand the principles of the gospel from their earliest childhood; to teach them to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Jesus Christ, the ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins and to pray, before they reach the age of accountability, so that they will know why these ordinances and principles are essential parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (D. & C. 68:25-28.) If parents neglect this important duty then the sin will rest on the parents.
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Repentance
Repentance is the Lord’s law of growth, his principle
of development, and his plan for happiness.
-Spencer W. Kimball
Consider that you are infected with leprosy. It is my belief that everything spiritual has a temporal parallel and visa versa. For example: leprosy could be likened to sin.
-"For we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God."-Rom. 3: 23
If we were to become tainted with an infectious disease we would seek medical attention immediately. We wouldn't wait around thinking that the problem would just go away. Hence, my example of having leprosy instead of something small like a bad cough, consider the following definition taken from the Bible Dictionary to give weight to this concept:
"Leprosy is a terrible form of skin disease, still common in dry climates, and highly contagious. Lepers were forbidden by the law to enter any walled city. If a stranger approached, the leper was obliged to cry “unclean.” The disease was regarded as a living death, indicated by bare head, rent clothes, and covered lip. For the regulations concerning the treatment of lepers, see Lev. 13 and Lev. 14.
An infectious, contagious disease repeatedly spoken of in the O.T. and the N.T. Many notables were at some time afflicted with it, including Moses (Ex. 4: 6-7), his sister Miriam (Num. 12: 10), Naaman (2 Kgs. 5), and King Uzziah (2 Chr. 26: 19-21). In these cases leprosy was given as a sign, a warning, or a punishment. There were apparently several types of leprosy, and the word is used in the Bible to designate other sicknesses or diseases. For example, clothing and walls were said to be leprous when they had patches of mildew or some fungous growth, as in Lev. 13: 47-59; Lev. 14: 33-37. Instances of Jesus curing leprosy are recorded in Matt. 8: 2-4; Mark 1: 40-45; Luke 5: 12-15; Luke 17: 11-15."
It is such a nasty disease that anyone that had it would obviously know about it, and do everything in their power to rid it, and at all costs. All of us have some type of spiritual disease and some are worse than others. For example, the Savior would end some of his parables with this: "He who hath ears to hear, let him hear." The spiritual implication would be you might be hearing Him speak, but you have no idea what he is talking about. Another example would be found in the book of Matthew. The savior sums it all up when he says:
For this people’s is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their they have; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Repentance in and of itself is an act of faith. The first principles and ordinances of the gospel go hand in hand and they flow from one to the other. They are simple, but extremely complex at the exact same time. They are shallow water, and a deep rabbit hole. This is how the gospel embraces all levels of development. This is how the gospel can apply both to a child and an adult.
My point is, that we all need to repent, and at different levels. Some of us are numb to repentance altogether. Sometimes they are phases that we pass through. We are spiritually overboard like the Pharisees and Sadducee's. Then some time later we find ourselves ignoring the Lord wanting to repent then the battle with guilt ensues. It might even be cyclical. I believe if we are constantly striving to progress we can break the cycle. [Currently Editing]
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