I used to work in Calgary and live there M-Th. I had a bunch of time on my hands, but lived close to the Temple. My wife had a ton of male names that needed work. I could get there from work just in time to hit two sessions if everything worked out. Going the hour to home to shower and change, and then back to the temple was not an option. Throwing a white shirt in the car in the morning on Tuesday or Wednesday and popping up for some W&A and/or some Endowments was a great way to spend the evenings if I had to be away from my family.
I am so glad that I had the option to wear a dress shirt (not white) without a tie and my steel toed dress shoes (required for my job since forklifts were in the hangar, etc) into the temple without a glare. I explained to them one time (my circumstances) and the usual night time desk worker was always so kind to me and accomodating. I hate being a snowflake, but I could not easily wear a white shirt every time I planned on going to the temple. Sometimes, the planes were quite dusty and dirty if they had worked in a particular area I was in.
I am quite sure, it was easier to overlook a hard, fast rule than to shun somebody for appearances alone. I picture the people of Pompeii or Sodom doing that to the stranger in their midst; not the people of God. The letter of the law killeth, but the spirit giveth life.... Here is a great quote by one who spoke about the habiliments of the priesthood of man (graduation garb) and was exposed to the haircut and shaving police. He is my inspiration when I start getting too self-important about something:
To the opposite side of the issue, BYU held that rule because it kept the Fundamentalists at bay (who often wear beards as a sign of their religiosity). It also kept the hippies out at a time when the 70's had run amok with much common sense.
I am glad you were able to get so many or our male names finished. We are getting jiglocked again. So many females not able to progress because they cannot go further because their males don’t have their work done.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband was in the hospital, I watched “The Chosen,” what I personally really enjoy watching, even though nobody who was there was probably there in I real life. They did add the % of poetic license to help fill in the blanks, just like the “ fictional” book, “Return to Rysa” fills in the blanks of what is happening in this day and a few decades back. There is a tiny bit of poetic license added to this book as well.
ReplyDeleteThat “Chosen” series, after I finished it, led me to watch the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints’, version of Christ’s life directly from the scriptures.
While watching both versions, I got really fascinated with this one thing. It almost drove me crazy. Why did Christ insist on healing so much on the Sabbath when there were so many other days to heal? ( And he probably healed on other days as well, I would guess, just that our records focus on Him healing on the Sabbath the most.)
It’s not that I didn’t want Him to heal, I just was surprised that our records show Him healing so much on the Sabbath and don’t really mention the other days. I was watching the movies (both) and thought how Christ could have saved Himself so much trouble, if He had just come back to that person in need (except for the dead or the deathbed sick) the next day. He was all-knowing, so He would have known where to find them, to give them a Monday blessing.
And just in thinking that, I exposed myself to myself, Miss pharasette.
I realized He, Jesus Christ purposely healed on the Sabbath, to set events in motion in regard to Himself, in His relationship between Him and the Pharisees and eventually the Sanhedrin.
I also saw how the Pharisees had absolutely no joy for the person that was healed. Completely devoid of wonder, gratefulness, amazement and joy for the healed person. Instead, filled with contempt, derision, plotting towards an innocent man, our Savior for not obeying the lesser rules!
My wanting the Savior to not stir things up, revealed a lot to me about me.
I sometimes like to “keep the peace “ at a sacrifice to doing what is ultimately right.
Where is the line between “avoiding contention” as Christ taught and doing what Christ did—not caring unnecessarily about what anybody thinks except the Savior!
Those two movies exposed my love for convention more than my love for doing what the Savior would have me do.
I challenge everyone to watch both of these movies again and keep reading the scriptures.
The other thing I realize is I do not know my Savior really. I serve to know Him. I read scriptures to know Him. I pray to Father to know Him, but He is a flat personality to me. These “movies” began to show me a more real side to Him.
As I thought about who He was really, Heavenly Father showed me glimpses in the way He does best with me, to show me a more realistic personality of my Savior, not just a flat character in the scriptures. I had to attempt to shed my pharasette skin to do this, and still have a long way to go in the shedding process.
I am absolutely certain the Lord would have us help those in real need even if it meant we looked a “little less nice for him on the outside…”. If we can do both —awesome.
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