3 N 14:12 (see also Matt 7:1-12)
I gotta tell you!! This is
SO cool! This is one of those moments
when I know my studies are on the right track.
I was thinking of this scripture just yesterday. And I have wanted to study the Sermon on the
Mt this week, particularly in connection to Gandhi’s teaching about
‘non-violence’. So here I am, and it
ties in with my current book of study.
That is NOT just coincidence!
I am sitting here
pondering over these verses 1-12. v. 12
is the therefore conclusion of everything he says just previous to it. He talks about how we see others (not judging
by what is seen), He talks about the
mote and the beam (to me meaning change yourself and stop trying to control others)
and then he talks about giving good gifts (or the actions we give in service to
others).
As I sit here thinking I
realize that I must apply the very injunction he is giving here (To ask, seek,
and knock) so that I might understand the very words he is trying to
teach. Like the Nephites after his
teachings I feel there is more here that I cannot understand yet. I feel strongly there is much more depth here
than is typically assumed by men. I
think I could study this every day for the rest of my life and still not get
the depth in it. I know I must do more
than study to truly understand; I must go do and practice. In applying I will gain the enlightenment of
true understanding.
In my home I am up against
the struggle of changing traditions of my “fathers”. The natural man and the way society is run is
to force, coerce, and manipulate children into doing what we want them to do. The sad reality is that if as parents we
employ these communistic tactics then our will not only come to do them as they
get older, they will draw themselves and others toward captivity.
I have to figure out a way
to stop the yelling and ‘or else’ punishments.
Ironically enough with my bed-rest I’m on right now, I have had to do
just this. I know if I say I will do
something, then I have to do it. I have
learned in the past few months that if I warn them of a consequence, then I
always follow through. They have seen me
keep my words and I have seen them gain trust in what I say; therefore they
have learned to listen and obey where as before that they did not listen to
me. So now I am constrained into a
position of not threatening violence because I cannot get up to follow
through. I am being constrained to allow
them their choice to be disobedient, letting ‘Grandma’ enforce the consequences. For now at least I am learning from it.
So I look at these verses
in figuring out how to change the very cycle of behavior in my home to one of
threat of violence to one of love and persuasion. I am also looking for how I need to handle
situations when others choose not to forgive me and hold offence. I read some where on this site http://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/nonvio.htm
that non-violence (ahisma) means to cause no offense. This has been perplexing me because certainly
we do things that we do not intend offensive that cause others to take
offense. Or they are in a state of
hard-heartedness that everything I say is wrong.
I had a friend tell me a
story the other day about an ex-boyfriend of hers was saying hurtful things (because
he felt hurt from previous actions). I don’t
know how she did it, but every time he said something hurtful, she gave him a
compliment. She told him that she
believed in him and she knew he had a lot of potential. It took a few times before he believed she
was being sincere instead of sarcastic.
Somehow I need to find this kind of love in my heart to give good for
evil so that the cycle can be reversed.
I had thought I was a
devoted Christian; I thought I was following Christ, but as I look at my violent
actions they are leading me and others away from the desired result to grow
closer to Christ. If I am to act like a
true Christian, then I must find a way to always be filled with true charity
and truly never desire to cause anyone hurt either emotionally or
physically. I know the results of
violence and they lead away from Christ, toward captivity. On the other hand, as a parent I have certainly
seen there are times I ‘must reprove sharply’.
What that means may not be the same to all people at all stages of
learning. I guess the bottom line is
that ‘all I can do’ is to do my best today, and trust God to make up for all that
I yet lack.
In “He did deliver me from
bondage” she says that we “do to others as we believe WE DESERVE to have done
to us.” That is something I had never
considered. What do I believe I
deserve? Personally, I have a painful
awareness of the ‘constant sins which do so easily beset me’. I know because of my natural man that I ‘deserve’
nothing. It is only by grace that I am
justified and given good gifts. That’s
why I am so grateful for all the tender mercies I receive, because I know I do
not deserve them.
To give to others what
I think I deserve in this case is not what I think she means. To give through grace as He gives to me I
think would be more accurate to what He would want me to give others. To give precisely the grace that they do not
deserve feels more right to me. People
hurt others because they have been hurt.
Christ would want me to understand their pain instead of being offended
by it. That reminds me that Joseph Smith
said that I have a conscience void of offense
towards God, and towards all men. http://lds.org/scriptures/search?lang=eng&query=offense+god+man&x=0&y=0
I have wondered before that
if this was meant in what offense he gave or if it was offense he chose
not to take. Maybe he still felt
love, even for those that would murder him.
As did Christ when he said in one of his last prayers, “for give them
for they know not what they do”. –Both having no desire to hurt others or any
measure of ill-will toward their executioners.
http://lds.org/scriptures/search?lang=eng&type=verse&query=forgive+know+not+do
I want to understand how
to live with this kind of charity; to have it BE part of my being; part of who
I am. There is still much violence in me
that needs to be rooted out. In this I
await for the grace of deliverance.
I love Gandhi’s words when
he said,
“I learnt the lesson of
nonviolence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined
resistance to my will, on the one hand, and her quiet submission to the
suffering my stupidity involved, on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of
myself and cured me of my stupidity in thinking that I was born to rule over
her and, in the end, she became my teacher in nonviolence.”
I think Jesus Christ also
learned this quality of meekness from a woman:
his Mother, Mary. I think this quality
in her was one very core reason why she was chosen to be His mother. This quality became the Savior’s very core as
well, and the foundation of His life in word and deed.
I know it’s a painful path
of submission and true charity, but I really want to learn it. I think this is the true path of discipleship
of Jesus Christ. It is the hardest and
the most rewarding path we can take.
