First, in the book of Jarom verse 11 we read the following, “Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently… persuading [the people] to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was.” The footnotes indicate that this passage is dated 399 B.C. So four hundred years before Christ actually came, prophets were exhorting the people to believe in Him as though He already was.

Now take a look at King Benjamin in Mosiah 3:13 (dated about 124 B.C.). King Benjamin told the people that whosoever should believe that Christ should come, the same might receive remission of their sins, and rejoice with exceedingly great joy, even as though he had already come among them.”

And again when Abinadi was teaching in about 148 B.C. (Mosiah 16:6) he used some very interesting wording. Notice the words – he said, “And now if Christ had not come into the world (remember this is 148 years before He came), speaking of things to come as though they had already come, there could have been no redemption.”

What can we learn from these scriptural examples? When we believe in things to come as though they already were, the blessings are available now. Our Heavenly Father loves all of his children – not just the ones who came after Christ. What great things to come could bless your life now with that kind of faith?

(Re-printed with permission from the author, Dr. Paul Jenkins. Originally printed in, “Orem 4th Ward News”.)

What if that person gets released on good behavior? That person now goes out into society and is a walking time bomb. What do others in society learn from this? They can go to prison, do some time, get free room and board, and then go out to wreak so more havoc. If a death sentence is carried out immediately, the lesson is learned by others in society that if they do something worthy of the death sentence there will be no reprieve.

Give the person a week to get his affairs in order, say goodbye to the world, and ponder his actions. Then send him off. If someone has earned the death sentence, let him have it. Use the space and money for rehabilitating other citizens.

In fact, I think that perhaps the death sentence to be given to far more criminals that it is current given to. Perhaps pedophiles and drunk drivers who kill someone while intoxicated should also be deserving of death.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

When a citizen commits a crime, they do so in trade for some of their rights. In other words, were I to kill someone, I would give up my rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness and depending on the scenario, I could lose my right to life.

This is natural cause and effect. Every action has a consequence. Certain consequences are desirable, others are not. We learn what to do and what not to do based on receiving these consequences. This is a law of the universe. It cannot be changed.


When we do try to change this law of the universe and take away consequences, we damage not only the person to whom those consequences rightly belong, but we also damage our society.

The damage to the person is that they do not learn what they were supposed to.

The damage to society is that the individual will continue to commit crimes because there is no fear of adequate negative consequence. This leads others to see a lack of negative consequence who then are more likely to commit crime as well.

What exactly the adequate consequences are for any particular crime is a topic for another discussion.

The fact that there is are not adequate negative consequences in place for many crimes is obvious by the number of citizens inhabiting prison cells. What we need is to stop thinking that citizens who commit crimes still have all their rights. They commit crime? They lose most of their rights. They commit crime, they owe a great debt to society. A criminal needs reform and they need to be able to make restitution. They need to repay their debt to society.

In other words, we need to bring back work programs to prisons. We need to rip out all the cable and satellite TV from the prisons. We need to make the food less enjoyable and more utilitarian. Nourishment is all the food should provide. College education? Why should a criminal get a college education for free when honest citizens have a hard enough time getting grants and scholarships? The education a criminal should get is through service to the community. Service and hard work is what builds character and is what is missing from society. If they do not learn it in their families or communities, prison must be the next best option for these wayward citizens.

To that end, a friend of mine had an idea. We should put prisoners to work producing electricity. Put a dynamo in every stationary bike and then hook those bikes up to the grid. Every time a prisoner pedals the bike, they produce power. Put them to work pedaling every day. Energy crisis averted!

How about roads? Prisoners used to make roads. Put them back to work making roads!

Jobs that citizens do not want to do? Let the prisoners do them.

Let us put our prisoners to work. Let them repay their debts. Let us not rob them of the valuable negative consequences for their negative actions. Put our prisoners to work! But not for money. Heavens no! Make them work for Restitution.

If negative consequences are adequate, our prisons will stop filling up. Prison used to be a punishment. These days prisons seem to be 5 Star hotels. A prisoner is released and they do whatever they need in order to get back in? Why?! Because prison is not a deterrent! It is a haven!

Please share your comments with me on this topic.

1) My friend lands a new job that pays a lot more than money than my job does, and it has amazing benefits, including 4 weeks of vacation.

1. I feel very excited for my friend and congratulate them.
2. I feel jealous, angry, and wonder how they get all the luck.

2) There is enough money in the world for everyone to be fabulously rich.

1. True
2. False

3) I just bought a new couch. Now the Boy Scouts are knocking at my door for $25 to help them get to summer camp.

1. I will give because I have plenty and I admire these Scouts for putting forth the effort to build character through fund raising.
2. I can barely feed my kids and that new couch was purchased on credit so I am now under a mountain of debt.

4) The news reports that the economy is in a recession, unemployment is at an all time high, and property values are down.

1. I thank God for the blessings I enjoy and look for opportunities to create value for others.
2. I feel scared, worry that I might lose my job and my house, and I stop spending money however possible.

5) I am poor. I barely have enough to make ends meet.

1. False
2. True

6) I am very richly blessed and wealthy.

1. True
2. False

7) I have thousands of dollars of debt.

1. Some of those debts were good investments and know there is a way for me to take responsibility of my bad choices and get out of debt.
2. I have nothing to show for all of my spending and I have no hope of ever getting out of debt. Bankruptcy looks very appealing.

8 ) I am eating a bag of my favorite snacks. My child comes into the room, sees what I am eating and asks for some.

1. Sure you can have some. I love to share my snacks with you.
2. No! These are mine snacks.

9) I am driving on the highway. Someone turns on their blinker indicating a desire to move in front of me.

1. I wave them in, thinking, “there is plenty of road for everyone”.
2. I speed up and give them a dirty look. My road! Mine!

In case you did not already figure it out, all the “A” answers indicate a mentality of “abundance” and all of the “B” answers indicate a mentality of “scarcity”.

We are what we think.

Scarcity is the mentality of a child. Many of us do not grow out of it, for many number of reasons. Most often we learn to stay in the scarcity mindset by example.

How do I fix a mentality of scarcity?

Scarcity is an addiction. We handle this addiction in much the same way that we handle any other addiction. The first steps are:
1 – Recognize that you have a scarcity mentality.
2 – Admit to yourself that you have a scarcity mentality.
3 – Admit to you spouse or someone significant in your life who can help to hold you accountable.

Which mentality do you have? And why?

Initially, I was wary about the idea of pulling our troops out. But I am sure that is because I have not understood everything. The problem with forming an opinion on anything that our government is doing is there is such a great lack of understanding by so many average citizens like myself. Now that I have learned a bit more about what is going on, my opinion is that we should indeed bring our troops home.

Some may say, “What about all those poor helpless people over there that we were doing actual good for?” The American people should continue to help around the world, but privately. We do not and should not be using our Armed Forces as our philanthropic arm. We the people should be organizing ourselves and helping through private organizations. And many are doing exactly that.

The roles of our government should be small and focused on our nation. The roles of the people of the United States of America, as private citizens, should be focused on being good neighbors and lending helping hands where ever we can throughout the world.

It seems to be a “simple” matter of mistaken identity. Our government thinks it is the people. It is wrong. WE are the people and we run the nation, or at least we should. We have become complacent and self-centered. We have allowed our elected officials to take away our responsibilities as humans and citizens of Earth as well as our freedoms. It is past time for us to take back what is ours and relieve our bloated bureaucracy of our misplaced roles.

It would probably seem that Easter is about a magical bunny… that lays eggs. Eggs that mostly contain sugary treats, though occasionally there are other things in the eggs, including baby chickens (what?!). The colors associated with the holiday are usually bright and pastel. Adults hide the eggs and then tell their children that the magical Easter Bunny has visited them and hidden special eggs for them to find. The children then look for the eggs and put them in some sort of basket. After the hunt, the children glut themselves on the contents of the eggs and other treats provided for the occasion. It also appears quite popular to create huge chocolate effigies of this magical bunny and proceed to smash it to pieces and consume it.

Therefore, Easter is about paying homage to a magical bunny. That seems to be the extent of this tradition. Nothing is discussed about the origin of this bunny. No morals or lessons are actively taught. The whole reason for the holiday appears to be an excuse for lavishing sugar upon children.

********

Back to reality. I know what Easter is. At least, I know what it is supposed to be. Easter is an extension of Christmas, which celebrated the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Easter is supposed to be a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Modern Easter celebrations have gone the way of modern Christmas celebrations. They are both currently bastardizations of the truth.

OH BUT WAIT, the symbolism of the new life in the “Easter Eggs” and the everlasting green of the “Christmas Trees” is beautiful and helps the children better understand the meanings since they cannot possibly grasp what Easter and Christmas are really about.

That is nonsense. Complete nonsense.

Current Easter and Christmas traditions do nothing at all to help anyone remember Jesus Christ. The holidays have become meaningless and hollow. They have become commercialized, selfish, and self indulgent. They mock the truth of Christ. They mock the reality of Christ.

I can see Satan laughing now, as we “celebrate” these supposedly sacred holidays. Not passing on an example of love for our Savior or an example of true discipleship to our children. Instead, passing on unhealthy eating habits, gluttonous desires for presents, and the ritualistic worship of false idols, named Bunny and Santa.

I hereby apologize to my children for contributing to the mockery of Christ by perpetuating these false traditions in my own home. For some reason, today I finally realized what I have been doing. In celebrating these two holidays, I have been remiss. By not actively doing something to fix the problem, I have been inactively allowing the default to take place.

I vow to do better.

Please leave a comment and let me know how you celebrate Easter and Christmas in ways that help teach your children about the true reasons for those holidays?

I encourage everyone to read this speech. Here are a couple of quotes from it that caught my attention:

Too often, as a result, we overlook an obvious fact: finding the right answer is impossible unless we have asked the right question.

You just think that because democracy works for you that it will work everywhere. It only works where there is a strong foundation of this particular type of religion.

Those who seek to minimize the role that religions can play on the public stage are … seeking to minimize the very institutions that have given us our civil liberties in the first place.

The full speech can be found here: “The Importance of Asking the Right Questions”

(Thanks to Marie Norris for introducing me to this speech.)