So this last Sunday Elder Pemberton and I were talking with Brother Le Bel, our Ward Mission Leader about church standards and doctrines. So while we were talking Bro. Le Bel made an interesting statement that really stood out to me.
“As much as we like to think we aren’t like the children of Israel, we are. How often do we look for exact rules or ask how far is the limit on various things.”
That made me wonder, there often is a lot of gray area that is left open to members of the Church. Yes we have a prophet of God who leads us but how often are exact stances left unsaid.
I’ve realized more and more on my mission its very often.
We aren’t given exact rules because you don’t learn anything with rules, you can always find ways around the rules. So there’s this dilemma you face, which path to follow, which way do you go.
Which way do you go?
So lets compare life to this path a little.
Neither one is particularly special, one goes left and one goes right and both look to be about the same. Without some further knowledge or outside help you’ll be making the decision of which way you choose to go blind.
So to the uninformed hiker either path is good.
We can be like this in life.
When we come into this life we don’t have knowledge, we’re born with a clean slate and we come here to learn and get experience.
The great thing about this life is that we don’t have to go at it alone. We have the instructions and leadership that we need.
Our Heavenly Father has given us the scriptures to guide us home. In the Book of Mormon we can learn life lessons from the writings of prophets and just ordinary people who tried to live their faith in their every day life.
So the hiker with the map will be able to look down the map, see what the terrain with each path is like and know which one is the best one to take.
In real life the Church provides us with the necessary maps, resources and other such stuff that we’ll be able to find our way on our own. But they don’t force you to follow the “straight and narrow”.
We have to figure things out on our own, we can always ask our Heavenly Father and he’ll give us the answer but not when we think we need it.
Our Heavenly Father has given us the tools to figure out right and wrong on our own, he wants us to learn and grow and that’s what he’s going to let us do. He’s going to let us work for answers.
Work can cure a lot of things, and not just cattle
So maybe that’s one reason life is so hard, so confusing and without exact doctrines defined by our prophet and the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We already have the tools to find them, they’re in the scriptures and its our job to find them.
I know that by studying the scriptures we can find answers to many of life’s greatest questions and always know that what we are doing is right.
How do you learn what is right and wrong?
Missionary Life in the APM 