Yesterday, I received a question about one of my posts, entitled Willing to Submit – Mosiah 3:19. Here is the question: God is love right? So how can love inflict when the term inflict has to do with punishment. Surely love knows how to be persuasive. This is such an important question that I've decided to... Continue Reading →
What Does the “Great and Spacious Building” Represent?
In Lehi's dream, after arriving at the tree of life and tasting its sweet fruit, after guiding family members to the same tree, and after seeing many other people arrive at that tree by following a rod of iron through a mist of darkness, Lehi saw something which perplexed him. Some of the people who... Continue Reading →
How Much Power Does the Devil Have?
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to overcome temptation. A friend of mine asked me to consider the following question: How much power does the devil have over us? Does he have any power at all if we choose not to listen to him? It's a good question, and the Book of Mormon... Continue Reading →
How Can I Avoid Distractions?
In Lehi's dream, he first described his own journey to the tree of life, which was a result of his own personal prayers. After he ate the fruit, and found it to be "desirable above all other fruit" (1 Nephi 8:12), he instinctively looked for his family, wanting to share it with them. He saw... Continue Reading →
What Is the Relationship Between the Family and the Church?
Elder D. Todd Christofferson has pointed out that the gospel was originally taught in families. The organization of the church came later: Beginning with Adam, the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached, and the essential ordinances of salvation, such as baptism, were administered through a family-based priesthood order. As societies grew more complex than simply... Continue Reading →
How Can I Recognize the Temptations of the Devil?
The Book of Mormon teaches that there is a being in the universe who is trying to harm us and to thwart God's plan. His name is Satan (שָׂטָן - the Hebrew word for "adversary"), and he is commonly known as the devil, from the Greek word diabolos (διάβολος), which means "slanderer." He was once... Continue Reading →
How Can I Be a Better Father?
Today is Father's Day, and I'm thinking about what I can do to be a better father. Here are ten principles the Book of Mormon teaches about being an effective father: 1. Give your children assignments, and trust that they can complete them. Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath... Continue Reading →
What Does the Book of Mormon Teach About Being an Effective Parent?
From the first phrase in the Book of Mormon, the importance of parents is emphasized (1 Nephi 1:1). What can we learn from the Book of Mormon about how to be a good parent? 1. "With all the feeling of a tender parent" Lehi and Sariah loved their children. Even though some of their children... Continue Reading →
What Does the Book of Mormon Teach About Fear?
Fear is an unpleasant feeling caused by the anticipation of a negative event (Oxford English Dictionary). We feel sadness when something bad has already happened; we feel fear when we think something bad is going to happen . Near the beginning of the Book of Mormon, Nephi and his brothers find themselves in a treacherous... Continue Reading →
What Does the Book of Mormon Teach About Happiness?
Near the beginning of the Book of Mormon, the prophet Lehi tells his family about a spiritual dream he has experienced. The central symbol in this dream was "a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy" (1 Nephi 8:10). Lehi's focus for the rest of the dream was on inviting his family to... Continue Reading →