Category: Plan of Happiness

What Studies About Forgiveness Reveal

Studies reveal the following about forgiveness:

  • People who are more forgiving report fewer health problems
  • Forgiveness leads to less stress
  • Forgiveness leads to fewer physical symptoms of stress
  • Failure to forgive may be more important than hostility as a risk factor for heart disease
  • People who blame other people for their troubles have higher incidences of illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancers.
  • People who imagine not forgiving someone show negative changes in blood pressure, muscle tension, and immune response.
  • People who imagine forgiving their offender note immediate improvement in their cardiovascular, muscular, and nervous systems.

What is Forgiveness?

What is FORGIVENESS?

  • Forgiveness is the peace you learn to feel
  • Forgiveness is for you and not the offender.
  • Forgiveness is taking back your power.
  • Forgiveness is taking responsibility for how you feel.
  • Forgiveness is about your healing and not about the people who hurt you.
  • Forgiveness is a trainable skill just like learning to throw a baseball.
  • Forgiveness helps you get control over your feelings.
  • Forgiveness can improve your mental and physical health.
  • Forgiveness is becoming a hero instead of a victim.
  • Forgiveness is a choice.
  • Everyone can learn to forgive.

Which comes first: Knowledge or Faith?

Is faith an action that sprouts knowledge? Does the action come first before knowledge is present or created?

Or is faith based upon truth and existing knowledge? Is faith therefore, something that grows out of and comes because of a prior knowledge of the truth?

Answer: Faith is the child of knowledge! It is reserved for those only who first have knowledge; there neither is nor can be any faith until there is knowledge. No one can have faith in a God of whom he knows nothing. No one can have faith unto life and salvation in a false god; no idol ever had power to raise the dead or stop the sun. (McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pg. 166.)

True Doctrine of God

Accepting the true doctrine of the Fall is also accepting Jesus as the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, and a separate, glorified and eternal Being as the Second God of the godhead. Having faith in Jesus Christ means you know His true identity (John 17:3).

Believing in a Christ that is of one substance with the Father may bring about many blessings and be a strength to the soul, but it is not worshipping God as commanded in Exodus 20:3

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Adam = mortality; Christ = immortality

Therefore, as Adam brought about mortality, Christ brought about immortality and for those who accept Him, eternal life. But, if Adam had not partaken of the fruit, there would be no need for Jesus Christ, and Lucifer would never have had to display his incredible temper and prideful, rebellious personality.

The fall is the child of the creation and the atonement is the child of the fall (McConkie, A New Witness for the Article of Faith, pg. 81). Salvation was made available in and through the creation, the fall, and the atonement. These three are each part of one divine plan.

I and my Father are One

Perhaps the primary example of scripture in support of the one substanced god without body, parts, and passions is John 10:30.

“I and my Father are one.”

At the cost of critical thinking, which is to say, never to question the accepted incomprehensible dogma of centuries, this scripture seems to overlook the potential connection to the word purpose. Is it possible Christ meant one in purpose?

  • John 17:20-21
    • That they may all be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee…
      • Are we to assume that Jesus wants the Quorum of the Twelve to absorb into one entity with the Father and the Holy Ghost and become 15?

The Fall, the Atonement, and Mercy

Just as God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one in purpose but three distinct beings, so the pillars of the gospel share a like similitude. Although we view the atonement as the center and core of our religion, without the fall, there is no atonement.

Adam’s fall brought about temporal and spiritual death and from this death all must be ransomed. The ransoming act must be carried out by a person without sin and He must be known to all creations.  (This is the primary source of God’s power; see D&C 29:36).

A Trinity of Purpose, Beings, and Pillars

The three greatest events ever to occur are:

  1. The Creation
  2. The Fall
  3. The Atonement

They are inseparably woven together in to a tapestry exactly as the Godhead is woven into a numeric count of one.

To most of Christianity, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are mysteriously connected into a single essence or substance. This is often called the Trinity Doctrine.

The history of the Catholic Church seems to be swept under the rug and the argument between Arias and Athanasius all but dismissed (James L. Barker, Apostasy From the Divine Church, pp. 238-271).

Lord’s Blueprint for Administration

In D&C 121:34-43 we read the Lord’s blueprint for administering His kingdom. This is also how we are to administer in our families, relationships, and specifically in our personal lives. The contrast between power and force is evident in this and other scriptures. The following list illustrates contrasting approaches to life, relationships, and our space with God.

Take a moment and contrast the words in the table. Each word found under the Power heading is self-evident. Read the word and become aware of your feelings and thoughts. The power words uplift, edify, and create an overall positive feeling.

Force = The Natural Man

Force is the natural man; it is experienced through the senses. It is the belief that we are self-sufficient and can navigate the path alone. Nothing has the power to create stress[1] or despair, except that will allow it. Whenever force meets power, force is eventually destroyed.[2]

[1] Hawkins, D. R. (1995). Power vs. Force. Carlsbad, CA, USA: Hay House, Inc. p. 72

[2] IBID, pg. 73

The Two Energies in the Universe

There are two energies[1] in the universe, one is power and the other is force. Man perceives we live by forces that we can control, yet we know through revelation that we are governed by an unseen power over which we have no control, except it is given us contingent upon worthiness. This power comes from God and His laws. Its application is the power of an inner awareness of who we are and it is also the source of our happiness.

[1] 2 Nephi 2:11 “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things…”

We Don’t Need Exaltation – We Want It or Not

During the Sermon on the Mount, which was a sermon designed as an MTC lesson to the apostles, the Lord held a Q&A session (see the JST), and here is what He heard with respect to the Jewish leaders and their acceptance of the restored gospel:

And then said his disciples unto him, they will say unto us, We ourselves are righteous, and need not that any man should teach us.

[How many times have missionaries heard this response from Christian neighbors when presented with more of the gospel? We have a bible and need no more bible, etc?]

Exaltation Is About Change

Birth is a change from immortal to mortal. At death we lay our mortality down and enter the world of spirits preparatory to the resurrection where immortality is again ours, thus the saying from eternity to eternity.

The change that brings on eternal life must come by INVITATION and not MANDATE.

As missionaries we invite others to investigate by offering them features of the gospel. As members we invite our friends to share the gospel’s blessing by how we live and as parents we invite our children’s obedience by how we teach.

The Complete Meaning Of Repentance

In church we learn the 4 Rs of repentance:

1. Recognition. We must recognize what we have done wrong.

2. Remorse. We must feel godly sorrow for our mistakes.

3. Restitution. We must try to restore what has been lost as a result of our transgressions.

4. Resolve. We must resolve never to commit the sin again.

The Book of Mormon teaches us at least 66 Rs:

Avoid conflict avoidance?

At one moment in our existence we sang for joy because our Father in Heaven agreed to coach us back into His presence.

Then we were born and a veil was placed between that moment and the present. Our memory became clouded even temporarily erased.

In order to accomplish our vision and dream, we needed conflict to make us grow. So the Lord introduces us to conflict every day. The rules of engagement for exaltation are to cope with…

  • Getting out of bed in the morning
  • Fatigue
  • Sore muscles
  • Too much food
  • Toxic family members