MY DAD IS GOING TO BE A POLYGAMIST

OK - I have to admit.  The title of this piece was meant for shock-value (picture a short-haired guy in a white shirt and tie, not the Howard Stern type....), but never-the-less, its true.

Due to a snafu that I am still a little sore at my wife about, I did not receive the invitation to my Dad's own (second) sealing until a few days ago - not enough notice to throw my work schedule into disarray and make the trip down to witness a mid-week ceremony in Logan.  Still a little sore at my Dad for not making it on a more accessible day like Saturday where I might have played hooky for one day and made it down??

Why all the hubbub?  If you read one of my recent previous posts, my Mom was insistent that this day not occur (while she was alive).  She had to eat crow and come back after her death to straighten that little detail out.  And boy, I cannot wait to find out about the sequence of events that led to her journey back through the veil to deliver that bombshell to Dad.

Anyway, Tuesday is the big day when I have two mommies (no my name is not Heather....or even Heath.....).  My Dad seems to be really content with his new companion.  I have to say that all I care about is that two people (or three, as the case may be) are happy.  I think they will get along handsomely over there - although part of Celestial living is getting along well in the sandbox - so there is not much of an option if that is the end-goal.  My Dad is pretty happy-go-lucky - its the ladies I worry about.  Both women whom I now will need to call Mother and (proper name of new companion - I cannot give this good woman that title - it is sacred to me, reserved for the one who put her life on the line to bear a 10 pound behemoth through a 10 cm portal to his first breath and this life....  Thank goodness for forceps and flexible cranial plates....), both women are/were a little "catty" and the "jealous" types if I am reading personalities correctly (not judgmental - just observational, here).  So, the fur may fly at times - unless there is alot of mellowing as time goes on - as I observed moreso in the life of my mother during her final 10 years.  If it is to be a Celestial in nature, there will have to be a complete understanding of stewardship and consecration and true love as God intended it; not the cheap imitation that is peddled and passed off for the genuine article here on this earth.  The same love I experienced the night my boy died - in that dream and in one other dream where I was shown something of a heavenly court (I have not shared it - because I still do not fully comprehend it - I may have to get there to fully understand it).  A love that saturates you to the very core of your bones; your marrow.  A love so encompassing, you realize you don't care about the things of mortality because you would only do what it takes to be wrapped (enveloped - mortal words can't describe it) in that love.  So warm - so intense, yet mellow, so golden, so welcoming, so cozy that if you took every amazing mortal experience where you were filled with happiness, joy, love warmth and reduced it over a simmering warm heat to a golden elixir - all that goodness in one spoonful, it would only be a drop of what is over there - and that you are veritably wrapped in its embrace and swimming in it.
So what would you give up for that?  I say everything that consumes us in this life would be nothing too great to have that opportunity.  I know that God is a God of LOVE - but that He is serious as a heartbeat; and will not be mocked with anything less than our best effort and the sacrifice of all if He requires it of us to prove to ourselves; where we are at in our devotion to His principles - in His fight to save as many children as He will.

With that pure love - and I bear witness of it - any female that is reading this article will be able to bear off those earthly impulses of jealousy and selfishness.  I know my mother is in that place - for she came back with my boy that had previously returned to my bedside trailing that heavenly light after he had undoubtedly been to see the Savior - and that I was filled with just a portion of that light as he ministered to me (and his mother) before our hour of Gethsemane pain.

So, sisters, if you are struggling with that doctrine, I urge you to seek after your Maker and ask to be filled with that light and wrapped in that warmth.  And when you are, I promise you the bitterness and resentment and doubt will melt away as the hoar frost on a summer morning to reveal healing and an understanding spirit.  I promise you that, as I sit here with just a miniscule portion of that spirit  burning in my bosom as I recollect my two brushes with the divine.

God lives.  I know Joseph Smith was the hallowed mortal who was given the uber-difficult task of restoring all things in this last dispensation of the fullness of times; including that inspired doctrine that will only elevate and lift and perfect each man and woman to their full potential and full stature of spirit.  I am grateful for Joseph's courage as I read Section 135 this morning.  May the Lord have mercy on those who did not have eyes to see and ears to hear the message of the restoration as He will on those who did the same to Him as he sealed his testimony in His blood according to the principle of the testator.  In the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

THE OPRAH-IZATION OF GOD'S DEFINITION OF LOVE

There is little more that bothers me in my life as much as hearing a fluffy member of the Church expounding on the saving principles of the "principle" of unconditional love. I cringe - and, if taken to some new extreme of adoration of this "grand concept", I start to get physically ill.

Things are so contorted when it comes to how God operates and how we need to interact with our children that we have an entire generation of screwed up kids in the church because parents do not teach their children the concept of personal accountability and tough love; bad actions = bad consequences. Do the crime - do the time. Simple as that. We get so fluffy and grey in our approach that children that are trying to find their own way never know exactly where the bounds are that the Lord has set and what will be their outcome if they cross those boundaries. Kids hate their parents later in life (and then themselves), because they coddle them and will not do the difficult thing that needs to be done to help the child help themselves.

Here is a great piece on the need for God's boundless, yet conditional love:

CLICK LINK

As I always say, 'There ain't no such thing as a free lunch'...... That's the devil's doctrine and one that will lead someone straight to hell in a heartbeat.

HOW TO BECOME AS GOD IS

SOME OF THE BEST WISDOM AND SCRIPTURE AVAILABLE TO MANKIND. THERE IS ENOUGH MATERIAL HERE TO TEACH AN ENTIRE SEMESTER OF PHILOSOPHY FROM.....BUT NOT THE KIND OF TRASH YOU WOULD GET AT SOME PUBLIC DARWINIAN-BASED SCHOOL. THIS IS GODLINESS!!

PRAISE TO THE MAN WHO COMMUNED WITH JEHOVAH!

33 How long can rolling waters remain impure? What power shall stay the heavens? As well might man stretch forth his puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream, as to hinder the Almighty from pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints.

34 Behold, there are many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?

35 Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson—

36 That the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.

37 That they may be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or 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.

38 Behold, ere he is aware, he is left unto himself, to kick against the pricks, to persecute the saints, and to fight against God.

39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

40 Hence many are called, but few are chosen.

41 No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;

42 By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—

43 Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy;

44 That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.

45 Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

46 The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.