The articles of faith revisited for my grandchildren.
Recently it was brought to my attention that one of the first definitions of the word faith in the English language was loyalty. With that in mind I would like to refer to the articles of faith to include loyalty.
We can call this the articles of loyalty to God.
First we are loyal to God the Eternal Father and to his son Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost.
We are then loyal to the doctrine revealed by God to the prophet Joseph Smith.
Each of the statements in our Articles of Faith delineate our commitment and loyalty to those principles which make up the core doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Both James E. Talmage and Bruce R. McConkie have written books about the Articles of Faith. You should know and do what these principles espouse. You probably learned to repeat these (The Articles of Faith) by memory in primary. It takes more than being able to quote them. If you do not believe them and practice them in your life, they will be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals signifying nothing.
Ask yourself do you really believe in being honest? Are you not only a truthful person, but are you true to God and his commandments? One of the questions asked in an interview for a temple recommend is; are you honest in your dealings with your fellow men?
Are you chaste? This refers to thoughts as well as actions.
How many of you know what being benevolent means? How can you be benevolent if you do not understand what kind of attribute it is? Look it up in the dictionary.
The scripture admonishes us to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly so that our confidence will wax strong in the presence of God. We need to know what virtue means; otherwise we only pay lip service to this characteristic. As an example: advertisements and TV programs that invite us to shun virtue and become worldly in our attitude surround us.
Do we do good to all men? We are to treat our friends and our enemies the same. This is hard to do, but if we are loyal to God, we will treat them as He would.
The next statement is about belief, hope and endurance. A runner that does not finish the race has not endured. The actual thing we want to do is endure in faith and loyalty to God to the end of our mortal existence.
We must the constantly seek for good, that which is lovely or worthy of praise by righteous people. We need to be comfortable in the presence of the kings and queens of the world, because you my grandchildren are destined to become the kings and queens of the king of heaven. He is refined and you might want to read Elder Callister's talk on our refined heavenly home at this link.
By loyal to the royal in you.
Love,
Grandpa
Recently it was brought to my attention that one of the first definitions of the word faith in the English language was loyalty. With that in mind I would like to refer to the articles of faith to include loyalty.
We can call this the articles of loyalty to God.
First we are loyal to God the Eternal Father and to his son Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost.
We are then loyal to the doctrine revealed by God to the prophet Joseph Smith.
Each of the statements in our Articles of Faith delineate our commitment and loyalty to those principles which make up the core doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
Both James E. Talmage and Bruce R. McConkie have written books about the Articles of Faith. You should know and do what these principles espouse. You probably learned to repeat these (The Articles of Faith) by memory in primary. It takes more than being able to quote them. If you do not believe them and practice them in your life, they will be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals signifying nothing.
Ask yourself do you really believe in being honest? Are you not only a truthful person, but are you true to God and his commandments? One of the questions asked in an interview for a temple recommend is; are you honest in your dealings with your fellow men?
Are you chaste? This refers to thoughts as well as actions.
How many of you know what being benevolent means? How can you be benevolent if you do not understand what kind of attribute it is? Look it up in the dictionary.
The scripture admonishes us to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly so that our confidence will wax strong in the presence of God. We need to know what virtue means; otherwise we only pay lip service to this characteristic. As an example: advertisements and TV programs that invite us to shun virtue and become worldly in our attitude surround us.
Do we do good to all men? We are to treat our friends and our enemies the same. This is hard to do, but if we are loyal to God, we will treat them as He would.
The next statement is about belief, hope and endurance. A runner that does not finish the race has not endured. The actual thing we want to do is endure in faith and loyalty to God to the end of our mortal existence.
We must the constantly seek for good, that which is lovely or worthy of praise by righteous people. We need to be comfortable in the presence of the kings and queens of the world, because you my grandchildren are destined to become the kings and queens of the king of heaven. He is refined and you might want to read Elder Callister's talk on our refined heavenly home at this link.
By loyal to the royal in you.
Love,
Grandpa
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