You don't have to let it build a nest

I have not much of interest to offer this week, just a few stray thoughts.

1. The chosen generation*s*. Much ado is made about the youth of The Church being held back to come at this time of human history, as they are a choice and chosen generation. I know this was said about my generation, and now we are saying it about our children. How can there be two (or more) “chosen” generations? I consulted the scriptures and tried to liken a few other thoughts to this question.

* God the Father and Christ are eternal and unchanging.
* This Church is led by Christ.
* The programs and offices of The Church have changed, and are not the same as reestablished by Brother Joseph.

Why is this? I feel the answer to this is completely relevant to my original topic. We are told that we grow and progress in knowledge and ability line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little. I also read this week in The Discourses of Brigham Young, that he refrained from requiring The Saints to obey one commandment; Love God. I don’t know if all of this speaks to the same issue as it does for me but I can’t help but see connections. We as Latter-Day Saints are not sufficiently prepared to live the higher law of the Gospel. We have been given a type of the Law of Moses to be a school master unto us. The programs and organization of The Church are modified from time to time to meet the unique needs of the world as the knowledge and ability of the Church and its’ member progress, line upon line.

So are we, as parents of these wonderful children, a chosen generation? I think we are. Are our children a more choice variety? I certainly hope so! We have been placed here on Earth to each do a specific body of work, to play a part in The Gospel Plan. Our parents and teachers prepared us, taught us, provided opportunities to grow and stand on our own testimony. The torch is now being past on to us! We are standing on the shoulders of giants. Now is the time to teach our children, and most importantly to guide them through life so that they know Christ personally and develop their own testimonies, that they become mighty in the Gospel. I cannot wait for our prophet to finally open the blessings that come from living a Celestial law. It will be through our and, in time, our children’s faith and labour that this great goal will come to pass. We know it can be done. Enoch and his city were able to live this law. It is possible.

2. I am also reading The collapse of complex societies right now. It is a very intriguing book. It got me thinking about the nature of human interaction, the books scope deals with groups of people and the forces affecting and means of problem solving utilized by them. I couldn’t help myself from comparing the text to one-on-one and small group interpersonal interaction. This might be gobledygook to the rest of you not having read the text spurring this thought. Oh well, the books cheap on Amazon.com, buy it, or ask me for it, I’ll be done with it in a week or so.

Each person with whom we form a connection adds to the complexity of our lives. Of course certain connections increase complexity more than others. Marriage introduces complexity in that your comfortable traditions and mannerisms have to be integrated with someone else’s. Children introduce complexity in that a majority of your free time (SHOULD BE) dedicated to the care, feeding and proper raising of offspring. School and jobs introduce complexity, Church, traffic, doctors’ offices, taxes, libraries, dmv’s, friends, parents, and political systems all introduce varying degrees of complexity into each and every one of our lives.

I feel that our lives are much too complex. Look at the break down of the family unit, more and more kids are being raised in a family situation where two parents are not in the home (in my opinion the best means of raising children and one that should be fought for tooth and nail is the two parent home). Look at the complexity these kids are having to learn to cope with so early in their lives. Bouncing from one parents home to the “other” parents home, learning to act with multiple sets of rules, expectations and limitations. My childhood was not ideal, but I am glad I didn’t have to live like that.

Look at the prevalence of anti-depressant and mood stabilizing/dampening drug prescriptions. I am looking at a report right now, available upon request, that shows the above mentioned category of drug prescription being more utilized than contraception prescriptions. (I stopped myself from going out on a tangent here, you should probably be thankful) Why are so many of us unable to cope with basic life? Why is the conventional wisdom simply to prescribe a pill as a coping mechanism in lieu of making the needed changes in our lives to find a tenable level of complexity?

The book describes great nations that break down into much smaller stable units over a very short period of time. I see the same dynamic among people. Marriages crumble, Parents are sent to nursing homes, friends move to Washington and are not spoken to in years (this one has bugged me for a very long time and I have yet to do anything about it), people stop believing in God…

So what is to be done? I wish I had more answers than questions on this one… Do we just all take pills to get through the day? Do we accept the fact that our faith in each other and God are weak and unstable creations? How do we make the changes necessary to form lasting strong foundations upon which eternal relationships can be built?
My thoughts are that we need to simplify our lives. The scriptures counsel us to not serve two masters. Matt. 6: 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. We are all doing this every day. We need to reduce the number of masters and that will reduce the level of complexity in our lives. This will free us to be more stable and dare I say happier people.
Funny how the scriptures are still relevant to issues of this generation.

3. A year and a half ago I read the Book of Mormon during the month of December. It was an amazing experience and helped to is some measure to refocus my life. I wanted to read the New Testament next, it has been a year and a half and I, as of last Sunday during Sacrament meeting, read Galatians chapter 5. The whole chapter hit me like a 18 wheeler. I will only discuss vs. 13 through the end here.

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
I am ashamed to admit that there are quite a few items under the “works of the flesh” category that I have either done outright or considered. I can assure you that it is quite impossible to be in possession of anything under the “fruit of the spirit” column when you are wrapped up in the works of the flesh. You become selfish, devilish, your thoughts become dark and uncaring. I know mine did. I think the reason this passage of scripture resonated within me with such force is that it is still a constant daily struggle to not let those dark feelings linger within me. Every day in my prayers I recommit myself to the Lord and pray that I might be led to opportunities to serve and love my fellow man. I strive to find ways to displace the evil within me with light and truth, with love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. I am grateful to my Lord and God for chastising me; I know that I am not cast off. I know there is a way out of the pit, and I praise my Saviour for it! I love my Saviour and with each passing day I appreciate his roll in The Plan of Salvation more and more and acknowledge my complete and total reliance upon his Atonement.

* I do not mean to pass judgment on any person or people, or to call anyone evil or devilish other than myself, I would not dare to pass judgment on anyone.*