A Gospel of Relationships ~ Part One

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Good Evening,

this post should take four to seven minutes to read from start to finish.

This post focuses on a May 2004 BYU Devotional, and it's called "A Gospel of Relationships" by Sister Marleen Williams. This post is part one, I would like to share with you some highlights whilst I was reading the Devotional. 

Sister Williams has mentioned the following; 

"... The young adult years lay the foundation for your future. Changes in relationships are one of its most powerful challenges. Leaving the home and family environment, living with roommates, making new friends, and establishing the relational habits for eventually marrying and building a family of one’s own are challenges that become very real. ... All of God’s laws are ultimately laws of love. 

Every commandment is given out of love for you and concern for your happiness. Every commandment ultimately tests your ability to love Him and your fellowman. Just as God has a gospel of relationships, Satan proposes counterfeit principles that eventually lead to the destruction of relationships, both with God and with others. ... Satan encourages jealousy, competition, and uncharitable judgments. These keep you from feeling close and connected to others. 

God teaches you eternal progression and faith in the Atonement, while Satan teaches its counterfeit perfectionism which destroys your confidence in yourself and others. God teaches eternal marriage, where love lasts forever. Satan encourages relationships that are selfish and end when they become inconvenient. ... Look around you. Notice how much people vary. 

They vary not only in appearance but also in their personalities, life experiences, mortal challenges, and missions here on earth. When we become aware of those differences we may feel jealous of others. Yet the scriptures teach that there are reasons for our differences. ... We are all given weaknesses to teach us humility and compassion (1 Corinthians 1:27, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Ether 12:27). We also are different so that we each might have something to contribute and some way to belong (1 Corinthians 12:14–22, 25, 26). 

"When it is within our power to give love, we should never
withhold it." - Mary Ellen Edmunds. Love is a Verb.

... God teaches us to love one another, and yet you may still find yourself experiencing feelings and thoughts that are less than loving. ... Our personal experience is limited. 

It is often easy to look at another’s situation and believe that we see it accurately when, in fact, we do not. It is easy then to come to believe that you can “work out another’s salvation” for them because you know what is wrong with their life. However, we do not always know another’s private challenges, sorrows, and disappointments. Even more important, we do not know God’s unique plan for that person’s life and may risk prescribing the wrong solutions. 

When we judge uncharitably and attempt to prescribe solutions for other people’s lives, we run the risk of speaking counter to the Lord’s will for that person. 

... How does He reveal His will to an individual? 

One of the greatest gifts you have with which to work out your own salvation is the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost can help each of us understand what the Lord would have us do. The Holy Ghost, however, is like the Liahona of old in that it works on condition of our obedience to commandments. ... We can trust the Holy Ghost to help us understand their words in the context of our own lives. 

We can also have more personal instruction from prayerful temple attendance, patriarchal blessings, and additional priesthood blessings. We must be careful not to interfere with these spiritual processes in each other’s lives by gossiping, judging, or giving uninspired advice that may come from our own biases, prejudices, and blind spots, however well meaning we may be. ... So many opportunities and evaluations are based on “beating out” someone else. 

The world teaches you that you have no right to self-respect unless you are first, get the highest grade, are number one, or win a competition. ... Nevertheless, you are not here to prepare to live in a telestial world. You are here to learn how to prepare yourself to obtain celestial glory. In the celestial kingdom there is room for all who qualify. Entrance is not determined by winning a competitive race (Ecclesiastes 9:11). All who enter into the covenants set by God and then keep those covenants can qualify (Mosiah 5:5–9, D&C 25:13–15, D&C 66:2, D&C 97:8). 

... What God requires of each of us is that we do whatever is our unique mission on earth to do and “stay in the race” that eventually culminates with exaltation and eternal life (1 Nephi 22:31, 2 Nephi 31:15, Omni 1:26). When we are consumed with competition, we lose sight of that which God has given to us personally. When we fail to value our own gifts and instead covet those of others, we risk losing the chance to magnify our own calling in life.

We cannot rise to the full measure of our own creation if we are continually trying to be someone else.The second pair of opposing principles is becoming perfected through Christ and the Atonement versus Satan’s counterfeit of perfectionism. Christ’s admonition “Be ye therefore perfect” is not a commandment to possess all skills, knowledge, and good qualities immediately. 

It is a commandment to enter into a covenant process that involves repentance, change, and growth. .. President Joseph Fielding Smith clarified this concept in saying, Salvation does not come all at once; we are commanded to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things, and receive all things, even the fulness of the Father’s glory. [Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56), 2:18]" 

Stay Tuned until next time.