A covenant worth keeping

Derived from the covenant of those baptized at the waters of Mormon written of in Alma 18:8-10

Do you desire to come into the fold of God?

Do you desire to become His people?

Do you desire to be His family, His sons, and His daughters?

Will you bear one another's burdens that they may be light?

Will you mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort?

Will you stand as a witness of God at all times and in all places that you may be in, even until death?

Will you serve God and keep his commandments?

If you will do so God will redeem you, He will number you among His sons and daughters, He will pour out His spirit upon you that you will be filled with love, light (knowledge), understanding, and peace.

This is the covenant made between Alma and the people and God.  This is the covenant I seek with God.

Whom do I serve?

Do I serve my self interest?
Do I serve my wife and family?
Do I serve my parents and siblings?
Do I serve my nation?
Do I serve God?

Whom do I serve?

My father has a carving, or had one that I grew up with, which was set on top of the range in our kitchen, that has since stayed in my mind.  It is a piece of Joshua 24:14-15

"AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE WE WILL SERVE THE LORD" is what I remember it reading, capital letters and all.

Recently among my friends there has been some discussion about what principles/laws/etc we should be looking to to guide/govern ourselves.  Many documents have been written, revised, and proposed.  Each time I think of becoming engaged in the conversation I have received confirmation from the Lord that I should not become involved.  As I pondered on this answer to not be involved I have continued to refine my questing to the Lord.  As of last night I learned that I should not be involved in a group effort to develop or author governing principles for any group.  Following a patriarchal priesthood as in the days of Adam, as in the days of the Fathers, it is my responsibility to establish governing principles for my family.  These principles are based on my understanding of the scriptures and my personal revelation.  In the case of a family where the mother is the principle spiritual leader it would be a matriarchal priesthood, but that is a different conversation all together but for me it suffices to say that in a union of husband and wife both patriarchal and matriarchal priesthoods must be equally weighted.

As it is my responsibility to put together the governing principles for myself and in part for my family the authoring of such a document or family creed is not something I will leave to a group of others, no matter how well meaning, to do.

Because of His instruction, I will not participate in a group effort to author such a document because like Joshua I will chose this day whom I will serve, I will not force my decision upon another, I will not require signatures of ratification for our covenant, I will chose and those of my family will chose and in so doing will establish the principles upon which my house will serve and to whom such service will be given.

Whom do I serve?

...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Yesterday, I was healed

On Friday the 9th my ankle began to hurt, I don't know what the cause was but I had tweaked it somehow.  Saturday the 10th I was a grumpy man because I was hurting and twice during the day I pivoted on my injured ankle exacerbating the injury, I still don't know what I did to cause the injury in the first place.  When I woke up on Sunday morning (the 11th) my ankle was swollen and I could not walk on it.  I could not flex my ankle without shooting pain and I could not stand on it.  I was really grumpy and not a fun person to be in company with.  Tina was sad because we were planning on going to a friend's house for scripture study and she knows that when I am not feeling good all I want to do is be home and alone (a bear in his cave).  She encouraged me to have the family come together for a family study.  I relented knowing it to be the right thing to do even though I wanted nothing to do with anyone.  I hobbled down the hallway dragging my swollen lame ankle behind me, hobbled down the stairs, and dropped unceremoniously onto the couch.

The family gathered, most on the couch, my son curled up on the floor with every part of his body, head included, covered by a blanket.  Once everyone was there my eldest left the room presumably to rotate laundry, though I know she had no intention of returning as she has not been interested in anything religious for a year or more.  I was hurting and frustrated and not of good temper.  For the next few moments I chewed out my son.  Then I called in my eldest and chewed her out for the same thing.  That thing being respect.  I told them that they don't have to believe what I believe nor participate but while they are in my home they do need to show respect to me and not undermine my authority by treating what I consider to be important lightly.  I told them that if they were a guest in another person's home that I would expect them to respect their beliefs.  I was harsh, I could have done better.

After everyone was settled we sang some songs, passed the sacrament, and had a small lesson.  I was ready to go back to bed at this point when my sweet wife asked in a very kind way if we could bless or say a prayer over my ankle.  I really didn't want people around me so I somewhat gruffly stated that I didn't want anyone's hands on my head but they were welcome to put their hands on my leg.  I don't remember the prayer offered but I remember that my wife was very sweet, I remember thinking back to when I was a child and had a severe ear infection and my father gave me a blessing of healing and my ear infection was healed overnight.  So I know that healing can happen but I had not seen it happen again since then.  I remember Tina saying 'Amen' and the kids lifting their hands away from my leg.  I positioned myself to use my arms to push up my weight.  Gingerly I put some weight on my ankle to help myself stand... there was no pain.  I pushed harder, still no pain.  I stood.

There standing before my family some of whom I had treated with harshness I was healed.  We quickly knelt down and offered a prayer of thanks.  I stood again and looked at my ankle, it was still swollen but it didn't hurt.  Then before my eyes, I watched as the swelling began to recede.  In moments my ankle slimmed down to its normal proportions.  I was exclaiming all the while "look at it!  Its shrinking!  Look at it!"

I don't know God's reason for healing me.  There are others near and dear to me who I believe deserve it so much more.  But I am thankful and grateful to tell you all that healing can happen.  And it is wondrous and beautiful.

Mean, Fair, and Nice

I have noticed there is a discrepancy in the popular labeling of behaviors with the words: Mean, Fair, and Nice.  But seldom have I been satisfied by the definition which has been given in regard to how these labels are used in our culture.  So, I will define them as I see them in relation to economy and causality.

Lets start with Fair.  Fair is establishing a contract and then fulfilling that contract according to the agreed to conditions.

For example:
Dad: If you clean your room I will give you a piece of gum.
Child: Ok!
*** Child cleans room ***
*** Dad gives child a piece of gum ***

Very simple contract but a contract none the less.  So what is Mean?  Mean would be to renege on the contract after the conditions of the contract have been met.  Such as the child cleans the room but no gum is given.  But why would this happen?  Perhaps the Dad was lying, or one of my favorites the Dad informs the child that because they took so long the child does not get the gum even though no time frame was given for the completion of the task.  Or the child cried and whined and Dad says "No gum because you cried and whined."  This is meanness.  It is not right.

Here is an example of the term Mean being used incorrectly.  Child 2 sees Dad give Child 1 the piece of gum for cleaning their room.  Child 2 says "Can I have a piece of gum?" Dad says "no."  This is not meanness, there was no contract so Dad is not obligated to give Child 2 anything.  This is Fair.  It is not Nice however.

So then, what is Nice?  Nice is gaining reward without contract.  In the above example Child 2 asked for a piece of gum but has done nothing to earn the gum.  If Dad gives Child 2 gum this is a Nice gesture.  There was no contract but Child 2 gained.  Child 1 might exclaim "That's not fair!  I had to clean my room to get gum!" Or an observer might say "That's mean to not give share your gum."  The act of not sharing the gum is Fair. If Dad decides to share it would be Nice since Child 2 has no contract hence Dad has no obligation or broken contract.  Being Fair is oft times looked on as being Mean but this is simply not true.

So to conclude:
Fair: A contract is made and met
Mean: A contract is completed but reneged upon
Nice: No contract is made for the reward given

So many parents get sucked into the: "Thats not fair!" exclamation which stops them from being Nice.  Or they are guilted into being Nice under the guise that Fairness is Meanness.  Do not be fooled.  Call it what it is.  Know what it is and make your choices consciously.

Is it really safe to say what you think?

As a software engineer some may think that I would have a greater love for doing things in an electronic format. To a degree this is true. There is however a caveat to posting things on the internet in something like a blog. Namely your thoughts are no longer just your thoughts.

I know there is a general trend in the internetiverse where privacy is considered a thing of the past. However this introduces some interesting problems. The first problem I see is that the netizens of this space are generally more harsh in their critique of what they see and read than they would be in a more private setting, or at least one where there could be immediate ramifications for their opinions. In short a public or even semi-private blog can lend itself to being an unsafe place to introduce your thoughts.

Such being my opinion I am reluctant to share most of my thoughts publicly. My thoughts are generally very fluid and I am constantly looking for more information to challenge them and support them. However I like to choose the critics of my thoughts from those whose opinions I trust. I like to discuss them in a way that I feel safe in having my opinions grow.

Is a public blog a good space for this type of interaction? I don't think so. A semi-private space? More closely so. But I still think there is nothing like being in the presence of friends to mull over ideas.

My first foray into personal blogging

Tina (my wife) recently started a blog where she has been recording our family's activities. I was so impressed with what she has done that I figured I would contribute my two cents as well. She claims that this is her answer to scrapbooking and I can't argue that it does a good job of keeping a journal of sorts.

I think it would be a great thing if there was a service available to have what is created in the blog printable into a hardcopy and bound for a journal. I wonder how hard that would be. At present I am not really interested in finding out for myself but hey I am sure someone out there knows how they could take what is up on these blogs and print them out for the person who is willing to pay for it. I wonder if there would be any issues with copyright on the styles provided in the templates for the blog site.

I figure this is a good enough start on a blog. Perhaps later I will have something more meaningful to say.