You Can Never Get Enough of What You Don't Need

 You can never get enough of what you don't need because what you don't need can never satisfy. That comes from the title of a book by Mary Ellen Edmunds. I've never read the book but I love the title because it tis so true! 

One Threat to Personal Freedom

 I'm currently serving a welfare and self-reliance mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's perfect for me because I have always had strong feelings about the importance of being self-reliant. This quote expresses one of the reasons why I feel it is so important to do what we can to be self-reliant. 

"Man cannot be an agent unto himself if he is not self-reliant. . .  Whenever we get into a situation which threatens our self-reliance, we will find our freedom threatened as well. If we increase our dependence. we will find an immediate decrease in our freedom to act." —Marion G. Romney, "The Celestial Nature of Self-reliance, Ensign, November 1982, p. 91

We sometimes find ourselves in situations that we are unable to handle without help, and it is wonderful to have help available. But our goal should always be to become self-reliant as soon as possible. As we do so, we are able to be the ones to provide the help and that is an awesome feeling!

 

A Definition of a Fundamental Right

 There is a lot of talk about rights now days, many of them rights that have not been considered rights before. I read an article discussing rights and found what made a lot of sense to me. The discussion was about fundamental rights and conflicting rights. The definition  of a fundamental right given there is "Those rights which all men can simultaneously claim without forcing someone else to serve their needs." (Latter-day Conservative, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", Lesson 2, Video by Joel Skousen, "What is a Fundamental Right", https://www.latterdayconservative.com/education/a-course-on-liberty/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness/) The thoughts expressed in this post come from that website.

Many of the things being called rights now days don't meet this definition. They could be called conflicting rights. An example of a conflicting right would be the right to live in a neighborhood where your property values will remain high. This requires that someone else not be allowed to paint their house hot pink with black polk a dots. In order for your right to be protected, another's right to paint their house what ever color they want has to be curtailed. They must serve your need. 

Another example - in order for you to be in a room and experience peace and quiet, other people must not be allowed to make annoying noises. They are forced to serve your need and don't have the right to do what they want. Therefore experiencing peace and quiet in the room is not a fundamental right.

Their are some exceptions. Consider the fundamental right to life. This is a right you can claim without forcing others to serve your needs - except for children. Children require someone to serve their needs until they become capable of caring for themselves. This right falls into the category of the right of contract. The right of contract states that when an innocent third party has been damaged by your actions, you now have brought upon yourself a binding contract with the innocent third party to make it right.

Some claim they are free to choose abortion. However, they exercised their right to choose when they choose to engage in sexual relations. They cannot absolve themself of the consequences of their choice to have sexual relations any more than they could absolve themself of the consequences of driving their car through the fence of their neighbor and just drive away. There is now a third party, an innocent third party, that has been affected by those actions and therefore there is now a binding contract with the innocent third party. They started the process and therefore they have caused a contract. They are liable to support that child and they are not free to disavow that contract.

Tolerance

"Intolerance seeds contention; tolerance supersedes contention. Tolerance is the key that opens the door to mutual understanding and love.”

"Now may I offer an important note of caution. An erroneous assumption could be made that if a little of something is good, a lot must be better. Not so! Overdoses of needed medication can be toxic. Boundless mercy could oppose justice. So tolerance, without limit, could lead to spineless permissiveness.”

Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Teach Us Tolerance and Love” General Conference, April 1994

Do My Children Know?

“We all learn "line upon line, precept upon precept” with the goal being, authentic religious faith informing genuine Christlike living. In this there is no place for coercion or manipulation, no place for intimidation or hypocrisy. But no child in this Church should be left with uncertainty about his or her parents devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles, who now as in earlier days, lead that Church according to “the will of the Lord, . . . the mind of the Lord, . . . the word of the Lord,  . . . and the power of God unto salvation. “

Elder Holland, “A Prayer for the Children’, Conference Report, April 2003

I hope that my children  have no "uncertainty about my devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Restoration of His Church, and the reality of living prophets and apostles, who now as in earlier days lead [His] Church"! I have no uncertainty! I know it with every fiber of my being!

Correct Children By Love

There are so many powerful quotes that I have studied this semester in Pathways. I wish I could share them all! I know by personal experience, both my own and what I have observed over many years, that the words from President Joseph F. Smith below are soooooo true!

“Fathers, if you wish your children to be taught in the principles of the gospel, if you wish them to love the truth and understand it, if you wish them to be obedient to and united to you, Love therm! And prove to them that you do love them by your every word or act to them. For your own sake, for the love that should exist between you and your boys - however wayward they might be . . . when you speak or talk to them, do it not in anger, do it not harshly, in a condemning spirit.” 

“Speak to them kindly; get down and weep with them if necessary and get them to feel tenderly toward you. Use no lash and no violence . . . approach them with reason, with persuasion and love unfeigned . . . You can’t force your boys, nor your girls into heaven. You may force them to hell, by using harsh means in the efforts to make them good, when you yourselves are not as good as you should be." 

President Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 316-17

A Total Leap of Faith!

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this week's study. I love the way Elder Hafen explains things! He speaks the truth in a powerful way and I add my witness to these truths.

". . . marrying and raising children can yield the most valuable religious experiences of their lives. Covenant marriage requires a total leap of faith: they must keep their covenants without knowing what risks that may require of them. They must surrender unconditionally, obeying God and sacrificing for each other. Then they will discover what Alma called 'incomprehensible joy.'"

" Of course, some have no opportunity to marry. And some divorces are unavoidable. But the Lord will ultimately compensate those faithful ones who are denied mortal fulfillment."

"Every marriage is tested repeatedly by three kinds of wolves.
The first wolf is natural adversity. . . 
Second, the wolf of their own imperfections will test them. One woman told me through her tears how her husband’s constant criticism finally destroyed not only their marriage but her entire sense of self-worth.
The third wolf is the excessive individualism . . . Our deepest God-given instinct is to run to the arms of those who need us and sustain us. But he [the adversary] drives us away from each other today with wedges of distrust and suspicion. He exaggerates the need for having space, getting out, and being left alone. Some people believe him—and then they wonder why they feel left alone.

"When we observe the covenants we make at the altar of sacrifice, we discover hidden reservoirs of strength."

"May we restore the concept of marriage as a covenant, even the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. And when the wolf comes, may we be as shepherds, not hirelings, willing to lay down our lives, a day at a time, for the sheep of our covenant. Then, like Adam and Eve, we will have joy."

Elder Bruce C. Hafen “Covenant Marriage,” General Conference, October 1996