Part 2: Our Worth...

It is often asked what is the worth of a soul is to God. We don’t obey His will all the time. We sin. We are messy and carnal. So, why does God care so much? Why would God love us so much that he would send His son to save us?

First, let me preface my answer to these questions with a few things in mind. I am writing this blog for people who are not Mormon. I am trying to write to people who are Christians who have an open understanding of the nature of God and His relationship with us. We Mormon’s already have a clear understanding of our worth to our Father in Heaven. We are God’s children, we are God’s greatest creation and we have the potential to become like God. God’s job is to exalt us.

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

For my non-Mormon friends, let me talk about the worth of our souls to God in three ways.

First, we are eternal just as God is eternal. The earth will someday be just a memory to us. Our solar system, galaxy and even our universe will someday be just a memory to each of us. One soul is more important to Our Father in Heaven than all the gold and diamonds in the whole earth. One soul is worth more than the entire world to God. We are eternal, everything else isn’t. Christ gave his life to bring souls back to God so we could dwell eternally with Him. Hopefully we take advantage of Christ sacrifice. Christ wants every soul to dwell with Him and his Father eternally.

Let me try to quote C.S. Lewis – ”you have never met a mere mortal”.

Second, we are created in His image. Not only are we eternal just like God is eternal we also can be an image of Him in everyway. If we let Him, we can be polished to reflect God’s light perfectly. A diamond can only shine so much. We can shine with a light beyond the sun if we allow Christ to change us into beings like Him.

Third, we are agents unto ourselves. When Adam and Eve fell we became like God in another way:

And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...

This may sound strange God knows the difference between good and evil and He could choose evil. God always chooses the good. When Jesus was on the earth he was tempted but he never yielded. God has a choice and he always chooses good.

We are just like God in this way also. We are faced with good and evil choices everyday God wants us to choose the good but often we choose evil. We call this Sin. God will never take away our right to choose between good and evil. God made us agents unto ourselves. We are free to act. We may not like the consequences of our actions but we always have the right to act.

This agency or knowledge of good and evil sets us humans apart from all of God’s other creatures. A bird, as fish or a dog doesn’t know any thing about being good or being evil. Therefore, all other creatures created by God are less than humans because they have no agency. You can have a well trained dog or a tame cat but the animal itself is neither good nor evil.

We are just like God these three ways: we are eternal, we are in His image and we have agency. Because we are like God and God is like us we are of great worth to God. God loves us because we have the potential to have all of God’s attributes. This is our worth to God. This should be our worth to each other.

Another topic for a future blog: What the deal with agency? Why are we free to choose? Why does God let us choose evil?

Part 1: Our World...

Thanks for all of your thoughts. I would like to thank everyone who commented about my last “my opinion” blog or e-mailed me. I think many of us are silently frustrated and weary of what seems to be a losing fight in politics, social changes, sin, finances, and the noise that is our world.

Often it is so easy to dwell on the negative. It is so easy to get weary of fighting with the opposing influences in our country and our own personal lives. Over the next few days I want to point out the more positive aspects of our world, our worth, and our technology.

The first thing I want to talk about is our world...

I’m not talking about our society. I’m talking about the beautiful world our Heavenly Father has given his children. We don’t belong to the earth as our green friends would say. The earth belongs to us. The earth is ours to use as we see fit. The earth is our stewardship. We will be held accountable someday for our stewardship over the world.

And God blessed [Adam and Eve], and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Pretend you had a daughter who was moving to Phoenix. If you live in Phoenix you really need a car to make it around town. So you buy your daughter a car to use in Phoenix. Some time later you came to visit her and you found the car you bought for her trashed. The oil wasn’t changed, there where pizza boxes in the back seat, the car was dented and scratched, and there was a Hillary ’08 sticker on the back window. How would you feel about your daughter?

Pretend you gave a car to your other child who was moving to Phoenix. Some time later you went to visit him and you found out he was taking the bus or the taxi. He was broke because couldn’t keep a job. He was having a hard time making it to work because he was taking the bus or paying for a taxi. He didn’t want to drive the car because he wanted to keep it clean. He was a good driver; he just didn’t want to lose that new car smell. Maybe he thought his ’01 Ford Focus would be a classic someday and he didn’t want to put the miles on it. How would you feel about your son?

Which child would you be most disappointed in?

I would be disappointed in both kids – my daughter for not taking care of her car and my son for not using the car in the first place. Believe it or not, I would be more concerned about my son. He didn’t even use the car. I would think that he didn’t appreciate the car I gave him. I would think he was kinda dumb for just letting the car sit in his driveway. Is the car more important than my child? No! My son is far more important to me than the car. I gave him the car so he could be successful in Phoenix. My daughter may have trashed her car but she had a job and she wasn’t broke. I could always buy another car – the Hillary ’08 sticker is a whole other matter.

Our Heavenly Father looks at us in much the same way. He has given his children this world and he wants us to be happy. He doesn’t want us to trash the earth and he doesn’t want us to think the earth is more important than we are. In fact, we are far more important to him than the whole earth. We have been created in His image. God can always create another earth...