Seeing The Good In The World.

2011-01-30T20:02:00.002-07:00

What does salt taste like?

I was reading a talk today by Elder Boyd K. Packer called “ The Candle Of The Lord”, given at a seminar for new mission presidents in 1982. He was talking about how we learn spiritual things in a different way than we learn other things, even though both of them can involve reading, listenng, and pondering. He made the point of how there will be some things we know or may come to know, that we will find difficult to explain to others.

I loved the story which he shared, so much so that I would like to share it with whoever is reading this blog.

What does salt taste like?

I will tell you of an experience I had before I was a General Authority which affected me profoundly. I sat on a plane next to a professed atheist who pressed his disbelief in God so urgently that I bore my testimony to him. “You are wrong,” I said, “there is a God. I know He lives!”

He protested, “You don’t know. Nobody knows that! You can’t know it!” When I would not yield, the atheist, who was an attorney, asked perhaps the ultimate question on the subject of testimony. “All right,” he said in a sneering, condescending way, “you say you know. Tell me how you know.”

When I attempted to answer, even though I held advanced academic degrees, I was helpless to communicate.

Sometimes in your youth, you young missionaries are embarrassed when the cynic, the skeptic, treat you with contempt because you do not have ready answers for everything. Before such ridicule, some turn away in shame. (Remember the iron rod, the spacious building, and the mocking? See 1 Ne. 8:28.)

When I used the words Spirit and witness, the atheist responded, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” The words prayer, discernment, and faith, were equally meaningless to him. “You see,” he said, “you don’t really know. If you did, you would be able to tell me how you know.”

I felt, perhaps, that I had borne my testimony to him unwisely and was at a loss as to what to do. Then came the experience! Something came into my mind. And I mention here a statement of the Prophet Joseph Smith: “A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas … and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1977, p. 151.)

Such an idea came into my mind and I said to the atheist, “Let me ask if you know what salt tastes like.”

“Of course I do,” was his reply.

“When did you taste salt last?”

“I just had dinner on the plane.”

“You just think you know what salt tastes like,” I said.

He insisted, “I know what salt tastes like as well as I know anything.”

“If I gave you a cup of salt and a cup of sugar and let you taste them both, could you tell the salt from the sugar?”

“Now you are getting juvenile,” was his reply. “Of course I could tell the difference. I know what salt tastes like. It is an everyday experience—I know it as well as I know anything.”

“Then,” I said, “assuming that I have never tasted salt, explain to me just what it tastes like.”

After some thought, he ventured, “Well-I-uh, it is not sweet and it is not sour.”

“You’ve told me what it isn’t, not what it is.”

After several attempts, of course, he could not do it. He could not convey, in words alone, so ordinary an experience as tasting salt. I bore testimony to him once again and said, “I know there is a God. You ridiculed that testimony and said that if I did know, I would be able to tell you exactly how I know. My friend, spiritually speaking, I have tasted salt. I am no more able to convey to you in words how this knowledge has come than you are to tell me what salt tastes like. But I say to you again, there is a God! He does live! And just because you don’t know, don’t try to tell me that I don’t know, for I do!”

As we parted, I heard him mutter, “I don’t need your religion for a crutch! I don’t need it.”

From that experience forward, I have never been embarrassed or ashamed that I could not explain in words alone everything I know spiritually. The Apostle Paul said it this way:

“We speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:13–14.)

[ Boyd K. Packer “ The Candle Of The Lord”]

I hope that we too may not be ashamed when we cannot find the words to describe what ‘salt’ tastes like, but that we might remember that it is supposed to be that way. We must all taste the salt for ourselves.

What do we mean by the TRUE meaning of Christmas?

2010-12-26T17:53:00.010-07:00

Yesterday morning after we opened presents together as a family, I was sat doing my hair while I had a lot of different thoughts go through my mind. I was thinking about the night before and how we saw the new Narnia film “The voyage of the dawn treader” at the cinema. There were many things I was thinking about and feeling whilst watching. I was trying to take in the message and the symbols within this part of this C.S Lewis’ Narnia series. I’d say that it really hit me towards the end when Aslan come and heals Eustace transforming him from a dragon back to a boy again. The film was a little different from the book as the book had more detail on this scene. As Eustace struggled to ‘undress’ himself from his scaly skin, he found under each layer there lie another. He could not heal himself without Aslan’s help. Only he could do it. The connection to my faith became apparent when he said how much it hurt when he removed the scales, but that it was a good kind of hurt. I was grateful to see such a lovely symbolic depiction of Christ the night before Christmas.

However, I thought about it later on, as we stopped by the temple on the way to our friends’ house and saw a statue nativity on the grounds there. I realized how last night I had been reflecting upon more than just the birth of Christ, but His life. It is known across the world that at this time we are celebrating Christ’s birth that took place over 2000 years ago, in a lowly stable, in a small town called Bethlehem. Of course when any child enters this earth there is great cause for rejoicing and celebrating as the birth of a new born child is a beautiful part of this mortal experience. But why is such a huge holiday dedicated to celebrating Christ’s birth in particular? The response is obvious that it is not just His birth that we are celebrating, but His life. We are rejoicing each year as we once rejoiced in heaven as we all heard the good news that Christ had offered Himself to come to earth for our sakes. We are rejoicing together as we remember the greatest gift that our Father in Heaven has given us, the Atonement. This is what it is all about, that is why we are here, and how we are able to become like our Father and return to Him.

Anyone who had the chance to attend or watch the First Presidency’s Christmas devotional will remember how it was said that at Christmas it is important to remember the Saviour’s first coming, but that it is extremely important for us to look forward to His second coming and prepare ourselves. Christ has already been once, and He is yet to come again.

'Precept upon precept'

2010-12-02T20:02:00.013-07:00

This semester I have been able to take a class called 'Family Foundations', which is a class entirely based upon 'The Family: A Proclamation To The World'( http://new.lds.org/study/family-proclamation?lang=eng). At first I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but I soon realised how important this class would be to me. There are many things I have learned, but the underlying thing I know, is the significance and importance of families. The family unit is essential to our Father's Plan of Happiness. Everything we do in the church points towards the Temple and the blessings we receive there.In D&C 2: 2-3 where it is talking about Elijah coming to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, it struck me how important the these covenants really are when it says that if their hearts of the children weren't turned then "the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming". Though I had read it so many times before it clicked in my head and everything made sense. In the Family Proclamation it says that "Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan". It isn't just a nice thing that we can do here on earth. I love this quote by Elder Holland from the video 'Between Heaven and Earth':

“I don’t know how to speak of heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal beauty that we speak of heaven…I wouldn't know how to speak of heaven without my wife, or my children. It would not be heaven for me. Now, you can say that’s wishful thinking, you can say, ‘ Well that’s just because you love each other and you’ve gotten cozy here on earth and you like each other’s company.’ It’s a lot more than that. There is something eternal in the statement that neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord. That isn’t just good sociology it’s good theology, it’s eternal."

There is so much more I came to understand more clearly as we have studied this topic. Some things I have learned about are: the eternal truths that everything is bound by, our gender and eternal identity, the covenants and ordinances we make in the temple, the law of chastity and sanctity of life, the role of parents and their duties, and finally happiness in family life and how we can best attain it. I encourage anyone who reads this to read over the powerful message of 'The Family: A Proclamation To The World'. It gives us a clearer perspective of our Father's plan of happiness for us and helps us to realize our capabilities and the potential we have and His sons and daughters.

2010-06-06T22:07:00.004-06:00

Yesterday morning I was able to go to the temple with a couple of friends. It was my first time inside the Rexburg one, and it was absolutely Beautiful! What a blessing it is to have it so close. I decided to set myself a new little goal to go every Saturday for the rest of the semester. I am REALLY excited!

2010-05-30T00:37:00.012-06:00

Today I got to sleep in, and it felt reeally good. Then I decided to make some bread.. It was my first attempt ever and I was so excited! I don't think it turned out tooo bad either! Gooodness, I LOVE the smell of fresh bread!

2010-05-27T21:40:00.005-06:00

So my Book Of Mormon instructor gave us this piece of the wallpaper from the Rexburg Temple. I am not sure I remember how he got a hold of it, but I know that he was around when it was just being built.

These past two weeks in class we have been doing about Isaiah and I have learnt SO much I did not know before. As I think we all know as members of the church the common mentality seems to be to skip over those dreaded chapters in 2 Nephi in order to avoid thinking too hard.All I can say is Brother Belnap is truly an inspiring man full of wisdom. I am not just grateful for his insight on these chapters, but for how he taught us to receive our own insight whilst reading.

Something that I really picked up on was just how much Isaiah refers to the temple. I think that this little strip of wallpaper is a sweet little reminder of the blessings of the temple, and a reminder to stay worthy to receive them.

Allow yourself to see the good.

2010-05-26T22:30:00.015-06:00

Amidst all of the daily errands, routines and deadlines, it can be hard to recognize the small and simple things that have the ability effect us profoundly. The thought came to me this afternoon as I unloaded my washing from the dryer and smelt the fresh scent of laundry detergent. It felt so good to have gotten so many things done today; homework, dinner, clean check, and then that breath of sweet Island Fresh I took was just the icing on the cake for me. As insignificant as it may sound it really did brighten my day.

These seemingly little things that can be so easily taken for granted have started to effect my everyday life and outlook tremendously. As I have experimented with this new exercise where every night before bed I will go over the events of the day and try to pick out something positive that took place (inspired by Henry B. Eyring). I have often found that those things have been something I did not recognize during those busy hours, but because I had taken the time to ponder I was able to reap the joys that came from it.

May 25th 2010

The first small and simple thing I am going to write about happened last night:
I was sat in my room at the desk most of the evening bogged down with readings and homework. I knew I needed to get some things from the grocery store but had accepted it wouldnt happen that night. Later- just as I was about to go to bed- I popped into the kitchen for a class of cold water when I saw a box of cereal and first aid gauze (I had 6 stitches in my foot last week-long story). My friend Steph had stopped by my place earlier and left them there on the table and then some eggs and milk in the fridge! What a little sweetie!

President Henry B. Eyring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF01BQAcj8E