On the sweetness of Mormon life.

You are at a tiny little branch in a tiny town on the snowy plains.  You are there with your father-in-law.  None of you have been here before, you are visiting him while he is a on a work detail in this place.

You left with plenty of time because of the snow, so he gets into a long discussion with the Branch President.  Two texts come in–the two speakers for the service are snowed in.  Why don’t you talk then, the Branch President asks him.  He does.

Friends, its that time of year when you have a million happy bustling things to do and so, in fear that you might have a free moment, we post our Christmas page.  Please see above in the header bar.  There’s enough there for one or two books, and probably we will publish them, maybe as soon as next year.

May we suggest that you particularly check out our two fairy tales from last year?  Here is a tale of a princess, and here is a tale of a knight.  The first one is in the classic style whereas the second one has more of a Norse flavor.

Merry Christmas!

I personally am grateful for any time you spend here with me this season, and don’t begrudge it at all if the time you have to spare for your JG friends is not as much as you would like.

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We all know the evidence that sex tendencies are innates.  Baby chimp girls play with dolls, baby chimp males play with trucks.  And so on and so on and so on.

But also clearly there is a lot of social construction going on.

What we all overlook though is how the social construction occurs.  We think of social construction as something, probably oppressive, that “Society” does.

I think in truth a lot of it is done by your children.

the villainous mastermind of social construction

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This being All Soul’s Day, I found myself thinking about Vader while in the temple.  I think about him a lot.  I will write a post and wonder what he would think about it.  In a way, he is still the audience in my head.

He got in his accident in late October a few years ago and then died in early November.

Rest in peace.  Until we meet again.

The national declines in marriage and childbearing are understandable for historic reasons, but Latter-day Saint values and practices should improve—not follow—those trends.

-President Oaks

The prophet is calling us to have more children.  That means he is calling us to be extraordinary.  We have to find a way to not be swept along with national or global trends.

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Last night I had a dream.

There were dozens of youth handcart treks that all converged in the same place.  Once they had arrived at the same mountain valley, under the direction of their leaders they joined together to build a temple out of rammed earth and long straight pine logs.  The earth they dug from the soil there, the logs they cut themselves.

In the way of dreams, when it was done it was a conventional temple inside but also was just one big hall where the whole group could meet.  They all gathered in and some of the Brethren came and sealed them all together as friends.

On the sweetness…

A very obese man who joined a few years back–he was in and out of jail at the time, has made a remarkable turn-around–gives his very first lesson in church Sunday for Elders Quorum.  He is very nervous, especially since the Prophet had just died.  He struggles to talk about what President Nelson has meant to him.  His sincerity and goodness shines through.  The Spirit is present.

Afterwards, you and he and a couple of others are standing on the church porch, watching the rain.  You talk about President Nelson.  You talk about the dead in Michigan.  These are heavy topics.  After a pause you ask him what he thought about his first lesson.

“It was good,” he says.  There is a short pause.  “When you feel the Spirit, it feels like floating on a cushion of air,” he says.

Father Time in his wisdom made me too old to be interested in Charlie Kirk.  I had heard of him, that’s it.  But some of my kids I found out are fans and my daughters in Utah County had gotten out of work/class and were on their way to his event at UVU yesterday when we got the news.  Perhaps for that reason, it has affected me a lot more than I would have thought.

https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

https://xcancel.com/charliekirk11/status/1964469113352573401

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Covering Sections 89 through 97.

* I think the most important verse in the Word of Wisdom is verse 2.  This section can only be understood by revelation and wisdom; and God cares about temporal salvation.

* 90:17 suggests a virtue chart.  This verse is advice to the First Presidency on how to be the First Presidency.

Be not ashamed, neither confounded; but be admonished in all your high-mindedness and pride, for it bringeth a snare upon your souls.

In particular, I think the implication that shame is what leads to being confounded, whereas being admonished in some way complements being unashamed and not being confounded, is psychologically astute.

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We are driving across some of the flat, open parts of the country so trains are on my mind.  You can see them coming from a long way off.

Hence this parable.

There once was a newly-built train.  At the switching station, it looked out on its first track all the way across the gleaming plain to the distant white city in the far, far horizon.  The train was full of enthusiasm.  “I am going to roll on all the way to that city!”  it said.

An old worn-down train nearby wearily set about tempering the new train’s expectations.  “You have no idea how far that city really is,” the train said.  “Nor how difficult it is.  You feel good now, but wait until you are trying to get your wheels to turn in sand.  Or in swamp, heavens, oh man, swamp.”

“Why would I do that?” the new train said cheerfully.  “I will simply stay on the track.”

The older train was aghast.  “Stay on the tracks!  Are you crazy?  Live a little!”

We haven’t talked about JG Virtue Sets in almost exactly a year.  The reason is simple and probably surprising.  I stopped being able to make a visual model that I liked the look of and somehow not being able to portray it in a way the eye liked stopped me thinking about them altogether.  You will notice there is no chart in that post from a year ago.

The reasons are two-fold.  First, I switched computers and lost my old standard chart in the switch.  Second,  I tried to complicate the chart to make it more “accurate,” which progressively made it uglier.

As a reminder, here is an example of our old standard chart.

I really liked it and still do (except for the cross-hatch lines).  But after realizing that one pair of the virtues and vices were ‘cool’ and the other pair ‘hot’ I grew dissatisfied with a chart that portrayed both virtues as blue (a cool color) and both vices as red (a hot color).  I tried to redo the chart to be  more accurate and the result was ugly.

An example of the “more accurate.”

I also started trying to include the syntheses of the virtues (or vices) in the diagram.  I never found a good look for it.

A synthesis diagram (from here).  The color in the middle is off,  the color in the upper left diamond is bad, and the shape in the middle is off.  It looks like graffiti.

However, I was recently re-reading some of WJT’s work on JG virtue sets and was inspired by the look of his charts.

Classical simplicity with classical colors for virtues and vices.

Even better, very easy to recreate.  I’m playing around with some versions of it and would like to hear what you think.

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Years ago, my grandmother smoked cigarettes. Even as a child, I knew this was bad for her, so I tried everything I could to convince her to quit. Eventually it killed her.

Would I have loved my grandmother if I hadn’t asked her to do something very hard? What if I had softened the truth, so as not to offend her? What if I told her the laws of health didn’t apply to her? Is there any possible way for me to have had real genuine love for my grandmother, without asking her to do what is difficult?

No, there is not.

Refusing people hard things to do, is refusing them the Grace of God. God will strengthen us, but not while we do not stretch ourselves.

Elder Bednar shares a story about a man who went into the mountain woods, to cut firewood.

So he decided he would cut and haul a supply of firewood for their home. It was in the autumn of the year, and snow already had fallen in the mountains where he intended to find wood. As he drove up the mountainside, the snow gradually became deeper and deeper. My friend recognized the slick road conditions presented a risk, but with great confidence in the new truck, he kept going.

Sadly, my friend went too far along the snowy road. As he steered the truck off of the road at the place he had determined to cut wood, he got stuck. All four of the wheels on the new truck spun in the snow. He readily recognized that he did not know what to do to extricate himself from this dangerous situation. He was embarrassed and worried.

My friend decided, “Well, I will not just sit here.” He climbed out of the vehicle and started cutting wood. He completely filled the back of the truck with the heavy load. And then my friend determined he would try driving out of the snow one more time. As he put the pickup into gear and applied power, he started to inch forward. Slowly the truck moved out of the snow and back onto the road. He finally was free to go home, a happy and humbled man.

Bear Up Their Burdens with Ease, Elder Bednar, 2014

Elder Bednar’s talk is excellent and I highly recommend it.

Again from Elder Bednar’s talk

Sometimes we mistakenly may believe that happiness is the absence of a load. But bearing a load is a necessary and essential part of the plan of happiness. Because our individual load needs to generate spiritual traction, we should be careful to not haul around in our lives so many nice but unnecessary things that we are distracted and diverted from the things that truly matter most.

That traction comes from a load, and we will need that traction at some point in our lives. If we are so short-sighted as to deny people a load, we also deny them the traction they will need later in their lives.

There are compensatory blessings, for obedience leading to other blessings withheld, such as the person who is chaste in an immoral world. Those compensatory blessings can result in enhanced spiritual growth and power. The greater the sacrifice, the greater the blessings. “Sacrifice brings forth the Blessings of Heaven.”

God enjoys blessing us. And He knows that what He asks is sometimes very difficult.  But what he promises is out of proportion to what we do.

For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end D&C 76:5

There is no case where the Wicked suffer less than the Righteous. They might have more fun in the short term. Some suppose God enjoys suffering or is some kind of ascetic. Nothing is further from the truth. He is anxious to bless us, but He also understand what will and will not bring us happiness. God will bless the Righteous, or those who struggle to be with more than they can comprehend.

God can make our burdens light. All our burdens.

13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

Mos. 24:13-15

How close are we to the Savior? Some things are are shown by difficult experience, how close, or not, we actually are. But when we actually are close to him, He can make His commandments easy. By experience, I can say, this will involve a lot of prayer, repentance, dedication to the Lord.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28–30).

A yoke is a instrument of burden, but is is one that the Savior is with us, suffering with us. He can make it light, because He is pushing with us. And just as we feel God in us, the Savior feels us in Him. He feels, and continues to feel, all our suffering. He is with us when we suffer. He is not absent, merely coming by once a month to pick up the rent check.

The covenants God offers us, are not merely transactional, they are transformational.
And He is too loving to leave us as we are.
He will ask difficult things, and He will transform us.

Delving a little deeper, Isaiah 5 is about False Doctrine.

When we read Isaiah 5, we are prone to assume some very simplistic symbolism. But the Jews have a deeper symbolism that we have not always delved into. The Vineyard may be the Lord’s people, but what is wine? For the Jews, wine represents understanding or knowledge.

How does this illuminate the passage? This chapter starts off with the Parable of the Vineyard – a vineyard was planted but brings forth bad, perhaps even poisonous, grapes. So the Lord of the Vineyard will destroy it.

Thus, the vineyard is yielding corrupt understanding, or false doctrine.
But this is more interesting once you start looking at the Six Woes. At first, they appear to be six unrelated curses. But they all have a common theme, once you understand what wine is.

First: (5:8-10) Hording land -> hording vineyards: At the surface level, this doesn’t appear to have a connection to the parable, but what would this mean in terms of knowledge? Those who gatekeep knowledge, perhaps including schools.

Second: (5:11-12) Those who drink carelessly -> those who do not treat knowledge seriously. “they regard not the work of the Lord,”

Followed by two Therefores. Notice the theme is a lack of knowledge, that is equated with thirst and hunger.

Third: (5:18-19) Drawing vanity. -> In the context of knowledge, is this those who make rationalizations for sin?

Fourth: (5:20) Call evil good -> flat out falsehood

Fifth: (5:21) Wise in their own eyes -> proud

Sixth: (5:22-24) Mighty to drink wine. Why would alcohol lead to “Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!”? Unless they are drinking knowledge, and using it for corrupt ends. It is knowledge and power they are drunk on.

Followed by two Therefores. Notice that their root and blossom, instead of growing the vineyard, are part of the vineyard becoming rotten and dust. In other words, the result of all this false doctrine, and misuse of knowledge, is destruction. Not merely for the ancient Jews, but for us as well. This pertains to us today.

And that is how the chapter ends, with the Lord promising to destroy them. The end of the chapter isn’t about missionary work. It is Isaiah showing just how dire things were, and just how apostate his people are.
Notice, that the Book of Isaiah does not start out with Isaiah’s vision and commission. We get the stage set first, with the Lord of the Vineyard saying, “what more could be done?” Nothing, except destruction. This is what makes chapter 6 powerful, because we now understand the stakes and the context that the vision happens in.

Child of Light on display in the Conference Center, Salt Lake City
Sculptor Laura Lee Stay Bradshaw b.1958
Cast bronze, 2003

The sculptress: “Ever since I can remember I had an insatiable desire to create.”

Your relationship with time gets weirder the older you get.  The days jam together so fast.  It’s as if there is a wreck at the end of time and your days are piling up behind it.