theSQUIDSTER

Yes, thank you, LiterateP. "Not necessarily agreeing but understanding.." Now if this were the army and my commanding officer gave me an order, it would indeed be my job to understand the order and do it. Whether said officer gave the command politely or screamed it at me is not relevant.. Especially in the heat of battle.. It is my duty to say, "yes sir!" and then do it without delay. I don't have to like it or agree with it .. That's not how the military works. All my commanding officer needs to hear and understand from me is that *I* understand and will do it. There is value in this when circumstances merit it. Sometimes The Lord speaks to us like this... As in the scripture cited at the beginning of this topic.. It is the Lord's right to do this and not excuse Himself. When The Lord commands us or prompts his servants to speak after this fashion then we'd all be very wise to obey and not question why. The Lord doesn't always give us an explanation for His own reasons. That being said.. Consider this: "And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand;" (D & C 50:10) .. The Lord, more often than not, condescends to reason with His children.. Not because he condones our bad behavior and willful disobedience.. But hopes to persuade us gently so that we'll use our agency, follow His will and learn what we need to learn without His having to smite us every time and speak with a voice of thunder.. The still small voice of the Spirit is usually the preferred method rather than Cecil B. Demill's whirling tornado of fire.

..be blunt, but with love.. It's especially difficult in a forum consisting of mostly text and the occasional emoticon.. A huge amount of communicative clues, as to the real intent of the person speaking, aren't there... No clues from facial expressions, tone of voice, body posture, etc. I think occasional bluntness has it's place in effective communication. Getting right to the heart of the matter.. Think of President Uchtdorf's two-word sermon "Stop it!" .. Or President Spencer W. Kimball's "Do it!" .. Very effective.. Very to-the-point. But bluntness, though it can be very powerful, can also be very easily misused and abused, and by its very nature (and especially in print) can very easily be misunderstood. Just because somebody's feelings got hurt doesn't necessarily mean the fault is all their own and they should just get over it. Communication is still a two-way process .. And if mutual-understanding is truly the goal then both sides are responsible to some degree.

I love it when he says the word "focus".. Fohcoos .. He says the word at least once in almost every talk I've heard him give.

One of the reasons we have judges in Israel are for questions like these. From people's responses you can see that opinions are varied on what you should do. All of us, no matter how well intentioned, can not give you the peace that you need. It sounds like the Spirit has already been prompting you what to do. If that prompting is that you need to talk to your bishop then trust that prompting and speak with him... No matter if you think it will be embarrassing or whatever else. Your need to talk with the bishop may not really even be so much about the pic you looked at.. There may be an important teaching moment and testimony builder that specifically *you* need. If the Spirit is prompting you to do something else then do that. If the Spirit is prompting you to do all of the above and also other things then proceed and do those things. If you're not certain *what* the Spirit is trying to tell you then you may well need your bishop's counsel. Trust The Lord. Trust the repentance process. Trust that The Lord is able to do his work and help you to grow in the ways that you need to.

Does glory or do degrees of glory other than the highest degree of the celestial kingdom have "happy" souls inhabiting them? If by "happy" you mean do they have a "fullness of joy" .. then no.. By my understanding we have to be in the presence of God to have that. I guess anywhere else is not a "happy" place by that definition. Is this what you mean by "happy?" By that definition nobody except those at the pinnacle of all glory can be happy... But perhaps I'm not understanding what you're saying... I think most people, even most LDS use the term a little more broadly than that. Even the term "joy" is used more broadly than that... "Fullness of joy" seems pretty locked-in though.. if that's what you mean by "happy." One other thing about people progressing and wishing they could be somewhere else... I find it difficult to believe that by the time the final judgement rolls around that there will be people filing appeals... As has been stated "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess" that Jesus is the Christ. I don't think anybody who inherits a degree of glory will have to be forced to their knees. I believe ALL beings of whatever glory will be willing and happy to kneel. Am I wrong on this?

A few years ago Elder Neal A. Maxwell gave a talk entitled "Content with the Things Allotted unto Us" .. One thing that I often remember from that talk is this: "Alma’s contentment rested on the reality that God finally allots to us according to our wills (see Alma 29:4). What could be more fair?" To me that says we wind up getting what we most desire and pursue. It also says to me, be careful what you wish for... you just might get it. If all we seek after and learn to love resides only in this world (i.e. telestial law) then how can we expect heaven to be anything more than a telestial heaven. Which, granted, is still a heaven.. a degree of glory beyond what this mortality offers. Probably more of a heaven than most people could imagine.. so a great reward, if you will. That being said... Our Father is trying to help us learn to want what He wants... which is so much more... Celestial heaven can be learned.. not earned... Isn't that what we're trying to do? Learn to be celestial? What we're actively engaged in becoming and longing for is where we'll feel we belong in the end... That will be heaven for us, whether telestial, terrestrial or celestial. As for those who don't want ANYTHING our Father has to offer, well, he won't force them to take anything. They will live somewhere without glory... probably a lonely dark corner somewhere... probably alone, I would imagine.

cloudless sky a little boy they used to know ---------------------- dusty road pit-stop desert humming with a billion stars ----------------------- a temple spire shining in the night can ye feel so now? ------------------------ walking the dog then for a brief instant the wolf ------------------------- lonely night on the windowsill a small plastic horse ------------------------- sitting in darkness someone begins to sing imminent sunrise ---------------------