Yes? No? Precisely
"If we do not have a deep foundation of faith and a solid testimony of truth, we may have difficulty withstanding the harsh storms and icy winds of adversity which inevitably come to each of us."
--Thomas S. Monson, "On Being Spiritually Prepared", Ensign, Feb 2010, 4–6
When I first read this I read the 3rd to last word as teach. Then I realized, that is what challenges do-teach us. Sometimes learning comes through seeing others experiences(either the challenge happening to someone else and we learn from it-as in dad’s case). His brother Joe went skiing on Sunday, despite parental advisement to not, and broke his leg in 13 places.
Sometimes we’re given multiple ‘opportunities’ to be ‘taught’-we do something we know we shouldn’t and the earth did not come crashing down on us (yet) so we go along being good (for awhile) and do it again (with all sorts of reasons why we were justified in breaking commandments) and maybe again this time the world didn’t come crashing down but maybe we lost some degree of spirituality or some degree of self-mastery.
Always, always there is a price, a penalty-whether we’re dead before we know what it was or not. We cannot trifle with God. He speaks, we listen and obey. Period. No justifications. No rationalizations. No maybe this time. No-but surely this is okay.
A sign in Spanish Fork-next to the Big O says: ‘Attention teenagers. NO is a complete sentence.’ Couple that with a favorite saying of mine, 'God gave us 10 commandments, not 10 suggestions,' and you get the picture (if you're going to).
--Thomas S. Monson, "On Being Spiritually Prepared", Ensign, Feb 2010, 4–6
When I first read this I read the 3rd to last word as teach. Then I realized, that is what challenges do-teach us. Sometimes learning comes through seeing others experiences(either the challenge happening to someone else and we learn from it-as in dad’s case). His brother Joe went skiing on Sunday, despite parental advisement to not, and broke his leg in 13 places.
Sometimes we’re given multiple ‘opportunities’ to be ‘taught’-we do something we know we shouldn’t and the earth did not come crashing down on us (yet) so we go along being good (for awhile) and do it again (with all sorts of reasons why we were justified in breaking commandments) and maybe again this time the world didn’t come crashing down but maybe we lost some degree of spirituality or some degree of self-mastery.
Always, always there is a price, a penalty-whether we’re dead before we know what it was or not. We cannot trifle with God. He speaks, we listen and obey. Period. No justifications. No rationalizations. No maybe this time. No-but surely this is okay.
A sign in Spanish Fork-next to the Big O says: ‘Attention teenagers. NO is a complete sentence.’ Couple that with a favorite saying of mine, 'God gave us 10 commandments, not 10 suggestions,' and you get the picture (if you're going to).
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