Lehi studying the Plates by Joseph Brickey
Sorry this is a long one. Forgive me.
Lehi as a father, sensed his allotted days were numbered and knowing the nature of the individual members of his family, he felt, he had to give it one last loving try. As a visionary man, a student of the scriptures and a true patriarch he both rejoiced and wept over his kids – he knows how it will play out once he returns to the dust. But, tenderly, he wants to encourage those who will hold on to the rod of truth faithfully and, just for loves sake, make one more loving appeal to those, who may have already let go. So Lehi talks about plans – one that works and one that ruins. These plans have two architects – the Loving Father of our spirit and other the grift of a self serving scam artist, Lucifer Son of the Morning.
Lehi, sums it up this way – “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” 1. Free choice that leads to the successful application of the Plan of Happiness – which results in joy is our job. But our Free choice can also barters off your serenity, your peace and leaves you with the encroaching coffin of misery.
So there are Two Plans – one takes courage, convictions and staying power; the other requires only to let go and give in. The first plan offers, moments of pain, struggle and isolation – yes, but also many wonderful celebratory, peaceful days that will confirm that you have taken the path which will ultimately lead to eternal happiness, but it will be hard and there will be tears.
Lucifer’s plan, the scam, you will find offers – regret, embarrassment, yeah maybe the temporary accoutrements of the flash and razzle dazzle that come with thoughtless indulgence and selfishness, but you will find the choices are empty, without a purpose, without comfort and devoid of any worthy destination. Sure, there may be brief moments of gratifying indulgence, but then, in the dark, comes the guilt, disgust and regret. The prizes of buying this deception are anguish – devoid of hope, a constant quest for the next “hit” that provides that moment of extinction, the numbing of the shame and pain – a counterfeit solace of the support of others in pain – “You’re that bad” that lasts till the fix evaporates and you hear the mocking laughter of demons and realize you are Lost – “And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angelsrejoiced..” 2.
Dore’s bitter Satan Frozen in the Inferno of Hell – Virgil explains to Dante about the ultimately agony of the “Enemy of Our Souls” 3. in the Divine Comedy.
But being an oracle of truth provides no comfort for a heartbroken Dad or Mom. The fact that Heavenly Father’s plan will ultimately lead to joy, does not remove the agony of watching a suffering child, whose choices have imposed a heart breaking price.
Adam and Eve LDS
I think often of Adam and Eve. They both chose to be mortal, to give up immortality and the security of the Garden of Eden for the harsh up and down of mortality for us all.
I think particularly of Mother Eve, an earthly angel, who through intuition, knew it was right to partake and fall. Remember President James E. Faust observation, “Spiritual intuition has its roots in the Garden of Eden. Mother Eve was caught in a dilemma. She could either avoid partaking of the forbidden fruit and stay in (the comfort of) the Garden of Eden, or she could partake of the fruit and have a mortal existence, becoming the mother of the human race.” 4. We exist because of the choice she made – she followed her internal nudge and took the fruit and thereby allowed us all this earthly ride. A thought – Could it be that Eve may have received the first earthly revelation from her Father in Heaven? Could the first revelation, in this Creation, have come to this sweet, totally innocent woman? Or maybe it was Adam who through revelation knew that Eve was the mother of all living.5.
But by following this light touch or gentle push she paid a price. How high? Only our sweet mother knows.
I think of her grief as she watched the sweat and scabs that bringing in the crop provided Adam. I think she blamed herself for her sweetheart’s bruises and scars. As the Mother of all who would live, she had gone through process of conception and birth over and over and blamed her choice in the Garden for that fact that her little ones cried and the reality that these little ones became big ones and thereby personally accountable to God, didn’t remove the pain. I believe, she carried a nagging guilt, a sense of these consequences were, she felt, because of her. She, very well saw herself as the architect of all the hard and misery. And then one day –
Similitude, by Walter Rane
An Angel of the Lord asked Adam a question, a questions about sacrificing lambs on an altar. “Why are you doing this?” 6. Adam didn’t know and so the angel retold Adam about Jesus the Savior and the Atonement – his offerings on the Altar was a reminder of the marvelous gift that would be given. And joy of joys, Adam was told the plan was working, the Plan that Mother Eve had triggered was working and Heavenly Father was pleased with them both. Wow, can you imagine how Eve felt when the Plan and Atonement were, reexplained. In Moses 5 in the Pearl of Great Price we learn –
11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
12 And Adam and Eve blessed the name of God, and they made all things known unto their sons and their daughters.
And then it happened, our brother Lucifer, the infernal crook, pulled off the ultimate destructive “Lie.” The father of misery taught youthful mankind how to really hurt –
13 And Satan came among them, saying: I am also a son of God; and he commanded them, saying: Believe it not; and they believed it not, and they loved Satan more than God. And men began from that time forth to be carnal, sensual, and devilish.
Can you imagine? Such relief! Such joy! And then the Mother and Father of us all watched as the first “batch of babies” rejected the “good news.” Eve’s grief might of been reignited as her small ones indulged in sin, but hopefully she took heart for she was pregnant again and soon she gave birth to a son and she called him Cain for “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” 7. She was thrilled, but there would be more tears for she had given birth to the first murderer and the killer’s victim would be her son Abel.
Is there a pattern here? If we choose to be a mom or dad are we guaranteed that we will experience the full range of disappointment, grief, pain and shame – don’t forget blame, guilt is “the gift that keeps on giving” – “what did I do wrong? Could I have done more? Did I expect too much?” We will always blame ourselves for our kids bad choices.
But for some perspective think of Sariah and Eve.
Praise the Lord! The Gospel took with some. Lehi and Sariah had a Nephi, Samuel, Jacob and Joseph and I’m sure a bunch of Nephettes, Abishes, Sarahs and some Heathers and Beckies. You and I know that the family of man had many Shiblon (Alma 38. Kids that did it right, lived worthy, but without fanfare, who were nameless in the record, but were there or as Elder Neal A. Maxwell put it – were “High-yield and Low-maintenance”8.) Remember, Adam and Eve eventually had their Seth, a second Adam – A Teacher of Righteousness. 9.
Adam and Eve Teaching Their Children, by Del Parson
The Teachers of Righteousness, the keepers of the keys, preserved both the message, the Priesthood and the Ordinances of the Gospel of Happiness. These were Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch…..10.
Enoch and His People Are Taken Up to God (City of Zion Translated or City of Zion Is Taken Up), by Del Parson
These Faithful Teachers up through Noah held and promoted “The Way of Happiness”- reaching out and Grabbing the Rod of Iron – Truth. But no matter how the suffering of our prodigals pains us, only they can seek and find the route to relief. We can’t repent for them, they must pick up their personal cross and drag it.
Elder Heber C. Kimball made this point, when speaking of our day, once said: “Let me say to you, that many of you will see the time when you will have all the trouble, trial and persecution that you can stand, and plenty of opportunities to show that you are true to God and his work. This Church has before it many close places through which it will have to pass before the work of God is crowned with victory. … The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. If you do not have it, how can you stand?” 11.
Each one of our babies must reload the lamp of truth with the oil of the Holy Ghost and the reload comes from being faithfully engaged in the Kingdom of God. We can take a bowl of Cheerios, some quiet books and drag em dangling and screaming into church when they are little. But there comes a day when they must pick up the gauntlet of obedience themselves. Being a mom and dad comes with pain and suffering.
But the right to choose is there, available.
VOICES
God wants us all to listen,
To hear and understand.
He wants us all to see and know
His kind and loving hand.
He explains to me in my tongue
And in your language He’ll reveal –
His will and insights clearly
In the things you think and feel.
He speaks electricity to an electrician;
In numbers to one fluent in math;
Cords and harmony can tell a musician;
To a mom it’s a healthy child’s laugh;
In a sunset, a breeze filled with lilac;
A drink from a cool mountain stream;
An insight caught in some reading;
A message couched in a dream.
God speaks through the sources we give Him.
The richer the medium the better.
When you look at the things your mind feeds on
From such could God form a letter?
A letter of comfort and solace?
Or guidance as to which path to take?
An insight as to where a child’s going?
Or an easing before the soul breaks?
Oh dear friend — our sweet Father’s speaking.
But will you now lend an ear?
And press to your bosom his message
And respond to His will without fear?
A.D.T.
- 2 Nephi 2: 27.
- Moses 7: 26.
- 2 Nephi 4: 28.
- President James E. Faust Personal Epiphanies, BYU Speeches Jan. 7, 1996
- Moses 4: 26. “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living; for thus have I, the Lord God, called the first of all women, which are many.” Or maybe as Adam named the animals, who came in pairs, he realized he had no Help meet. Moses 3: 19 -20.
- Moses 5: 1 – 6.
- Genesis 4: 1.
- Elder Neal A. Maxwell in a Speech to Religious Educators at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on 2 February 2001 – The Holy Ghost: Glorifying Christ
– “Part of discipleship should be to become high-yield, low-maintenance members of the Church. These members are not high profile; they won’t be on the six o’clock evening news when they die. But they have done what Heavenly Father has wanted them to do meekly and humbly.” - Moses 6: 2 – 8. Note here that Mormons uniquely believe that Adam, Eve and their Children could read and write and records were kept of the worthy who heard and obeyed the voice of the Holy Ghost, our Brother/Savior Jesus and Heavenly Mom and Dad. There is a Successful Family, it takes time, but the Father of us all has it in hand.
- Moses 6: 23. The Teachers of Righteousness.
- Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 3d. ed., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1945, pp. 449–50.
Humor can come from a dark place. Towards the latter part of his life – this was true of Samuel Langhorne Clements or as we know him Mark Twain. In 1896 he slipped into a deep depression when his daughter Susy died from meningitis. On May the 20, 1904 his sweetheart and wife Olivia died followed by his daughter Jean death on December 24, 1909. Twain could make people laugh, but he had a dark place and it showed in his writing and his morphing attitude about religion. But there were bright spots like his reverent biography of Joan of Arc in 1896, to assure that it was taken seriously he tried to have published anonymously. His respect for his subject is impressive. Another bright, delightfully fun effort was what he called The Diaries of Adam and Eve in 1905 and 1906 and some think it was a tribute or posthumous love letter to his wife Livy. The material from the book or books was utilized as the first act of a play called The Apple Tree on Broadway in 1966 and directed by Mike Nichols. The Videos below provide two interpretations of pieces of that first act.
This short, but clip by
The story ends with Adam’s speaking at Eve’s grave, “Wherever she was, there was Eden.” I feel that way about “my” Eve.