Boaz gave an amazing talk. He went to the commandments doctrinal mastery scriptures and decided to talk about the commandment of forgiveness. He talked about the Atonement and what Jesus went through so He could forgive us. He spoke of the tenderness of the skin after bleeding from every pore. After that agony he was flogged 39 stripes on his already over sensitive skin. When we refurse to forgive, we are denying the effects of the Atonement. He talked about the parable of the servant who owed talents to his master and was forgiven and then refused to forgive a fellowservant who owed him merely shillings. He spoke of how we needed to forgive others so we wouldn't be impediment to their progression. We also need to forgive ourselves. It was masterful.
This is my talk:
I lived for a short time near Yellowstone Park. As many of
you might know, it is a geothermically active area. Its features are always in
flux. One of my favorite sites, Mammoth Hot Springs surprised me one time by
being completely dry. Some features are so consistent, like Old Faithful, and
others vary sometimes by the hour, like Obsidian Mountain.
Countless people are drawn there every year. The landscape
is beautiful, eerie and dangerous. The way the Park manages the danger is by
the boardwalks. They are inspected and maintained to provide a safe environment
for people to enjoy the geothermic features that fascinate us.
Almost every year there are reports of people not staying on
the board walks. The ground looks so stable and many people have an aversion to
doing what they are told. Most of the people who stray have no adverse
consequences. But the rare, unlucky person will step where the under layer has
been eaten away by hot, caustic water. The ground that looks so stable gives
way and they fall into the acidic hot water and receive horrible burns. Some
even die as a result of straying off the marked path.
Other visitors think the huge, relaxed bison are tame. They
get too close to the massive, wild animals and the beasts, who are complacent
at relatively close observation, become defensive when their space bubble is
invaded. These unwise visitors can get gored or trampled by the wild
inhabitants of the wilderness park.
Why am I telling you about Yellowstone, when we live in a
wildly beautiful area ourselves? Because when people come to this area, they
are usually more separated from sudden changes in the ground and the wildlife
still maintain the shyness of wild animals. Yellowstone is an anomaly.
What can this anomaly have to teach us? The visitors who
know the rules of the wild stay safe. They know how to spot danger. The casual
visitor can come and see spectacular nature and view huge wild animals from the
safety of their car. But some are determined to leave the safely marked areas
and head out into the unknown thinking nothing can happen to them.
It’s a bit like how we view the commandments. The
commandments are the boardwalks and clearly marked trials. They are the signs
that say things like, “Don’t feed the bears” or “Danger, do not approach wildlife.”
Many people do not obey the rule, “Always stay at least 25 yards away from
bison and elk.” The fact that people can get within 25 yards of these massive
beasts tells those who know how seemingly “tame” these herds have become.
So what are the commandments that we should obey? We know
the Ten Commandments. We know the Two Great Commandments. We maybe don’t think
about the commandments that come from the mouths of modern-day prophets. “What
I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; . . . whether
by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.” (D&C
1:38)
One group of commandment keeping individuals come from one
of my favorite Book of Mormon stories. The Sons of Helaman, or the Stripling
Warriors. They came from a society where many men died for their faith. They
told Helaman that their mothers taught them. They called Helaman their father.
I like to think these young boys, turning into men, we the sons of the martyred
men. Whether that is true for all of them, it is very possibly true for some of
them. Their mothers taught them that “if they did not doubt, God would deliver
them.”(Alma 56:47) And young boys were sent off to war. In one battle, Helaman
notes in his letter to Captain Moroni, “Yea, and they did obey and observe to
perform every word of command with exactness;. . .” (Alma 57:21)
One of the reasons
that I love this story is for the miraculous protection that these young boys
received. They were in very dangerous situations, deadly even. They obeyed in
faith. Their mothers had faith to send them. Their motivation was to go in the
place of the grown men who had made covenants to never go to war again. Those
grown men had faith that God would protect those boys as they went in their
stead. I’m sure the whole people of Anti-Nephi Lehites, who came to be called
the people of Helaman, prayed continuously for those boys who were doing the
men’s job. Those boys, who became men, protected their adopted country and
their own people by doing what their leaders had promised not to do. All that
faith and all those prayers and the prayers of the prophet Helaman were not
enough to protect those boys without their own faith and determined obedience.
There was one battle at least where all of them received
wounds. (Alma 57:24) When we think about God’s protection, it doesn’t mean that
we don’t suffer a bit. It doesn’t mean that we don’t face setbacks and wounds.
It does mean that the battle is carried. The war is won. The enemy is defeated.
These were boys that didn’t think rules were meant to be
broken. These were boys that didn’t wander from the marked path. These were
boys that didn’t put themselves in additional danger to prove that they were
grown up. These were boys that knew that obedience did not signal weakness.
These were boys that knew that obedience was courageous. These were boys that
faced down grown men who were expert in the art of war and won.
Jesus said rather succinctly, “Blessed are they who hear the
word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:28).
It took courage to build the ark. It took courage to choose
to pray knowing the lion’s den awaited. It took courage to ask Laban for the
Brass Plates. It took courage to take that last walk to Gethsemane.
It takes courage to say no to the party that everyone is
going to when you know there will be alcohol. It takes courage to say no your
boyfriend or girlfriend or the popular kids. It takes courage to go to the
bishop and take care of issues. It takes courage to stay true in your quiet,
desperate moments when nobody will know.
God sees those moments of courage and rewards those who
choose Him over the world. And isn’t that why we came? To choose Him over the
world? May we ever do so.
Craig spoke about obeying with exactness, using again the example of the Sons of Helaman. He did a great job too.
But I think the star was Boaz.
