The term "Blessings"

When I hear the term “blessings”, I hear “good things”. I hear the term as saying they come from God, but not necessarily attached to any specific commandments I obeyed. There was a thread here where we all talked about tithing and few of us could see a direct relationship between paying tithing and financial blessings, or otherwise. In fact, during a high commitment period, I lost 1/2 my personal wealth after much seeking God’s direction and living in full temple worthiness. during a less active/non-tithe-paying portion of my life I was “blessed” with financial success and a plethora of job opportunities when my job folded.

So, I would be careful of inferring that people’s reference to blessings means they think it’s because they did something or that such a relationship exists as firmly as people think. Some may believe that, but the connection is not clear in reality.

On the other hand, regarding the smugness and arrogance we see among people who believe righteousness has caused their prosperity (something I can understand since that’s all over the BoM, but I think it applies to civilizations in general and not individuals). For that arrogance — the point is well-taken. The most one can do is try to neutralize that arrogance in lessons, in conversations with family, and develop your own philosophy that can be shared openly to temper that mistaken attitude that has crept into our church.

To reduce personal angst, simply reframe what you hear to YOUR meaning and use their comments to affirm your own philosophy of blessings, how they come about, and the relationship of good living to good life’s circumstances…..that’s my take.

There must needs be opposition in ALL things – inlcuding the rain falling on the just and the unjust.

I always find this interesting. This is one of the biggest paradoxes ever taught. As we teach the blessings of righteousness and titthing and all manor of commandments equites to blessings and a healthy or and sustained family etc. Yet our very founding Prophet JS and his family lost how many children? Were how rich? Failed at banking when trying to institute Zion and the law consecration?! And we turn around and look at happy healthy and financial secure or rich families as examples of righteous living and throw out Abraham, Moses , job life experience etc as if they didn’t exist when we teach this view. very convenient. When we watch gods hands in all things on the right hand and say god is governed by universal law on the other we toss out the laws of genetics? The law of free will with others effect on us or each other(envirmental and social effects). While it is good to thank god for all he has given us(count our blessings). It isn’t very helpful to judge others blessings as a righteous or unrighteousness event. Nor is it helpful or right to judge ourselves as such based on the blessing we have or don’t. I would say that when we judge righteousness with the amount or kind of blessings to ourselves or others we are judging unrighteous dominion. It isn’t helpful or productive at all. Despite what parts of the scriptures say, we really have no idea about the big picture here. Can we learn to just be thankful to god for what ever we have without judging others or ourselves? Can we keep it simple?

That is a great story, rebeccad. It’s going to show up in a future talk I give, I’m sure. :shh:

If I were an evolutionary psychologist, I would give this explanation for the “more blessed than thou” mindset: In a world where we are all competing with each other for the good things in life, we can gain a competitive advantage for ourselves if we can persuade others that God loves us more than other people and that God favors our success over the success of others. If we can demonstrate that God has chosen us for special opportunities and privileges, other people will grant us more special opportunities. Evolution is about passing on one’s genes, so if a person can demonstrate that they have better genes than others by showing that God favors their success over the success of others, then that person will get better opportunities to pass on their genes. For example, if a girl in a YSA ward gets up at the pulpit and brags about her blessings, she is saying, “Hey guys in the ward, the reason you should ask me out instead of the other girls in the ward is that God loves me more than them and favors my success over their success. All these blessings I have demonstrate that I am a better mating choice than the other girls.” For a married couple with children, such bragging amounts to, “God loves my children (who carry my genes) and favors their success more than other people’s children, so my children should get opportunities that other children don’t get.”

So yes, bragging about one’s blessings is simple evolutionary self-interest. It doesn’t matter whether or not the blessings are real, because it’s the perception of divine favor that is important. Whether or not such bragging is moral is not the point here. A good case could be made that such bragging is moral, because if we are programmed to try to pass on our own genes (even at the expense of others passing on their genes) and if bragging about our blessings helps us to do that, it could be considered moral; however I will not make this case. My point here has been to explain why people do what they do.