Category Archives: Questions

The Confident Little Grasshopper

There was once a little grasshopper who liked to rest in the path where humans walk. Sure there were other places to contemplate life and bask in the warmth of the sun, but he liked this place best.

Occasionally a human would walk by and with the quickness the grasshopper had come to pride himself on, he would hop out of the danger’s way. However, once the trouble was gone he would always return to the path where the humans walk.

After this the little grasshopper’s first encounter with a human he considered briefly finding a safer place to rest from the troubles of the day. But just as speedily as that thought had come, he also had another, and then another. They went something like this:

“The danger is gone now. You needn’t worry. You can now return to your favorite spot on the path where humans walk. Besides, it was quite some time before you ever saw even one human and when you did, you were quick to remove yourself from danger. If danger comes again, I am able. No harm will come to me.”

So return he did to his favorite spot where humans walk and continued to bask in the sun’s warmth.

After a few times of being called to alarm by the presence of a human walking by and one close call, the grasshopper had enjoyed some time without any cause for worry. Smiling at this newly experienced peace from danger’s threat, the little insect grew very accustomed to life on the path where humans once walked.

Time passed and the grasshopper forgot what it was like to move for danger. He grew tired one sunny morning and without warning, as is often the case when one is careful to not make a sound, a lone human strolled down the path where the grasshopper lay slumbering.

Without attention to the tiny life on the path the human walked where it was taught to walk and without even noticing, stepped on the little grasshopper and on its way it went.

Now friends, the life of the tiny grasshopper may be gone, but yours is not. What paths that now seem safe to you will one day bring danger? Where do you now slumber and what strengths do you use to justify that that sleep? Be careful to give attention to the tale of the confident grasshopper.

Setting a Spiritual Tone for the Week

As I begin this new week I am excited to start it with the spiritual push of friends that have assembled together in the Facebook group, Walk The Talk. It’ll be nice to begin with a little help from my friends. I’m also going to pick a question that will guide my study for the week. I’ve really gone away from regular study and I’m journeying back now to that strength.

Here are my thoughts on this week’s talks in Walk The Talk:

Questioning

At first I felt a new question should be posed every day, but upon experimentation it seems that one day doesn’t give me adequate time to think upon and bury the roots of my answer deep within my heart. So, weekly, instead of daily, is the new experiment.

The question that will guide my studies this week will be the one that I already posted on:

Q: Am I an Enemy to God?

Am I an Enemy to God?

In the same vane as the apostles of old who each asked the Savior, their master, “Lord, is it I?” to the statement that one of them would betray him, I wish to start asking more soul searching questions to assess my own dedication to the Lord and His work. This first question was posed to me by a friend and counselor, “Am I an enemy to God?”

This question comes from Mosiah 3:19

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit , and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child , submissive , meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Starting where I often like to start, the dictionary, I kept seeing the word “hostile” come up. When first thinking on this question I simply thought that an enemy to God is one that doesn’t keep his commandments, the natural man. And while I still believe this to be so, I gather that to be a natural man means holding hostilities towards God.

In President Benson’s landmark address “Beware of Pride ” he talked said that pride meant enmity or hatred towards our fellowman and God.

The central feature of pride is enmity-enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means “hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.” It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.

Here are some questions that I believe are appropriate to ask in the light of these several thoughts:

  1. When someone doesn’t understand me do I get upset an/or hurt?
  2. Do I plan so as to give my morning time with God a top priority or do I just wake up late and rush to work?
  3. Do I actively think, whom can I serve? Or do I just wait for someone to come to me with their problems?
  4. When I am in pain, do I find myself complaining or praising God for the chance to have a body?
  5. Do I fail to give others compliments where they deserve them?
  6. When tempted, do I think of Christ and the mansions he’s prepared for me? Or am I “quick to do evil”?

When all is said and done, I wish not to be an enemy to my Father who, knowing all, has prepared blessings and joy untold for me if I will but let his peace and light into my heart daily.

I love my Savior, for he understands all my shortcomings, pains, and emotional struggles. I know that he died for me, but more importantly, I know that he was resurrected and lives even now for me. I know that his word is not forceful and only those who choose to slow down and be still will hear his voice.

Today, I will be a friend to God by honoring him in my thoughts and progressing his work in my actions.

If God Could Blog from Heaven

If God were a blogger in heaven and blogged his point of view
Do you think we’d see the folly of the many things we do?

He may blog of similar issues that Earth’s leaders do debate
Of rights and fights and freedoms and the union of our state

With loving words and a special font I’m sure he’d teach us how
Though the nature of the flesh is such that we often stand when we should bow

Would his domain receive a PageRank that pushed a 9 or 10?
Or would we link to other websites like Homestar and CNN?

And in our favorites and cookies would we find foremost God’s Blog
Or would those files be resigned to archives on unused server logs?

Truthfully, The Man doth speak and his words are found today
And a blog is neat, but not requisite, to hear them and obey

So bookmark now this techie’s thought of the need for God to blog
And when you think that God’s not real don’t check your server log

Just find a time to be alone, to listen and be still
And in those quiet moments you will feel your Father’s will

His love is there. His peace is real. No earthly good can ‘er replace
The power and the beauty of God’s Word to Human Race

by R. Arthur Mendenhall