Looking for Jesus

A few weeks ago I was sitting in sacrament meeting in our ward here in Memphis. It was Aleece, Lainey, Lennon, Steph's mom Heidi, and I. Steph and Harris were at home because he had just been born the week before. The sacrament started while Lainey was sitting on my lap. She started up a conversation with me while I was trying to reflect on the Savior. I asked her to make sure she was being reverent and I told her to try to see Jesus in her mind. This quieted her down and I closed my eyes, continuing to think of the Savior myself.

I didn't think anything of what I had told Lainey to do, but a few minutes later she put her hands on my cheeks and quietly said "I'm looking for Jesus, but I can't see him anywhere." It was so sweet the way that she said it to me. I said to her that sometimes Jesus is close to us, but we can't see him. Just because we can't see him doesn't mean he is not there.

What Lainey said to me go me thinking about a talk I heard given by a leader of the church not too long ago. I don't know who gave the talk, but in it they said something along the lines of the parents being responsible for making sure that their children would be able to recognize Jesus when He comes again. I couldn't get that thought out of my mind for quite some times after what happened with Lainey in sacrament meeting.

Let me be clear - Lainey and the rest of our children know what Jesus looks like based on the paintings they have seen of him. As I thought more about this I realized a very simple, but overlooked fact - we did not have a picture of Christ hanging in our home. We have a picture of the First Presidency, of Joseph Smith, and of the Nauvoo Temple - but there was no picture of the Savior on our walls. We used to have one, but it was somewhere in the mess of all our moving.

This all happened right before Easter and I thought that getting a picture of the Savior to hang in our home for the family for Easter honestly be the best gift we could give them. So I ordered one online and went and bought a nice frame for it. On Easter morning after the kids had destroyed their Easter baskets I went into our room and brought out this picture. I told the story of why I was doing this to the kids and Steph (she wasn't in on this gift) and explained to them that I wanted the picture of Jesus to hang in our living room with us because He is part of our family. The kids liked this idea and a few days later I was able to hang up the picture.

When I was a teenager living at home with my parents I wanted to hang posters up on my walls of my favorite musicians. Mom didn't have a problem with me doing this, but she said I had to have a picture of the Savior in my room first. She and Dad hung up a small framed picture of the Savior with a quote by it - "What would Jesus have me do?". I've never really thought much about the fact that the picture was in my room. I did write a song many years ago based on that quote, but I didn't realize until recently that my parents had a different motive to having a picture of Christ in my room. It was to help me recognize the Savior myself, not only when He will return to this earth to rule and reign, but also to recognize His influence in my life. When I look at a picture of Jesus I always have very strong and specific feelings that are associated with him. I recognize those same feelings when I am serving others, bearing my testimony, attending the temple, and loving my family. A picture of the Savior is not simply meant for physical recognition - it is also for spiritual recognition.

Now we have a painting of the Savior hanging in our home, right where we can all see him clearly and frequently throughout the day. I know that by doing this small thing that my children will be blessed in the future. They will be able to see the Savior in our home, as part of our eternal family. They will be able to recognize the physical characteristics of Him, but more importantly, they will recognize the spiritual characteristics that accompany Him and they will be able to recognize those in their everyday lives so that they can be led back to His presence as faithful servants.

If you don't have a picture of the Savior hanging in your home go out and get one. Place the picture somewhere prominent in your home where all can blessed by it. I promise that blessings will come from including the Savior more in your life.

The Second Article of Faith

"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression."

The Second Article of Faith is short and to the point. It simply states that we do not have to worry about the transgression that Adam committed, but we do have to worry about being punished for our own. We cannot escape our own punishment. There is no way around that. But what is this punishment that is mentioned? What exactly is sin? We must be completely aware of what these things are in order to understand.

In James 4:17 we read "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Sin is not doing good. Sin is willful disobedience to God's commandments. According to the Doctrine and Covenants we know that "God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance". God will not tolerate sin. Sin makes us dirty in a spiritual sense. If we are not clean we cannot be in the presence of God. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't want to stand in God's presence if I was not clean! We read in the scriptures about wanting to hide under rocks and mountains rather than stand unclean in God's presence. I completely understand that thought process.

The Lord said in Exodus "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book." Being a teacher I often have students that move during the middle of the school year. Once they are gone I cross their names out of my grade book. When I do this I take a big fat tipped sharpie and cross out their name so that I can no longer read it, and I continue across the page, crossing out all of the grades they received while in my class. I imagine this happening with the Lord's book of us. When we sin and don't repent the Lord crosses our names out so that he can no longer read them. When a name is blotted out that person is no longer numbered among the people of God, the name is no longer on the records of the church - that person, by their own selfish and foolish decisions has cut themself off from the Lord. No one has made them do it except for themself. Even though that person has removed the Lord from their life, the Lord has not removed them from his love.

However, if we repent, its our sins that are blotted out. The sharpie crosses them out while our name remains readable. We are always known by the Lord. He will never forsake us, even when we have done the most horrible things. It doesn't matter if we have turned our backs on family members or indulged in addictions that pollute both the mind and the body - the Lord still knows us intimately. He knows our thoughts and our intentions. He is always looking out for us.

Remember, there are two types of sins - sins of ommission and sins of commission. Omission sins are those in which we fail do something we've been commanded to do by the Lord, such as paying tithing. When are asked to do something at work and we don't do it, we can be fired. It's the same concept. The Lord has given us a TO DO list. When we don't follow that list we are committing sins of omission.

The Lord has also given us a DON'T DO list. When we ignore that list and take part in doing those things we are then committing our sins of commission. The 10 commandments have a few "Thou shalt not" things to follow. Thou shalt not kill. Good advice, even if you don't follow the teachings of the Gospel. All of these things may seem blaringly obvious to many people, but to others - it just is confusing.

I always tell my kids that if they do what I or my wife tell them to do they will never go wrong. The same is true with the Lord. If we do whatever he asks to do or not do, we will never go wrong. Will we ever get hurt? Sure! Will we ever suffer? Of course! By doing whatever the Lord asks us to do will life be easier? NO! This may not seem like good reasoning to follow the Lord's commandments and abstain from sin, but look at the life of the prophet Joseph Smith.

One of the great things about this article of faith is that it also enforces the idea of free agency that we have all been given. Men will punished for their own sins. No matter what another person does I cannot be punished for their wrongs. We are each given our own agency to do as we please. What it all really boils down to is this - do we want to sin and be punished for it, or avoid the punishment and just abstain from sin? The choice is yours to make.