Lizzie didn’t want to hear the song again, so we compromised on listening to it just once. (Given how much the kids love the song, that is a compromise.) After listening to the song, Emmi wanted to hear it again. We refused to play it again, and reminded her of the compromise that we had reached. In protest over not being able to listen to the song again, Emmi unbuckled her seatbelt. We were going 30 miles per hour down the road at the time.

Not wanting to be driving illegally and unsafely, I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. However, in the heat of the moment, not thinking carefully about why we were slowing down, I hit the brakes too hard. Emmi and her booster seat flew forward, and Emmi hit the back of Kim’s seat. I was panicked. After a few tears, though, it became pretty evident that Emmi was okay.

The situation got me thinking about life. The Lord gives us commandments, along the lines of “wear your seatbelt” — commandments that we violate at the risk of our health, safety, happiness, and salvation. Sometimes, in protest because a commandment seems unfair, we take off our seatbelts — we purposefully violate the commandment. But as soon as we do, we are exposed to the consequences. If we had been going a little faster, or I had braked a little harder, or someone else had hit us through no fault of mine, Emmi would have been exposed to the possibility of severe injury or even death. As it was, I was scared that she had whiplash.

There is safety in following the Lord’s commandments. I’ve seen it over and over during my lifetime. The Lord has commanded us to get or stay out of debt, and to establish and maintain a year’s supply of food. The Lord extended the invitation several times during boom economies. Here we are in a bust economy, and those who followed the counsel (for example, this friend) are better off, and have hope to bounce back without serious detriment. Time and again, when I’ve followed the Lord’s counsel, I’ve found that there’s safety. Taking off our seatbelts, individually or collectively, on issues like unchastity (gay or straight), fiscal issues, abortion, observing the Sabbath, covetousness, and so forth, just makes us vulnerable to the consequences.

So Caleb sat on the potty. He clearly recognized that something wasn’t working quite the same. When Emmi sat on the potty, fluid came out. When he sat on the potty… nothing. So he sat there getting more and more frustrated. Finally, he pointed at his penis and said, “On!”

Didn’t work.

I luv yoo bekuz I am yoo frnd

It says, “I LUV YOO BEKUZ I AM YOO FRND”. So cute. She’s got the idea. Spelling needs some work. But I know a lot of engineers for whom that’s true, also, and they’re a lot older than she is.

Broadly speaking, these scriptures can be lumped into a few categories. In all cases, the strength of the Lord is obtained by faith on his name, often coupled with prayer. The strength of the Lord often begins with someone obtaining a mission from the Lord — an assurance that the course they’re taking is what the Lord wants. (For example, Jacob mentions receiving his mission like this: “Wherefore, I, Jacob, gave unto them these words as I taught them in the temple, having first obtained mine errand from the Lord.” (Jacob 1:17))

First are the war scriptures. In these scriptures, the Nephites are fighting, usually with the Lamanites, and they seek help from the Lord, then go to fight their enemies with the Lord on their side. With the Lord’s strength, they invariably succeed, often with miraculously few or no casualties. These scriptures have obvious spiritual parallel (because, after all, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against … spiritual wickedness in high places …”).

In one case, the Nephites have to fight against their own people — the rebellious king-men — in order to present a united front against the Lamanites. When the Nephites have the strength of the Lord, they succeed in their battles; in a few of these scriptures, the Nephites are left to their own strength, in which they sometimes win and sometimes lose.

Sometimes, in these portions of the Book of Mormon, an army receives the strength of the Lord by following direct instruction from his prophet, as when Captain Moroni asks Alma where the armies of the Lamanites are going to attack next. When the army goes where Alma directs, they are able to successfully defend their land.

It’s interesting to me that in these scriptures, it’s a group of people who go forth in the strength of the Lord (or not). This reinforces my suspicion that sometimes salvation comes communally.

Words of Mormon 1:14:

14 And in the strength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain many thousands of the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did contend against the Lamanites until they had driven them out of all the lands of their inheritance.

Mosiah 9:17:

17 Yea, in the strength of the Lord did we go forth to battle against the Lamanites; for I and my people did cry mightily to the Lord that he would deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers.

Mosiah 10:10-11:

10 And it came to pass that we did go up to battle against the Lamanites; and I, even I, in my old age, did go up to battle against the Lamanites. And it came to pass that we did go up in the strength of the Lord to battle.
11 Now, the Lamanites knew nothing concerning the Lord, nor the strength of the Lord, therefore they depended upon their own strength. Yet they were a strong people, as to the strength of men.

Alma 46:20:

20 Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.

Alma 60:16:

16 Yea, had it not been for the war which broke out among ourselves; yea, were it not for these king-men, who caused so much bloodshed among ourselves; yea, at the time we were contending among ourselves, if we had united our strength as we hitherto have done; yea, had it not been for the desire of power and authority which those king-men had over us; had they been true to the cause of our freedom, and united with us, and gone forth against our enemies, instead of taking up their swords against us, which was the cause of so much bloodshed among ourselves; yea, if we had gone forth against them in the strength of the Lord, we should have dispersed our enemies, for it would have been done, according to the fulfilling of his word.

Alma 61:18:

18 And we will atake possession of the city of Zarahemla, that we may obtain more food to send forth unto Lehi and Teancum; yea, we will go forth against them in the strength of the Lord, and we will put an end to this great iniquity.

Helaman 7:22-23:

22 And for this cause wo shall come unto you except ye shall repent. For if ye will not repent, behold, this great city, and also all those great cities which are round about, which are in the land of our possession, shall be taken away that ye shall have no place in them; for behold, the Lord will not grant unto you strength, as he has hitherto done, to withstand against your enemies.
23 For behold, thus saith the Lord: I will not show unto the wicked of my strength, to one more than the other, save it be unto those who repent of their sins, and hearken unto my words. Now therefore, I would that ye should behold, my brethren, that it shall be better for the Lamanites than for you except ye shall repent.

3 Nephi 3:12:

12 Now behold, this Lachoneus, the governor, was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber; therefore he did not hearken to the epistle of Giddianhi, the governor of the robbers, but he did cause that his people should cry unto the Lord for strength against the time that the robbers should come down against them.

3 Nephi 4:10:

10 But in this thing they were disappointed, for the Nephites did not fear them; but they did fear their God and did supplicate him for protection; therefore, when the armies of Giddianhi did rush upon them they were prepared to meet them; yea, in the strength of the Lord they did receive them.

Mormon 2:26:

26 And it came to pass that when they had fled we did pursue them with our armies, and did meet them again, and did beat them; nevertheless the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren.

Another clump of these scriptures deal with people facing dire circumstances other than war. They plead with the Lord for strength, and He answers them. In some cases the person or people faces physical hardship; in others, the hardship is spiritual. In these scriptures, the “strength of the Lord” appears to be a source of physical strength or deliverance.

1 Nephi 7:17:

17 But it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound.

Alma 14:26:

26 And Alma cried, saying: How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. And they broke the cords with which they were bound; and when the people saw this, they began to flee, for the fear of destruction had come upon them.

Alma 31:30-31, 38:

30 O Lord God, how long wilt thou suffer that such wickedness and infidelity shall be among this people? O Lord, wilt thou give me strength, that I may bear with mine infirmities. For I am infirm, and such wickedness among this people doth pain my soul.
31 O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people….
38 And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.

The third clump are focused on receiving comfort from the Lord. A fair number of these are quotes from Isaiah. In the first, Isaiah is concerned that the Israelites are not receiving his words and accepting the Lord. The Lord responds that Isaiah doesn’t need to be concerned about that: Isaiah obeyed the Lord’s commandment, so he will be made glorious. The second is a plea for deliverance, and in the third, Isaiah glories in the Lord because he has seen the deliverance of his people.

1 Nephi 21:4-5:

4 Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in vain; surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.
5 And now, saith the Lord—that formed me from the womb that I should be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him—though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.

2 Nephi 8:9:

9 Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

2 Nephi 22:2:

2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

In the last scripture, King Lamoni, having seen miracles at the hand of Ammon, expresses his confidence that Ammon can accomplish anything when he has the Lord with him. He then suggests that sometimes the Lord works through other people to show His strength.

Alma 20:4:

4 Now Lamoni said unto Ammon: I know, in the strength of the Lord thou canst do all things. But behold, I will go with thee to the land of Middoni; for the king of the land of Middoni, whose name is Antiomno, is a friend unto me; therefore I go to the land of Middoni, that I may flatter the king of the land, and he will cast thy brethren out of prison. Now Lamoni said unto him: Who told thee that thy brethren were in prison?

I’m left with a few questions after reading these sections. First, what is the strength of the Lord? I think the scriptures above show some ways that the Lord grants us His strength.

Second, how does one obtain the strength of the Lord? Reading the context surrounding these scriptures suggests that there are a few components: fervent prayer, repentance, and obtaining one’s errand from the Lord. In order to obtain one’s errand from the Lord, there seems to be an oath, express or implied, that one makes to the Lord, and then a determination to follow through on that oath.

Third, what is the purpose of the strength of the Lord? It appears to be to serve His purposes, not ours. Hopefully, my purposes coincide with the Lord’s. If not, I need to repent.

Our stake presidency has been serving for about fifteen years. Today they were released and a new stake presidency was called. Elder David Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles presided over the meeting. Last night at the adult session of stake conference, he gave a great talk about agency.

In the Church, we talk a lot about free agency. Normally we say that we are free to choose good or evil. Elder Bednar said that as we learn more about the gospel, we learn that once we make a covenant with the Lord, we are no longer free to choose to disregard the terms of that covenant — at least, not without serious consequences. He said that rather than calling it “free” agency, we should call it “moral” agency. (I got this from Kim, who was there; I was home watching the children.)

In thinking these statements about agency, I made a connection that I had never made before. There are broadly two definitions of agency. One implies acting. This is the definition that normally is used to talk about choice. The other definition implies a delegation of authority. In this sense we speak of a real-estate agent: someone empowered to act on our behalf in real-estate transactions. In this sense we also talk about author agents or book agents; actor agents; and a number of other agents who act on behalf of someone to represent them in contracts. An agent is authorized to represent a person to someone else — given a limited, designated subset of that person’s rights.

So, when we’ve entered into a covenant with God, we end up with a different kind of agency. Rather than the freedom to choose righteousness or wickedness, we are left with the responsibility to choose righteousness, because we have taken the Savior’s name on us — we represent Him on the earth. If we choose otherwise, we have violated the covenant we’ve made with Him. We have misused our agency, because we have represented Him falsely.

In the world, when an agent represents his client falsely, the agent is subject to legal repercussions. In the gospel, when we represent the Lord falsely, we are subject to the full consequences of sin. Thankfully, the Lord has given us a promise of forgiveness if we repent.

Lizzie likes “Jesus songs,” which are usually songs that have “Jesus” in the first line somewhere. (We’re trying to expand that definition, since the number of those songs is rather small.)

Last night, Lizzie requested “Come Unto Jesus.” The last phrase of the first line of the hymn says, “He’ll ever guide you unto that haven where all who trust him may rest.”

After we sang the song, Lizzie — our little five-year-old — was quiet for a brief moment, and then asked us, “So does that mean that the wicked don’t get to rest?” And I said, “…”

And I thought, “Whoa.” My five-year-old really thinks about things. I’ve never considered the contrapositive of the statement about rest in that hymn. And I told her that she is right: the wicked don’t get rest, either in this life or the life to come.

And I got thinking about the issue. Alma says to his son, who had strayed from the Lord’s path, “Wickedness never was happiness.” And in his great covenant temple ceremony toward the end of his life, King Benjamin contrasted the state of the wicked with the state of the righteous:

Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever. (Mosiah 2:38)

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. (Mosiah 2:41)

And Samuel the Lamanite, speaking to the wicked Nephites, said:

But behold, your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure; yea, for ye have sought all the days of your lives for that which ye could not obtain; and ye have sought for happiness in doing iniquity, which thing is contrary to the nature of that righteousness which is in our great and Eternal Head. (Helaman 13:38)

And I got thinking about all the agitation and hatred that have come against the church for its support of California’s Proposition 8, and I have to think that the agitation stems from the loss or absence of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

Without that peace, there is no rest.

… Don’t throw your junk in my husband,
My husband,
My husband,
Don’t throw your junk in my husband,
My husband’s full.

Such an insightful song! And particularly appropriate, since we were talking with some friends last night about people who accumulate stuff and never manage to get rid of it.

I’m talking about the kind that we have in our kitchen. It makes up part of our stove. It cooks food. Apparently, it cooks little boys, too.

On Monday during lunch, Caleb pushed a chair over to the stove and reached for something that was sitting on a hot burner. His arm almost immediately informed him in certain, unequivocal terms that doing so was a really bad idea. He came out of the scalding with three huge blisters on his palm, a second-degree burn on his wrist, and some smaller blisters on his fingers.

He spent most of the day with his hand in a big bowl of water. Kim held him while he slept so that he could keep his hand cool. We took him to the doctor’s office when I got home from work, and they lanced the blisters on his hand (since they were so large it was obvious that they were going to pop, soon, anyway).

We have to wash Caleb’s hand and change the dressing on it every day. Caleb’s not too fond of the process. But though there have been a fair number of tears involved in the hurting and healing process to this point — and Caleb’s cried a bit, too — the whole experience has reinforced to me exactly how sweet and apparently indestructible Caleb is.

He sometimes fusses a bit when we change his dressing. The fuss goes like this: “Waaaaa — ducky! Kitty!” You just can’t keep a happy child down. Even on the day he burned his appendage, he was perfectly content, curious, and… curious, as long as his hand wasn’t outside the water for too long.

Armed with Our Left-Handed Rights
A Short Humerus Essay and Off-hand Commentary

Society has not dealt with left-handed people even-handedly. They frequently find themselves left out or left behind–left hanging, as it were, out in left field. Who decided that left-handedness isn’t right?

A quick look around you will probably uncover hundreds of examples of this right-handed bias right under your nose: consider, for example the common paper-cutter. On which side does one find the handle for cutting? That’s right: the right! Take a good, hard look at your pencil sharpener, sometime–which side is the handle on? I’ll give better-than-even odds that it’s on the right! The next time you visit your child’s classroom, examine the students’ desks. The vast majority are oriented just right for a right-handed person to write easily–an arrangement that makes writing difficult for the average lefty. It’s just not right!

The ergonomic mouse is designed for the right hand–ergo, it’s a pain in the (left) hand for the southpaw computer-user (Which raises another question: When was the last time you heard a right-handed person referred to as a northpaw?) Next let’s turn to the area of stringed instruments (although, given the size of the string bass, we probably ought to consider the volume, instead), where we’ll find more handsome irregularities. Whoever designed them should be strung up: they’re oriented completely for the comfort of righties. Perhaps the rightist part of the population ought to extend the hand of fellowship to the left-handed part in producing ambidextrous products.

A little etymology will verify that this heavy-handed bias is older than one might think. While a complete historical analysis isn’t right at hand, right off the bat one finds that in Latin the left hand is referred to as the “sinister,” whereas the right is called “dexter.” Who decided that the left hand is sinister? The word in Latin has many of the same connotations as it does in English. From “dexter,” on the other hand, comes the English “dextrous,” meaning agile. Where does the bias end?! (Why would anyone want to name their right hand Dexter and their left Sinister? It makes the whole limb situation sound like a grade-B black-and-white silent film!) Honestly! Does it make any sense to say that a violist has very dextrous fingers? All the fingering is sinister!

The Hebrews and other Mid-Easters are also right-minded. For thousand of years they’ve considered the left-hand unclean. Biblical tradition also states that it is desirable to end up on the right hand of God. (For those of you who are smug about being thus righteous, though, remember that He is pleased to be on your left. Does this make Him leftous?) To defend these noble nations, however, one need only take direction from their direction of writing–much handier to the left-handed writing community than the Latinized left-to-writing we practice in the West. It saves from smearing. (The Hebrews and Arabs write right-to-left; anciently, the Egyptians wrote any direction that suited their fancy.)

Scientists tell us that there may be a genetic predisposition toward left-handedness. Of course, long before this stance was ever conceived (i.e. pre-disposition), people thought left-handedness was the result of possession by evil spirits. I have no idea what people thought about it before that (i.e. pre-datposition). This gradual change in the attitude toward lefties gives me hope that someday we can wash our hands of this right-handed bias: that someday, children will hope they have the right stuff to be left-handed.

Hand-in-hand with genetics, a close examination of the sciences reveals a strong bias toward right-handedism. For example, the right angle seems little more than an innocent phrase until one searches for a handy example of the left angle. It always turns up missing. (Or more appropriately stated, it doesn’t turn up, missing.) One also finds this rightist philosophy in the mechanical and electrical limbs of physics: right away one is confronted with the right-hand rule. As usual, there is no corresponding left-hand rule.

This linguistic bias can cause some amusing situations, though. Consider, for example, the poor lass who finally gets asked out on a tennis date with Mr. Right, only to find out on his very first serve that he’s really Mr. Left! She can then never say that he’s her right-hand man! And every time he talks about her, he’ll be giving left-handed compliments!

Etiquette is one of the worst offenders in the area of righted-ness. When you shake hands, you always shake with the right, right? Also, when one is eating it is considered polite to eat with the fork in the right hand–a rather awkward feat of hands for those who favor the left.

Truly, then, something must be done to correct this rightist favoritism. Perhaps, since this is an election year, one of the parties ought to make left-handed rights part of their platform! (They would, of course, be left with a leg to stand on.) Perhaps a Constitutional amendment is in order–it could be rather appropriately named the “Bill of Lefts.” Let’s all get out there and lobby for equal lefts!

The girls are learning to read. We have a number of CDs and videos with various songs that teach the kids the association between the letters and the sounds that they make. Caleb listens to the songs, too, so he’s picking up the sounds, even though he doesn’t know the letters to associate with them.

A couple of days ago, Caleb and Emmi were sitting at the table singing one of the songs in an echo sort of format. The song went like this:

Emmi: The ‘k’ says…
Caleb: K!
Emmi: The ‘o’ says…
Caleb: Ooohhh!
Emmi: The ‘u’ says…
Caleb: Quack-quack!

So you see, clearly there are forty-five sounds in the English language.