Before we begin today's post, I need to correct myself. One of our readers corrected me on Friday's post of Matthew 3 that what I referred to as the Trinity is actually called Unitarianism. The Trinity is a belief that God resides in 3 persons, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I am of course not an expert and thus my mistake of a few days ago. Thanks to the Green Platypus for pointing out my error so I could correct it.
Another quick aside and then we'll get started. Today is my 365th post! It was one year ago tomorrow that I started this blog and I have been successful in my goal of writing a post everyday! It has been an amazing journey and I can't wait to continue it with all of you! Thank you for reading and for your comments.
Today I read Matthew 5, the start of what is commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount was given to the disciples Jesus had already gathered and selected. The scriptures state that the multitude was great and so Jesus retired to the mountains where his disciples then joined Him, and He then gave the sermon contained in Matthew 5-7 or it can also be found in 3 Nephi 12-14 in its entirety.
Jesus starts out with what we call the beatitudes, where He tells His disciples about several different character, or personality traits. While reading it today I was wondering if maybe Jesus did this to give the disciples hope for themselves. Mortal life is not easy, at all. We all, somehow, got this ideal that we are supposed to be striving for and if we deviate even a little bit, the world will mock us and put us down. Sometimes we don't even need the world's help, we will do it to ourselves and say things like, "If only I could be more like Donny. He doesn't have this problem." And we all do it at some point in our life. Could the Lord have been trying to speak hope to them? It is also possible that He was teaching His disciples not to be too hard on others who have those traits.
A year and a half ago, when I quit my job in Kentucky and prepared to move to Alabama, I remember sitting at a stop light I had sat at literally thousands of times before at the end of the road where my old job resided. I had just left there for the last time and I was thinking about what the future held for me. And I remember as I was sitting there, the scripture from the next set of verses in this chapter came into my mind, "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid." Afterwards I had a very clear impression that one of the reasons my wife and I were to move away to Alabama is because God wanted me to be an example to those around me and that I could do more good for Him there than I could where I was at the time in Kentucky. I do not know if I am doing what He wanted of me and what he had planned for me, but I can tell you that I have gotten a lot of exposure just from doing this blog for the past year.
With the way things are going in this world, it does not take much to be noticed and be an example for Christ, all you have to do is not do what the world is doing and you will stand out like a sore, swollen thumb. But that is not a bad thing. If you had to choose, and believe me we all do HAVE to make a choice at some point, to follow the world and follow Christ, wouldn't you rather follow Christ? I sure would. I mean, what is the world going to do for you?
The next part of this chapter is the Lord trying to teach His disciples that we are more than just the sum of our actions. We also need to be careful of what thoughts we have because our thoughts turn into actions. That is why the Savior tells His disciples to not be angry with your brother, because anger can turn into violence. We are told not to look upon a woman to lust after her, which can be quite difficult considering how a lot of women dress these days! But if we lust after her in our hearts, are we being faithful to our wives? And the same goes for women as well, it is dangerous to form emotional attachments to members of the opposite gender because that is how love starts and can quickly lead to other things. Thoughts are the basis of words and actions. It's rare to do something without thinking about it first. It almost never happens. Even if it's a split second before the action takes place, you thought about it.
Sadly, controlling our thoughts is INFINITELY harder to do than just controlling our actions. It's really, really easy to not hit someone, it honestly is. But to not get angry with them in the first place? That can be a real challenge. How do you stop yourself from getting angry with someone? It takes a long time to learn that trick. The other day, my wife and I were talking about a friend we have who is married who now after many years of marriage, has finally learned to get along with their spouse. Our friend said the difference came when they both realized that when they get angry, they tend to attack each other personally and in a way they would never do if they were calm. I said to my wife that such is the way with almost all mankind really and that is the main reason I never allow myself to lose control while having an argument with my wife, which truthfully does not happen all that often. I had noticed years and years ago, almost 15 years ago now, that when I allow myself to get too angry, I become really mean and a real pill to be around. So I made the conscious choice to not get that angry anymore. Well, unfortunately when my wife and I were first married and she would start getting angry with me and would see me holding back, she would assume that I was not being completely honest with her and that there was more to say. For a long time I told her the truth that I was merely holding my emotions in check because I did not want to become too angry because I would get very mean if that happened. Well, she had never encountered someone like that before that had that kind of control, so she didn't believe me. Well, eventually I'm very ashamed to say, she wore me down and I finally lost my temper in a couple of arguments. It was nothing major but it did involve lots of yelling, some screaming and crying as any married couple will be familiar with I'm sure. After it happened a couple of times though when we were composed I brought it back up to my wife and she apologized and said she understood now and would not push me like that again.
But that is a conscious choice I make each and every time I'm in a situation like that. However, despite it all, I'm still getting angry some of the time, I'm just holding it in so I'm STILL failing! It's a never ending process to learn to have that level of control where you never get angry at someone. But it goes hand in hand with the last section of the chapter, to love our enemies and to do good to them that hate us. The only way to learn to do that is to have control, just like with avoiding getting angry. It is not something that is accomplished in a day and some few lucky people are born with the spiritual gift for it. But all the rest of us unfortunate souls need to learn to do it with God's help.
But as we learn those traits and put them into practice it becomes easier, luckily. We are not put on this earth to fail, but to choose who we want to become. Once we make that choice, God either helps us or leaves us alone. And sometimes He doesn't even leave us alone all that long. He is constantly there with his arms outstretched ready to receive us again if we desire it. All we have to do is take that hand that is stretched out to us and He will do the rest. Until tomorrow.
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