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For the past three years, I have focused on the Sermon on the Mount and 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (charity) as the center of my New Years’ Resolutions. The posts introducing why I have done so and detailing my actual resolutions can be found at the following links: New Year’s Resolution ( http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-years-resolution.html http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-years-resolution-2009.html http://thingsofmysoul.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-years-resolution-2010.html My focus this year will be on some of the specific things Alma mentions in Alma 5 as leading to being spiritually born of God. Since I can’t paste the entire chapter in the space available here, I instead will quote from the introductory overview in Verse 14 and summarize my resolution for each month – with the appropriate verse citations for those resolutions.
Verse 14 reads:
Quote:And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
There are thirty-three distinct questions asked in this chapter that deal directly with the outcomes listed in Verse 14 – three of which are in Verse 6, three of which are in Verse 14 and twenty-seven of which are in the verses following Verse 14 (some of which are re-statements of the root questions – like the multiple questions in Verses 15-18). Since I view the first three questions as preparatory to the central questions asked in Verse 14 and the questions following Verse 14 as the blueprint outlines to achieving the condition described in Verse 14, I am going to organize my resolutions for 2011 the same way I have for the previous three years – one per month throughout the year – focusing on the questions asked in Verses 15-59.
Thus, my resolution for this year will be:
Quote:January: Exercise more faith in the redemption of Christ. (Verses 15-18) February: Have a purer heart and cleaner hands, and project more the image of God. (Verses 19-25) March: Feel more deeply to sing the song of redeeming love. (Verse 26) April: Walk more blamelessly before God. (Verse 27) May: Be more humble and less proud. (Verses 27-28) June: Be less envious. (Verse 29) July: Be less mocking of others. (Verses 30-33) August: Set my heart less upon the things of the world. (Verse 53) September: Recognize more fully that I am not better than others. (Verse 54) October: Persecute other less. (Verse 54) November: Recognize the needs of the poor more and share more readily with them. (Verse 55) December: Watch over the flock more diligently. (Verse 59) Just as I have for the past three years, I will post about this resolution each Saturday throughout the year.
Any thoughts at the beginning, before I start writing my weekly posts, would be appreciated.
Do you believe that a person who is not spiritual, has a certain countenance? Or a person is spiritual if they have a bright, happy looking countenance? Someone once said they can judge a person’s spirituality by their countenance, which I thought was a bit of a sweeping generalization. Someone once looked at my shoes, years ago, and said “You can assess a man’s character by looking at his shoes”. Which I thought was also a sweeping generalization since my shoes were a bit scuffed and unshined on an exception basis that day, and not as a habit.
By the way, I think this is a good resolution Ray — to go through those questions in Alma 5 and use them as a source of inspiration for personal improvement.
My resolution this year is to continue training my family in keeping our house neat and presentable to avoid CHAOS — Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Something we’ve suffered from for years and a big source of concern for me since I was raised to appreciate cleanliness and order. We’ve been good at it for the last 3 months which is a huge achievement given my 17 years of trying and failing. So merely sustaining this is my resolution for 2011.
I have to admit I am not happy at all just now. I feel utterly ground down by the New Year and Christmas, it is not just the church, it’s the weather and everything else. I am truly at my lowest ebb. I violated the WoW over New Year, because of this. I was asked so many times to drink alcohol, tea and coffee that I just gave in. And I paid for it at least with the tea and coffee – I ended up having a certain health problem that I have not had AT ALL since giving them up.
I don’t know what to do about my TR just now. I don’t feel I have “sinned”, but I have broken a self-imposed rule, and I feel it did have health consequences.
A one time slip in something like the WofW, imo, is not grounds for not getting a temple recommend. I’ve never thought it was, and I hope I never do. Adultery? Yeah, I think that’s serious enough to lose one’s recommend even with only one infraction. Tea and coffee (or even alcohol and a cigarette)? Nope. I would say you can answer “correctly” without any need for explanation or “confession”.After all, there is NO standard of perfection in either the spirit or the letter of the questions. Especially if the action would not cause automatic disciplinary action (and this wouldn’t), it’s a pretty easy call for me. No real difference between that and yelling at one’s kids, at the conceptual level. Honestly, I would have no problem giving a recommend to someone who slipped up pretty regularly (and, no, I won’t try to define that any more clearly), as long as s/he was serious about trying to follow the current guidelines.
Old-Timer wrote:A one time slip in something like the WofW, imo, is not grounds for not getting a temple recommend. I’ve never thought it was, and I hope I never do. Adultery? Yeah, I think that’s serious enough to lose one’s recommend even with only one infraction. Tea and coffee (or even alcohol and a cigarette)? Nope. I would say you can answer “correctly” without any need for explanation or “confession”. After all, there is NO standard of perfection in either the spirit or the letter of the questions. Especially if the action would not cause automatic disciplinary action (and this wouldn’t), it’s a pretty easy call for me. No real difference between that and yelling at one’s kids, at the conceptual level.
Honestly, I would have no problem giving a recommend to someone who slipped up pretty regularly (and, no, I won’t try to define that any more clearly), as long as s/he was serious about trying to follow the current guidelines.
I agree that a one-time slip up especially coupled with a desire to keep trying to overcome isn’t something I’d revoke a recommend over.
Ray thanks for the inspiring resolution. I enjoyed your Sermon on the Mount breakdown for 2010. Sermon on the Mount Breakdown? Sounds like a bluegrass tune I could really get into. Heck, your name even sounds blue-grassy.
“Here ya’r folks, Old-Timer and the NewOrder Marmons playing their 2010 tune, ‘Sermon on the Mount Breakdown’!”
Then they’ll play their new hit, “Staying Alive with Alma Five”, though that sounds like a disco tune to me.
John Travolta singing about the Book of Mormon . . . Maybe if he’s in drag – like in Hairspray. That probably would cause considerable cog dis for many members.
:wtf:
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