Svithing Page One

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The current First Presidency message, President Eyring speaks on unity, being one.

This sense of Zion can be hard to develop, but obviously it is founded on love and thinking the best of each other. I excerpt one paragraph, then leave the rest to you:

If we are to have unity, there are commandments we must keep concerning how we feel. We must forgive and bear no malice toward those who offend us. The Savior set the example from the cross: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). We do not know the hearts of those who offend us. Nor do we know all the sources of our own anger and hurt. The Apostle Paul was telling us how to love in a world of imperfect people, including ourselves, when he said, “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). And then he gave solemn warning against reacting to the faults of others and forgetting our own when he wrote, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

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Svithe regarding living prophets

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Not often in my life have I had occasion to Follow the Prophet when it wasn't relatively simple and already consistent with my intellectual understandings.

But a faith that never leaves the intellect's comfort zone is a faith untested.

And so I have decided to obey.

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Uncle Zed's Svithe

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"There are three principles in the law of progress, all of them important: First, there must be an exercise of the will by the candidate for progression. He must be willing to advance and have a desire to act for himself. That is the principle of free agency. Second, he must be willing to receive help from a higher source; that
is, he must place himself in a condition to receive life and light from the source of life and light. Third, he must be unselfish, willing, eager to share all good with others. The lack of any of these will prove a serious hindrance. We see this everywhere in the world.

"Coming back now to the application I mentioned. If it is God's work and glory to labor for those below Him, why should not we, His sons and daughters, follow His example as far as possible in our sphere of action? If we are ever to become like Him we must follow in His steps and do the things which He has done. Our work, also must be to help along the road to salvation those who are lower down, those who are more
ignorant and are weaker than we."

Thank you, Uncle Zed. Not exactly PC, you dirty old hick, but probably good advice all the same.

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Svithing because I can

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Did you read Uncle Orson's column in Mormon Times last week? I'm going to quote shamelessly.

. . . as I came to church last Sunday, I . . . [found] three scraps of torn paper, each about an inch square, lying near the main couch.

The fact that there were only three scraps suggested that some adult had frantically picked up all the other scraps but missed a few. I instantly pictured some mom, loaded down with a paper-tearing toddler, a baby in a carrier and a huge diaper, toy and snack bag, dragging her burdens away from the couch, only to notice the scraps she had missed and think, I just can't set anything down to clean those up. Somebody else will have to do it.

That somebody else was me.

How did I know it was my job? Because the scraps were . . . there, and I saw them.

I bent over. I picked them up. I walked 10 steps to the garbage can tucked up under the never-used coat rack, deposited the scraps and then walked into the chapel just in time to help the usher open the folding curtain to the pass through and help set up chairs because somebody had decided not to put any back in the overflow after the youth dance in the cultural hall the night before. . . .

My calling in our ward is not "foyer trash police" or "guy who interrupts the other ward's gospel doctrine class in order to get chairs out from under the stage in the cultural hall," but I did those jobs this past Sunday.

Because they needed doing. Nobody cared that I did them. The only reason I remember is because I knew I was going to write this essay.

We sometimes think that our callings consist of the slot that we've been assigned to fill -- the job that gives us our ward identity.

But that's not so. Our calling is to do whatever needs doing that we have the authority to do. . . .

Do you want to see the Kingdom of God on earth? It's there in our chapels and classrooms and foyers, and it consists of ... us. Friends and fellow-servants in his house.

Here's to picking up the scraps of paper we see.

Here's to holding the door for the person behind us.

Here's to grabbing left-behind bulletins as we walk out of the chapel.

Here's to doing out part.

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