This is a Key that has helped me in my life. It is a little formula that helps me out. It doesn't matter who you are or in what situation you are in, it applies to everyone.
The reality is that there is no person on earth so strong or righteous that it is impossible for them to fall. We all can fall if we choose to. The formula I give you will help you to avoid falling into sin.
SIN = TEMPTATION + TIME
The simple fact. YOU WILL SIN, if you let yourself be tempted for too long.
We all have things that tempt us, some of them we have control over and some we don't. Simple example, you can control if you go to a party or club where you know alcohol will be served. You can't control it if you didn't know before hand that there would be alcohol at a party you are at, HOWEVER you can now choose to stay at the party or leave it.
To keep yourself from sinning you must remove the temptations you encounter from you as soon as possible. If you don't you will sin, regardless of who you are or what the temptation is. IT IS JUST A MATTER OF TIME!!!
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sin
You know, When I was younger, about high school age, I remember learning a lesson about the worst sins and how the worst sin is to deny the Holy Ghost and after that to murder and coming in third place was adultery (See Alma 39). The way this lesson was taught to me I seem to remember thinking that sin came in different degrees or levels of severity.
As I grew older I heard saying like "The worst sin is the one you are struggling with right now," or I read passages in the scriptures that say, "...He that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin." (D&C 64:9). As you can see this isn't exactly in line with how I understood it from before.
I remember reading about God in the following passage, "...no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever." (1 Ne. 10:21) and it helped me to change my perspective a little. I imagine God's house and kingdom to be immaculately clean. I think we are either clean or unclean. We can't dwell with God even if we only have the least severe sin on our heads. EVERY and ANY SIN make us ineligible for his kingdom. I think that each sin is different and has it's own process to remove. Some processes take longer and require more effort but all sin requires a broken heart given to the Lord.
For those of you who read this my message for today is simple, please realize that we are all sinners. We are all spotted and unclean in God's eyes.
"But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God; and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day." (Alma 39:8)
Not one of us can return to live with God on our own.
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:32-33)
As I grew older I heard saying like "The worst sin is the one you are struggling with right now," or I read passages in the scriptures that say, "...He that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin." (D&C 64:9). As you can see this isn't exactly in line with how I understood it from before.
I remember reading about God in the following passage, "...no unclean thing can dwell with God; wherefore, ye must be cast off forever." (1 Ne. 10:21) and it helped me to change my perspective a little. I imagine God's house and kingdom to be immaculately clean. I think we are either clean or unclean. We can't dwell with God even if we only have the least severe sin on our heads. EVERY and ANY SIN make us ineligible for his kingdom. I think that each sin is different and has it's own process to remove. Some processes take longer and require more effort but all sin requires a broken heart given to the Lord.
For those of you who read this my message for today is simple, please realize that we are all sinners. We are all spotted and unclean in God's eyes.
"But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God; and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day." (Alma 39:8)
Not one of us can return to live with God on our own.
"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." (Moroni 10:32-33)
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Two Eyes are Better than ONE
I hear that when you cover one of your eyes you drastically lower your depth perception. Basically what that means is as you close one of your eyes it becomes harder to tell how far away or close things are. The way I understand it is each eye is a reference point and the brain coordinates what each eye is seeing. Since the brain puts together the two references we can tell how far away things actually are. Basically you make a triangle and the corners are the thing you are looking at, and your two eyes. So we can't really say that one eye is more important than the other, because if you don't have a point of view from each eye you don't make the triangle. It would be like trying to make a triangle with only two corners which is simply a line.
I think the relationship between a husband a wife is something like the relationship between eyes. They each see the world from there own perspective. If they want to grow together and see clearly what they need to do to be closer to God and perfection they have to coordinate with each other. They have to communicate with each other and then they will see with depth what they need to do to progress.
This means, men and women, you need to listen to your husbands and wifes. You need to understand there points of view, where they are coming from and why they have the attitude they have. Together you will be able to see what your family needs to do to grow and improve. Don't try to manipulate each other. Don't try to control each other. Don't try to scare or intimidate each other. Listen, Speak, and be sincere. You won't always agree, and when you don't, and it's something important, pray about it. If it isn't something important to you, but important to your spouse give in, it won't hurt you. If it is something important to you but your spouse doesn't find it so explain why it's so important.
The biggest thing is to listen with humility and to try and understand each others point of views. Remember,
Harmony is the product of being different together.
I think the relationship between a husband a wife is something like the relationship between eyes. They each see the world from there own perspective. If they want to grow together and see clearly what they need to do to be closer to God and perfection they have to coordinate with each other. They have to communicate with each other and then they will see with depth what they need to do to progress.
This means, men and women, you need to listen to your husbands and wifes. You need to understand there points of view, where they are coming from and why they have the attitude they have. Together you will be able to see what your family needs to do to grow and improve. Don't try to manipulate each other. Don't try to control each other. Don't try to scare or intimidate each other. Listen, Speak, and be sincere. You won't always agree, and when you don't, and it's something important, pray about it. If it isn't something important to you, but important to your spouse give in, it won't hurt you. If it is something important to you but your spouse doesn't find it so explain why it's so important.
The biggest thing is to listen with humility and to try and understand each others point of views. Remember,
Harmony is the product of being different together.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Council
In the church we have a lot of "council" meetings. We have Ward Council, Bishop's Youth Council, Correlation, and so on. We are encouraged to have family council's in the walls of our home. We have all this, but why?
Last night at a fire side with Elder Schutzl (no clue how to spell his name, he's from Germany) I really caught the picture of why we have council.
The way I look at it, in a council meeting you have 3 steps.
1st - Figure out the Reality
2nd - Find a possible positive reality
3rd - Figure out the steps we need to take to make the possibility the reality (obviously we should make assignments to ensure the steps are taken)
In a family council the things that I think I will look at and discuss with my kids are as follows.
- Desire for Spiritual Growth
- Actions, Consequences (Standards, Sins, and Good Acts)
- Attitude
- Temporal Maters
Last night I found this really neat and I hope it is helpful to some of you who may come across it.
God Bless Ya
Fred
Last night at a fire side with Elder Schutzl (no clue how to spell his name, he's from Germany) I really caught the picture of why we have council.
The way I look at it, in a council meeting you have 3 steps.
1st - Figure out the Reality
2nd - Find a possible positive reality
3rd - Figure out the steps we need to take to make the possibility the reality (obviously we should make assignments to ensure the steps are taken)
In a family council the things that I think I will look at and discuss with my kids are as follows.
- Desire for Spiritual Growth
- Actions, Consequences (Standards, Sins, and Good Acts)
- Attitude
- Temporal Maters
Last night I found this really neat and I hope it is helpful to some of you who may come across it.
God Bless Ya
Fred
Monday, September 28, 2009
The 4 C's
Some of the best lessons I have learned in my life I learned at home. Some of our worst habits are probably learned in the home as well taking the good with the bad but today I'll focus a little more on the good.
For those of you who don't know my parents, I have some of the best parents in the world. I marvel at there example they have given to me through my life.
One of the things that I don't think I have ever heard my parents do is to speak badly of anyone. It wasn't just when we are in public it was when we were with them in the confines of our home I never remember my parents speaking badly of anyone, and that is pretty impressive to me.
When we were kids my parents implemented the Four C's. Them being as follows:
Criticize
Condemn
Compare
Complain
We were simply not allowed to do any of them. My parents lived them, and I remember when we were first taught to abstain from them I would so quickly point out how my brother was comparing me to him, and he would say I was criticizing him, then I would obviously point out that he was condemning me and so on. It didn't take long before our parents got sick of us tattling on each other I am sure, but they were insistent that we got rid of these habits.
The 4 C's has changed my life! It has molded my attitude to be more positive and forgiving. It has helped me be a better person.
My mom taught me about the subconscious mind when I was little, and I don't know if it's true or not but I know that this insight has made me be better to those around me. I'll quickly run through the two major points I remember her teaching me.
- 1st The subconscious mind can't distinguish between joking and not joking. If you tell someone jokingly that they are stupid, their subconscious mind believes they are stupid. All ways be careful with your words, and especially your humor.
- 2nd For the subconscious mind to be balanced for every one bad thing you do to someone you have to do 7 nice things to them. Our mind's naturally focus on the bad and if you want someone's subconscious mind to think of you as neutral to them you have to do more good then bad. For someone to think good of you (in there subconscious mind) you have to do a lot more good then bad. This also helps me to realize that I need to focus more on the good that people do to me. I need to find the ways others try to serve me or make me happy and make a conscious effort to acknowledge and appreciate them.
Well that's all I got for tonight, a few things that help make me tick.
God bless you.
Fred
For those of you who don't know my parents, I have some of the best parents in the world. I marvel at there example they have given to me through my life.
One of the things that I don't think I have ever heard my parents do is to speak badly of anyone. It wasn't just when we are in public it was when we were with them in the confines of our home I never remember my parents speaking badly of anyone, and that is pretty impressive to me.
When we were kids my parents implemented the Four C's. Them being as follows:
Criticize
Condemn
Compare
Complain
We were simply not allowed to do any of them. My parents lived them, and I remember when we were first taught to abstain from them I would so quickly point out how my brother was comparing me to him, and he would say I was criticizing him, then I would obviously point out that he was condemning me and so on. It didn't take long before our parents got sick of us tattling on each other I am sure, but they were insistent that we got rid of these habits.
The 4 C's has changed my life! It has molded my attitude to be more positive and forgiving. It has helped me be a better person.
My mom taught me about the subconscious mind when I was little, and I don't know if it's true or not but I know that this insight has made me be better to those around me. I'll quickly run through the two major points I remember her teaching me.
- 1st The subconscious mind can't distinguish between joking and not joking. If you tell someone jokingly that they are stupid, their subconscious mind believes they are stupid. All ways be careful with your words, and especially your humor.
- 2nd For the subconscious mind to be balanced for every one bad thing you do to someone you have to do 7 nice things to them. Our mind's naturally focus on the bad and if you want someone's subconscious mind to think of you as neutral to them you have to do more good then bad. For someone to think good of you (in there subconscious mind) you have to do a lot more good then bad. This also helps me to realize that I need to focus more on the good that people do to me. I need to find the ways others try to serve me or make me happy and make a conscious effort to acknowledge and appreciate them.
Well that's all I got for tonight, a few things that help make me tick.
God bless you.
Fred
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Who's got the power, who's got the power??
I was working with my dad once and we were doing some construction work for someone. The lady that we were working for asked us what we thought about how she should arrange a certain room (I don't remember if it was paint color with the trim and window casings or something else but it was just a preference) I would usually let my dad talk to the people we worked for, he being the boss and all. He gave her the kind of answer that is like "either could work" and I thought 'this way looks better.' After she left I told my dad, my opinion and he said he agreed with me and I asked him why he didn't tell her. He simply said "what I think doesn't matter." I thought about it for a minute and he was right. It wasn't our house we were building. We wouldn't be looking at the room each day. Our opinion didn't really matter.
The lesson is a good one, in my opinion. We all have the tendency to think that our way of thinking and our opinions are correct. That's part of what makes us individual. However if we want to find peace with ourselves and those around us, especially our loved ones we need to realize that sometimes what we think doesn't matter, and that's OK.
Life is learning to balance ideas, principals, beliefs, and actions. Learning when your opinion does and doesn't matter, when to bristle up and when to calm down. Learning when to laugh and when to be serious. Learning how be patient with yourself and those around you. Learning how to accept any result that may come from any situation, and using the results that come to make you a better person. That is life. Every experience can teach you something, if you let it. Every person can show you how to be a better person, if you let them. Finding good everywhere, that is how you bring good out of others. Light cleaves unto light. Ask yourself what light is cleaving unto you?
Bridal your passions that you may be filled with love. Balance yourself, use your agency to control your attitude and you will learn to be at peace.
Come what may and love it.
The lesson is a good one, in my opinion. We all have the tendency to think that our way of thinking and our opinions are correct. That's part of what makes us individual. However if we want to find peace with ourselves and those around us, especially our loved ones we need to realize that sometimes what we think doesn't matter, and that's OK.
Life is learning to balance ideas, principals, beliefs, and actions. Learning when your opinion does and doesn't matter, when to bristle up and when to calm down. Learning when to laugh and when to be serious. Learning how be patient with yourself and those around you. Learning how to accept any result that may come from any situation, and using the results that come to make you a better person. That is life. Every experience can teach you something, if you let it. Every person can show you how to be a better person, if you let them. Finding good everywhere, that is how you bring good out of others. Light cleaves unto light. Ask yourself what light is cleaving unto you?
Bridal your passions that you may be filled with love. Balance yourself, use your agency to control your attitude and you will learn to be at peace.
Come what may and love it.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Happyness
It is easier to be happy than to be mad. Why don't we realize this more often. When it all is said and done, life is short and the time we spend mad we aren't happy so what's the point of getting mad? Adam fell that man might be and man are that they might have joy. How many minutes do we throw away each day being mad or dwelling on things that bring us unhappy feelings. Take control of your thoughts and choose to find happiness in your situation. That would be my advice to everyone.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
What is real?
When I stub my toe it really hurts. When I see my wife I am really happy. When I forget lunch I am really hungry. However, my question is this, what is real?
I look at life and I think of all the different things I supposedly know to be real or true. 'I know' if I jump off a cliff I will fall and probably die. 'I know' if don't brush my teeth they will get cavities. 'I know' that if I hold a funny face too long my face will stay that way...or will it?
What is real?
Here is what I think. I think that reality changes with our experiences and perspective. Think of it like this, when we were born we were all given a blank piece of paper. As we grow we add colors to our paper. We mix some colors to make new colors. What we see, our perspective, is our picture in a way it is our reality. It is our attitude, our outlook on life. It is one of the things that make us individuals. This being said what is truth? We have our own personal reality that we live in, but there must be one true reality one where the colors are used perfectly. There must be one standard. It all points to one person, and that would be Jesus Christ.
So where are we? We are living in our own realities. We see what is in front of us and we take it to be real. We take it to be truth but is it? The more I learn to step back and look at life as a whole, to look at where I came from, why I am here, and where I am going, the more I feel I am coming closer to that picture of Christ. Consequently it also makes it easier for me to go through the times that are hard. It helps me to realize the hard times will come to an end, and without them I won't have all the colors I need for my picture.
So what about the guy sitting next to me, what is real for him? I feel that everyone has at the very least one part of truth in their reality or in their perspective. Every person has one part of this grand picture. For me to see truth I have to view what I see as my reality, but that isn't it I need to see what others have learned from there experiences as reality. When I was little I heard once the saying that everyone is your superior at something, meaning that you have something to learn from everyone. I believe it.
This life is given as a time for man to prepare to meet God. It is given for us as a trial period so we can prove our worth. If we take this life and use it to learn, God will bless us in the life to come. So how do we learn? We become like Christ.
Why is Christ the standard? Christ was given a blank piece of paper at birth. The same as us, Christ had to start with forgetting who he was before and not knowing exactly what he had to do. Christ learned little by little. First Christ had to grow through his experiences and trials. He started blending colors and shading in his paper from his personal and perfect life. He also taught us to love to show compassion. Then Christ practiced what he preached. In the Garden of Gethsemane He did something that demonstrated this love. He took every color and put it on His paper. He took our sins upon him, but it didn't stop there. He took our experiences upon Himself, that he might fully understand the realities through which we trek. He took our pains and sicknesses. He took upon himself so much that he bled out of each poor. He gave a perfect gift of compassion. All so we could have the chance to learn how to paint.
As I started this I wanted to write bring across two points of view. One, that most of the problems we have that seem so big to us in our own personal realities, most of these problems only exist in our reality. In other words most problems that we worry about our only in our minds eye. Secondly I wanted to bring across the point that everyone has something to teach us, and that we can learn from every situation we are in. I didn't talk about them as much as I would have liked but it's alright, I got to speak about Christ.
Until Next Time
Fred
31 August 2009
I look at life and I think of all the different things I supposedly know to be real or true. 'I know' if I jump off a cliff I will fall and probably die. 'I know' if don't brush my teeth they will get cavities. 'I know' that if I hold a funny face too long my face will stay that way...or will it?
What is real?
Here is what I think. I think that reality changes with our experiences and perspective. Think of it like this, when we were born we were all given a blank piece of paper. As we grow we add colors to our paper. We mix some colors to make new colors. What we see, our perspective, is our picture in a way it is our reality. It is our attitude, our outlook on life. It is one of the things that make us individuals. This being said what is truth? We have our own personal reality that we live in, but there must be one true reality one where the colors are used perfectly. There must be one standard. It all points to one person, and that would be Jesus Christ.
So where are we? We are living in our own realities. We see what is in front of us and we take it to be real. We take it to be truth but is it? The more I learn to step back and look at life as a whole, to look at where I came from, why I am here, and where I am going, the more I feel I am coming closer to that picture of Christ. Consequently it also makes it easier for me to go through the times that are hard. It helps me to realize the hard times will come to an end, and without them I won't have all the colors I need for my picture.
So what about the guy sitting next to me, what is real for him? I feel that everyone has at the very least one part of truth in their reality or in their perspective. Every person has one part of this grand picture. For me to see truth I have to view what I see as my reality, but that isn't it I need to see what others have learned from there experiences as reality. When I was little I heard once the saying that everyone is your superior at something, meaning that you have something to learn from everyone. I believe it.
This life is given as a time for man to prepare to meet God. It is given for us as a trial period so we can prove our worth. If we take this life and use it to learn, God will bless us in the life to come. So how do we learn? We become like Christ.
Why is Christ the standard? Christ was given a blank piece of paper at birth. The same as us, Christ had to start with forgetting who he was before and not knowing exactly what he had to do. Christ learned little by little. First Christ had to grow through his experiences and trials. He started blending colors and shading in his paper from his personal and perfect life. He also taught us to love to show compassion. Then Christ practiced what he preached. In the Garden of Gethsemane He did something that demonstrated this love. He took every color and put it on His paper. He took our sins upon him, but it didn't stop there. He took our experiences upon Himself, that he might fully understand the realities through which we trek. He took our pains and sicknesses. He took upon himself so much that he bled out of each poor. He gave a perfect gift of compassion. All so we could have the chance to learn how to paint.
As I started this I wanted to write bring across two points of view. One, that most of the problems we have that seem so big to us in our own personal realities, most of these problems only exist in our reality. In other words most problems that we worry about our only in our minds eye. Secondly I wanted to bring across the point that everyone has something to teach us, and that we can learn from every situation we are in. I didn't talk about them as much as I would have liked but it's alright, I got to speak about Christ.
Until Next Time
Fred
31 August 2009
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