What is important?

 

What is important?

The pandemic that is sweeping the nations has pointed out that there are important things and those that are really not important. 

 Unimportant things:

1. Sports. Everyone seems to be concerned that they are not playing sports because of the pandemic. The professional teams are not playing because of the pandemic. This affects those who play and the spectators. We can live without sports. They are not necessary. Of course there are some people who never watch or participate. So sports of all kinds are not necessary.
2. Restaurants. There are some people who frequent fast food establishments and sit down restaurants on a regular basis. Eating out is not essential. It is a convenient luxury. I do not remember eating out when I was growing up, perhaps only once a year if that often. We enjoy it, but it is not a necessity. 
3. Vacations. It is not necessary to travel or go away from home to relax and enjoy our selves. It is a nonessential pleasure that we have become accustomed to.
4. Social gathering. Although we enjoy being with people, we have neglected this in favor of in home entertainment. We watch television and DVDs and often neglect the stimulation of interpersonal relationships. The home and home centered activities are now taking their predominant place. 
5. Exercise gyms. There are many who frequent these places for the social experience and to exercise because many sit at a desk all day. The agrarian society that I grew up in had plenty of opportunity to break a sweat doing manual labor. Most people could do push-ups at home and fill empty gallon milk bottles with water and use them for weights to lift and build up their muscles. Manual labor provided all the exercise when I was growing up. 
6. Movie theaters and theaters. These are for recreation and diversion. They have their place, but are not essential. 
   

This is a test to see how we will handle adversity. Will we refuse to wear a mask? Will we vilify others because we don’t agree with their point of view? This is an individual test for everyone. We will be judged by our own response. Are we going to be kind or cross? Are we going to keep the commandments of Jesus or are we going to follow Satan and be contentious? Are we going to demonstrate or spread the gospel in a civil and polite manner? How are you going to measure up when you stand up before the Savior at the judgment day? 

 

Now what is important?

The knowledge that you are a child of God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

Keeping the commandments.

Family and family relationships.

Being an example of the believers in word and deed. 

Keeping our covenants with the Lord.  

Temple covenants for the living and the dead. 

Let me say here; that if the series of events follows the pattern that mankind has exhibited in the past are coming prior to Christ's coming in glory, then the family and family ties will be more important in strengthening the testimonies of the individual than at any time in our lifetimes. I think that the pandemic has given us an opportunity to help our family bond remotely.  Your grandmother and I have commented frequently how much we have enjoyed our weekly virtual meetings and how it has bonded us as a couple. This  will be more important as we strengthen each other in the times to come.  It was not available to our parents and grandparents, but it is given to us now to prepare us for that which is to come.

 

Please stay connected.

 

Love,

Grandpa and more importantly Grandma

 

 

Principles and preferences

Principles and preferences 

We were fortunate to have had an acquaintance with Elder Neal A. Maxwell. He was in our bishopric when we were first married and taught our Sunday school class. We invited him to speak at a fireside when we lived on the avenues when I was in my residency where he introduced this concept. He came to Wyoming and was the general authority who released me from my calling as stake president. We saw him in Frankfurt when he came as a member of the council of the twelve. 

He taught us the doctrine of principles and preferences. It is a good way to make decisions. You may ask yourself this question. Is it principle or is it preference? Our life should be guided by the principles of the gospel. These are unchanging doctrines that will lead us back to our Father in Heaven. 

It takes study and time to learn these principles. The scriptures and the prophets are the source of true principles. 

If we use these principles to guide us in our decisions then we will always make the correct choice. It may not be, and often isn't, easy but it will always be correct. 

We make decisions almost every day. They affect our lives and often the lives of people around us. 

I remember reading the biography of President Spencer Kimball. He would milk the cow and say to himself, I Spencer Kimball will never drink coffee. I Spencer Kimball will never drink tea. I Spencer Kimball will never use tobacco or alcohol. 

 

He made those decisions early in life using the principles of the gospel. Once he had made the decision he did not have to make it again. If the opportunity arose where someone would offer him tea or coffee or tobacco or alcohol he did not have to decide what to do. He had already made the decision based on true principles. 

Now what about preferences? The illustration that I have used in the past is candy bars. If you are in the store and at the candy counter there are many choices. It is your preference to choose a Milky Way our a Snickers or any other one. You can also elect not to buy any. This preference does not effect your eternal salvation. It is what you desire at the time. 

In the case of Elder Maxwell, he knew that I would have a choice of what to do with the training I had received. My decision to go into pediatrics and practice in Lander, Wyoming was a decision of preference. It is true that it affected my life and that of my family just like many other choices we make in life. I had other choices, but that is a story for another time. President Monson said in a talk when he visited our stake long after I was released as stake president, that I was drawn back to the area for a purpose. I think that the Lord guided me in my decision of preference, but it was still a decision of preference and not a decision of principle. 

Often we do not make the difference in our decisions, because we have not yet encountered the principles. We therefore have to constantly study for further light and knowledge. The Lord does not overwhelm us, but gives us line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little as we are able to receive and understand. It requires work and effort on our part.

To start out,  we can use the Ten Commandments and then add to them the principles Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount often referred to as the beatitudes. Then add my post of sixes and sevens. Then there are others as we study and get inspiration from the Holy Ghost.

In order to apply these principles into our decision making we must have a testimony that they are true principles. Then, when a decision needs to be made, we can ask what principle is involved in my making this decision or is this a decision of preference? 

Then ask the question what will be the short and long term effect of this action? In other words, what will be the long term consequence of this decision?

Often we may not have time to ponder. Our experience will then help us the next time. Thus, we learn and become better at making decisions. We therefore become agents unto ourselves and have the liberty wherewith we have become free.

Is Health care a right?

 

Health care is a right?

In the recent political campaign one of the candidates stated that health care was a right. 

 

The last time I read the constitution of the United States the only rights were life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The bill of rights does not mention health care or anything about health. 

Our founding fathers did not have health insurance. When I started practice only ten percent of my patients had health insurance. Since then we have had Medicare and recently universal health care. 

I have in my possession a document written by a classmate from medical school. The title was “Nobody’s money"

 

That is what this is all about. The cost of health care has risen exponentially. When I went into practice in 1965 the doctors in town were charging $3 for a routine office call. When I left practice in 1996 I was charging $35 for a routine office call. Now I have seen office calls for $100 and higher. 

Someone has to pay the office calls. Medical care whether an office visit or a surgical procedure needs to be reimbursed. If the individual cannot pay, who will?

The way insurance works is that people pay premiums and then the insurance company invests the money and then pays the providers. If the insurance company looses money, they raise the premiums. When I was on the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Wyoming we lost a million dollars one year. Fortunately we had the money in reserve.  We had to raise the rates. Some one had to pay for the losses and it was those who were insured.

 

In the case of the government sponsored health care the government taxes the people so they can pay the health care provider. The majority of people do not think about where the money comes from as long as they do not have to pay the bill. 

Let us take a hypothetical comparison. 

The Volkswagen (people’s car) was a promise that Hitler made to the German people. He promised that every household in Germany would own an auto. In this case we could say that ownership of a car was a right. So let us go to the car dealership and tell them which car we want. When they ask us how we are going to pay for it, we just say that the government will pay for it. Do you think that the dealer will buy into that?

We could use the same analogy for a grocery market. Everyone needs food. Therefore food is a right. We go to the market and fill our basket and go to the checkout counter and tell them that the government will pay the bill. Perhaps the clerk will laugh and call the people with the straight jackets and take us to the "funny farm". 

 

The fact that someone says that Health care is a right in order to get people to vote for them does not make it so.  People today think that it is Nobody's money and they are entitled to health insurance to pay the bill and that someone else will pick up the tab. 

There is a German song that I learned on my mission.  "Wer soll dass bezahlen?

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Translated it means who is going to pay for it. Until the Savior comes, we will be on a basis of everyone will be responsible for their own bills.  We may find that insurance helps with that, but we need to remember that the money has to come from someplace.

 

We have lived in areas of the world where universal health care is granted to all, but it is not what it is cracked up to be. The waiting time for elective procedures can be very long and the care as compared to what is available in the United States is substandard. 

 

Do not be deceived by those who are advocating anything that does not require effort and sacrifice. That is not the plan we voted for in the preexistence.