Let's Talk about Forever

In the book of Helaman, we find one my personal favorite bits of gospel power, the opportunity to have an eternal marriage. It's your basic scripture mastery Helaman 10:7, "Behold, I give unto you power, that whatsoever ye shall seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven; and thus shall ye have power among this people." Now I know what you're thinking, "gee Cole that's real original there". But here's the thing. It's a great power and gift of God. But it has its conditions. 

We now know that the power to be sealed to your spouse and children for all time and eternity is conditional upon your worthiness. We know from latter-day revelation that you can only be sealed in a temple, and do that you have to be a worthy temple recommend holder. Helaman puts it like this, 

"And if the Lord shall say—Because of thine iniquities thou shalt be cut off from my presence—he will cause that it shall be so.And wo unto him to whom he shall say this, for it shall be unto him that will do iniquity, and he cannot be saved; therefore, for this cause, that men might be saved, hath repentance been declared. Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved. And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works. And I would that all men might be saved. But we read that in the great and last day there are some who shall be cast out, yea, who shall be cast off from the presence of the Lord; Yea, who shall be consigned to a state of endless misery, fulfilling the words which say: They that have done good shall have everlasting life; and they that have done evil shall have everlasting damnation." (Helaman 12:21-26). 

Basically, you have to follow the commandments and constantly be repenting if you want to be saved and live in the grace of God- with your family. If not, you're only fooling yourself and won't end up where you want to be.

Armor

So I love the war chapters of the Book of Mormon. I think that it's full of amazing insights and ideas for everyday use. I found a lot of different references in my reading this week about our different types of armor. Physical armor, location, and mind. 

Physical armor, let's start there. In Alma 43 it says that the Lamanites were "exceedingly afraid" of the Nephites because of their armor. All the stuff they decided to put on scared a bunch or guys that drank the blood of the animals they kill. We too have that in our lives. Think about it, what have we been given to shield us? We have the for strength of youth. Put on some modest clothes and let yourselves shine! You'll be able to scare off your personal Lamanites by the way you dress. And we always have are garments as well. But that comes along while you're ready for those covenants. 

Now for location. Go down to verse 32 in Alma 43 now. It says that "he concealed in the west valley, on the west of the river Sidon, and so down into the borders of the land Manti." He went away from the righteous when he sinned. Not only that, the sins were concealed. When we sin, we conceal our good side and show off our sins. We hid what God wants for us to show off that natural man. If we can not hide our sins, but go to the right authority, we can remove them.

And now for the mind. Go to Alma 47:18-19. This is one of my favorite ways to portray how Satan slowly dilutes your mind. Lehonti doesn't die right away, it's slowly, little by little. Satan isn't going to get you to do something that you are totally uncomfortable with right away, he'll build up to it. Like how you cook frogs, slowly but persistently.

Revelation

Can we talk about this really fast? Revelation is something that everybody needs, but everyone has different views on. I've heard, "the best way to talk to God is to read the scriptures", "listen to your heart", "you'll ask and then hear in your mind what to do" and so on. It's crazy how many different ways people can receive personal revelation. What I wanted to focus on today was the waiting game that we all play to receive this revelation.  

Elder Bednar gave a great talk about receiving personal revelation and gave three ways we receive revelation. One was instant, like turning on a light. The next was gradual like the sun rising, and the last was like a fog. You can see enough to move forward, but not enough to see the end of the path. All you can do is move forward and then more of the path is revealed. 

I think that this timing principle is highlighted in Alma in the teaching of King Lamoni and his father. They both were willing to learn and believe the words of Ammon/Aaron, but they had different learning periods. King Lamoni lay as if dead for about three days to receive his answer. In my head that is the equivalent of doing nothing but actively seeking your answer from God for three days. 72 hours of pure revelation seeking. Meanwhile, his father got his answer in the time it took his wife to get mad at Aaron. A little bit of a time difference. I'm not saying that the father of King Lamoni was any better or more righteous than Lamoni, he was just able to receive his answer in a quicker time. 

I think we all need to be patient with ourselves in receiving our answers from God. I have been asking God for confirmation on what I see as a very important decision for a few weeks now, and I haven't gotten a sure answer yet. I think that this answer will be coming to me more like the fog Elder Bednar described than the father of King Lamoni's time period. And I have to be okay with that. God works on his time table, not our and he will do everything he can to guide us to the best things in life. 

Gratitude

This is something I think everyone could enjoy more. It's not hard to do. Gratitude is a choice that we all need to make in order to be truly happy in mine opinion. The book of Mosiah gives a great insight to this in Mosiah chapter 2 verses 20. It says:

"I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another"

Isn't that a powerful statement? "You should render all the thanks and praise which your whole souls has power to possess". Brothers and Sisters, that's everything we have. You can't hold back gratitude and expect to be at the level of peace that King Benjamin is describing here. 

Elder David A. Bednar had a wonderful experience that reflects this well. On a trip to one of the greatest places on Earth, the Philippines, he met a small girl who left a deep impression on the apostle. The conversation Elder Bednar had with this girl, he describes as a five-word phrase that should be shared across the world. It was "we are so much grateful". If we can think like that, focus on what has been given to us out of the grace of God, out of the kindness of others, out of sheer generosity, we will be happier. We can all do this better, I know for sure I can. Nobody likes a negative person and a great way to kick that bad habit out of town is to use all the power you can muster and be thankful.