Litmus Test

          This week I'm taking a break from the normal format of my blog posts.  The following is an email that I sent to a close friend of mine:

Dear Xxxx,

    I've been thinking about how putting our hearts into anything that isn't God is wrong.  The scriptures teach that we should love God with all our "heart, might, mind, and strength."  That was true in the mission, too.  We knew that we had to serve God with all our hearts.  We learned that anytime we put our hearts into something else, like ties, food, writing home, etc., it compromised our ability to put our hearts into our missions.

    I believe that normal life is the same way.  We are required to spend our time on things that take our effort or attention that are  secular in nature, but if we put our hearts into those things, we compromise our ability to put our hearts into God.

    It's much easier to live life with our hearts placed on other things around us.  Giving our heart only to God is painful.  Caring about others more than ourselves is also important and does not compromise our ability to give our hearts to God.  But so many other things that seem good really do compromise our ability to give our all to Him.  Sometimes we think that we are doing something for others when we really aren't.  Sometimes we are really doing it for ourselves, and when we try to force it into a shape that benefits others in some way it seems to work for a little while, but ultimately leads us away from what is most important.  That is because the nature of our engagement with the activity is self-centered.  Because the activities are not inherently evil and seem to have the potential to really help people, it is easier for us to be deceived by it or even lie to ourselves about the nature of what we are doing.  We may feel like there is heavy opposition against us, when in reality it is just ourselves making a mess of things.

    A rule that have I developed for myself is that if any activity makes it more difficult to place my family in the center of my life I will cut it out of my life immediately, not matter how innocent or even good it may seem.  It has struck me that there are some people who I greatly respect that at times in their lives have had to repent and course correct in order to make their families the most important thing.  I think to myself:  "If I love and respect these people so much, and even THEY had to repent, I will have to exert every effort to avoid the same mistake."

     I never want to make that mistake, Xxxx.  I want my family never to doubt that I value them more than anything else in my life.  I want to be true  to them from the very beginning of my family until the ends of eternity.

     Here is a question:  Has your opposition of the idea that a prophet can never lead the Church astray made it easier or harder for you to make your family your top priority?  Has your work and schooling choices made that harder or easier?

    Remember that God said, "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever."  and "Look unto me in every thought."

     Does following the Prophets and Apostles as completely as if hearing the Lord himself make it easier or harder to make our families the highest priority?

     I know what my answer to that question is.

Love,

Gavin

          A litmus test is a question that is asked to determine, in a black or white manner, if something is good.

           Here are some of mine:  Does the activity make it easier or harder for you to care about another person's happiness  more than your own?  Does the activity make it easier or harder for you to genuinely help others when they need it?  Does it increase your ability to love?  Does it make it easier or harder for you to follow the Spirit?  Does it invite clarity or confusion?  Does it  bring you closer or farther from the promises in your Patriarchal blessing?  Does it put a piece of your heart into something that is not God or His children?  Does it make it easier or harder to make your future or current family your first priority?

          I believe that if we as we honestly evaluate our lives on the premise of these questions and act accordingly, our lives will truly be pleasing to God.

Man's Work and Glory

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

                                                                                      -- 1 Corinthians 15:49

          One of the most often-quoted verses in the LDS standard works is the words of God found in Moses 1:39, "For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

          This is God's purpose, the focus and reason for absolutely everything that He does.  It defines him as a Being; it is the most essential element of the inner workings of the universe.

          What is your work and glory?  Do you know?

          Your knee-jerk response is probably to be exalted the Celestial Kingdom, but what does that mean for your day-to-day actions?  Are you preparing yourself to be an exalted person?

          Elder Melvin J. Ballard taught, "There is a passage in our Scriptures which the Latter-day Saints accept as divine: 'This is the glory of God--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.'  Likewise we could say that this is the glory of men and women--to bring to pass the mortality of the sons and daughters of God."

          In other words, bringing to pass a successful mortal experience in the lives of others, especially our families, is our reason for living.  This being the case, does it make sense for us to focus our decision-making on any other objective?  To me it doesn't.  I am a literal believer of President Harold B. Lee's prophetic statement:  "The most important of the Lord’s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own homes.”  This means that  to base our education, career, and marriage decisions on anything else is a fallacy.  It means that self-fulfillment by itself is not a good enough reason to choose a career path.  It means that we should sacrifice our day-to-day lives in behalf of our spiritual brothers and sisters, especially those within our own family. 

          When we call God our Heavenly Father, we recognize His divine nature.  Any other role in His life, whether it be teacher, administrator, judge, or logistics coordinator, is secondary.  Similarly, our calling to be earthly parents is the closest we can get in this life to being called to be gods and goddesses.  Does it make sense to sacrifice a god's life, which is like God's life, which is Eternal Life, to be a banker or statistician or therapist?  In other words, is it worth sacrificing being a Celestial Being to be a Terrestrial or Telestial one?  To one who understands the doctrine, these latter roles should only exist to the degree to which they support and make possible the greater, overarching identity of parenthood.  To have priorities higher than family is to not worship God to the greatest extent possible because, as Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained, " Perfect worship is emulation. We honor those whom we imitate."  And if the single-most essential part of God's identity is not the single-most essential part of our own, our emulation of Him is lacking.

          The creation of a family is so important because it is the beginning of the salvation of more souls than anyone involved can then imagine, worlds without end.  God promised Abraham, the great father, or patriarch, "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore" (Genesis 22:17).  The promise of eternal increase is the opportunity to extend to spirit children the same love and blessings that God gives to us.  Therefore, the success of a single family unit in mortality will result in the happiness of more people than presently live on the entire planet in eternity. No matter how great a philanthropist's humanitarian contribution is to the world, it can never match the potential impact of the most ordinary of human parents.  There is beauty and glory in that doctrine.  It reflects in a solitary piece of humanity the splendor of the whole spectrum of creation.

Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most beautiful.