Continuing from a previous post: “So Much More II”. . . . Because God loves us, he gives us multiple educational opportunities. The prophets, scriptures, and Holy Ghost are ways we learn doctrine and eternal truths. But other educational opportunities are the application of these lessons in our own lives. For example, we learn the Ten Commandments in the scriptures, like the commandment to keep the sabbath day holy. But what does that mean? I won’t get into it right now, but I have learned through the help of prophets, scriptures, and the instruction of the Holy Ghost, that individuals come to learn the breadth and depth of this commandment on their own and how they keep it and how I keep it may look different, but we are still keeping it in our way.
When love teaches, it gives information that is necessary for us to reach our goals and grow into our divine potential. Sometimes this instruction is simple, like pay tithing. Sometimes this instruction requires more personal revelation, like “love thy neighbor as you love yourself.” Sometimes the lesson is impartial, and sometimes it is deeply personal. But love teaches. One scripture that makes me laugh from experience is Doctrine and covenants 95:1, when the Lord says I chasten those that I love, and I love you, so you know what’s coming. My mission president used this one on me enough times that I can smile about it.
The experience I have with this was when my companion and I were… not getting along. Eventually I asked my mission president for help because I just couldn’t take it anymore. He came to our area and what followed was four hours of what I like to call marriage counseling, with at least one of those hours being fully spent telling me how exactly wrong I was and how I needed to get my act together. He chewed me out harder than I have ever, ever been chewed out in my life. But it was done with so much care, so much understanding of who I was as a unique individual, and with his own similar experiences that my chastening was a blessing and my frayed edges were hemmed and my misunderstandings were corrected. My mission president loved me enough to tell me I was so very wrong, and he loved me enough to give me direction on how to correct my behaviors.
Love not only teaches and chastens, but love allows consequences. For every decision, good or bad, there are consequences. I have come to the understanding that there are no good or bad consequences, but there are comfortable and uncomfortable ones. Consequences are the natural result of the choices we make and in my mind, therefore, are neutral. But they can feel awful sometimes. Consequences are impartial and impersonal; sunburns don’t care if you pay your tithing, or if you fasted this month — if you don’t apply sunscreen and hang out in the sunshine, you’re going to get burned. It is a natural consequence. And you can choose to either learn from this consequence and wear sunscreen or long sleeves, or you can get burned again and again. If you keep this up enough, eventually you can get skin cancer. If left untreated, you risk death. If you die, you are not the only one affected, but those who loved you as well. And that’s a somber thought, that a simple sunburn can cause that much damage, but let’s think about it another way.
When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, they were given specific instructions to tend the garden, take care of it, eat what they wanted, but to not partake of the fruit of a specific tree due to the consequences. Well, they did it. And the consequences of partaking of that fruit included gaining the knowledge of good and evil, the discomfort of mortality, the manual labor required to eat, and being cast out of the garden. These consequences were extremely uncomfortable, and they didn’t affect just Adam and Eve — their entire posterity now experiences these difficulties and discomforts. But you cannot tell me that God did not love Adam and Eve. Because He loved them, He let them experience their consequences — even the consequences that were inherited by us. But more than that, because he loved them and because consequences are natural and unavoidable, He gave them the tools they needed to rise above their situation. . . . continuing see.
