A Curious Instrument

We live in a time and world that will pick apart everything that a person says or writes, often in the interest of destroying people. In a world where the greatest ability is to tear down you competitors in order to raise one's personal status. As identified later, this indicates a lack of charity. You make mistakes, I make mistakes, we would do well to be kind to each other. The Nephites, especially Moroni himself, says he has no great gift for writing. He was shown that there would be many detractors that would dismiss his words out-of-hand given the use of a wrong word or another. Ether 12 35 Wherefore, I know by this thing which thou hast said, that if the Gentiles have not charity , because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent , yea, even that which they have received, and give unto them who shall have more abundantly. 36 And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the Gentiles grace , that they might have...

I wrote a small booklet some time ago titled " You are Not to Blame for America " which highlighted the corruptions of GUS (Government of the United States) and how any individual voter had no power to stop its demise. One vote won't change the direction of the world, but your one vote speaks to God of your loyalty to righteousness and its enthronement in your life. Much of the world is now led by elected officials. This means that your obligation to vote and empower righteous people as leaders does not let you ignore the culpability of your choices. If your leaders cause your community and nation to turn from God, the fault lies as much in those who voted for such as those ruining things in the voter's name.  No one can claim that they were powerless to prevent the enshrinement of wickedness and evil - if you vote for wickedness, you wanted it to rule. I know it is hard for those who think themselves insignificant little victims, but the unchecked spread of wickednes...

Pursuing what we know of God's purpose and commandments and furthering the understanding and compliance with them. Bringing honor to your "earthly" father and mother (even if they don't merit much respect) becomes an indication that you place the concept of fatherhood highly and that a chief purpose is to present God this fatherly honor, knowing him to be an exemplary father, honored best by obedience and gratitude and making God's purposes your own.  When you were sent to earth, which is distant from God, you could cultivate whatever relationship you wanted with your Heavenly Father, including none at all. There would be very little overt reaction from the Father either way during life. A worthy God is not raised through compulsion. This all presupposes that what one desires is within a father's gift to provide. A knowledge and understanding of more feudal forms such as fealty (from faithfulness) and tenure (being a tenant), as humans are living on the Lord...

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 ...