MAKING SENSE OF NONSENSICAL BEHAVIOR (JOHN P. LIVINGSTONE): A good psychologist can almost always diagnose the weirdness in people. Some people don't like the idea of medicating the brain. But Lithium is the reason people don't need to spend their lives in insane asylums. We've come a long way since Lithium. Our brains are developing even in the womb. If the mother is under a lot of stress during pregnancy, it can affect the baby. All of us have weirdness on a certain level. Fetuses grow brain cells at 100,000 a minute. What makes people do the things they do? Our brains are like a walnut, with a canyon going down the middle. If you suffer a hard blow to the left side of your brain, your IQ will drop. The right side of your brain affects more your personality. If you suffer a blow to the ride side you can become moody and depressed. Your brain doesn't finish developing until you're about 24 years old. Sometimes people with a right brain abnormality act a little strange and have trouble relating to people. Sometimes when parents discover there is something abnormal about their child, they go through a mourning period. Sometimes unusual things seem to manifest themselves during late teens or 20's. Sometimes a wonderful young man with no problems will go into the MTC and suddenly everything falls apart. The MTC is more stressful than normal life so it can bring out problems. The missionary gets sent home and becomes normal again back home. If left brain is okay, people have no problems in school, but right brain problems cause depression and mood problems. Our brain cycles more quickly when they're under anxiety. If depression settles in for no reason, it can be a brain problem, not a situational problem. Sometimes people have hallucinations, where they see or hear things. One lady sees certain cars with a bad aura, and thinks bad people are in those cars. This lady thinks bad people are after her doctor so she calls him and asks him to meet her alone in a motel room. He's a good LDS man, a bishop, and instead of meeting her he calls the police. Anyone who tried to help this woman suddenly had bad aura and were the bad guy. We tend to give a pass to people with left brain problems, but are judgmental of people with right brain problems. When many men are depressed or anxious, they sometimes try to self medicate, such as with alcohol. His father only became drunk once--but it lasted for 50 years. Some people turn to marijuana or other drugs. His neighbor used marijuana one time but it made him psychotic. Individuals try alcohol or drugs to try to make themselves feel better. Men use pornography for the same reason. It is a comfort seeking problem. When you're going after addiction, you need to go after the hole that's trying to be filled, and you have to go after the addiction. If you don't go after both, it will come back. If someone is repeating a certain behavior over and over again, it makes a pathway in the brain. But it's possible to get out of that cycle. Finding a good therapist is a little like dating. There are weirdos out there, but you can find a good one if you keep looking. Find someone with expertise in the area you're having problem in. If someone becomes angry for no reason, it can be a personality disorder. It can be a problem since childhood. It's a right brain problem. Depending on their willingness to admit they have a brain problem and being willing to work on it, they can improve. Sometimes you just have to shoot them...just kidding! Sugar levels can also cause similar problems. If sugar levels get low they can be mean and ornery. It's our body, it's our brain, but agency does play a role. When you're dealing with someone with serious problems, you need to tell them you love them, then be direct about their problems, then tell them you love them again.
AVOID DECEPTION (DAVID A. CHRISTENSEN): If you don't have problems, pray for problems and you'll get them. One of the great secrets of receiving revelation is that the Lord knows He can trust you. Every problems finds its solution in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The flow of communication from the Lord is constant if we're ready. If you pray for revelation and seek it, you will get it. The Lord tells us in our mind and in our heart. If you receive a revelation and it's just your mind or just your heart, and not both, you can be deceived. There are times when you can feel emotion but not the spirit, so you can't assume that emotion is spirit. For example, you can get an emotional teenager bearing testimony at youth conference, in tears saying "This has been such a great conference. I used to hate Susie and think she was a mess but now I love her and we connected on the hike in the mountains. And this is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ amen." That can be very emotional but not spiritual. Some people think that if you get engaged to a returned missionary, everything will work out. This is a thought from hell. One young woman prayed about marrying a returned missionary and felt very emotional so she said yes. She was waiting in the temple to be married and then the spirit spoke to her, "This is not right. Don't do it. RUN!" Because of all the pressure on her, she didn't run and went through with it. Five children later when she was living with terrible abuse by her husband, the Spirit again told her to get out before her husband destroyed her. You need to discern the spirit. One woman claimed she was receiving daily revelation while fixing lunches in the temple, claiming silly revelations about mundane things that didn't matter. The Lord doesn't tell us that a certain cereal is the one and only true cereal. A church leader advised this sister to stop telling about people about her "revelations" and they stopped. She was just wanting to gain attention with all her supposed revelations. We can deceive ourselves or Satan can deceive us. Satan is sophisticated and has gotten better at what he does. Look at the Internet. Pornography is a huge problem. Satan can lead kids away from the church and away from missions when they stumble into pornography. Anti Mormon stuff on the Internet can deceive people and lead them away. Satan is real and he's good at what he does. He met a man once who had written a whole book of revelations he had supposedly received from God. One of the revelations said that a certain member of the Twelve should become the prophet and if it wasn't happening soon enough, the apostles ahead of him in seniority should be killed. Your revelation will never come outside your stewardship. You won't receive revelation for your bishop and stake president. You receive revelation for yourself, your wife and children, revelation pertaining to your church calling. One young man told a young woman that she was to marry him because he had received a revelation telling him they should get married. If this is a true revelation, she will receive her own revelation. A young man might put pressure on her saying they had promised to marry in the pre-existence. She might reply, "Well, maybe that's true but if I made that mistake before I was born, I'm not going to make the same mistake here." When people claim to have answers to mysteries that are not taught as church doctrine, they are out of harmony. For example, people who claim to know when Christ is coming or that they have answers to questions such as "Does Adam have a belly button?" When priesthood holders give blessings, be careful what you say. Don't go against God's will. Pray for the Lord's will to be done. Don't say they will be healed if it's not the Lord's will. He has a handicapped son and has felt impressed that he should not bless him to be healed. He has a different mission in life. His mission is to drive him crazy! To receive revelation and not be deceived, personal righteousness is essential. You can be mortal and not be perfect. We all struggle with personal righteousness. If you're working on it, the Lord will work with you. Beware lest you are deceived. Seek the best gifts, remembering for what they are given. He used to home teach a couple who had become offended and quit going to church. They worked at a restaurant and the only way he could see them was to go eat at the restaurant once a month and talk to them there. After ten years of the restaurant visits they finally came back to church. Nobody talked to them or welcomed them. What is wrong with us? We're supposed to be Christians and love other people? We need to make everyone feel welcome. Personal righteousness is doing the best you can with what you've got. We need to quit judging other people. You are righteous if you're doing your best with what you've been given. Righteous yes, perfect no. Perfection will come long after we've died. In the meantime we'll repent and take the sacrament. Be converted. That's more than having a testimony. People get depressed when we think we need to be at a level that we're not and we compare ourselves to others. Satan cannot deceive you if you'll just do your best and pray for the power of the Atonement in your life. The righteous need not fear. You will not be deceived.
GETTING OUT OF YOUR STINKING THINKING: CHANGE YOUR THINKING TO CHANGE YOUR RESULTS (JOHN R. STOKER): What you think drives everything you say and do. Understand what your thinking is because your thinking delivers your results. Our perception of the world influences everything, including how we interpret life's experiences, deal with certain people, and how we respond in certain situations. To be effective, you must challenge your thinking. Otherwise you'll be on auto pilot and not get the results you intended. We make observations through the five senses. Then we engage in selection, putting our perceptions through our filter. we add things we like and subtract things we don't. We interpret and there may be gaps in our interpretation which we fill in ourselves. Then we react to this. He saw his wife carrying a paper towel and his nice camera and jumped to the conclusion that she'd used the paper towel on the lens and got mad at her. But she hadn't done that and called him on it. We're all human and we need to watch how we act or react to what we perceive. We see, hear, think, feel, say, o. If you can challenge your thinking it allows you to improve your results. There are three parts of the brain--unconscious (reactive/protective), subconscious (protective/illogical), conscious (logical/rational). If someone has dated several blondes and it's always ended badly, they may feel subconsciously that a new blonde they meet will end badly. This is your brain trying to protect you, but it is illogical. Undisciplined thinking ensures you will go to fight or flight. Being conscious of one's thoughts is the key to creating different results. The low road in your brain is automatic, associative, historical, tangential, fat, stimulated by events and stories. It is reactive-protective. The high part of the brain, or conscious part, is deliberate, purposeful, analytical, cognizant, slow, stimulated by language. It i cognitive and deliberate. If you see te letter I without a dot and somebody tells you to put a dot on the I, you'll put the dot above the I instead of on the I because that's the way your brain has been programmed to think. Pick out which one doesn't fit: Tiger, Lion, Leopard. The correct answer? There is no correct answer. You might pick tiger because it starts with a T and the others start with L, or you could pick lion because he has a mane, or pick leopard because he has spots. Any of those might be right. But people won't ask what is meant they'll just pick one. Mary's father has five daughters: Nana, Nene, Nini, and Nono. What is the name of the fifth daughter? No, it's not Nunu, it's Mary. Read the question again. Rather than allowing your thoughts to control you, you want to control them. Make a conscious and intentional attempt to be deliberate, purposeful, logical, aware. Slow down and take a look! Your brain is more hardwired for what you see than what you hear. He told the class to make a fist and then put it on their chin, but he put his fist on his cheek. A lot of people followed what he was doing instead of what he was saying. Our mental models are the assumptions or pictures we hold of how things work or the way things are. Our mental models are invisible, flawed incomplete. A parent might beat his kid to make him be quiet, while the kid is yelling "Stop it!" Thinking you can beat your kid to shut them up is flawed thinking. A boy's dad died when he was 9. He watched his mother take in boarders, scrub floors, and wait tables. The boy grew up, went to college and became a judge for 49 years. With his history, he said, "You'll never amount to much if you don't get a good education." He taught this to his five kids. There were 16 college degrees between the five kids. Even though his thinking was flawed, it served him well. Don't believe everything you think. It may not be true. Our mental models or assumptions give rise to our feelings, words, and actions. Notice the impact of mental models on behavior. If we think something will never work, we abandon the idea. If we think it won't change anything, we don't try. If we think someone doesn't know what hes talking about, we won't listen. If you think you can't, you won't. The brain loves evidence because evidence is the basis of what we think. Making the distinction between data and interpretation can help us and others: Assess the validity of our thoughts. Challenge the logic of our thinking. Notice the gaps in your thinking. Facts are data or information that is verifiable. Verifiable facts include: Facts of the situation, facts of impending consequences, facts of expectations vs. occurrence The facts may also include feelings, words, and actions. Our interpretations are the meaning we assign to the facts. You see someone wearing a jacket. That is a fact. You interpret that they must be wearing it because they were cold. You won't know if that interpretation is correct unless you ask them. Interpretations are synonymous with assumptions, opinions, judgment, inference, or conclusions. Our thinking is grounded in the facts or what we "make up" as the facts. The fact is that you can't reach your sweetie. The interpretation is they're dead. That may not be accurate. Just because we think something, that doesn't make it true. Listen to the radio. Watch the news. Read the newspaper. Look for the difference between facts and interpretation. You will be shocked! You must surface your thinking to challenge its accuracy. Challenge your thinking by using the SEE skill. 1. Surface your thinking "What am I thinking in this situation?" 2. Examine your Accuracy. "Is my thinking absolutely true?" 3. Explore Your Understanding: "What do I now know?" "What do I need to know?" Our results are created by what we do or don'o. How we think about any person or situation delivers results. Identify the source of the force behind your results by asking these questions. What are my results? What did I do or say? What did I feel? What did I think? What did I see or hear? What did I not see or hear? Your interpretation of things effects your lens. Change your thinking to change your results. 1 Nephi 17:8; 2 Nephi 32:5; 2 Nephi 32:3; D&C 6:15; D&C 9:8; D&C 100:5-8. If we listen to the Holy Ghost, He'll show us what we should do. The Spirit will tell us what we should do. The Lord will pour pure intelligence into our thinking and enlighten our mind. Study it in your mind and you will feel that it is right or have a stupor of thought. The Holy Ghost will tell us what we should say in the hour when we need it. The Lord told Nephi how to construct a ship. Stop and slow down. His son lost his wallet and was frantic for three days. He finally told his family and his little sister told him to pray about it. He finally did and an idea came into his mind which showed him where he could find the wallet. If w'll think and do the things the Lord would have us do, He'll bless our lives if we'll listen.
HEBER J. GRANT'S LEGENDARY PERSISTENCE; ALEXANDER BARRON AND THE NEVADA TAX DISPUTE (WALTER A. NORTON): Heber J. Grant's father died when he was a baby. His mother eked out a living as best she could. Life was not easy for little Heber as he grew up. He spent a lot of time at the Brigham Young estate. Brigham Young became sort of a surrogate father to him. He had Tom Sawyer like escapades. He played marbles. He used his marbles to pay off his friends to do chores for him. His bishop had called him the "laziest boy in the ward" when he spent his time throwing baseballs at his bishop's barn. But his persistence paid off and he was able to play on the championship team. His penmanship was terrible, but after much practice he professionally prepared invitations with his beautiful handwriting. He also persisted in learning to sing. His mother tried to each him to sing but gave up because he could not sing in tune. But as an apostle, he attempted to learn to sing again. He would attempt to sing at conferences. Often he failed miserably. He would drive other church leaders crazy by continuously singing while they traveled. That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased. This was his motto. The wife of his home teaching companion kept a wonderful attitude even as cancer took its toll on her. As he was visiting with her before she died, she told him a story. When her father was 12 years old and was living in Cedar City. His father had an old white horse and was asked to be in parades or pick up important people. The stake president asked her grandfather to pick up visitors where the railroad ended to bring them to Cedar City. He was asked to pick up Heber J. Grant one day. He took his 12 year old son with him. He was excited to go. While riding in the buggy with Heber J. Grant, President Grant asked her father to sing from the hymnbook with him. He was determined to learn all the hymns. They sang all the way from Lund to Cedar City. It must have taken 2 or 3 hours. President Grant really did have a terrible voice. But he could see how determined he was. President Grant liked to play golf. He didn't start until he was along in years. Joseph F. Smith loved to play golf, which irked him until President Smith ordered him to play golf with him. After that he learned to loved to play. It helped him relax. Next he wanted to talk about Alexander Franklin Barron, the teacher's great great grandfather. While living in Texas, he joined the Mormon Church. In 152, Elder Preston (after whom Preston, Idaho is named) often stayed in the Barron home. The Barrons arrived in the Sat Lake area in 1854. He became the first bishop in Ft. Herriman. In 1864 the Barrons were sent to Fillmore. He prophesied that a great highway would pass through the area and the area would blossom like a rose. This has been fulfilled in I-15. Then he was called to the Muddy Mission in Southern Utah. Then he got went to Panache, Nevada. At that time it was still in Utah Territory and it was in May 1866 that he was ceded into Nevada. But the boundary changes weren't well known and the people in Panache thought they were still in Utah. They paid their taxes to Utah and refused to pay taxes to Nevada. This included the bishop, who was Alexander Franklin Barron. He received a summons to appear in court. The results of the boundary survey were not well known until 1870 so they argued about it in the meantime. They made Bishop Barron the test case. The arguments were fierce. The jury finally decided against the settlers but the judge deemed the decision unjust and threw the cast out of court. In the end, the remaining residents of Panache began paying taxes to Nevada. Many moved back to Utah, including Bishop Barron. He died in 1885 in Washington, Utah.
DANGERS OF GRIEVANCES, GRIPES, AND GETTING OFFENDED--LEARNING NOT TO TAKE OFFENSE (RICHARD P. HIMMER): Definition of EI. EI is the ability to know one's own emotions and to read other's emotions. Expectation A is that you have a history of a person. As a general rule, his wife cooks him dinner at 6:00. So he's come to expect dinner at 6:00. A month and a half ago he was writing a paper and his wife said she was going to do some errands and would be back about 6:00. The last thing on her list of errands was that she was going to visit her mother. He knows that if his wife says she's going to see her mother, you can't keep a time schedule. A 5:45 he realized he was starving. He knew his wife said she'd be home at 6:00 but also knew that she was visiting her mother so he figured she might be late. So he poured himself a bowl of cereal. At 5:55 his wife walked in and said sh was going to make dinner. He'd already eaten. He knew that his wife would be home at 6:00 if she could but he was hungry and didn't want to wait. When he uses a history for his expectations, he uses normal behavior. If she hadn't come home until 7:00 he wouldn't get angry because he knew she'd try to make it if she could. Expectations B are perceptions. These are the way we think things should be--a driver who doesn't drive the way we think they should. We expect people to behave the way we think they should. This will frustrate us. When you live with another person with expectation B you're setting yourself up for frustration. Keystone habits: cue, routine, reward. Cue: It's time to go to bed. At 8:30 they go to their son's room and have a prayer. The only thing you can change is routine, not cue or reward. Addictions are formed by trigger, react, and consequences. We have a choice to react with cues or triggers. It's a fool who is offended when no offence is intended. It's a greater fool who is offended when the offence is intended. You get offended because you want them to act the way YOU think they should. You're giving someone else permission to take away your happiness. It's your choice. If you choose to be offended at someone else's behavior or comments, you're giving them permission to control you. We rationalize behaving poorly toward another person. The science of getting offended is a choice. It is a selfish reaction based on a lack of understanding and empathy. It is a way to cover pain through the manufacturing of electro chemicals. It is a way to temporally feel good (justified) about poor behavior. It is limited self awareness, limited self regulation. It demonstrates a mediocre approach to life long learning. it is the absence of empathy. It reduces one's ability to develop interpersonal relationships (trust and respect). It takes effort to be happy and if you don't recognize that, it may be a long time before you are. If someone offends you at church and you choose not to go back, you're allowing that person to control you. The time to stop being offended is NOW. When you're offended you are choosing to behave in such a manner that you get exactly what you don't want. Our pride stops us or we don't know how to do it differently. You can't change how other people behave, but you can choose your response to them. Addiction is a way to meet your needs and wants in a misapplied or dysfunctional way. When it doesn't work we get angry, frustrated or offended. Addiction is any activity that you cannot control. It is the use of a substance or behavior for the purposes of removing pain or gaining pleasure. An addiction is a repeated behavior despite adverse consequences. A response to move away from pain (triggers). A pathological yet powerful form of learning and memory (negative myelination). A permanent challenge. You can't say to a person with an addiction, "Just stop doing it. Pray and read your scriptures and just stop." It's not that easy. The pull of addictions is real and a person will rob their mother's grave to stop their cravings. If you're always angry or always anxious you become ill. When you get really angry, you stop thinking. Socially unacceptable: drugs, alcohol, pornography, child abuse, pedophilia, sexual abuse. Acceptable: Telling our children what is right and wrong, yell at at our children, enabling, rescuing, overeating, controlling, criticism, sarcasm, venting, one-upping, unrighteous dominion, getting offended, always defending. A grievance is renting too much mind space to pain. When you think about it more than you think about being happy. When you think about it you become physically or emotionally upset. You vent the grievance. The benefits behind forgiveness: Improves health, reduces overall illnesses, lowers rates of heart disease and heart attacks, increases hope, trust and happiness,, you start to like yourself. W.W. Phelps was living in New York when he first heard about Mormonism. He met Parley P. Pratt and read the Book of Mormon and received a spiritual witness that it was the word of God. He contributed much to the new church. Phelps was skilled at printing scriptures. He helped Emma Smith compile the church's first hymnbook to which he wrote lyrics to 29 hymns. He published the Evening and Morning Star. He wrote doctrinal essays and represented the church in political matters. He wrote"The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning." It has been sung at every temple dedication. He used consecrated church funds to purchase lands in Far West. He rationalized doing this. He was disfellowshipped from the church. He wrote against the church. His slander helped lead to the extermination order issued by Governor Boggs. 18 men and boys were slain at Haun's Mill. All Mormons were to be driven from the state. Men, women, and children were murdered. Several weeks later when Joseph Smith and other church leaders were on trial, W.W. Phelps gave false testimony and they ended up in prison at Liberty Jail as a result. Conditions were miserable there. Phelps became miserable with the knowledge of what he had done. He reached a point of hopelessness and expressed great sorrow and repentance. He wrote a letter to Joseph Smith, even though he didn't see how the prophet could ever forgive him. But a miracle took place. Joseph Smith read Phelps' letter and called together the saints who had been wronged by Phelps. Then he asked who would be willing to forgive. Every hand shot up. He then wrote a letter of reconciliation to Phelps. He said he would be happy to give him the right hand of fellowship. Friends at first are friends again at last. W.W. Phelps came back to Joseph Smith and they embraced in joy. He spoke at his funeral and wrote "Praise to the Man Who Communed with Jehovah."
GOD: HE LOVES ME; SATAN: HE LOVES ME NOT (BRAD R. WILCOX): Jesus' atonement provided a complete gift to us. It's not just about what we get from Jesus but also what we can give to Jesus. We would be completely hopeless without the enabling power of grace. To speak about the Atonement without speaking of the love of God would be incomplete. It's only as we feel that love that the atonement becomes personal and meaningful to us. Some people think that God must be heartless to demand someone's death, especially when that person is innocent. And if Jesus is God's Son, God must be a terrible Father to put His Son through that. How could the sacrifice of Jesus pay any debt? How could that be God's will and how could anyone love a God whose will was that? These kinds of questions have baffled religious leaders for centuries. But they should not baffle us. We're not just another church rehashing the same old stories. We have complete truth that other Christians are not aware of. The story of Adam and Eve is not new. But we know that God wasn't punishing Adam and Eve, He was helping them. There are many opportunities for people to make correct choices before any final judgment. God cannot break laws, such as justice and mercy. We believe that He is not only the law giver, He is also the law obeyer. God is not the enemy, the one who is out to get there. But if justice is the enemy, it would be more powerful than God. He could remove the law, but not without chaos resulting, which He would not do. Justice is not equivalent with God. Justice is only one of His attributes, an essential element in the agency that God gives us. Only in the Book of Mormon do we see justice and mercy within the larger framework of agency. No escape from justice is possible without destroying the order of the universe. No unclean thing can dwell with God, unless they change. No unfree thing can dwell with God. It cannot be forced, it has to be a choice. The atonement was a very real payment of debt to the law of justice. Jesus' sacrifice was not made because of a vengeful God. It restores order and balances the scales. Listen to the Sacrament Hymn, "While of These Emblems We Partake." That justice might be satisfied. Obedience is accepted when freely given but will never be taken by force. The key to freedom is obedience. Freedom brings certain risks, but also power to those who exercise it wisely. His teenage son wanted to go bungee jumping off a mountain cliff. He complained that the harness was too tight. But in reality the harness made him free--free to continue living and be able to tell all his friends about his bungee jump. Sometimes we feel that restrictions are making us less free, but they protect us from destruction and allow us to be truly free. We pull pedals off a flower and say "He loves me, He loves me not." Sometimes we read the scriptures the same way. We read certain verses and think He loves us, then read something else about the anger and wrath of God and think He loves us not. Does He love us or does He not love us? Many people choose to see God as an enemy but that is because they don't see His eternal perspective and eternal purpose. God and Jesus will not do anything except for the benefit of the world because they love us. When we feel like God does love us we need to step back and see things from His perspective. God may define blessings differently than we do. He had to take his kids to the doctor to get immunizations. They were upset but he knew that making them get the shots were for their best good, even though the children couldn't see it. When he was a young father he was struggling to balance school, work, raising his family. He was feeling overwhelmed. He read in his scriptures about the foreknowledge of God--He knows the end from the beginning. He stopped to think what that meant for him. God knew, right now, how his life was going to end. He knew if he was going to the Celestial Kingdom, and at that moment he didn't think he'd be going there. That discouraged him. He'd gained a lot of weight and felt like he had no self control. He assumed he would never, ever be the kind of person who could live with God in the Celestial Kingdom. So for him, the suffering of Jesus Christ was in vain and he felt like he'd made Christ suffer needlessly. Instead of feeling grateful for the atonement, he was feeling very apologetic for the atonement. he was sorry he had caused Jesus pain and could picture Him being upset with him for making Him suffer when he wasn't going to make it in the end anyway. The more he pondered on his own inadequacies, the worse he felt. Why would God put him through the refiner's fire if he was not worth refining? He felt far from God's love and acceptance and approval. He had a testimony of the atonement and a testimony of the Savior, but he felt bad that He'd gone through so much trouble for him when he wasn't worth it. He didn't lack faith in God, but lacked faith in himself. He didn't share these personal thoughts with anyone, although he did tell his wife that she should have married better. He felt very insecure. He felt like he was one of God's bad children and that others were more deserving of God's love. He felt hopeless and wanted to quit. His discouragement got to the point he could no longer hide it from his wife. She tried to reassure him. One night he arrived home late and climbed into bed trying not to wake his wife. When his head hit the pillow there came into his mind the answer to an unspoken prayer, the words "I love you. Not only because I do, but also because I am bound to love you." That may not seem comfortable to anybody else, that God loves us because He has to, but to him that was a turning point. That brought great relief and security to him. It is God's nature to love perfectly and infinitely, not because we are good, but because He is good. God is love. No matter how deficient, how beyond recovery we think we are, God is found to love us. No matter how much weight we gain or how many times we fall, He is bound to love us. He can't give up on us. He not only requires us to have faith and confidence in Him, but He is required to have faith and confidence in us. He believes in us. He is fully invested in us. Even when we don't feel our own potential, He will lead us, guide us, walk beside us, help us find the way. This was an insight that left tears in his eyes. He lay there in the dark savoring the wonderful spirit and security he felt. Just because God is God and Christ is Christ, they cannot do other than care for us and help us, if we will but come to us. God loves us as much as He loves the prophets. He sent the prophets for us. God is not the enemy. He is bound to love us as we learn to use our freedom. That night of personal revelation was a turning point for him. He now knows God will not forget him. Through all the highs and lows he has experienced, he has always felt safety and security as he passes through the refining process--a process God would not put him through if He didn't love him. He has hope. Justice and mercy have to be perfectly balance, but they are balanced on a fulcrum of love. God will not take away our freedom. And he cannot and will not stop loving us. The enemy is not God. The enemy is Satan. Satan and his followers have been thwarted at every turning point in history--at the fall, at the atonement, at the restoration. There is only one turning point left, and that is our own lives. He if can block us from receiving God's love, what good is the atonement. If he make us feel bad about ourselves and our past, remind him of his future. Whoever believes in Christ will have everlasting life. God so loved the world, He is bound to. With that security and peace, there is no more guessing game. We don't have to pick up the flower and say "He loves me, He loves me not." God loves us, Satan loves us not.
