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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.

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.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 29, Alma 1-4) Anyone reading this who knows me well won't be surprised to see this post coming. Chapter 29 of Mosiah is one of my top three favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. To fully appreciate the parallels between the restructuring of Nephite government to the American founding in 1789, first take a look at something pivotal in chapter 28 - the impetus of the restructuring, so to speak. Like the American founders, King Mosiah studied the records of many peoples. He studied the brass plates brought from the Old World, as well as the Nephite record up to his time. These were added to with the recently acquired records of Zeniff, Alma, and the extinct Jaredite nation. None of these are entirely happy records. Deceit, betrayal, bondage, debauchery, unjust trials, narrow escapes, and even an execution. The extinct record warned particularly about secret combinations which seek to overthrow governments, and how allowing them without fighting them led to the very extinction itself. Like I said, grim stuff. I'm particularly fascinated with the reaction of Mosiah's people to the public reading of the Jaredite record - what I would argue might be the grimmest part of the entire Book of Mormon. I repeat - THIS IS NOT A HAPPY STORY. If it weren't for my other top two favorite chapters ever in that record, both of which recount face-to-face conversations with Jesus Christ, you'd need a whole lot of chocolate for the dementor attack that is the Book of Ether. Sorry about that parentheses. I just really want to get this idea across - Ether is a huge downer of a read. You know - a lot like reading the news today. And yet Mosiah read this bleak, dark record to his people, and Mormon makes this fascinating, important commentary as to why - which we would do well to remember when we want to look away and not pay too close attention to the world on fire around us: "Now this account did cause the people of Mosiah to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow; nevertheless it gave them much knowledge, in the which they did rejoice." (Mosiah 28:18) Knowing hard things is a lot like making the decision Eve made in the Garden of Eden to eat the fruit. I love that Mormon adds this brief commentary that some knowledge, while it brings joy in the knowing, also brings sorrow in the knowing. It's something bittersweet to know both the good and the evil; it will ever be a hallmark of mortality. The founders of modern America did something very similar as they mined nuggets of knowledge from poring over the records of ancient civilizations - including Greece, Rome, and interestingly - Israel and the early Anglo Saxons - the Anglo Saxons very possibly being descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. The founders were students of history, and this also made them students of human nature. In reading Mosiah 29, it's very apparent King Mosiah was a similar student. Students of human nature can almost seem prescient in their ability to predict certain outcomes. But maybe it's just inevitable natural consequences of immersing oneself in the history of humanity and seeing the same patterns play out again and again. There will always be people who want nothing but power and influence over others, seeing other humans as either stepping stones or stumbling blocks towards it. There will always be people who want to do away with that kind of tyranny and bondage, and will lift their voices and spend out their lives to warn and to rally others to protect themselves from oppression. There will always be people who see the showdown coming between the liberty-loving patriots and those thirsting for power, who hedge up their bet by siding with the tyrant, becoming either willing or unwitting toadies with no other desire but to protect their own interests. There will always be people who want to be left alone, possibly hoping if they ignore eating that fruit long enough, their lives can go on normally and they can completely stay out of the fray. Same roles throughout history. Similar scripts. Different players. But you study enough of them, and the patterns are unmistakable. Seeing those patterns, the founders were "wise, and look[ed] forward to these things" (Mosiah 29:10), as did King Mosiah. The result was a completely new way of doing things, The result was an ancient democratic republic uncannily similar to the democratic republic of 1787. The result was a daring experiment in self-government. Cecil B. DeMille asserted: "God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice." (https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/cecil-b-demille/ten-commandments-and-you/) Which begs the question - can we govern ourselves? What principles must a society live by to pull it off? That's what both the American founders and King Mosiah seemed determined to discover. Many of them are set forth in Mosiah chapter 29.

[Originally published April 19, 2021] From my journal - March 7, 2021 I started to pay closer attention to the unjust actions of corrupt government about twelve years ago. It’s been a very interesting journey. I’ve learned a lot about the subtle ways the very desire to self-govern is being eroded in the U.S. Because so many have lost the historical context of what self-government is even supposed to be, which is at the heart of the American experiment, my fear that we are losing our desire and ability to do it has often been dismissed and disrespected. It hurts to have people you love and respect treat your fear as irrational. With that as context, you might imagine the consternation I’ve felt in the last year. I am told I am an uncharitable person to disrespect the very real fear of people who are afraid of dying of a virus that has proven to have a 99% survival rate. To me, fear of a virus with that survival rate is the very definition of an irrational fear. Until just the last few years, the United States I have lived in my whole life has been a place where individuals could decide for themselves whether they wanted to take precautions for their own health. Those who feared getting sick - rational or not - could do something about it. Their fear - rational or not - had nothing to do with using compulsory means to change the way anyone else lived their lives. The fact that it’s considered selfish and even reckless or cruel to do this now, a year into “flattening the curve,” would suggest that MY fear of a loss of liberty has been the most rational. I work very hard to not allow myself to be offended, but I’ve got to tell you - I am now officially offended that my fear of the last twelve years has been dismissed, and even mocked and derided for being irrational, while at the same time those who may have been germaphobic to begin with are treated as if their fear has genuine merit. I respect the precautions of more hand washing, more attention to improving my own personal immune system, and staying home when you’re not feeling well. All other precautions? I can’t respect any of them because of the outlandish inconsistencies in implementation. But I’m made to comply with these inconsistent policies, and from the look of it, the reason is to assuage others’ fear. I’m particularly offended when over a hundred illegal immigrants were released into Texas last week, who tested positive for the virus! This - at the same time I’ve just spent the last year being denied the unalienable right of AIR, all in the name of calming others’ fear. Well, what about MY fear that we are losing our freedom? How seriously can I take this if illegal immigrants who have the virus aren’t quarantined before being allowed into the U.S. at large, while at the same time, people are policing each other about keeping a mask up over the nose, and families are being kicked off planes because a terrified little child doesn’t want to keep a mask over his face for a 4-hour flight? What of my fear that power-hungry people have seized the opportunity of a crisis - as they always do - and have used fear to get us to comply with an important loss of individual liberty? Naomi Wolf has written recently of her concern that “emergency” powers - once taken, are historically NEVER relinquished. And lest you think this is a partisan issue: Naomi Wolf is a Democrat. Self-government means that not only are we capable of making the best choices for our own lives, but that we’re capable of allowing other people to do the same - even if their choices look completely different than our choices. Self-government means we’ve outgrown the first-grade tendency to tattle to teacher, pointing to our neighbor at Table 1, and shouting, “He’s doing it wrong!” My apologies to the more mature first-graders everywhere. Self-government means we realize that freedom means we have to give each other room to learn from our mistakes by doing it wrong, because WE need that room ourselves. I need to change my answer. I’m not offended; I’m heart-broken. I’m heart-broken and stunned at the widespread ignoring of logic which has been necessary to bring us to this one-year anniversary of two weeks to flatten the curve. I mourn that the United States of America’s beautiful experiment in self-government seems to be lost. All rational evidence points to the curve being flattened a long time ago. But the more contagious virus - irrational fear that a healthy neighbor can kill you - may never be flattened if we don’t turn our frontal cortexes back on. It’s the only thing that will override fear, and the only thing that will save our liberty.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 11-17) The Book of Mosiah has some of the most brilliant commentary about government in the entire Book of Mormon - both the best of it, as in Mosiah 1-5, and some of its worst, as in Mosiah 11-17. Benjamin was a stellar public servant worth emulating. He's a perfect foil with whom to contrast the corrupt and morally bankrupt King Noah described in Mosiah chapter 11. This chapter underscores Gordon B. Hinckley's statement that reading the Book of Mormon daily could often be confused with reading a current-day newspaper. This key phrase sets off a horrible checklist of corruption: "he had changed the affairs of the kingdom." (Mosiah 11:4) Change indeed. To really appreciate the change - read chapters 1 and 2 to see how Benjamin raised his children and served as king, and then get on your trusty neck brace before you read chapter 11 so you won't get whiplash. And even though Noah's kingdom had completely separated from King Benjamin's/Mosiah's kingdom for at least one generation, the contrast is worth noting because in the space of "not many years" (Helaman 11:26), a group of people who started out as largely self-governing had almost completely given themselves to licentiousness. Note the eerie similarities in our current situation to that of King Noah's people after the affairs of the kingdom had been changed: King Noah's wickedness justified the people's wickedness and vice versa (verse 2). High taxation supported a debauched, idolatrous, excessive lifestyle - which allowed King Noah and his priests to live off the work of others and not support themselves (verses 3-4, 14-15). High taxation also paid for expensive government trappings - which only served to accentuate a different class: those who 'governed' and the ordinary people (verses 8-11). King Noah replaced his father's priests with his own yes-men who would support his unrighteous decrees (verse 5). The people "labored exceedingly" to pay these taxes to "support iniquity" (verse 6). Yet King Noah and his priests deceived the people with vain and flattering speech, leading the whole nation into idolatry. No doubt this flattering speech justified taking an exorbitant portion of their living by telling them they would benefit from it (verse 7). National surveillance was established (verse 12). Even with all that excessive taxation, King Noah didn't manage and maintain sufficient national defense to protect the people - the number one role of government (verses 16-17). A pattern emerges throughout the Book of Mormon where laziness and indolence are paired with idolatry. It's repeatedly used to describe the lifestyle of primarily the Lamanite nations. In the miraculous conversion of those Lamanites who come to be known as the Anti-Nephi-Lehis (Alma 23), Mormon particularly mentions that one of the significant changes in their lifestyle was that they became industrious. Since these vices show up together so often throughout the book, it begs the question: does laziness lead people into idolatry? Or is laziness idolatry? No wonder people who are committed to this kind of lifestyle don't want anyone telling them it's not a good choice. And that includes that same person warning them there are divine consequences for that choice. This is where the children in the room like to put their fingers in their ears and shout loudly, "LA LA LA LA LA." I started calling this reaction to reality the Pharisee Disease many years ago. As I studied the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' teaching, it struck me how very much they had invested in their lifestyles and how important it was to their way of life that Jesus was wrong. He had to be wrong, or they had to change. And who wants to change? Absolutely no one, that's who. If you're not quickened by the Spirit, absolutely 100% of natural humans are absolutely 100% committed to staying exactly as they are. Because entropy. Entropy, atrophy, and all the forces of the universe which demand effort against chaos are real and cannot be denied. And effort demands the legitimate pain of discipline, as Scott Peck called it. And doughnuts. And Netflix. Few of us want to look too closely at our first response to new information that might require change from us. I wince just writing that. If you don't want something to be true, you enter the hypothesis of its possible truth with a huge bias most of us don't want to admit. If you have zero intention of accepting the truth and changing your behavior - or bigger still, your lifestyle - to accommodate it, then you'll view a potentially new truth as an enemy - because of its potential to completely dismantle your habits, livelihood, belief system, world view, etc. It would "destroy [your] craft." (Alma 35:3) You can tell King Noah, his priests, and his people didn't want Abinadi's warnings to be true because of this very natural human response to new information. They didn't want it to be true because of what it would require of them if it were. But that pesky thought in the back of every human brain: what if it is true? - is behind all the vitriol hurled at Abinadi. It explains their reaction over two thousand years ago, and it explains the world's reaction to basic absolute truths today. That checklist earlier of changes to the government aren't the problem. They're symptoms of a much larger problem - the spiritually lethal germ in human thinking which tricks us into imagining we can insulate ourselves from reality. Humans attempt this through the ease and comfort of wealth, in the deceptive safety of a peer group of like-minded people, through power and influence, or with enough power and influence, even with laws which eventually - inevitably - lead to the criminalization of the truth and the speakers of truth. Maybe laziness really is idolatry. If humans are that committed to staying as they are, have they made ease and comfort their god? There's certainly a staggering degree of obeisance to it and rapid responses to anything which threatens it. This pattern can be seen over and over in the Book of Mormon - starting with Lehi's family. Watch for it - watch how both individuals and collective groups respond to truth, and what happens as a result of that choice. The road map of destruction can always be traced back to this first fatal step - not wanting truth to be real. After millennia of feeble, futile attempts filled with false bravado, the best thinkers of the ages can almost be heard saying, "Best of luck with that."

We've got to talk about the most incredulous irony of the universe. All things were created by God. He is the King of the universe, and Father of the spirits of every human ever born on this earth. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3) Though He has allowed what sometimes seems like a never-ending tether to the rebellious one who now wreaks such havoc in the world, that tether is still decreed finitely by Him. The destroyer can only do so much damage, and no more. This vexes many prone to disbelief as proof there must be no God - finding it easier to not believe in a Being who would allow such mischief and mayhem wherever you look. But here comes the great irony - because of eternal laws, God must allow us to choose His ways without a show of force on His part. How can we ever be tempered and trained to prefer light over darkness in a world with only light? God planned from the very beginning to send a Rescuer, a Healer, a Cleaner-Upper-of-Every-Mess. A Savior. He paid such a high price to send His beloved, perfect Son to clean up every mess we make, to make every single thing right that has gone wrong, to wipe all the tears that have been shed over all the messes. He watched that perfectly obedient Son suffer indescribably to allow us the gift of the right to choose. Mortality is our time to learn and develop preferences: to prefer light to darkness, freedom to force, work to indolence, to prefer kindness over cruelty. To prefer generosity over stinginess, magnanimity over pettiness. All life's experiences are for this one purpose - which do you prefer - God's ways, or Satan's? And through it all, the scriptures are replete with the polite suggestion that we will do best if we learn sooner than later that God's ways are the path to ultimate freedom, and Satan's ways are the path to bondage. King Limhi taught his people: "O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them." (Mosiah 8:20) In light of the omniscience, power, and glory, from Him who made all things, it's fascinating that the typical natural human, untouched by spiritual things, has the tendency to not want to be bossed around At. All. By anyone really, but according to Limhi, the characteristic of God that makes Him so utterly trustworthy to be listened to and obeyed is His infinite wisdom. Which means natural humans don't want to be bossed around by their very Creator. So, why? Humans want what they want, as much as they want, whenever they want. Any restraints are most onerous to a typical natural human. Isaiah poetically observes: "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood." (Isaiah 10:15) Isaiah recognizes how ridiculous it is that the created thing imagines it is greater than its creator by using the poetic images of inanimate objects to make his point, but it holds true of God's children, also created for Him - for His delight, His use, and His glory: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,... all things were created by him and for him." (Colossians 1:16, emphasis added) This is the great danger of the world's religion - secular humanism - which asserts that the highest moral authority is a person's own self and what he feels is right and moral. That makes for some sticky business, as this means there is no universal standard for everyone to refer to. Secular humanism teaches a doctrine which doesn't assert all humans are created in the image of one universal Creator. It assumes innumerous little gods - those gods created in the images of their flawed, fickle human creators. This turning upside down of the natural order of things is also described by Isaiah: "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?" (Isaiah 29:16) So back to the irony. It boggles my mind that God gave all His fickle children this magnificent gift of choice - for the very reason to learn to prefer Him over all else. That's what the agency is for - to allow our experiences to teach us to prefer Him over all else. And yet, with all His power, and brilliance, and might, and glory - this mighty Being who is our Creator, Father, and God - does not force. Not only does He not, neither can He, nor will He. The choice is entirely up to us. What's not up to us is the attending consequences - the "affixed", inescapable consequences of those choices. (2 Nephi 2:10) The great irony is that the only one with authority to boss us around - the Author of the universe - refuses to boss us around. He waits, He allows, He loves. He waits, and then He waits some more. And when He's finished, He keeps waiting, watching from "yet a great way off" (Luke 15:20), and hopes that in the end, we will ask Him to boss us around - to take the rudder and captain our ship - to give Him, as Neal Maxwell taught, the only thing that is uniquely ours to give - our very selves. Humans can never do God's work if they don't learn this, if they attempt to force God's ways. God. Never. Forces. In fact, He has something pretty strong to say about those who try to force His ways: "...men... do not learn this one lesson - "That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled or handled only upon the principles of righteousness.... "...but when we undertake to... exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man." (D&C 121:35-37) God will do everything in His power to bring us to the choice of choosing Him, but He will not take it from us or make it for us. And He doesn't want us to force each other, either, in any way. God is all about choice. Because of His infinite courtesy, He lets us choose. But oh, those consequences. We'd better be quite certain we want the consequences we've chosen as well. Know this, that ev’ry soul is free To choose his life and what he’ll be; For this eternal truth is giv’n: That God will force no man to heav’n. He’ll call, persuade, direct aright, And bless with wisdom, love, and light, In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind. Freedom and reason make us men; Take these away, what are we then? Mere animals, and just as well The beasts may think of heav’n or hell. May we no more our pow’rs abuse, But ways of truth and goodness choose; Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love. (Know This, That Every Soul is Free, LDS Hymns #240, emphasis added)

Mother’s Day used to really bug me as a young mother. I remember one particularly poignant Mother’s Day when my first child was 2 or 3. Her epic meltdown was noisy enough to be taken completely out of the church building. So there I stood on the church steps, holding her fast, because seriously - who rewards children with free reign in such moments? - and the irony of the timing struck me SO FUNNY. Happy Mother’s Day to me! Oh yeah, I was really having joy in my posterity at this particular moment. Then there was my season of mocking the picture perfect stories and sentiments that would never-no-never be at my home address. And yes, I know mocking is the lowest - I’d like to think I’ve mostly grown out of it. My favorite memory of this season, though, is of Madeleine Kahn, singing a hysterical version of “M is for the many things she gave me…” on SNL. This was the season where Dale was either the hero for giving me dementor-preventing chocolate for Mother’s Day, or was in the doghouse for giving me fat-laden chocolate for Mother’s Day.  Poor dear. Talk about hitting a moving target… Then there were the years of grieving that adult children lived too far away, and our family didn’t have the kind of structure that allowed a houseful of grandchildren and cousins on Mother’s Day - so can we just maybe go to Market Street Broiler on Saturday night and forget the rest?  And then I’ll symbolically put my fingers in my ears during church, symbolically going, “LA LA LA LA LA” ? And then the war on mothers - and fathers - and the whole fam damily - ramped up in earnest. Then I remembered my horrified, incredulous reaction to reading Brave New World, back before I’d even had children. I couldn’t conceive of such a world - couldn’t conceive that an author could write a cautionary tale of a dystopian world - where sex was completely recreational and untethered from marriage and family responsibilities - and the most vile swear word in the society was mother. Then I began to hear from dear friends who had strapped on the armor of the cultural warrior, and attended UN conferences that disparaged motherhood, fatherhood, and families. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing as they reported the manipulative practices of the UN, designed to bully countries into adopting “outcome documents” - which created a false sense of consensus and peer pressure -  but which held zero sway in individual countries’ policy making. Unless they fell for the trick. It was during this season I became a part of a new group, Gathering Families.  Representing this group, I was honored to write a plea to UN delegates at one of the annual Commission on the Status of Women conferences.  (https://www.laureensimper.com/post/glorious-burden) I was also part of a Gathering Families panel presentation in support of the natural family at the UN conference which was held in Salt Lake City. These experiences and line of study have served to change Mother’s Day for me - forever. Rather than profane the word ‘mother’ - I recognize parenthood - both mother and father - as the most sacred roles we shoulder in this life. And that means we are entitled, by the power of Him who gave us these precious children, to His providential help - the help necessary to bear them, raise them, nurture them, keep them safe, and teach them virtue. Happy Mother’s Day.  This is not a day to sap on about the perfect mother who - let’s face it, doesn’t exist. Rather, this is a day to celebrate that God chose such an intimate way for children to come into the world and claim their most important birthright - the safety of two parents who love them. The safety of a family.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 4-6) Conversion is a miracle - the biggest, really. I mean, think about it. The Red Sea? It had no choice but to obey its Creator when told to step aside. Leprous cells, sightless eyes, even the demons who hate and defy the God of the universe must do exactly what He says: Heal. See. Depart. Not so much His kids. We children of the God of this universe have been given the rare gift of choice, and He is the ultimate gentleman; He never forces. Ever. He invites, and He waits. OH HOW HE WAITS. So when someone is completely converted to Him - His laws, His plan - and freely chooses to enter a covenant relationship with Him - such a big deal. This is why I love the story of King Benjamin so much. I will never get over the greater miracle still of the entire congregation being converted to Jesus Christ's redeeming message all at the same time. But that's not where the miracle stops. You have an incredible surge of spiritual insight - the idea that, partnered with Jesus Christ you can become more. You desire it so much that the very desire to go against it seems to have left you completely. Resolve is strengthened, commitments are made - covenants. And then what? Because let's face it - staying on the holy mountaintops of these kinds of experiences simply can't last forever. Mortality gets the best of us again, it's time to strive yet again with our fellow man - all of us equally flawed and challenging. How can you know that first spiritual fire really happened? How can you trust the cleansing power of it is still in force? How do you retain it? In the middle of this watershed sermon to the Nephites, King Benjamin explains to his people how they can always feel this way - what it takes to retain a remission of sins. That's what chapter 4 is about: "...if ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness, and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come,..." (Mosiah 4:11) Some of this language triggers those who don't fully understand. Too many believe this language is too strong, unkind, and I've even heard it called spiritually manipulative and abusive to call humans unworthy creatures and emphasize their need to humble themselves in the depths of humility. "Bow your head, don't be bold..." Yeah. We don't teach that, though far too many believe we do. More's the pity. But look what had just happened to this group of people. They had tasted not just the goodness of God; they had experienced something of His glory. So they knew they were nothing - compared to Him. They knew they were nothing - without Him. The Nephites experienced something akin to what Moses experienced - without actually entering into the actual glorified presence of God - an experience which caused Moses to reach the same conclusion: "Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed." (Moses 1:10) King Benjamin urged his people to call on God daily because of their new-found recognition of their complete dependence on this superior Being - who loved them because He is their Father. He further instructed the Nephites to recognize when it was working by giving them a checklist of how they knew they still had those strong desires to follow the Lord - that their cleanliness status was still in force before God. "...if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." (Mosiah 4:12) Good markers: feelings of joy and love and growth in knowledge - of the nature of God, and of truth. He continues: "And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due." (Mosiah 4:13) Notice how verse 12 focuses on first deepening our ability to keep the first great commandment to love God, and verse 13 moves seamlessly into keeping the second commandment to love our brothers and sisters. This is a natural extension of the first commandment - when we put the first commandment first, and don't confuse the order. From that inner circle which includes just ourselves and our Creator, King Benjamin widens the circle to our families: "And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil... "But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." (Mosiah 4:14-15) And finally, one more circle out: "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish." (Mosiah 4:16) These six verses serve as a powerful guide and checklist which we can use to evaluate our conversion. After the miracle - how do you maintain those overwhelming feelings of love, peace, joy, and gratitude? Grow in the knowledge of our Creator, which will lead us to honor the first and second commandments. See to your families - take care of and teach your children. Share your excess with those in need. And parenthetically - verses 17-25 are in fact a parentheses of how to give appropriately with the right heart. What a wise prophet leader! Teach with such power that the entire congregation is converted. Identify what has just happened to them, and the Source of their feelings of humility, gratitude, and joy. Instruct them as to how to never lose this feeling, but only have it grow over the course of their lifetimes. This is a fantastic chapter to liken to ourselves.

Come Follow Me (Mosiah 1-3) Mosiah 2:17 is almost iconic in its universal recognition and application: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” Rare is the Latter-Day Saint talk on service which doesn’t include this scripture. It succinctly connects the first and second great commandments and reaffirms Jesus’ statement: “…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) But to read verse 17 in context with the preceding six verses, this statement becomes the ideal mission statement for anyone seeking to hold public office. Translation: Serve. The Public. These verses read like a resume of public service from this ancient king. As you read them, ask yourself this question, “Would I vote for this man?” Verse 11: “[I] have been kept and preserved by [God’s] matchless power, to serve you with all the might, mind and strength which the Lord hath granted unto me.” This statement underscores public service is different than ruling - and this from a king, mind you. This concept is nearly completely lost when someone seeks office in the modern world. Perhaps we could bring this idea back into popularity by only voting for the incumbent in the rarest of circumstances, forcing those in office to never assume their position once there. Okay, that was quixotic. If not making the idea popular - could we at least with our voting make it a more commonly understood principle of common sense? Short terms imposed at the ballot box where they belong emphasize public service, and help dispel the notion that politics is a career. Verse 12: “…[I] have not sought gold nor silver nor any manner of riches of you.” The inevitable cause-and-effect truth of public service is that those paying you - those whom you serve - must collectively make more money than you - or they can't sustain your income. So the fact that our public servants come out of public service multi-millionaires is wrong, and frankly, smells like last week's fish. Oh, wait. See verse 11. Don't. Stay. Verse 13: "Neither have I suffered that ye should be confined in dungeons, nor that ye should make slaves one of another, nor that ye should murder, or plunder, or stead, or commit adultery; nor even have I suffered that ye should commit any manner of wickedness, and have taught you that ye should keep the commandments of the Lord..." An ideal public servant doesn't attempt to imprison the people unjustly - meaning the rule of law applies equally to all citizens. Laws aren't enacted that violate individual rights of some in favor of others. And here's the real kicker - the best public policy upholds the Ten Commandments. In today's world, we're going to have to work a long time to restore the idea that these ten commandments are for producing the best-ordered societies that experience maximum freedom, prosperity, and peace, regardless of anyone's personal belief in their Source. Verse 14: "And even I, myself, have labored with mine own hands that I might serve you, and that ye should not be laden with taxes, and that there should nothing come upon you which was grievous to be borne..." Wouldn't it be refreshing if we knew our taxes were just - that they didn't go towards anything unnecessary, frivolous, or especially corrupt or immoral? This ancient king didn't live on the backs of his people; wouldn't it be a relief if our public servants didn't either? In verse 15 and 16, King Benjamin reiterates that he doesn't tell the people these things to boast in any way, but rather to witness before them that he's done his best to dispense his duty to God, and to them. Imagine this kind of accountability today - a public servant reporting back to his/her constituents on his record. Which now puts verse 17 in this powerful context: imagine a public servant, after making an accounting of that service, saying: "...I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Is that why public servants take an oath of office? Will they one day make an accounting before God of how they "served" their fellow man in public office? There could be some interesting interviews forthcoming... So there's a short list of ideal qualifications to best earn the public's votes - a love letter akin to Jane and Michael Banks' letter of advertisement that produced the marvelous Mary Poppins. Perhaps I'll print this, tear it up, and throw it into my fireplace. Oh, that it would work.

In 2008 Stephen Covey began a speech at the University of Cumberlands with this story: “It was a dark and stormy night. Crewmember: “Captain, Captain, wake up.” Captain: “Well?” Crewmember: “Sorry to wake you, sir, but we have a serious problem.” Captain: “Well what is it?” Crewmember: “There’s a ship in our sea lane about twenty miles away, and they refuse to move.” Captain: “What do you mean they refuse to move? Just tell them to move.” Crewmember: “Sir, we have told them; they will not move.” Captain: “I’ll tell them.” The signal goes out: “Move starboard 20 degrees.” The signal returns: “Move starboard yourself 20 degrees.” Captain: “I can’t believe this. Well, I mean I’m a captain. Let them know who I am. I’m important.” Signal goes out: “This is Captain Horatio Hornblower XXVI, commanding you to move starboard 20 degrees at once.” Signal returns: “This is Seaman Carl Jones II, commanding you to move starboard 20 degrees at once.” Captain: “What arrogance? I mean, what presumption? Here is a seaman commanding me, a captain. We could just blow them right out of the water. We could just let them know who we are. Signal: “This is the Mighty Missouri, flag ship of the 7th fleet.” The signal returns: “This is the lighthouse.” I've thought of this story often as I've watched the world break up with reality. I imagine the fruitlessness of barreling towards the immovable rocks that lie ahead, as too many people are convinced that there is no such thing as the absolute... of the rocks. The first time I heard someone talk about "his" truth - taking ownership of it with a pronoun, I cringed, but didn't know why. And then suddenly, I was hearing this ownership pronoun everywhere, and the cringe never abated. It worsened. It was like I was peering at one of those cartoon drawings in the old Highlights magazine for children, which had the caption over it: "What's wrong with this picture?" - and there's a moose head in the cookie jar. The more I thought about it, it finally hit me. The problem with 'owning' truth with a personal pronoun suggests something which is at best frightfully untrue, and is at worst grimly dangerous. Most people, when they speak of their own truth in this way mean nothing pernicious or nefarious - it's simply a way of saying - "This is what I know to be true, based on my personal vantage point and life experiences." But the trend seems to have taken hold and infected collective thinking with the notion that truth is a different set of realities for every person, and isn't absolute. Like the lighthouse. Of course, our ability to recognize and accept truth is vastly different between every single individual human. It's vastly different even inside one person's lifetime. Knowing that fact is important in remaining vulnerable to accepting truth. Life experiences should give us new perspective, and keep our ability to accept truth fluid and flexible. But that doesn't make truth fluid and flexible. It's been important for me to recognize this. My personal life experiences have taught me to be committed to absolute reality, no matter the cost. And sometimes, it costs a lot. Many years ago, while adjusting to motherhood, I read M. Scott Peck's book, The Road Less Traveled. Well. I started it. At least a half dozen times. I couldn't get past the first sentence for months: "Life is hard." It was at this point I would promptly shut the book - I didn't need that kind of negativity in my life. One day when I tried again, and read that same vile sentence, a nearly visceral "AMEN" exploded in my heart and mind. I was finally able to read past that first sentence, and finish a book which was seminal in my personal growth. In the first section of the book, Peck talks about several strategies that are important for continued growth and improvement. One of these is our ability to revise our “map” of reality as we gain new perspective of its landscape: "What happens when one has striven long and hard to develop a working view of the world, a seemingly useful, workable map, and then is confronted with new information suggesting that the view is wrong and the map needs to be largely redrawn? The painful effort required seems frightening, almost overwhelming. What we do more often than not, and usually unconsciously, is to ignore the new information. Often this act of ignoring is much more than passive. We may denounce the new information as false, dangerous, heretical, the work of the devil. We may actually crusade against it, and even attempt to manipulate the world so as to make it conform to our view of reality. Rather than try to change the map, an individual may try to destroy the new reality." ― M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth Reading this book was where this important truth started to take root in me: Real is always real. It's humanity which is in a constant state of fluid and flexible - and let me add here - fickle. Human emotion is more unpredictable than the weather. But real just keeps being... real... whether I like it or not. Like the lighthouse. Or more to the point - like the rocks. Today, truth - or reality - has become inconvenient and troublesome to far too many. It's no longer a hard-and-fast absolute that must be dealt with and accepted, something which causes us to change our point of view by revising that map. Instead of recognizing that the lack of accepting reality must be addressed and corrected, there are now as many versions of reality as there are people. Why is this? The world's ability to accept reality has eroded, and with it, in large part, a foundation of stability beneath society's feet. How stable can life be if reality is up for consensus in the focus group? How certain can anyone be - of anything - if absolutes don't exist anymore. The biggest reality that must be overlooked for everyone to feel safe and comfortable in "their" own truth is that there is a God who created this world. And because He is God, He doesn't change. He doesn't change because He cannot change. It's against His very nature, and if He did, He would cease to be... God (Alma 42:13). The real existence of God and His laws are described in such a way as to underscore the immovable nature of the rocks beneath the lighthouse in this excerpt from a speech by Cecil B. DeMille, director of the film, The Ten Commandments: "Some, who do not know either the Bible or human nature, may see in the orgy of the Golden Calf only a riot of Hollywood's imaginations - but those who have eyes to see will see in it the awful lesson of how quickly a nation or a man can fall, without God's law. " If man will not be ruled by God, he will certainly be ruled by tyrants - and there is no tyranny more imperious or more devastating than man's own selfishness, without the law. "We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them - or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fulness of freedom under God. God means us to be free. With divine daring, He gave us the power of choice (Cecil B. DeMille, BYU Commencement Address, 31 May 1957)." There really is no such thing as someone's personal truth - only his or her personal experience with absolute truth. The healthiest people never tire in seeking for it, and are healthy enough to do the mental, emotional, and spiritual work to revise their map, and change their course, steering away from the rocks. With the help of the Lighthouse.