But it Mattereth Not...

When we have trials in life, we have two choices: to either become better or bitter. President Brigham Young once compared being offended to a poisonous snakebite. He said that “there are two courses of action to follow when one is bitten by a rattlesnake. One may, in anger, fear, or vengefulness, pursue the creature and kill it. Or he may make full haste to get the venom out of his system.” He said, “If we pursue the latter course we will likely survive, but if we attempt to follow the former, we may not be around long enough to finish it.” 

Pahoran, the chief judge and governor, had this very choice before him when Moroni sent him a very angry and provocative letter. Moroni had sent him an epistle requesting more men and supplies to be sent to his army in order to protect the cities from the Lamanites. Little did Moroni know, that Pahoran had his own problems to deal with, and was unable to spare men or even time for a correspondence letter due to the kings-men who were trying to overthrow the government. Therefore, acting in anger and misunderstanding, Moroni accused Pahoran of "indifference concerning the freedom of their country" as well as treason, neglect, "slothfulness" and sitting upon his throne in a "thoughtless stupor".

Pahoran could very well have gotten angry and spiteful that Moroni would accuse him of such things, when he had no idea what was going on within the Nephite government because of wicked kings-men. However, after explaining his situation, rather than rebuke Moroni for judging too harshly, Pahoran says to Moroni, "And now, in your epistle you have censured me, but it mattereth not; I am not angry, but do rejoice in the greatness of your heart. I, Pahoran, do not seek for power, save only to retain my judgement-seat that I may preserve the rights and the liberty of my people. My soul standeth fast in that liberty in the which God hath made us free" (Alma 61:9). 

Even in times when the person who has offended us is not rightly justified in their anger (as was Moroni), we are expected to 'forgive all men' despite what they do to us. However, as David E. Sorenson put it, "This is not to say that forgiveness is easy. When someone has hurt us or those we care about, that pain can almost be overwhelming. It can feel as if the pain or the injustice is the most important thing in the world and that we have no choice but to seek vengeance. But Christ, the Prince of Peace, teaches us a better way. It can be very difficult to forgive someone the harm they’ve done us, but when we do, we open ourselves up to a better future. No longer does someone else’s wrongdoing control our course. When we forgive others, it frees us to choose how we will live our own lives. Forgiveness means that problems of the past no longer dictate our destinies, and we can focus on the future with God’s love in our hearts."

A Chisel in the Master's Hand

While reading in Third Nephi chapter 28, we discussed the apostles and what they desired from Jesus. Nine of the Twelve asked to continue in the ministry until "the age of a man" and then to come speedily to their father in heaven. The other three asked to not taste of death so that they can continue to bring souls unto the gospel. "And it shall come to pass, when the Lord seeth fit in his wisdom that they shall minister unto all the scattered tribes of Israel, and unto all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, and shall bring out of them unto Jesus many souls, that their desire may be fulfilled, and also because of the convincing power of God which is in them." (3 Nephi 28:29) The apostles basically asked to be made into more profitable servants for the Lord. We, as latter-day saints, go through a similar conversion in order to be useful to our Lord. However, ours is not a translation as it was for the apostles. Rather, the process that turns us into profitable servants, or tools for the Lord is long and gradual. It is like the process you go through to create a chisel. Chisels begin as metal that must be made malleable by going through a hot fire (much like the process of going through trials and afflictions to become humble). Then the blacksmith (or God, in this case) will begin to pound on the metal (us) until he has shaped it (us) into something that can be useful to him. Then we can see the good things that he is able to do with that transformed hunk of metal (us), now that it is the shape that he needs in order to do his work. 

The Lord can make a lot more out of us than we can make out of ourselves.

 "In addition to stimulating our repentance, the very experience of enduring chastening can refine us and prepare us for greater spiritual privileges. Said the Lord, “My people must be tried in all things, that they may be prepared to receive the glory that I have for them, even the glory of Zion; and he that will not bear chastisement is not worthy of my kingdom” (D&C 136:31). 

Hugh B. Brown once told a story that I believe relates to this. 

"He told of purchasing a rundown farm in Canada many years ago. As he went about cleaning up and repairing his property, he came across a currant bush that had grown over six feet (1.8 m) high and was yielding no berries, so he pruned it back drastically, leaving only small stumps. Then he saw a drop like a tear on the top of each of these little stumps, as if the currant bush were crying, and thought he heard it say:

“How could you do this to me? I was making such wonderful growth. … And now you have cut me down. Every plant in the garden will look down on me. … How could you do this to me? I thought you were the gardener here.”

President Brown replied, “Look, little currant bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be. I didn’t intend you to be a fruit tree or a shade tree. I want you to be a currant bush, and someday, little currant bush, when you are laden with fruit, you are going to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for loving me enough to cut me down.’”

God knows what our potential is; we hold the power to become Gods and Goddesses, Heavenly Mothers and Fathers, so long as we are humble, repentant, and tools in the Master's hand.  

Tithing: Parables of the Bicycle and the Grateful Cat

In Third Nephi chapter 24, Nephi (Son of Nephi, who was the son of Helaman) copies into the record Malachi chapter 3, which talks about tithing. "Will a man rob God?" The Lord asks. He says that we rob him when we do not pay tithes and offerings (3 Nephi 24: 8). Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asks, "How can we ever repay the debt we owe to the Savior? He paid a debt He did not owe to free us from a debt we can never pay. Because of Him, we will live forever. Because of His infinite Atonement, our sins can be swept away, allowing us to experience the greatest of all the gifts of God: eternal life" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/earthly-debts-heavenly-debts?lang=eng).

One story that reminds me of our inability to repay the savior is 'the parable of the bicycle'. In this story a little girl desperately wants a bicycle. When she asks her father for one he tells her that she can work hard to earn money and eventually save up for her own bike. She worked as hard as her age would permit; selling lemonade, doing chores around the house, washing the dog, mowing the lawn, etc. Finally, the day came when she went to the bicycle shop to see if she had enough for her bike...

"There it was! The most beautiful bicycle that had ever been dreamed of! She ran to it, stroking its shiny chrome and running her fingers through the colorful streamers that flowed from its handle grips. Never could there be a more perfect bike than this one. She clapped her hands with the pure delight of it.Then she reached for the price tag.

The next moment in the little girl's eyes had melted away into tears. 'Oh, Daddy,' she wept. 'I'll never have enough. Never.' She threw herself into his arms."

Upon seeing the price of the bike, the little girl became upset and knew that she would never be able to have enough to buy the bike herself. Her loving father took her in his arms and said, "if you give me all that you have, I will make up the rest". This little allegory is similar to our relationship with our heavenly father. He wants us to be happy more than anything else, and to truly be happy, we have to make it back to live with our heavenly father. He knows that nothing we do will ever repay what the Savior did for us through the atonement. However, because of the atonement, Jesus Christ, our father through his sacrifice of blood and water, makes up the enormous slack so that we may return to our heavenly parents. Tithing is the same way. We give 10% of everything we earn back to the church. This amount is nothing compared to everything we have been given by the Lord. Our very lives and spirits we owe to Him. The least we can do is be grateful.

The second parable is the one of the grateful cat, written by James E. Talmage. It goes as follows:

 "He told the story of a naturalist in the nineteenth century who had been called to a grand estate in Great Britain to be honored for his contributions in the world of science. He left his cottage early in the morning to go for a walk, and while he was out walking, he saw two boys down by the lake. He also heard the frantic meowing of a cat; and so, curious, he walked down to see what was happening.

When he arrived he saw the two boys with a mother cat and some kittens. The boys were taking each kitten, tying it up in a rag with a rock, and tossing it into the lake. As you can imagine, the mother cat was just frantic, watching her kittens being drowned.

A little upset, the naturalist asked the boys what they were doing. It turned out to be quite innocent on their part. The mistress of the great estate had an old mother cat that she loved, but she didn't want any more cats around. Whenever the mother cat had a litter, the woman hired the two boys, who were children of some of the servants, to go down to the lake and drown the kittens.

The naturalist talked to the boys and said he would make sure they didn't get in trouble, but he would take care of the remaining three kittens. To the scientist's surprise, the mother cat behaved as if she understood exactly what was happening. As he walked back to his cottage with the kittens, she ran alongside him, rubbed his leg, and purred happily. He took the kittens into his cottage, gave them some milk, and put them in a warm boat.

The next day, when all of the company was gathered together in the great house to honor the scientist, suddenly the door pushed open and in came the mother cat with a large fat mouse in her mouth. She walked to the scientist and laid the mouse at his feet.

In the words of Elder Talmage, here is the marvelous parable that he drew from this story:

"What think you of the offering, and the purpose that prompted the act? A live mouse, fleshy and fat! Within the cat's power of possible estimation and judgment it was a superlative gift. To her limited understanding no rational creature could feel otherwise than pleased over the present of a meaty mouse. Every sensible cat would be ravenously joyful with such an offering. Beings unable to appreciate a mouse for a meal were unknown to the cat.

"Are not our offerings to the Lord—our tithes and our other free will gifts—as thoroughly unnecessary to His needs as was the mouse to the scientist? But remember that the grateful and sacrificing nature of the cat was enlarged, and in a measure sanctified, by her offering.

"Thanks be to God that He gages the offerings and sacrifices of His children by the standard of their physical ability and honest intent rather than by the gradation of His esteemed station. Verily He is God with us; and He both understands and accepts our motives and righteous desires. Our need to serve God is incalculably greater than His need for our service."

Prepare to be Stretched...

In the book of Ether, we read about the Brother of Jared, or Mahonri Moriancumer, and his task of getting his family to the "Promised Land". While on this journey, Mahonri and his family arrived at the shore of the 'many waters' which the Lord said they must cross to get to the promised land. God commanded Mahonri to build eight barges giving him every little instruction on how to build them, however, He left to problems to be solved by Mahonri alone: how were they to see, steer, and breathe whilst on their journey on the sea. The Lord solved two of his problems by telling Mahonri not to worry about steering, for He would send forth a wind that would direct the barges to the promised land, as well as directing Mahonri to cut two holes into each barge that could be plugged when underwater. However, God left the third problem to be solved by Mahonri. In this way, God was asking Mahonri to think for himself, even though Mahonri could easily have found his task impossible. So, Mahonri ended up molting out of the mount, sixteen small, transparent stones. After all this work, the best that Mahonri could put forth, the rocks still did not give forth light. Often we may feel the way the brother of Jared must have felt. Even after we try our very hardest to do something right, it may not even get the result we tried so hard to achieve. However, just as the Lord did with Mahonri, He only asks us to put our best effort onto the altar and to then ask God to magnify it and make it shine.

"No light will come from your finest work without the help of God."

God will find each and every one of us, wherever we may be in our spiritual progression and capacity, and He will stretch us to become better. God doesn't ask less of us as we get better, simply he helps make us strong enough to handle harder things. As President Eyring put it, "the more faithful service you give, the more the Lord asks of you. Your smile is a happy one because you know that He increases our power to carry the heavier load" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/o-ye-that-embark?lang=eng). At times we may feel like the road before us is too difficult to travel, but I know that if we pray for guidance and help, that the Lord will lift us up to more than we could ever be on our own. He's going to stretch us, but if we trust in Him and follow Him, we can successfully grow to higher heights than ever before. 

The Pure Love of Christ

What is Charity? Is it tax-deductible money that you give to the poor and homeless? Or is it something more? According to Mormon, charity is "the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47). Wow. What an amazing concept. Christ's love equals charity. I mean, it makes sense, even with the 'world's' definition of charity. Webster defines charity as " benevolent goodwill toward humanity and generosity especially toward the needy or suffering". Doesn't that just epitomize the savior's life on Earth? Jesus Christ, He who was the Prince of Peace, the Lord of all, a king, our ruler, governor, and Savior, healed the sick, made the deaf to hear, the blind to see. He walked among beggars, thieves, liars, sinners: for those who are not sick need to physician. 

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (Matt. 25:40)

 As C. Max Caldwell stated years ago, "People who have charity have a love for the Savior, have received of his love, and love others as he does." It's rather simple, really, those whom we love, we serve. Christ loves us to the point where he suffered, bled, and died for us. He went through incomprehensible torment and pain. And He did so for us, His brothers and sisters, and in a spiritual sense, His eternal children. We, all of us, can have a portion of this Christ-like love. Sometimes, briefly, when we step out of our selfish shells, we can feel this love for God's children. We are not perfect, and we all sin differently. Therefore, how can we judge others, when we have so many of our own flaws? If Christ could be the friend of terrible sinners, then we, who are infinitely less than our elder brother, can learn to love and befriend those who make terrible mistakes and use poor judgement. As Mother Teresa said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” I pray that I may learn to be more forgiving, less judging, more patient, and forever remember that Christ loves me despite all of my flaws and sins. Therefore, who am I to judge another, when I walk so imperfectly? May we all have the pure love of Christ of our fellow brothers and sisters throughout the world in whatever circumstance they may be in.