tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post2478219876891747043..comments2024-03-27T20:22:42.005-06:00Comments on light-in-leaves: The great causative forceMarilynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17085334272613025173noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-45935773455375172862017-03-14T15:27:55.114-06:002017-03-14T15:27:55.114-06:00I'm adding my friend Kristen's comment her...I'm adding my friend Kristen's comment here too (she left it on Facebook) so I can read it later and remember. So many things to think about!<br /><br />She said:<br />"Okay - again, I can't comment on the account without giving the blog people access to one of my accounts, and I don't wanna. So here is the comment:<br /><br />I can't read the whole talk. I've had a nasty cold thing for a month, and I still can't focus well without full O2. But here's what I see in what he says: there is believing in God - and the faith that accompanies that sends us to church, or makes us feel guilt for doing the wrong thing. It may urge us to actually find out what the commandments are, and then to obey them, because there IS a God and he said to do it. The changes that result from this belief in and action based on that view of reality make everything healthier and braver and brighter and more hopeful.<br /><br />But his causality point is brilliant. Your picture of the spring flowers is case in point, of course. The metaphor of winter - especially this last four weeks (which is how long my "cold" has lasted) - is obvious. The overwhelming reality of storm after storm, dim light, sharply frigid air, difficulty in travel, and the dull earth below it all - it didn't help me heal. I lost my courage and cried a lot, even as I continue to pray and know my Heavenly Father loves me. But at some point, for us, decades ago, we knew that year after year this would happen, and so - in faith - we bought bulbs. They are nasty dried up little things that look like junk to the untutored or un-hopeful eye. But we read about them and we chose, and they came, and we dug holes in the earth and we put them there. And then nothing happened. Not for a long time. Then, in the darkest and most wearing of times, life happened - early life, adorable life, breaking through even the snow, a secret joy to save the heart in its lowest time. A faith exercised in a time of no need, but in faith that time continues and that the earth's designated patterns continue - an act of faith that employs memory, desire, anticipation, imagination and the trust that what is ahead will be at least a little calculate-able ible?. <br /><br />This is the causative faith. That makes us believe that teaching the children is worth the work - that fires anticipation to the point where we desire to pick up raw material and shape it. When we marry, we cause all kinds of things to happen; when we practice our faith, we cause all kinds of things to happen. It's more than believing in the plan - it's believing in that sufficient unto the day is the WORK thereof. It's taking action on spiritual faith in physical and predictive terms.<br /><br />That's what I get out of it."Marilynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085334272613025173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-22523539232949054662017-03-14T15:24:59.821-06:002017-03-14T15:24:59.821-06:00Yes! This too. I've heard things like this abo...Yes! This too. I've heard things like this about the saints in many other places--where there are more "evil spirit" experiences but also more "angel" experiences. It's like the openness somehow causes things to be...different. But is it possible for an individual to harness that sort of openness, even in our skeptical culture? Or are we so steeped in skepticism that we can't escape it? I would love to learn to CULTIVATE that openness.Marilynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085334272613025173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-30274636372673042702017-03-14T15:23:05.266-06:002017-03-14T15:23:05.266-06:00Oh, I could talk about this with you all day. (Are...Oh, I could talk about this with you all day. (Are you HOME from your trip, by the way?? I must hear about it! Or you are going any time now??) I have wondered this exact same thing. The thing is, how do you regain that simple, totally trusting faith when you have a brain trained to be "rational/intellectual"? Not that belief in miracles ISN'T rational...but it can seem that way. And also, how to have that deep faith and still keep the "but if not" side of it in mind?? It's so hard. And I've felt that same thing when I'm praying for patience. "Do I REALLY BELIEVE that this miracle could happen, or am I secretly just thinking only some approximation of it is possible?" It is super interesting, and I wish I understood it better.Marilynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085334272613025173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-35236128863008949672017-03-14T10:13:59.635-06:002017-03-14T10:13:59.635-06:00One more thought. My BIL, Leo, is a Colombian con...One more thought. My BIL, Leo, is a Colombian convert. He was Catholic prior to his conversion. He gets these CRAZY DETAILED answers to prayers. As in, whole paragraphs of information. I believe that people receive answers to prayers in many, many ways. However, I have wondered if maybe he receives these detailed, profound answers to prayers because he didn't have many preconceived notions of how God would answer his prayers. He was taught that we believe in direct, personal communication from God, and not having been raised hearing about the still small voice and simple answers and warm feelings, that he was more open to a different kind of answer. I may be totally off on that, but I have wondered if maybe we were more open to that kind of revelation we might receive it. Along those same lines, my sister read a book about a small group of isolated Russian saints and one lady wrote about how disappointed she was to visit Salt Lake and find that the Saints there didn't talk about angelic experiences ever. In their small group in Russia, all the Saints had experiences with angels fairly frequently--and they had come to accept that help and rely on that help and thought that was the experience of Saints throughout the world. We tend to be scoffers at angels, I think, whether we mean to be or not. Maybe if we truly had faith in the promise that angels would be helping us, we'd feel their presence more often. Again--my musings that may be totally wrong.Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14301232211779225287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-52569630242536612692017-03-14T08:23:15.860-06:002017-03-14T08:23:15.860-06:00This is very, very interesting. Maybe it is simpl...This is very, very interesting. Maybe it is simpler than we like to think. Maybe if we just ask for something and really believe, than it will happen. I think I was so trained to believe that God's will be done, that I never really pray with that kind of faith. I think, if it is supposed to happen it will. That's not the kind of faith that makes things happen. That's a very passive faith. My sister was told by a man in her stake presidency that she needed to move out of Katy, Texas because she hated it so much it was affecting her mental health. She said, that's not possible because of my husband's work. He told her to go home and write down every single thing she wanted in where she lived and then pray with actual faith that God would make it happen. Six months later she moved to Rawlins, Wyoming and has every single thing that was on her list. It was amazing all the small miracles and tiny mountains that moved to allow her to wind up where she is so much happier. That is a very active, believing faith. I am not sure if that is really what is meant in this talk, but I think I am not firm enough in believing that I can really have the things that I want. Even when I pray to only say nice things to my children that day, I don't think I really believe--deep down--my own capacity to make that happen. If I strengthened my faith and really believed that my righteous desire to only speak kind words could REALLY HAPPEN, maybe that would be the kind of faith that would make it happen. That raises the question of when and how we say, "Thy will be done." Then again, it isn't unusual for us to deal with what feels like oppositional doctrines. So very, very interesting.Andreahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14301232211779225287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-82639991039505213462017-03-09T07:54:00.859-07:002017-03-09T07:54:00.859-07:00Yeah, I keep thinking there must be some--physical...Yeah, I keep thinking there must be some--physical? spiritual?--REALness to faith that I just don't really grasp yet. And it's kind of one of those subjects that the more I learn about it, the more baffled I become. :) But it's a good thing for me to keep studying, I know.Marilynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17085334272613025173noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1836198539158358199.post-74958829650901838972017-03-07T21:47:42.242-07:002017-03-07T21:47:42.242-07:00So interesting. Just today I'd read this in Et...So interesting. Just today I'd read this in Ether 12:14 :it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites<br /><br />And I was pondering how their faith changes the Lamanites -- if their prayers could somehow help their hearts be changed even though they couldn't change their agency. But maybe it was more what you were talking about here. Their faith stretching out and spreading and catching others. But o also do wonder sometimes about faith in general and it being an actual something and various laws of heaven. Such interesting stuff!Nancyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03045958241240870948noreply@blogger.com