Meet the suspects:

The Brain

He’s the brains in this outfit.  His mind is dubious and manipulative with a sweet facade so as to lower your defenses.  He has a silver tongue and is fast with the ladies.  If you find yourself saying, “sure ok buddy, that sounds great”, it is probably too late.  You’ve already been duped.

The Pink Widow

Specialty: weaponry and explosives.  Don’t let her looks deceive you.  They are sweet enough to give you a cavity, but that is all part of the plan.  She can disassemble anything in the household and if you feel yourself sticking to your chair, that’s because you have been victimized by The Pink Widow.

The Banshee

A known double agent, The Banshee holds nothing back when she’s not happy.  The mere sound of her pipes has been known to turn tiny rock chips into windshield cracks dashing any hopes of passing safety and emissions.

Every week on Sunday, this team takes me to task during sacrament meeting.  Every week it is right to the edge.  They are soley responsible for me not hearing a word in sacrament meeting for almost 5 years now.  On a day when we are being reminded of Christian principles like patience and turning the other cheek, I have delved out more spankings than all the other days of the week combined.  Last week I looked across the isle and the Farmer boys were reading their scriptures…READING THEIR SCRIPTURES!  I told Laurie we had to move…they were making us look bad.  I really truly try so hard to be the best dang dad I am capable of.  I am a Love and Logic graduate for heck sakes.  I am constantly trying to improve.  So if any readers out there have the secret formula to well behaved kids, lay it on me, I am calling for back up.  Inspite of it all though, I can’t take my eyes off ‘em.  They are the world to me and I never knew I could love anything so much as I do my wife and kiddos, so I guess I am still coming out the winner.

So election day has come and gone, but some of the issues solved in a very democratic way seem to linger.  My fascination is with Prop 8.  First off, I am absolutely for Prop 8.  What is amazing to me is how many members of the church aren’t.  I just read on the SL Tribune’s website a quote by an alleged member of the church demonstrating outside temple square.  He said he hoped the demonstrations would bring more shame to his church.  Can you imagine?  A number of scriptures come to mind as I read more and more about this, but the one that keeps recurring is Ephesians 6:12.  These demonstrators and antagonizers have taken the church’s stance on Prop 8 as a personal attack.  What they fail to understand is the church’s stance on Prop 8 is outlined in this Ephesians verse: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. “  It is not like the church has literally spit in the face of the homosexual in a spirit of hate and intolerance.  They simply asked their membership to stand up for what they know to be true.  What religious organization with any merit at all wouldn’t do the same thing.  There is no mixing of church and state here, because the church never said anything about who you should vote for and such.  They encouraged the members to vote on a principle.  An eternal one.  Again, “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities”.  I don’t understand anyone who has a testimony and sustains the prophet and then is unwilling to stand up for something as obviously wrong as homosexuality.  I believe one of the questions to answer in order to obtain a temple recommend is, do you sympathize/associate with any group whose teachings are contrary to the teachings of the church.  I wonder how these members will choose to answer that question.  I had a wonderful discussion on the street on my mission with a gay man.  He approached me and abruptly said, “your church condemns me because I am gay”, as if he wanted an explanation or possibly an apology.  We went on to have a simple discussion about my beliefs, that first of all, if we want to follow Christ, then it is important to follow what HE thinks is right, not what I think is right.  We talked about how to find out where Gods stands and then the decision is ours whether or not we want to follow.  We talked about how all mankind has natural tendencies that are not in line with his teachings and that the idea is to overcome them, not justify them.  I don’t know what became of this man.  But I do remember that several times he would see me on the street and go out of his way, even crossing the road at times, to come say hello and shake my hand on his way.  This, my friends, is tolerance.  By very definition, in order to be tolerant of something you must first disagree.  And the tolerance lies in how you treat that individual, even though you disagree.  Me and this individual on my mission were truly showing tolerance to one another, and it was done without me accepting the sin or condoning the lifestyle.  He is every bit as much my brother in spirit as any other, and every bit as much our Heavenly Father’s child as I am.  No part of this post is written in haste or hate for any homosexual or Prop 8 sympathizer.  Nonetheless, these individuals who are protesting and shouting chants like teach love not hate and such, they are asking us to allow the sin, not tolerate the sinner.  And we know from the scriptures that not even God himself, the most perfectly loving individual in existence, will look up sin with the least degree of allowance.  These are misguided individuals who have been conned by the father of all lies into believing good things to be bad, and bad to be good.  Which brings me to my closing point.  I am sure we have all at some time in our lives been walking down the sidewalk and came upon a fenced yard with a dog behind the fence.  And this dog barked and barked, yap yap yap, perhaps even fiercely with only the fence between you and that dog providing you with safe passage.  I ask you…did you ever stop to listen to the dog yap…you know, try and make sense of all the barking.  I know I haven’t.  I just keep walking to get to my destination.   So should it be with these individuals who attempt to fight against the work of the Lord.  Just keep walking.  Don’t stop to argue with the guy with the sign standing outside the conference center before conference.  Just keep walking, and if you will hold to the rod and stand in holy places, God will always provide you with that fence between you and the adversary to protect you so you may continue walking in confidence.

Short post tonight:

“No amount of success in the world can compensate for failure in the home” -David O. McKay

Conversly, no amount of worldy failure can rob me of the joy I feel when I witness success in the home.  When my son says his prayers and says something totally uncoached and profound.  Or when we test them with questions of judgement or basic gospel knowledge during a family home evening lesson, and they surprise us with a spot-on answer.  Me and my wife Laurie will turn to eachother with our eyebrows high on our heads, and nothing feels more successful than those moments.  I give my heart, my whole soul to my family.  I have but one mission in life.  To bring them home to their Heavenly Father, and I know that by the grace of God it can be done.

Election week is upon us.  What an interesting time for our country in so many ways.  There is such a feeling of division right now in this country.  Every thing seems to be split nearly down the middle.  The presidential race is nearly 50/50, so it Prop 8 in Cali to be voted on this Tues.  It is so important right now to consider the principles you would love to see this country stick to.  That is the priviledge of living in a democracy, to have an opportunity to influence the world around you rather than have it imposed upon you without being asked what your opinion might be.  Even still, as I recognize the blessing it is to have a vote on things, the lack of a candidate I believe in is incredibly frusterating.  Obama is as slick as the devil himself.  For a time I was admittedly on the fence about who I would vote for.  Obama may be the best politician I have ever witnessed, and that is the problem.  So smooth… so composed … for a while there he had my attention.  But when I finally boiled it down to what the guy stands for, it’s silly that I was ever on the fence about it.  And then there is McCain, who really just comes across as a bit of a bafoon and doesn’t ever say much more than “we need change and I can do it”.  Well what changes do you think we need…and what the heck do you propose we do.  You never really talk much about it.  I am reminded of a line from the movie, The American President, when Michael J Fox claim that the citizens of this country are so thirsty for leadership that they would drink sand.  I feel like our country is there.  We want someone to stand up and lead this country so bad that some are willing to vote against the principles this country was founded on.  They are willing to ignore major differences in moral judgement because it is all packaged in individuals who show great leadership.  The scriptures say that in the last days the wheat and the tares will be separated and it is easy to see how that can take place.  It has been longer than my lifetime since the LDS church has urged its members to take a stance on anything political the way they are now, which tells me of the urgency on the land to stand for what is right in principle.  Because if we are found to be luke warm, the Master will, as he puts it, spew us out of his mouth.  Consider the principles of these propositions.  Consider the principles our candidates stand for, and then cast your vote.  You have a say in our society…so if it were up to you, what would you say.  Now on a lighter note, here is a clip from one of my favorite comedians and his take on politicians.  It’s not the best clip and doesn’t capture the whole take, but this dude is hilarious. 

I would like to fire off something light for my first real post, but I just got done with some hometeaching and I have more substantive things on my mind right now. I was recently reading some online news about Proposition 8 in California to ban gay marriage. The story was about how it was causing some division among some of the LDS congregations in the area. Following the article, I decided to read some of the comments, even though I knew exactly how they would go. I became facinated how all the anti-mormon commentators seemed to be in such a frenzy. They weren’t just sounding their opinions. It was unrest. It was verbal assault and false accusation. Voices of hate accusing others of hatred. Narrow minds accusing others of fear mongering. It reminded me of how the mormons were driven across the country by very un-Christian behavior while being accused of being un-Christian. Suddenly some very outlandish and slandering remarks were being fired off about Joseph Smith and other early prophets of the church. Instantly some of the words of the Savior found in Matthew chapter 7 came to mind. It was one of the handful of times in my life where I felt the Spirit speaking to me in very specific and definite terms. In Matthew chapter 7 the Savior says “Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” I have tasted a lot of different kinds of fruits in my lifetime, sampling at times and gorging at others. They ALL left me saying “well what now”. None have fulfilled my soul. Except for one. The fruit I have tasted of as a result of my faith in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has filled my soul. And everytime I make up my mind to quit being lazy and actively continue to partake of its fruit, I am filled with peace and joy, no matter my cricumstances in this world. There is no way that this fruit came from a group of liars, adulters and blashpemers. There is no way that the honorable men who preside over this church today, a church who does so much good and charity for humanity, do so as the present result of a corrupt tree. “…neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” I am so thankful to have it in my life, to be among the very few with a true testimony of the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have watched my wife for some time now pour her time into her blog.  I still don’t get it, how this blogging phemomemon is just free for everyone.  That’s the mind of a man I guess.  I digress.  While reading her blog today I linked up with her cousin Jake’s blog.  It was a good read, and he seems to be manly enough.  Here’s a guy who rides a Harley and blogs, so I concluded:  straight men can blog too.  The other night my sister referred to me as her little brother who says what is on his mind.  Probably sometimes to a fault (any married man knows it’s best to hold his tongue from time to time).  All the sudden I see this as a sounding board.  A way to say what’s on my mind and no one can talk back till I say so.  So welcome to my braindump.  A word about me…I’m pretty frank, sarcastic and like to be humorous, so if you aren’t picking up what I’m putting down, try reading it again with that in mind…and try to keep up.  For now blog off blogger.