Doctrines, Principles, and Applications

Examples of Doctrines (eternal revealed truth): 

 • We are spirit children of a loving Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother 

 • We chose to follow Christ in our pre-mortal existence as spirits 

 • As a result of the choice above, we were born into mortality to receive mortal bodies and be tested to see if we can live by faith and follow the doctrinally based principles 

 • Our bodies are temples housing spirits with divine origin and potential 

 • Christ lovingly atoned for our mistakes and was resurrected to enable our mortal bodies to become immortal 

Examples of Principles (doctrinally based guidelines for righteously exercising agency): 

 • The 10 Commandments o You shall have no other gods before Me.

    o You shall not make idols. o You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

    o Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. o Honor your father and your mother.

    o You shall not murder, nor do anything like unto it.

    o You shall not commit adultery (no sexual relations outside the bonds of holy matrimony).

    o You shall not steal.

    o You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

    o You shall not covet.

 • The first four (but not the only) principles of the Gospel (or good news of Christ’s atonement)

    o Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ

    o Repentance

    o Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins

    o The laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost 

Examples of Applications (behaviors growing out of principles but can change based on needs and circumstances):

 • How long church meetings are

 • What the study subject is for ‘Come Follow Me’ 

 • How one should dress when attending BYU 

 • Who gets what priesthood authority and when 

 Elder Packer said: “True doctrine understood (and believed) changes behavior better than teaching behavior changes behavior.” 

 He also said: “Preoccupation with unworthy behavior (excessive scolding) can lead to unworthy behavior. That is why we stress so forcefully the study of the doctrines of the gospel.” 

 We will be blessed by following the teaching of the current prophet and other current church leaders. Living prophets are more important for us than dead prophets.

40 Years

Felicia and I spent our 40th anniversary in Prescot, AZ.

We rented ebikes and kayaks at Watson Lake. Here are photos.

Here is the route

We ate at a historic restaurant.

We visited this memorial outside of Yarnel

Here are the firefighters who died.

We did not hike to the site of their death.

When I'm 64

 Will you still need me, will you still feed me When I'm sixty-four?

64th Birthday Cake

Last weekend Felicia and I rented a SXS and went upt to Mount Lemmon.

The suspension on the Polaris RZR we rented was really good allowing us to drive very fast over lots of rocks and obstacles without slowing down much or losing control. The key element in a suspension is the shock absorber. One is shown clearly in the picture above. 

A shock absorber consists of a spring and a damper. The spring compresses and expands to react to loading and unloading due to bumps in the road. Without the spring, the sharp force of each bump would be transmitted through the frame directly to the driver making it very hard to maintain control or comfort at speed. The damper provides resistance proportional to the speed of the spring compression or expansion. It keeps the spring and vehicle body attached to it from oscillating endlessly resulting in another kind of control problem. When the spring and damper are tuned correctly a driver can go very traverse rocky terrain and not be diverted or lose control.

Recently the seal holding the damping fluid in my motorcycle rear shock absorber burst causing a reduction in damping and a loss of some control. The rear would start to oscillate up and down while I was riding. 

No Damping, No Control

 Repairing the shock absorber restored control and confidence when riding difficult terrain.

Good Shock Absorber, Good Control

In life, our personal spiritual strength and resilience is like the spring on the shock absorber allowing us to take the impact of life's challenges without damage. The church provides the damping to keep us from oscillating wildly from external disturbances. The two together allow us to move forward to our ultimate goal without losing control. We recently had training in High Council regarding the difference between Doctrine, Principles, and Policy in the church. I'll cover that in a later post.

Patagonia - Happy Birthday, Haley

 My rear shock is dying on my motorcycle so I couldn't ride it this weekend. I ordered a used replacement on ebay and convinced Felicia to drive to Patagonia Lake to check it out. We had a State Park annual pass so we thought we could get in on the pass and just see what it was like  for a future trip to go kayaking. 

Well, we drove up to the entrance and flashed the pass. The ranger told us this was the only day of the year the pass doesn't work because of the annual Mariachi Festival. Of course, we had no idea there would be a Mariachi Festival. We had driven all this way so we paid the $20 entry fee. The park was packed. We had to park some distance away and ride a shuttle to the beach area. Our original plan was to check out the Marina and walk around the lake on the walking path. I turned out that people had set up their picnic areas on the walking path so walking around the lake was foiled.

 At least we got to see a little of the lake and watch Folclorico. It did look like a fun place to paddle around if it were less busy.

Tomorrow is Haley's Birthday. She has been doing well in school and has straight As, so far. She started work at Crumble Cookie's. She tells us it is difficult physical work but she is trying to see if she can stick with it. We appreciate that she is striving to live the gospel while on her own.

Unfortunately, Krystal came down with a significant bout with COVID-19 and Eric also seems to be getting it. Krystal has gotten an anti-body infusion and we look forward to a report of her improvement.

Gordon and Alison have an official diagnosis for John of ADHD. That will help him get the proper learning help at school.  We enjoy visits with our grandchildren and wish it could be more often.

We had ward conference this Sunday for Pusch Ridge Ward. Our Stake President has complained to the High Council that he is seeing a large increase in young people with sexual impurity problems as they interview for missions or, more problematic, do not disclose their mistakes prior to their mission and Pres Broadbent gets a call from the mission president. Pres Winfield talked to us about the churches book called, A Parent's Guide. It explains how parents can help children of different ages understand sexuality. There is a chapter for helping children from birth to 3 yrs be comfortable with their gender and to understand that their Hevenly Parents and earthly parents love them as they are, male or female. There is a chapter for teaching children 4-11, another for 12-18, and another for courtship and marriage. I definitely could have done a better job teaching you kids on this subject and could have used this resource.  A Parent’s Guide (churchofjesuschrist.org)