February 14, 2009 The Lord's Protection

I was brought breakfast in bed this morning. So nice! So I took the time to read a talk from a book of discourses by Henry B. Eyring called "Because He First Loved Us". The talk is chapter 7 and called Finding Safety in Counsel. (I found the talk on the lds.org website too).

Elder Eyring speaks of the Lord's warnings. He says the Lord has called out to us many times and in many ways. Those who listen to His counsel - through the prophets and church leaders - are protected unlike those who do not.

Warnings are often recognized because they are repeated. Often in general conference a prophet will quote an earlier prophet and be a second or third witness.

Quote: The Apostle Paul wrote that “in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Cor. 13:1). One of the ways we may know that the warning is from the Lord is that the law of witnesses, authorized witnesses, has been invoked. When the words of prophets seem repetitive, that should rivet our attention and fill our hearts with gratitude to live in such a blessed time.

What are some things that are always repeated to us? This is when the "law of witnesses" is being invoked. Obviously they're important. It would do us good to take heed to these repetitions and see if we are following the counsel contained in them.

Another Quote: Looking for the path to safety in the counsel of prophets makes sense to those with strong faith. When a prophet speaks, those with little faith may think that they hear only a wise man giving good advice. Then if his counsel seems comfortable and reasonable, squaring with what they want to do, they take it. If it does not, they consider it either faulty advice or they see their circumstances as justifying their being an exception to the counsel.

(I have seen extremely educated and intellectual men do this too. Be careful of too much intellectualism.)

And then: Another fallacy is to believe that the choice to accept or not accept the counsel of prophets is no more than deciding whether to accept good advice and gain its benefits or to stay where we are. But the choice not to take prophetic counsel changes the very ground upon which we stand. It becomes more dangerous. The failure to take prophetic counsel lessens our power to take inspired counsel in the future. The best time to have decided to help Noah build the ark was the first time he asked. Each time he asked after that, each failure to respond would have lessened sensitivity to the Spirit. And so each time his request would have seemed more foolish, until the rain came. And then it was too late.

How many times do we take counsel and doubt it's true importance? Or take it with a grain of salt because we think we understand where they're getting their influence from but it doesn't really pertain to us? How many times do we treat counsel simply as good advice and we'll get to it when we want to if we want to?

I think we all do this from time to time. Sometimes it takes a few more repeptitions before something sinks in and we do listen.

I like the last quote and that it speaks of Noah. He warned many times of the destruction that was to come and the people mocked him. In the end they were destroyed. I think a specific Noah warning today has been repeated many, many times and has been on my mind for a while now to follow - as soon as we can. That is to gather a food storage and be prepared for emergencies. Times are getting pretty bad economically. There are wars. There are food recalls. There are job losses. There are many reasons abounding now for us to keep a store of food in case of an emergency.

Today our family will be taking heed of one of those warnings in which the "law of witnesses" has been invoked many. many times. We will be buying a freezer for our food storage.

• Update Febraury 19, 2009: I couldn't find a good sale for freezers on Saturday. Nothing priced well enough. For good reason too. On Monday I decided to take a look at craigslist again and there was one which we were able to aquire, just in time too as there was another buyer before us trying to negotiate with the seller. Yay! We now have a freezer and instead of paying $600 for one we only had to pay $275 (of which $200 is a gift from Alan's parents! Thank you!) and it is only a few years old and a great brand - Frigidaire. I think the Lord blesses us when we try to follow the counsel given us by His oracles. This definintely felt like His hand was in this one and I am grateful for that.