Tongue Tied

In-between books I have been pondering on some thoughts that have been helpful to me. One is that when we repent of sins and are forgiven we have a feeling of euphoria rightly so because most of the time unless there are consequences to our choices that are longer lasting it is as if the sin never occurred. However at that point of euphoria is when Satan rallies the forces and attacks. He whispers lying vanities to us about how great we are and how the way we feel must be because of something we are doing. Then if we fall prey and give into those lies we become pride and pride becomes the sin we must repent of. Instead when we feel a euphoria because of the blessings of God's forgiveness in our lives we need to associate that good feeling with his grace, love and kindness and fill our hearts with gratitude instead of pride for the two cannot reside at the same time. This is what Mosiah says in Mosiah 4:11 "11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have ^atasted of his love, and have received a ^bremission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own ^cnothingness, and his ^dgoodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of ^ehumility, ^fcalling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing ^gsteadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel."

Humility helps us to be grateful for the lords goodness, mercy and love. It is at this time when things are going well that we need to most remember that.

 

The Second thought I have had is about being tongue-tied. I have pondered on the lesson at church on Sunday about not being offended and not having contention. I have had these experiences that when I talk to people a lot I will go home and analyze what I have said. Have you ever done that? I realize then that maybe I shouldn't have said this or maybe I shouldn't say that like that. And it is only much later when the full realization hits that maybe I have offended someone by a misunderstanding in what I have said. Then it dawned on me that I need to tie my tongue and enlarge my ears. Sunday at church I couldn't sing because I had a scratchy throat. So I was forced to sit and listen to everyone else sing. I really enjoyed listening to my husband sing he is really good. It was an eye opening experience for me to listen to others instead of just thinking about myself.

When I was a yoga I thought about this and decided that sometimes unwittingly are a tool for the adversary because we say too much. We may say one thing but because of the communication having to travel from mouth to ear and because we all start at different reference points than each other we may both have different meanings come out. Because of this we can innocently cause contention by offending others with what we think is innocent conversation. See Satan uses anything he can to stir the hearts of men to be angry with each other. Unless we are on our guard and tie our tongues and enlarge our ears we could be a stumbling block to others. I have devised a way to practice tying my tongue. Now all I have to do is teach this to my daughter.

The last of Benjamin Franklin’s advice

    I left off where Ben was talking about becoming a better person by degrees. He says those who wished to be happy in this world it was in their interest to be virtuous. He says the most important qualities in a young person are Probity (exact moral correctness) and Integrity.

Humility was one of the last qualities he added and he says the most difficult. To attempt at it he made a rule to forbear all direct contradiction to the sentiments of others and all positive assertions of his own. This one rule would be an enormous challenge for me since all who know me know I have many positive opinions. One of the laws of his Junto to forbid the use of every word or expression in the language that imported a fixed opinion. He left out certainty in his opinions and forbade contradicting others directly. He describes this as the modest way in which his opinions where to be presented. He attributes this habit to his the weight he had with his fellow citizens. As you read on you see where he was the person everyone deferred to when they had an important question or proposed change.

One interesting idea he had was for young men to form a virtuous party and he thought it should be called the society of the free and easy. Free from the dominion of vice, (using the 13 weeks model to develop virtuous character traits), and free from debt. He continues with "One man of tolerable abilities may work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind if he first forms a good plan, and cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, makes the execution of that same plan his sole study and business. These ideas were published in the "Poor Richard's Almanac" which sold so many copies he made considerable profit. I think this is similar to Glenn Beck's 912 project based on 12 principles and 9 values. I think it is a great idea to hold our public officio accountable to something other than negative advertising. Benjamin Franklin used his newspaper to teach values that he first tried out in his Junto (club for mutual improvement). One of them is that a vicious man could not properly be called a man of sense. He doesn't go into detail because I guess the article was in his paper but, basically the gist is that a vicious man lacks self control or what Ben calls the habitude of virtue.

The rest of the book talks a lot about his different offices and ways that he helped people. He had glass blower come in. He invented a better stove and street lamp. He helped with the war against the French and was commander of an army for a time. He found out that men are happy when working and quarrelsome when not. He prevents the hostile acquiring of wagons and instead helped pay for the use of the wagons. He predicted a disaster in one battle and tried to warn the general but to no avail and the disaster happened.

Benjamin Franklin was a man of common sense and he worked hard at becoming a better man by aspiring to virtue and education. His later life was instrumental in helping others be more educated and informed as well as providing financial support and advice to great ideas and improvements. If we were all a little more like Benjamin Franklin the world would be a better place. I am disgusted by the propaganda out in this world that focuses only on his faults. It is true that all men have faults and Benjamin Franklin admitted to his but, he tried to be better and do good in the world. Just think if we followed his advice or Glenn Becks advice and every 40 days try to improve something about ourselves. We would live in a better world were solving our problems would be easier. I am going to attempt to follow his advice and adopt a more humble form of communication and not directly contradict someone. How about You?