Fight Like Lions

My beloved fiancé explained to me the difference between rambling and ranting.

Ranting is continuous speaking on a topic with passion.

Rambling is continuous speaking just because you can.

And so, again, I post a ranting of mine – which is also a personal goal for improvement for both my current family and my future family.

“...But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.”
- Mosiah 20:11

Think of your family. How much love exists therein? Does everyone feel the Spirit through you? Do you feel the Spirit through them?

The organization of The Church, “namely apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers,  evangelists and so forth” (AoF 1:6) will not be needed when we make it to the Celestial Kingdom.

We won't need prophets – we will live in God's presence.

We won't need apostles, for we ourselves will be witnesses of Christ.

We won't need bishops, or, judges in Israel, for the eternal judgment would have already been laid out upon all.

We won't have the church structure forever.

The family structure, however, will last forever. And our family units can last forever!

I've heard it said somewhere that families can be the source of the greatest happiness, but also the source of our greatest sorrows.

I would like to speak of the sorrows that we can avoid. Life has enough pressures and challenges that try to pull us down, closer and closer to misery.

Here I again quote the scripture above:

“...But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight.”
- Mosiah 20:11

“They fought for their lives...”

You may be familiar with the emergency instructions given when you board planes to fly. One of them, was interesting to me. In it I found a gospel parallel.

A website explains it better than I can.

“When you fly on an airplane, the flight attendant instructs you to put your oxygen mask on first, before helping others.  Why is this an important rule for ensuring survival?  Because if you run out of oxygen, you can’t help anyone else with their oxygen mask.

“This is an important metaphor for those of you who run around taking care of everything and everyone else except yourself.

“If you don’t take care of yourself, you can experience burnout, stress, fatigue, reduced mental effectiveness, health problems, anxiety, frustration, inability to sleep, (and even death).  Are you experiencing any of these symptoms?”

- http://www.donnaschilder.com/articles/life-coaching-articles/put-your-oxygen-mask-on-first/

Spiritually, this is also true. How can I comfort someone if I am not comforted? How can I help someone with a lack of knowledge if I myself lack knowledge? How can I help someone develop their faith if I don't have faith?

On the mission, the Lord ensures that His missionaries have morning scripture study and other pursuits that prepare them well for the rigors and adventures of the day.

Our Sabbath day observance acts like a spiritual petrol station for us, in providing a most important meeting with an ordinance to renew all covenants you've made with God.

“God... created all things... spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.”

My mission president, President Lon Henderson who I love and am grateful for in my life, taught us to do the same: each night, we would prepare for the next day spiritually – planning out our goals and plans, praying for divine guidance.

We would sleep on it through the night, allowing our thoughts (which doesn't stop while we sleep) to process our plans for the next day. (And believe me when I say, that most of the time, that's all I ever thought about at night.) It allows Heavenly Father to guide our thoughts as we slept. We would wake up in the morning with fresh ideas on occasion.

We learned to be spiritual planners and preparers, walking in the footsteps of our God.

Back to my main point after tangential ranting: if I am to protect my family, I must first protect myself. That is why the first line in the verse is “They fought for their lives...”

Next, “they fought... for their wives...”

Jeffrey R Holland said, “second only to your membership in the Church, your “membership in a marriage” is the most important association you will have in time and eternity...”

I may not be married. But I can fight for my [future] wife by being the worthy, righteous, godly man I can be. I fight evil away from my life. I prepare for my future family by learning how to bring the Spirit into the home of my current family.

Satan has many methods of attacking the family unit – they range from tempting us to doubt, to fear, to be unkind, to think that the other person meant evil of us (which, even if they did, you would not make the situation better by getting bitter about it).

He tempts us to place financial struggles before our relationship struggles. He tempts us to think that work, study, sport, or other pursuits are more important than the family.

Satan can also make great headway into our families by having us believe that the teachings at church, at mutual, at Institute, etc. are sufficient enough for the salvation of a child. No way Hosea.

We are already VERY aware of rape, murder, adultery, gender "equality" (when really, it takes the equality out of the genders), the belief that marriage is foolish, or that having children is foolish... they are all products of those being deceived and led by the adversary of men's souls.

Against all the above things listed, we must fight – it is not a physical fight. No, we aren't intending to start a war. We intend to bring peace to the souls of men. We mean to fight for what's right in appropriate ways. Elder Holland used the words “courage and courtesy” when once he was instructing us to defend our faith.

Keep the commandments, and assist others in doing the same.

I usually find that Satan attacks families from both the inside and the outside.

Regarding attacks from the inside, Elder Holland (yes, we can't get enough of him) said:

“Love is a fragile thing, and some elements in life can try to break it. Much damage can be done if we are not in tender hands, caring hands. To give ourselves totally to another person, as we do in marriage, is the most trusting step we take in any human relationship. It is a real act of faith—faith all of us must be willing to exercise. If we do it right, we end up sharing everything—all our hopes, all our fears, all our dreams, all our weaknesses, and all our joys—with another person.

“No serious courtship or engagement or marriage is worth the name if we do not fully invest all that we have in it and in so doing trust ourselves totally to the one we love. You cannot succeed in love if you keep one foot out on the bank for safety’s sake. The very nature of the endeavor requires that you hold on to each other as tightly as you can and jump in the pool together. In that spirit, and in the spirit of Mormon’s plea for pure love, I want to impress upon you the vulnerability and delicacy of your partner’s future as it is placed in your hands for safekeeping—male and female, it works both ways.”

May we fight righteously, like spiritual lions to defend those things which can last for all eternity.