I am the kind of guy who enjoys to ramble (You'll hopefully notice that the word 'ramble' is cleverly hidden in the web address of this here blog). Get me started on a subject I love to talk about, and I'll ramble for hours. A prime example of that: Teasing. I'm an expert teaser; just ask my younger sisters. I am able to easily find people's 'pressure points' and 'buttons'...and I have, over the years, developed the dark art of being able to exploit those pressure points and push those buttons. I am pretty adept at teasing, and sometimes it can cause quite the trouble.
Take, for instance, a particular time at home when I was with my family. We were playing a board game, and I began teasing one of my sisters. As a result of my doing this, she didn't speak to me for some time...which is never a good thing.
This willingness to cause contention and dissension amongst my siblings is a major fault of mine, and although I have certainly worked hard at and become better about not teasing my sisters every chance I get, I still have a VERY long way to go.
In conjunction with that, I'd like to submit 3 Nephi 18:34, a scripture we read that occurs during the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry among a tribe of peoples here on the American continent:
"And I give you these commandments because of the disputations which have been among you. And blessed are ye if ye have no disputations among you."
The longer I think about this scripture, the more and more I realize that I have SO MUCH WORK to do in this particular area. Like I've said before, I have a slight - and by slight, I mean a little-bit-more-than-slight - tendency to tease...it's a weakness of mine.
And yet, as I say that, I am reminded of another scripture that is oft-quoted in LDS culture:
"And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I [the Lord] give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them" (Ether 12:27).
We are all mortals. We're all imperfect. We all make mistakes. We all have weakness. One of my many weakness is teasing my younger sisters.
And yet, for a weakness such as that, God extends His hand towards me, and beckons me to recognize my own faults and come unto Him.
Our human tendencies, our faults and frailties, all cause 'disputations' among us. Anger and hatred, wars and violence, slurs and slandering, mocking and backbiting - all of these ruin the spirit of brotherhood that should dwell among us. All of these bar us from coming closer to the Spirit of God that strives to speak to us every second of every day.
I personally challenge myself to give up my excessive teasing habits, and I challenge each and every one of you to find that weakness that seems to give you and those around you grief, and then DO something about it. Turn it into something good and useful, or abandon it completely; whatever is necessary to make that change in your life, I wholeheartedly plead with you to do it.
The great thing about this process: It's never-ending. At first that might sound a little disheartening and gloomy - "Sam, you're saying that we have so much weakness that we'll never be free of it!"
In essence, I am saying that, to a certain degree. In mortality we will constantly be plagued by weakness, every one of us. It is the natural condition of mankind. And yet, we still have a Savior who is constantly beside us as well; the very God of the universe beckons us to release whatever weakness we may be struggling with at that time into His care. He invites us to carry His load, and to become like Him.
For all the weaknesses we have, we should now realize that they offer opportunities to come even closer to our Savior! We must approach Him and plead with Him to take them! Our weaknesses force us to bring ourselves to the mercy seat of the Lord! They give us the chances we need to be humble and come within the presence of the Creator of worlds without end!
Let us all release our weaknesses. Let us all fight against their effects and become better. Let us all bring an end to the disputations amongst ourselves, and let us all come unto Him. It will take time and effort, but we are given an endless supply of chances to do so. We may fall, we may 'slip on the sidewalks', to quote a previous post, but we always have the opportunity to pick ourselves back up and, through the grace and mercy of our Savior, remove those weaknesses in our personal and public lives. :)
May God be with you till we meet again, my friends.
Sam
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