More Deep-ish Thoughts

First, it's fellow Mormon Geek blogger Adam's birthday today! Be sure to wish him a happy birthday. He loves it when people dress up as scary clowns and sing happy birthday to him. Slowly.....

And now to your regularly scheduled randomness from T.J. on the spiritual side of things

The topic of "spiritual self-reliance" came up recently in discussion with a friend recently. I remember a really long time ago (i.e. 20 years ago) my mom talking about someone relying on their parents' testimony. What she meant by this was that there comes a point in time when a person has to find for oneself what to believe and put faith into. The LDS church teaches the importance of a testimony. My mom explained what that meant further and how it applied to the person she was talking about. Honestly, it made a lot of sense.

Fast forward to today. I've had the topic of relying on someone else's testimony on my mind. Not that my beliefs have ever really been questioned. But my actions because of them have been slothful. Then I became friends with someone recently who reinvigorated my positive attitude. I realized earlier last week that I had relied on this person's testimony for the better part of the last year. And it was time to stand on my own.

And that's where I am. I have my footing and I'm trying to make sure I stand where I am. I love the scripture from Ether 12:27.

"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them."

I love this scripture for a few reasons. But the one that some people seem to ignore is that weakness is God-given. Yes, Satan sees our weaknesses and will do what he can to exploit them. But the weakness itself was given to us for a specific reason: to be humble. If we had no weakness, we would have no reason to try to better ourselves. We would be vanilla. (In all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of that term and feel it gets overused. But here, I cannot locate another term.) Our lives would be boring. We wouldn't know good from wicked, only existence. 

My testimony wasn't necessarily weak. But when I look back at a few years of my life, it was hidden. 

In discussion with my friend on "spiritual self-reliance", he pointed out two different prophets. He explained Joseph's statement that faith can be inherited and passed down. And then he pointed out Alma's experience. His testimony had to be his own, standing on his own two feet. Only hearing the words of Abinadi and getting chased out of his judgment seat for believing. But he stood on his own at first. I'd go as far as saying he was the one that others depended their testimony on for a time.

Update: I just found out my friend meant Alma the Younger. To be fair, that's who I thought he meant at first, but I do like seeing Alma the Elder's intuition as well. In Alma 32, Alma the Younger hits on this topic. It is a wonderful scripture on faith and standing on one's own feet. It will be in my studying in the near future. 

One day I'll write a more geek-based post. But today, this is what I feel was important to share.

Alien abductions are involuntary, but probings are scheduled.