sickly svithery

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So we've spent the bulk of our time off in bed sick. In bed for almost any reason is good; in bed sick is not.

I'm not going to try and spin our illnesses into a religious metaphor tonight, as someone else has already found an even crummier one, but I will say this:

Blessed are the trash-taker-outers, for they shall have marital peace."

Which reminds me--tomorrow's trash day.

Excuse me.

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Svithe O' Gratitude

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I'm thankful for the Big O.

The Big O is thankful for:

"my singing teacher

"my other teachers

"I can sing all the songs today

"and that's all"

Well, very good, Big O. May I point you here?

"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."

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Midweek Makeup Svithe #2: Take this to the bank. The spiritual bank. And buy a savings bond for a friend. A spiritual savings bond.

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I just finished reading the book all we Mormon adults are supposed to be reading this year. Kind of a famous first for me, although I always have good intentions.

Anyway, the title of the final chapter is "Sharing the Gospel" and he made a couple points which I thought particularly sound.

Given that he doesn't have a blog of his own and would undoubtedly like to have this message spread, I offered to let him make use of my humble forum for the afternoon.

Now, we are a busy people; but the Lord did not say, “If it is convenient for you, would you consider preaching the gospel.” He has said, “Let every man learn his duty” (D&C 107:99) and “Behold … it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.” (D&C 88:81.)

What a thrilling thing it is, my dear brothers and sisters who are fellow members of the kingdom of God, to be entrusted by the Lord to serve as messengers of His word to our brothers and sisters who are not members of the Church. Let us assume for a moment that the roles were reversed—that you were not a member of the Church but that your present nonmember neighbor was a Latter-day Saint. Would you want him or her to share the gospel with you? Would you then rejoice in the new truths you had learned? Would your love and respect increase for your neighbor who had shared these truths with you? Of course, the answer to all of these questions would be: Yes!

It should be clear to us that usually we must warm our neighbors before we can warn them properly. Our neighbors must experience our genuine friendship and fellowship. We want members to entreat neighbors, not to scold them or scare them.

I feel the Lord has placed, in a very natural way within our circles of friends and acquaintances, many persons who are ready to enter into his Church. We ask that you prayerfully identify those persons and then ask the Lord’s assistance in helping you introduce them to the gospel.

Don’t wait for long fellowshipping nor for the precise, perfect moment. What you need to do is find out if they are the elect. “[My] elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts.” (D&C 29:7.) If they hear and have hearts open to the gospel, it will be evident immediately. If they won’t listen and their hearts are hardened with skepticism or negative comments, they are not ready. In this case, keep loving them and fellowshipping them and wait for the next opportunity to find out if they are ready. You will not lose their friendship. They will still respect you.

Thank you, president. Now back to our regularly scheduled banality.



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WWSD? (a svithe)

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So I just read my first Socratic dialogue (watch for the next five books of 2007!) and now I understand why so many people I respect say they want to be like Socrates and Jesus.

Now, as a believer myself, trying to be like Jesus should be my number-one goal, but it's tough because he's, you know, God. Socrates, however, just a man. So maybe I can emulate him first, as a stepping stone.

Socrates was all about doing the right thing no matter what. He, like Jesus, fully expected to be executed some day because he would never say pleasing things just so people would like him.

It reminds me of something I read earlier this week about someone who threatened to drop out of Mormondom if President Packer became the prophet. That's a pretty good policy, as I'm sure God the Father is easily cowtowed and now he will pick whoever you want. It certainly worked in oldentimes. Don't like Jeremiah? Not pleasing enough for you? Here, take a fake of your choice.

Anyway, off subject. Socrates!

So I can easily agree that it is better to suffer wrong than to commit wrong. So far I totally agree. And I agree that it is better to be punished than to continue to sin your way all the way to hell.

But I don't agree that cooking can't be an art.

Suck on that, Socrates.

I'm sorry. And you just take it without fighting back.

I hate you.

But I also really really respect you a lot.

I better go now.....

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Like chocolate from heaven (a svithe)

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Today only (TODAY ONLY!), appreciatethedarkness.com is giving away their high-end chocolate free to anyone who registers at their site.

The problem is that the site is overwhelmed with hits and I can't get on.

The svithe here is that God never gets overwhelmed by prayer.

I think I'll go pray about a nice 70% bar right now.....



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