We often see and hear people who pray to God that he will help some sports
team win over the other. Of course we want the team that we support to be able
to win all their encounters.
Sports were not inspired of the Lord. They are the invention of man. Today
they have become, to many, not just a diversion or entertainment, but a
distraction from the true purpose of our life here on earth.
Sports have been placed above our devotion to God. Most of the games are
played on Sunday and as such keep us from keeping it holy and devoted; to
include offering our oblations to God. Instead of attending to our church
meetings and thinking about spiritual things, many think only about the big
game or the super bowl party.
I was disappointed one day to hear an employee of the missionary department
talking about watching the super bowl game the day before.
We have so little time here on the earth to learn the things of God. That is
the reason that we have the commandment to honor His day and keep it
holy.
It is as if sports have become our God. If we spent as much time
loving our neighbors and caring for them as we do watching sports then the
world would be a better place.
To illustrate this point recently over 1 million people turned out to
celebrate their city’s team winning a championship basketball game. The
question that I ask, is how many of these million people would come to see a
prophet of the Lord speak and give them the word of the Lord or turn out to do
a service project to beautify the city or help someone in need?
In 100 or 200 years this basketball championship would not even be a blip on
the history of mankind and no one would even care about the outcome or the
players involved.
Does celebrating in such a way make people better or make them more
compassionate or do service to their fellow man? I think you could answer that
question with a resounding no. And in the eternal scheme of things the
championship and a basketball tournament has little or no redeeming value. It
we let things like this cloud our perspective and keep us from our Heavenly
Father.
My dear grandchildren, keep your life in perspective. Enjoy the game or sport occasionally, but do
not let it take the place of the Lord in your life.
Love,
Grandpa
Recently in the news we have heard a lot about how people have been upset
with things that have happened in the past.
People have been upset because their ancestors were slaves or slaveholders.
They have taken offense because the confederate flag has been displayed.
In Europe there are those who deny that the holocaust and persecution of the
Jews ever took place.
People seem to be uncomfortable with things in the past unless they fit with
their ideas of perfection.
We become so sensitive that movies that depict what is esteemed to even have
the slightest hint of what we consider offensive are censored. Yet we watch
murder and adulterous behavior and consider that entertaining.
Who are we to judge what happened in the past? How does this determine our
righteousness?
Can we learn from the past without being so critical? Does this make us
better people by being critical of things that have gone on before, which we
have no control over?
Can't we learn without being condemning?
Brigham Young talked about Offense. One of my favorite quotes is: "He
who takes offense when no offense was intended is a fool and he who takes
offense when offense was intended is probably a fool."
We have enough things to do in our life to keep the commandments and be kind
that we should not worry about what happened in the past and affected
others.
There are two things that Christ taught. Judge not that ye be not judged.
And judge righteous judgment.
Those who are critical of the past are in the bonds of iniquity and the gall
of bitterness. Most do not understand what the poet Bobbie Burns has written. O
wad some Power the giftie
gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae
mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n
devotion!
You may have your own thoughts about things and how they should be, but
expressing them to others and especially on social media is ill advised and usually
invites discord.
When I was growing up, we did not have e-mail or social media and the
letters to the editor were read by the editor and only those that were proper
were published. Now anyone who has
access to the Internet can comment on anything and display their absolute
ignorance by expressing whatever they have on their mind. As Christ said, it is not what goes into the
mouth that defiles the man but, that which cometh out.
This may be a strange title for a blog. You may ask me what prompted me to
write about such an intriguing subject.
In a recent conversation with our son we discussed the fact that some of the
young people who come into the workplace do not know how to work. He had to
terminate one of his workers. They did not follow through and he had to do his
work and theirs. As an excuse the reply was that he did not get mad and chew
her out.
This fits into the subject very well. When I was growing up my mother used
to use that expression to help us to look for more than just our superficial
tasks. We needed to be able to see dirt. In the case above the employee was not
able to see dirt. That is go beyond the perceived assignment and do a complete
and thorough job. In other words see dirt and take care of the dirt.
The scriptural admonition for this is found in D&C 58:27-28. The key
words are "anxiously engaged". This means you need to be proactive.
You need to be motivated to see dirt.
That reminds me of the words of a hymn that we used to sing. "Have I
done any good in the world today".
The words that have been taken out are: "the world has no use for a
drone." As you know there are three types of bees in a hive; the queen,
the worker, and the drone. The drone is necessary to mate with the queen,
but he is not productive in producing honey. Thus the drone is a typification
of laziness.
I have only had to dismiss one of the people who worked for me. She happened
to be the mother of one of my son's friends. She just did not work quickly and
efficiently. She was not a poor employee; she spent more time socializing with
the patients and as a result did not keep up with the assigned tasks. She was
distracted.
When you are in the employment of others look for dirt and do not get
distracted.
Love,
Grandpa
I wish to let you know in writing how I feel about my children having
children. I have been sufficiently instructed in the gospel to know that
children are a heritage to the Lord. The world would be concerned about having
children, but I am not.
We had eight children and would have more if we could have, but we were not
blessed with the opportunity.
Because the world looks down on having children many of the members of the
church have adopted the ways of the world and do not understand the
Commandments of God.The gospel of Jesus Christ is not understood by the world. Nor are the
principles of it by those who seek after the world and its ways. The principles
of the Gospel indicate that the patriarchal order is the order that will
prevail in the celestial kingdom.
I think that the teachings of the gospel should really come by and through
the family. The father is responsible for the teaching of the gospel to his
wife and children and they are to listen to his counsel and follow it as long
as it is righteous and in accordance with the teachings of The Lord and His
prophets. We should follow the words of the Scriptures and of the
prophets.
The first commandment given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was to
multiply and replenish the earth and to have joy and rejoicing in their
posterity. We learn later that this joy is to come in the day of The Lord Jesus
Christ.
When Alice and I were first married, President David O. McKay was asked
a question about limiting our families. His response was that those couples that
practiced birth control would reap disappointment bye and bye. When I was
asked about this matter as a stake president, I would say that the covenant was
between the individual and The Lord. I would then say that they were
responsible not to me, but to The Lord.
Some individuals cannot have children in this life. The Lord does not
require us to run faster than we are able. However there are saints
that limit the number of children that they bring into the world because of
reasons that have nothing to do with raising a righteous posterity, but fear.
They want to send their children to college. They want to provide them with a
car. They feel like they cannot provide for the luxuries if they have more
children. In the end we cannot take our money or our degrees or our
worldly possessions into heaven, but if we are fortunate our children will be
there.
Love
Grandpa
I received a letter in the mail yesterday and was quite shocked to see what
was on the front of the envelope; A four-letter word!
I would never want to even write those words in that context. They came
from the office of a United States Senator and on the back was an indication
that this was sent out by the Republican national committee.
The letter was addressed to my father who used to contribute to the
Republican National Committee and I continue to get letters asking for
donations. I have repeatedly sent those letters back with the statement that
the addressee is deceased but I continue to get them and they probably will
continue to send them even after I die.
The use of vulgarity and vulgar speech has become too commonplace and I
am sick and tired of it. I grew up in a household where I did not hear any
swearing from my parents nor did they use vulgar terms.
The closest thing that I ever heard my father utter as an expletive was “Sam
Hill”. When I was living in Pocatello, Idaho we went outside the city to
dispose of some trash and dumped it on a vacant area up in the hills.
Apparently the owner saw us, came up and asked us why we were dumping our trash
there. My father replied, “How in the Sam Hill was I supposed to know I was not
to dump trash here.” From that time to this I have never heard him use that
expression.
I did not hear any vulgar language in my home while I was growing up. As far
as I can remember it was never spoken in our own home when we had
children. That is not to say that I did not hear it. The people I went to
school with used that sort of language. When I was working for my uncle Howard
the hay hands used those kind of terms. I heard it in the workplace almost
everyplace that I worked outside of the church. I hear it every once in a
while on television and most recently from the former speaker of the house
of representatives of the United States.
I have written before about how your speech is an indication of who you are.
Click
here for the link.
We must realize that we are children of our Father in Heaven. We will never
get back into his presence by using vulgar or profane language. This is
one of the tasks that we are to accomplish while we are here on the earth. Our
language and speech should be above reproach. If we want to feel
comfortable in the presence of our Father in Heaven everything that we do must
reflect refined elegance.
A few years ago there was a talk given by a general authority at Brigham
Young University. It is fairly lengthy but is well worth reading more than
once.
Here
is the link.
Now, if swearing and swearwords are part of your vocabulary, I would urge
you, my grandchildren, to never use them again. You will want to be comfortable
in your Heavenly Father's presence.
Love,
Grandpa
We were driving up Eagleridge drive the other day when a car came from the
left on Cynthia way and drove right in front of us. I put on the brakes and
avoided an accident. Your grandmother asked me why I didn't honk the horn. I
replied that I was more concerned about stopping than sounding the
klaxon.
I then repeated to her a quote from my youth.
In this grave lies Willie Gray
He died while maintaining his right of way
Although he was right as he sped along
He's just as dead as if he were wrong.
This is Stubbornness
Stubbornness is a good quality to have if used in the right way. A better
term would be persistence. Stubbornness denotes inflexibility and like Willy
Gray it can end up in disaster or even death.
You will come in contact with stubborn people in your life. They're
inflexible in their thinking and may bump up against you and want to interfere
with your agency. They are controlling and manipulative in their behavior and
actions. Even if they are in the right, if they understand the gospel, they
will allow you the freedom to make your own choices.
The right way to interact with people is with persuasion and gentleness and
love unfeigned.
Persistence is a good quality to cultivate, but do not be stubborn.
Now let us talk about being right. We see in the news almost every day where
people try to use coercion because they think they are right. I have
addressed coercion
here
Recent events show that if a state wants to pass a law that other people
without the state to do not like they get up in arms and get the media
involved and try to coerce that state into changing their law because the
people without the state do not agree. They do not think that other people have
the right to disagree with what they believe is right.
When I was growing up my brothers and I often would complain that things
were not fair. As I have matured, I have realized that we cannot have
everything fair or perfect in this life. Elder Holland said that if everything were fair in this life Jesus would not have been crucified.
Thus what you think is right may not be, unless it comes from the Lord. Even then
we may not infringe our will upon the rights of others, especially if we are
doing it in a controlling manner.
We may end up like Willy Gray and die spiritually while trying to steady the
ark and maintain our insistence on being right.
Do not be so determined that you are right that you do not allow for the
fact that others may have differing opinions and use the gospel of Jesus Christ and the revealed word as your standard.
Love,
Grandpa
Fool's hill
No, this is not a place in Lander Wyoming.
When I was growing up my grandmother Gee used to talk about trying to get
adolescents over Fool's Hill. This was a common expression at that
time. We do not hear it so much anymore.
This refers to the experience of going
through the process of maturation in our thoughts and feelings and
understanding of life and how we approach it.
Some individuals go through a rather
difficult time as they mature and go through the teenage years. Many of them
want to push the boundaries and exert their independence.
Historically this has been the time when
many lose their association with the church and its teachings. This is the time
when most of the runaways from the family occur. Thus it takes time and
patience on the part of the parent to understand what is going on and to try to
gently persuade the child that self-destructive behavior will only bring pain
and sorrow.
In medicine we call this myopia.
Short-sightedness, or myopia, is a very common eye condition that causes
distant objects to appear blurred, while close objects can be seen clearly.
Myopia in this sense doesn't refer to the eye, but to the brain and emotional
makeup of the individual. If you can’t see the consequences of your
decisions, then you are not able to make them wisely.
I recently found on the Internet a little
explanation of this. I will give you the link here.
There is a little book that was written by a
medical school classmate of mine. It is
entitled “From Play Pens To Proving Grounds”.
In it he describes the process of helping children make proper
choices. It fits into the principles of
teaching correct principles and then letting people govern themselves and
persuasion, long suffering, gentleness and meekness and love unfeigned. Then comes reproof when moved upon by the
Holy Ghost and afterwards showing forth an increase of love.
When Elder Neal A. Maxwell came to our stake
conference in Riverton, he taught that we should give deserved, specific
praise. No one likes to be told all the
time about how in error your actions are.
Every one would like to have an “atta boy” on a regular basis. This means that just telling someone that
they are doing well is not enough. They
need to know that someone noticed that they did specifically well on a specific
task. He said that he received the
standard typewritten release letter from his mission president, but that the
mission president hand wrote a few lines at the bottom and that he had been
going on those comments for years.
Every one needs encouragement to get over
Fool’s Hill. We all make mistakes and
have to realize that we cannot escape the consequences of our choices.
Now my grandchildren, be wise! Make wise
choices so that climbing Fool”s Hill will not be such a difficult task.
What more can I say?
Love,
Grandpa
