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Today the Primary children got to ask our bishop what his favorite parable was. He briefly told them why he likes the Good Samaritan. After I wondered if the kids knew what he was talking about, I wondered if I had a favorite. Truth to tell, I am favorite impaired. When Dale was in the Tabernacle Choir, people would ask me what my favorite song was in their tour concerts, and I would answer, “The one they are singing at the moment.”  Same with favorite food: the one in my mouth.  Maybe it’s just lousy decision making, but there it is. But not today. Instantly the parable of the vineyard workers came to my mind. In Matthew chapter 20 Jesus tells of a landowner who hired workers first thing in the morning, a few hours later, a few hours after that, and then at the very end of the day, with only one hour of sunlight left to work. Those who had worked all day were paid their contracted price, but were incensed to learn that the latecomers earned the exact wage. Jesus teaches that God doesn’t care when you come - He just wants you to come. He’ll welcome you no matter when you choose to come - He just wants you to come because you’re His precious child and He craves you the way you crave your children. This parable has been profoundly instructive of how generous Father is in His second, and third, and three millionth chances for me to try again. I’m sure it was on my mind today because this morning, I was again having one of my prayers with a recurring theme: regret. I know we’ve discussed Uncle Ricco, ( https://www.laureensimper.com/post/the-good-news-of-no-do-overs ) but there it is - I was mourning years - decades - of miscomprehension (euphemism for finger up my nose) and distraction (euphemism for laziness or procrastination), and once again asked Father if it was too late to live myself out of a myriad of consequences I’ve squarely earned for myself. The words were barely out, and the imagery of the parable in Matthew 20 came into my mind. While none of these words came into my mind, Father sent me these encouraging thoughts through that one image: “I don’t care that you’ve got less of your life to live than you’ve already lived - make the changes anyway.” “I pay the same for the latecomers, because I’m so thrilled that no matter how late you are, you still want to come and work for Me.” “You’re not a prisoner of your choices, because you can make a different choice this second - and I’ll help you.” Suddenly, I realized that making changes - changes me - whether the results are immediate or not. If I reach out with good will across a gap of indifference or hostility in a relationship, I mustn’t stay my hand, so to speak, and withdraw if I’m rebuffed. If I work in God’s vineyard, I know His standard, and I love Him enough to keep throwing good will across that gap regardless of outcome. If I read scriptures uncomprehendingly, wondering what on earth I just read (why yes, I was thinking about Isaiah, why do you ask?), I mustn’t stop reading in frustration, surrendering to my current level of understanding. If I work for God, I know His pay scale and keep reading, knowing one day, Isaiah’s words will reveal themselves like those elusive 3D pictures. If I attempt to adopt healthy choices for the rest of my life after years of neglecting my body, I must continue to make those choices until they become true habits, knowing my body will eventually trust me and serve me better. If I belong to God, I love Him enough to trust His promises and know I will be different at the end of the day. Even if I come at the end of the day. Even if for now, it may feel like I live in a prison of past choices because I didn’t show up earlier. In order to think celestial, I have to disconnect telestial cause and effect. This is a higher level of faith -  knowing that God’s laws of cause and effect don’t always show up in this lifetime. What I become making the celestial choice in a telestial world will always be worth it. Even if I don’t make the choice until I’m 67. I can’t necessarily work for results. I just need to work, learning to want what God wants, learning to love what God loves, knowing that each choice to change is the choice to come to the vineyard to work. Knowing that the pay is excellent and reliable. Even at the end of the day. That’s why I’ll never truly be a prisoner of my choices. The Eagles sang it best: “So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key.” That’s what coming later in the day is all about. The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that I can change - right this minute. At 10:00 p.m. Every choice is like another drop of oil in my lamp, changing me and preparing me so I’m ready to go in when the Bridegroom comes. I think I just switched parables, and so maybe this one is my new favorite…

Come Follow Me (Alma 39-42) I find myself quoting Mark Twain often with this characteristically pithy wisdom:  “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” Those ten words get to the heart the human experience, and to the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Christ's generous atoning sacrifice offers us all the benefit of experience - good judgment - without leaving us forever the prisoner of the inevitable consequences of our bad judgment.   As I write that, it almost sounds like an impossible sleight of hand: how is that even possible? Enos, incredulous at its effects in his own heart, asked,  Lord, how is it done?” (Enos 1:7) Alma explains this wondrous doctrinal reality in chapters 41-42 with some of the best clarity in all of scripture. The doctrine of restoration  is  the doctrine of turning bad judgment into good judgment, because of Jesus Christ. Chapter 41 sets up the dilemma of natural law which forever consigns us to those consequences.  Alma teaches: “And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their  works ; and if their works were good in this life, and the  desires  of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. “And if their  works  are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order… “The one raised to happiness according to his  desires of happiness, or good according to his  desires  of good; and the other to evil according to his  desires  of evil…” (Alma 41:3-5) Alma makes it perfectly clear that both our desires and works over a lifetime create a perfect record to be judged from - which do we want - happiness or misery? Light or darkness? Freedom or captivity? I don’t know about you, but my works and desires are unruly and wildly unpredictable.  The education of earth is a grueling process at my house, and schooling those desires to fit into the will of God feels like trying to contain plutonium in a lunch sack.   I’d give the entire project up as hopeless, were it not for the glorious realities Alma teaches Corianton. He continues: “… if  he hath repented of his sins, and desired righteousness until the end of his days, even so he shall be rewarded unto righteousness. “Now, the decrees of God are  unalterable ; therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever  will  may walk therein and be saved.” (Alma 41:6,8) There's that comforting promise again: I can have this - if I want it. Irredeemably stained from living in this fallen world, I can't escape eternal justice which must be paid. God isn't a hard nose because of this requirement; Alma teaches: "Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God." (Alma 42:13) But because of Jesus Christ, my massive debt to justice is paid. I don't know how He did that for every living soul through the millennia in that one horrible, finite night, but He did. It allows mercy to be offered, and justice to still be paid: "And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy , to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also." (Alma 42:15) In "The Mediator" - Elder Boyd K. Packer's general conference talk from April 1977 - he tells an original parable to illustrate how Jesus Christ becomes our mediator to pay justice - allowing both justice to be satisfied with full payment, thanks to His atoning sacrifice - and for mercy to be applied for those who accept Jesus as their creditor. ( https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1977/04/the-mediator?lang=eng ) This video was in this week's Come Follow Me Lesson, depicting Elder Packer's parable: https://youtu.be/d7N5QDDboi8?si=uYqWznLii9lpq9eW Alma reiterates: "Therefore, O my son, whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely; and whosoever will not come the same is not compelled to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds." (Alma 42:27) Heaven is our original home. To be restored through Jesus Christ is to be as clean as when I left home. But now, because of His supreme act of love, I come with all the experience of doing it so gloriously wrong for lo, these many years. To quote our dear new temple president, Kenneth DuVall: "Perhaps his arms and hands are always outstretched so that we can clearly see the visible signs of His uncompromising commitment to our success in the imprints on his palms and wrists." (Kenneth DuVall, Taylorsville Temple President, Taylorsville Temple Dedication, June 2, 2024) Heaven is truly our original factory reset, because of Jesus Christ. But thanks to Him, all the data of our learned lessons isn't erased! Jesus was with the Father from the beginning when the Plan was designed and sustained and He agreed to implement it. He completed the transaction and paid the debt in full when He said "It is finished" on the cross (John 19:30). He is literally the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We can gain the experience to achieve eternal judgment without forever remaining prisoners of our bad judgment, because of Him. "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Come Follow Me (Alma 32-35) The cancel culture seems terribly au courant because it hit so fast and almost feels like it came out of nowhere, but there's truly nothing new under the sun. Cancel culture was alive and well and living in Zarahemla in 74 B.C. Well. Alive and well and living not far from Zarahemla, where the Zoramites had settled when the predominant religious teachings offended them. After removing themselves from the main body of Nephites, they took the loveliest parts of the teachings - the salvation of man - and gave them a comfortable carnal twist, removing all those pesky commandments which may draw self-reflection and recognition of a need to change. (See Alma 31) When Alma begins to teach the rejected Zoramites, the unhip crowd who gauchely shopped at discount stores and didn't fit into the opulence of the Zoramite synagogues... wouldn't you think the hip crowd would have been relieved? "Phew! Now they have a place to be away from us - we can be well rid of them!" they might have said to themselves, congratulating themselves on their campaign of condescension and derision. But this is where human nature is a bit of a head scratcher. Indeed - why do some belief systems insist on more than simply separating themselves from those they've deemed odious and offensive? Why is it never enough to simply coexist in different air space? A pattern plays out whenever the hubris of humans gets the better of them, and a group of them decides their erudite ways must be protected from the unenlightened, the uninformed, unbelievers, or the uncool. They separate themselves: " Now the Zoramites were dissenters from the Nephites..." (Alma 31:8) They exclude any deemed "less than" or "other": " ... the poor class of people... were cast out of the synagogues because of the coarseness of their apparel - Therefore they were not permitted to enter into their synagogues to worship God, being esteemed as filthiness; therefore they were poor; yea, they were esteemed by their brethren as dross; therefore they were poor as to things of the world; and also they were poor in heart." (Alma 32:2-3) They constantly take the temperature of public opinion so they can use their power and influence to stay ahead of any deviations: "... after the more popular part of the Zoramites had consulted together concerning the words which had been preached unto them, they were angry because of the word, for it did destroy their craft;... Now their rulers and their priests and their teachers did not let the people know concerning their desires; therefore they found out privily the minds of all the people." (Alma 35:3, 5) The technical term today is focus group. And "destroy their craft" - wow. That phrase reveals so much: I've come to believe that phrase describes people who have too much invested in their lifestyles to ever consider changing. Next time you read about the Pharisees in Jesus' day, look at their actions through the lens of how Jesus' teachings - if truly from God - would "destroy their craft" - completely dismantling the world they'd built for themselves. Exclusion from exclusive spaces becomes insufficient; complete expulsion from the community is the only recourse left: "... after they had found out the minds of all the people, those who were in favor of the words which had been spoken by Alma and his brethren were cast out of the land; and they were many; and they came over also into the land of Jershon. And it came to pass that Alma and his brethren did minister unto them." (Alma 35:6-7) And the piece de resistance is truly stunning: "Now the people of the Zoramites were angry with the people of Ammon who were in Jershon, and the chief ruler of the Zoramites, being a very wicked man, sent over unto the people of Ammon desiring them that they should cast out of their land all those who came over from them into their land." (Alma 35:8) Say, what? You don't even want them to be able to exist peaceably somewhere out of your myopically corrupt eyesight, where they can't bother you in the least? You're offended that another community is willing to take them in and help them become reestablished? But wait. Just when you think people can't get any goofier, or more arrogant or self-centered... "Now this did stir up the Zoramites to anger against the people of Ammon, and they began to mix with the Lamanites and to stir them up also to anger against them. And thus the Zoramites and the Lamanites began to make preparations for war against the people of Ammon, and also against the Nephites." (Alma 35:10-11) Sigh. There is so very much "stirring up" in this book. Must humans always take their umbrages elsewhere and serve them up to someone else in order to not just create an ally, but also create a common enemy? Cancel culture isn't new. Focus group polling isn't new. Exclusion, expulsion, and propaganda to create common enemies isn't new. Every wretched thing we see in the human condition isn't new, because it all comes not from a Creator - but from a destroyer and an imitator. Satan can only retool his message and methods over and over across the generations - like Orcs being retooled beneath Middle Earth. I'd love to think humans could recognize the patterns in those messages and methods, and be wiser than previous generations. But then I read the news. If it weren't for the redeeming message of Jesus Christ, the drearily predictable cycles would depress me. But these books of scripture teach me the patterns, and remind me we have a kind Father in Heaven. He carefully lays out His plan for us, as well as the enemy's, so we can recognize the counterfeit and not fall for it. And because of these books, I know who ultimately wins. (Spoiler alert: it's Jesus. The answer is always Jesus.)

Come Follow Me (Alma 30-31) We've already talked about spotting the counterfeit doctrines of the world which compete with Jesus Christ for the hearts and minds of humans. ( https://www.laureensimper.com/post/spotting-a-counterfeit ) It always seems to start the same way: someone supremely selfish just doesn't resonate with the sound doctrine of time-honored principles, or with laws or commandments which promise an ordered society with maximum use of individual agency. Those laws are seen as restrictive, binding - they're just not his truth. The only thing for such a person - the law-unto-himself type (D&C 88:35) - is to recruit, thereby assuring himself an eventual majority to stifle the voices of all the buzz kills who oppose him. Such is the case of Korihor, an ancient social influencer whose only objective seemed to be legitimizing his choices by making them popular and prevalent. Alma chapter 30 is the most detailed account of anti-Christ thinking and preaching. Mormon explains that there was no crime against a person's beliefs, as that's the only sure way to protect religious liberty. Every person must have the right to conscience - even a person who is only pretending to believe a certain way. And it's clear as the story progresses that Korihor was pretending; his explanation of how he arrived at his ideas makes NO SENSE at all. An angel told you there was no God? Did you kind of wonder where that angel came from? The nonsense presented to Korihor really underscores that old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it can't be true. Yet Korihor lapped up the idea - even the possibility of the idea - that he wouldn't be accountable to a higher Being for anything he may do - that there was no sin because of this, and thereby, no need for repentance. This anti-Christ doctrine is like the siren song of the Odyssey, driving Ulysses' men to madness and his ship to crash onto the rocks. Korihor's teaching attempted to nullify the doctrine of Christ in its most essential characteristics: There is no need for a Savior (Alma 30:12, 15) - this eliminates any need for faith in one. No one can know what is to come (Alma 30:13); you can only know things based on evidence you see - again - a world view devoid of faith. Believing in sin and the need for a remission of sin is the product of a frenzied mind and false traditions (Alma 30:14, 16) - this removes hope that you can ever be more than what you are. Worldly pursuits will simply help you ignore that the need for growth even exists. There is no need for an atonement (Alma 30:17) - which follows there is no need for repentance because there is no sin. Again - the loss of hope in anything but the here and now. Men just look out for themselves and get ahead based on their own strength and abilities - thus finally removing even charity . (Alma 30:17) The record explains the loss of faith and hope in the anti-Christ teachings of both Sherem and Nehor, but it isn't until this more rounded out manifesto of Korihor that the loss of charity truly underscores the pernicious nature of this doctrine. A society without Jesus Christ can never achieve Zion, because without the principles of Jesus Christ - primarily, faith, hope, and charity - the false principles pit men against each other. This is where the doctrine of scarcity comes from - the complete antithesis of the doctrine of abundance coming from an infinite Creator. This is where coveting, lying, stealing, and even killing become justifiable, and eventually, can even become legalized. If the highest societal goal is your own desires, then society is full of beings who've created their gods in their own images, and the ones with the most societal power and influence will rule over everyone else. No wonder a society without the teachings of Jesus Christ becomes one where the love of men waxes cold, and men's hearts fail them. The rueful, ironic end of Korihor is a lesson for the ages: be careful what you wish for. A community of apostate saints embraced every one of his teachings not far from Zarahemla. Here, among the Zoramites, Korihor found himself mute and unable to ask for help - turned away, and eventually trampled to death. Abandoned, neglected, and he is killed by a society which fully lived the grim doctrine of selfishness antithetical to faith, hope, and charity. No wonder the prophets of dying societies focus on the most basic part of Christ's doctrine. Faith, hope, and charity can save entire communities - even nations. But when those communities and nations succumb to selfishness, faith, hope, and charity will save individuals from being stampeded down the cliff with the rest of the herd.

Come Follow Me (Alma 32-35) Once upon a time, there were two trees. One tree, if chosen, would be a problem.  Make that ALL the problems. The other tree was the solution. But the first tree would also be potential. With those problems there would also be the possibility of learning from mistakes, growth, and progress. But the second tree would actually realize that potential. Without the second tree, all the lessons learned, all the growth achieved, all the progress attained, would count for nothing. Because the biggest problem introduced by the first tree was this: once humanity left the pristine perfection of the glory of God, it was completely impossible to go back into that glory because we would now be stained. Without the glorious, delicious fruit of the second tree, we would be forever exiled from our first home in the presence of God. The second tree - the fruit on the tree - the beautiful spring of water at the roots of the tree - all represent the same thing - the source of the solution: the perfect love of Jesus Christ, made manifest in his atoning sacrifice. We can be restored to what we once were when we lived with God - now, with all the experience of the lessons learned and the growth and progress attained because of the first tree, but clean and pure, justified to be in that glory again, because of the pure love of Jesus Christ - the delicious fruit of the second tree. Think of those two trees as you read the way Alma teaches the humble Zoramites. It isn’t faith he invites them to plant - no, no. It’s God’s word - the beautiful reality of His plan for His children, which centers in the sacred holy offering of His perfect Son. Alma assures if there is only a desire to believe such an incomprehensibly generous plan, that desire is enough. Planting this idea in your heart - “I want to believe I can be clean and live with God again” - is a personal choice.  And God loves it when we choose Him. Alma taught: “And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the fruit of the tree of life. “But if ye will nourish the word , yea nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life. “And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck of the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst. ”  (Alma 32:40-42) We don’t plant faith - we plant with faith. Faith is the plant food. Alma concludes his sermon at the end of the following chapter: “And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And hold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will . Amen. (Alma 33:23) Look again. Alma 32:40 says you can’t… if you WON’T . Versus Alma 33:23: you CAN… if you WILL . If you want it, you can have it. Won’t… produces can’t. Which means - “because of [the] Son - WILL produces CAN. That’s why desire is so important to faith - what makes faith the ultimate plant food. When Father knows you mean to follow Him at all costs… Well. That’s when miracles happen. And the biggest miracle of all is that in all the ugliness and nastiness produced by the first tree, life can be sweet and delicious, because of the second tree. Because of the Son. Even when it seems that it changes absolutely nothing, knowing who we are - and whose we are - changes absolutely everything.

Come Follow Me (Alma 8-12) Alma's mission to Ammonihah makes for some thrilling reading; it runs the gamut of beauty and quite literally - ashes. It's another account so timely, it makes you wonder at the inevitability of history repeating itself, as similar stories continue to darken our nightly news. Those with eyes to see, see the wisdom of God in sending one ordinary man with an extraordinary message. (Alma 9:2-6) How else can a loving Father honor agency? He saves His sermons of nature for special circumstances, punctuating His message with earthquakes and such to get His fickle children's attention according to His will and timing. But generally, He sends one obscure man to give His children the chance to approach Him privately with the question, "Is this guy for real?" And as an equal opportunity Parent, He's ready to answer the sincere truth-seeker with a witness from the Holy Ghost - the only sure way to know anything not of this world. Ammonihah's response to Alma's preaching is fascinating to me. It follows a pattern which repeats through the millennia and begs this question: how do people respond to truth who only want to be a law unto themselves? (D&C 88:35) Short answer: badly. Watch the pattern unfold in the chapters of this extraordinary mission: First line of attack: those who would be a law unto themselves - let's abbreviate them as the lawless - mock and dismiss any contrary ideas to that ideology. Second: amplify that dismissal by darkening the mockery to vilification. People who believe become enemies of the community. Third: criminalize the ideas, so that any believing them become criminals who can be "legally" prosecuted. Persecuted. Potayto. Potawto. Fourth: eliminate any whose beliefs oppose the lawless. So insecure in their lawlessness, there can be none who dare to oppose them. And the opposition needn't be simply rhetorical. Someone even quietly existing in the corner, harboring an opposing belief, strikes at the very heart of the lawless ideology. This elimination happens by way of complete expulsion for those who can get out, or by legalized murder posing as "legalized" executions for those who can't. I need to parenthesize for a moment and ask: why the insecurity? Why is it so threatening for those who don't believe to co-exist with those who do? David Kupelian was onto something about this insecurity when he wrote: "I conducted a little thought experiment a while back, while looking out over the Pacific from the Oregon coast. Drinking in the vast expanse of the ocean, the pounding surf, the seagulls, the salt air – ultimate serenity and ultimate power all in one timeless moment – I asked myself: How can one experience all this magnificence without believing in a Creator?  "So I tried, just as an experiment mind you, to conceptualize the existence of the fantastic creation I was beholding, yet without a Creator. I consciously tried to adopt an atheistic worldview, even for just a minute, to see what it was like.  “What I got was a headache, a psychic shock, a momentary taste of another realm – an empty, prideful, appalling dimension of hell-on-earth, masquerading as enlightenment and freedom. "That's why the conflict between theism and atheism is not just a philosophical topic for polite debate over tea. It's a spiritual war of the worlds. That high anxiety I felt momentarily, as I tasted the "other dimension" that animates those who reject the very idea of God, was minor and passing. But I'm quite sure hard-core atheists feel agony when the opposite happens to them – that is, when they chance to experience a fleeting moment of realization that God exists, and that they are accountable ultimately to Him.  "This would account for the near-explosive emotion that always seems to surround this "objective, scientific" subject. Underneath all the scientific pretension, it's all about man being master of his own destiny, about freedom from accountability to God, about being released from Judeo-Christian sexual morality, about making up your own rules, about sustaining the life of pride and individual will. "In a very real sense, it's about being your own god."  From David Kupelian, “How Atheism is Being Sold to America”, October 11, 2007 Back to our story. Amulek makes an interesting observation before those who accepted the message either fled or were rounded up: "...if it were not for the prayers of the righteous,...ye would even now be visited with utter destruction;.... "...it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are spared; now therefore, if ye will cast out the righteous from among you then will not the Lord stay his hand; but in his fierce anger he will come out against you; then ye shall be smitten by famine, and by pestilence, and by the sword; and the time is soon at hand except ye repent." (Alma 10:22-23) A society can survive - even flourish - when both believers and non-believers can co-exist peaceably. But it's when a society no longer tolerates religion and believers that a society decays and falls apart. This feels like natural law at work again. If that's true, then it means a society somehow naturally sustains residual blessings by having faithful believers among them. The Lord must intervene and protect that society against the natural consequences of destruction when there are righteous people who obey God's law within a wicked society. When that tolerance is no longer extended to the righteous, God doesn't stay His hand. The natural consequences of wickedness must follow - destruction. And please - hear me now, believe me later: God doesn't do the destroying. The wicked destroy themselves with their own disobedience. You can only pretend natural law doesn't exist for so long before gravity takes over and there's a cosmic spiritual splat. Notice that Amulek warns of the inevitable natural consequences, he lists the same destructive methods mentioned in the Old Testament: famine, pestilence, and the sword. It's worth noting that the order is often different and accentuates how natural the consequences of supreme selfishness are - as war tends to lead to food shortages, which lead to sickness. War, famine, pestilence - is very often the order you'll see in actual fulfillment of disobedience. But the patterns are the same. The descent into madness is predictable. Which is why it can be stopped if enough righteous people see it in time. Sadly for Ammonihah, there weren't enough. Some escaped. But sadly, not many. Sorry about that big ol' spoiler for next week. :(

Come Follow Me (Alma 23-29) Alma chapter 24 makes me cry every time I read it. I'm in complete awe of the miraculous missionary efforts of Ammon and his brothers with the Lamanites. These boys became men on their missions, and the power of their conversion was so great, they spent fourteen years teaching in an enemy nation. Long enough to give them pause when the new converts refused to defend themselves from war. The king's speech in chapter 24 is so insightful as to why it's so difficult - if not impossible - to be forgiven of murder: "And now behold, my brethren, since it was all we could do (as we were the most lost of all mankind) to repent of all our sins and the many murders which we have committed, and to get God to take them away from our hearts, for it was all we could do to repent sufficiently before God that he would take away our stain - " (Alma 24:11) If God governs with natural laws, that would mean that He hasn't arbitrarily determined murder - or for that matter, adultery - will not be forgiven. Perhaps He has warned about these two because the spiritually lethal, infectious germs of murderous rage or lust are so perniciously difficult to remove from a human heart once they've taken root there. My heart swells with wonder at the beauty and power of repentance when I realize this murderous people figured that out. I read this account and see the unparalleled fruit of repentance in their choices. When did this great epiphany come to them? Practically on the eve of war. Wouldn't that be a great time to lay aside those thoughts for just a minute in order to defend yourselves? But no - that's when this incredible collective of newly converted saints make a covenant to never take another life - even in a war of self-defense. And to have tangible evidence that they've made this covenant - they bury any and all weapons of destruction. All the people. All the weapons. A collective act of devotion to their God - in humble recognition of what He has already done to make their hearts clean. The fact this covenant was made when the lives of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis were in peril underscores not just the importance of covenants but their very purpose. It's one of the most powerful illustrations in scripture of what it means to live by correct principles once they've been taught, received, and embraced. They don't mean anything if you cast them aside for expediency. It's in those very perilous circumstances that our covenants mean the very most to us - when it costs us to keep them. Let me say that again: covenants are meaningless if they're set aside for any reason. Even for expediency - real or perceived. If that's the ground you stand on, it's amazing how many perceived expediencies Satan will be able to present. Good luck with that slippery slope. On the eve of this great emergency, as weapons of self-defense are buried deep in the earth, even higher and holier realizations come. We shouldn't expect to exist on the labor of others! We're not going to take what we haven't worked for anymore. We're going to be more generous and give freely when we have more than we need. That means we're going to have to stop living an indolent and idle lifestyle and work for our own support. The fact that an entire community of saints could go from murder, plunder, and indolence to charity and industry is one of the greatest miracles recounted in scripture. And how did this people punctuate this choice? With a covenant which cost their very lives. These are the men who went out so they would be killed before their wives and children - whose widows raised a generation of valiant soldiers. These men gave their lives in the ultimate atypical response - stinging the consciences of other murderous hearts. How incredible - that the atypical response could allow the Spirit of God to move those murderous hearts to repentance! I continue to praise God that He can do such things with unruly human hearts. Even without being at literal war, it's only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can teach and train us to practice the atypical response against the swords of unkindness and even cruelty or brutality. If we can do this in our personal relationships, we can aid the Spirit to work upon not just an enemy's heart, but our own.

You've probably done it at least once in your life - ruefully considered a past event in your life, and thought, "If I could go back and do that again, I'd sure do it differently." Humans seem to enjoy indulging in 'what ifs' from time to time, and thanks to that quirky little 2004 film, Napoleon Dynamite , I like to call it the Uncle Ricco syndrome. Uncle Ricco was Napoleon's uncle who was so hung up on the botched play in the Big Game of his high school football career, he was certain his life needed a do over to right the terrible wrong. This seems to be one of the adversary's best strategies to cripple our progress. Because all the adversary's strategies center around obfuscating the brilliant, comforting reality of Jesus Christ, looking back and thinking 'what if' only keeps us from looking forward and trying again. The truth is stated like this: "There is no fixing this without Jesus' help." But Satan croons only the first part of that: "There is no fixing this." Mistakes are vital to our progress; apparently, they were so vital a part of our mortal curriculum, Father allowed His perfect Son to suffer the infinite pain of the atoning sacrifice to put everything right that goes wrong in this fallen sphere. You heard me. Everything. Let me repeat: Every. Single. Thing. Jesus Christ's pain in Gethsemane and on the cross corrects every stupid act, every vile act, every harsh and unkind word - whether deliberate or unwitting. It soothes and heals every snub, every exclusion, every injustice, every betrayal. He felt the pain of unresolved illnesses and pains, the ache of empty arms - be they the empty arms of the infertile or those who put babies to rest, having barely said welcome to them. He experienced the ache of those whose partners left them too soon in death, or too cavalierly in divorce. He mourned - and mourns - with those who never had a partner to begin with, who wonder if there is a safe place for them anywhere in this wilderness of a world. Our dear Savior, who deserved none of eternal justice, paid all of our debt to eternal justice so that He could truly be with us as we suffer. He paid our debt so we wouldn't have to if we ask for His advocacy. He paid our debt so we can feel the sweet relief of the comforted or forgiven, and can learn to feel compelled to give it to others. There are do overs with learning to shoot foul shots or nail a scale in a Chopin nocturne. There's simply a lot of repetition as consistent, intentional practice builds higher proficiency. Buried inside the arduous work of countless repetitions is the subtle message - not of do over - but of do again. It's repentance. In a fallen world with deeply flawed humans, repentance is rarely a one-and-done event. It nearly always has the feel of mastering those foul shots or scales. It involves a lot of practice and do agains. Do it again. Again. Getting a do over is a fantasy for movies. Getting a do again is the mystical yet raw reality of Father's generous plan of "grace for grace" (D&C 93:12). In April 2024 Elder Renlund called it " repeatedly and iteratively applying the other elements of the doctrine of Christ [faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost], creating the 'powerful virtuous cycle’..." ( https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2024/04/43renlund?lang=eng ) The beauty of do agains is the beauty of intentional practice of any desired ability: while there may be far too many repetitions where it looks like absolutely no change is taking place, eventually, thanks to natural law (D&C 130:21-22), and that beautiful enabling, transforming grace offered us by Jesus Christ, we change. We become holy. And in that process, the stones we stumbled over, the pits we fell into and maybe lived in for a while, the seemingly inescapable circumstances we used to wistfully look back on will also become holy. Because that was the training ground that truly introduced us to our God. C.S. Lewis wrote: "Ye cannot in your present state understand eternity...That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it," not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory . And of some sinful pleasure they say "Let me have but this and I'll take the consequences": little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of the sin . Both processes begin even before death. The good man's past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man's past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And t hat is why...the Blessed will say "We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven, : and the Lost, "We were always in Hell." And both will speak truly.” (C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce) I don't know about you, but in a world where we have the privilege of experiencing both, I want to make the intentional choice of heaven and glory. Because He is there, and in all my blundering repetitions, I've humbly discovered I really can't live without Him.

This painting by Greg Olsen hangs in my front hall. There's more than the proverbial thousand words in this one for me - sermon upon sermon of what it is to be God, what it is to follow God, and what it is to be like God. The other day a friend told me of a loved one she has been praying for for many years. She has been praying her loved one would have cause to consider the safety and refuge of church again. She was frustrated and disappointed that this loved one had seen only the glaring imperfections of the church members when she did in fact attend a church meeting several weeks ago. My friend was frustrated because she knew how easy it is to find those imperfections. As I glibly like to say, you can't swing a dead cat in this church without hitting a person who is very likely to offend you. My friend was disappointed because she longed for her loved one to see beyond the starkly obvious - oblivious - behavior we all exhibit from time to time. We have to focus on the Savior, not each other, in order to feel help there - hope there. I've thought it dozens of times before, but I found myself again picturing us all staggering into church in one way or another, getting there by the skin of our teeth, desperate for the living water promised if we come thirsting. Probably because I staggered in today. I realized again that churches are meant to be way stations for the wounded. Churches are like MASH units in the army. Though set up to be far more permanent and stationary they are every bit the same in serving as the first line trauma unit for the spiritually and emotionally wounded. There's just one problem: there are zero professional staff assigned there who are coming from a completely 100% healthy and healed place themselves. Whether you could see it or not, every single person at church today had wounds that needed tending to. These are the people who may have offended you at church today: The bishopric member who's been out of work for eight months. The Relief Society teacher who may not have spoken to one of her children in over a year. A member of a quorum or auxiliary presidency who may have just learned their spouse is leaving them; another who may have just found out their third invitro attempt failed. The person assigned to be your minister may be at their aging parent's home around the clock after a full-time job. The person sitting next to you in class may have a young adult child who just announced they no longer believe. When I look at this painting of Jesus, I see our God, Lord and King of our universe, condescending to have the same gritty, back-breaking, heart-wrenching, soul-stretching experience we are having in mortality. He didn't come to float above it all. He had it, right beside us. When I look at this painting, I see Him in His perfection, reaching upward to where only He can reach, and yet at the same time, reaching back to those of us with far less steady legs and much shorter strides - helping us over the biggest hurdles towards the vistas waiting out ahead. He calls out encouragement to the whole group, but is entirely and intimately accessible to whisper in each ear, "You can do this. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I'll help you. Keep going." He patiently waits for the slowest among us - knowing there is no prize for finishing first. It only matters that Someone finished - making it possible for the rest of us to even make the climb at all. He expects us to reach back and help the next person, and here's the real challenge: He expects us to call out the same kind of encouragement as we do our level best to catch our own breath, grieve our own tragedies, nurse our own wounds. One of the most sanctifying things we can do to practice being like our great God is to minister to each other out of our own lack. There are seeds of exaltation in doing this the way Jesus Christ does it, as impossible as it sometimes seems. I believe it is equally sanctifying to forgive when we feel like someone has let us down when we've needed someone - when someone has failed to minister to us with the elegance and grace of our Savior, or in the way we're sure we've needed. In forgiving others' clumsy practice attempts, we remember they have their own boulders to hurdle, their own "sorrows that the eye can't see." As unpaid MASH workers, we get the very most out of church when we remember we're there to give aid to other broken soldiers as much as we are there to receive our own aid. We mess it up when we mistakenly keep score over how many times we were helped, or called, or how many cards or casseroles we received. We mess it up when we forget that the one Person we actually came to receive aid from isn't any of these other wounded warriors. We came to worship the Wounded Warrior - the one who was "wounded for our transgressions." He is the only One who can provide the healing and the hope and the help. Any time we decide someone else didn't meet our expectations, we're cutting ourselves off from that source. We aren't in the same kind of covenant relationship with anyone but Jesus Christ - "and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) Let's all resolve to give each other a little more room, remembering each battlefield is fierce, and truly, everyone is doing their best. Let's stagger into the way station next week, focusing on the right set of wounds, determined to keep our covenant with Him to help walk each other home. That gives Him the permission He needs to walk us home.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee (original book review posted August 2, 2016) To this day, I get soft somewhere in my gut when I think of the beauty of the language of this book. It evoked emotions in me as a young teenager that changed the way I looked at the world. I love the characters - those hysterical children, Jem, Dill, and Scout - a town rich with side characters, and the gem of a father that everyone wishes he had - Atticus Finch. I'm getting emotional as I think of everything I learned from being 13 and watching this imaginary man teach his imaginary daughter. I learned right along with Scout about the injustice of prejudice, the potential smallness and pettiness of human nature, along with its potential nobility and greatness. I love the easy, unpretentious meandering of a well-structured plot that almost takes you by surprise in that meandering. It's characteristically southern in its casual pace, and almost seems to be going nowhere. But Lee knew where she was going, and because of expert story-telling, the destination doesn't just take you by surprise - it takes your breath away. Oh, how I love a writer who can weave such a story! I love the important lessons in a seemingly unimportant time and place, told in a seemingly unimportant way. That Lee is capable of seeing the Finch's neighbors with both compassion and stark honesty as she takes their masks off at various points in the story is masterful. I only got a broad sense of the spectrum of humanity Lee was painting when I was 13 - but it continues to move me, just writing about it today. To use the ordinary to do something extraordinary is the best of art; it's God-like. One of the best lines in the book is where Scout's neighbor tells her that God puts some people on the earth to do the ugly things that none of the rest of us wanted to do, and that Atticus was such a man. Lee writes it in such a way as to make you want to be such a person - to do what is right, even when it is hard, simply because it IS right. I have at least 50 books that I sort of cram into a "top ten" list. But this one is in the REAL top ten. It has mattered that I've read this book. <3

Not to start with a buzz kill or anything, but life is really hard. No, seriously. If someone disagrees, it's highly possible they either: A. have a lousy memory; B. the hard stuff hasn't hit yet; or C. maybe they're fibbing. The longer I live, the more in awe I am of pretty much everybody. I watch people walking with arms full of groceries on a sidewalk, and I wonder how far from home they are, admiring this simple yet hard thing. I see someone who's no more ripped than I am walking in the morning as I hobble out for my own walk and think, "Way to go! Way to do battle with yourself - way to win today!" I don't know why, but the grocery store has me watching young mothers with little children, and elderly couples, clinging to each other and the grocery cart for dear life. I find myself saying little prayers for them: "Father, please bless them today. Help them feel Your love, and give them the strength to do their stuff today." Everyone I know is currently carrying a load nearly too heavy to bear. I've decided it's highly possible that when we leave this life and put down the grueling burden of opposition, it will stagger us how much we were pushing daily against it. Many years ago, I had a conversation with a dear friend about becoming perfect. This was sometime in the quixotic years of my 20's or 30's when the illusion of achieving perfection in this lifetime was just starting to slip away. I was in the throes of early motherhood, had recently set aside the career I had planned since childhood, and spent much of my time bemused and bewildered at how I had gotten to this place. On this particular day, something like this tumbled out of my mouth as Dear Friend and I - henceforth in this post to be referred to as DF - strove to solve the problems of the universe. "I think I'm starting to think that God knows we can't achieve perfection in this life, so when He asks us to be perfect, He's asking us to make a perfect effort." DF balked even at this. She made the most excellent point that perfect effort was every bit the sliding scale on any given day that perfect performance was. Touché. Meanwhile, life just kept happening. Some of it was brutal. Some of it was glorious and sweet - the foretaste of joy C.S. Lewis writes about so wistfully. Then one particularly bleak day, life found our fair heroine down for the count. I can't even remember the set of circumstances that laid me out, but on this day, I pictured myself as a handcart pioneer, trudging uphill in the snow (of course, uphill in the snow - the only way I ever walked to school as a child, right?), completely spent and unable to take another step. On this particular day I couldn't even put one foot in front of the other to push that dang handcart. I was face planted in the snow, unable to get up. I begged Father to give me the strength to keep going, even just one more step, and praise Him forever - He did. Shortly after that, I had another conversation with DF. These were running conversations over years - and now decades. I asked her: "Remember when I said Father only expects a perfect effort, and you said you weren't sure you were capable of even that? I think maybe I know what He expects of us when we can't push the handcart. I think if we're face down in the snow, unable to go on, the only thing He expects is that we wish we could. And maybe what that looks like is rolling over in the snow and lying there looking up at Him until we have the strength to get up again." That's where I've settled on the issue of perfect effort. Sometimes my perfect effort has the brilliance and blinding efficiency of watching a thoroughbred racehorse win the Kentucky Derby. Who WAS that masked woman?? Sometimes my perfect effort is making the bed and making dinner. Sometimes my perfect effort is getting dressed. There. I said it. Heavenly Father wants my heart, and He's got it. Being perfect in Christ (Moroni 10:32-33) means to give Him what's in your wallet - be it a million dollars or two mites. In fact - Jesus Christ is so unbelievably generous - having earned the inheritance for all of us - He actually takes on your deficits when your wallet has cartoon butterflies fly out of it. In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis writes in the voice of a senior devil - Wormwood - to an apprentice devil, Screwtape. As a devil, Wormwood refers to God as "our Enemy" and their "cause" as devils to seduce humans away from God: “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.” I like to think Wormwood is talking about all us pioneers, lyin' in the snow on summer days, at the very least, finding the strength to roll over and look up at that dear Face until we can walk toward Him again. He's so happy to wait. Oh. how He waits. Just keep your eyes on Jesus. His eyes have never left you, not even for a second.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 29 - Alma 1-4) "It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force." (Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, No. 1) Mosiah Chapter 29 is a pivotal point in Nephite history and mirrors the American founding of the 18th century. King Mosiah seemed to share the opinion of Joseph Smith that if his people were taught correct principles, they could govern themselves without the need for a sovereign king. As I wrote in Part 1 (https://www.laureensimper.com/post/the-first-american-founding-92-b-c-part-1-setting-the-stage), Mosiah spent a great deal of time reading the records of his people's past and concluded that moving forward, it would be unwise to establish another king. Mosiah outlined why wicked rulers harm an entire nation in verses 16-23, as the memories of King Noah were still fresh. Appointing toady associates to support corruption, changing laws to insulate corrupt leaders from accountability, destroying any opposition to shore up their power, ... Wow. Again - hard to tell if I'm referring to scripture or current news to compile that list of the danger of corrupt rulers. The daring proposal was put forth: what if you govern yourselves, and elect judges to oversee cases of dispute and law breaking? You choose your leaders, and agree to be accountable to them under the law. Higher and lower courts were proposed to assure a separation of power and a set of checks and balances. King Mosiah emphasized the point again and again - this will only work if most of you are capable of doing the right thing without being forced to do it. "Now it is not common that the voice of the people desire anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law - to do your business by the voice of the people." "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you..." (Mosiah 29:26-27) "And [Mosiah] told them that ... the burden should come upon all the people, that every man might bear his part." (Mosiah 29:34) "Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins." (Mosiah 29:38) The laws would apply equally to all - as all people were on the same equal, flawed plane in a fallen world. God's laws, which protect individuals from the selfishness of each other, would become the law of the land as overseen by the new judges. "Therefore, it came to pass that they assembled themselves together in bodies throughout the land, to cast in their voices concerning who should be their judges, to judge them according to the law which had been given them; and they were exceedingly rejoiced because of the liberty which had been granted unto them." (Mosiah 29:39) The people accepted the responsibility of answering for their own behavior under the law. That's the only way liberty works. Freedom without morality isn't liberty; as Edmund Burke said, "It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” (Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France) The first American founding was 92 B.C. A group of pilgrims from the Old World, several hundred years after arriving, decided to form a government to largely govern themselves - to choose - as Hamilton suggested - to govern from their own intentional reflection and choice. As the majority of humanity has been ruled by either accident or force, the second American founding nearly two millennia later posed the same bold question. This is the great American experiment - are men capable of governing themselves? Two hundred forty years after that second founding, with civil unrest at a near-fevered pitch, the question almost mocks: can human beings rise to their highest capabilities and largely leave each other alone? Or must they always be micromanaged and told what to do? Call me a cockeyed optimist - I like to believe Joseph Smith was right - correct principles make it possible for people to govern themselves and have a well-ordered society with peace, prosperity, and maximum freedom. Mosiah 29 concludes at the dawn of an era where another group of humans are determined to try.