Usually, parables provide a type or representation of things as they are. But in the case of the Parable of the Backwards Lesson, I set out to illustrate the opposite of the truth.
The teacher in this parable seems naïve at best and incompetent, unfit, at worst. Does she know anything about kids or about learning? What’s she doing in the classroom?
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If you live in a house or apartment with multiple rooms, have you ever gone into a room and forgot why you went there? If I were a betting man, I would wager it has happened.
Not only is this an experience common to millions of people reaching back decades if not centuries, but it also typifies another experience, this one universal to humankind.
It has been said that death is like stepping from one room into another. Then why would birth not be the same? Many ask, “What happens after I die?” Couldn’t we complete the symmetry of our existence by asking, “What happened before I was born? Where did I come from?”
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Because we place importance on keeping commandments and covenants, Latter-day Saints have been accused of believing in salvation by works. Do we really believe in earning our way to heaven?
No. We believe that we must become qualified for eternal life, for what the Father has in store, and Jesus’s grace is vital in that process.
The difference between earning and qualifying is the difference between, say, wages and promotions. Earning is based on time served, on merit, on what one deserves. That sounds like justice, which is what will condemn us at the Judgment—unless mercy intervenes. Qualification is about development, about what a person has gained in knowledge, attributes, and capability.
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Sometimes, each for individual reasons, disciples of Christ can become lost. We may become estranged from God, turning our backs on Him and running out into the night, as it were.
As if we could find a better offer out there.
But other times, we don’t get completely lost like that. Just a little lost—stepping off the path to explore other options a mite. Just in case we can pick up a few things to take with us back to the strait and narrow. And maybe we aren’t so quick to get back on the path. Maybe we try to walk in the same general direction as the strait and narrow but meander and take our time.
Continue readingBy David Armstrong, who writes weekly about prayer at Ere You Left Your Room This Morning
In her talk, “Come Unto Christ and Don’t Come Alone,” in October 2021 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sister Bonnie H. Cordon said: “Nothing is too big or too small for Jesus Christ to heal.”
My life contains many large wounds and scars that need Christ’s healing touch. Although I may conceal them from the world and even from close associates, I know they are there, and I long for the day of the Lord when he will heal them.
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The Weekly Parable 