Mormon Bloggers

We have limited free will. Within certain limitations, we can make choices and act upon those choices. Our choices are partially controlled and determined by outside forces and by the laws of physics. But we have agency to act within certain bounds of natural laws that exist. We can exercise that agency, make choices and act upon those choices. Logic dictates there is no purpose or meaning to life if we do not have some free will. We instinctively know we have power to act in some things without constraint of necessity or fate. We are bound or limited by physics but we are independent agents within our sphere of influence. We intuitively think or feel we are free. We therefore act at our own discretion. We are capable of responding to random chance with purposeful choices. Thus we can be held morally responsible and accountable for our choices and actions in both the deterministic world of physics and the indeterminate world of observable quantum mechanics that we are still discovering. Absolute... Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had an international video contest. The following video was one of the contest winners. (We’ll be sharing more videos from the contest in future posts.) This video explains some of Mormon doctrine about the purpose of life, about the role Jesus Christ plays in God’s plan, and about our identity as children of God. Read more about Mormon doctrine on this topic at the following pages: The Purpose of Life: Mormon.org What is the purpose of my life? Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?    Read More →

William Shakespeare was arguably the most influential writer in all of English literature. One of his plays, Hamlet, seems to have become so influential that it has profoundly affected the course of Western literature and culture even after 400 years. From Hamlet, I have chosen three themes that Shakespeare developed so beautifully: 1) The impossibility of certainty, 2) The complexity of action and 3) The mystery of life and death. These ideas are further advanced in Tom Stoppard’s existentialist work, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Through absurdity, we are lead to believe that 1) The world is incomprehensible, 2) We are insignificant and incapable of making meaningful choices and 3) We are but players on a stage. The very purpose of life In effect, Stoppard’s ideas are the same as Shakespeare’s, illustrated with an equal amount of wit, but in a much more bleak and sarcastic style. I dispute these ideas and in contrast, it is my contention that 1) We can choose what we believe... Read the rest of this entry »

All my life in the church I have heard the promises of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  These are held out as motivating ideas that are intended to help us resist the pull and attraction of worldly pleasures.  In this short essay, I would like to consider just one of those promises and the power for good that it should have in our lives. Of course, the attraction of promises pre-supposes that you are the kind of person that is motivated by the “moving-toward” model.  If you’re not familiar with the idea, it comes from the book Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins.  He states, “All human behavior revolves around the urge to gain pleasure or avoid pain.” Tony’s shorthand for this is “pain or gain.”  Which one drives you?  Of course the concept is not original with Tony but he made it a focus of his seminars and books.  The idea has been around forever and stated in different ways by various thinkers.  The process is not absolute.  We move toward some things and away from... Read the rest of this entry »

On this Pioneer day, I decided to answer all the personal questions that you are asked when you fill out the profile on Mormon.org.  There are a whole lot more under the FAQ section (about 80) but that will have to wait for another day when I have more time.  I thoroughly enjoyed the process of answering these questions and felt like I was being interviewed, thus the title of this blog post. 01. Please explain the part prayer plays in your life? Having grown up with daily prayer, I can’t imagine a day go by in which I don’t communicate with my Heavenly Father in prayer.  We start the day in prayer as a family asking for the Lord’s blessing upon us as we work.  We end the day in prayer the same way, usually kneeling by the bed, reporting our activities to God and thanking him for his help.  We give thanks for the food we eat at mealtimes and participate in public prayers in our weekly worship service.  It is through prayer and reading scriptures that I feel close to God and directed... Read the rest of this entry »

Why do we serve? ­Everything in this life, within the gospel, the church, and all the creations of the earth are provided for one reason. And that reason is to have infinite happiness by becoming increasingly like our Heavenly Father. We see this in the scriptures: 2 Ne. 2:25, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy,” That’s the infinite happiness part. Moses 1:39, “For behold this is my work and my glory – to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” What does that mean, eternal life of man? John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Eternal life is more than just living forever; it is the kind of life God has and He wants us to have it. He wants us to become like Him, to think as He thinks, to act as He does, to know what He knows, and be able to do many things He can do. We find that eternal life is to live like Heavenly Father. We are to become like... Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us who desire to share our faith online or offline, wonder if we ‘know enough,’  to qualify for the work–if such content should be left to scholars or seminary teachers, serious apologists or producers of symposia.  The reality is that people want to hear it from all of us, the everyday Mormons, the casual but informed lay person, the unabashed follower of Christ, the non-vanilla (that’s each of us), individual interdependently but not at all blindly striving in the trenches of a spiritual war–with a few battle wounds forgotten– to live the life Christ has invited us to live. And be assured, regardless of your age, your accumulated wisdom, if you have been a faithful striving participant in the work, you know enough to share. You can articulate, among many other principles, the very purpose of life, your own responses to its challenges and access to the atonement and redeeming principles. Like the air we breathe, we take it for granted that... Read the rest of this entry »

I Understand Life Like a Hole in the Fence! ~by Heather L. As I was standing by my fence watching my son go by on his bike, a knothole caught my eye. All I could see through it was a bit of dirt. Not very exciting. I turned my camera and took a shot from the bottom of it – a little chunk of beautiful blue sky. [Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the sky justice, but you get the idea.] I often feel like all I understand of life is the little muddy chunk. How many times I’ve wished I could see more! Like the owner’s manual on my kids?! Or how long a particular problem was going to last? The end result of a cautious choice? How often I’ve wished I could see the beautiful blue end from the muddy beginning. But life isn’t made to be that way. God sent me here to learn to live by faith, obedience, diligence, patience, all of which I’d never learn if I knew the answers ahead of time. Hard as it may be, not being able to see more helps me grow in faith, humility, strength,... Read the rest of this entry »

“In truth, we are immortal spirits in the midst of a mortal experience. We are literal sons and daughters of God, nurtured tenderly by him in a day we cannot remember. We are bright, beautiful beings struggling through the mists and confusions of this veil of tears. “What are we doing in the moment [...]  Read More →

~by Janelle The past month has been tough for my family. My husband made an extremely costly error at work. My chronic illness left me immobile for several days. My children have had behavior and potty training issues. My husband’s employee fell ill and very nearly died. With the loss of those extra hands on the job site, my husband has been working from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily. One night after returning home late from work, two of my small children awoke at the sound of my husband’s truck pulling into the driveway and followed him into our bed. He welcomed their sleepy embraces and snuggled them tightly. I could see the stress of the day fall off his shoulders as he heard tiny voices chime “I love you Daddy.” Our girls quickly buried under the covers next to my husband, seeking the warm crooks of his arms to use as pillows. He relished the chance to spend a few seconds snuggling with them, taking care not to move abruptly so they could fall back asleep before he carried them back... Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to 2010.  It’s time to make some resolutions for the New Year.  This post is dedicated to the proposition that such resolutions can and ought to be made thoughtfully and purposefully. Latter-day Saint scripture teaches, “Behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life [...]  Read More →