Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. (Matthew 5:33-37)
Saturday, May 28, 2016
By the Moon and the Stars in the Sky
I was thinking about swearing on the Bible tonight and I realized that is sort of a strange practice considering what Jesus has to say about oaths.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Marsa Joyoy
A member of one of my facebook groups recently posted a meme thing that has been going the rounds in her circles, saying that you have recently given birth to a daughter and her name must be the first three letters of your mother's name plus the last two letters of your own name.
So, announcement: I am now the mother of a baby girl named Marsa.
Marsa fit in pretty well with the names the other ladies in the group got. But then I tried out the same formula with my sisters' names. And what did they get? Maria. Marte. Maryn.
Every single one of those is a real, reasonably normal name. Unfair!
I was able to console myself with the results I got when I gender-flipped it and used my dad's and brothers' names: Ranam and Ranll. At least Marsa has a decent vowel/consonant distribution.
After that, I played around a bit with other family names. When I was born, I guess I really should have been named Loule or Dorle. And Dad was supposed to have been Othnd. (The men in my family aren't doing too well with name pronouncability, are they?)
My favorite is probably what came up when I moved on to middle names: Joyoy.
Maybe I will name my daughter using this method. After all, who would want to be called Martha Joy or Margaret Joy or Miriam Joy if they could be known as Marsa Joyoy?
So, announcement: I am now the mother of a baby girl named Marsa.
Marsa fit in pretty well with the names the other ladies in the group got. But then I tried out the same formula with my sisters' names. And what did they get? Maria. Marte. Maryn.
Every single one of those is a real, reasonably normal name. Unfair!
I was able to console myself with the results I got when I gender-flipped it and used my dad's and brothers' names: Ranam and Ranll. At least Marsa has a decent vowel/consonant distribution.
After that, I played around a bit with other family names. When I was born, I guess I really should have been named Loule or Dorle. And Dad was supposed to have been Othnd. (The men in my family aren't doing too well with name pronouncability, are they?)
My favorite is probably what came up when I moved on to middle names: Joyoy.
Maybe I will name my daughter using this method. After all, who would want to be called Martha Joy or Margaret Joy or Miriam Joy if they could be known as Marsa Joyoy?
Friday, December 25, 2015
Sunday, December 20, 2015
God is Love
A couple weeks ago in Sunday School, one of the questions (I think from the manual) was Why is it appropriate to say that God is love? We had difficulty answering that question, largely I think because we didn't quite understand what was being asked. It later occurred to me that asking instead what does "God is love" mean? probably would lead to the sort of answers the manual writers were looking for. And I think that basically means that love is the defining characteristic of His character.
But during the lesson, as the discussion about that first question was going on, I thought of one of the questions asked of Christ during His mortal ministry.
And since we are told to be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect, doesn't it just make sense that the greatest commandment is to gain the characteristic that John uses to define Him?
But during the lesson, as the discussion about that first question was going on, I thought of one of the questions asked of Christ during His mortal ministry.
But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting (or testing) him, saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Matthew 22:34-39)
And since we are told to be perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect, doesn't it just make sense that the greatest commandment is to gain the characteristic that John uses to define Him?
Friday, July 10, 2015
Tell me all your thoughts on God
Because now the chorus to this song is stuck in my head.
Anyway, a friend of mine linked to Mette Ivie Harrison's article Giving Up the Old God on facebook yesterday with the comment, "Some good thoughts! What is your view of God? Is it the real view?"
My response:
There are some good thoughts in there, but some of it doesn't feel quite right. I definitely agree that He is not an arcade game god who gives out prizes when I rack up enough righteousness points, and He doesn't make life a breeze for the good and miserable for the bad. But then in the third to last paragraph, she seems to me to be describing a much more hands-off god than I'm familiar with. Yeah, everything that happens in the world isn't because of His direct intervention, but if I pray for snow on my wedding day for some reason, and He doesn't have some reason it would be better for there not to be snow, then I figure I've got a decent chance of Him sending me snow. Because like she says, He loves us. He wants us to have what's best for us and wants us to be happy, and sometimes He'll directly interfere to help with that happiness.
I'm also not ready to declare that He never hands out tragedies to teach people lessons. I figure just letting the world proceed naturally does provide us with a lot of good hardships to learn from, but at the very least those plagues in Egypt back in Moses' day were from Him, and maybe He occasionally sends me a specially-designed trial. Elder Eyring definitely believes he was sent a trial from God after praying for one, according to his conference talk in April 2102. And I'm pretty sure there's reference in the scriptures to Him sending His people trials to humble them, which upon rereading that section might be closer to what she meant.
And as for whether my view of God is the real view, I have to conclude that my view is probably not complete, but I think I'm on the right track.
Anyway, a friend of mine linked to Mette Ivie Harrison's article Giving Up the Old God on facebook yesterday with the comment, "Some good thoughts! What is your view of God? Is it the real view?"
My response:
There are some good thoughts in there, but some of it doesn't feel quite right. I definitely agree that He is not an arcade game god who gives out prizes when I rack up enough righteousness points, and He doesn't make life a breeze for the good and miserable for the bad. But then in the third to last paragraph, she seems to me to be describing a much more hands-off god than I'm familiar with. Yeah, everything that happens in the world isn't because of His direct intervention, but if I pray for snow on my wedding day for some reason, and He doesn't have some reason it would be better for there not to be snow, then I figure I've got a decent chance of Him sending me snow. Because like she says, He loves us. He wants us to have what's best for us and wants us to be happy, and sometimes He'll directly interfere to help with that happiness.
I'm also not ready to declare that He never hands out tragedies to teach people lessons. I figure just letting the world proceed naturally does provide us with a lot of good hardships to learn from, but at the very least those plagues in Egypt back in Moses' day were from Him, and maybe He occasionally sends me a specially-designed trial. Elder Eyring definitely believes he was sent a trial from God after praying for one, according to his conference talk in April 2102. And I'm pretty sure there's reference in the scriptures to Him sending His people trials to humble them, which upon rereading that section might be closer to what she meant.
And as for whether my view of God is the real view, I have to conclude that my view is probably not complete, but I think I'm on the right track.
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Easter Movies and Music
A while back I read an article about keeping the focus of your Easter celebrations on Jesus Christ. Most of the suggestions related to making a bigger deal out of Easter, sort of like how we make a huge month-long production out of Christmas. The decoration aspect I'd already thought about and have some ideas for, but after reading the article I started thinking seriously about music.
I have some music that is appropriate for Easter but not a huge variety. Christmas music starts playing on the radio the day after Halloween. We don't really play it at home until after Thanksgiving, at least. But even that would be a long time to make due with just 27 songs, which is what I have for Easter. And my Christmas music also has the benefit of a wide variety of genres. I've got stuff with a pop influence, stuff that's countryish, stuff that's jazzy... but I can count my popular music influenced Easter songs on one hand.
Movies are also a big part of Christmas traditions. People make long lists of must-see Christmas films, and I have a few. Now, if I'm going to increase the significance of Easter in my and my family's lives, I should probably also get a collection of Easter movies for us to watch in the weeks leading up to the holiday. And I do have a couple I think work for the purpose: Easter Dream and The Testaments. But I'm not sure what else to add. I know there are movies about Christ's ministry and the events of the Holy Week in Israel, and I'll probably get one of those, but watching several versions of the same story in a month or so might not go over well. I guess The Robe or Ben Hur could work as something different, but are there any good just plain cute or fun shows set around Easter? I've heard of an old show called Easter Parade but what I've been able to find out about it doesn't sell it as an Easter story. Have any of you seen it? Does it work as an Easter movie?
And do you have any other specific recommendations for Easter music or movies I can add to my list of things to slowly accumulate when I can? Or maybe picture books. It wouldn't hurt to have a few Easter picture books as well.
I have some music that is appropriate for Easter but not a huge variety. Christmas music starts playing on the radio the day after Halloween. We don't really play it at home until after Thanksgiving, at least. But even that would be a long time to make due with just 27 songs, which is what I have for Easter. And my Christmas music also has the benefit of a wide variety of genres. I've got stuff with a pop influence, stuff that's countryish, stuff that's jazzy... but I can count my popular music influenced Easter songs on one hand.
Movies are also a big part of Christmas traditions. People make long lists of must-see Christmas films, and I have a few. Now, if I'm going to increase the significance of Easter in my and my family's lives, I should probably also get a collection of Easter movies for us to watch in the weeks leading up to the holiday. And I do have a couple I think work for the purpose: Easter Dream and The Testaments. But I'm not sure what else to add. I know there are movies about Christ's ministry and the events of the Holy Week in Israel, and I'll probably get one of those, but watching several versions of the same story in a month or so might not go over well. I guess The Robe or Ben Hur could work as something different, but are there any good just plain cute or fun shows set around Easter? I've heard of an old show called Easter Parade but what I've been able to find out about it doesn't sell it as an Easter story. Have any of you seen it? Does it work as an Easter movie?
And do you have any other specific recommendations for Easter music or movies I can add to my list of things to slowly accumulate when I can? Or maybe picture books. It wouldn't hurt to have a few Easter picture books as well.
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