Jeremiah 24 on Trials and Disaster

1 The Lord shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

3 Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

4 ¶ Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

5 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.

6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

8 ¶ And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

This is an interesting chapter. In it the Lord shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs – one good, one bad. The Lord tells Jeremiah the good figs represent the Jews who had been carried captive to Babylon, that the Lord did it for their good, and that He would build them and gather them, give them a heart to know the Lord, and make them His people.

On the other hand, the Lord tells Jeremiah the bad figs represent those who remained in the land of Jerusalem or Egypt, who the Lord will remove into all kingdoms of the earth to their hurt, to be a reproach and a curse, to suffer famine pestilence, and so on until they are consumed.

This would be a very unusual message to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day. They probably looked on those who had been carried away captive to Babylon as the cursed and unfortunate ones and looked on those who had stayed in the land as the blessed and lucky ones.

But the Lord wanted to teach the people that, contrary to what they thought, the Lord could make physical calamity into a blessing, and that avoiding disaster could be made a curse.

The question that arises then should be, “What makes disaster into a blessing?” and “How can the Lord make a tragic event good for me?”  (I think the Lord wanted the Jews to think about this.)  The answer is, if we turn to the Lord and repent and keep the commandments, He can make good things come out of disaster.

That doesn’t mean it is easy, of course.

It is neat to me that at the bottom of this odd story about baskets of good and bad figs is a lesson that is still applicable today.

13 Keys to Greater Self-Discipline

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I’ve been feeling like I need to build more self-discipline in my life, so I went searching for principles and practices that could help me with this.  I want to share what I learned.  Some of these I can see have a spiritual component behind them, and others I have to think about it more.

1. Get your priorities straight. When you get up, think of the one major thing you are going to work on that day, the thing that if it were done you would be sooooo happy. Tackle it first.

2. Use promises to help you.

1) Make small promises to yourself.

2) Respect yourself as the general over the army of ‘you’ and do what you tell yourself to do. No whining. No complaining. No excuses. “Yes ma’am! Right away ma’am!”

3) Keep the promises you make to yourself and others. This helps build a pattern of integrity in your character. (It also ensures you don’t make promises lightly.)

3. Get rid of distractions. Put phone on airplane mode. Close email. Close all extra webpages. Close browser. TURN OFF WIFI.  Then DO IT.  Avoid checking email first thing in the morning; do it around 11am or so, after you’ve gotten a good start on hard work.  Make a goal of only checking email ONCE a day. (Treat it like your snail-mail box.)

4. Do hard work before you do something fun.  This helps build a habit of delayed gratification in small things, so you can grow towards delaying gratification in larger things for larger rewards. (And make sure the reward doesn’t undo the hard work, e.g. eating ice cream after working out.) 

5. When you think of something you ought to do, try to act on it immediately.  This builds a habit of making impulsiveness work for you. Following good impulses builds your ability to listen and follow the Spirit.

I should get in shape. Drop and do 20 push-ups now.

I should read my scriptures. Go read them now!

I should pray.  Go pray! Now!

I should call so-and-so to see how they are doing.  Call them now! If you’re in a place where you can’t, put it on your to-do list immediately.

6. Tell yourself you are doing it for the discipline, whether it is easy or hard. This sends a good message to yourself that you have a good long-term goal – discipline—that you are working toward. It feels good to know that everything good you do can contribute to it.

7. Cultivate positive self-talk. As the general of the army of ‘you,’ you must become skilled at rallying the troops. Encourage yourself. Remind yourself why you are doing the hard thing. When you fail or feel lazy, don’t yell at yourself or call yourself names. Instead, pull out your inner psychoanalyst and ask yourself why you failed or procrastinated or whatever. There is often a real problem underneath that needs to be solved first, e.g. skills that need to be gained and practiced, a gravitational well of a comfort zone that must be escaped, a lack of confidence that needs to be acknowledged and dissipated with positive achievements, some sort of negative pattern of experiences that has conditioned us to act a certain way that must be fought with positive conditioning.  Focus on finding and solving the problem.

8. Take action. Don’t stew about it. Don’t wait until you feel like doing it. Those ‘blah’ feelings LIE! Defy them! Deep down you do  care, or you wouldn’t be so annoyed at feeling ‘blah.’   “’Tis better far for us to strive, our useless cares from us to drive.”  Motivation often follows action.  Action is the best way for getting rid of that ‘blah’ feeling. Action is a positive use of agency.

9. Face obstacles head on, with courage. Things often don’t go according to plan. The more you practice facing life problems head on, the more you’ll develop the ability to overcome bigger obstacles and the more resilient you become. Your brain will adapt and grow and develop new ways of discovering solutions. Over time, you’ll find it easier to face common-occurring problems. You will meet each new obstacle with more courage, thanks to your mindset in the past.

10. Expose yourself to small amounts of hardship. You will gain satisfaction from overcoming the hardship and thriving anyway. You will learn tolerance for difficulty and discomfort, which will give you a layer of inner toughness and confidence to face future problems and obstacles.  Take a cold shower. Exercise daily. Weed in the hot sun.  Fast for 2 meals.  Work the math problem the long way.

11. Whatever it is, keep at it a little longer than you think you can. This will stretch your capabilities. It shows you that you can expand your limits.  Run 100 more yards. Work 5-20 minutes longer. 

12. Give it your 100% best effort. This is not the same as perfectionism. Best effort means complete focus of energy and attention, you search for resources to help and use them, and you ask for help when you need it.  It means you make corrections as you discover they are needed, and you deliver in the time required. In short, it means you do everything you can think of to make it work, mustering your best thinking and bringing all your talents to bear. It means you take responsibility for the outcome and don’t blame others.

13. Finish the task. Even though the shiny and excitement wears off the new project, you keep going anyway. Even though you are dying to drop everything and go do something different, you keep at it.  Some projects and tasks may be too large to complete in one blast of effort, so you’ll have to break it up into smaller pieces, but you still make sure to finish each piece.  Finishing small tasks leads to the ability to finish bigger tasks.

Conclusion

Ultimately, developing self-discipline is about creating a life in which you are not ruled by your feelings, desires, appetites, and passions.  It’s about keeping the things of the moment in bounds so you can enjoy the things that last eternally. 

When Callings Feel Hard

I remember the first time a calling started to feel difficult for me.  It was my first year at BYU. I and another boy in my ward were called to be leaders in a family home evening group of other college students.  We pretty much were to make sure family home evenings happened for our group and to coordinate time and place to meet.

I tended to be the driving force behind our group meeting. I don’t know why that was. Maybe my partner didn’t have regular family home evenings growing up and so didn’t feel strongly about it.  Or maybe he had a heavy load of coursework and it weighed on him such that he didn’t feel as urgently about having family home evening. 

Whatever the reason, I was usually the one calling him to plan what we were going to do.  Once we figured that out, I was the one calling members of our group to let them know meeting details.  (This was before cell phones started to become more ubiquitous, and before texting capability, so there was no sending a group text.)

I remember late one Monday afternoon sitting on my bed, eying the phone with distaste, knowing that I was going to have to push together another family home evening when I wanted nothing more than to relax and be the one pulled for a change.

I knew I needed some motivation, so in desperation I reached for my scriptures and flipped it open to some random page and started reading.  Here is the verse that caught my eye:

And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received. (Alma 7:22)

That verse gave me a jolt, like an awakening. It seemed to speak to my situation. What was my duty to God?  It was to make sure FHE happened. 

“that ye may walk blameless before him” – I envisioned Judgment day and how I would feel happy if I could look back and say I had done my duty.  And after all, it looking at it from a distant perspective, my duty didn’t seem so hard after all.  A few phone calls. 

That gave me the motivation to go pick up that phone and start.

I look back at that now and I shake my head at how silly I was.  But at the time I was young and it was a big deal. I had a lot of growing to do.

Here are some other scriptures I like that are closely related—good motivators for callings…

Holiness and foreordination

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, (1 Timothy 1:9)

This scripture is probably talking about “holy calling” in the sense of being brought into the church, but I think it also applies to church callings too. They come by revelation. If you are like me, you probably have raised your eyebrows at some callings you’ve been given and thought, I have no idea why I have been asked to do this; there are people who could do a better job than me at this.  That’s when you know Heavenly Father has His own purposes, and the calling didn’t come because of anything we’ve done to deserve it. There’s foreordination in it, and it’s part of the Lord’s plan.

Case in point: I have no idea how my being in charge of that FHE group at BYU fit in the Lord’s plan or what its purpose was, but I have faith that it fulfilled its purpose.  It was the first time I had to push through an aspect of my calling that was hard.

Some of my callings I’ve said to myself, This has to be revelation, because I would not have chosen this. This is not the kind of thing I like.  There was one calling that I was mad about receiving, but I accepted anyway, and it turned out to be a big blessing.  I look back at it now and I see it as evidence that Heavenly Father knew me better than I knew myself. He knew I would love it, and He knew it would stretch me where I needed stretching.

Example: Stripling warriors

And they were all young men, and they were exceedingly valiant for courage, and also for strength and activity; but behold, this was not all—they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted. (Alma 53:20)

This is about the stripling warriors, but I want that to be about me in my callings. I want to be valiant for courage, be strong, be active, and be true at all times to whatsoever thing has been entrusted to me.

Learning, action, diligence

99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen. (D&C 107:99-100)

Two principles there: 1) learning our duty and 2) acting with diligence. If we don’t know what we’re supposed to do, we need to get training and get help until we know what we need to do.  Once we know, we need to do it.  Consistently.

Sometimes diligence is our big test.  Maybe we can pull off the big production once, but it is the tasks that must be done over and over and over again that can become a problem for us because we get so tired of them.  Or maybe we’re more into the calling when it is new and strange, but when it is old we might get a little slack at it.  When my callings feel old, I know I’m being trained to be diligent.

All are Needed to Keep the System Perfect

109 Therefore, let every man stand in his own office, and labor in his own calling; and let not the head say unto the feet it hath no need of the feet; for without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?

110 Also the body hath need of every member, that all may be edified together, that the system may be kept perfect. (D&C 84:109-110)

To me this one says there are no unimportant callings and each one is needed.  The image of the head dismissing the need for the feet teaches by negative analogy that leaders should not dismiss as unimportant the members who have the less-visible callings, because if those less-visible callings were eliminated, there would be hurt somewhere.  (“without the feet how shall the body be able to stand?”) 

By the way, I’ve noticed so many church leaders that are so good at thanking people who put together an event. I used to wonder why they took time for all those thank yous, but now I know that they understand this principle that every person’s contribution is important.

In the abstract, callings are a grouping of tasks that have to be done, but from the spiritual perspective, they are opportunities to practice charity and service for others.  They exist because there is work to be done to build the kingdom of God and to keep it running smoothly.  If we don’t think a particular calling is needed, we only need to think about what would be lost if it didn’t exist.

I also like that v110 says that with every member, all may be edified and the system is kept perfect. We all keep the system perfect!  We all edify each other!

Keep it up, Soldier!

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. (2 Timothy 2:3)

Sometimes callings are just hard, and we have to endure it. Good soldiers have to endure nasty conditions, and good Saints will too on occasion. 

What scriptures have helped you keep on with your callings?

Creating a Psychological Survival and Coping Kit

I grew up as a pretty happy-go-lucky person.  Somehow I learned to see the importance of making a decision to be happy and look on the bright side of things, and that made a lot of things easier for me.

But I still had trials and tests.

And afflictions.

And weaknesses.

And transgressions that I fell into.

At one point, I fell into a depression, and I got some counseling.  Under the direction of a doctor, I tried a few medications, but had more difficulty from the side-effects than from the depression.

Happily, my counselor at the time recommended a book to me called Feeling Good, by David Burns.  I got the book and read it.  In it, I found that much of my depression at that time was being caused by the way I was thinking.*  The thoughts were causing depressive feelings and contributing to a hopeless view of the world.

Eventually I learned that I had gotten cultivated some non-productive thought patterns that caused me pain.   (I’m sure Satan found that most amusing.)

I learned things about:

--How to have more realistic expectations of myself (and others)

--How to tell where my responsibility ended and another person’s began

--How to think more productively about what I did so that I could feel greater joy and happiness.

I don’t mind telling you that there were also things I read in Feeling Good that seemed to clash with gospel principles.  I was tempted to reject them because of that. But there was so much there that was helpful that I considered it a very valuable book, one worth keeping and referring back to from time to time.  I knew enough about myself to realize that I would not remember everything I’d read and I would need to review periodically.  I recognized that if I had fallen into bad habits of thought, it was possible and probable I would get into the same trouble again.

After a few more readings of that book over several years, I realized that some of the things that I’d previously thought clashed with gospel principles actually harmonized, but in a different way than I expected.  (Part of that could be because of how vocabulary is different between psychology and religion.)

The point of my telling you this is not necessarily to recommend that book, though it helped me.  The thing I learned was I could collect and keep resources around me that would help me recognize and correct mental-spiritual errors of thinking.

Over more years, I noticed I developed a few other peculiar thought-error patterns. They would manifest in some kind of behavior that I had troubles getting rid of.  When I noticed I was developing a new non-productive pattern, I started looking for principles, articles, scriptures, stories, coping techniques, strategies, and any kind of material that would address the issue.  I would gather it together in a document because I knew I would have to remind myself of that stuff again from time to time.  I have a document file for each problem.

This collection of material I have come to call my Psychological Survival and Coping Kit.  These issues are unique to me because they have to do with my particular weaknesses, challenges, and situation.  They give me valuable perspective. They help me manage my expectations in such a way that I remember where I need to be gentle with myself.  They represent areas where I know Satan particularly attacks me and where I know I need the Lord’s strength. 

I suspect everyone could benefit from building their own Psychological Survival and Coping Kit.  Studying and gathering available wisdom about a personal challenge is empowering. It makes the nebulous problem more defined and therefore limited.  It is amazingly validating; it helps us feel like we’re not alone.  It helps us become humble and open to revelation the Lord wants to give us to help us.  It helps us realize our need for the Savior and encourages us to come to Him.  It alerts us to traps and snares of Satan and prepares us to discern and avoid future stumbling blocks.  It gives us suggestions for what to do.  And when the kit is made, it is personalized to us.

I’m going to quote a well-known scripture that relates:

27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

 28 Behold, I will show unto the Gentiles their weakness, and I will show unto them that faith, hope and charity bringeth unto me—the fountain of all righteousness.  (Ether 12:27-28)

I love learning coping techniques.  Coping is not about just survival.  Coping is the way we deal positively with a challenge that allows us to figuratively learn and practice making lemon out of lemonade.  It’s the mechanics of the process of learning how to make weak things become strong after we’ve humbled ourselves turned it over to the Lord.  

 

* Some depression is caused by non-productive thought patterns and fallacious thinking and can be healed by learning to think in better, non-self-critical ways.  Other types of depression are caused by chemical imbalances and need the care of a physician and medicine to overcome. 

All Things Working Together For Our Good

Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another. (D&C 90:24)

The above sounds like one of the best recipes for optimism that I’ve ever heard of. And that promise that a things would work together for our good—doesn’t that just fil you with hope and gratitude?  To think that the universe and everything in it ultimately will bring about good things for us is comforting. Even the hard things can bring about our good if we follow the Lord’s instructions. It reminds me of that quote by Orson F. Whitney:

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”

Anyway, back to the idea of “all things working together for our good”.. It’s also a direct contradiction of a paranoid viewpoint. Some people think everything and everyone is out to get them (and that’s a pitiable mental illness), but the Lord tells us that if we search diligently, pray always, believe, and keep our covenants, then all things are working for us, even if they seem to work against us.

Education Week Class Notes: Classes on Spirits, Trials, and the Pearl of Great Price

“What Is This Thing That Men Call Death?” – LDS Teachings about the Spirit World: “Enveloped in Flaming Fire:--Attributes and Abilities of the Spirit Body (by Brent L. Top)

The Apocrypha principle from D&C 91: There are many things that are true, many things that are not true that are interpolations.  Read with the Spirit and to obtain benefit from it.

“enveloped in flaming fire” symbolic of God’s power.

Those departed from us are not far from us.

D&C 77:2  Spiritual beings in the likeness of that which is temporal, and temporal like spiritual.   Systems of spiritual world like here, here like there.

Specifics

The spirit of man in the likeness of his person (D&C 77:2)  We think spirits looks like our bodies.  This isn’t true.  Genetics determines physical appearance. Spirits have a different appearance, like our Heavenly Father and mother.

Our spirits recognize other spirits.

Tabernacles become deformed by accident, but this doesn’t deform the spirit. (Orson Pratt)

We’re part genetics, part our ourselves, part department store.

The body is the clothing of the spirit. (first presidency)  (Glove analogy)

Take the spirit from the body, and the body is lifeless.

Experience of feeling the departure at the death of father.  Something is missing, and it’s more than just life.  It doesn’t seem like it is really them.

A hospice worker.  Did lots of study. Elizabeth Cooper Ross.

Someone dying was surprised she still had hands and a feet and a form.

The quadriplegics were no longer paralyzed outside their body. Wheelchair patients were able to stand and dance.

We can’t understand after-life without understanding pre-mortality and spirit birth.

We gain a spirit body from heavenly parents.

Immanuel Swedenborg wrote a book about experiences of spirits.

Many people believe spirits to be minds without form, like gases containing something living. They think they can’t sense without organs. 

Top insists spirits are completely people in form. 

Swedenborg published that in 1852. We take that info for granted.

Alma 40:12 – Righteous spirits received into paradise a state of rest, peace, where they rest from trouble, care, and sorrow.

Spirit is free from difficulties, fatigue, troubles, sickness, etc.

The state between death and resurrection. The spirit continues to live after the body dies.  “What do we know about interaction between pre-mortal and post-mortal spirits?”  We know NOTHING about this.  Top is comfortable with the idea of interaction between the two. (his personal opinion)

Alma doesn’t tell us some things. But we tend to make charts and Powerpoints and lists about things the scriptures don’t teach.

The scriptures just say they are in a “state” of being.

Spirits enjoy life, glory, intelligence. Have the father to speak to us, we enjoy the society of the just and pure until the resurrection. (Brigham Young JD 14:231)

Why can’t we confine the evil ones and confine them in spirit prison?

Answer: Why can’t you have prison where righteous and wicked mingle together?  Certain places are free from pollution of the wicked.   The separation isn’t necessarily the place but the state of being of the spirit.

Enhanced capacities of spirit body

--Travel/movement!   Brigham Young JD 14:231  Spirits move like lightning, think and you’re there.  Think of a time, and you’re there to see it spiritually.  God has revealed some little things with regard to his movements and power. When we pass into the spirit world, we will possess a measure of this power.

--When the veil is no more, then time will be no more.

Time whispers to us that we are strangers here. 

--Communication!   How do spirits communicate with each other?  They might have a more refined system of communicating ideas.  (JD 3:100) Orson Pratt    Heart-to-heart, mind-to-mind, spirit-to-spirit.

Emanuel Swedenborg – speech so full of wisdom, word full of meaning, things men can’t grasp or verbalize. Inexpressible that the ear or eye couldn’t see or hear.

--Telepathy?  (Careful with your thoughts)

--Learning!  Learning without fatigue. Learning easier, 1000X faster, (JD 8:10) Brigham Young.

We shall learn many more things there, more than five senses.

Orson Pratt speculated God would give us new senses, maybe many more.  See things we couldn’t see before.   Telescope of the spirit to see farther and learn more.

Mind is strengthened in proportion to the knowledge imparted to bear it.

Learning and remembering so we don’t forget.  The spirit can remember much better without the imperfection of the body.

--Sociality!  Familiar, conversation, naturalness, more friends, rejoicing to see friends.   What is more desirable than meeting all our families, knowing each other, and the experiences we have?  What is there in any religion superior to that?  (Joseph F. smith)

little children die and are mature spirits in the spirit world.

“They are only absent for a moment, we shall soon meet again. It will be an eternity of felicity.” (Joseph Smith)

“Wading through Much Tribulation: Powerful Principles from the Book of Mormon for Dealing with Trials: Jaredite Ocean Voyage—Parallels of Our Earthly Voyage (by C. Robert Line) 

[We came in the middle of this class]

Isaac as a type of Christ

Joseph was a type of Christ

--Favored son of the father

--Prophesied to be ruler

--Rejected by brothers

--Falsely accused

--Sold into hands of gentiles

--Sold for silver, price of a slave

--Judah made the sale (Judas)

--Plan backfires, a blessing in disguise

--Mission to save Israel starting age 30

--Raised to exalted station

--Provided bread for Israel

The promised and another promised land comparing to the latter-days

1950 National Geographic article on the comparison.

Jaredite ocean voyage parallel to our earthly voyage. (Ether 6)

1 Nephi 4 Nephi trying to get the plates, led by the spirit.

D&C 133:42  Christ will come wearing red, symbol of the atonement, treading the winefat. He became sin for us. He had the Spirit withdraw from him for our sins.

Compares Christ to Laban. Laban had to die so that a nation would not dwindle in unbelief. (sort of a left-handed type)

Jaredite Voyage

Ether 2 – receiving revelation. Problems: can’t steer, no air, no light.  Solution: Lord will steer so don’t worry. Here’s instructions for getting air. What do you want to get light, because it can’t be ___?  These are different ways of receiving revelations.

Solutions can come a piece at a time without the end in sight. 

Ether 6

We have two lights. Light of Christ and light of the holy ghost.

Prepared all manner of food – we had to be prepared pre-mortally before going off into our bodies.

The whole house of Israel was inclined toward spiritual things.

God caused the winds to blow toward the promised land – Trials blow us toward the promised land.  (Impression: Pray for our trials to bring us closer to God)

No pain we suffer is wasted. It ministers to our education to development of our character. (Orson F. Whitney, Improvement Era, Mar 1966, 211)

When trials are not a consequence of disobedience, then they are evidence that the Lord feels you are prepared to grow more. So he gives experience that stimulates growth, understanding, and compassion.  Ask better questions.

The 11 moves of Joseph Smith’s family made before they got to Palmyra.  They were the things that brought them closer to where they needed to be. It looked by one failure after another, but from the larger view, they were all progress.

Jaredites buried in the depths of the sea. But no water could hurt them because their vessels were tight like a dish. – We can’t always control outward influences and temptations, but we can control our responses to them. We are to be in the world, but not of the world.

1 Ne 15:16-27  Lehi’s mind was swallowed up in other things and didn’t behold the filthiness of the water.

The wind did never cease to blow toward the promised land. – we will always have trials in our life. The sharp side-by-side contrast of sweet and bitter is essential until the end of mortality.  Blessings may be quickly followed by needed spiritual stretching. This prevents us from forgetting others in deep need. 

We can have trials ourselves or in bearing others’ burdens.  Why not help others?

Jaredites sang praises to the lord all the day long, not ceasing. – People who are always happy and praising God are a blessing.

Your religion isn’t just part of Sunday. It’s 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

Story of a SLC police officer undercover detective. He was also a high counselor. He had to go undercover as a gang member. He came home at night and infiltrate gangs during the day.  He had temp tatoos. He went for a year with the gang.  The toughest thing was an incident with a son of stake president who was having a gang party at the stake president’s house.  Raucous party. The detective saw the young man standing between a picture of the temple and the prophet; detective got so mad he almost blew his cover right there. He went up to the young man and asked him, “Isn’t that your prophet right there? Didn’t he say something about this stuff?” The young man said, “Both the prophet and gang-banging are two different things and they are both important to me.”   (Very sad how religion was not affecting the young man’s everyday life.)

Jaredites had light continually , whether above or under the water. – True happiness is not a function of our circumstances, but a function of how much light we have in ourselves.

A happy person is a person with a certain set of attitudes.

Jaredites humbled themselves and cried with joy because of the multitude of his tender mercies

Out of 70,000 people, only 3000 pioneers when west in handcarts.

While we have stories of handcart pioneers who were faithful, there were also handcart pioneers who were broken down by their trials and afflictions. 

Story of a pioneer family with eleven children who lost the mom and dad and about six siblings. The oldest 18-year-old son was so devastated by the loss of all those family he left the pioneer company and went back east.  His younger siblings were taken in by other families and continued west.

We must see the tender mercies in midst of the trials.

Pearls from the Pearl of Great Price: As it was in the Days of Noah, Zion and the second coming  From Moses 7:28-69, 8:1-30  (by Larry W. Barkdull)

God Weeps when he sees the residue of the people (Moses 7:28-39) 

Similar to the Allegory of the Olive Tree as God is distraught by how corrupted things have become.

How is it God can weep?

“I have them their knowledge, agency, commandments to love me and each other” They hate me and they hate each other.

When God foresaw the suffering that would inevitably follow this self-willed, rebellious course of sin, he wept. (Marion D. Hanks)

Among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren. (Moses 7:36)  God can see it all inside and out, and nothing has been worse.

The last days are equally wicked. “But as it was in the days of Noah, so it shall be also at the coming of the Son of Man” (JST Matt. V41)

Wickedness once localized is now out in the open, and even accorded legal protection.

The fate of these people: Their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers, Satan shall be their father, misery shall be their doom, the whole heavens shall weep over them.  Shouldn’t the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?  These shall perish in the flood, I will shut them up in a prepared prison. (Moses 7:37-38)

In our day, they will be burned up,

but Jesus suffers for them..   And as much they will repent, and until then, they shall be in torment.

The Rest of the Story in D&C 138 28-34 

Joseph F. Smith saw Jesus didn’t go in person to the wicked, but organized His forces and appointed messengers to teach to the captives.  This was the gospel preached to those who 1) died in their sins 2) without a knowledge of the truth 3) in transgression having rejected the prophets in order to qualify themselves that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

Enoch wept

He had capacity to feel as deeply as God feels. He sees as God sees, views the destruction of the world. Refuses to be comforted when he sees the flood come.

Conditions that define ancient and modern times:

--Lack of affection

--Vengeance, wide-spread violence

--Every man lifted up in imagination of thoughts being only wicked continually

--Widespread corruption .  Attempts to change things from original purpose

--Easily offended, betrayal, hatred, deception

--Wars and rumors of wars

--Denial of God

--False Christs, prophets, churches, secret combinations, great pollutions, murders, thievery, widespread sexual sinning, every form of abomination, denial of accountability

--Scoffing at God and true religion, follow the lusts of the heart, denial of sings of times.

The Lord comforts Enoch

The Solutions: Noah, Jesus, Zion

Enoch sees Noah would be saved by the Lord’s destroying the wicked and preserving the righteous.

Enoch’s distress over the death of his brethren brings forth the promise of a Savior. The blood of the Righteous (Christ) would be shed that all they that mourn may be sanctified and have eternal life?

When? In the meridian of time, in the days of wickedness and vengeance.

Enoch received some relief 

Because of Jesus’s atonement, Enoch and his family could receive eternal life and live forever in the society of Zion.  He wants to preserve it.

The Lord and Enoch are not the only ones who mourn.

Enoch heard the earth mourn in weariness and pain because of the wickedness and filthiness on her face, wondering when she would rest and be cleansed.

Enoch’s Prayer

Enoch prayed for the Lord to have compassion on the earth. Also asks for the earth to never have a flood again.

The Lord promised to call on the children of Noah and not flood the earth again.

The everlasting Covenant is given as an act of compassion by the Father and the Son.

Promised: 1) No more universal destruction by water, 2) All children offered the everlasting covenant, 3) Enoch’s seed would always be found on the earth.  (Moses 7:51-52) Could be Noah’s seed too…

When the Son of Man comes in the flesh, shall the earth rest?

Answer is delayed, but he’s shown more stuff.

Again the question, “When shall the earth rest?”

The question changes “Wilt thou come again upon the earth?”

The Lord says “I will come in the last days in the days of wickedness and vengeance to fulfill the oath I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah (all offered the everlasting covenant)

The earth shall rest, but before then, the heavens shall be darkened, the veil of darkness shall cover the earth, the heavens shall shake, and also the earth, and great tribulations shall be among the children of men, but my people will I preserve (Moses 7:60-61)

Process of giving rest to the earth 1)Break the grip of wickedness with the restoration, angels, Book of Mormon, coming forth of Zion.  (Moses 7:62)  Righteousness and truth will sweep the earth like a flood to gather the elect out to the Holy City the Lord will prepare.. (Moses 7:62)

Another Flood.

The Book of Mormon is the instrument of God designed to sweep the earth as with a flood to gather out God’s elect.

Men and angels are to be coworkers.

Zion is to be prepared for the elect to be gathered from the four quarters of the earth, to be established an holy city.

D&C 45 Talks about Zion.

Place of safety, peace, refuge. The wicked won’t come to it.  Everyone who won’t fight will flee there. The wicked will be scared to fight Zion.

Enoch and Zion is Translated.  God received it to himself and people said “Zion is fled”

Zion will Return – A reunion.

Enoch’s Zion and modern Zion will joyously greet.

Rainbow is an everlasting covenant that Zion will come down again.

(JST Genesis 9:21-23)

When thy posterity shall embrace the truth and look upward, then Zion looks downward and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy.

Zion and Enoch finally rest!!

Why did Job curse his day?

Job 3 is a pretty startling chapter coming on the heels of Job 2 in which we read of Job refusing to curse God. In Job 2 Job notes that we can receive both good and evil from God.  He shows great patience there. But then Job 3 is jarring because Job curses roundly the day he was born and the day he was conceived.

Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. (v3)

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, (Job 3:9-13)

This utter spite for his own life is so startling that it makes us think that Job wasn’t as faithful as he seemed at first. We wonder why he could not continue as he began.

However, I somehow realized that this lament and cursing his birthday and conception was actually not an indication of crumbling integrity, but instead was his coming to the conclusion that he really had done the best he possibly could by repenting carefully.

I think he thought through his life and wondered how he could have done anything better in order to avoid what he was going through, and he realized he could not have improved on what he’d done. His sins were repented of, his good works were of the best quality. The only way he could have avoided the pain and loss he’d gone through was if he had died at birth. He continued as spiritually clean as he had been at birth, so to his mind it would have been better and saved more trouble if he had died at birth.

I hope that if I ever come to that same point of suffering that Job was at that I can have the same confidence, realizing I wouldn’t change a thing.   In the meantime, I can try to live each day such that I don’t regret anything, by sticking with my highest priorities, showing kindness, and by repenting of any sins I may have committed.

Clues from Alma’s great pain and sorrow over the Zoramites

When Alma sees the Zoramite errors and wickedness, his reaction is exceptionally pained for the type of things he observes.

The Zoramites

--pray insincerely

--exult in their supposed election

--set their hearts on riches

--believe they’ve had revelation that there would be no Christ

These characteristics are really no different than what we see in society today, so why is it that he is hurt so much?

One clue we get is from the exclamations from his prayer. “O, how long, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that thy servants shall dwell here below in the flesh to behold such gross wickedness among the children of men?” (Alma 31:26) and “O Lord God, how long wilt thou suffer that such wickedness and infidelity shall be among this people?” (Alma 31:30)

We can’t say Alma observed unimportant sins; all sin is offensive to God and his servants. Yet Alma's agony is particularly acute.

The cry “O how long wilt thou suffer...” is very similar to his cry at the climax of his imprisonment in Ammonihah, a time when his suffering was greatest.  At that time, the Lord answered with a devastating earthquake that destroyed his captors and set him free.  It may be that subconsciously at least he hoped for another dramatic answer to his prayer, but we eventually see that he eventually focused his petitions on asking for help suited to his situation.

The cry “O how long wilt thou suffer…” hints that Alma was somehow re-living his suffering from Ammonihah when seeing the sin of the Zormanites and that he was dealing with a post-traumatic stress disorder trigger.  It shows us he wasn’t untouched by the horrific abuse he went through at Ammonihah, but he had to re-confront those feelings to carry out his high priest office and preaching duties.   Think how hard that would be, to have those difficult pains and fears triggered while trying to serve the Lord.

Alma knew he had troubles from it, and also in his prayer we see him praying for help with it.

…O Lord, wilt thou give me strength, that I may bear with mine infirmities. For I am infirm, and such wickedness among this people doth pain my soul.

31 O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people. (Alma 31:30-31)

Even if he didn't know he was dealing with a trigger, He realized the triggering was making him infirm and was hurting and depressing him and that he’d have to suffer through it with patience if he was ever going to help the Zoramites. He was afraid that he’d suffer the same things among the Zoramites that he had in Ammonihah. He also asked for his soul to be comforted in Christ.

Realizing this gives me a whole lot more respect for Alma the Younger and what he was able to accomplish among the Zoramites. He wasn’t impervious to pains, doubts, psychological traumas, and so on. Even if he didn’t fully understand what he was going through, he persevered through it by faith in Christ and by praying for comfort, strength, and patience to bear with his afflictions.

It may also be post-traumatic stress that Paul had to deal with too, when he refers to the “thorn in the flesh”

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

Paul too called it an infirmity and weakness.  And from Paul’s list of sufferings that he had gone through, we can see there was plenty of opportunity to develop some psychological trauma.

24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. . . .

30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities. . . .

32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.

 (2 Corinthians 11:24-28, 30, 32-33)

There’s a lot of speculation about what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was, and this is my take on it. 

So often we think the ancient prophets were impervious to the difficulties they passed through, but I think this hints that they struggled too.  And I think it gives us hope that if they overcame their infirmities by relying on Christ for comfort, patience, and strength, so too can we.