"Stories on the Sabbath" - Education Week Tidbits

Two weeks ago I was able to attend BYU Education Week.  What an incredible experience that was for me.  I took my little I-pad and wrote down things that impressed me.  Here are some notes from classes that were highlights for me.

Brent L. Top gave a class entitled, "What is this thing called death? Teachings about the Spirit World."  I just saw at Deseret Book that he is releasing a new book with the same title.

Knowledge about dying teaches us about living!

"Let death be daily before your eyes, and you will never entertain any abject thought nor too eagerly covet anything.". -- Epicetus

Brother Top gave us FOUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES:  About Living to Die

1. THINGS WONT CHANGE TOO MUCH - We leave this world with the same degree of intelligence that we have in this life.  In theMTC- some missionaries think that the minute they walk into the MTC that they will be changed. Just like any calling that we have, we bring with us what and who we are. 

 "Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world." (Alma 34:33-34)

Hebert C. Kimball said:
"If men and women do not become sanctified here......they will have to learn in spirit."

2.  WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
We shall have a perfect knowledge of our actions good or bad, and our guilt if we haven't repented.  A person who had a near death experience recorded how she felt when she saw the faces of those that she had affected whether good or bad.  She saw her first grade class and even smelled the cleaner the janitor used.  She had been made fun of, and she saw the face of her teacher and saw how it had affected the teacher when she had been hurt by others.  She said that she had a bright recollection of her guilt and her happiness.  She also said that she saw everything that had ever happened in her life and every one in the room also knew it.

"For verily the voice of the Lord is unto all men, and there is none to escape; and there is no eye that shall not see, neither ear that shall not hear, neither heart that shall not be penetrated. 3 And the rebellious shall be pierced with much sorrow; for their iniquities shall be spoken upon the housetops, and their secret acts shall be revealed.  (D&C 1:2-3)

WHAT WILL MY VIDEO LOOK LIKE? 
Brother Top talked about what it would be like when we are judged. 

"Then if our hearts have been hardened, yea, if we have hardened our hearts against the word, insomuch that it has not been found in us, then will our state be awful, for then we shall be condemned.  For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condemn us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence."  (Alma 12:13-14)

He said that he had always envisioned the day of judgement as watching a MOVIE of our lives.  If we don't repent, our words, and works will condemn us and we will all sit watching our own movie with everyone else watching it too.  Then he said he was greatful for the gift of repentance.  But how would that work with the movie?  Maybe as we are watching the movie of our lives and we come to a place that we had repented, that all of sudden the screen would go black and everyone would all sit there in silence wondering what horrible thing we had done during that time.  Then he commented that with the digital editing expertise we now have, that he thought that the black would be edited out and that you might not even notice where the movie had been spliced back together.  But then he shook his head and said, "No, it won't even be like that."

Now this is the part that hit me really strong!  He said, "You see Repentance is not just about changing WHAT we did, but WHO we become. Repentance actually changes me and you.  We will not just have our video spliced and edited.... But because of the Atonement...we will GET A NEW MOVIE...because we are a new person in Christ!  I am a new person, a different person.  Those things I have repented of are remembered no more!  Our omniscient God sees the new person, not the old."  Wow - that is so awesome.  It hit me so hard that tears trickled down my cheeks.

 ALLOWS US TO GET A NEW MOVIE!






3.  SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF
D&C - 64:33 - "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  And out of small things... proceedeth that which is great."

A very bad man who had a near death experience said he saw one night of his past life.  "There was one moment that was redeeming for me..I got to see my younger sister who had a bad night and I went into her bedroom and just put my arms around her and comforted her."  It turned out that that one small act was the most glorifying thing he had done in his life.

4.  DON'T CHASE SHADOWS
"Do not follow (after a priority or) a practice that will bring you later regret...you may find that you have lost the substance while grasping at the shadow.  Seek for the real thing, not the artificial.
Seek for the eternal things of God, not for that which is here today and gone tomorrow."
                      -- Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley 388, 494

On September 11th as the twin towers were collapsing, the last phone calls from people who were dying were made to family members, telling them how much they loved them.  We need to ask ourselves, "What am I spending my time doing?  Is it something that helps me to prepare for eternity?"

What really is of substance that we should be working towards?
1.  Love
2.  Family

Family is substance not shadows!  The angels that are allowed to minister to us are our family!
We as family members would do anything for our wayward children, even if it meant going onto the spirit world to do that.  So why don't we realize that our loved ones who have gone on before us can do the same thing for us!