If thy brother offend thee...

The Doctrine and Covenants contain a lot of counsel on how to handle situations in which we are offended.  It is an issue that has concerned members of the Church ever since its foundation in ancient times.  D&C 64:8 says that even the Apostles of Jesus Christ were occasionally offended at each other and "sought occasion against one another," and reading the New Testament we can see several instances of this.  However, allowing ourselves to take offense and holding a grudge halts our spiritual progression.  If you think about it, by holding a grudge against someone, we are effectively putting our own happiness and spirituality into their hands rather than taking responsibility for it ourselves.  What then should we do in these situations?  The Lord has actually given fairly specific instructions:

Candle Status

Remember the scripture mastery Matthew 5:14-16?  In it, Jesus says, "Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  In a recent BYU devotional, the speaker identified four conditions that our "candle" could be in, where our candle represents our testimony.

Foolish and Vain Imaginings

I just finished reading Helaman 16 in the Book of Mormon.  In it, Samuel the Lamanite has just finished prophesying about the signs that will mark the birth and the death of Jesus Christ on the other side of the world.  Those who didn't believe tried to shoot arrows at him, but could not hit him.  Instead of  being convinced by the power of God however, they claimed that Samuel was being protected by the devil.  Furthermore, in verses 13-14 it says that many signs and wonders began to manifest themselves to the people, yet still the unbelievers were unconvinced.
The chapter then proceeds to list some of the unbelievers' arguments against the prophesies of Christ, all of which are illogical and/or unfounded, yet which closely resemble arguments that face true believers in our day.

Faith is a Gift

My ward recently had a Stake Conference, and a member of the Stake Presidency said something that really impressed me.  He said that "faith is a gift from God bestowed as a reward for obedience.  The greater the degree of righteousness, the greater the bestowal of faith."  I don't think we often think about it that way.  We sometimes act as though having faith were a deliberate act; that we can consciously choose to have faith.  But that's not the case.  We can't force ourselves to have faith any more than we can force a seed to grow.  But what we can do is plant that seed (Alma 32:28).  We plant the seed and then Heavenly Father promises us that if we nurture the seed, it will grow.  Taking the parable even further, the more we nurture and take care of a plant, the more healthy it will be and the more fruit it will produce.  So if we ever feel weak in our faith, perhaps we should try increasing our obedience to God's commandments.  We may be doing a pretty good job already, but we can always improve in some aspect of our lives.  And if we humbly ask God to help us to improve in the areas in which we are weak, we will not only see improvements, but also an increase in our faith.

Metal Plates

I just started listening to a talk by Brenton G. Yorgason entitled Little-Known Evidences of the Book of Mormon.  In it he mentions Franklin S. Harris Jr. who conducted a study called "Old World Writing on Metal Plates."  According to this study, there have been 62 different sets of metal plates unearthed since the time that Joseph Smith claimed to have found the gold plates upon which the Book of Mormon was originally written.  Of these 62 sets of plates, 19 were written on plates of gold or gold alloy; the rest were silver, copper, or bronze.  Many of these sets of plates were found in large stone boxes that had been cemented together, just as the box in which the Book of Mormon was hidden was described by Joseph Smith in Joseph Smith--History 1:52.

Mormons are Christians!

It seems there will always be those who are not in any way affiliated with our faith, and yet will attempt to define our beliefs.  On "Fox and Friends," the host, Ainsley Earhardt, was talking politics and claimed that Mitt Romney, "obviously not being a Christian," wouldn't appeal to Christian voters.  I honestly don't know why he thinks it's so obvious that Romney isn't a Christian, but if it is simply because he is a Mormon, then perhaps Earhardt just isn't that familiar with our faith.
Whatever Earhardt's motives for saying what he did however, I think it's important to make it very clear what we believe to anyone who has any doubt.  We do not have to attempt to convert everyone we meet, but there should be no question to them concerning our Christianity.  Yes, we are Christians! We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of mankind. We believe that there is "no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent" (Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3:17).

The Science of Peace

A speaker in church today was assigned the topic of Patience.  He brought up a very interesting observation.  The word "patience" in Spanish is "paciencia."  If you split that up into two words, it becomes, "paz" and "ciencia" which in English are "peace" and "science".  Therefore, patience is "the science of peace"!  If you think about it, it's really true! When we are patient, we feel at peace; we don't feel like we're running around worried and frustrated by life.  If all the world were more patient, there would be less crime and fewer wars.  Being patient encourages peace!

This is real!

I went on the ward temple trip today.  As always, it was a wonderfully peaceful experience.  Something else happened today though.  It was only for a moment, but I remember just getting an interesting feeling... it wasn't super strong, and it's kind of hard to describe...  In the Church we frequently talk about life after mortality, but I think we don't very often think about what that life is going to be like.  What will it be like to live for an eternity surrounded by our loved ones and in the presence of our Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ?  The brief feeling I had was almost like comprehending for the first time in a long time that it really is going to happen one day.  We live our lives, constantly thinking about what we should or shouldn't do, but I realized that I don't think nearly as often about how my choices are going to affect my life after mortality as I do about how they will affect my mortal life.  But the temple, the commandments, and the entire Gospel are not just for our benefit during this life, but also the hereafter!

BYU Devotional: Derek Marquis

Derek Marquis spoke to us last Tuesday.  He's had quite a bit of experience in broadcasting, and shared a great message about the media and the influence it has had on society over the years.  He especially talked about its influence for good.  After all, thanks to miracles such as radio, television, the internet, and texting, it has become easier than ever to spread the Gospel to all the world as has been commissioned by the Savior.  He played for us a sound clip of a recording by President Wilford Woodruff  of him bearing his testimony of the Savior and Joseph Smith, recorded onto a wax cylinder clear back in the 1800's!  And since then, technology has continued to progress in leaps and bounds.  The Lord's servants have always used these advances to advance His work, and Bro. Marquis encouraged us to do the same.  We should take a look at the technologies available to us and determine what more we can do to use them to spread the Gospel and participate in the conversations going on about the Church!