D&C 93:38-53

93:38 - It’s been a while, I’ve been out of town at a conference and it was pretty awesome, excellent speakers, very spiritually uplifting. We last learned that “the glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth. Light and truth forsake that evil one.” The Lord continues, “Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God.” This concept deals with original sin and the fact that we each come to this earth with a fresh start, there’s not “baggage” from the premortal life that holds us back in this life. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching, “there is no such thing as original sin as such is defined in the creeds of Christendom. Such a concept denies the efficacy of the atonement. Our revelation says: ‘Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning’- meaning that spirit started out in a state of purity and innocence in preexistence- ‘and God having redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent before God’- meaning that all children start out their mortal probation in purity and innocence because of the atonement. Our revelations also say, ‘The Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world.” This makes me wonder, this the concept that deals with, like the Lamanites, where they hated the Nephites because that’s what their parents taught them, but for the most part, they were really awesome people. DJR quotes the New Testament IM as teaching, “Some accounts that we have of the premortal life teach that we ‘were on  the same standing,’ and that we were ‘innocent’ in the beginning. We were given laws and agency, and commandments to have faith and repent from the wrongs that we could do there. ‘… Man could and did in my instances, sin before he was born.’ God gave his children their agency even in the spirit world, by which the individual spirits had the privilege, just as men have here, of choosing the good and rejecting the evil, or partaking of the evil to suffer the consequences of their sins. … Some even there were more faithful than others in keeping the commandments of the Lord… The spirits of men… had an equal start, and we know they were all innocent in the beginning; but the right of free agency which was given to them enabled some to outstrip others, and thus, through the eons of immortal existence, to become more intelligent, more faithful, for they were free to act for themselves, to think for themselves, to receive the truth or rebel against it.” This makes sense because the concept of “noble and great ones” indicates that there had to have been some sort of variation between the spirits, because it some spirits were “noble and great,” then the inverse also has to be true, that some were not noble nor great. And since we know that God himself is no respecter of persons, this variation in greatness indicates agency.

93:39-40 - The Lord broaches that subject next, saying, “and that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.” Light and truth are universal principles, so Satan can’t take them away, in that he can’t remove their efficacy, but he can take away their influence throughout generations by wickedness. The IM asks, “How can we counter Satan’s efforts to take away light and truth?” It answers by quoting President Spencer W. Kimball as teaching, “in 1833 the Lord wanted through his prophet, ‘And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.’ And then he offered the solution, ‘But I have commanded you to bring up your children in light and truth.’ The spirit of the times is worldliness. Hoodlumism is common. Supposedly good youth from recognized good families express their revolt in destructive acts. Many defy and resist law-enforcing officers. Respect for authority, secular, religious, and political, seems to be at a low ebb. Immorality, drug addiction, and general moral and spiritual deterioration seem to be increased, and the world is in turmoil. But in our time the Lord has offered his ageless program in new dress and it gives promise to return the world to sane living, to true family life, family independence. It is to return the father to his rightful place at the head of the family, to bring mother home from social life and employment, the children away from unlimited fun and frolic. The home teaching program with its crowning activity, the family home evening, will neutralize the ill effects only if people will apply the remedy.” It’s so scary as a parent these days because there are so many threats out there, it’s such a crazy place we live in, and we can do our best, but at some point, we just can’t control what happens to our kids anymore and we certainly can’t control their choices. When I first started working the night shift over 3 years ago, and I might have even started this blog, but I kept getting the impression that I needed to start family home evening, daily family scripture study, and twice daily family prayer. The first several times that the impression came, I thought “no way! I’m too busy, I barely sleep, I’ll be able to do it once I go to a day time shift.” But the promptings just kept coming and coming, and finally the message came: “if you can’t bring yourself to do it now, then you won’t be able to do it once you have a different shift.” That was very shocking to me because I literally saw my son for maybe 45 minutes a day, and my daughter I only saw for about 7 minutes a day because of their school schedules and my work schedule and the traffic, etc. So with that 7 minutes I was with both of my kids every day we listened to the scriptures, said a quick prayer, and I ran to my car so that I could make it to work on time. In the mornings, I woke up after about 3 hours of sleep to get the kids ready for school, and right before they left we would say a quick prayer. I wasn’t home on Monday nights for family home evening, so I decided that Tuesday afternoons were what was going to work because the kids got out of school early at 1pm so we had an extra hour every week. So with that extra hour we would do family home daytime, as we called it, I rarely prepared the lesson beforehand, but we did manage to go through the entire “For Strength of the Youth” pamphlet, we’ve watched and discussed many Mormon messages videos, all types of topics. No I’m here with a better schedule, I get to see the kids more, but we’ve spent 3 years doing the scriptures every day, having a quick family prayer twice a day and doing family home daytime once a week. 3 years of that, and it was cemented as habit. I used to pray for a different shift, pray and pray and pray, but honestly, I don’t think that I would have been able to be as dedicated if I hadn’t had that time, just like with this blog. I could tell a difference on the days that we “missed” scripture study, the kids were crabbier with each other, I’m able to put in subtle messages into our family prayers like “please help us be kind to each other,” or “please help us have the courage to make good choices, even if no one else does.” I’m not saying all this because I’m awesome or anything like that, the Lord was patient enough to nag me about it even though I ignored him, and then he showed me results, with the kids’ attitudes, their knowledge of the scriptures, and the feelings of peace and security that I have in my heart that this is the right thing for my family to do. And now, here we are, 3 years later, on our 3^rd time through the Book of Mormon. This is the only thing that I can do to shield my children from Satan, and I can’t look back with any regrets. I feel like I’m at least trying my best to do, as the Lord commands “to bring up your children in light and truth.”

93:41-50 - I just have to say, once again, that I’m grateful that all my dirty laundry isn’t spelled out in detail in the scriptures for everyone to read. The Lord gets after a few people specifically that they “have not taught your children light and truth, according to the commandments; and that wicked one hath power, as yet, over you, and this is the cause of your affliction.” That’s pretty deep, if I heard that my children were in the power of Satan, I would be terrified, and if I was told that it was my fault, the guilt would probably be so strong as to be incapacitating. The Lord begins with Frederick G. Williams, then moves on to Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith and later Newel K. Whitney are told the same things, Joseph Smith specifically is told “you have not kept the commandments, and must needs stand rebuked before the Lord.” Why would a man who is inventing these scriptures put this information in there? Why would a man starting a religion so that his congregation could worship him, include in the very scriptures he’s using to convince them, that God is displeased with his lack of righteousness? That doesn’t make any sense. I’ve never heard of anything like that. Joseph Smith very well could have excluded that part of the revelation, but he didn’t, he let his infirmities hang out for all to see, and that’s a very humble and admirable trait. Just another illustration for me that JS was a true prophet. The IM teaches, “The Lord spoke to Frederick G. Williams, Sidney Rigdon, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and Newel K. Whitney in turn about the seriousness of neglecting their families. President Spencer W. Kimball said: ‘In modern times the Lord said, ‘Now, I, the Lord, as not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness.’ We do not rear children just to please our vanity. We bring children into the world to become kings and queens, priests and priestesses for our Lord… How sad if the Lord should charge any of us parents with having failed to teach our children. Truly a tremendous responsibility falls upon a couple when they bring children into the world. Not only food, clothes, and shelter are required of them, but loving, kindly disciplining, teaching, and training. ‘Of course, there are a few disobedient souls regardless of training and teaching, but the great majority of children respond to such a parental guidance. The scripture says, ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’ And if he departs, he will probably return if he has been brought up in the right way.”

93:51-53 - The last thing that I want to touch on here is something that I didn’t expect and really hit me powerfully, because it was the question I was asking at the time. In verse 51, the Lord is telling Sidney Rigdon to “go on his journey” to preach the gospel and that “by your prayers of faith with one consent I will uphold him.” The powerful part for me is because DJR says “Did you notice, at the end of verse 51, that the Lord says that our prayers in behalf of others have an effect on the blessings they receive?” This answered a huge question for me about praying for other people, but on the other hand, I don’t want my blessings to be dictated by someone else remembering me, I want my blessings to be come to me because I’m trying my best, not based on anyone else. But that didn’t seem to be the right attitude either, because I know that the Lord wouldn’t deny us blessings because of someone else’s neglect. Maybe God, knowing all, knows what blessings we need, knows who’s going to pray for us, and then implements those blessings accordingly, so that we know can be edified and uplifted, whether we know someone is praying for us or not. I’m going to have to think about this a little bit more, it was so very powerful.