Home » America (Page 112)
Category Archives: America
Are Your Spiritual Accounts Paid Up Because Mercy Cannot Rob Justice?
It would be easier if we had come to know one another, and had that kind of trust which makes it possible to talk of serious, even sacred things. One may ask, “Aside from he influence God has had on society, what effect can the Lord have on me individually?” Well, have you ever been hard-pressed financially? Have you ever been confronted with an unexpected expense, a mortgage come due, with really no idea how to pay it? Such an experience, however unpleasant, can be in the eternal scheme of things, very, very useful. If you miss that lesson you may have to make it up before you are spiritually mature, like a course that was missed or a test that was failed. Those who have faced a foreclosure know that one looks helplessly around, hoping for someone, anyone to come to the rescue. This lesson is so valuable because there is a spiritual account, with a balance kept and a settlement due, that no one of us will escape. Even your soul can face foreclosure. To understand this spiritual debt we must speak of such intangibles as love, faith, mercy, and justice. Without being able to solve the conflict that has arisen within critical philosophy, we sometimes become convinced the progressive clarification of modern theories will lead back to a physics based on classical mechanics. We have virtues that are both silent and invisible, and we know they are real. We lean of them by processed that often silent and invisible as well. #RandolphHarris 1 of 12
We become so accustomed to learning through our physical senses—by sight and sound and smell, by taste and touch—that some of us seem to learn in no other way. However, there are spiritual things that are not registered that way at all. Somethings we simply feel, not as we feel something we touch, but as we feel something we feel. There are things, spiritual things, that are registered in our minds and recorded in our memories as pure knowledge. A knowledge of things which have been, things which are, thing which must shortly comes to pass. Abstraction (analysis of the assumptions underlying practical ethical study of value judgments) and determining, by an empirical study of value judgment, the interest of pure practical reason, ethical demands put to the human will by reason itself we can come to know of spiritual things. Each of us, without exception, one day will settle that spiritual account. We will, that day, face a judgment for our doings in mortal life and face a foreclosure of sorts. We will be justly dealt with. Justice, the eternal law of justice, will be the measure against which we settle this account. The law demands of the human will the balanced consideration of other persons’ interest affected by its actions. Justice is usually pictured holding a set of scales and blindfolded against the possibility that she may be partial or become sympathetic. There is no sympathy in justice alone—only justice! Our lives will be weighed on the scales of justice. #RandolphHarris 2 of 12
By its content justice determines the duties of the individual by the rights others have with regard to it; in this respect justice is related to communal life and thereby provides this criterion as the concept of the state of rights, by which is meant the condition of a society in which the interests of all members are protected against wrongful violation. Ethics, by this definition, is concerned with the duties of the individual; philosophy of right is concerned with the state of right. “Justice claims the creature and execute the law, and the law inflicts the punishment; if not so, the works of justice would be destroyed, and God would cease to be God,” reports Alma 42.22. The demands of equality for all before the law and of equality of rights are compatible with the demand to differentiate according to given circumstances; and the demands of force against injustice remain linked to those of freedom of criticism and of public justification for the legal necessity of certain coercive measures. Such coercive measures are particularly necessary when the freedom of humans to form themselves rationally within the framework of one’s own life is threatened; this freedom can be threatened because human beings true need for it is at first obscure and can therefore be mistaken and suppressed. “Despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loves he corrects; even as a father the son in whom he delights,” reports Proverbs 3.11-12. #RandolphHarris 3 of 12
There once was a man called Ryan who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt. Ryan had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. However, it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. Ryan was sure he could pay for it later. So he signed a contract that allowed him to pay off his purchase sometime in the future. Ryan did not worry about the cost and finance charges because the due date seemed such a long time away. Ryan had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important. However, the creditor was always in his subconscious, and Ryan made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come. However, as it always does, the contract fell due and full payment was demanded. Only then did Ryan realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well. “I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so,” he confessed. “Then,” said Vince, the creditor, “We will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced. Run me my money, and you are never going to see the light of day!” #RandolphHarris 4 of 12
Ryan was absolutely drenched in sweat and feeling nervous, anxious, and stressed. The survival part of his brain had been triggered. His heart was beating faster, and his hands were trembling. “Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?” Ryan begged. “Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?” Vince, the creditor replied, “Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?” Ryan replied, “I believed in justice when I signed the contract. It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well.” Vince got upset and raised his voice, “Ryan, it is justice that demands that you pay this contract or suffer the penalty. Is you dumb, is you drunk?! Do you not hear the words coming out of my mouth? That is the law and you have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice.” There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other. “If you do not forgive the debt, there will be no mercy,” Ryan pleaded. “If I do, there will be no justice,” Vince replied. A friend stepped in and pay them debt for Ryan, and set new terms for Ryan to repay his debt overtime. That way there was justice and mercy, as no contact was broken. Both laws stood fulfilled. #RandolphHarris 5 of 12
It is interest which makes value judgments possible. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied. As one can see, two basic ethical principles from these interests were highlighted: the law of the balanced consideration of all interests affected by one’s own deeds and the ideal of forming one’s own life independently, according to the ideas of the true, the beautiful, and the good. These two principles are linked by the fact that, on the one hand, the law of balanced consideration, as a categorical imperative, determines the necessary limiting condition for the ideal value of human behavior; on the other hand, the ideal of rational self-determination leads to the doctrine of the true interests of humanity and finds in these interests the standard for a balanced consideration of conflicting interests. Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended even if there is one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption. Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untampered, unsympathetic, must, absolutely must fall on us. #RandolphHarris 6 of 12
The principles demonstrated are formal and permit determination of concrete ethical demands only through their application to given circumstances as justified by experience. However, it is precisely this application of the principles of the World of experience which requires preparatory philosophical investigation if the application is to be guarded against hasty generalization of single results, in which changing circumstances are not take into account, and against opportunistic adaptation to circumstances without regard for the practical consequences of ethical principles. In the system as a whole, ethics and philosophy of right appear side by side. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be extracted from us to the uttermost farthing. However, know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and humans, the Savior,” reports 1 Timothy 2.5.T There is no God but The God. In a single stroke, this affirmation demolished forever God’s rivals for human’s loyalty. Once for all, it toppled the innumerable idols. God lives forever. Through the Savior mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. All humankind can be protected by the law of justice, and at once each of us individually may be extended the redeeming and healing blessing of mercy. This opens the way for each of us to keep our spiritual accounts paid up. #RandolphHarris 7 of 12
Keep your life in perspective and be constant in prayer. The most important and difficult lesson humans must learn and continually relearn, the Bible assumes, is that we are not God. Creature rather than creator, humans have nevertheless an inveterate tendency to place ourselves at the center of God’s Universe and live as law to ourselves. When we do so, however, when we try to play God, everything goes wrong. Humans are creature; our life slips into place and stays in proper perspective only when we recognize this fact. When one asks, therefore, why Christians pray, a partial answer is doubtless: in response to the natural yearning of the human heart to pour forth its love and gratitude toward its Creator. However, accompanying this desire is a need to keep our lives in their proper perspective; to see it in its objective setting; to acknowledge our humanity before our creator, and to submit ourselves to the will of God as rightfully sovereign over our lives. It is one of the glories of faith, that its temples are not always made by hands, and that our prayer ceremonies and spiritual worship can be performed anywhere upon God’s Earth or under the Lord’s Heaven. Every corner of God’s Universe being equally pure, the faithful are encouraged to pray wherever they find peace. #RandolphHarris 8 of 12
You, perhaps, are among those troubled people. When you come face to face with yourself in those moments of quiet contemplation—that many of us try to avoid—are there some unsettled things that bother you? Do you have something on your conscience? Are you still, to one degree or another, guilty of anything small or large? We often try to solve guilt problems by telling one another that they do not matter. However somehow, deep inside, we do not believe one another. Nor do we believe ourselves if we say it. We know better. They do matter! Our transgression are all added to our account, and one day if it is not properly settled, each of us, like Belshazzar of Babylon, will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Belshazzar was king of Babylon from 555 to 539 BC. Remember when King Belshazzar held a last great feast at which he saw a hand writing on wall following words in Aramaic: “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin.” The prophet Daniel interpreted the handwriting on the wall as God’s judgment on the king, foretold the imminent destruction of the city. And, as prophesized, King Belshazzar died after Babylon fell to the Persian general Gobyras without resistance on 12 October 539 BC, and probably before the Persian king Cyrus II entered the city 17 days later. Belshazzar was allegedly punished for his tyrannous oppression of his Jewish subjects, and because God warned him, but he did not repent. #RandolphHarris 9 of 12
There is a Redeemer, a Mediator, who stands both willing and able to appease the demands of justice and extend mercy to those who are penitent, for “He offered himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of law be answered,” reports 2 Nephi 2.7. Already the Savior has accomplished the redemption of all humankind from mortal death; resurrection is extended to all without condition. The Savior also makes possible redemption from the second death, which is the spiritual death, which is separation from the presence of our Heavenly Father. This redemption can come only to those who are clean, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God. If justice decrees that we are not eligible because of our transgression, mercy provides a probation, a penitence, a preparation to enter in. Although we know how poor words can be, we also know that such feelings are often carried by the spirit, even without words. At times, we all struggle under the burden of imperfections. Nevertheless, because we know that God lives, there is a supreme recurring happiness and joy. There is only one place where we are particularly vulnerable—when we know that we have abused someone, or caused them hurt, or offended them. It is then that we know what agony is. #RandolphHarris 10 of 12
Ideally, every micro-second of our lives should be lifted to God in gratitude. What happens in nature is, according to the laws of nature, dependent on the given circumstances and on the forces working through them, which are indifferent to ethical values: Under the laws of nature it is a matter of chance whether what should happen is in fact what happens or whether ethical demands are ignored. However, what ethics demands should not be subject to chance but assured by the human will. The law of character in ethics, which demands from the humans the establishment of a basic willingness to fulfill their duties, by which they make themselves independent of concrete circumstances; their inclinations and the influences on the will may or may not be in agreement with the commands of duty. There are certain postulates. These determine the forms of reciprocal action in society which alone assure just relations between individuals; among them are public justice, prosecutability, the law of contract, and the law of property. The transitions from ethics to pedagogy and from philosophy of rights to politics are made in the same spirit. Education, among the many influences on humans, should strengthen our capacity or create those elements which develop one’s capacity for good and oppose those that could weaken this capacity. #RandolphHarris 11 of 12
Everything that happens in nature (including human behavior) is determined by natural laws working through existing powers, and the practical one, which presents the human will with duties that can either be violated and ignored or become humanity’s purpose. Thus, ethical standards should be maintained without compromise and we must reject the skeptical assumption that humans, as a limited creature of nature, are incapable of maintaining them; this assumption is considered a sacrifice of known ethical truth, a mere excuse for those who are able but not willing. The human will should act according to the strongest motivation of the moment, without any guarantee from nature that this motivation will direct one toward what is ethically required. Knowledge is limited to the understanding of relationships in the sphere of experience but cannot achieve absolute perception of reality itself. In the consciousness of our freedom, which is indissolubly bound to the knowledge of our responsibility, humans relate themselves by faith to the World of that which is real in itself and superior to the limitations of nature. We should critically examine our own convictions, and carry out what we recognize as just and goo in our actions. Ethics is there to be used. Redemption’s grand design is where justice, love, and mercy meet in harmony divine! #RandolphHarris 12 of 12
Strong Family Cultures Will Help Our Children Live in the World
Some families are in jeopardy of being lost. Values are the prime target of the adversary, as well are the sanctity of marriage and the central importance of families. It is the duty of parents to teach their children to keep the commandments of God. Our morals and spiritual values provide an anchor and the safe harbor of a home where each child of a loving Heavenly Father can be influenced for food and acquire eternal values. People who feel the love and support of their parents are proud of the example they have set. This makes life so enjoyable for many families that the children want to follow in the footsteps of the parents, to continue on through experiencing the same joy that had been theirs in their younger days. Some parents always find the time to take the family on vacation and they can count on fun experiences. As a result of such a solid background, the children are not able to turn from the teachings of their parents because their actions would reflect on their parents’ character. Culture is defined as the way of life of a people. There is a unique gospel culture, a set of values and expectations and practices common to all followers of God. This gospel culture, or way of life, comes from the plan of salvation, the commandments of God, and the teachings of living prophets. It is given expression in the way we raise our families and live our individual lives. #RandolphHarris 1 of 5
However, so much has changed during our lifetime. The effects of childhood trauma, including emotional neglect or abuse in childhood, can have alarmingly potent effect on our psyche as we enter adulthood, event to the extent of rewiring the brain. The children of narcissistic parents, those who meet the diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, know this all too well, having been raised by someone with a limited capacity for empathy and an excessive sense of grandiosity, false superiority and entitlement. Children of narcissistic parents are programmed at an early age to seek validation where there is one, to believe their worthiness is tied to the reputation of their families, and to internalize the message that they can only sustain their value by how well they can serve the needs of their parents. If given at all, they have lived an existence where love was rarely given. As the child of a narcissistic parent or parent, one is taught that they are not inherently worthy, but rather that there worth depended on what they could do for the narcissistic parent and how compliant one is. The emphasis on appearance, status, reputation is at an all-time high in households with a narcissistic parent. Due to the narcissistic parent’s grandiosity, false mask and need to be the best, children in these situations are probably part of a family that was presented in the best possible light, with neglect taking place behind closed doors. #RandolphHarris 2 of 5
There is something really disturbing about parents who compete with their kids. Women who strive to be as hot as their teenage daughters. Parents threatened by the success of their adult children. Men who date girls the same age as their son’s girlfriend or daughter. And men who actually date their son’s girlfriends. Some parents even conspire with the children’s enemies to hurt their own kids because they envy them so much. So how have we gotten to this place? We all know that times have changed—and parenting is much more difficult as a result. Some parents feel like they did not have a chance to live the life they wanted so they take out their anger usually on one child who reminds them of what they would like to be. Let us take a closet look and find a way out of this madness and toward a better way to parent. Shine a light on yourself, rather than on your child. Get out of the mindset that your child is the enemy and you must win. Win what? No matter how your child behaves, you must commit to parenting from thoughtfulness, not anxiety, jealousy, and reactivity. Keep in the forefront of your mind that even at times of high stress, you are an adult and your children are supposed to learn from you. You want your children to look back and think of you as someone who loved God, followed the laws, and did everything possible to protect them, instead of sabotaging their lives and setting them up to fail. #RandolphHarris 3 of 5
As adults, some people know that their parent or parents are bad and do not have their best interest at heart, but they still talk to them because they know their parents will not live forever and want to enjoy them while they are around, while secretly praying that their parent will repent and start showing them rest and unconditional love. Strong leaders focus on the preservation of their own integrity. They have a willingness to take responsibility for their own emotional well-being and do not try to make other people happy by changing their character. Being a strong leader is a quality that will actually help your child want to be led by you, rather than battle you. Remember that you are on your child’s team, not on the opposing side. You should not be sharing the personal business with their enemies who happen to be dangerous nor plotting to end the life of your own child. Some people saw that Casper the Ghost is a cautionary tale about Richie’s parents from Richie Rich killing him for insurance money. The Bible predicted that in the last days, “They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law,” reports Luke 12.53. #RandolphHarris 4 of 5
Lessons taught in the home by goodly parents are becoming increasingly important in today’s World, where the influence of the adversary is so wide spread. As we know, he is attempting to erode and destroy the very foundation of our society—the family. In cleaver and carefully camouflaged ways, the wicked one is attacking commitment to family life throughout the World and undermining the culture and covenants of faithful believers in God. Parents must resolve that teaching in the home is a most sacred and important responsibility. We must train up our children in the way he or he should go, this responsibility ultimately rests on the parents. According to the great plan of happiness, it is goodly parents with the care and development of Heavenly Father’s children. Parents should also pray in earnest, asking our Eternal Father to help them love, understand, and guide the children the Lord sent to them. It is also a good idea to hold family prayer, scripture study, and family home evenings and eat together as often as possible, making dinner a time of communication and the teachings of values. Parents should also share their testimonies often with their children, commit them to keep the commandments of God, and promise the blessings that our Heavenly Father promises his faithful children. Our strengthened family cultures will be a protection for our children from the fiery darts of the adversary embedded in their peer culture, the entertainment and television news. #RandolphHarris 5 of 5
If Envy Were a Fever, All the World Would be Ill!
We often hear that the love of money is the root of all evil, but it is not. The love of money, however, can be evil. If you have money you can get things and do things. Because people believe money has power, it can be incredibly difficult to stay on the right course and not lose one’s soul in the process. Many people lose sight of where they come from and make decision that satisfy their personal desires. They forget, or choose to forget who was there for them when they needed to borrow money to pay the mortgage, or when they sold a car under false pretenses, but kept the car and the money, or who shared their Christmas bonus with them. They forget about how much money they took from your family to get where they are today, and when they feel they have made it, materialistic people no longer have a use for you because they see you as inferior and your life does not matter to them. These types of covetous people will sale your secrets to your enemy. Will take bribes to set you up so they can ruin your life because they want to infect others with the pain they experienced growing up in poverty and deprivation. “For the love of money people will steal from their mother. For the love of money people will rob their own brother. For the love of money people will lie, Lord, they will cheat. For the love of money people will sell their precious body for a small piece of paper it carries a lot of weight. Call it lean, mean, mean, green Almighty dollar,” (For the Love of Money by the O’Jays). #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Money talks, and it can start to define people and their respective lifestyles. The clothes you wear, the house you live in, the car you drive and the job you occupy all serve as indicators to one’s personal success. As a collection, these materials signify, in some form, who you are as a person. At least that is what materialistic people believe. However, it does not take money nor power to be a decent human being. We all know shallow people who do not care what other think of them and have done some strange things for some change. Then they start to think they are better than others because their hustling and illegal activities have allowed them to obtain luxury items, expensive cars, and lavish homes. And they forget all about the people they stole from, betrayed, and hurt to get where they are. Some people had never really experienced being financially strapped because they made the right decision in life. Get a job at a young age, go to college, and worked toward a degree. People sometimes people who had kids at an early age, where on government relief, and experienced and abusive married are jealous that someone did things the right want and want to see that person suffer. And after they bring you down and you see what poverty is like and are trying to work your way out of it, they know you need help, but instead they pretend not to know what you are going through. Because you are a forgiving person, you do not spite them, but wish them well. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
As you try hard to work your way back to success, your heart and mind will not even allow you to ask people with an ugly spirit for help. All money and not good money and although they stole from you and hurt you, it is better to struggle and try hard so when you come back up, you do not have any obligations to unholy people. People abuse their power and fail to treat others with the respect they deserve. The fundamental idea of respect is one that we can all agree upon, and it is an essential basis for solving our everyday problems. While people may spread lies and make up rumors about you, it is essential to seek first to understand before judging someone. Everyone has had different experiences in their lives that have helped shape who they are now. Growing up in a small rural community has taught me so many things. It is nearly impossible to enjoy life in a rural community without showing others respect. Our actions towards others determine our reputation, no matter what people say about us out of envy and malice. If people do not like their reputation, they can change their actions. Our actions is the one thing we can control. When it comes to overcoming being greedy, selfish, and overly indulgent, we all need more help. The worst fear many have is people will get rich in this country and forget God and his people. We will all be literally called upon to make an accounting before God concerning how we have used our resources to bless lives and build the kingdom of God. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
No one of us is less treasured or cherished of God than another. God loves us each of us—insecurities, anxieties, self-image, and all. God does not want any of us to suffer, but sometimes we learn lessons as we suffer. We learn what it is like to be injured, hungry, poor, and unpopular. These are important things for some people to experience so they do not grow up to become monsters. It teaches us to be more understanding, humble, more compassionate, and show respect to people we do not know. We learn not to become a prisoner—a prisoner of sin, stupidity, and a pigsty. God does not want us to wallow with swine. People who take for granted their father and disenfranchise their family members will fall victim to a fictional affront. Even if we are not making as much money as we used to or live in a place the is rather shabby and loud, we still can be very happy with our lives. Keep in mind, wealth cannot buy health. If envy were a fever all the World would be ill. And even though you see your material lifestyles as being a shadow of what it used to be, people can still be jealous of you because of how well you are coming through the white squall they created in your life. Because envy is so far reaching—it can resent anything, including virtue and talent, and it can be offended by everything, including every goodness and joy. As we seem to grow larger in the sight of others, they feel that they are growing smaller. And they keep spending money to make themselves feel better, while you are still steadfastly focused of spiritual enlightenment and career development. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The purpose of life is learning as much as we can so that we can be ready for the gift of eternal life. There is more to come after our mortal bodies are no more. Our souls are eternal and the actions we choose in this lifetime determine how our eternal life will be. It is also better to go through this life with a clear conscience, as a guilty conscience might be worse than hell. This is a great truth. Understanding the plan for eternal life will help people keep the commandments, make better decision, and have the right motivation. The eternal perspective of the gospel leads us to understand the place that we occupy in God’s plan, to accept difficulties and progress through them, to make decisions, and to center our lives on our divine potential. Perspective is the way we see things when we look at them from a certain distance, and it allows us to appreciate their true value. We were taught this plan before we came to Earth and there rejoiced in the privilege of participating in it. Perhaps people who used you and hurt you do not understand what life is about and we should feel sorry for them that money is the only thing that matters to them because the great wicked one also has a plan, it is cunning, evil, subtle plan of destruction. It is the great wicked one’s objective to take captive the children of Father in Heaven and with every possible means frustrate the great plan of happiness. However, our Heavenly Father endowed his sons and daughters with unique traits especially fitted for their individual responsibilities as they fulfill God’s plan. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The struggle to success is a difficult one. For those of us that have a belief in God, the right combination of smarts and tenacity, we are blessed to have been cultivated in large by our actively influential surroundings. The environment we grew up in is an important factor in our upbringing and in the success that we will one day achieve. This is not to say that we are product of our circumstances entirely—there have been several people who were subject to horrific situations growing up, and through the love and guidance of God, that managed to make themselves into something and were successful in morphing their dreams into a reality. Whether we embrace our environment growing up and think back to it fondly, or remember our situation growing up and thank our lucky stars that we were able to make it out alive—the fact remains the same: our past made us who we are today and if we are happy with who we are, we cannot wish to have lived a different way. That includes where and with whom we grew up. “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect,” reports Matthew 5.48. Mortal perfection can be achieved as we try to perform every duty, keep every law, and strive to be perfect in our sphere as our Heavenly Father is in his. If we do the best we can, the Lord will bless us according to our deeds and the desires of our hearts. The Lord’s entire work and glory pertains to the immortality and eternal life of each human being. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
It is No Small Thing that Symbols Reappear in the Word of Wisdom
In darkness, there is to be found precious brilliance, our essential nature. Make a believer of everyone. All that matter is how you want to live your life. Faith is much more than passive belief. We express our faith through action—by the way we live. Our faith can lead us to do good works, obey the commandments, and repent of our sins. When the grace of God descends on us, each one of us will understand our own mistakes. The Lord has laid out different paths for different people suitable for our natures. The Lord will work mighty miracles in our lives according to our faith. When times of trial come, faith can give us strength to press forward and face our hardships with courage. Even when our future seems uncertain, our faith in God can give us peace. When it is compounded with gratitude for the goodness of this life which God’s sovereignty has effected and is continuously sustaining we have the concept of grace: God’s free and unstinted gifts to humanity not only have made our lives possible but sustain and enable it at every point along the way. Religion brushed with mystery. Authority, ritual, speculation, tradition, grace, and God’s sovereignty has important functions to perform in our lives. The angles of God can open our hearts and fill them with light. We can nurture the gift of faith by praying to Heavenly Father. As we express our gratitude to our Father and as we plead with the Lord for blessings that we and others need, we will draw near to God. We will also be receptive to the quiet guidance of the Holy Ghost. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
A desire to believe in God can lead us to the great chain of being. The vastness of nature can equally well be taken as evidence of humanity’s importance in God’s eyes. God-intended destiny of discovering the revealed word of God in planted in our hearts will allow us to begin to enlarge our souls and enlighten our understanding of this web of ambiguities in nature and provide greater precision and stability. This will strengthen our faith. As we continually nurture the word of God in our hearts, with great diligence, and patience humanity is guaranteed a position of dignity in the ladder of being. Once this happens, our enemies can do nothing to seal our hearts against the words of God. Slowly but steadily people of energy, talent, and worth become convinced of the truth in the scriptures as God works through us as standing miracles. Obedience to God’s laws, principles, and promptings leads to spiritual and temporal blessings. Individual accountability and action activate blessings, as an infallible revelation of God’s will. Please be assured that we are all children of our Father in Heaven. He loves us and will never forsake us. God knows us and is ready to extend the spiritual and temporal blessings of self-reliance. God has our best interests at heart. God has the supremacy to overshadow the entire Universe with this power and grace. The Lord is almighty, omnipotent, the Lord of Worlds, the Author of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of life and death in whose hand is dominion and irresistible power. He can deliver us from affliction. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
If we were asked to believe that all our striving is without final consequence, then life is meaningless and it scarcely matters how we live if all will end in the dust of death. According to Christianity, on the other hand, each action has vital significance. God’s grand design is life eternal for those who walk in the steps of the Savior. Here is the one grand incentive to good living, as life is seen to have purpose and meaning, people find release from despair and the fear of death. God is the Holy, Peaceful, Faithful, Guardian over his children. The Lord is Gracious, a Hearer, Compassionate, Merciful, Very-Forgiving, and his love for humanity is more tender than the most precious silk scarf. Whatever the meaning of life acquires is derived from the encounter between God and each person. The meaning thus conferred upon human life cannot be understood in terms of some finite human purpose, supposedly more ultimate than the meeting itself. For what could be more ultimate then the Presence of God? By noonday brightness, and by the night when it darkens, the Lord has not forsaken us, neither has he been displeased. Surely the future shall be better than the past; and in the end God shall be bounteous to us, and we shalt be satisfied. Did God not find the orphans, and give him and her a home and guide them and enrich them? #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
Standing beneath God’s gracious skies, we can at any moment lift our hearts directly into the divine presence, there to receive both strength and guidance for the living of our days. We have such ready access to the divine because between us and God stands nothing. Is God not closer than the vein of thy neck? Thou need not raise thy voice, for God knows the secret whisper, and what is yet more hidden. God knows that is in the land and in the sea; no leaf falls but God knows it; nor is there a grain in the darkness under the Earth, nor a thing green or sere, but it is recorded. God, then, is one, immaterial, all-powerful, all-pervading, and benevolent. God deliberately created the Heavens and the Earth. The World of matter is completely real. It is dependent to be sure on God as its creator, but once originated it is as real as anything there is. Being the handiwork of a God who is both great and good, the World of matter must likewise be basically good. No defect can we see in the creation of the God of mercy; repeat the gaze and you will see no flaw. God’s supreme accomplishment lies in the fact that he created human beings. And one of the most important things to note about humanity’s view of being is an appreciation of both the ultimacy and value of individuality. The human soul is also eternal, for once created the soul lives forever. Value, virtue, goodness, and spiritual fulfillment come by expressing one’s unique self by virtue of which one is different from anyone or anything else. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
This inexplicable finite center of experience is the fundamental fact of the Universe. The soul is always attached to life in some way. Its suffering initiates a move toward increased spirituality. All life is individual; there is no such thing as a Universal life. God himself is an individual: The Lord is the most unique individual. So intense and vivid is the Bible’s feel for God’s power and sovereign will that some interpreters have concluded that it eclipses human’s freedom. However, whoever gets oneself a sin, gets it solely on his or her own responsibility. Whoever goes astray, one oneself bears the whole responsibility of wandering. This belief in humanity’s freedom and responsibility leads directly to the doctrine of the afterlife. For life on Earth is the foundation of an eternal future. It will be followed by a day of reckoning which is foreshadowed in the most awesome term. When the Sun shall be folded up, and the stars shall fall, and when the mountains shall be set in motion and the seas shall boil, then shall every soul know what is has done. On that day of judgment each individual will be accountable for the way he or she has lived. Every person’s actions have we hung around their neck, and on the last day shall it be laid before him or her a wide-open Book. For the scriptures tell us, seven times they report to us, that no unclean thing may enter the presence of God. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
In mortality people are free to choose, and each choice begets consequence. Depending on how it fares in this accounting the soul will then repair either to Heaven or Hell. Heaven abounds in deep rivers of cool, crystal water, lush fruit and vegetation, boundless fertility, and beautiful mansions with gracious attendants. Pearly gates and streets of gold. Hell is at times equally graphic with its account of molten metal, boiling liquids, and the fire that splits everything to pieces. Some of these signs are firm—these are the basis of the book—and others are figurative. Also, supporting the non-materialistic interpretation of paradise is that God wants us to see his face night and more as it is felicity which will surpass all the pleasures of the body, as the ocean surpasses a drop of sweat. From this view, the joy of joys consists in the beatific vision in which the veil which divides humans from God will be rent forever and his Heavenly glory disclosed to the soul untrammeled by its Earthly raiments. The belief that unites us all concerning the afterlife is that each soul will be held accountable for its actions on Earth with one’s happiness or misery thereafter dependent upon how well one has observed God’s laws. If punishment is the charge repentance asks, it comes at a bargain price. Consequences, even painful ones, protect us. So simple a thing as a child’s cry of pain when his or her finger touches fire can teach us that. Except for the pain, the child might be consumed. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
How supernally precious freedom is; how consummately valuable is the agency of humanity. Praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds, the Compassionate, the Merciful. King of the day of Judgement, we worship you and as you for help. Guide us in the straight path, the path of those whom you have favored, not the path of those who incur your anger nor of those who go astray. Why the straight path? One meanings is obvious; a straight path is undevious, neither crooked nor corrupt. The straight path is one that is straightforward, direct, and explicit. We know where we stand. We know who we are and who God is. We know what our obligations are and if these are transgress we know what to do about it. There would be no peace, neither happiness nor safety, in a World without repentance. Atonement was made. Every and always it offers amnesty from transgression and from death if we will but repent. Repentance is the escape clause in it all. Repentance is the key with which we can unlock the prison from the inside. We hold that key within our hands, and agency is ours to use it. We look up, and in the Universe we see the handiwork of God and measure things by epochs, by eons, by dispensations, by eternities. The many things we do not know we take on faith. However, this we know! It was all planned before the World was. Events from the creation to the final, winding-up scene are not based on chance; they are based on choice. It was planned that way. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
God is the Lonely Cosmic Dancer Whose Routine is All Creatures and All Worlds
We know the current state of things is not right. It has been brought about by a script for what supposedly constitutes a successful nation that has been playing out particularly the past few years. While it is granted that there are inevitable tragic aspects of life, knowledge of existence and nature is to be preferred to illusions. America is no longer a population building country and some might even say that it is overpopulated, which is why housing, cars, clothes, food, medical care, and legally assistance is so expensive. The symbols that used to guide our minds, hearts, and souls no longer sustain us as a people. We are waking up from illusion of material reality. People want things to go back to the way they used to be in the past when a person could work at a supermarket and could afford a brand-new house, car, and support a family on one’s salary. Because the United States of America has, in modern times, been outsourcing jobs and production to other countries, so that companies can earn more profits from lower labor cost, it has hurt America by creating huge deficits and suppressing the wages of American workers. The economy consists of millions of people engaged in many activities—buying, selling, working, hiring, manufacturing and so on. A closed economy is a self-contained economic unit that has no business or trading relations with anyone outside of that unit. This model is why the United States of America used to be so innovative and produced a large number of scholars and Academics, as we had to solve our own problems and produce future leaders, so people took education more seriously. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
A closed economy does not engage in international trade in goods and services, nor does it engage in international borrowing and lending, which is why generations of the past could keep the national deficit low and traditional jobs, not just professional ones allowed people to ability to afford to live in their communities, as the closed system was characterized by a small amount of exposure to external markets, as opposed to the relatively open economy. As a nation, our economy used to follow the circular-flow diagram, where firms produced goods and services using inputs such as domestic labor, and capital (buildings and machines). These inputs are called the factors of production. Households own the factors of production and consume all the goods and services that the firms produced. Self-reliance means that the country does not have to worry about the global economy. A closed region is independent from other regions, so there is no fear of coercion nor interference. A direct result of not relying on other countries and regions is that the closed economic region is independent. An open economic region, or one that depends on importing and exporting, is susceptible to external demands that could weaken the region’s infrastructure, much like when OPEC manipulated that gas prices to cause fuel to cost three or four times as much as it used to, while you are still making the same wages before the cost of fuel skyrocketed. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
Market manipulation in an open economy means you have less money to spend on others bills and goods and services, which could hurt your bottom line, or even cause your lifestyle to become unaffordable. This also may force businesses to sell good at extravagant prices just to cover transit, which can lead to weak sales. Much like how consumers and businesses now have to pay taxes on items they buy online, along with shipping, which will make the items much more expensive than the ones they buy in the store. Because of the increased costs, more consumers might return to shopping in the physical stores in the material World, which is the point, but this will also add to more cars on the road, and more people waiting in line at the stores, and that is a major disadvantage because time is money. When prices increase, it also may keep people from obtaining goods necessary for living, which can weaken the economy. Closing such regions economically eradicates high transit costs, leaving more money for the internal economy. This is why President Trumps is placing tariffs on foreign goods because many American companies are being shut down, as they cannot compete with more cost-effective products coming from other countries. Because we are importing so many goods and services, much of our money is being sent overseas, helping other nations develop faster, and is causing a national security problem. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
The catch up effect, alternatively called the theory of convergence, demonstrates how poor or developing economies grown faster compared to economics with a higher per capita income and gradually reach similar high levels of per capita income. Basically, poorer nations are grow much faster because of higher possibilities of growth and over time catch up with the richer countries in terms of per capita income such that the divide between the two gets minimized. And that is why the trade deficit and national debt is a matter of national security. Because of opportunities of growth available for developing economics like access to technological know how from the developed Word and increasing returns to capital, they may one day become a World power, which puts the status of the United States of America in jeopardy. The US trade deficit is $46.2 billion, and the US national debt is $21.2 trillion. If America loses its status as a World power, we could be occupied by another government and subjected to human rights violations, slave wages, loss of private property, slavery and more. Empirical evidence suggests that while some developing economics have been able to effectively tap the available advantages to grow faster and catch up with robust economies, this has not been true for a large part of the developing World, but with the United States going into so much debt and borrowing so much money for foreign sources, we are weakening America as a nation. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Mr. Desmond Townsend
Also, if we had a closed economy, we would have already figured out how to produce cars that run on other types of fuel, besides oil. And face it, no one, especially the youth wants to sit around charging a car for hours. We are already experiencing an over consumption of electric, which is why we had rolling blackouts a few years ago and the very reason power companies are asking you to use major appliances at night and not heat nor cool your homes as desired. As a result of high demand on electricity, the California Energy Department is placing restriction of all new homes three stories and less that they have to have solar panels, which will increase the cost of your home by at least $10,000.00 and there is no cap on that expense. As you know, prices of technology can rise overtime. And the federal government plans to hike interest rates four times this year to keep up with inflation, so the cost of the mortgage will rise even higher, making homes even more expensive than they are. People are demanding more homeownership, family, and financial security. A desire for community and authenticity is strong and growing. Many individuals want what is real, and not just regularly scheduled programming and the constant onslaught of fame, wealth, greed, social propaganda, and survivalist tendencies it celebrates, and that is why we have to support goods and services produced domestically. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
If you want your wages to rise to keep up with inflation, we have to start supporting American made goods and services, which will cost us more in the short term. However, as costs keep rising and more money is being spent in our domestic economy, in the long term it will also cause wages to rise so people can afford to buy the goods and services. However, if we keep sending our money overseas and buying foreign products, other nations will have caught up to America and surpass us, while we decline and the cost of living increasingly becomes unaffordable. Already, 43 percent of Americans are struggling, and experiencing food shortages, economical insecurity, and unstable households. Some people worry each month about paying their bills and as the bills keep going up and their wages are not, they fear they are being priced out of their homes, or eventually will be. Decreases in the money supply, cuts in government spending, and increases in taxes lead to lower inflations, but higher unemployment. Because we have been outsourcing labor, wages are suppressed. How many people do you know who can live off $10-$15 an hour, when rent for a one-bedroom apartment is on average $1,505.00 a month? An economist actually reported if minimum wage were keeping up with inflation, it would be about $28.00 an hour. And with the mandated increase in minimum wage to $15 an hour, many skilled workers will experience pay deflation, so something really needs to be done to correct this unstable market. It is not fair to work your way up to $20 an hour and a new employee with no experience comes in making $15.00. #RandolphHarrris 6 of 8
Because of how stressful life and the economy are for many is the reason a lot of people do not watch the news. No one wants to be reminded daily that they are being priced out of a country they and their ancestors helped build. However, when we feel far from God, we need only to make the decision to turn from sin and face the Savior, where we will find the Lord waiting for us, with his arms outstretched. God is here to guide us, and we are just one prayer away from receiving the guidance again. On matters of such supreme moment, the truth rather than fiction is the more fitting ideal of rational people. The power of God awaits our demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its wisdom. What an incomparable gift comes to those who put their faith in God. That gift is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s power in action, his active force. It is the vital, or animating, force in living creatures. God sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish his will. The Holy Spirit inspires us, empowers us and guides our understanding. The Spirit touches our hearts and transforms us, renewing the image of God in which we were created. God wants us to have the Spirit’s gifts to build up the Lord’s kingdom. Miracles will be wrought, the infirmary will be healed, and signs and wonders will follow the believers. The Spirit is, as well, the ultimate solution for all our maladies and problems. Those who respond to the Spirit the Lord renews and transforms into the image of God. Guilt, stress, hostility, and a host of other problems melt in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Father, son, and the Holy Ghost are one Spirit. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Some may think we should not expect daily guidance from the Spirit. However, to live by the Spirit is a high privilege. It brings a sense of cam and certainty as well as the products of the Spirit such as love, joy, and peace. In many situations, being familiar with the voice of the Holy Ghost is a matter of spiritual life and death. Whoso will hearken unto the word of God, and hold fast unto it will never perish; neither can the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction. Following the feet of the people ahead of you on the path is not enough. We cannot just do and think what others are doing and thinking; we must live a guided life. We must each have our own understanding of faith. Then we may go to the Lord with humble confidence, knowing that he shall lead us by the hand, and give us answers to our prayers. Then we will achieve a realistic outlook on the World and will be freed from the knows of the heat and the identification of the self with the Spirit. Thus liberated we will perform our royal duties efficiently, like an actor on the stage. Following this example and the teachings in the scriptures, we will no longer be motivated by temptations and they will no longer possess us. Like a child playing alone, God is the lonely cosmic dancer whose routine is all creatures and all Worlds. From the tireless stream of the Lord’s cosmic energy these flow without end as God executes his graceful, repetitious movements. #RandolpHarris 8 of 8
Give Me Something to Desire
Conditions that work against happiness may work for, not against, the developing, trying, and testing of the moral fiber. Love is not primarily a relationship to specific person; it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the World as a whole, not toward one object of love. If a person loves only one other person and is indifferent to the rest of society, his or her love is not love but a symbiotic attachment, or an enlarge sense of pride. When we reflect on the tragedies or our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. Love is the means of entry and our guide that keeps us on our path. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and direction we would have never predicted or desired, then we are on the way toward discovering the true meaning of soul, where honor and value reveal themselves meticulously and paradoxically. This is the shortest path to divine realization. It requires a rare combination of rationality and spirituality. Life is not motored so much by reason as by emotion, and of the many emotions that crowd a person’s life, the most powerful and pervasive is love. Even hate can be interpreted as a rebound from the thwarting of this impulse. Moreover, we tend to become like that which we love, and God lies at the base of every heart. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
If we shift our attachment to God, we will reach him in no time. The moral life is not a mere conforming to given static principles and rules but it is directing the moral agent along certain paths of self-development. There is development within the moral ideal: We discover tomorrow that today’s ideal has more in it than we had supposed. Our goal is to adore God with every element of our being. The normal object of human love is personality, however exalted its attributes of wisdom, compassion, and grace may be. All we have to do is to love God dearly—not just say we love him but love the Lord in fact; love him only (loving other things because of him), and love our Lord for no ulterior reasons (not even from the desire for liberation) but for love’s sake alone. Insofar as we succeed we will know joy, for no experience can compare with that of being authentically and fully in love. Moreover, every strengthening of our affections toward God will weaken the World’s grip. The stain may, indeed will, love the World far more than the addict, but one will love it in a different way, seeing in it the reflected glory of the God one adores. How is this love of God to be developed? Obviously the task will not easy. The things of this World clamor for our affection so incessantly that it may be marveled that a Being who can neither be seen nor heard can ever become their competitor. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
However, we must keep our faith and yield our hearts to God. When we open ourselves to the Spirit, we learn God’s way and feel his will. These magnificent symbols and rituals keep turning night and day like a never-ending prayer wheel. As our trust in God grows, we open our hearts, seek to do the Lord’s will, and wait for answers that will help us understand. And the Lord will forgive our sins that are due to our human limitations. Purposeful, valuable activity produces an extension of our conscious present; it delivers us from the dullness of one thing after another. The value of faith lies in the power to recall our minds from the World’s distractions to the thought of God and thereby progressively to his love. In singing God’s praises, in praying to him with wholehearted devotion, in meditating on his majesty and glory, in reading about him in the scriptures, in regarding the entire Universe as his handiwork, we move our affections steadily in his direction. The cause in this development is well expressed by the account of eternity—the complete and simultaneous fruition of life without bounds. Search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good. This does not mean all things are good, but for the meek and faithful, things—both negative and beneficial—work together for good, and the timing is the Lord’s. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
We wait on God, sometimes like Job in his suffering, knowing that God makes the sore bind itself: one who is wounded, God will make whole. A meek heart accepts the trail and the waiting for that time of healing and wholeness to come. When we open ourselves to the Spirit, we learn God’s way and feel the Lord’s will. When we are yielded and still, our minds can be directed to something more we may need to change—something that is reducing our capacity to receive spiritual guidance or even healing and help. For example, perhaps I have a carefully guarded resentment toward someone. When I ask if there is more to confess, that secret comes clearly to my memory. In essence, the Holy Ghost is whispering, “You honestly asked if there was more, and here it is. Your resentment diminishes your progress and damages your ability to have healthy relationships. You can let this God.” Oh, it is hard work—we may feel quite justified in our animosity—but yielding to the Lord’s way is the only way to lasting happiness. The healing of our heart begins when we submit to and worship God. When our hearts are right, that is when true worship begins. What is our heart condition today? Paradoxically, in order to have a healed and faithful heart, we must first allow it to break before the Lord. “You shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit,” the Lord declares. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
The result of sacrificing our heart, or our will, to the Lord is that we receive the spiritual guidance we need. This frequent service of the will becomes a constant, warming presence that imperceptibly becomes a genuine appeal of the heart and soul. Keep the faith in God spinning in the midst of all your activities and one day you will see your wildest dreams come true. It will be a lot like playing the slot machine in Vegas, when all the symbols come together and you win the jackpot when you least expected it. When the full bounty of the Lord is poured out in your life, the light will come back into your eyes, your soul will shine, and you will have a sense of well-being that you had not experienced since you were a child. These verbal droplets of faith and aspiration will soak down into the subconscious, turning the total self towards the divine. We come finally to worship God in the form of one’s chosen ideal. The more sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior. With a growing understanding of the Lord’s grace and mercy, we find that our self-willed hearts begin to crack and break in gratitude. In our brokenhearted reaching and yoking, we receive new hope and fresh guidance through the Holy Ghost. God’s way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the World to come. We believe in the providence of God, the immortality of human’s soul, and divine retribution in a future life. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
Virtue consists in pursuing what seems to be in accordance with right reason, but both our capacity to discover what actions accord with reason and our inclination toward those actions flow from a sort of forth dimension: a body which contains a spirit and has a certain spissitude, or density of substances. Some many think that they have failed too many times and feel too weak to change sinful acts or Worldly desires of the heart. However, as a covenant with God, we do not just try and try on our own to change. If we earnestly appeal to God, the Lord will take us as we are—and makes us more than we ever imagined. A healthy longing to improve balanced with the spiritual assurance that in and through the Savior, we are going to make it. With such an understanding, we can honestly say to the Heavenly Father: So trusting my all to thy tender care, and knowing thou loves me, I will do thy will with a heart sincere: I will be what you want me to be. The removal of all struggle and all insecurity would logically and psychologically lead to the prayer: give me something to desire. The term pleasure embraces everything from scratching an itch to enjoying eternal bliss with God. With God, pleasure is a state ad pleasure is a motion. Hence health is a true pleasure. We belittle neither the joy arising from conferral of benefit, not the testimony of a good conscience as the reward for deeds, nor the importance of mental pleasures. Pleasure be natural so that no pain follow the pleasure of the chosen, and that no greater pleasure be lost, and that no social harm results. #Randolphharris 6 of 6
Love is the Most Powerful Force in the Galaxy
Life is good—though not for the wicked one; returning to our Father in Heaven is good, because it will permit the soul to live an unhampered life. You can do so much good that it will astound you as you are changed and as you see other changed. The Lord wants you to have the greatest experiences as you make this journey on Earth. This can be a magnificent journey filled with literally thousands of tremendous experiences and spiritual confirmations if you will find your way through the many choices that will be yours along the way. When we harness the power of prayer, we wrap our wishes and dream with possibilities. Instead of limiting ourselves and cutting off our access to what we cannot necessarily anticipate, we maintain open minds and hearts. However, that is not always so easy, especially if the results you were hoping for are not forthcoming. Prayer is not about asking for certain results. Prayer helps us embrace the outcomes whether it is good or bad. We pray for strength, understanding, patience, and whatever else we need to pursue our dreams. Prayer clears away the debris that often prevent us from recognizing opportunities. The private conversations with God seem to underscore enduring faith in the World. The road given by our Father in Heaven is clearly marked, but the patterns and ways of the World can deceive you. Of all the paradoxes that help us detach from the ordinary plane of existence and connect with the spiritual plane, suffering that breeds a greater engagement in life is perhaps the most intriguing. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Life is eternal. The World that we live in provides us with the journey that will guide us back to God’s presence in Heaven to live eternally. However, while on Earth we all experience pain. How on Earth can a profoundly hurtful experience make anyone live life more fully? That any pleasure, or good, can come from pain seems impossible for anyone to believe. Yet suffering can be redemptive for all of us. The ability to turn suffering to our own advantage, not just at work, but in life allows one to approach painful experiences with an open mind, to make the best of them, learn from them, and get beyond them. Suffering leaves us open to whatever gifts may be available to us as we endure the loss of something we cherish, be it an object, a person, a belief, or a dream. Our suffering is nothing compared to the glory that is coming. If we stay moldable, pliable, and willing to change, we will not be as this same place next year. God will take every irritation and turn it into a blessing. If we want to receive the true benefits of our life experience, we must empty ourselves of expectations. To be filled with the gifts of life, we must first make room for them. God never promised that life would be fair. God did, however, promise that if you stay in faith, he would take what is meant for your harm and use it to your advantage. Nothing that happens to you is a surprise to God. That is why he arranged a comeback for every setback, a vindication for every wrong, and a new beginning for every disappointment. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
Few of us open ourselves to redemptive suffering before we reach maturity. The first half of life does not typically present us with the kinds of grave losses that provoke the profound suffering most of us must experience before we open ourselves to events beyond those we wish and plan for. At a certain point in our adulthood, however, the truth behind illusions such as “I am in control,” “If I work hard, I will succeed,” “Life is fair,” and “If I am a good person, nothing bad will happen to me,” confronts us very directly. As much as we would like to hold on to these beliefs, it becomes increasingly hard to do as we experience serious career disappointments, problems with our loved ones, financial difficulties, the deaths of people we love. Just as a raging forest fire can level everything that stands in its way, consistent deep inner suffering can obliterate the very illusions that fanned the flames of suffering in the first place. If you will get over it, God will still get you to where you are supposed to be. Stop reliving all the hurt, and move forward, then you will come to the new beginning God has in store. Through redemptive suffering, we can survive the loss of these illusions, discover important truths, even experience spiritual growth. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
Even one episode of deep suffering can destroy our damaging illusions. Fortunately, the deeper the pain, the greater the potential for growth. Changing the way we view suffering and learning to put its lessons to good use are two of the best ways to get the most our of our adult adventure. A true fall of humanity has never taken place. Actually, even when in a body, the soul still lives its original celestial life and remains unseparated from intelligence. Only we are not away of this hidden life of the soul; on other words, we are partly unconscious of what happens in our minds. What is true of the soul in relation to intelligence is even truer of the relation between our embodied selves and intelligence. Not even when present in us does intelligence discontinue its activity. With this knowledge and love, we can help transform hopes and dreams and help others find eternal truths and inward peace and security that it brings. To know the One means to become one with it, which the soul can accomplish only by becoming s simple or as along as the One. In the moment of such union the souls has become God or, rather, is God; the souls has reascended to its original source. This condition is described as ecstasy, simplicity, self-surrender, touching, and flight of the alone to the alone. This ecstasy is undoubtedly the climatic moment of a person’s life. It is not expressible in words; only one who has experienced it knows what it means to be ravished away and full of God. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
For this renascent one prepares oneself by acquisition of all the perfections (virtues, aretai). However, each of these perfections acquires different meanings according to the level on which one’s spiritual life takes place—thus, there is a social fairness, above it another kind of fairness, and so on. One prepares oneself by the exercise of dialectics. The preliminary stages of achievement is becoming Godlike. The truly infinite is a thing which has no limits imposed on it from without but only from within. We should obey the divine command and “Know thyself.” Our true happiness consists and of the concept of self-knowledge. Spiritual substances and material can interact because God represents both and connect them. Human perceptions are an effect of God’s real vision. Spiritual and material things are both real because God represents them; material things are real in a further sense, as phaenomena substantiata, in so far as God represents them as real. This divine representation is the cause of the real existence of things; but we perceive only an appearance of this real existence. The logical difficulties of the concept of infinity, that space and time cannot exist outside of human representation. The soul, properly nurtured and purified, may escape from the changing World of appearance to a higher World that is eternal and divine. The soul that departs early from the Earth does not become warped and cramped by the body but returns to the other World unimpaired. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
It is no secret what God can do. Here is the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, “Who am I?” I am a child of God with a spirit lineage to Heavenly parents. That parentage defines our eternal potential. That powerful idea is a potent antidepressant. It can strengthen each of us to make righteous choices and to seek the best that is within us. Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life. When we understand our relationship to God, we also understand our relationship to one another. All men and women on this Earth are the offspring of God, spirit brothers and sisters. What a powerful truth! Love is the most powerful force in the World. Love is not just an ecstasy, not just an intense feeling. It is a driving force. It is something that carries us through our life of joyful duty. The idea of eternal progress is one of the most powerful ideas in our theology. It gives us hope that when we falter and challenge is when we soar. And we can pray to our Heavenly Father, and he will hear our prayers and help us in the way that is best for us. We can always be in touch with a powerful friend who loves us and helps us, in his own time and in his own way. Life on Earth is more good than evil. The human enjoys pleasures that outweigh one’s pains. The greatest pleasures come from intellectual pursuits and virtuous actions; a life so spent brings happiness in this World and leads to eternal felicity in the next. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
When We Risk Being Ourselves We Can Master Interpersonal Happiness
Society exists because, as a matter of fact, by far the greater number of people have the kind of feeling that make it possible. There is a constant prayer in our hearts that we will not fail in the great trust God has placed in us so we can build faith and testimony and which will become answered prayers for those who will here. There are three basic principles that can help us retain a remission of our sins: first, to remain humble; second, to call upon the Lord daily; and third, to stand steadfast in the faith. Humility has been described as having the desire to submit to the Lord, the wish to seek the Lord’s will and glory, and the yearning to remove narcissism. We should always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and his goodness and long-suffering towards us. Inasmuch as we are humble we might be made strong, and blessed from on high, and receive knowledge from time to time. Prayer is one of the greatest blessings we have while here on Earth. Through prayer we can communicate with our Heavenly Father and seek his guidance daily. We should pray each day that we will have the power to resist temptation, as our daily prayers influence our thoughts, words, and actions. In order to retain a remission of our sins, it is essential that we ask our Heavenly Father every day for the strength to stay on the righteous path. To sustain faith, each of us must be humble and compassionate, kind and generous. Faith is further sustained by daily doses of spirituality that come to us as we kneel in prayer. #RandolphHarris 1 of 8
Our observation of an instance of virtuous action is the occasion for a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction, which enables us to distinguish that action as virtuous. Similarly, our observation of an instance of vicious action is the occasion for a feeling of pain or uneasiness, which enables us to distinguish that action as vicious. The moral sense is also an influencing motive in our pursuit of virtue and our avoidance of vicious behavior, and it play a part in our bestowal of praise and blame. Besides accounting for our knowledge of right and wrong, the moral sense closes the gap between moral knowledge and moral behavior by providing a motive for moral behavior. Since moral knowledge consists of feeling of pleasure and uneasiness, the prospect of enjoying or avoiding these feelings is a sufficient motive for pursuing virtue and avoiding vice. If moral knowledge were not ultimately a matter of feelings, it would be possible for someone to know that a certain kind of action is virtuous but still have no motive for doing it. The moral sense also enables us to account for our approval and condemnation of actions and characters as following from our being pleased of pained by them. Sometimes society invents prohibitions together with the means of transgressing them. The profit-mongering gatekeepers keep us at bay, replacing interpersonal communication with ever-more-extreme pseudo-participator entertainments. Entertainment today stimulates then inhibits us. #RandolphHarris 2 of 8
A person may know that a certain way of acting may have a certain result, but in order for one to achieve that result, he or she must first find it pleasing. Inhibited by what stimulates us—the Worldly ways that becomes ever more extreme teach people that life is all about preaching transgression and rebellion for the greater good of humanity. It is a doctrine that teaches people to behave badly and reap the rewards of notoriety and celebrity. However, it just to happens that God determined us to be pleased by benevolent actions; and when nothing interfere with moral sense, we count benevolence a virtue and malevolence a vice. Some people have a preferring for the destruction of society over its maintenance. Whenever there is a tragedy, there is a tourist attraction because when Worldly ways merge into the new conformity, people who are lost, confused or led astray start to feel entitled to engage in whatever antics bring them pleasure, or makes them feel important. Many people then start to get off on transgression. And with more and more people joining them on the sites of tragedy tour, the ungodly behavior gets more raw, intense, and pervasive than ever before. Gratuitous violence is portrayed as a way to protest violence because there are preplanned acts of extreme spontaneity that allows individuals to take advantage of a World in which the cameras are always ready, trained on whatever is about to happen. When one no longer finds a need for a faculty psychology, the need to search for a moral faculty goes too. #RandolphHarris 3 of 8
Is it any wonder that the once unheard-of phenomenon of fans randomly attacking celebrities while they are in public or in their homes has become yet another commonplace occurrence? One of the most infamous of these incidents was the stabbing of tennis teen Monica Seles in the middle of a match. Or the tripping and throwing water on journal list Tomi Lahren at a restaurant while she was with her family. Another journalist, Sara Zendehnam, had a huge rock thrown at her head during a live report, which luckily, she was able to evade. Someone we the stage during Aaliyah’s performance so when she came out on stage she slipped and fell. Paris Hilton was threatened and extorted for money by hackers, and someone pretended a plane she was on was about to crash just to scare her. There has been a fundamental shift out on fandom’s fringe, today’s intruders and insiders want to be part of the show. People want to ne noticed, and they will spend the night, five years, or life in jail just to get their name in the paper. Getting noticed is no longer achieve by working hard in school, creating a fantastic invention, or becoming the young to graduate from law school because stabbings, shootings, and beatings are more likely to attract media attention. People realize the violent or radical acts seem to please the television news producers because their shock value is a surefire way to boost ratings and is a cheap form of entertainment for them. #RandolphHarris 4 of 8
Another part of popular culture was slavery. William Ford was from Ireland, and he arrived in Jamaica in 1784 having bought a coffee plantation. Not long after his arrival, he purchased a woman who was enslaved and took her as his concubine. Mr. Ford first noticed her on the docks at Alligator Pond, a fishing village on the south coast. She was an Igbo noble woman from West Africa. They had a son, whom they named John. He was, in the popular language of the day, a mulatto; John was colored—and all the Fords from that point on fell on into Jamaica’s colored class. They were seen as potential allies for the Whites because the Blacks were the majority. However, in the American South during that same period, it would have been highly unusual for a White landowner to have such a public relationship with an enslaved person. Relationships between Blacks and Whites were considered morally repugnant. Laws were passed prohibiting interracial relationships, the last of which were not struck down by the United States Supreme Court until 1967. A plantation owner who lived openly with an enslaved person would have been socially ostracized, and any offspring from the Union of White and Black would have been left in slavery. Therefore, it is important to be careful of who we vote into office and know what they stand for because it is possible that slavery could become a reality again. And that is why illegal acts that are part of popular culture are dangerous. #RandolphHarris 5 of 8
Whatever that becomes accepted as normal, and is dangerous, has a possibility of becoming legal through our legislative process. We have seen how Jerry Brown illegal made California a state where people who unlawfully enter our country are shielded from the laws, and even given money for their legal defense, while an estimated 5,000 Americans on the island of Puerto Rico were killed in a storm or by the aftermath of it, and Jerry Brown nor other politicians, besides the President, as allocating funds to help restore the American Island. Also, there are people waiting in line to legally enter the United States of America, but they may not get the chance because illegal immigrants have a priority. And after what happened on 11 September 2001, we need to be very careful about who we let into our country and we need to know who they are so we do not become victims. It is not right that Jerry Brown and other politicians are helping people break the law and putting us all at risk, while Americans suffer and die. I bet if 5,000 illegal immigrants were killed by a tragedy, the American people would be outraged. Put into practice and taken to its extreme, the right to individuality is the right to claim pleasure for oneself regardless of the consequences, and that is exactly what Jerry Brown is doing, putting his own agenda first, before the American people. However, those who live righteously and call upon the Lord daily will have a greater power to retain a remission of their sins. #RandolphHarris 6 of 8
For most of us, in fact, the World clamors for attention the moment we open our eyes. We are blessed to live in a land where laws matter and protect us. We cannot allow criminals to start making illegal actions legal as any of our legal protections can be taken away at any moment by heretics with a malevolent agenda. “Those who embark in the service of God, see that you serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that you may stand blameless for before God at the last day,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 4.2. Lift up your hearts and rejoice, and take upon you the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil and receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified. We should try to achieve a state of deep physiological relaxation, often called the alpha state by researchers who distinguish relative degrees of alertness by transducing brain chemistry into electrical impulses that can be graphed and observed on an oscilloscope. An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of varying signal voltages to display the waveform of brain as an electrocardiogram. Brain researchers have named the lowest level of alertness—i.e., the deepest state of relaxation—the alpha or first state. When you allow yourself to relax to this degree, you replenish your adaptive energy supply, increase your capacity to be creative because the Spirit of the Lord will come upon you, and you will be filled with joy. #RandolphHarris 7 of 8
Having received a remission from sin, and having a peace of conscience because of your exceeding faith, you will put yourself in the position of thinking more effectively when you return to your fully conscious state. Be on the lookout for a moment in your daily life that you believe to be worthy of an extended period of relaxation. Attractive objects, providential circumstances, and nature scenes lend themselves especially well to the alpha state of relaxation. This will allow one to grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in knowledge of that which is just and true. There will be no mind to injury one another, but there will be a desire to live at peace with one another. Parents will discipline their children with love and teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness. People will love one another and be kind and administer relief to others both spiritually and temporally. What greater blessing could we ask for? May God grant that we may retain a remission of our sins. God lives. What is most astounding will be the way the experience makes you feel. It will feel one with the kind of calm yet spirited enthusiasm that people feel in their youth and innocence. When individuals feel enthusiasm for doing virtuous things, you are one with God because a pathway is opened and into it is the beauty of human existence. When body, mind, and spirit converge, astounding physical and mental accomplishments are produced without strain or struggle. #RandolphHarris 8 of 8
For all your BMW service, be sure to check out M Power Independent BMW Service for Honesty and Quality Service. Caslav Milenkovic, Business Consultant, located at 7500 14th Avenue, Suit 8 in Sacramento, California USA 95820, Telephone (916) 457-8701 Fax (916) 457-9822 Email mpowermotors@sbcgobal.net
Soon Goes to Rest in Paradise of God—The Voice of God is in the Heart
The Universe works in mysterious ways. The voice of God is in the human heart. To rest in God means we take refuge in his protective care. Sometimes blessing take a little while because God is creating a harvest beyond your wildest dreams. The mind of the individuating person should remain contemplative as the spirit converses and assimilates with the unconscious. God, who is the creator of the World, is fully in harmony with the laws of nature, which God himself has implanted in the World for its governance. By the grace of God some exceptional persons may be born with a thoroughly sinless nature. Respect the voice of conscience as the voice of God in the soul of human beings and be encouraged to develop a spirit free of inquiry in all directions. When your decisions are always full of fear, you deny the best that is in you. That is a sin against yourself and probably the biggest sin of all. Traveling the road of exceptional competence will spur your mental mastery, your physical vigor, and your emotional vitality. With your roles in synchronous flow with your values, everything you do has greater meaning. It will give birth to an inner voice that awakens the soul. It is not necessary to dwell on the past. Make room in your mind for the new things God wants to do. Do not let these temporary provisions become permanent. If we can learn this principle of having faith and not settling, then we will see the fullness of what God has in store and make it all the way to the promised land. “Only those who repent and harden not their hearts shall enter the Lord’s rest,” reports Alma 12.34-37. #RandolphHarris 1 of 6
Care of the soul means respecting its emotions and fantasies however objectionable. Great miracles have taken place. All kind of good thing have happened. We cannot be contained. Just as researcher has charted the course of healthy mental, physical, emotional, and social development across the life span, contemporary scientists and theologians have recently attempted to map out how human beings grow spiritually. God put this dream in our hearts, and as long as we stay in faith, nothing can shut in down. When God created us, he put a spirit of increase on the inside. We were never made to reach one level and stop. We were created to grow, to move forward, and to prosper. We should be constantly surpassing the barriers of the past, taking new ground for our families and advancing in God’s kingdom. However, throughout life there will always be forces trying to deprive us. When we reflect on the tragedies of our own loves, when we slowly find our way through their miseries, we are being initiated into the mysterious ways of the soul. They cannot stop the progress we have made, but they will do their best to contain us, to keep us isolated, alienated, and struggling as a method of limiting our influence. Yet, keep in mind, the force of God is in you and it is greater than anything that has ever existed. Keep increasing your faith, look for new opportunities, new idea, and new ways to expand your influence. “Have love of God always in your hearts, that you may enter into his rest,” reports Alma 13.29. #RandolphHarris 2 of 6
God made you for more, to influence more, to accomplish more, to love more, to give more, and to have more. Love is the means of entry and our guide. God will take you places you never dreamed us and provide opportunities that will establish amazing influence. As individual belief is tested in the real World, young adults reconsider and redefine spirituality, often relinquishing the narrow views they were taught as youngsters and embracing the universality of spiritual principles and practices; this expansion of spiritual viewpoint may allow them to find spiritual meaning in art, architecture, automobiles, nature, and more. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and directions we would never have predicted or desired, then we will enter a deeper sense of awe and mystery of life; a wise understanding of the collective legends, religions, and traditions; and the potential to be a spiritual leader. Still, love asks many things of us, including actions that seem to be utterly counter to feelings of attachment and loyalty. That is why the signs we are ready to grow in spirit sometimes appear in the form of both curses and blessings. We may experience severe episodes of disillusionment with life, or periods of profound awe and reverence for the miracle of existence—or both at once. “Obtain sufficient hope by which you can enter into rest of the Lord,” reports Moroni 7.3. #RandolphHarris 3 of 6
The fluctuations in the rhythms of life calling us to spiritual serenity will continue as we walk along our path, which can be frustrating and fulfilling. Nelson Mandela was put in prison because he opposed the government of apartheid. Apartheid is an official policy of racial segregation promulgated in the Republic of South Africa. He could have thought that he did his best, gave it his all and supposed it was not meant for him to be successful. However, Mr. Mandela knew God intended to increase his influence is use that source of discrimination and human rights violations to increase his influence and give him a testimony of how his faith in God and perseverance increased his power and influence. After twenty-seven years in prison, Mr. Mandela walked out of prison a free man. He eventually became the president of South Africa and won a Nobel Peace Prize. What God has destined for your life will come to fulfillment. Even to define God generally as a superhuman or supernatural being that controls the World is inadequate. God is unquestionable transcendent. God is the pure and unsullied Ming of the Universe, transcending virtue, transcending knowledge, transcending good itself. No one has ever seen God and our knowledge of him is like a confused reflection in a mirror. The divine substance exceeds by its immensity every form which our intellect attains, so while we know that God is (quod sit) we cannot know his essence or what he is (quid sit). “We have labor to perform, that we may conquer enemy and rest our souls in kingdom of God,” reports Moroni 9.6. #RandolphHarris 4 of 6
God moves the World in the sense that he endues form from its material structure by inspiring it, through a series of subordinate movers or intelligences, to love him as its end or goal. Being wholly good, and therefore free from jealousy, he wished everything to be like himself. Since an intelligent being is superior to an unintelligent one, and since intelligence cannot be present in anything that is devoid of soul, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature best. When the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for spreading the good news, his captors thought they were containing him. Paul could have become discouraged and given up. Instead, he proceeded to draft much of the New Testament from a prison cell and is still profoundly influencing us today. What does it mean to you that God has made you uncontainable? What charity of greatness are waiting to forge a foundation and flourish in your life? Take more time in your day to reflect on the meaning of events. If we do not struggle to find more satisfying answers to these fundamental questions during our life journeys, later in life we risk facing fear and anger as our main companions. However, if we can begin to ponder these questions, we open ourselves to a spiritual awakening that makes the rest of our lives a deeper, richer experience than we imagined possible. There is no limit to the methods by which one can access peace and meaning. Truth is where you find it. “May God’s mercy and long-suffering rest in your mind forever,” reports Moroni 9.25. #RandolphHarris 5 of 6
The spiritual journey has many rewards independent of the answers that are sought. Through spirituality, one can make leaps of understanding that defy the limits of the mind; connect with others, and the World around, at levels never before experienced; and eliminate much of the fear and doubt that often plagues the emotional life. Nothing is ever wasted in the Kingdom of God. Not one tear, not all our pain, not the unanswered question nor the seemingly unanswered prayers. If we give our lives to God, nothing will be wasted. And if we are willing to be patient until the grace of God is made manifest, whether it takes a day, a month, a week, or a decade, it will be worth the wait. Take your tie on this pathway—there are people who dedicate their whole lives to the important pursuit you are about to undertake. Although you may find you can share with and learn from other spiritual journeyers, the answers you find are meant for you. Feel the experience fully, and live what answers are offered. Ultimately, your connections with your values will allow you to regulate your emotions in order to avoid giving into temptation and acting impulsively. It is important that we are able to control our emotions instead of being controlled by them. “Spirit and body shall reunite in perfect form,” reports Alma 11.43. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would a person claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of humans and citizens. #RandolphHarris 6 of 6
God is Up in His Ivory Shower!
When people are talking to people, it is important that one darn sure understands what is going on. Cultural legacies matter—they are powerful and pervasive and they persist, long after their original usefulness has passed. However, do not assume that legacies are an indelible part of who we are. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good and edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers,” reports Ephesians 4.29. If we are honest about where we come from and are willing to confront those aspects of our heritage that do not suit the professional World, we can change. We can and should participate in continuing civil dialogue, especially when we view the World from differing perspectives. When we understand what it really means to be a good person—when we understand how much culture and history and the World outside of the individual matter to professional success—then we do not have to throw up our hands in despair at other people when they make mistakes. We have a way to make success out of the unsuccessful. “A soft answer turns away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger,” reports Proverbs 15.1. Although it is important to be frank about a subject we would all too often rather ignore, a soft answer consists of a reasoned response—disciplined words from a humble heart. Words that may be firm in information can be soft in spirit. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7
Why are we so squeamish? Why is the fact that each of us comes from a culture with its own distinctive mix of strength and weaknesses, tendencies and predispositions, so difficult to acknowledge? Who we are cannot be separated from where we are from—and when we ignore that fact, accidents happen. You can imagine how frustrating it can be when people are all thinking furiously, trying to square their assumptions about a person or situation they know nothing about. There exists today a great need for people to cultivate respect for each other across wide distances of belief and behavior and across deep canyons of conflicting agendas. It is impossible to know all that informs our minds and hearts or even to fully understand the context for the trials and choices we each face. Even intelligent individuals have trouble with the group mentality trap. In order to avoid the hazards of hardheadedness and self-interest in a group setting where the issues at hand may appear to be impossible to solve, we need to understand a genuine dialogue that will free individuals to do their best thinking. When each person feels that his or her opinions and emotions are taken seriously, the intelligence of a group or community can move beyond the intelligence quotient of any of the individuals, into the collective genius. Learning to relate to the person behind the opinions by shifting to a more beneficial point of view is the most effective way of ending the conflict. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7
When a person is trying to express to you what is going on, it is never a good idea to compare and contrast their situation with someone you think who has a more difficult time. Whatever the person talking to you is going through has nothing to do with comparing their situation to someone else’s. They are trying to explain what is going on with them and get some kind of empathy or advice. Sometimes we need to fully own the limits of our own imperfections and rough edges in communicating with others, and practice with tender regard for another’s experience what we are thinking. Hearing someone who has it harder does not and should not make us feel better. It would be like a struggling adult talking about their situation and someone saying, “Well, when your father was twenty-one he has a successful career, a house in the hills, and a brand-new car.” And it is like, that is nice, but there may be something someone is trying to express about their situation that has nothing to do with a comparison. They may be looking for help on how to deal with something they think is personal. Rising above our own feelings requires an unselfish generosity, the kind of generosity that contributes to happiness. Everyone has a different lifestyle and other people’s failures of successes have nothing to do with one’s situation. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7
It is sometimes like because people, even if they are older, get together in groups and because they have had a hard life, they want to take it out on someone who was rising above the doom and gloom and mistakes others made with their life. And when they finally bring that person down and that person is suffering, they want that individual to know that they have had a hard life and why should you have it any different. It is like seeing you suffer makes them feel better, and they want to blame you for their problems. Typically as we age, empathy for another person’s perspective comes easier than it does during earlier periods, but not always for some. Research on healthy adult development reveals that one key characteristic of maturity is the increased capacity to respect and even embrace another person’s point of view. Vast improvements in relationships are made when we can move beyond our rigid ideas and attempt to encounter others as people, not positions. Perhaps most exciting are the community—even global—implications of simply getting to know each other before we attempt to “solve” problems. “For the Lord sees not as people see; people look at the outside appearance, but God look at the heart,” reports 1 Samuel 16.7. It does not matter who is more right. What matters is listening to each other an understanding the other’s perspective. The willingness to see through each other’s eyes will transform corrupt communication in ministering grace. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7
Western communication has what linguists call a transmitter orientation—that is, it is considered the responsibility of the speaker to communicate ideas clearly and unambiguously. However, there is something beautiful in the subtlety of the exchange in Eastern culture, in the attention that each party must pay to the motivations and desires of the other. It is civilized, in the truest sense of that word: it does not permit insensitivity or insensitivity or indifference. However, high-power distance communication works only when the listener is capable of paying close attention, and it only works if the two parties in a conversation have the luxury of time, in order to unwind each other’s meanings. It does not work in high finance when time is an issue and people are exhausted and trying to get a situation taken care of before a deadline. Speaking through grace and compassionate language when the cultivated gift of the Holy Ghost pierces our hearts with empathy for the feelings and context of others. It enables us to transform hazardous situations into holy places. God looks upon our hearts and cares what we are thinking. It is also important to understand that sometimes people have had discussions in the past, and they only reason they may revisit them is because some third-party steps in with their opinions. So people who have had a discussion in the past understand what the other is saying and does not have to go into much detail. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7
And, frankly, sometimes people just need to mind their own business and keep their opinions to themselves, especially if you start trying to power force in a situation that has nothing to do with you and there is clear evidence that your influence has made the situation much worse. No one asked for your opinion, no one asked for your help and if you had followed the law all the pain and suffer and decades of corrective action and millions of dollars would not have been spent trying to correct a problem you created by trying to force your influence over a situation that was under control. People are not here to have their faith questioned and challenged. We are here to remind ourselves that we are not alone, to reaffirm centuries-old traditions with like-minded souls from around the World. We are not brainwashed, we are not being forced, we are all confirmed, we are doing this on our own. The Church does not make mistakes. We are all sinners, we are not perfect, we cannot expect anyone to be perfect like God, but it is important to show respect and not try to force your situations or ways onto others, especially when they can have fatal and lifelong impacts. Sometimes when people are watching you, they cannot help but feel jealous because you believe in something; it is more than they can say. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7
When you follow a leader, a code, a God, and it give your life meaning not by seeking to attain control of someone else’s narrative and reshaping, but through the opposite: by relinquishing it; we shall go one pursuing the path which the Lord has marked out before us. We have the right to influence who gets elected, what gets taught in schools, what gets sold in stores, and what rights we have in order to make decisions about our own bodies in lives. You cannot own a person and try to control their lives by using political forces. You cannot assume you know more than a person does about their products when you are not an expect. America is a law of lands and we have a capitalistic system because other systems can be very dangerous and deadly, as they do not respect human lives nor freedom of choice. America used to be a different World, where slavery was legal and everyone can see how deadly and dangerous it is when people do not have the freedom to make choices about their own lives, bodies, health and occupations. “Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand; of both in Heaven and in the Earth, and under the Earth; things which must shortly come to pass; thing which are at home; things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations,” reports Doctrines and Covenants 88.78-80. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7
Randolph Harris II International Institute 