So I may have been labeled the rebellious child of the Institute Council, but you only get to have more fun that way. Civil Disobedience is not about that at all however, it is more about active non-violence and using it to teach others. Arun Ghandi came and spoke to BYU and gave an amazing talk about the power of active non-violence. For those of you against physical enforcement of the rules this is one of the greatest stories I have ever heard.
When Arun was a boy They never got to just go into town as it was several miles away. He had an opportunity one Saturday to go into town with his father. The car needed servicing and mother had some errands for him to run, but the rest of the day was his. He dropped his father off ran the errands and left the car to be fixed and went to the movie. He lost track of the time and was an hour late to pick his father up from the conference. his father asked him why he was late. He decided to lie and tell his father that it was because the car was delayed at the shop not realizing that his father had already called the shop to see why it was taking so long. Upon hearing this his father said, "There is something wrong with the way that I raised you so that you did not have the confidence in me to tell me the truth. I am going to walk home and think about what I have done wrong to fail you." Arun could not dissuade his father and followed behind in the car for five and a half hours thinking about what he had done for the 18 mile trek home. "I vowed that day never to lie again," said Arun.
That is the power of a righteous example. We have been taught by Master teachers every time we read the scriptures, or listen to conference, or say our prayers and how does our Father in Heaven feel, for surely if we understood we would not do all of the things that we do. if we were to comprehend his great love for us we would think twice before saying or doing certain things or going certain places. We must choose to act in accordance with the knowledge that we have.
If this had a like button. I would like it. I've been thinking a lot recently why do people do what they do? Why do they let their marriages go downhill? Why do people say "I use to love them, but now I can't." I think when we choose to have His will first, we choose humility, and when we choose humility, everything changes.
ReplyDeleteWhen we stop being a victim and take responsibility for someone else's actions that we may have influenced then we become more like Christ. Why did he honk at me? I didn't do anything wrong, is much different than I am sorry that I offended that person by getting closer than they were comfortable with. We are no longer powerful when we are victims. We become Laman and Lemuel's when we take the victim stance. We only have the power to change the coarse of our lives when we take the Lehi/Nephi approach and realize our limitations and accept that we are not perfect and that we very well could have made a mistake that facilitated someone else suffering. Then we would do well to heal any other wounds that we may find while we are with that person. Christ would heal our wounds, the wounds that He in no way inflicted, but still paid for.
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