What Matters Most

Each moment in time we have it all,

even when we think we don’t.

― Melody Beattie

About Aging...

I love this little quip by Elder Russell M Nelson* about the purposes of mortality, healing and aging.

"The Fall of Adam (and Eve) constituted the mortal creation and brought about the required changes in their bodies, including the circulation of blood and other modifications as well. They were now able to have children. They and their posterity also became subject to injury, disease, and death. And a loving Creator blessed them with healing power by which the life and function of precious physical bodies could be preserved. For example, bones, if broken, could become solid again. Lacerations of the flesh could heal themselves. And miraculously, leaks in the circulation could be sealed off by components activated from the very blood being lost...

"Even though our Creator endowed us with this incredible power, He consigned a counterbalancing gift to our bodies. It is the blessing of aging, with visible reminders that we are mortal beings destined one day to leave this “frail existence.” Our bodies change every day. As we grow older, our broad chests and narrow waists have a tendency to trade places. We get wrinkles, lose color in our hair—even the hair itself—to remind us that we are mortal children of God, with a “manufacturer’s guarantee” that we shall not be stranded upon the earth forever. Were it not for the Fall, our physicians, beauticians, and morticians would all be unemployed."

Really. Have you ever considered aging a gift? I love that Elder Nelson pairs healing with aging as counter-balancing opposites. I suppose Merlin was right: "to every sqaure there is a round, to every high there is a low, to every to there is a fro - that's what makes the world go round."** And, apparently, that's what makes the plan work.

*“The Atonement,” Ensign, Nov 1996, 33
**"That's What Makes the World Go Round," from The Sword in the Stone, Disney 1963

To Gladden the Heart and Enliven the Soul

"Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man." (Doctrine & Covenants 59:18-20)

**all photos from here

Theology of the Family

Our teacher in Relief Society asked today: why would we have a lesson about family between lessons about God the Father and Jesus Christ? Why indeed?

In a recent address*, Julie B. Beck explained the theology of the family:

"In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have a theology of the family. It’s based on the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement... The Creation of the earth was the creation of an earth where a family could live. It was a creation of a man and a woman who were the two essential halves of a family. It was not about a creation of a man and a woman who happened to have a family. It was intentional all along that Adam and Eve form an eternal family. It was part of the plan that these two be sealed and form an eternal family unit. That was the plan of happiness.

"The Fall provided a way for the family to grow. Through the leadership of Eve and Adam, they chose to have a mortal experience. The Fall made it possible for Adam and Eve to have a family, to have sons and daughters. They needed to grow in numbers and grow in experience. The Fall provided that for the family.

"The Atonement allows for the family to be sealed together eternally. It allows for families to have eternal growth and perfection. The plan of happiness and the plan of salvation was a plan created for families. I don’t think very many of the rising generation understand that the main pillars of our theology are centered in the family."

This doctrine puts a new perspective on the fundamental principles of the gospel: since everything was designed to further the work of families, no wonder it's such an important principle to teach, and no wonder we are charged to protect it.

The plan is all about family.

*Seminaries and Institutes of Religion Satellite Broadcast • August 4, 2009