Extra Oil

Lately, my three-year-old son Ethan has begun waking up at 6:30 - during the time that I used to have dedicated to personal scripture study. Now, my primary intent during this time has become maintaining silence in the home so as not to wake Jess and our daughter, Emma. I hesitate though, to totally abandon my study time. The solution: watch MormonMessage videos with Ethan on YouTube.

Lately we've really enjoyed the New Testament series they published. The kids have found a few unexpected, somewhat random, favorites. If you were to ask Ethan which is his favorite, he'd say, "the one with the ten virgins." You can imagine - I've seen it over 20 times. I love it - I've learned a lot.

So, how would you explain to your three-year-old kid what the wise virgins' extra oil represents?

Modern revelation provides a helpful verse: Doctrine and Covenants, section 45 refers to many of the signs to the times that precede the Savior's return. Verse 57 speaks of those who spiritual endure the latter-day difficulty:
57 For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived—verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.

So, here's at least one definition of the extra oil:

1. Wisdom
2. Receipt of the truth
3. Taking the Holy Spirit as guide
4. Avoiding deception

Another, more pragmatic idea is this - those that are wise are those that do the "non-required" things:

• Personally studying the scriptures daily
• Fulfilling all our duties and striving to keep the commandments always
• Going to all three hours of church
• Attending the Saturday-evening adult session of stake conference
• Prayerfully participating in all sessions of general conference

For more thoughts, consider checking out Elder Dallin H. Oaks' great talk on this topic.

Pondering Questions

I'm intrigued by this quote from Brother John S. Tanner:

"By opening my heart to the Lord’s questions of me, I have discovered that I am in a better position to ask and receive answers to my questions of Him (John S. Tanner, "Responding to the Lord’s Questions", Ensign, Apr. 2002, 26)."

I've begun searching "the Lord's questions of me" in the scriptures. I'm compiling them together in the spreadsheet below. Care to help me? If you know of a question asked in the standard works that is helpful to you in generating pondering thoughts, include it in the list here.



If you would like to search for questions electronically, you'll have to go here and download the scriptures in PDF; you can't search by punctuation at scriptures.lds.org. Once you've downloaded the PDF files, you can open them and search by any character, including the "?" in this case.

Religious Freedom

I think this message, delivered by Elder Dallin H. Oaks in a speech at Chapman University of Law last month, is worth the attention of everyone concerned with all things morally related.



Personally, I think it's awesome that such a wonderfully capable and intelligent person is also a person of such remarkable faith. Thank you, Elder Oaks, for your example.

Admonition, Basking, and Pondering

My ability to take in and make spiritual sense of admonition reached a limit on Sunday afternoon, and it taught me an important lesson. It's spawned into this theory.

Like so many of you, I'm sure, I find there's an endless, even "inexhaustible," amount of good things to learn. In addition to my regular study of the gospel, I'm regularly in other meetings and trainings related to my current calling as bishop. To make up for lost time from my traditional personal gospel study time, I've made a habit of listening to general conference talks and BYU speeches when I can at work. While this has been great, I feel like I've over-flooded myself with admonition - I've taken in more than I've had time to ponder about, implement, and habituate.

How To Get Your Own Plan of Salvation

Back in 1972, Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave a wonderful talk on this topic, that I just listened to tonight as I did the dishes. Unfortunately, it's not transcribed, but the MP3 is available. You can listen to it here.

Priesthood: Elder Perry's Perspective

I've been very blessed by the priesthood in my life. I know that it is a very real power.





Here are parts 3 (here) and 4 (here). For some reason these latter two weren't posted to YouTube.

Do You Love Me?

Considering how the scriptures refer to the Savior as the bridegroom and the Church as his bride, this scene from Fiddler On The Roof seems analogous, albeit imperfect. The key question, have your "25 years" of service and diligence and sacrifice in the Lord's service begun to produce their intended effect of increasing your love for the Lord?

You Get What You Want

Although not always true in our day to day lives, in the long run, you get what you want.

Consider Elder Neal A. Maxwell's reflection on agency shared in an intimate way here at BYU just four months before his death. His talk is among my personal favorites. Check it out here.

Diligence

Consider this quote on what diligence is from Preach My Gospel, authored for missionaries, but applicable to all of us:

"Diligence is steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work. The Lord expects you to work diligently—persistently and with great effort and care. A diligent missionary works effectively and efficiently. Diligence in missionary work is an expression of your love for the Lord and His work. When you are diligent, you find joy and satisfaction in your work.

Doubt Not

Are you your biggest fan?

If not, are you at least in the fan club? I find applying the gospel of Jesus Christ to be a difficult task for those who are overly critical of themselves.