(Inspired probably by @JRC and Bishop T.D. Jakes).  I dreamed I was on flat stone platform at the top of a low ziggurat, or later the stand in a church.  It was both in the dream.

With the stand with me were priests in black robes, or later preachers in 19th C. black.  They were both in the dream.

But whether seated in the congregation or standing in the square in front of the ziggurat, the audience was the same throughout.  Standard American.

It began with a young priest/preacher haranguing the crowd.

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Elder Bednar spoke in conference on the theme of the Savior saying “Abide in Me, and I in Thee.”

One of the men in my quorum was pretty touched by it.  He said he knew he was supposed to get closer to Christ but it was pretty moving that Christ also wanted to get closer to him.  Big truck, soft heart.  He said he loves coming home and people meet him at the door, or the little ones run out into the yard.

I thought of that prodigal son painting, where the father has run out onto the road.

I have a particular for thinking that going to heaven will be going home in just that way.  In the words of the old song, “we will all come out to greet you when you come.”

When we say “heaven is our home,” we are not primarily making a doctrinal point but a phenomenological one.

We were talking about Isaiah proclaiming woe for those who call sweet bitter and bitter sweet and somehow the conversation revealed that we had opposite interpretations of this passage from Lehi

15 And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2?lang=eng

I interpreted the tree of life as sweet and the tree of knowledge as bitter.  She interpreted them the opposite. (more…)

You are commanded to become as a little child.

You are also commanded to be great,  impossibly great, as great as Christ.  Be ye therefore perfect.

These commandments do not contradict.  They are one commandment.

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Good news! The JG has found a new cheap southeast asian supplier of repartee.

The banter will be of the same quality you are used to and we will pass the savings on to you.

A crow on a fence spoke to the bull in the field.

“Your bellow is not beautiful,” said the crow. “You should try to sound more like a nightingale. ” The crow squawked triumphantly at what it evidently considered to be a real zinger.

The bull replied,  “Nightingales sing beautifully, no doubt.  What my herd needs to hear is the bellow of a bull. ”

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Some men say that fatherhood these days isn’t very manly.  They say that protecting and providing is mostly about being dutiful and conscientious and conformist. Checking boxes.  Change the batteries in the smoke detector? Check.  Meet or exceed my management assigned objectives for Q2? Check.

They have a point but only up to a point.

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Loosely inspired by Father’s Day, I intended to put together a JG collection on “becoming as a little child.”  While so doing I started to wonder if we were also meant to become as an adult, and if so, what does that mean?

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Week 3 of the Big Corporate Fast — 10 days to go, its not too late to join!

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On the sweetness of Mormon life.

The prayer is “Good morning, heavenly Father.”  You wonder if this is a new thing.  You like it.  You ask afterwards.  No, she says, mental hiccup.

The sister missionaries are speaking.  The first one tells about making fun of the elders who were asked to speak over Mother’s Day.  Now its her turn.

The other told about calling her dad from the emergency room.  He didn’t answer.  She left a message.  “Dad, I’m in the emergency room, I’m probably dying.”  He called her back later.  “So I hear you are dying.  Sorry I didn’t pick up earlier, I was at Costco.”  She knew her dad would know she wasn’t dying.  Her dad knew that she knew.

For Father’s Day, I have been thinking about the Father.  (Some insights courtesy of my ward Sunday School). (more…)

Newfangled Primary songs are one of my pet peeves.  I hate planned obsolescence and avoidable generational disruption.  My kids had to learn Give Said the Little Stream from me, consarnit.

Have mercy, Primary music leaders.

2 Samuel 22 is a psalm in which David is full of the awe of God.  It is submissive but exultant.  It almost has an air of “though he slay me, yet will I trust God.”

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It is hard but virtuous to hear other people’s miracles when that same miracle has been denied you.  It is hard to love them, hard to share their joy . . . but it is virtuous.

Reminiscent of the nameless virtue.

[This photo shows the tracks left by my son Saturday night a week and a half ago as he sped off with his bride from the wedding reception to begin their honeymoon. I took the photo Monday morning.]

Thinking on yesterday’s post warning that “Births are not Well in Zion,” a number of things we could potentially do better came to mind, and I will elaborate on one: Start early.

Wise counsel I have heard a few times from a friend in our elders’ quorum meetings is: Whatever it is you want your children to know three years from now, talk to them about that now. (more…)