Mormon Direction

“Your not going to see the “blessing” until you have made the sacrifice”

( Ether 12:6 ; 1 Peter 1:7 )

The word “blessing” can be replaced with many other words that apply in the given situation. Such are the words as “worth”, “value”, “purpose”, “direction”, “reason”, and so forth, but the word blessing has a universal meaning that encompasses all of these. It is a statement of a spiritual truth, one of spirit and of life, that only through our trials and tribulations, until we have passed through it, have made the sacrifice, retained the faith (which is what sacrifice is about), we will not see and not receive the blessings.

This applies to everything in life.

A person will not see the worth of something until they have made the effort, the sacrifice of their time and resource. This is exactly what giving of ourselves is about and how it works. A person will not see the value of helping those in need “until” they have made the sacrifice of their time and resource to do so. They may try to sit and make arm chair judgements or interpretations of it, have their beliefs about it, but until they have committed their time, effort and resource to that thing, they will not see the actual and true value until they do.

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Within the LDS Church, there are many men and women who are single and still alone. Bachelors and bachelorette alike are alone in their lives hoping to meet someone to spend their lives with. Dating sites are filled with these seekers, even LDS oriented sites as LDS Singles, LDS Mingle and so on. Many eventually find mates, but many do not and some even end their days having not one marriage in their lives.

Loneliness can be a hard thing to endure. It can lead to discouragement, emptiness and even despair, but is that something worthwhile to accept in your life? I refer to the negative emotions and state of mind. Of course, to hear only the phrase, “be more positive” is not helpful because it gives no direction and certainly no basis for a solution, but to hear “fret not, Heavenly Father is with you” are far better words for a lonely Saint to hear.

To feel Heavenly Father’s love, charity, compassion brings far more joy to our hearts than thoughts of loneliness. Certainly you will still endure the loneliness because it is mortal and human to feel these things, but it is important to remember that Heavenly Father feels your state of heart and mind.

To pray to find a partner in life is a good prayer, but have you considered the prayer asking Heavenly Father to help you overcome this loneliness as a single person?

Circumstances in this mortal life may have dealt you limited options as to finding a life-long partner, but nothing in this world has dealt you anything that takes away Heavenly Father’s love and closeness. I don’t propose ways to remove the loneliness because that is something you need to work-out with Heavenly Father’s help, as loneliness feels the same to everyone, but the underlying elements are personal to each person.

It comes down to the fundamental elements of life and faith. Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and there is no substitute for that first commandment. Even if you find a life long partner, you should never cease to live the first commandment in all things you do. If you do, I am sure, as I feel impressed saying this, Heavenly Father promises to be with you, close to your heart, mind and soul far more than any human can ever be.

Isn’t that something to smile about and feel at least some joy?  :)

Amen.

Some believe that all they need is their personal relationship with God as being sufficient for salvation. This of course, is not true.

A personal relationship is to maintain faith and focus to God, yet a personal relationship with God does not, in itself, establish sanctity and holiness just because a person declares it so. A relationship with God must include God as the partner. The head of the relationship is not you, it is God himself. This means he leads and declares what is required for this relationship to work. Thus, a relationship with God will require the fulfillment of important elements, else this relationship will fail.

Any relationship, even that of a marriage, requires both partners to contribute and do their parts into and for the relationship. This is exactly the same for a relationship with God. Without us doing our part, the relationship with God will fail, it will not be spiritual and cannot be sanctified and accepted.

Look into the Bible about the parable of the ten virgins ( Matthew 25:1–12 ). All of them declared a relationship with God as indicated in verse one where all ten were to meet with the bridegroom. This denotes that each believed they had or have a relationship with the bridegroom who is Jesus Christ. The bridegroom required the virgins to prepare themselves with oil in their lamps so they can prepare to meet him. Five did not fulfill this element or requirement of the relationship and because of this, their belief of having a relationship with the bridegroom failed and were called strangers who were shut out or excluded from the kingdom of the bridegroom.

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The end goal. Is commitment all about the end goal? I found that commitment is not about end goals, I found that commitment always comes before the end goal, especially if faith is the a goal. If a person wants to have good faith in God, to establish a relationship with God that works and is faithful, then commitment to faith must occur first, else the end goal of faith cannot occur.

Commitment, in itself, does not automatically denote or become faith. Commitment is a “trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose” toward something or in something. Once the object (faith) is chosen to pursue and achieve, then commitment will be “the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action”. Once this is established, then faith, being “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  is exercised. The binding of oneself, intellectually and emotionally to the act of faith causes faith to be true and does not end up as just a word or lip service.

Let’s take a life example. A boss makes promises that he will do this or that, saying that to do those things are required and needed. Those things are good to hear, even if they are things that you had hoped for at work, but the results, or fruits of his labor proves otherwise. The things promised never manifest and in fact the old status quo remains or the things done were so inadequate, they proved as useful as doing nothing. The result for you is disappointment and discouragement. The problem with all the promises and things said, even if they were great to hear, was the absence of commitment. The failure to bind oneself to the course of action, to be sincere and steadfast.

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Are you single in the Church that advocates marriage and family? Attending to feel out of place or the odd one out, while you see couples enjoying the benefits of marriage and relationships along with their faith?

It can be hard to accept, for some, the doctrines of the Church that promotes family and marriage while you may feel unable to or cannot partake of those blessings. For some, it is not an issue. They enjoy their single life and have no intent to change it or they are fine with their single-hood despite seeing others become couples around them, families growing, etc.

Maybe you have tried to date others in the Church and that did not work out. Joining an Internet dating site did not work out or it is not in your interest to do so. Trying to find a mate in the world seems harder since there is a lot of weeding out of the undesirables. After all the world has made it a widespread practice to party, drink booze and get tattoos, it is hard to find a mate with the right state of mind and heart. Seems that no matter what you do, nothing seems to work. Frustrating isn’t it?

So what do you do about it?

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One day, while in Church, a bishop, stake president or one of the General Authorities of the Church says or does something that upsets you or that you take issue with it. Before you know it you are at odds with the Church and even resign your membership.

Taking issue is dangerous to the health of your faith.
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