The Struggle

Parenting...

I can not count the amount of times I have went to bed at night and felt guilty about not doing more as a mother. It is the most difficult thing I have ever done and probably will ever do! Pres. Faust explains what the true measure of good parenting is… “Who are good parents? They are those who have lovingly, prayerfully, and earnestly tried to teach their children by example and precept “to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.” 4 [D&C 68:28.] This is true even though some of their children are disobedient or worldly. Children come into this world with their own distinct spirits and personality traits. Some children “would challenge any set of parents under any set of circumstances. … Perhaps there are others who would bless the lives of, and be a joy to, almost any father or mother.” Successful parents are those who have sacrificed and struggled to do the best they can in their own family circumstances.”(President James E. Faust, “Dear Are the Sheep that Have Wandered,” General Conference, April 2003)

Elder Hales also states, “We too must have the faith to teach our children and bid them to keep the commandments. We should not let their choices weaken our faith. Our worthiness will not be measure according to their righteousness. Lehi did not lose the blessing of feasting at the tree of life because Laman and Lemuel refused to partake of its fruit.

“Sometimes as parents we feel we have failed when our children make mistakes or stray. Parents are never failure when they do their best to love, teach, pray, and care for their children. Their faith, prayers, and efforts will be consecrated to the good of their children.” (Elder Robert D. Hales, “With All the Feeling of a Tender Parent: A Message of Hope to Families,” Conference Report, April 2004)

I need to do my best each day and that is all I can do!

Of Souls, Symbols and Sacraments

The Doctrine of the Soul

"First, we simply must understand the revealed, restored Latter-day Saint doctrine of the soul, and the high and inextricable part the body plays in that doctrine. One of the "plain and precious" truths restored to this dispensation is that "the spirit and the body are the soul of man" and that when the spirit and body are separated, men and women "cannot receive a fulness of joy" 

So partly in answer to why such seriousness, we answer that one toying with the God-given- and satanically coveted-body of another, toys with the very soul of that individual, toys with the very soul of that individual, toys with the central purpose and product of life, “the very key” to life, as Elder Boyd K. Packer once called it. In trivializing the soul of another (please include the word body there), we trivialize the Atonement that saved that soul and guaranteed its continued existence. And when one toys with the Son of Righteousness, the Day Star himself, one toys with white heat and a flame hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You cannot do so and not be burned. You cannot with impunity “crucify Christ afresh” (see Hebrews 6:6). Exploitation of the body (please include the word soul there) is, in the last analysis, an exploitation of Him who is the Light and the Life of the world."

A Symbol of Total Union

“Second, may I suggest that human intimacy, that sacred, physical union ordained of God for a married couple, deals with a symbol that demands special sanctity. Such an act of love between a man and a woman is – or certainly was ordained to be – a symbol of total union: union of their hearts, their hopes, their lives, their love, their family, their future, their everything. "

A Holy Sacrament

"Human intimacy is a sacrament, a very special kind of symbol... But I wish to stress with you this morning, as my third of three reasons to be clean, that sexual union is also, in its own profound way, a very real sacrament of the highest order, a union not only of a man and a woman but very much the union of that man and woman with God. Indeed, if our definition of sacrament is that act of claiming and sharing and exercising God's own inestimable power, then I know of virtually no other divine privilege so routinely given to us all--women or men, ordained or unordained, Latter-day Saint or non-Latter-day Saint--than the miraculous and majestic power of transmitting life, the unspeakable, unfathomable, unbroken power of procreation."

Help Meet

Unit 2

Part 2 Podcast 

The Lord, after creating Adam, saw that he was alone in the garden, and declared, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Gen. 2:18.) In Hebrew the term for the phrase “help meet for him” (‘ezer kenegdo) literally means “a helper suited to, worthy of, or corresponding to him.”The word meet in sixteenth-century English meaning “fitting” or “proper.” It might be clearer if there were a comma after “help”-“I will make him an help, meet for him.” 

The American Heritage Dictionary further explains: “In the 17th century the two words ‘help’ and ‘meet’ in this passage were mistaken for one word, applying to Eve, and thus ‘helpmeet’ came to mean ‘a wife.’ Then in the 18th century, in a misguided attempt to make sense of the word, the spelling ‘helpmate’ was introduced.” (Second college edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982, p. 604.) Thus the original meaning of the phrase has been obscured.

Genesis says God created man; “male and female created he them.” (Gen. 1:27.) President Spencer W. Kimball taught that the term man in the story of the Creation refers to “a complete man, which is husband and wife.” (Ensign, Mar. 1976, p. 71.) 

The detailed description of the creation of Adam and Eve describes their relationship as “corresponding to each other” and prescribes the ideal of unity between a man and woman. The significance of this phrase “help meet” is that the woman is a creation who is a fitting and proper companion for Adam because she is like him and corresponds to him. 

This concept is further solidified by the description of the creation of woman as being formed from the rib of Adam-a rib being a metaphor for a person corresponding to Adam. Modern prophets have taught that the creation of woman from the rib of the man is to be taken figuratively. (See Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, Mar. 1976, p. 71.) The proper role of the man and woman is clarified in the scriptural injunction that they should leave their parents and “cleave” unto each other, and become “one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24.) The oneness of the man and the woman, as described by these two phrases, refers to more than just the act of procreation. They are to each leave their parents who have cared and provided for them both physically and spiritually; and now, “corresponding to each other,” are to help, care for, and nurture each other. (Professor David Rolph Seely, Ensign, January 1994)

Moses, My Son

Unit 2 Part 1 Podcast

Elder Rasband of the Seventy describes the adversary's attack on Moses:

"…After witnessing the power and glory of God, Moses was confronted by Satan, who “came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me”. Note that Satan attempted to persuade Moses that he was not, as he had been assured, a son of God but rather a “son of man”-that is, a mere mortal. It is obvious why Satan wants us to doubt that we are spiritually begotten children of God. Dissuading us that we have divine potential erodes the nobility to which we ought to aspire and invites us to embrace the sins of this world. In doing so we surrender to the adversary and forfeit our rightful divine inheritance.

Moses provides us with a wonderful example of how to resist the blandishments of Satan. Moses said, “I will not cease to call upon God” (Moses 1:18), teaching us the importance of prayer. Then Moses commanded Satan to depart from him, speaking “in the name of the Only Begotten” and thus declaring his loyalty to Jesus Christ and his dependence on the Savior's Atonement (Moses 1:20-21). By displaying such determination, Moses was strengthened and succeeded in driving Satan from him."

In this revelation God repeatedly refers to Moses as “my son” and teaches him that he was created in the similitude of the Savior (Moses 1:6). Commenting on the importance of this truth, Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: 

“Consider the power of the idea taught in our beloved song ‘I Am a Child of God' … Here is the answer to one of life's great questions, ‘Who am I?' I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a … person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life.”(Dallin H. Oaks, “Powerful Ideas,” Ensign, November 1995, p. 25)

Is My Life In Order?

Each Latter-day Saint needs to ask himself or herself the questions:

• Is my life in order?
• Do I have all of the ordinances of the gospel that I should possess by this time in my life?
• Are they valid?

If you can answer these questions affirmatively, and if the ordinances come under the influence of the sealing power and authority, they will remain intact eternally. In that case your life, to this point is in proper order. (Pres. Boyd K. Packer, “Come to the Temple,” Ensign, Oct 2007, 18-22)

Our life's work is to KEEP our life in order, that is the hard part. Elder Packer says, "Ordinances and covenants become our credentials for admission into His presence. To worthily receive them is the quest of a lifetime; to keep them thereafter is the challenge of mortality." (Elder Boyd K. Packer, “Covenants,” Ensign, May 1987) 

How important?

President Packer confirms just how important participating in these saving gospel ordinances really is when he posed these questions: How important are they to us as members of the Church? Can you be
happy, can you be redeemed, can you be exalted without them?

Answer: They are more than advisable or desirable, or even than necessary. More even than essential or vital, they are crucial to each of us.

"Picture yourself on one side of a stream, and on the other side is your eternal happiness. You need to have some stepping-stones in your life to get across. For example, choose to go on a mission, to be married in the temple, and to have a family. As you prepare for each of these events, you will be on track to reaching your ultimate goal." Elder Won Yon Ko

Rungs on the Ladder

Unit 3 Part 1 Podcast

Jacobs Dream of the Ladder

In the Old Testament, we learn about the choices of two grandsons of Abraham, who were brothers. One, Esau, sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge. Another, Jacob, valued the things of God, and there were other differences between Jacob and Esau as well. Esau made the decision to marry outside the covenant-two Hittite women, “which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah [his parents] (Genesis 26:34-35).  Jacob, on the other hand, took a long journey to Haran to take a wife from among the covenant people. While in Beth-el, (which means literally, house of God), Jacob dreamed of a ladder set up on the earth above which the Lord stood (Genesis 28:10-22). What did this ladder mean?

Covenants as Rungs on the Ladder

President Marion G. Romney had this to say about Jacob’s dream of a ladder.

“Jacob realized that the covenants he made with the Lord there were the rungs on the ladder that he himself would have to climb in order to obtain the promised blessings – blessings that would entitle him to enter heaven and associate with the Lord” (Marion G. Romney, “Temples- The Gates to Heaven,” Ensign, March 1971, p 16.)

Temples are to us all what Bethel was to Jacob. Even more, they are also the gates to heaven for all of our unendowed kindred dead. We should all do our duty in bringing our loved ones through them.

Love and Law

In the talk by Elder Dallin H. Oaks "Love and Law", he speaks about God's love and God's commandments. He says, "His choicest blessings are reserved for those who obey His laws.1 These are eternal principles that should guide parents in their love and teaching of their children." He gives a few examples where parents have situations where their wayward children are making wrong choices and what parents should do. 

The above diagram was used in Elder Kim B. Clarks talk "Building Zion Together". He says, "think of this as a map of your efforts to help your roommates and friends establish the doctrines, attitudes, and practices of Zion in their lives." We can use it to guide us with our decisions with our children. Elder Clark states, " You need to be in the zone of Zion, the zone of high love and high standards.  There are two reasons.

First, the upper right is the only zone where we are fully living the gospel.  It is the only zone where we love one another with the pure love of Christ and teach the standards of the gospel by precept and by example, the way the Savior would teach them.

Second, the upper right zone is the only zone where you can help another person establish the patterns of Zion effectively.  Look carefully at the other three zones.  In each one an important part of the gospel message is missing."