Milluw

I was going to try for a witty retort about self-abortion, but I thought better of it. Elective abortion itself is such a ghastly topic that I don't like to joke about it. And I think trophy hunting is a bad thing that cankers the souls of its participants; I remember President Kimball's talk about "Don't Kill the Little Birds" and think its message appropriate. This is even more true when the animal is of a threatened species. Who are we to destroy what God has created? If a dam would wipe out the snail darter or a development threaten the existence of the snowy owl, then the dam or the development should be altered or left unbuilt.
 
But I am dismayed and even disgusted that our society as a whole mourns the death of a lion that, before yesterday, no one had ever heard of, while millions of our own children are prenatally destroyed and their body parts "harvested", and no one can be bothered to worry about it. JAG's quote in my signature is appropriate and, I think, literally true.

Oh, they absolutely do the feline equivalent. They play with their food while it's still alive.
 
Maybe we humans should use our "amazing capacity" to figure out that suctioning apart unborn children and selling off their organs is vastly more evil than accidentally shooting the wrong lion.
 
For the record, I have never understood nor condoned trophy hunting, and am not myself a hunter. But I am intelligent and honest enough to know and acknowledge that meat doesn't come from the store.

What truly sickens me is the mob mentality of social media. So let's say this guy killed an animal illegally. Sure, he should pay a price and that price should hurt enough that he doesn't do it again, but that should be determined by the country that this happened in first off. 
 
This guys life might be ruined because of the media on this. So now the internet will serve justice to this man (which affects his family) without any rules of law being followed, we judge and destroy people on minimal facts. Social justice seems to be in full affect in the US. 
 
I truly hope that I or anyone I love never makes a mistake that ends up on social media. Cyber bullying at it's worst!!

I suspect that it will get much much worse.
dc

Please Move The Deer Crossing Sign!
https://youtu.be/RFCrJleggrI

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

(I couldn't figure out how to make the link show as a video, sorry!)
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw
 
Have watched this countless times through time.
It is such an uplifting message, that i wanted to share it here too. :)

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

A few years back a friend of mine came to visit. We had not spoken for years. In those years time we had both changed a lot. She also said i was hardly recognizable, because back then i were a bit of a wild cat, but now i were a mormon - and it had made a noticable difference. She had changed as well, but still had a few of the bad habits that we used to share. So we talked all night long. Being mormon isn't a commen thing here in Denmark, so it is not uncommen that people think of it as some sort of cult. Though people does seem to have become in general a bit more informed.
 
Well, questions came rolling in, and i tried my best to answer them :) and found myself increasingly feeling the spirit as i defended and explained my fondness of my faith, as you do. Much to my surprise i found out that she had felt something too, while talking about it. And for the next months we talked back and forth and within a short time in those months she had begun getting missionary visits.
 
Long story short, because of all of this she stopped her bad habits one by one and then she was babtised after about six months period.
 
You never know what happends in people's heart when they see your passion. And how the holy spirit works with them. It certaintly surprised me.

Thought this quote from Elder Maxwell is spot on:
 
“Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. (See 1 Kgs. 18:21.) President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had ‘never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life’ (in Conference Report, Apr. 1941, p. 123). This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ! We are now entering a time of incredible ironies. Let us cite but one of these ironies which is yet in its subtle stages: We will see a maximum, if indirect, effort made to establish irreligion as the state religion. It is actually a new form of paganism which uses the carefully preserved and cultivated freedoms of western civilization to shrink freedom, even as it rejects the value essence of our rich Judeo-Christian heritage.”
“Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. M. J. Sobran also said, ‘A religious conviction is now a second-class conviction, expected to step deferentially to the back of the secular bus, and not to get uppity about it’ (Human Life Review, Summer 1978, pp. 58–59). This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.”
“Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, ‘summer is nigh’ (Matt. 24:32). Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat!”
Elder Neal A. Maxwell
 

Between age 13 to 19 i were an inactive member. I both distanced myself to members/friends/family, but also some members/friends would distance themself to me. If i would walk past anyone i knew, i would greet in passing, but some members would walk by like i did not exist. They were few though in comparison to those that always were open and friendly towards me. Those people, looking back, made a bigger difference than i thought they did at the time.
 
I did not really give reason to my family or anyone either, it was more of a rebellion against everything. It was a pretty wild and dark time in my life. So when it came to being around other members, i just felt it would be better if i stayed away. Both because i could not deal with the pressure of people wanting me to return to church at that time, but also because i might have dragged others down. I were living quite recklessly, and somehow alcohol, drugs, and what comes with it.. it did not fit. What would we talk about? Another side of it was also, that whenever i looked at members, the missionaries and such, i felt so unhappy. Because i remembered the spirit and happiness, and every time i looked  at them it reminded me of what i had left behind. Distancing myself made it easier to walk away. And it left me feeling guilty and judged to see them, even if i probably judged myself most. It was not just members - i remember once i saw the scriptures lying near me, and i just sat there staring at it and started sobbing. I threw it away eventually.
 
I would also get angry when any family member talked to me about anything gospel related. Wanted so desperately to be accepted as who i was, rather than who they saw me for. It did not matter if i were acting true to who they thought i was or if i were acting like who i really was. I needed to be accepted for who i was at that moment, enough that i did not feel i had to change into what other people wanted me to be. Which from their perspective.. all of the lessons and promptings to repent or better my life was done out of love. But when in a place like that, it can seem like your person it getting critisized, which i did enough of myself. There is a golden midway though, where everyone can be true to themself and each other, without pushing apart from each other. But it is quite a balancing act at first.
 
It took years before we perfected that (my family and i). Because of miscommunications i went off the radar a lot of times.. ending up around in different cities, being out for weeks partying and then coming home to crash for a day, and then repeat. At one point i ran away from home and i did not see my family for some months. The point with it is - that the miscommunication from both sides, made the easiest solution for me to just be abscent. Ofcourse, none of us was happy with that. But i could not see another solution. Mind you i could have been much better at dealing with... well, everything at that point. I just know of others that have felt the same when leaving the church or becoming inactive.
 
To cut it short, i returned home one day - to church and family, and everything is very different now :)
 
The moment i stopped feeling judged and unwelcomed, things bettered almost instantly. I stopped seeing simply church members and started seeing fellow humans, and they started looking at who i was and not through me to what i could be - i think we all started healing in my family from then on.
 
That does not mean you can't be honest about your faith. It is when it is pushed onto another person, especially someone with anger towards it, that it can backfire. Just be a friend.
 
It is mainly in the hands of the person who is leaving the church though. If you show them love, you will know you have done all that you can. But regardless if you do or don't, each person has their own free will to choose the road they wish to take.
 
It can be hard to accept when it is someone you care for... all you can do is never to give up. You never know what the future holds. :)

Here is a little more about sealings (what I understand about them. I could be wrong):
A sealing is not unconditional and permanent. It is contingent upon faithfulness. Many people believe that a sealing permanently binds parents to children and children to parents. This is not the case. For example, if a mother and father are sealed to their children and someone (father, mother, or child) loses faith and rejects the Gospel, the said person has forfeited their rights to the sealing powers. The worthy members of the family still have all the rights and powers of the sealing, but they will not spend eternity with an unrepentant family member. It cannot be. The sealing powers cannot "poof" an unfaithful person into exaltation. No unclean thing can dwell with God.
Sealings can get complicated. There are times when we must have faith wait for judgement day for things to get sorted out.

Not until the Millennium.
 
In the here-and-now, it isn't as important to be sealed as the child of a particular individual, as it is that you be sealed as a child of someone in order to take a place in the patriarchal order and become an heir to the Abrahamic covenant.
 
In the kids' case, barring adoption, they will need to wait until bio mom is dead and then be sealed to her by proxy.  If, in the long run, they should actually be sealed to someone else; that will be addressed at an appropriate time.

Cookies!!!!!!
 

This seems to touch on some other recent discussions we've had here; because the conundrum you posit for people who have attained the celestial kingdom is equally true for God Himself--if He can do no wrong, does He truly have agency?  And for that matter, can He truly be omnipotent?
 
Seems to me that "the wrong" doesn't exist in the Celestial Kingdom, not because it's not theoretically possible; but because the Plan of Salvation and Atonement provide a perfect training process that lead exalted beings to a point where they will have completely, voluntarily, and eternally chosen to shun the wrong.  As with the Father (in my opinion), so with the children.
 
What's that saying about how, during the Millennium, Satan will be bound and have no power simply because of the righteousness of the people?