Making Sense of Life

In order to make sense of this life we have to understand who we are. We are all individuals who have a divine origin and we must always remember that, because it makes all the difference in how we perceive ourselves and most importantly how we act.

The individual consists of two parts; an immortal spirit and a mortal or physical body. The scriptures call this combination of spirit and body the soul of man. When the soul comes into this world it is good.  We must then remember that the soul is then a child of both Godly and earthly parents.

For some reason that we do not know, when the mortal is combined with the immortal there is a condition, which is called the “natural man”.  In Mosiah we discover.  Chapter 3:19 For the ^anatural ^bman is an ^cenemy to God, and has been from the ^dfall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he ^eyields to the enticings of the ^fHoly Spirit, and ^gputteth off the ^hnatural man and becometh a ⁱsaint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Thusly, we are to respond to the “whisperings” of the spirit.  So we should never condemn an individual, which people are very prone to do.  The individual is a child of God and as such has divine potential. In other words we should not call someone a jerk (which, by the way, one of my children was called, by someone who did not understand this principle).

Now we get to the good part.  While on this earth the individual, our soul, is, as Lehi explained, to act or to be acted upon.  This is the propose of our existence.  So now we have actions by the individual.  They are also called behavior.  The scriptures call these actions or behavior, works.  Thus when the scriptures state, “by their works ye shall know them” or ‘men shall be judged by their works in the flesh’, it means that behavior can be judged, but the judgment of the individual is left to God the Father of our spirits.  It follows that we are to find joy in our life by our good works.

God, in order to help his children in this mortal existence, gave us helps to allow us that joy that is promised to all men, or a Lehi puts it, “Man is that he might have joy”.  You will notice the conditional “might” and not the definitive “will”.  Joy is found by help from God.

These helps are called commandments.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell stated that God gave us commandments so that we would not hurt others or ourselves. If you look at the world around you, you will see that, without exception, the misery (the opposite of joy) that is present is because someone has not kept the commandments of God.  The scriptures state it thusly, “Wickedness never was happiness”. 

Remember who you are and keep the commandments.

Love,

Grandpa