This has been a topic that has been on my mind over the last several days, especially with the events as of late going on in my life, and I'm just not sure that I've come to any reasonable or foundational conclusion that will allow me to make a decision one way or the other.
There comes a time in all things in life where crossroads are reached and paths must be chosen. Often we find these crossroads facing us in the assessment of right and wrong, better and worse, hot or cold, or any dilemmas which may come upon us that illustrate two distinct conflicts playing against one another. It is in these situations that we should feel most grateful that we have the choices so clearly defined before us allowing us to choose one distinct path over another.
Another type of crossroads enters into scenarios in our lives which prove to be more difficult than any crossroads previously - because they neither offer the correct path to take, offer too many paths to choose from, or rather necessitate the following of one, only to possibly take a tangent to another road fairly quickly if necessary. This is the type of crossroads that is sometimes faced in relationships in our lives.
Now, having not excelled superbly in the Economics courses I took once upon a time, I may find myself inadequately qualified to reference my thoughts to this discipline, however, I believe that economics provides probably the clearest medium by which I might translate my thoughts into the written text.
There are in economics two major schools of thought - supply-side economics, and demand-side economics. The school of supply-side economics allows the people to make the bulk of the decisions - allowing their freedoms and flexibilities to dictate the supply of the market and subsequent drive of the economy. Demand-side economics suggests that a stronger central power is necessary to regulate the market to make it efficient for the maximum amount of people possible. These two schools of thought constantly work against the other and generally makeup the mixture that is the economy.
I believe that in large part friendships work the same way. There are in friendships two major players in the relationship (in deeper relationship, one should acknowledge the presence of God in the relationship and His hand in its efficiency and perpetuation). Unlike the two schools of thought of Economics - where one school advocates the use of itself over the other, friendships are intended to be equally driven 100%. In fact, if the friendship skews too far one way or the other - the relationship is more or less akin to a parasitic relationship instead of the symbiotic intention of the relationship.
Do the scriptures offer any insight to us on the subject? Well yes...and no. We are commanded to love everyone, and "love [our] neighbors as ourselves", but they do offer some counter-arguments for the other school of thought also. While Christ was a friend to all, even He drew lines at times - casting out the money changers from the temple, and even casting our the adulterous woman from his midst. Its true! Christ's message to everyone was to follow Him, and he didn't mean that just metaphorically or spiritually either, he in many times commanded men to cast down their nets and physically follow Him.
What does he do with the woman caught in adultery however? For one, we know that he does not forgive her - he states that he will not condemn her, but he does not specifically forgive her. Further, he commands the woman to "go thy way and sin no more." He doesn't beckon her to follow Him, either because she was not truly penitent or because she was unfit to follow Him and he needed to "distance Himself from the presence of sin." Either way, we know that He had the gift of friendship within his heart, but he did not choose to try and further the relationship into a symbiotic friendship.
Thus, this translates into our lives - because on one hand, we have those relationships in our lives where those people need us in their lives to give them that extra push to move forward or just some kind of abrasion to rub against so that they might grow. On another hand we perhaps need the companionship of specific friends in our lives in order for our personal growth and discovery or because there is something they have to offer us that we can benefit from. If however, the sum of the parts on both sides is not relatively equal, then the friendship becomes a strain on one side or the other, and it is weakened to the point of extinction in many cases.
Does this really offer me any conclusion to anything? No, but it has been what's on my mind lately...
14 August 2009
13 August 2009
To Strive, To Seek, To Find, and not To Yield
...that which we are, we are;Alfred Lord Tennyson - Ulysses
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
The quote above is something that has been impressed upon my mind recently because of the depth of it in its applicability to my life. Those that have read the work quoted above (I believe I did many many years ago) understand that these are the words uttered by the hero as he comes to the realization that death approaches - yet, he chooses to not only acknowledge this prospect, but rather to make the most of the remainder of the life that he did have left.
Now, my examination of this quote is not to suggest that I am anywhere near death - at least not mortally...that I know of. While anything is always possible in life, I'm not dying of any mortal ailment known to me. I do realize however that there are times these days when I feel myself dying a little more emotionally, mentally, and perhaps even spiritually at times. While death of these areas is often akin to the process of molting, there is some permanence of these deaths in our lives if we choose to either fear life itself or rather fail to confront our own lives head on.
There is a caveat that one must acknowledge, no, factor into life's calculation rather. This is the inclination of one's self to be impulsive, throwing caution to the wind, and perhaps placing themselves at higher risk for other forms of death, including those related to mortal death. Two of the most important doctrines of the gospel help us to put this into a perspective which will benefit our lives if we understand them fully (which I do not profess to do necessarily).
The first doctrine that comes to mind is the doctrine of tithing. How does the law of tithing prevent us from death? The law provided by the Lord requiring the reciprocation of our increase to Him teaches us the valuable doctrines of accountability and reliance on others. Were the Lord to allow us to keep all that we earn, we would in essence become little different than the intent sought by the Fallen Son of the Morning when he proposed his plan for the safe return of mankind to Father. The very crux of the adversary's plan rested in the glory, reward, and return of man all attributed to his doing. He sought not necessarily to redeem mankind so much as he sought to usurp power from Father and further, to claim rights upon all his increase.
Jehovah on the other hand illustrates the doctrines behind the law of tithing in a very intangible sense when he tells father "Father, they will be done, and the glory be thine forever." (Moses 4:2) What does this have to do with tithing and our avoidance of death? Our Elder Brother knew that inevitably there would be reward that came from his accomplishment of the Atonement and the salvation of man, such that he did not require the full compensation for such, nor did he even desire it. Rather, in His infinite humility, he suggests that all that he would accomplish and be rewarded for would be attributed back to He whom had bestowed those blessing upon Him. How symbolic this is to the law of tithing as it is commanded in our lives! Heavenly Father in his infinite wisdom understands that as mortal beings, we are inclined to keep all that we have earned for ourselves while additionally attributing its origin to our own efforts. This is the very thing that caused the destruction of the Nephite nation in the Book of Mormon! Instead - through the law of tithing, we are reminded through our obedience to this law, that we have obtained all that we have by means of the Father and His Son. Thus, our faithful payment of the tithe is to submit our will to Father's, and bestow upon him that glory which lasts for the eternity.
The other doctrine that ties in with the quote at the beginning of this post is the doctrine of the Word of Wisdom. As Latter-Day Saints, we often focus on the temporal guidelines provided in this commandment while ignoring perhaps some of the most important counsel given at the end of that section:
And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;
And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;
And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18-21)
The principle illustrated in the Word of Wisdom is that we are to avoid those things which will harm our bodies, but more so we are invited to practice moderation in all things pertaining to our lives.
Going back to the suggestion that we need to take life head on is a good thing, but we must embrace life head on, with full humility and diligence to God, recognizing that we are bound by mortal limitations that are there to protect us at times. To make sudden changes in life, short of those changes necessary to embark upon a path of discipleship set forth by the Master, is to at times bring upon ourselves the ever burdening threat of death in other areas of our lives.
As we progress through life on a daily basis, we must recognize that we grow closer to our mortal ends each day. While the realization of such is necessary, it should neither be at the forefront of our minds at all times, nor should it prevent us from taking action to dictate our lives as we see fit according to the counsels of God. In essence, we must adopt the phrase at the beginning of the post - "to strive to seek to find, and not to yield" in a more personal sense in our lives.
As Primary children we recall singing the song "Search, Ponder, and Pray" but do we realize the magnitude of the words that we sang at such a young age? I would contend that even now, we understand them not. Is not "searching" "pondering" and "praying" the same thing as "to strive," "to seek," and "to find"? I would contend that if they are not identical, that they are similar to the point of being congruent. We must find ways to strive to follow the commandments in our lives, to seek the Lord and His counsel for us, and to find the talents and blessings within ourselves in order to effectively live life. We are then reminded that we must not yield to ourselves in doing so - including those personality traits that would have us become impulsive, insensitive, overbearing, reactive, or any other trait not favored of the Lord; while at the same time defending ourselves against the buffetings of the adversary and not yielding to his temptations.
Thus, we become as the hero Ulysses in our own lives, determining the epic natures of their conclusions. We can choose to accept that we are mortal beings and that our fallen nature precludes us from reaching everything that we desire now, or we can accept that while death approaches, we have other heroes in dimensions we cannot understand, and we can choose to make the best out of our lives and strive to end them on a progressive note, such that our reward can be claimed in the post-mortal realm.
There's my thoughts for the night, hopefully they are clear enough for everyone. If you have any questions, ask, and I'll try to explain my thoughts better!
11 August 2009
Back To The Basics
So, after the turmoil of the last few days, I have decided to not delve so much into the events of my personal life in this entry, but rather to focus on more general events and whatnot. I believe that the events of the last several days have generally resolved themselves or will continue to do so over the next several.
That said however, there are a few things I'd like to address that have been on my mind as of late. The turmoil that has taken place in my life has been mainly as a result of my doing and my failing to take into account several key doctrines and logical processes. I will address a few of those here:
Fear: One of my favorite scriptures outside of that in 2 Nephi is the scripture section in Doctrine and Covenants 121: 34-46:
"Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world and aspire to the honors of men that they do not learn this one lesson --
That the rights of the Priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
That they may be conferred upon us it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambitions, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold the heavens withdraw themselves, the Spirit of the Lord is grieved: and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks , to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.
We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
Hence many are called, but few are chosen.
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only be persuation, by long-suffering, by gentlenss and meekness, and by love unfeigned.
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy and without guile --
Reproving betimes with sharpness when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth an increase of love toward him whom thou hast repoved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
The he may know that they faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death..."
Sure, we've all heard these scriptures before, and they are very good at face value, but let's look at them in a little further depth, especially how it applies to our lives personally.
First - when we consider the life of a single individual approaching the age at which they may be considered mature enough to wed or to undertake greater responsibilities in life, we must consider the first scripture of this passage - many are called but few are chosen. What does this mean to all of us? It means that for such things such as marriage - which is a calling from the Lord to the world: Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Moses 3:24) our calling to do such does not guarantee that we gain any form of mortal exaltation from it or that we are to be rewarded according to our own time schedule. Rather, we take ourselves out of "chosen" status of the Lord when we set our own hearts upon the things of the world and the praises of those around us, rather than keeping in our hearts the true reason for this calling from the Lord. This is where it gets interesting though because the rest of the scriptures have one underlying principle behind them: agency. Agency? Yes! A simple word replacement or rather understanding of the definition of some of the terms listed in this scripture help to bring this into greater light.
The priesthood of God is the power of God. Thus, the rights [to the power of God] are inseperably connected with the powers of heaven (what is bound on earth is bound in heaven and vice versa), and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled, only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us it is true (i.e. we may be recipients of that power through another source such as general blessings from God, or through Priesthood blessings given by a righteous Priesthood holder), but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambitions (i.e. our hearts being set upon the things of the world and the honors of men)...behold the heavens withdraw themselves, the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
What does this all mean? It means that if we try to expect big things to happen in our lives without employing agency to all parties involved - including the Lord - we forfeit that guidance and power that he has to bless our lives in making those changes occur. Further, not only do we forfeit those privileges to call upon the power of God to assist us with those changes, but the Spirit of the Lord is grieved when we do so. That is not to say that the Holy Ghost is grieved - because by this point it has already departed from our lives, but the Lord himself is troubled like unto the pains that he felt while in the Garden.
This is further confirmed in the next scripture where it is said "Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself to kick against the pricks, to persecute the Saints, and to fight against God. Two scriptures better explain this specific term: "And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them; nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren. (Mormon 2: 26)" and "And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. (Moses 1:9)" How does this relate with the Savior in the Garden? In the Biblical accounts we are taught that the Savior felt alone, in fact to a point that an angel was sent to strengthen him while in the Garden (Luke 22:43). Further, we learn of the utterance of Jesus Christ while on the cross in his feeling of being forsaken - or left alone; And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Matthew 27:33). Thus, our failure to exercise agency within the bounds of the Lord's will is to forsake Him and to deny the power of the Atonement to work within our lives.
What does this have to do with fear though? Everything! If we exercise agency in our own lives and live according to the will of God in all things, seeking to do His will always - we adequately understand the next section which begins: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood.... What is the priesthood again? It is the power of God Thus, no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by the power of God..." This means that God himself cannot and should not be expected to maintain constant power over our lives and dictate all things to us, just as we cannot dictate our lives to the Lord. It must be an equal partnership that exists within the bounds of agency on both sides! For God to revoke that agency to us and dictate our lives accordingly is to rule by fear - as fear is the antithesis of faith, just as we cannot revoke our own agency from the Atonement which is to invite fear to replace faith within our lives.
Obviously, from here we know the rest of the qualities outlined that will keep us from living in fear, but instead allow us to function according to faith and agency. To try to live life any other way is to completely deny the power of the Atonement and do as Peter did and deny Christ himself - for to know Christ is to know His works, and to know His works, is to know his love, which love triumphs over all fear and sorrow.
Fruits: Another thing that has gotten me into a bit of turmoil lately is to try and anticipate things, assume personalities, and overall not just live in fear, but ignore the tools that I do have available to determine things in life. When thinking about this, I have to consider the scripture in Matthew uttered by the Savior that says "By their fruits ye shall know them." Granted, this scripture was given to us to give us guidance in determining the nature of professed prophets in our lives, but its counsel is more far reaching than we acknowledge. After partaking of the fruit in his account in 1st Nephi 8, Nephi beckons his brethren to come forth to the tree and partake of the fruit for themselves. It was clearly seen from afar off that the tree was grand and immaculate and offered desirable fruit to the eye, but the contents of that fruit could not be determined until one partook of the fruit of that tree and were filled. Likewise, in life, we run into those things that appear to be grand and immaculate and are desirable to the eye, but we cannot determine the contents of the fruit unless we partake of that fruit on our own. It availeth us nothing to try to determine the nature of the fruit by examining the tree upon which it grows, or the location at which it grows, or even in examining the rod of iron or whatever other object is associated with that tree. Rather, we must partake of the fruit on our own, in order to fully understand what that fruit is. While we may encounter those bitter fruits in our lives at times, we cannot shy away from partaking of all fruit simply because we have had bad fruit in the past, nor can we attempt to try all fruit that life has to offer us.
One principle that is overlooked in the account of the Garden of Eden, is the surrounding area of the forbidden fruit. Unlike in life, the forbidden fruit of Adam's garden stood at the central point of the garden. It was surrounded by good vegetation and shrubbery that was to suggest that is was good fruit. The temptation of the adversary at that time is the same temptation that is offered to us in our day. Though Adam and Eve were specifically commanded not to partake of the fruit of that tree, they did so because they were enticed by the desirable nature of the fruit and the consequences that it would hopefully bring to their benefit.
Likewise, the adversary tempts us the same way in this day and age, but his fruits are not identical in nature to the fruits of the Lord. Just as the examination of the surrounding area and influences of the fruit alone are not sufficient to determine the nature of the fruit presented in our lives, nor is the examination and expectations or promises of the fruit while ignoring its origin sufficient either. Other scriptures throughout the Standard Works teach us that a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit, just as a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit. Thus, it is necessary to examine both the environment in which fruit is produced as well as the fruit itself in order to effectively determine its goodness. This is known in other gospel terms as the law of two or more witnesses! Simply putting our faith into one source alone while ignoring the other is not only incorrect, but it is wholly inadequate and inappropriate really. Rather, our faith must be placed in multiple locations in order to understand life fully - it is not that we put our faith in God alone, it is that we put our faith in God and his works, or God and his leaders, or God and his teachings. There never is that time when God himself alone will be able to teach us of the validity of certain fruits, just as there are times in our lives when the examination of a specific aspect in and of itself will not be sufficient to give us knowledge of a situation or an individual.
I think this is where I'll stop for tonight and allow those two things to sink in a little bit. I've learned a lot over the last several days and about the many things in life that I don't do as fully or completely as I should. I need to live more of life according to faith and invoke my own personal agency in conjunction with the agency of the Lord in his power and majesty to bless my life. Further, I need to be aware of the many resources available to me that the Lord has provided in order to fully understand those things that come before me in life, and not try to exercise dominion, compulsion or any degree of unrighteousness in any form of life - be it on other people or situations, especially in those situations where other means are available to fully understand the situation at hand without going overboard with another.
I'm hopeful that I will be given the chance to apply these more fully in my life and show some of the things that I have learned, as well as the opportunity to invoke the Atonement on my behalf so that I can correct those situations in which I may have erred in the past.
Just some thoughts for tonight...
That said however, there are a few things I'd like to address that have been on my mind as of late. The turmoil that has taken place in my life has been mainly as a result of my doing and my failing to take into account several key doctrines and logical processes. I will address a few of those here:
Fear: One of my favorite scriptures outside of that in 2 Nephi is the scripture section in Doctrine and Covenants 121: 34-46:
"Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world and aspire to the honors of men that they do not learn this one lesson --
That the rights of the Priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
That they may be conferred upon us it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambitions, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold the heavens withdraw themselves, the Spirit of the Lord is grieved: and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks , to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.
We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.
Hence many are called, but few are chosen.
No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only be persuation, by long-suffering, by gentlenss and meekness, and by love unfeigned.
By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy and without guile --
Reproving betimes with sharpness when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth an increase of love toward him whom thou hast repoved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;
The he may know that they faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death..."
Sure, we've all heard these scriptures before, and they are very good at face value, but let's look at them in a little further depth, especially how it applies to our lives personally.
First - when we consider the life of a single individual approaching the age at which they may be considered mature enough to wed or to undertake greater responsibilities in life, we must consider the first scripture of this passage - many are called but few are chosen. What does this mean to all of us? It means that for such things such as marriage - which is a calling from the Lord to the world: Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh (Moses 3:24) our calling to do such does not guarantee that we gain any form of mortal exaltation from it or that we are to be rewarded according to our own time schedule. Rather, we take ourselves out of "chosen" status of the Lord when we set our own hearts upon the things of the world and the praises of those around us, rather than keeping in our hearts the true reason for this calling from the Lord. This is where it gets interesting though because the rest of the scriptures have one underlying principle behind them: agency. Agency? Yes! A simple word replacement or rather understanding of the definition of some of the terms listed in this scripture help to bring this into greater light.
The priesthood of God is the power of God. Thus, the rights [to the power of God] are inseperably connected with the powers of heaven (what is bound on earth is bound in heaven and vice versa), and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled, only upon the principles of righteousness. That they may be conferred upon us it is true (i.e. we may be recipients of that power through another source such as general blessings from God, or through Priesthood blessings given by a righteous Priesthood holder), but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambitions (i.e. our hearts being set upon the things of the world and the honors of men)...behold the heavens withdraw themselves, the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man.
What does this all mean? It means that if we try to expect big things to happen in our lives without employing agency to all parties involved - including the Lord - we forfeit that guidance and power that he has to bless our lives in making those changes occur. Further, not only do we forfeit those privileges to call upon the power of God to assist us with those changes, but the Spirit of the Lord is grieved when we do so. That is not to say that the Holy Ghost is grieved - because by this point it has already departed from our lives, but the Lord himself is troubled like unto the pains that he felt while in the Garden.
This is further confirmed in the next scripture where it is said "Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself to kick against the pricks, to persecute the Saints, and to fight against God. Two scriptures better explain this specific term: "And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them; nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren. (Mormon 2: 26)" and "And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And as he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth. (Moses 1:9)" How does this relate with the Savior in the Garden? In the Biblical accounts we are taught that the Savior felt alone, in fact to a point that an angel was sent to strengthen him while in the Garden (Luke 22:43). Further, we learn of the utterance of Jesus Christ while on the cross in his feeling of being forsaken - or left alone; And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
(Matthew 27:33). Thus, our failure to exercise agency within the bounds of the Lord's will is to forsake Him and to deny the power of the Atonement to work within our lives.
What does this have to do with fear though? Everything! If we exercise agency in our own lives and live according to the will of God in all things, seeking to do His will always - we adequately understand the next section which begins: "No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood.... What is the priesthood again? It is the power of God Thus, no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by the power of God..." This means that God himself cannot and should not be expected to maintain constant power over our lives and dictate all things to us, just as we cannot dictate our lives to the Lord. It must be an equal partnership that exists within the bounds of agency on both sides! For God to revoke that agency to us and dictate our lives accordingly is to rule by fear - as fear is the antithesis of faith, just as we cannot revoke our own agency from the Atonement which is to invite fear to replace faith within our lives.
Obviously, from here we know the rest of the qualities outlined that will keep us from living in fear, but instead allow us to function according to faith and agency. To try to live life any other way is to completely deny the power of the Atonement and do as Peter did and deny Christ himself - for to know Christ is to know His works, and to know His works, is to know his love, which love triumphs over all fear and sorrow.
Fruits: Another thing that has gotten me into a bit of turmoil lately is to try and anticipate things, assume personalities, and overall not just live in fear, but ignore the tools that I do have available to determine things in life. When thinking about this, I have to consider the scripture in Matthew uttered by the Savior that says "By their fruits ye shall know them." Granted, this scripture was given to us to give us guidance in determining the nature of professed prophets in our lives, but its counsel is more far reaching than we acknowledge. After partaking of the fruit in his account in 1st Nephi 8, Nephi beckons his brethren to come forth to the tree and partake of the fruit for themselves. It was clearly seen from afar off that the tree was grand and immaculate and offered desirable fruit to the eye, but the contents of that fruit could not be determined until one partook of the fruit of that tree and were filled. Likewise, in life, we run into those things that appear to be grand and immaculate and are desirable to the eye, but we cannot determine the contents of the fruit unless we partake of that fruit on our own. It availeth us nothing to try to determine the nature of the fruit by examining the tree upon which it grows, or the location at which it grows, or even in examining the rod of iron or whatever other object is associated with that tree. Rather, we must partake of the fruit on our own, in order to fully understand what that fruit is. While we may encounter those bitter fruits in our lives at times, we cannot shy away from partaking of all fruit simply because we have had bad fruit in the past, nor can we attempt to try all fruit that life has to offer us.
One principle that is overlooked in the account of the Garden of Eden, is the surrounding area of the forbidden fruit. Unlike in life, the forbidden fruit of Adam's garden stood at the central point of the garden. It was surrounded by good vegetation and shrubbery that was to suggest that is was good fruit. The temptation of the adversary at that time is the same temptation that is offered to us in our day. Though Adam and Eve were specifically commanded not to partake of the fruit of that tree, they did so because they were enticed by the desirable nature of the fruit and the consequences that it would hopefully bring to their benefit.
Likewise, the adversary tempts us the same way in this day and age, but his fruits are not identical in nature to the fruits of the Lord. Just as the examination of the surrounding area and influences of the fruit alone are not sufficient to determine the nature of the fruit presented in our lives, nor is the examination and expectations or promises of the fruit while ignoring its origin sufficient either. Other scriptures throughout the Standard Works teach us that a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit, just as a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit. Thus, it is necessary to examine both the environment in which fruit is produced as well as the fruit itself in order to effectively determine its goodness. This is known in other gospel terms as the law of two or more witnesses! Simply putting our faith into one source alone while ignoring the other is not only incorrect, but it is wholly inadequate and inappropriate really. Rather, our faith must be placed in multiple locations in order to understand life fully - it is not that we put our faith in God alone, it is that we put our faith in God and his works, or God and his leaders, or God and his teachings. There never is that time when God himself alone will be able to teach us of the validity of certain fruits, just as there are times in our lives when the examination of a specific aspect in and of itself will not be sufficient to give us knowledge of a situation or an individual.
I think this is where I'll stop for tonight and allow those two things to sink in a little bit. I've learned a lot over the last several days and about the many things in life that I don't do as fully or completely as I should. I need to live more of life according to faith and invoke my own personal agency in conjunction with the agency of the Lord in his power and majesty to bless my life. Further, I need to be aware of the many resources available to me that the Lord has provided in order to fully understand those things that come before me in life, and not try to exercise dominion, compulsion or any degree of unrighteousness in any form of life - be it on other people or situations, especially in those situations where other means are available to fully understand the situation at hand without going overboard with another.
I'm hopeful that I will be given the chance to apply these more fully in my life and show some of the things that I have learned, as well as the opportunity to invoke the Atonement on my behalf so that I can correct those situations in which I may have erred in the past.
Just some thoughts for tonight...
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