I recently read a blog by an LDS man who had many concerns regarding all the things which the church asks us to do. The common thread of all the concerns seemed to be: "Why is it that sometimes the divine spark seems to go out of our church service?" And "How can I get the spirit back into my home teaching/visiting teaching, and other duties?" There are legitimate times when we may simply feel we are doing too much in too many areas. These concerns are very real and should be discussed with priesthood leaders. But most of the time, I think the problem is not the church having requirements that are too much, but our having spirits that are too little.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints requires much of it's members. Not only are we asked to do measurable things like pay tithing, attend church, and visit others in the ward (i.e. home and visit teaching), but there are also many hard to measure items that we are encouraged to do. Things like "cease to do evil, learn to do right, pursue justice and champion the oppressed, give the orphan his rights, and plead the widows cause" (Isaiah 1:16-17).

Nearly everyone has a moment now and then when we wonder why we keep wearing ourselves out doing church duties that may periodically seem like drudgery. In thinking about why I have felt this way sometimes, and how I worked through it, I had some ideas which really helped me. These ideas came from the Holy Ghost for how I might get the spirit back into my church service and obligations. I put them here in the hope that perhaps they might also help someone else. That being said, everyone is a little bit different and your method for overcoming such things might be quite different from mine.

The first thing that seemed to come to me when I began pondering was 'repent'. That's not really something we like to hear, but that is what I was told. Why? One idea is that we have stopped hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). We have not obeyed the instruction to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" and secondarily the other things of the world (3 Nephi 13:33). More obviously, it may be that there is some sin in our lives that is preventing us from having the Holy Ghost with us as we serve.

I was next led to examine my motives for serving in my church duties. We are asked to do a great number of things, and there might be many reasons why we serve in the church. As illustrated by the above magazine pictures, it may be that we serve and fulfill our church duties to be seen by others (Matthew 6:1). We may hope that someone will finally recognize our great righteousness, and spiritual capacity. If we struggle to do our duty, is it because we aren't getting the praise we sought, or because our position is not as high profile as we think it ought to be? Obviously, this is probably one of the worst of the reasons to to do our duties in the church. Like my photoshop magazine covers, the praise of others is fleeting and easily obtained. How much better is the praise of God? (Matthew 25:21)

It may also be that we serve in the church to feed ourselves (Ezekiel 34:2). We like what we learn by serving and that is why we do it. Or it may be that we like to boast about what we have done (Helaman 5:8). I know of an Elder's Quorum president that was disgusted with his quorum's home teaching numbers and he literally home taught the entire ward one month. In my opinion, this man had entirely missed the point of serving in the church.

We may also forget that it is not enough to DO right things. In Matthew 7:22, we learn that there will be many people who will think they belong to Christ because they did all the right things. But God will not tell them to leave his presence. Why? Perhaps because he does not simply want us to DO righteous things, but he wants us to BE righteous people. It is not what we do, but who we are that allow us to return to God. What we do, must be a reflection of what we are. It is true that if we follow Christ, then we will do the kind things that he did (Philipians 4:9). But without the grace of God, made available by Christ's last and great sacrifice, no amount of doing will make us justified. No amount of doing will earn us a place with God (Romans 3:23-24). But, righteous works inspired by a desire to follow Christ (the greatest servant) and faith in his redeeming power will save us. It is only through this grace that we are saved (2 Nephi 10:24; 25:23).

That being said, we should not be discouraged when we feel overwhelmed by all we are asked to do. There will be times when doing our duty is hard; when no seems to appreciate how much we do in our church assignments; when we feel we are having no lasting effect on those for whom we pray. We should not think this means we are spiritual failures. We must not let this discouragement lead us to inaction. Further, we cannot assume that this means our duties are meaningless, that our home teaching would be more effective if done less often, that scripture study has no power, or that spiritual blessings are 'over-hyped'.

When God asks us to serve in the church, our families and our communities, we have a great opportunity to learn to be more like Jesus Christ. There may be times when doing our duty is difficult and it seems the rewards for it are slow in coming. But we are in good company, if we can remain faithful without murmuring or complaining.

When Christ was faced with the duty of the atonement he felt very heavy and was sore amazed at the burden of our sin (Mark 14:33). When the weight of our sins came upon him, he fell (Mark 14:35). The God who formed this earth and put the plan of The Father into action, fell.

We may picture Christ in Gethsemane praying neatly beside a tree, but Mark tells us that he walked forward a little and then fell under the great weight of our wickedness. What a humbling thought this is. This duty that Christ had commenced in was the more difficult than anything we will be asked to do. The pain was more sore, exquisite, and hard to bear than we can comprehend. This suffering caused "God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore (D&C 19:15-19).

He did not perform this great merciful act in order to get praise. He was not looking for recognition. He did it because of his great love for us, and his desire to do His Father's will. In fact, he only brought three men with him for support and witness; they were so tired that they kept falling asleep. They had little, if any, comprehension of what Jesus was doing for them while they slept (Mark 14:40). Yet despite all this, Jesus finished the work which God had given him to do (John 17:4).

The church asks us to do many things. There is no denying that it may sometimes feel like a burden to be asked to serve so often. But the same Christ who asked no reward for serving us, can give us his enabling power (grace) to make our service efficacious, meaningful, and healing. If we are truly following the path of Christ, can we expect our path to be easier than his? (Mark 2:14) When our service feels like unrewarding, 'number oriented', and lifeless, I am convinced that we must follow the example of Christ and pray more earnestly (Luke 22:44) for his grace. Pray more earnestly to have charity for those whom we serve, and to pray more earnestly to see God's hand working in our lives.

Am I right when I say that Valentine's Day gifts are some of the very hardest?

"Rings and jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of yourself."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Call me crazy, but I firmly believe that quote to be true. Well that gets me into trouble. The problem with giving a part of yourself is that it takes time. And maybe a little creativity. It just seems wrong to let your feelings be described by someone else's card, music, flowers etc.

Earlier today, when I was supposed to be working on my school work I spent over 4 hours writing a song for Valentine's Day. After I finished it, it took me another hour and a half to realize the song was completely stupid and without any recognizable merit. This would not be so bad except it is the third (or fourth?) such project I have begun and then thrown away. I have to start my Valentine's Day prep in January or December to get something together. In fact, one year I started in March! I spent several months only to realize that I had attempted a project that was nigh impossible. (When they say Rome wasn't built in a day, they weren't kidding.) So needless to say, I have two days left (if I don't sleep) to come up with a 'good' gift that is 'romantic' etc. By the time I left for school in the late afternoon, I had basically decided that I had nothing to give. Unless you count all those cheesy cards, hearts and crud that some of these stores sell.

I went to school, and stayed afterward for a little while to speak to a friend. As always, we discussed many things that were on our minds. We were talking, and suddenly he stopped talking and dug a banana out of his bag and handed it to me. I still have no idea why he did this. I was not feeling very well physically, but was enjoying a good talk. He did not know it at the time, but I had neglected to eat earlier because of some things I had been pondering. This was not very smart because I am not yet at my full strength again, and I was exhausted. Right as I was starting to feel very weak, he handed me a banana. I was a little shocked, but I gratefully ate it. I'm sure the banana was not expensive. But he brought that banana for himself. What was his food, he gave to me. This got me thinking about gifts. He hadn't spent hour making the banana. It cost little, was worth little, and its sacrifice may have even meant little to him. But to me the banana meant that unprompted, someone had seen a need in me that even I did not recognize. And he had filled that need. I thought about filling this post with all sorts of scriptures and examples of giving and how God's gifts are usually given quietly and to fill needs we may not observe. But I think in this case that the story speaks for itself. We know that charity is the pure love of Christ and for me the pure love of Christ was in a banana.

I don't know if I can get away with buying my wife a bunch of banana's for Valentine's Day. I probably ought not try. But one of my most memorable gifts recently was a banana. I think if I can manage more pure love in my relationship and a little less cheesy love songs and other tripe, then for me everyday can be Valentine's Day.

I am going to try to be sneaky and do little givings. I don't know if she will notice, but it might just change me a little. If you get a way with sneaking in a bit of the love of Christ into your relationship, send me a post and tell us what you did.

Q In D&C 39:6 It talks about the Holy Ghost revealing all the peaceable things of the kingdom. I thought the Holy Ghost revealed all things concerning the kingdom. What are the 'peaceable' things?

Level 2 - If we will receive Christ, He will give us His grace (see power) to become his sons and daughters. Thus we also become the sons of God (Christ's Father) by coming into the family of Christ. Just to make sure that we know what it means to receive Christ, we are told that to receive Christ, we must receive His Gospel (v5). And receiving His gospel means: correct faith which leads on to true repentance, baptism by immersion in water by a legal administrator, and baptism by immersion in fire. This last can occur once a person has received the gift of the Holy Ghost. This is the same pattern followed in Acts chapter 8 and 19.

First, some background. The Holy Ghost is a person of spirit. That is, he does not have a physical body as we do. He is the third member of the Godhead. He works directly with God the Father, and Christ to bring about the eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). It is the task of the Holy Ghost to testify of the truth, and bear witness to us of the Father and the Son. The Holy Ghost is capable of constantly communicating with us if we can learn to hear his still, small voice (1 Kings 19:11-12). It is a voice that is almost felt more than it is heard. Nephi, an ancient prophet on the American continent, tells us that Holy Ghost is given as a gift to those who diligently seek God (1 Nephi 10:17). Certainly the Holy Ghost has much to teach us about the way our Father in Heaven would like us to live our lives. But this is not all that he can testify about. John 14:26 tells us (among other things) that the Holy Ghost can teach us ALL things. He could teach us advanced physics or principles of geothermics if there were such a need in God's plan. Those topics might seem interesting (or dull) to us, but what the Holy Ghost really wants to teach us is about the love of God, and how we can qualify to enjoy his love forever. This is a fruit that is "most precious and sweet above all that which is sweet (Alma 32:42).

In answer to your specific question, I am not sure I know why the Lord chose to say that the Holy Ghost would teach us the "peaceable things of the kingdom" instead of saying "all things of the kingdom". But I have some ideas. One is that God our Father is Omniscient. He knows everything. He has all knowledge. There is no knowledge, but what he has it. He does not make educated guesses based on past experience, and he does not forecast. He does not decree what will happen, He simply knows what will happen. He knows everything that there is to know. That is a far cry from us. The fact is that we are nowhere near capable of receiving all that the Holy Ghost could teach us (John 16:12, D&C 50:40). But we can learn a little at a time (Isaiah 28:9-10). Our capacity to learn and receiving instruction by the Spirit is in direct proportion to the heed and diligence which we give to every bit of instruction that God gives us (Deut. 8:3).

My other thought is this. Some people think that they can draw near to God by endless studying (Eccl. 12:12-13). While study is good, intellectual tromping about in the scriptures yields little of substance unless it leads us to change our actions. We all know people who always have something interesting to say about the Greek translation of a verse, or whether the pearly gates swing or roll. They are always learning new facts, but never coming to a knowledge of Christ (2 Timothy 3:7, John 14:6). I think knowledge of Christ is the MOST "peaceable thing of the kingdom". Could the verse in D&C 39 refer partly to that? In contrast to the intellectuals, the soldier in Christ (2 Tim. 2:3) who obeys much, and has clean hands and a pure heart (John 1:47, Psalms 24:4) will be enabled to learn things through the Holy Ghost that the intellectuals may never learn. So to me, this verse says that regardless of the strength of our minds and our ability to study, the Holy Ghost will teach us what we need in the moment that we need it (D&C 84:85). This is our promise if we follow the steps above, and receive Christ into our lives more fully.

Personally, I love to study the scriptures. I never seem to get enough of it. I get caught up in enjoying the symbolism and spirit of them. This is a great blessing that has yielded me much. But if I could trade whatever knowledge I have gained for a heart that would never desire to sin; I would do it instantly. To me, this is one message in D&C 39; stop dwelling on what you think you know or don't know, and learn to hunger and thirst after righteousness. It might take a lifetime to learn that lesson completely, but the blessings it brings are wonderful.
I end with the words of Christ: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled with the Holy Ghost." (Matt 5:6)