The Greatest Gift

          God is a great giver of gifts.  They are timely, powerful, and personal.  They teach us, help us feel loved, and change our lives forever.  But not all gifts are created equal.  There is one gift that prophets have long said is greater than any other that we receive in mortality.  It is the gift of the Holy Ghost.  President Wilford Woodruff said the following, "Now, if you have the Holy Ghost with you—and every one ought to have—I can say unto you that there is no greater gift, there is no greater blessing, there is no greater testimony given to any man on earth. You may have the administration of angels; you may see many miracles; you may see many wonders in the earth; but I claim that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man."

          The first time I heard of this concept, I didn't quite accept it at face value.  I immediately began thinking of other great blessings that seemed even more powerful.  But when I chose to accept this idea to its full extent in faith, faith that Wilford Woodruff was a prophet, and that he spoke for God, great power came into my life.

          In a talk about the Holy Ghost, Elder Bednar counseled missionaries not to worry so much if a specific prompting is from the Holy Ghost or not.  "Be a good boy, or a good girl," and you will be guided by the Spirit, whether you recognize it or not.  Such confidence could only emerge from faith in God, not in ourselves.  It sometimes matters a great deal if we are doing God's will as dictated by the Holy Ghost, following our own judgment, or being deceived by a less-altruistic source.  The faith that we have is that God is powerful enough to help us do His will even though we are not 100% sure what it is, that He is powerful enough to help us even though we do not consciously discern that help.  It is faith that as we follow Him, we will arrive at the correct destination, not matter how convoluted, surprising, or confusing the journey may be.

          We can have the same faith in God as we follow the prophets.  There are those who do not believe that we can trust every word that comes from a prophet because he is mortal and makes mistakes.  But people who believe that are not actually lacking faith in prophets; they are lacking faith in God.  When has God ever set up anything for the benefit of His children that we can sometimes trust and sometimes not?  Are there times when paying tithing does not open the windows of heaven?  No.  One ironic thing about people who believe the scriptures, but not all of the words of living prophets, is that the scriptures were written by prophets identical to the ones speaking in General Conference.  Ancient prophets had just as equal a propensity to err as modern ones.  Moroni even said, "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been" (Mormon 9:31).  It's ludicrous to think that prophets have been perfectly guided by God for thousands of years and then, in modern times, suddenly began to spout out intermittent bursts of false doctrine. 

          As with the Holy Ghost, our trust is not that prophets are perfect, now or in the scriptures.  They are not.  But God the one being in the universe who can create something perfect from something imperfect.  Isn't that one of the most fundamental truths of the Plan of Salvation?  Isn't that exactly what he is doing with each one of us?  To say that we cannot trust that a prophet will never lead us astray is to lack faith in the omnipotence of God.  In saying that, we are also saying that God cannot use imperfect beings to guide us perfectly while at the same time honoring their agency.

          It all comes down to faith.

          Christ said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17).  As I have followed the prophets' council and have chosen to believe their words above my own understanding of the Gospel, I have been blessed.  My explanation of things is not airtight, but the testimony of action is.  I promise that if you follow the words of the prophet as if from the mouth of God Himself, you will know that the doctrine I have talked about today is true.  In fact, it is the only way you can know.  For this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, through Jesus Christ, and those He hath sent.

"Ice Water" by Pink Sherbet Photography, no changes made, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

"Icelandic landscape #20," by Alexander Shchukin, no changes made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

The Most Important Person in the Universe

          The universe is a big place.  A lot of work goes into its maintenance.  From glittering cosmos to the point on a pin, each detail has a significant place.  As I sat pondering recently, it occurred to me that it was all wrought, all created, all meticulously held in balance, all for a single individual.  Who do you suppose that might be?

          After all, God created it for everyone.

Didn't He?

          Moses asked Him that question once.  "And it came to pass that Moses called upon God, saying: Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them?  And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me" (Moses 1:30-31).  Interesting answer, don't you think?  Especially considering His answer to a very similar question just verses later, "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).

          So God's purpose in the creation of the Earth is at least slightly different than what He defines as His work and Glory.  The firsts question He did not answer.  The second He did.  What I am about to teach is not found explicitly in any single scripture.  But I know it is true.  As Moroni teaches, "By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5).

          But what do you think?  A farmer goes out into the country, buys a piece of land, farms it, builds a house on it, sells his crop and buys food for his family.  For which of his children did he do it?  For all of them?

          "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16).

          It's easy to see that everything that God does is in some way linked to love.  But the way He loves may not be the same way that we envision that He does.  You see, love, or truth, is "independent in that sphere in which God has placed it."  If love is independent, it is also unconditional.  It is separate and distinct for each person and is neither increased, decreased, or affected in any other way by the existence of other people who are also loved.  He loves as if each person were His only child.

          The person that God created the universe for is you.  Yes, you.  The sky, the flowers, the sun, the worlds without number, all for you personally.  If you ever stare out at the sunset and feel like He is putting on a show for you personally, you're right.  An interesting parallel might help you grasp the idea.  After Conference in April, one of my friends posted on Facebook something to the effect of the following:  "I feel bad that you all had to sit through 10 hours of talks made just for me."  Of course, this was said with a bit of a sarcastic overtone, but it is literally true.  Just as each talk in General Conference was designed personally for every single person who would listen to it, so has everything, EVERYTHING in life been designed for every single child of God simultaneously.  There isn't any kind of trade-off between one person's interests and another.  Each person is favored absolutely and completely.  You may just as well sit back and feel bad because everyone else in the world has to experience a universe that God made specifically for you.

          It is easy to see error in our lives.  It's much more difficult to see perfection.  But it is there.  In fact, it is everywhere.  Every detail.  Every haphazard attempt by a friend to make your day.  Every moment of "bad luck."  All of it is perfect.  All of the difficulties, pain, unfairness, awkwardness, insecurity, and sadness are part of what makes your life ideal for you.

          The incredible thing is that God does this for every single person in the universe.  The next time you have trouble forgiving someone who has hurt you, remember that they are literally the one person that God created the entire universe for.  Maybe then you'll see them in a different light.

          The other incredible thing is that while God controls every single aspect of your life, so do you.  It sounds impossible, but it is true.  You are in just as absolute control of your life through your agency as God is through the priesthood; the best decisions in life are a team effort, a combination between your agency and God's power and inspiration.

          The farmer builds his house and harvests his crop not for all his children, but for each one individually.  Your love for one child or spouse or friend does not destroy your love for another person.  Each piece of your life is a personal manifestation of the great, eternal Whole.

Weakness vs. Sin

           I am convinced that a lot of the frustration we level at ourselves because of perfectionism comes from an imperfect understanding  of what it means to put forth our best effort.  Sometimes we condemn ourselves for actions that don't deserve condemnation.  Other times we try to do more than we currently have the spiritual capacity to accomplish.

          There is a significant difference between mistakes and sins.  Occasionally we all make mistakes that unintentionally harm others or are not the best use of our resources.  Sometimes the wrong words slip out, help is offered in a less-effective way than would be ideal, or we forget some important administrative detail.  We have a tendency  to be hard on ourselves when this happens, not realizing that our actions are missing the fundamental element of sin:  agency.

          That doesn't mean, of course, that we don't use our agency to make day to day decisions such as the ones mentioned above.  However, when we make a mistake, rather than a sin, we never make the inner decision to rebel against God, or anything that comes from Him.  Elder Scott has said, "The joyful news...is that the Lord sees weaknesses differently than He does rebellion. Whereas the Lord warns that unrepented rebellion will bring punishment, when the Lord speaks of weaknesses, it is always with mercy."  Selfishness and refusal to obey God is always the underlying element of sin.  In a word, it is what makes sin wrong.  That underlying decision is always deliberate.  It requires agency.  This means that when we make a completely inadvertent mistake, one made in total ignorance without the slightest desire to be rebellious or selfish, that mistake was never really a sin.

          For example, if an IRS worker, while doing everything they possibly can to be accurate and precise, makes a mistake that costs another person a lot of money, have they committed a sin?  Of course not!  They never used their agency to do wrong to another person.  In fact, they were doing everything in their power to do things the right way.  So why is it that when we are the one making the inadvertent mistakes we are so much harder on ourselves?  Such mistakes do not contradict the laws of God and will never keep a person out of heaven.

          In another way of looking at it, our mistakes or weaknesses constitute the limit of our 

capacity, while sin is the blatant misuse of our capacity.  A seasoned missionary who doesn't teach to the best of his ability because of laziness would surely be under condemnation, whereas a very new missionary who teaches at the same level because that is the best he can do would not.  What for the older missionary is a sin is merely weakness for the younger.  Even if the younger missionary unintentionally offended someone because of his lack of experience with the language, he still would not be using his agency the wrong way.

          An important corollary to this idea is the fact that no one can ever make us sin.  Even if another person could physically force us to do an action that is wrong, if we used our agency to fight back and never gave our will to them, they could never impel us to sin.  Sin is something that happens inside of us.  The actions themselves are merely outward manifestations of the real crime that occurs in a person's heart.  The Lord will never allow weakness or mistakes on our part to permanently harm the wellbeing or salvation of another. 

          As, with the Spirit, we learn to discern between our mistakes and our sins, we can learn to look down on ourselves less and concentrate on those things that are really keeping us from perfection rather than shooting at smoke.  We can learn what things to let go of and what things to repent of.  We can see ourselves in a more accurate light.  When, in our weakness, we become humble and come unto Christ through repentance, the Lord in His mercy forgives us of our sins and "make[s] weak things strong to [us]."  We can be sure that He desires to do so.