Putting Husband Before Father

Children Thrive Best Under a Loving, Stable, and Devoted Marriage between their Natural Parents

The lack of natural marriage, childbearing, and family-building is a root cause of a majority of societal ills. Our prisons are bursting with the products of broken homes who never accomplished proper human development. One cause of such problems is the practice of putting the caring for one's children ahead of devotion for one's spouse. This misplaced centrality leads to selfish divorces, un-launched and mal-developed adult children, and divided loyalties that retard everyone's needed progression. Societies cannot survive with so many under-developed and broken people as "respected" members.

The relationship between a husband and wife is the supreme, enduring relationship as sanctioned and dictated by God himself. It is meant to last a lifetime and beyond. The marriage covenant is designed to complete men and women, drawing upon the innate talents and abilities of each to meet the common needs of both and the children they bear - the natural family. The acquisition and nurture of a mutually beneficial and loving natural marriage should be the over-arching goal and primary labor of every adult human life. No other pursuit is more fulfilling; no other relationship is more honorable. Natural marriage provides its ultimate benefit in incubating the next generation of verdant individuals that healthy societies and nations require and that God demands.

Parental obligations to children should focus on their development and their rise to the station of dutiful and devoted wives and husbands with families of their own. Doting on children beyond this is a major predictor of lifelong dysfunction:

• an inability to put another ahead of self;
• a lack of desire and resolve sufficient to marry or sustain a marriage;
• the immature act of having children out-of-wedlock; and
• a lack of sufficient time and resources to meet the swollen demands of intrinsically misshapened "sub-families".

Governments and leaders of every stripe should show greater concern for the health of their societies by strongly encouraging natural, devoted marriage and building of families based upon such marriages. All adults should show greater respect for the efforts and sacrifices of parents, grandparents, and further ancestors in bringing each man and woman into this world and raising them up, typically within natural families. The voluntary formation and acceptance of "sub-families", such as intentional single-parent groupings, same-sex couplings (adoptive or not), co-habitation households, orphanages, "child development centers" and other sub-optimal child-raising situations should be strongly de-emphasized and categorically discouraged, both through societal and statutory means. No society can hope to prosper where a large and growing proportion of children are subjected to systemically inferior developmental environments outside of their natural families. There will always be a small proportion of children who will lose one parent or both to death and require alternatives and added assistance, but such circumstances are somewhat rare. We do children no favors by socially and legislatively "blessing" the aberrant home-lives of miscreant parent-figures when family life under natural married parents was purposefully rejected.

Every child deserves an optimal developmental setting and it is the duty of each father and mother to join together to provide such for their natural children. Putting devotion to a spouse ahead of love for son or daughter best prepares the children to accept adult roles and responsibilities, the highest of which is to create further natural marriages and optimal families.

The Great "Squaring Up" of Heaven and Hell

As I promised in other blog posts about the ultimate Telestial, Terrestrial, or Celestial rewards that are available after Judgement, I am now going to provide my perspective on the time that we will spend between death and the judgement. As always, these are my thoughts and do not necessarily reflect the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, where I spend my Sundays. Mormons call this time the "Spirit World", which is kinda strange since it describes more of a condition than a place. Christians have several names for it: "Heaven", "Hell", "Paradise", "Prison", "Limbo", "Purgatory". There are likely other names as well and scholars of the Judeo-Christian Bible use them all copiously to try to describe what is going to happen after we die.

There is indeed a time between death and Judgement. How long this time lasts is quite dependent on the way you lived your life. I have come to call it the "Squaring Up", where each of us and God fulfill promises and covenants made previously.

It is useful at this point to explain that you existed before you were born on Earth. You not only just existed, you made a very important choice: you decided to take sides with Jehovah, the man you may know better as Jesus Christ. God's reward for your choice was to send you to Earth with a body and to promise that you would get to have that body again in a perfected form after you die. If you recall, Jesus was "resurrected" after he died and God promised that same resurrection to those of us who followed Christ before birth. Essentially, you are alive today because you made the right choice previously and you will be resurrected for the same reason. God will "square up" his pre-Earth-life promise of immortality with you just before you attend Judgement. You will absolutely live again - God is good on his word.

There are other things to square-up as well. As part of accepting and promising to follow Jehovah (Jesus) before you were born, you were expected to keep commandments during your life on Earth. Also, while on Earth, you may have made further "covenants" with God that involve other activities and rewards. All of these must be accounted for before the Judgement.  If you kept the promises you made, there will be very little to "square up" and your time might be short and blissful, a definition of "heaven". If you didn't do a very good job with your promises, you will have more "squaring up" to do, which seems to be unpleasant and is often referred to as "Hell".  Remember those stories about Hell in the Bible? How long you spend "squaring up" is really dependent on how much you strayed from your promises.

If you have a background in business, this "squaring up" sure sounds like business accounting. God feels like an auditor and you want to have your bookkeeping in good order before the audit (Judgement) comes. That's what this "spirit world" time is for:  make sure all the figures add up and everything on the ledger balances. If you have been a good business manager, you should be ready for your audit without much work.  If you "cooked" the books or kept your records poorly, things could get nasty. Making everything honest and balanced is going to be a painful and expensive.  Sound like "Hell" yet?

There are some things to keep in mind when attempting to make the "squaring up" time as short as possible for yourself:

• Repentance - Everyone messes up on their promises (well, except for Christ). The principle of repentance is that you can avoid the pain of "squaring up" as you make up for your mistakes in the way Jesus has prescribed.  Not sure how to make it work? We are here to help you.
• There is no Excuse for Ignorance - As part of the squaring up there will be full disclosure. No one will be left ignorant before Judgement. I suppose you can try to say you really didn't know about Jehovah's commandments (there are ten and many US courthouses put them out on the front lawn. They also feature in that Bible.) I suppose you can plead ignorance if you like, but you really do determine how long this "squaring up" takes.
• You want Mercy, Not "Fairness" - There are two things to expect from God:  justice and mercy. The smart bet is to go for mercy every time. If you start arguing with God (pretty stupid idea) that he isn't being "fair" about the squaring up process, it will just create more things to settle.

God really has set up a wonderful system - it really is up to you if you choose to take advantage of it. For my money, it's absolutely the best deal that will ever come around! So, keep those commandments! Repent when you need to do so! Don't make the "squaring up" any harder. There is a fantastic reward just waiting for you to claim!

Civilization Crumbles to Appease the Harpy's Pleasure

Feminists fought hard to get wider choices. Now that they have such, will their younger sisters make responsible choices for society? They have a rather poor track record so far.

After I read this back, I see that I was really vague about what I mean by feminist harpies. These are the current crop of Social Justice Warriors that wreak havoc on college campuses, manufacture offences, physically attack those with opposing viewpoints, and plead some higher virtue to justify their behavior. I honor the work over the past generations to give women the vote, allow them to act independently, and to work and live as they choose. The new crop have stolen the good work of previous "feminists" in providing new choices and given the term "feminist" a hideous aftertaste of intolerance to traditional values. When I say "modern feminist", I speak of SJWs that use violence and their ignorant rhetoric to fight for far less-worthy causes and encourage deviant behaviors that threaten the very existence of future generations.

The modern feminist is an interesting character. She is a creature that uses all of the built-up privilege of the classical lady to behave atrociously. Society and decent men step aside respectfully as she tromps like a beast over the feminine traditions of decorum and delicacy to become a foul-mouthed, militantly sexualized, culturally dictatorial harpy over which there seems to be no practical regulation. The modern feminist in western civilization has attained the prize of ultimate freedom of behavior and has chosen to use it to become a despicable monster and virus. This is widely considered to be a wonderful thing.

As you can surmise, I don't think much the current crop of feminists. Like most decent people, I try hard to avoid such folk and live my life among those who consider the honest needs of others before their own pleasure. I consort with those who build natural families who will populate the future. I was raised by and honor women who had a different and more worthy ethic. My mothers honored the ancient underpinnings of verdant culture - the modern feminist tears and rends the past to leave gaping holes for hedonism to fill. It is a worse world, the harpies cheer it, but I reject such.

Don't get me wrong, I like freedom. However, alongside freedom is the wide responsibility for the choices one makes and how those choices affect others. Those with fewer freedoms have fewer choices and are less culpable for happenings, which was the state of so many groups in the past, and still arguably in the present. Western society has managed to give women nearly everything they desire, hopefully short of destroying civilization in the process.

It seems that the feminist movement is excited for the chance to destroy civilization without much thought or care about the potential chaos that might follow. Something will surely inhabit the wreckage that the harpies joyously create, but I doubt it will be a better world.

In the way of clarification, the "modern feminist" seems hell-bent on destroying the traditional culture of marriage and family in favor of "anything goes" sexuality and gender confusion. We already have a problem producing enough children to keep nations afloat and it is now fashionable to praise and coddle willful childlessness and the abandonment of natural marriage. A nation cannot stand without a rising generation taught to perpetuate themselves and their culture. Transsexuals and gays refrain from procreation and family-building and set an example that ignoring these social duties is virtuous.

The feminist is all about freedom from social constraints, for herself and others. Sadly, we have seen precious little of the stuff of responsibility, especially to larger society and its health and continuance. The feminist often denies society her ability to bear children, robbing all of her genuine contribution to its future and encouraging other women and other oppressed peoples to be as self-centered and neglectful of the needs of the larger society as they tend to be. They decry women who make socially responsible choices in child-bearing and family-building as some sort of gender turn-coat: either embrace their ultimate cause of freedom to act without consequence or be crushed by their shrieking social rejection of you.

After the great battle for more choices, the modern feminist wants to ultimately dictate your choice. This indicates that they didn't really want you to have choices, they just wanted to alter your course into some new straight-jacket of the decadent feminist design. Throwing civilization under the bus of their resolve isn't even the real goal - it is just a interesting byproduct of the real vision of a universal life without consequences and void of any consideration beyond self-pleasure. It is like the justification of demolishing a shopping mall in the noble pursuit of a certain jacket - individual desires outstrip all other considerations.

One must remember that we will ultimately be judged by how we use our ability to choose. Did we make good choices that put the needs of others before our own?

More Free Stuff

I give things away all the time.  I figure that I have resources sufficient for my family's needs, so I don't really need to force others to buy my writings in order to read them. I can make more "inconvenient" formats of my books available freely. If you want to support my writing, please visit my Amazon area and buy some of my e-books for the Kindle.

I have made my latest e-book "Feeding the Soul of Steve Jobs" available on my home web server for anyone to read for free. There is a lot of other material there that is also free to read  Enjoy!

Distractions

I don't want people to think I have dropped off the face of the earth.  I am still here, but since the last post, I have left my previous work, taken up a challenging new opportunity and much of my free time is taken up with preparation for additional work as an adjunct professor this coming fall.  Busy, busy!

I will get back to posts at some point in the future, but it may be several months until I can get the free time needed to do a decent job. I hope you will not give up on me yet!

Comments Fall on Deaf Ears

I feel the need to reveal something to those who comment on my posts here:  I don't read them.  To be more honest, I actually CAN'T read them.  That sounds weird, so let me explain.

I wrote some time ago on the subject of internet comments and the fact that I had turned this feature off when I began using Blogger some six years ago.  As time passed, several features have been added to Blogger and I was put in the position to have to re-enable comments to make various features work as intended.

I still feel the same way about comments - I don't really want them. I try to keep commenting features disabled to avoid the inherent rudeness of giving the impression that I encourage comments when I actually don't want them at all. A strange thing happened though - commenting here on my blog is still enabled, but it is broken! I couldn't see people's comments even if I wanted to do so (which I really don't).  However, I see statistical evidence that people leave comments that I simply am unable to see. I can only think that people consider me a terribly obnoxious jerk for not acknowledging any comments.  I am sure there is plenty of evidence of my inherent jerkiness, but I am actually not displaying this in relation to the unseen and therefore unanswered comments.

I am surely able to be contacted, if you really feel the need and want to be encouraging. I don't make it easy but it can be done.  Just don't suppose you are talking to me via blog comments as it doesn't work.  May the bear yet save the world by finishing me off.

Perhaps a More Clear Perception of the Ultimate Judgement

I am going to reiterate, yet again, that although I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and the basic outline of the afterlife that it espouses is the basis upon which I draw, I cannot say that what I present below is either factually true or an accurate depiction of the official LDS conception of life after death. I just love coming up with fresh ways of disclaiming everything I say!

I got so excited about sharing my thoughts of the telestial (lower), terrestrial (middle), and celestial (higher) rewards that God makes available to us that I forgot that I am describing the after-life out of order!  These rewards come at the far end of a rather drawn-out after-death process.

I think a lot of things I was taught in relation to the after-life were allegorical, especially if it is drawn from biblical descriptions. As an example, the whole concept of Hell was apparently based on a burning canyon of refuse a bit away from Jerusalem that was pretty nasty to behold (smell) and into which some people might have been thrown if the authorities didn't like them. It would be a great way to display the idea of hellish punishment to people who cannot be convinced to be decent otherwise. Christians believe in Jesus and Heaven and I hear that slightly more people trust that there is a Satan and a Hell. For my part, I think there is a Hell as well, but probably in a way that is different than most, but I will save that for another post.

When the term "Judgement" gets used, I think of a courtroom and I imagine a lot of other people do as well. There are lawyers, one defending you and another prosecuting you, bringing in witnesses and evidence either for or against a happy result. There is also a judge that we are told will be so correct that we cannot offer anything but ascent to his decision. Christians hope Jesus, as the defense lawyer, will do them a good and merciful turn. however, it seems the idea is something akin to the picture below - good folk going to some nice place and the bad folk being dragged off to a horrible punishment.

One view of Judgement, complete with effeminate angels and disgusting demons that might be jerking or alluring you toward Heaven or Hell.  I don't really know why everyone except the apparent workers are naked - perhaps they need to go shopping and haven't had a chance yet.

Is Judgement just an abstraction like Hell, to help us be concerned about our future and put out the noble work needed to justify a good verdict? Personally, I can definitely see this analogy being employed by a kind God who is trying to convince his more unenthusiastic children to live a better life. He isn't clear about specifics but the possibility of an adversarial and unpleasant court scene may turn a few heads and hearts for the better.

For all we know, Judgement will be an interview between God, the Savior, and the individual being judged, where we are shown how we REALLY are.  Can I be honest here? A lot of people think they are really wonderful (far more so than you or me), sycophantic people have sung their praises, and they think they deserve a wonderful reward beyond what their true natures justify. For instance, a lot of politicians probably fall into this "swelled-ego" category.  On the opposite side, some people think very much less of themselves, distrust most praise (I do this to an unhealthy level), and will think they deserve far less than God does.  Sometimes God needs to build our perceptions up, other times he needs to cut us down to true size, to help us see ourselves clearly. In my view, Judgement is all about finding such clarity and, once we see ourselves as we truly are, we will choose which glory fits our then clear perception best and God will simply concur.

I hope as I explored the differing rewards in past posts that I didn't give the impression that any of the three were comparatively bad - to my thinking, they are all wonderful in the eyes of their future residents and are deserving of the appellation of "Heaven". I also think that God is not disappointed in a person who lived and chooses the middle or lower glory. Everyone has their personal preferences and puts forth effort toward the glory that they authentically desire.  Of course, God encourages everyone to strive for the highest reward and assures us that each of his children have the capacity to attain the best - I think it really is dependent on the resolve and diligence of each person and what they REALLY WANT as displayed in thought and deed during their life.

That is what I think the Judgement will be like.

In grand backward order, I will move on, in a future post, to talk of heaven and hell, paradise and prison, rest and punishment, all terms for the same condition that actually occurs BEFORE Judgement.  Stay tuned.