ANOTHER LOOK AT HEAVENLY FATHER’S ETERNAL PLAN 1

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Revised and republished Sunday, March 1, 2020

Periodically someone will write me a note after having read one of my Thoughts saying something like; I really liked this one, or this was my favorite of all, or this one was really helpful.

It would be difficult for me to identify a single Thought for a Sabbath Day which I have written which would fit one of these categories, but as I was reading the following verses in the 34 chapter of Alma in The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. I was reminded of this series of six Thoughts I had written and included in the fourth volume of Thoughts for 100 Sabbath Days.

32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

33 And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.

Although the Thoughts in this six part series don’t fit into one of the categories from the preceding readers comments, I do remember having had a very powerful spiritual experience while preparing the talk I refer to in this Thought and during the subsequent weeks when I was doing the original writing of these Thoughts.

I have called this edition of the republication of these Thoughts a revision because I seldom reread anything I have written without wanting to add additional thoughts which come into my mind.

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I wouldn't call them abrupt nor dramatic changes, but there have been several dramatic shifts during my life when I felt I had really identified the key to living a Christ centered life.

Although I have never voiced it to anyone and may not have even realized it myself, as I look back upon my life I realize the first few decades were probably controlled by the principle of obedience.

I grew up during an era when ‘a good spanking’ was an essential part of parenting. Therefore, I learned early on that the directions given by my mother or father were not to be questioned, considered as a topic up for debate, as something I could adjust to my own time table, nor an area where my natural creative ideas in bringing their words to fruition could be incorporated.

These decades later I can still remember the phrases which accompanied the correction sessions which my parents deemed to be necessary for me to make much needed adjustment to my attitudes and actions. Because I said so! Because I am your (mother or father) One which I personally adapted from Bill Cosby, to use on my own children was, I brought you into this world and I can take you out!

Although I am not an advocate of harmful corporal punishment as a way of raising children, I often see modern children acting out in such a way that I am not convinced permissiveness is the answer to the mystery of how to raise kids.

As The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints became more of an influence in my life, Apostles, Prophets, Stake Presidents, Bishops and other church leaders were placed on the same pedestal as my parents as ‘they who would be obeyed.’ Then, when I became a regular reader of the scriptures, another of the resources which I remember being very meaningful to me during this passage of life was reading the Relief Society Magazine from which I gleaned endless ideas about the paths I could choose which would lead me to success and happiness. I found myself daily adding to the list of commandments, principles and paths which needed to be obeyed and followed.

As the list became cumbersome and more and more difficult to stay constantly and completely aware of, I slowly decided there had to be a better way.

It wasn't an overnight shift and even now, after a lot of water has flowed past my porch, I still periodically find myself checking on my level of obedience to one principle or another.

It doesn't seem appropriate to call it a phase, but the next identifiable principle upon which I found myself being grounded, if I were to use worldly terms, would be called my ‘if it feels good, do it’ phase. I hasten to say that since I had spent all those years of my life firming up my foundation of using the principle of obedience as concrete, it was very difficult to get that ‘good’ feeling if I engaged in an activity contrary to the principles on my obedience list.

This period also became the time of my life when I used the Plan of Happiness both as an indicator of choices I should be making and as a measuring tool to indicate if the choices I was making were correct. If I felt like a dark cloud was enveloping me I knew I was making choices which weren’t correct. However, if after making a choice, I felt that wonderful feeling of joy spring up around my heart, I was pretty secure that I had made a correct choice.

It was much later in my life than I would like to admit that I was able to begin the shift away from these ‘me being obedient’ or ‘me being happy’ constructs of life to a principle which made it easier for me to ‘get over myself’ a bit.

I suspect it started when I read the Savior’s admonition during the last supper as recorded in the Gospel of St. John chapter 13 verse 34.

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

This impulse toward ‘love for others’ being the key to a ‘Christ centered life’ was added upon by the teachings on the principle of love expounded by John in the 4th chapter of his first epistle. Therein he boldly states God is love and then continues by saying a man who says he loves God whom he cannot see, but hates his brother whom he can see is a liar.

Another factor which contributed to my shift to love being the emphasis of my personal gospel plan, I am sure was due to the phenomenon that as I aged, the circle of people who made me feel ‘warm and fuzzy’ when I was around them, seemed to be rapidly expanding.

It was at this time of my life when I became convinced that the most important thing we do during our lives is to make sure we do all we can to have loving and kind relationships with all of Heavenly Father’s children, even those who seem bent on making it difficult for us to do so.

It was quite miraculous to discover that when I concentrated on having loving relationships being the major principle of my daily walk and at the same time attempting not to cause my neighbor to stumble because of my lack of acting towards them with love, I found myself surging to a whole new level on the happiness scale.

Just when I was feeling really good about finding the key to living a Christ centered life, while I was reading the words of Jacob, the brother of Nephi, in the Book of Mormon in 2nd Nephi the 24th and 25th verses of the 10th chapter, I was struck with the overwhelming feeling that all the other ‘keys’, which I had concentrated my life on during extensive periods, were but passages leading to what might, at least for me, be the Very Key to having a Christ centered life.

Wherefore my beloved brethren, reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved. Wherefore, may God raise you from death by the power of the resurrection, and also from everlasting death by the power of the atonement, that ye may be received into the eternal kingdom of God, that ye may praise him through grace divine.

The reason I felt a need to go through this lengthy introduction to this series of Thoughts is because when I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting near the end of the 77th year of my life, I was given the assignment to speak on the Plan of Salvation. As it turned out, and as I had suspected, I was only able to give a small portion of the remarks I prepared. However, I was very grateful because it started this series of weeks when I was able to ponder and begin to formulate my thoughts on His plan. Hopefully, we all catch the significance of it being HIS plan based on HIS mercy and HIS grace and not on our will nor our perceptions. Although this had not been planned to be the ‘last sermon of my life’ ironically it turned out to be just that.

During the coming weeks I will be sharing some of my ponderings and conclusions, as I have taken another, and hopefully a correct look at HEAVENLY FATHER’S ETERNAL PLAN.

(To be continued)


THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY

❣️THINK + PLAN + PREPARE + DO + HUGS + PEACE + JOY + LOVE + INTEGRITY + FAITH + HOPE + CHARITY❣️ = 💞THE GOOD LIFE💞