in each other's keeping

I really like this:

"it was a happy and beautiful bride who came down the old, carpeted stairs that September noon -- slender and shining-eyed, in the mist of her maiden veil, with her arms full of roses. Gilbert, waiting for her in the hall below, looked up at her with adoring eyes. She was his at last, this evasive, long-sought Anne, won after years of patient waiting. It was to him she was coming in her sweet surrender of the bride. Was he worthy of her? Could he make her as happy as he hoped? If he failed her -- if he could not measure up to her standard of manhood -- then, as she held out her hand, their eyes met and all doubt was swept away in a glad certainty. They belonged to each other; and, no matter what life might hold for them, it could never alter that. Their happiness was in each other's keeping and both were unafraid."

i adore the idea of the "sweet surrender" of marriage; of place one's happiness into the keeping of the one you trust, and love, best.

friendship

I love the friendship of Jonathan and David.

It says a lot about what true friendship entails; that Jonathan loved David "as his own soul" (Sam 18:1) and that the Lord was "between" the two (Sam. 20:23). I think in the same way that having God in a marriage makes a couple's love and commitment stronger -- having God in a friendship makes the connection more pure and powerful. God always improves everything He touches.

I've definitely seen that in friendships of mine that incorporate the gospel. Whether it's sharing experiences, discussing doctrine, or simply opening up hearts to God's love -- it has blessed me and these friendships immensely. I'm very grateful for that.

Heaven begun on earth

I've been reading L.M. Montgomery's Anne of the Island (beautiful book) and I came across something very thought-provoking...

"I'm afraid to die"

     "Why should you be afraid, Ruby?" asked Anne quietly.

     "Because -- because -- oh, I'm not afraid but that I'll go to heaven, Anne. I'm a church member. But -- it'll be all so different. I think -- and think -- and I get so frightened -- and -- and -- homesick. Heaven must be very beautiful, of course, the Bible says so -- but Anne, it won't be what I've been used to."

     Heaven could not be what Ruby had been used to. There had been nothing in her gay, frivolous life, her shallow ideals and aspirations, to fit her for that great change, or make the life to come seem to her anything but alien and unreal and undesirable. Anne wondered helplessly what she could say that would help her. Could she say anything? "I think, Ruby," she began hesitatingly -- for it was difficult for Anne to speak to any one of the deepest thoughts of her heart, or the new ideas that had vaguely begun to shape themselves in her mind, concerning the great mysteries of life here and hereafter, superseding her old childish conceptions, and it was hardest of all to speak of them to such as Ruby -- "I think, perhaps, we have very mistake ideas about heaven -- what it is and what it holds for us. I don't think it can be so very different from life here as most people seem to think. I believe we'll just go on living, a good deal as we live here -- and be ourselves just the same -- only it will be easier to be good and to -- follow the highest. All the hindrances and perplexities will be taken away, and we shall see clearly. Don't be afraid, Ruby"

     "I can't help it," said Ruby pitifully. "Even if what you say about heaven is true -- and you can't be sure -- it may be only that imagination or yours -- in won't be just the same. It can't be. I want to go on living here. I'm so young, Anne. I haven't had my life. I've fought so hard to live -- and it isn't any use -- I have to die -- and leave everything I care for."

     Anne sat in a pain that was almost intolerable. She could not tell comforting falsehoods; and all that Ruby said was so horribly true. She was leaving everything she cared for. She had laid up her treasure on earth only; she had lived solely for the little things of life -- the things that pass -- forgetting the great things that go onward into eternity, bridging the gulf between the two lives and making of death a mere passing from one dwelling to the other -- from twilight to unclouded day. God would take care of her there -- Anne believed she would learn -- but now it was no wonder her soul clung, in blind helplessness, to the only things she knew and loved.

     Anne walked home very slowly in the moonlight. The evening had changed something for her. Life held a different meaning, a deeper purpose. On the surface it would go on just the same; but the deeps had been stirred. It must not be with her as with poor butterfly Ruby. When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different -- something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.

I think L.M. hit this right on the head in many respects and it's something I've thought of myself -- of how important it is to prepare for the next life NOW -- that "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32) and that those preparations include gaining knowledge and intelligence -- which "will rise with us" and give us an "advantage in the world to come" (D&C 130:18-19) but also to develop meaningful relationships and establish the "sociality" HERE that we wish to "exist among us there" -- "coupled with eternal glory" (D&C 130:2). 

Life IS the time to prepare for eternity -- and death is but a stepping stone into eternal life. Understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation makes this so clear... and yet we still often misplace our attention -- giving too much focus to the "things that pass" and forgetting the "highest", which goes on.

I must try to do more to seek for and live the truly essential things of life -- to begin my own eternity now.

"There'll be love there"

      "I'm going home to an old country farmhouse, once green, rather faded now, set among leafless apple orchards. There is a brook below and a December fir wood beyond, where I've heard harps swept by the fingers of rain and wind. There is a pond nearby that will be gray and brooding now. There will be two oldish ladies in the house, one tall and thin, one short and fat; and there will be two twins, one a perfect model, the other often called a 'holy terror.' There will be a little room upstairs over the porch, where old dreams hang thick, and a big, fat, glorious feather bed which will almost seem the height of luxury after a boardinghouse mattress. How do you like my picture, Phil?"

       "It seems a very dull one, said Phil, with a grimace. 

       "Oh, but I've left out the transforming thing," said Anne softly. "There'll be love there, Phil -- faithful, tender love, such as I'll never find anywhere else in the world -- love that's waiting for me. That makes my picture a masterpiece, doesn't it, even if the colors are not very brilliant?"

father's day

My brother got asked to speak in church with someone from the stake. The topic he was assigned was "the righteous influence of fathers" and he prepared a lovely talk (I know because he practiced it on me!). It got me thinking about what I would speak on if it were me...

I thought of my own father and how much of ME has come from him. I have read that the attributes of righteous parents are magnified in their children...I dunno if I'm quite near "magnified" but I will agree with the scripture in John 8:28 that "...I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me..." 

I've always felt that anything I ever knew I learned first from my father. So much of how I view the world, the gospel, and myself springs out of my father's view of those things. My dad isn't perfect, but for good and for bad, the things he has taught me have made me who I am and I wouldn't change that. That is one of the largest of the MANY righteous influences my father has had on me.

How blessed I am to have had a father who is good!

I remember reading in Mosiah about Alma the younger and how much of his eventual conversion was a result of his righteous father. When he was in the depths of sorrow and bitterness it was his father's words, of Christ, that he remembered (Alma 36:17) and it was his father's prayers that brought the angel to him in the first place (Mosiah 27:14).

Boyd K. Packer emphasized this important effect in a conference report (April 1992) when we quote Orsen F. Whitney as saying:

 "The Prophet Joseph Smith  declared--and he never taught a more comforting doctrine--that the eternal sealing of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God." (Conference Report April 1929)


What a blessing and a comfort to have a righteous parent -- and motivation to be one!

"feeling is so different from knowing"

...there are times when common sense has no power over me. Common nonsense takes possession of my soul.


L.M. Montgomery

making time for temple work

While reading about temple and genealogy work today I came across this quotation:

'Sister Susa Young Gates..once asked her father (Brigham Young) how it would ever be possible to accomplish the great amount of temple work that must be done, if all are given a full opportunity for exaltation. He told her there would be many inventors of labor saving devices, so that our daily duties could be performed in a short time, leaving us more and more time for temple work. The inventions have come, and are still coming, but many simply divert the time gained to other channels, and not for the purpose intended by the Lord.' (Archibald F. Bennett, Improvement Era, Oct. 1952, p. 720)

It got me thinking of all the time I have available thanks to modern life... and how I waste it on frivolous amusements and irrelevant activities! The advances of our day were inspired by the Lord, not just to make life easier for the sake of ease, but to give us more opportunities do the "most glorious of all subjects belonging to the everlasting gospel" (D&C 128:17).