A Curious Instrument

Is life getting you down?  I get like that often enough when I consume too much news or opinion, but you have to stay in touch with society, only because they will make changes that affect you that you really need to plan for and know about. Otherwise, I might just check out entirely, at least as much as my wonderful wife and autistic son will tolerate. The prophet Ether lived in a pretty tough time. The government (known as the King) was changing all the time and not by vaguely smooth elections, but typically through insurrections of royal kids against their fathers. Over time, leaders were just rotten guys on the whole but sometimes at least reasonably decent to their followers.  Later, it was just grasping for power and destroying all opposition to their rule, so they were all wicked. Ether 12 :3-4 For he did cry from the morning, even until the going down of the sun, exhorting the people to believe in God unto repentance lest they should be destroyed, saying unto them that...

You have to understand that women are powerful sorts. They can be really good or really evil or something in between. Of course, we can't say women could be evil because they will destroy anyone who makes such an accusation. My basic philosophy is to keep a safe distance from the women unless you are married to one, and then you better keep that one woman very, very happy. If you are blessed (lucky?), she will not have an inclination to see you suffer. Always start with a bad example... Read Chapter 8 of the Book of Ether within the Book of Mormon and you will learn about a powerful harpy that the book dare not name, only known as the Daughter of Jared, who practically re-introduces evil into the world of the Jaredite nation.  She seduces her future husband named Akish, and influenced the hubby to murder her father and take his kingship.  Apparently, she was so effective that her sons plotted against Akish and killed their father to take the kingship for themselves, ultimat...

My memory is getting so bad, it is better to say that what follows is just a story, perhaps loosely based on real events. In the late 70s, I was what is now called a “tween”.  I don’t remember that was a thing back then, I was just a gawky kid that would soon become an introverted teenager.  My family was living on my mother’s family ranch, in a very old two bedroom prairie house. My older brother and I lived in a very small room that barely fit two desks, a stacked chest of drawers, two hamsters, and two stacked beds that my dad had to build with minimal headroom because the ceiling was so low.  Our house was about twenty miles north of the closest town, so we experienced much the same life as the previous prairie generation and somewhat similar to our grandparents childhood experience, which would be pretty unfamiliar to my children.  We had a party-line telephone, rode horses and tractors, had a half-hour tiny “commute” to school, swam in stock tanks during the s...

The act of using the resources of rich to provide a "living" for the poor is at odds with devotion to and blessings from YWYH. Over my many years, I have been a recipient of God's blessings, often fiscally.  I have had increasing more lucrative employment which I credit wholly to the Lord. This has come as I have stepped away from government poverty programs and their behaviors and restrictions. I have friends that take welfare payments and "food stamps" who are scholars of the strictures of such benefits. They know what they can do and what they can't do to continue to qualify for "free"-ish government hand-outs and discounts. With great patience, they try to explain the intricacies of qualifications to me, how they maximize their rewards.  In the distant past, I was just as much working to become expert in this. I now make it a point to avoid all government help, at least as much as I can. It was a harrowing time when I decided that I would stop ...

At some point, a leader figures out that their entire nation has become "broken", I think the nation of the United States has become such a people and we are always very fortunate when we get a leader that can see our problems clearly and put in the very unfavorable work of trying to "right" things. 1 And it came to pass that Shez, who was a descendant of Heth—for Heth had perished by the famine, and all his household save it were Shez—wherefore, Shez began to build up again a broken people. 2 And it came to pass that Shez did remember the destruction of his fathers, and he did build up a righteous kingdom; for he remembered what the Lord had done in bringing Jared and his brother across the deep; and he did walk in the ways of the Lord; and he begat sons and daughters. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/ether/10?lang=eng&id=p1-p2#p1 Be righteous and have babies!

We have all watched the cries of pain and defiance as people that survived in the wake of Helene tell their stories. It is heartening to see the labors of the real heroes, neighbors and distant charitable folk doing all they can to bring supplies and hope to those who need it the most. Also telling are the government agents and agencies that kept a distance and made promises without any authentic help. Officials offered pitiful looks while busy about other desires far away, playing politics and placating those in pain from death and destruction with promises that "we are with the government: we are here to save you" and a failing promise to give, then deny, pitiful sums of money to not-enough-victims. The recent hurricane toll on people just brings up again to me that the Lord's commandment to 'love your neighbor' is far more effective in meeting our needs than a taxed and 'coordinated' government response. We see in the official response to Helene the rot...

I did a blog post a little while back about how important our individual choices are to our outcome. However, one should not think that our choices are the sole determinants of our future. God has paved the path and Jesus Christ has cleared that path of many obstacles to our ultimate success. We should each be personally grateful for the labor of Father and Son toward our best outcome. It is disheartening to see so many people grumble and turn away from God with an attitude that the heavens are not doing enough to guarantee everyone's eternal success in the face of bad decisions and lack of decent effort.  So many want exaltation to be a "free" gift that requires nothing more than tearing off wrapping paper or some such and would call such a circumstance "love".  I can only foresee many petulant children shouting at God for not making their exaltation a gaily unearned action and not being handed a fine cake for what looks to be more a matriculation than an...