Of Discipline and Every Good Thing

God sent us to the earth to test us, to see whether we would do all things that He would require of us. Abraham recorded a vision he saw of the Father and the Son before the creation of the world as They discussed the purpose of the creation. It was clear that the world was made for the children of God. In that vision the Son, Jesus Christ, said to the Father, “We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; and we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them” (Abraham 3:24,25).

The Father never commands us to do anything other than what is good for us. All of His commandments are designed to make us happy. Where is the test in responding to commandments like that? Here, do these things and you will be happy. Here is the earth and all its riches. Here is life in a physical body with the capacity to enjoy those riches. Here are family and friends with whom to enjoy all this goodness. Where is the test?

God made the test by making us aware of the goodness of things long before it would be good for us to have them. An important part of the test of life is waiting to partake of the good things of this creation until we are actually prepared to receive and enjoy that goodness. Dessert is after dinner. You can drive the car once you have learned and once you have earned a license. Sexual relations are reserved for marriage, when their riches are unlocked for you within the bonds of genuine love and within a family ready to receive and raise children surrounded by the security of loving and committed parents.

Taking of the good things of life too soon can often limit or destroy the value and the goodness, harvesting the grapes before they are ripe. You cannot put them back on the vine once you have discovered that they are still sour.

Passing these tests of life requires discipline. We learn to harness and control our appetites. It does not mean forsake the goodness of the earth; the discipline of God means to partake of that goodness in its fullness. Through the development of that discipline by faith in the goodness to which the commandments lead we become disciples. From the days of Adam and on into our day the disciples of Christ have been able to “lay hold upon every good thing” (Moroni 7:25).

Of Doubt and Faith

Doubt in the word of God has no place in the righteous life. It is the antithesis of faith. Spirituality and doubt cannot rest comfortably in the same heart, for spirituality—which reaches its highest degree in the gift of charity—“believeth all things” (Moroni 7:45). Doubt, on the other hand, denies things and challenges them to be proven. Doubt withholds belief until adequate proof is presented. Faith extends belief until it is superseded by knowledge.

That is, by the way, why genuine faith can only be placed in something that is true. As the ancient American prophet, Alma, taught, “if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” (Alma 32:21) Faith is a bridge of belief that carries the believer from one level of knowledge to an increased level of knowledge, therefore it has to reach something that is true.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. It is never on trial. Its very true nature places the individual on trial when he is exposed to truth. The individual is left to accept or reject the truth—to gain a knowledge of it through faith and then live it, or to doubt it or avoid it—but he cannot alter it, and the individual is blessed or condemned by what he does with regard to the truth.

The word of the Lord revealed through His messengers is true. Faith assumes the truth and leads the believer to act upon it, whether or not that truth is comprehended. Doubt takes the side of the devil and denies the truth until compelled to surrender pretense when recognition of truth is inescapable—and that recognition can be dexterously delayed for a long time.

The Lord continually urges us to gain knowledge, to search diligently, to prove all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21). You do not have to doubt something in order to prove it. Exercising faith in an unconfirmed truth converts faith into the vehicle for gaining knowledge, for verification, since by acting in accordance with a truth is a sure way by which the reality of a truth is revealed. It is belief in the accuracy of a map that allows one to probe the charted course, at the end of which lies confirmation and assurance. Doubt discourages one from ever setting out on the road, and until some faith is exercised to overcome the doubt the journey is never begun.

Indeed, doubt always leads away from knowledge. The doubting mind is only ever brought to knowledge when somewhere along the road doubt in some degree is overcome by faith that is exercised in some truth. Faith is the connecting link that leads us from knowledge to knowledge. Thus, part of the gospel plan includes inquiry, questioning, but it is a questioning illumined by faith, not shaded by doubt.

Of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

Each verse of our national anthem ends with the stirring phrase, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” For nearly two centuries—this fall will mark the 195th anniversary of the writing of the “Star Spangled Banner,” by Francis Scott Key—these words have stirred Americans on the battlefield, on the frontier, in their homes, at their work, at their places of worship, even in the halls of government, stirred them to great and bold and noble action for the freedom and independence of our people and as an example to the rest of the world.

In recent times, in more or less accelerating fashion from the New Deal of the 1930s to an even quicker pace since the first of the year, too many of our governmental leaders have been trying their best to turn our nation into the land of the safe and the home of the careful. From the little child wearing a monstrous bicycle helmet as she rides her tricycle, through the proliferation of warning labels on virtually everything we buy or use, to the politically correct speech codes at work and on campus, to the honey sweet invitations for people to surrender to government control their health care and financial choices, Americans are in danger of losing the core of what makes us Americans: our freedom and our courage.

Freedom is the ability to choose, to make our own lives, to make of ourselves who we are and who we will present to God at the last day. Courage is the drive to draw upon the best within us and make the best and right choices, in spite of the odds, in spite of ridicule, to overcome danger. Courage is the father of all of our virtues, without which no virtue is possible.

When I was a child—not too many decades ago—my playmates and I often defended our decisions with the phrase, “It’s a free country.” I do not hear children say that anymore. Is it because it is not a free country, or that the freedom is not apparent, or that our children are not taught about freedom being at the core of what made the United States the beacon of hope for the world?

This November we will mark another anniversary, seven score and six years ago, when Abraham Lincoln called upon a nation of the free and the brave to a greater and continued exertion, so that “this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Is that call any less relevant and important and stirring to Americans today?