I'm Not Dead Yet

I had the beginning post of a series scheduled when Blogger fritzed. It ate my first post, and while the Blogger gurus have restored the second post four times, they seemingly can't restore my original post.

I've not posted in awhile, trying to get this up and running again, but right now I have too much snafu offline to focus on a post I had already written.

I'll give a teaser, though: it's about Apostasy and Forgiveness. I promise I'll get to it again at some point.

I Rather Like Mothers' Day

Even before I was a mother, I liked Mothers' Day. Here is a day set aside specifically to tell my mom I love her, in case I forgot. Even if I didn't have a wonderful mom to thank that day, I get a chance to reflect on all the silent hours of work that good moms put into raising our next wave of citizens. And I even get to wonder about my Heavenly Mother and look forward to learning (or remembering) more about her in this life or next.

Sure, there are cheesy talks and sappy sentiments. Sure, there is a lot of pain wrapped up in being, not being, having, or not having a mom. But for those moms who DO love their kids, who put someone else's welfare above their own, who clean up the messes of the world because somebody's got to:

THANK YOU!!!

Submission and the Power of God

Apame at ZD just posted something about submission that I love. And I can't say that very often about blog posts.

This post puts an exact finger on some things that have been bothering me, that I have felt in my heart without being able to express.

Submission as an expectation cannot by definition be divine submission. It's not just ethical submission, in my mind, but Eternal Submission. There is something of the power of God in this, in how things submit to His will freely, in how His power flows without compulsion. Not only does that happen because God is good, but it is necessary for the power of God to act this way.

I think that is the major part of God's power that Satan does not and can not ever understand.

Bin Laden Has Died

Since it was announced, I have been thinking about posting my feelings about the death of bin Laden. But someone rather beat me to it.

Strange, perhaps, for a military brat to feel this way. But I don't believe that patriotism is best defined as American supremism. Perhaps because I lived a significant portion of my childhood in Germany, I feel strongly that atrocities are not committed by monsters in human form, but are committed by people much like us for reasons that we just as easily might have.

And we would be better served by looking for our mistakes and mourning the need to commit violence than by rejoicing that we are better than our enemies.

This is not a football game. I am ashamed of my fellow citizens.

"And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery; yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people. Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.

"Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught never to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives. And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger; and also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them;

"And this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity."