Living the Law of Chastity - Gospel Principles

The Law of Chastity can be a very sensitive topic, however, it's also the law that most easily/often leads to members of the church losing their way and their church membership.Therefore, when I was assigned the lesson, I thought speaking more directly rather than less directly was the correct way to go. Also, discussing specific things we need to do better was something I hoped would happen.

The lesson went very well. Great participation. Good thoughts from the quorum members. I was nervous about being so direct, but it worked great.

Here's the email I sent prior to the lesson - a few great quotes here:

Look forward to discussing this topic with you tomorrow. The law of chastity appears to me to be one of the laws of God most often broken in our day by those in and out of the church.

As you know, General authorities teach general principles to the broader church but it is in our smaller, local congregations that we're expected to speak about more specific application of general principles. I hope we can do this tomorrow.

A few thoughts to consider for the lesson tomorrow:

What does the Lord mean from these verses?

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28).

What does this phrase from Elder Oaks' 2005 conference talk on pornography mean? What does it teach about what qualifies as pornography?

"And young women, please understand that if you dress immodestly, you are magnifying this problem by becoming pornography to some of the men who see you." - Elder Oaks April 2005 Conference

Are you worthy to go to the temple with a pornography habit? Here's something Elder Oaks also mentioned on the topic:

"Some have suggested that pornography should be a separate question in the temple recommend interview. It is already. At least five different questions should elicit a confession and discussion on this subject if the person being interviewed has the spiritual sensitivity and honesty we expect of those who worship in the house of the Lord." - Elder Oaks April 2005 Conference

Are there any guides we can use to help us understand if we may have an issue becoming too involved with a member of the opposite sex? Elder Scott asks two questions in a 2008 conference talk given in priesthood session, but there are certainly others:

"If you are married, are you faithful to your wife mentally as well as physically? Are you loyal to your marriage covenants by never engaging in conversation with another woman that you wouldn’t want your wife to overhear?" - Elder Scott October 2008 Conference

Finally - what blessings lay in store for keeping the law of chastity? Here's one example from the scriptures - Jacob 3:

5 Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins, are more righteous than you; for they have not ^aforgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father—that they should have save it were ^bone wife, and ^cconcubines they should have none, and there should not be ^dwhoredoms committed among them.

6 And now, this commandment they observe to keep; wherefore, because of this observance, in keeping this commandment, the Lord God will not destroy them, but will be ^amerciful unto them; and one day they shall ^bbecome a blessed people.

Missionary Work Part 3 - How will missionary work change over the next several decades

We had very little time for the lesson on Sunday (15 minutes), but I was actually pleased with how well it went.

As I realized how long I would have to teach, I started thinking about how to start the lesson quickly and effectively. I was going to tell a few stories first, but that would take too much time. I remembered Pres. McKay had said that each member should bring 1 person into the church every year. So, I asked the question, "How many people should an active member who lives until the age of 82 bring into the church in his/her lifetime?" People gave answers of around 10-15. I then gave Pres. McKay's quote and said, "65" (you get first 15 years off and also your 2 mission years don't count; also re-activations do count).

Then the question was, is this just him stating the ideal, or is this something that is really expected of us? I was impressed that many said it is actually something achievable and expected (though obviously very few do this in the church). I agree. I believe Pres. McKay was being prophetic. There are some very clear analogs for this scenario. The Word of Wisdom was received in 1831; Brigham Young taught it as the expectation several times while prophet. It wasn't until Heber Grant became prophet (1917) that the Word of Wisdom was widely "enforced", and finally it became a requirement for the temple some time after that.

Therefore, it took about 100 years for the Word of Wisdom to become the norm in the church. By that standard/timeline, missionary work has 5 more decades (assuming Pres. McKay was the first to state something like this) before members will be starting to be that effective. I think the church is making strides in that direction. In addition, in order for the gospel to be preached in all the world, the "average, faithful" LDS member will need to be a very good missionary.

We then spoke about how the gospel will be preached in all the world. Here's the comments:

1) church established in most/all nations

2) church members better at spreading the word (discussed above)

3) social media helps spread the word where members are not

I agree with all of these. That is how the word will fill the world.

Focusing on social media - mormon.org allows members to place profiles. My brother taught a Baptist on his mission who was heavily influenced by reading the profile of a former Baptist who joined the church and explained her conversion story/process on Mormon.org. Many of us have unique backgrounds and perspectives that could help others on mormon.org. For instance, maybe someone from Eastern Washington who grew up on a dairy farm would like to hear about the gospel from someone like him/her, and that would be me :) Every member should post their profile on mormon.org.

Finally, we discussed if we can tell who will join the church. One great member said that you can tell with the help of the Spirit. We established this was the exception rather than the rule. It is possible but more often than not we can not tell, which means we need to invite everyone.

We had a very good lesson. I appreciated the chance to teach it. I really like that topic and committed to inviting someone to church in the next 2 months.

Honesty - Gospel principles lesson part 2 - examples of honesty

This is somewhat cheating, but I send out an email when I'm teaching a lesson so that people will know what we're talking about and perhaps think about it.

Here's the email I sent today:

Elders,

Tomorrow our lesson is on honesty. A few thoughts for you to consider and we can discuss tomorrow:

Dishonesty happens when our actions don't align with our words. A lot of times we think of honesty being saying something that isn't true, but it also happens when we say something that ends up not being true. The second scenario is probably more common for many of us.

Concerning honesty in business, a story about Jon Huntsman from a book he wrote:

"One of my favorites in the book was how he agreed to sell 40% of his company for $54 million to Great Lakes Chemical Company. But it took 6 months for the lawyers to get the paper work drafted. Within that timeframe their margin had improved dramatically and their company was worth a lot more. The CEO called him and said that he was willing to pay more. He may have gotten $200 million more!! Mr. Huntsman refused, saying that his word was his bond. The CEO had him speak at his funeral even though the two weren’t very close."

Honesty also is necessary to become like Heavenly Father. Here's how he's described in D.C. 3:2 -

2For God doth not ^awalk in crooked paths, neither doth he ^bturn to the right hand nor to the left, neither doth he vary from that which he hath said, therefore his paths are straight, and his ^ccourse is one eternal round.

A big part of honesty seems to be the need to do things the correct way and never take something you don't have, that includes not taking credit for things you haven't done and also not taking things you shouldn't take.

In a talk given while he was President of BYU, Elder Holland spoke about Jesus always doing the right thing the right way. Here's a line from that talk, titled The Inconvenient Messiah.

Whatever else Satan may do, he will certainly appeal to our appetites. Far better to play on natural, acknowledged needs than struggle to plant in us artificial ones. Here Jesus experiences the real and very understandable hunger for food by which he must sustain his mortal life. We would not deny anyone this relief; certainly we would not deny the Son of Man. Israel had its manna in the wilderness. This is Israel's God. He has fasted for forty days and forty nights. Why not eat? He seems ready to break his fast, or surely must soon. Why not simply turn the stones to bread and eat?

The temptation is not in the eating. He has eaten before, he will soon eat again, and he must eat for the rest of his mortal life. The temptation, at least the part I wish to focus on, is to do it this way, to get his bread--his physical satisfaction, relief for his human appetite--the easy way, by abuse of power and without a willingness to wait for the right time and the right way. It is the temptation to be the convenient Messiah. Why do things the hard way? Why walk to the shop--or bakery? Why travel all the way home? Why deny yourself satisfaction when with ever such a slight compromise you might enjoy this much-needed nourishment? But Christ will not ask selfishly for unearned bread. He will postpone gratification, indefinitely if necessary, rather than appease appetite--even ravenous appetite--with what is not his.

In my mind, dishonesty, cheating, or stealing often occurs simply because one wants to take the easy way out of a tough situation.

A few questions to consider:

1) Did Jon Huntsman make the right decision? Was it the right business decision or just the right moral decision? Does it matter?

2) Who is hurt when we are dishonest?

3) What will help us become a more honest people?

See you tomorrow!

A couple comments on my questions. Jon Huntsman did make the right decision for his business and morally. He would only be honest with people and that gave him more respect and trust over the long term. Being honest and trustworthy is a very good long-term business decision. Sometimes it costs us money in the short term to gain trust (and therefore money) in the long-term.

Morally, no question that it was a good decision. He earned the respect of a man and that man's family. It impacted the world for good.

We hurt a lot of people when we are dishonest. Our spouse and kids are the most obvious. They won't be able to trust so many things about us if we're dishonest. All others that we're around are impacted as well.

Developing honesty - not sure. Need to think more about this one.... Certainly having a longer term perspective helps with honesty. The gospel helps us think about the long-term more than many things, so developing a gospel perspective in life (through prayer and scripture study and helping others) probably helps develop honesty. I'm sure there's more than that. Maybe developing respect for honest people will help also....