Self-Analysis II

Remember what I first wrote about here, in Self-Analysis; where I talked about self analysis and I wondered if we shouldn't take time, weekly at least, to analyze ourselves and see what there is, if anything, to change.  Actually, I didn't wonder, but emphatically said that we should take time weekly to see if we're doing the things that we've decided to do in the past.




You see, all of us, every single one of us, lives our life from moment to moment and the moment we're living currently was decided by the moment we've just lived.  In other words, we are a synthesis of our past, where we have been acting/deciding, our present--where our future dreams, hopes, worries, fears, knowledge, and beliefs, are in the present moment and where our decisions take place and our actions turn into doing and not just thinking/sitting/laying/falling/wondering, and our future--what our actions will be, what our beliefs will be, and what our knowledge and beliefs will be after our present choice is made.

Almost all of us live our lives on autopilot and are making decisions only based on what would feel good to us, or sometimes based on what we've already chosen in the past, and this is good and necessary.  We can't be making brand new choices every second of every day or we would become exhausted at the very thought of acting.  Make decisions based on the past decisions that have gone well.  Only by doing that can we have the energy to move forward.  Only when we know what is the best way to move, and we move that direction, can we know that we are going in the right direction.

As I said before in Self-Analysis I, as a counselor, I have learned that in order to counsel with someone we should be in a state of relative congruence. That means that I shouldn't be acting in a way that's contrary to the things that I know to be right and good. Shouldn't all of us be living in such a state? Shouldn't all of us be living according to that which we know and believe to be right and good and true?

JPS

School Counseling memoirs

There are just so many fun stories, that I feel obligated to record a few of them for you (of course, though, the names and the places where these stories originated have been kept confidential...).  And, of course I will need to be hired and working with students first...  Until then I'll leave you with a little self-contradiction or enigma:

When it gets to be the end of the school year and we are about to leave for summer-break, we feel excited to have three months (Ok, two, maybe two and one half months...) away from our job and away from working with students.  Yet, we also, simultaneously feel bad about leaving--just never so bad that we end-up forgoing our vacation and stay at school.  Why is that?  One, it's the student's vacation too and we would never want to deprive them of their precious vacation, and two, part of our job includes a summer break, just like it includes all of the holidays throughout the year...  It's as much our vacation as it is the students!  But really, Marco, it isn't ours as much as the students because we wouldn't even have a job without them...  We wouldn't work in a school, where the whole school takes a vacation, without the students.  So get over yourself!

And what about year-round-schoool?  If that's your answer or your question, then write your own blog!  Go ahead, start it and write that as one of your first posts, because that's just silly!

JPS

Are we like Latter-Day Jews, looking beyond the mark?

What do I mean by that--"looking beyond the mark"?  And, how could Latter-Day Saints be guilty of something that the Savior condemned the Jews for doing?

Well, if we can imagine a path or a destination and we imagine somebody looking along the path, then looking "beyond the mark" might be anyone looking beyond the here&now or not focusing on the importance of the trail right in front of you.  Looking beyond the mark might be trying to focus on parts of the plan of salvation or the doctrine of the LDS church that is nothing that we can work on or contribute to right now.  LDS members might be guilty of this if we are:

• reading about things that are scriptural and something that we, as the church, will do in the future, but not right now (having spirit children, creating worlds, etc.);
• worried about the Second Coming of Christ and the minutia surrounding it that we, as the church, can't know;
• focusing on the Law of Consecration, Plural Marriage, the United Order, etc., and trying to implement them now, without any direction from the First Presidency of the church;
• looking at certain words or phrases in the scriptures and attributing to them certain meanings or interpretations that lead to other conclusions;
• taking a certain principle or idea and either focusing on one aspect of it, until the principle loses significance, or blowing the idea up until it envelopes other doctrine that it shouldn't;
• concluding that because a general authority has said, at some point, it means or supports some idea or doctrine that is strictly personal; or
• focused on "space doctrine" (what some may call "doctrine" but that doesn't concern us now in this life and is nothing that you hear from over the pulpit in General Conference--although maybe someone said something that hinted of it not in this lifetime or one may have blown the Savior's words out of context...).

If the answer is "yes" to any of these possible scenarios, then "YES," we are looking beyond the mark.

Can you think of any more ways to be "looking beyond the mark" that you want added to this list?

JPS

The problem with talking about religion at a state owned and run facility

Separation of church and state.  It's a delineated separation established in our constitution, but is it good or not?  I mean, what is the problem with talking about religion with co-workers?

Well, the problem is, as I see it, is not just that you could be fired, but more fundamental than that:

If there was not a separation between the state and churches, then the government would be able to dictate to churches and religions exactly what they can and cannot do.  If there was not a separation between church and state, then religion's beliefs, practices, ordinances, scriptures, and sacred rites would be at the mercy of the state and the federal government.  Or worse yet, they would be at the mercy of the voting population and the politicians that are elected!

However, if there was the trouble with the most populous churches lobbying for more power from the government, then it would ultimately come down to one church, or a state church.

What about the other side of the stated problem:

If there was not a separation between church and state, then the churches would...  well, the problem would be that the religions would...  nothing!

But, we might run into the same troubles as before about there might be with the churches vying for power and audience and following.

When it comes down to the final analysis, the framers of the declaration were inspired men following the promptings of the Holy Spirit who built, wrote, promoted, and established an inspired document that will stand until wicked men decide that freedom, equality, and God have no part in this land of liberty.

How soon will that be is not for me to know, but what is for me to do is to not discuss matters of religion at work (especially when I work for a state-run facility!).

JPS

Perfect Love

We read in 1 John chapter 4, verse 18:

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

Again, in the book of Mormon, The Book of Moroni, eighth chapter, sixteenth verse:
"Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear."

I would like to have no fear--not be afraid at all, of anything!   I suppose I need to have perfect love, though, if I want all fear casteth out.

What does that mean, however, to have perfect love?

In order to have perfect love, I am suggesting, that you need not be perfect, not perfect yourself (because, only God is perfect, or you would be like God if you were perfect), you can only love God perfectly (or, approaching perfection) and when you love Him perfectly, you will not be fearful or afraid of anything. With your Heavenly Father, it's not so much that you, in your human condition, are capable of loving anyone or anything perfectly--but you have an innate capacity to love spirit-to-spirit perfectly.  Your spirit was created by God the Father in the existence we had before we came to Earth and our spirits don't have this fleshy natural man to weigh us down or hold us back from feeling that perfect love.  We naturally or innately LOVE our Father and our God.  So, when you love your Heavenly Father, you will want to obey Him and keep His commandments--what is there to be afraid of when you have your Lord and your God (because you can't love God and not love Christ as well and in fact, the only way to even approach God the Father is through His Son.

JPS

Unworthy?

Wondering why many prophets talk about abasing themselves and not believing that they were worthy (Book of Mormon, book of Alma, chapter 6, verse 5), I began to think more deeply about what it is that makes them unworthy or almost inherently sinful.  I had memorized Mosiah 3:19, in the Book of Mormon, which talks about the natural man being an enemy to God. That had something to do with the conundrum, I thought.  Why, though, were these men and women that were always doing so much good abasing themselves?

I began to realize that the fact that they considered themselves “unworthy” had little or nothing to do with what it was that they had done; the sins that they had committed or the repentance fort he sins committed, and had more to do with the fact that they were human beings and therefore had fallen natures, like King Benjamin reminds us in Mosiah.  

In the book of Alma, chapter 42, verse 5 it explains that if Adam had immediately partaken of the fruit of the tree of life, he would have lived forever and would have had no space for time to repent, and the Plan of Salvation would have been frustrated.

Thus, Alma teaches in Alma chapter 42, verse 10, man had “become carnal, sensual, and devilish, by nature.” Man is by nature carnal, sensual, and devilish, and therefore sinners.  Man isn’t able to do anything good by himself, and must rely on the Lord to do anything good, must repent, and also rely on the Lord to become sanctified and good—to be reclaimed from this fallen state and allow himself or herself to have the atonement work to make them clean and have the demands of justice appeased and return clean the Celestial kingdom, having had mercy work on their behalf (Alma 42:12, 15-16).

JPS

Can we have sinned so much/too much, that we can no longer return to God?

Just because we have the light of Christ, does not mean that we are able to completely understand everybody and in every situation.  We are not Gods.  We can only try to act like and be like Christ (since our God sent Jesus Christ to this Earth to show us the pattern of how to be like Him or like God).

Don't get ahead of yourself and remember that no matter what, you haven't gotten so far away from God that you can't return or can't reach Him...  Better yet, do you really think that you can get so far away that He can't reach you?  Are you more powerful than He is?  Are you more powerful than God?  Are you so powerful that you can damn yourself so much that even God would be unable to save you? Are you yourself omnipotent?

No, you are mot omnipotent.  But God is, and He is always there for you (remember that He is also omnipresent and omniscient, to name a few more...) and He has sent His Son to help us to get back or return to Him (because we are all sons or daughters of God--children of a Heavenly Father).  Jesus Christ is mercy embodied.  He is so merciful and charitable that He holds the arms of Justice back to allow anyone of His Father's children to return to God's presence.  Those arms of Justice will hold back everyone that is the least bit unworthy of the Celestial Kingdom (any sin, any uncleanliness, any whatsoever...), yet because of Jesus Christ, and only because of Jesus Christ, those who follow Him and obey His commandments, and repent can and will enter into His presence!

In answer to the original question, though, just don't deny the Holy Ghost and you'll be fine.  You may have to pay for some sins, but your faith and reliance on Jesus Christ will do you right!

JPS

Reading

Reading is good.  Reading is fun.

Let's all read some more and tell it to everyone!

JPS

Is it possible to know that what another thinks is incorrect or wrong?

Question-Is it possible to know that what another thinks is incorrect or wrong?

I. Axiom: The Light of Christ is simply Truth…

II. Axiom: The LoC reveals the truth to each man

A.   Postulate – When a person acts with that LoC, he will be able to understand the truth about the actions done by each man

B.    When someone acts contrary to truth (whether it is a physical action [like swearing or making an obscene gesture, “flipping the bird,” or even shaking their head in the face of a truth]), they necessarily offend the LoC and it the Spirit withdraws.

So, the LoC testifies the truth to each person, whether they are seeking out the truth or not; in the form of witnessing that they are receiving a true fact, a logical truth, or a suggestion that something being witnessed is right or wrong (this is especially true if the beholder has the Gift of the Holy Ghost).

            People who act consistently in harmony with that Spirit or light will be able to recognize that light and therefore know when they are receiving that light or will be able to know when it is (obviously) missing.  They will also be able to recognize the absence or lack of that light.  Feeling that lack of light they will know that whatever is being done or said is not in harmony with the light (because they are waiting for the light to “testify” to them that whatever being done is truth and when it isn’t there they know that whatever being done goes against the LoC or Spirit or the Truth…).

            I have now “proven” or rather answered the question posed at the beginning of this paper: it is possible to know that what another thinks or does or says is correct or incorrect.

Quod erat demostrandum

JPS

The Stigma of Mental Illness

Back in 2007 I took an Abnormal Psychology class in preparation for graduate school and in that class I did a report on the Stigma of Mental Illness.  I created a website to go along with my report:

http://www.bizniche.com/thestotts/stigma

Check it out.  Do we really stigmatize people because of their speech or their gate (how they walk) or the way they look or where they park their car?

What do we know about disabilities anyway?  Should we check out http://www.ada.gov to read-up on the Americans with Disabilities Act?

JPS