As part of my graduate program in counseling I have to write a personal theory, which includes process and goals of therapy, explanations for personality, psychopathology, etc. The first part, however, forms the basis for everything else: the nature of the person. I have been working on it for a while, trying to pin down exactly what I believe about the human race, and what is true about people across time and cultures. Here is what I have, with brief explanations:
This week’s lesson might sound like a repeat from the previous lesson on Plan of Salvation, but it is much more specifically focused on one of my favorite aspects of our theology: the 3 degrees of glory. Continue reading…
Mormons often joke about the 14th Article of Faith, and it often is quoted somewhat like this:
We believe in holding meetings, and in asking all members to attend these meetings; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We schedule all meetings, we plan all meetings, we have endured many meetings, and hope to be able to endure all meetings. If there is any reason to hold a meeting, we seek after these things.
A unique facet of Mormonism is our view of God’s plan for his children, or our purpose in life. Today’s lesson focuses on what JS restored regarding this plan. Continue reading…
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God[...] and another book was opened, which is the book of life[...] And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
-Revelation Ch. 20 (vs. 12-15)
Love is a burning thing and it makes a fiery ring. Bound by wild desire, I fell into a ring of fire.
-Johnny Cash
In the LDS church, members are written into the book of life with their baptism and confirmation. For some, the love affair with the gospel can truly become a fiery passion. That passion produces its greatest defenders, but sometimes the fire consumes its lover. So the stage is set for the most intense crime of passion, the greatest act of violence… the blotting out of a name from the book of life. Continue reading…
Take this assessment and find out:
(Taken from D. Jeff Burton’s For Those Who Wonder : forthosewhowonder.com. Similar to a Correlation Department survey on Religion and Life conducted among LDS Church members in the mid-1980s)
Section I: Measures of Participation and Activity in Standard Church Programs
1. How often do you attend the temple? Continue reading…
A word to the teachers out there. I know what you are thinking. Something like, “Ugh. I got the death lesson?!” So, if you have a family event in another ward that might precipitate trading this week, always a good plan. But for you unlucky suckers who drew the short straw, here goes! Continue reading…
I have one component to my life that prompts little discussions from the lowliest church member to most recently the temple president and I really wish everyone would drop it. You see, I did the unthinkable five years ago, I married someone that is not LDS.
1) There is a man in my ward who is a dean at a major college in our area. He is a brilliant scholar in his field, and he has served as a Bishop and in a Stake Presidency. He also is one of the most humble men I have ever met. A couple of years ago, one of his adult daughters died in a freakish surgery accident - totally unexpected - leaving behind a husband and an infant daughter. Continue reading…
Do Mormons practice a form of ancestor worship? What does it mean that we must be saved “with all our dead”? Continue reading…
“The idea of a forever forward is not more or less simple than that of a forever backward. Yet, in our culture, one idea is commonplace, the other startling, even unthinkable.”
~Truman Madsen
I always find myself in a little conundrum when I’m teaching about the mysterious pre-mortal life (from the approved materials, of course!), and how we were all born spiritually. Spiritual birth discussions always lead to the Abraham scripture about intelligences, and everything gets stuck there. Who can really say what “intelligence(s)” is? Some have taken a stab at it:
