Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Kings 2–7 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jul 07, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Kings 2–7 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 06, 2026
Faith to Ask; Faith to Accept
by Autumn Dickson
One of our people from this week’s readings is Elisha. He is the prophet who was called after Elijah. We don’t get many of his words or sermons, but we do get to read about many miracles. One of those miracles includes a Shunammite woman who took care of Elisha.
The Shunammite woman recognized Elisha as a man of God despite the fact that she lived in an idolatrous nation. Elisha and the prophet before him, Elijah, both worked to address the sins of the northern kingdom of Israel, but it only went so far. Widespread problems still occurred. Yet despite the widespread sin, the Shunammite woman chose faithfulness.
She constrained Elisha to come in and eat one day. After that first time, he came in to eat as often as he passed by. The Shunammite woman takes it farther and convinces her husband to make up a room for Elisha, and Elisha stays for them some time. Because of her kindness, Elisha prophesies that she will have a son. The son later dies from a tragic reaping accident, and the Shunammite woman goes to see Elijah.
2 Kings 4:22-23
22 And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.
23 And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.
Her son has died, and she wants to go to the prophet. Her husband asks, “Why are you going to the prophet? It’s not a religious day.” She simply responds, “It will be okay.”
She moves quickly to find Elisha and finds him at Mt. Carmel. Elisha sees her coming and sends his servant to meet her.
2 Kings 4:26 Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
I want to draw your attention to two details that speak volumes for this woman and teach us valuable lessons about approaching prayer.
Detail one. Her husband didn’t make the connection between the death of his son and his wife’s desire to go and see the prophet. This implies that it didn’t even cross the husband’s mind to ask the prophet for a miracle. It occurred to the wife though.
How often do we pray for miracles? What is our mindset towards miracles? When something tragic happens, does it even occur to us that we can ask for a miracle? Maybe we believe in miracles, but maybe we don’t even think to ask for them. It makes me think of the quote from Elder Holland, “God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.”
It certainly didn’t occur to the husband to dream and ask the prophet to bring back his son. This isn’t a pronouncement of judgment on the husband, but it does reflect the strong faith of the wife. She had enough faith to dream up something miraculous in response to the tragedy. When her son died, she went for the prophet to ask for help.
As I look back on my life, I think I got the concept of faith wrong sometimes. When something tragic would hit, I would often despair and think God was mad at me or I would try to press myself into faithfulness and acceptance of whatever the Lord was sending my way. Perhaps tragedy was the Lord’s way of softening my heart sometimes, and it is always the appropriate response to accept what the Lord sends your way.
But faith isn’t just about accepting. Sometimes the Lord sends tragedies (or allows tragedies) because He wants to bless us directly. It draws us to Him. He wants us to have enough faith that we feel comfortable approaching Him in humility. There is power in humbly approaching the Lord. You see His hand when you’ve asked Him for it.
My husband is super handy. I’m convinced he can fix anything, and apparently, my kids are likewise convinced. Whenever they break something that matters to them, it is placed on dad’s desk. And he does fix it. Conner often fixes it.
One time, near the end of a pregnancy, we were all gathered in the kitchen. I turned to my husband and said, “I think my water just broke.” I didn’t realize my oldest was even listening, but she didn’t miss a beat. Before my husband could respond to this life-altering detail, my daughter called out, “It’s okay mom! Dad can fix it!”
We all laughed pretty hard, but as I write this particular post, I actually find myself in tears. My kids trust their dad. They have faith in his abilities to fix things. They have so much faith that my daughter’s immediate response to the word “broke” is to call for her dad’s help. I hope that I can keep building my faith until my response is that immediate.
What tragedy or uncertainty are you facing right now? What miracle can you pray for? What’s your happy “ending” for this particular episode in your life? Have you prayed for it?
Perhaps sometimes we simply forget to ask for a miracle, and other times, perhaps we’re simply afraid the answer will be no. The second detail I want to point out can likewise help with this.
Detail two. She responds with, “It is well.”
The Shunammite woman, in the face of horrifying tragedy, responds, “It is well,” two times. When her husband asks and when Elisha asks, that is how she chooses to respond. Her son had just died but when asked if everything is okay, she says, “It’s okay.”
I don’t think the woman was trying to downplay the tragedy. I don’t think this is one of those quintessential stories where you ask someone if they’re okay, and they sigh really big and say, “It’s fine,” when it’s anything but. I believe the wife was declaring trust in the Lord.
I believe she was saying, “It’s going to be okay. I can ask the prophet to save my son, but if not, it will still be okay.”
As I mentioned before, maybe it’s hard to ask for a miracle when you’re scared of a “no.” When Elisha tells the wife that she is going to have a son, she responds with, “Please don’t lie to your handmaid.” This could signal a lack of faith, but the fact she calls herself his handmaid is significant. She is calling herself his servant. She is saying “I serve you. Please don’t lie to me if this isn’t a real thing, but I’m your servant.”
So even the Shunammite woman was afraid to ask at some point. However, turning to the Lord, even when He is going to say “no,” can still be a cathartic experience if we approach it with the right heart. Demanding a miracle sets us up for failure because the Lord won’t take away every hardship.
But turning to the Lord with a specific type of heart will always bless us. We find this type of heart in the Shunammite woman. Her heart trusted in the Lord’s ability to fix things, but she also declared that it would be fine if He chose not to. She would trust Him. We talked about the blessing of the first detail, but the second detail can be just as important.
When the Lord says no, we’re willing to say “okay.” This faith enables Him to bless us even when He won’t fix things. It is this humble, trusting attitude that allows Him to comfort our hearts with the life-altering facts that we have a powerful God who orients His every action towards giving us what’s best for us. We trust that He can fix anything. We trust that He loves us. We trust that if He chooses not to fix something, He’s got a good reason and all things will be made up to us. Even when He has told me no, I have found special comfort when I’ve responded with, “Okay.”
I testify that prayer is healing. I testify that it brings great blessings into our lives. Building that childlike faith that the Lord can fix anything is powerful in our life. It brings joy and hope. Building that faith even farther brings a mature faith that withstands even the hardest of tragedies on earth. It is the kind of faith that will carry us. It is the kind of faith that can’t be brought down because it leads one to trust that He will fix it, even if it’s not immediately. I testify that He can and will fix everything. Trusting Him soothes and carries us in the meantime.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Kings 12–13; 17–22 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 03, 2026
Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel
by Autumn Dickson
Do you ever feel like you’re desperately scraping at an empty barrel? Maybe it’s with physical resources to take care of your family, or maybe you feel emotionally or spiritually drained.
Well this week holds a story that can give us the key to finding peace with our barrel.
There is a huge famine in the land, and the Lord is providing for the prophet, Elijah. Elijah is living by a stream and getting water from it, and some birds are feeding him. When the stream dries up, Elijah is instructed by the Lord to go to Zarephath where a widow will take care of him.
When he gets to Zarephath, he finds the widow. He requests water and a piece of bread. Here is where our story continues.
1 Kings 17:12-14
12 And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
Elijah requests bread. The widow said she only has enough for her and her son before they die. Elijah tells her to get him some bread anyway and promises that if she does, she will have enough flour and oil until it rains again.
HERE IS WHY I LOVE THIS STORY AND WISH IT WERE ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS STORIES IN THE BIBLE: There is always enough in the barrel.
The widow of Zarephath chose to feed the prophet, and his promise was fulfilled. She had enough food for her and her son, and that food continued on. Absolutely incredible.
But. What did the miracle look like?
When the widow of Zarephath woke up in the morning and she lifted up the lid on her barrel, how much flour was there? Was the entire thing full? Did it always remain full? Did it empty over time and then one morning, she would awake to a full barrel again? Or…did it always stay almost empty?
Was there always a slight tinge of fear that one morning, it would simply be gone? Every night when she used up the “last” of the flour, did it prick at heart and push her to pray for another day? How long did it take for her to trust the miracle?
I’m going to highlight it again: There will always be enough in the barrel.
But even more than always giving enough, the Lord is trying to teach us something important.
I don’t know how the Lord continued the miracle of flour, but I would feel pretty comfortable guessing that it was the last option. The barrel always had just enough. If we’re going off of the Lord’s past patterns in almost everything (not just physical and monetary resources but spiritually and emotionally), we see very clearly that the Lord likes to give us just enough.
Here is my theory as to why I think the Lord chose the last option: that there was always just enough flour left.
Let’s say the Lord filled up the barrel and kept it perpetually full. There is not as much need, and therefore, there is not as much reliance upon the Lord. The widow always had plenty of flour. This is awesome, but there is an option that actually gives the widow more than just flour.
Let’s say the Lord filled up the barrel, let it empty, and then filled it up again. I don’t know how big her barrel was, but let’s say it took a week for her to empty the barrel. Once a week, the widow would go to bed with a prayer in heart that there would be more tomorrow.
And then my personal theory: The Lord only ever gave the widow just enough. Every single time the widow opened the barrel, she was praying that there was enough. She had so much more need which meant there was more opportunity to rely on the Lord and learn to trust Him. There were way more opportunities to build trust, and so the widow had flour AND she gained trust.
Some might argue it was cruel of a loving Father to not give her more flour and more security and confidence. I think the gift of trusting Him is one of the greatest gifts He can offer, and He’s very limited in how He is able to build that trust. Hence, the withheld flour.
So how does this relate to us?
If He’s withholding flour, it’s not because He wants to torture you. It’s because He wants a relationship with you. He wants you to trust Him, and giving you these repeated exposures builds trust even if it’s stressful until you figure out that He’s going to show up.
So the solution? Trust! Trust that there will be enough.
Perhaps the widow even had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to make sure there was enough, but the simple fact remained true: there was enough. Even if you’re only ever receiving enough for your needs, your barrel might as well be overflowing because the Lord’s resources are infinite. You don’t have to worry about that part. The part you should really start to work on is trusting Him.
Because even with a full barrel, there is never true security in this world. Everything could blow up tomorrow. But if you put your trust in the Lord instead of a full barrel, you never feel empty. In fact, I don’t think scraping the barrel is the stressful part. I think worrying about whether you’ll have enough is the stressful part. The real part that is killing you right now is not the physical motion of scraping the barrel; it’s being terrified that there won’t be enough tomorrow. If you can release that fear, the barrel will no longer feel tortuous. You’ll see the miracle as it is. You will see infinite resources.
If you can learn to trust, you won’t feel empty. You will rejoice and trust in His infinite resources. You will feel confident as His heir. Your barrel will feel full.
Every night, as you go to sleep, switch your thinking. Don’t ask yourself, “Will there be enough tomorrow?” Instead, recount the many times there has always been enough. You will find that the worries begin to disappear on their own.
The widow of Zarephath is one of my favorite stories because it teaches me that I don’t have to be scared about what’s in my barrel. I can look at my barrel and see the emptiness, or I can look up and see His infinite flour. Just because He’s only giving me a scoop at a time doesn’t mean I have nothing. It means I get as much flour as I need AND it means that I get to look up at Him everyday. I testify with all of my heart that there is enough for you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Kings 12–13; 17–22 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jun 30, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Kings 12–13; 17–22 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 30, 2026
The Deadly Lie of the Old Prophet
by Autumn Dickson
There are major themes throughout the stories we read in the Old Testament. Some of the more negative themes are idolatry, fear over losing power, disobedience, and corrupting influences. The Old Testament does not shy away from showing the fallibility of humankind. There is great hope in faithful stories in the scriptures; there are also important warnings in the stories of people who were not obedient to the Lord.
One of the stories we read this week shows themes of obedience and disobedience. We see people who have a connection to God and follow Him, but we also watch them choose against God and find themselves in deep water because of it.
There are a lot of details for our story in this post, but stick with me. They are important because they set the stage for our principle.
In 1 Kings 13, we read about a man of God and an old prophet. Those are the only “names” we receive for these men, and these titles can get confusing especially when you’re reading the details of the story. Though they were labeled as a man of God and an old prophet, we see their fallibility on full display.
For some quick background, Israel has split into two kingdoms: Judah and Benjamin in the south and the rest of the ten tribes in the north. The man of God was from Judah where the true temple was. The northern kingdom had fallen into idolatry. The man of God was commanded to go to Bethel (in the northern kingdom) and condemn the idolatrous practice. He does so and performs a couple of wonderful miracles as well.
The Lord warns and commands the man of God to not eat or drink in Bethel. The man of God originally follows this command very well as he works to return to Judah. Unfortunately, another man, the old prophet, comes along and finds the man of God resting under the shade of a tree. The old prophet offers the man of God some food and drink, and the man of God refuses. The old prophet says this.
1 Kings 13:18 He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him.
The man of God listens to the old prophet and partakes in food and drink. While the man of God eats, the old prophet tells him that he won’t make it home because of his disobedience. On the way home, the man of God is killed by a lion. The old prophet collects the body, gives the man of God an honorable burial, and requests to be buried next to the man of God when he dies. The old prophet calls the man of God a brother. He testifies that the prophecy made by the man of God earlier regarding the idolatrous altar in Bethel will come true.
There are a lot of confusing details. I don’t know if this was one of those parts of the bible that was translated incorrectly or whether it’s simply highlighting the fallibility of real people who sometimes follow the Lord.
Who was the old prophet? Was he an actual prophet to the Lord? He was in the idolatrous kingdom so when they called him a prophet, was he a false prophet? Was he trying to tear down the man of God for prophesying against the northern kingdom? We know that the old prophet received some revelation from the Lord. He prophesied of the death of the man of God, and he testified of the prophecy given by the man of God. So why did he lie? Was he threatened by the man of God or did he see no harm in his white lie? Was he trying to just nourish the man of God? Was he wicked but then received a testimony while he watched the man of God come and eat?
There is a lot of ambiguity. Oftentimes, I’ll try to take one biblical theory and talk about true principles from it regardless of whether the details are perfect. This time, I’m going to embrace the ambiguity.
The man of God listened to the old prophet and found himself dead because of it.
I’ve seen a pattern on social media. This is a pattern that has existed for a long time, but I’ve seen it more readily because of its prevalence on social media.
On social media (and in real life), we find people who are disgusted by the church. They hate it. They actively fight against it. Their entire online persona can be defined by, “I hate the church.”
But there is another group of people. They claim to be part of the church, to receive revelation, and to love the Lord. Some of their posts are uplifting and encouraging, but some of their posts teach things that can be found in direct conflict with the Lord’s commandments. Some of their posts might not necessarily be in direct conflict, but they are critical of the church in the name of their love for the Lord.
These people are much more ambiguous. What are their true motives? What does it mean that they call themselves members? Because heaven knows you can call yourself a member without actually following Christ.
I don’t have any real desire to discover their motives. If they are sincere, the Lord will work with them and hopefully they will listen. If they are not sincere, then the Lord can handle all of that. I don’t need to know their motives or even condemn them.
Rather, I’d like to highlight a warning from this story. The man of God died because he followed the ambiguous old prophet who had some claim to God but also lied.
I don’t think we’ll get killed by a lion if we follow these accounts, but I do think it can spiritually deaden us. It can blind us.
Isn’t that funny? The rest of the world would call us blind and accuse us of drinking the Kool-aid, and yet, either side could be logically labelled as propaganda. Both sides label themselves enlightened. Everyone thinks their version is the closest one to the truth.
So how do we know whether we can trust the old prophet? How do we know whether we should whole-heartedly follow the prophet of our church?
I can’t answer that question for everyone. All I know is that I talk to the Lord, and He responds. I can’t answer for other people, but the more I study the gospel and the church, the more I see the Lord’s perfect hand working with the imperfection of mankind. I have watched some of my loved ones listen to these posts and believe they can disobey the Lord in little ways and be fine, and I have watched some of my loved ones turn these voices off. With the experiences that I’ve had in the gospel, I have no desire to follow anyone (real or on the internet) who tells me that I can disobey the Lord. It’s not just about avoiding dying either. I have found too much joy in the protection and safety of the Lord, and I refuse to lose that joy.
I testify that being obedient to the Lord provides safety and warmth and true happiness. I testify that even in the darkest times, following Him is where we will find respite. I testify that He teaches us through powerful stories in the scriptures, and that His patterns reflect across all generations on the earth. I testify that there is safety in joy in following the word of the Lord as given from Him directly.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Samuel 11–12; 1 Kings 3; 6–9; 11 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 26, 2026
Solomon’s Sword and Crazy Plans
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we get to learn a bit about Solomon’s reign. Solomon was known for his wisdom, a spiritual gift that was the direct result of a request he made as he was ascending the throne. The story of the two women and the baby is well-known and highlights this wisdom.
In the last post, we talked about how the Lord reflected Solomon’s heart back to him when the Lord offered to answer a prayer for Solomon. This week, we get to read about Solomon imitating the Lord in the story with the two women.
Here is a refresher on the story with the two women and the baby.
Two women lived in the same home. They both had babies. One woman accidentally laid on top of her child and killed the child. She snuck into the room of the other woman and switched the babies. The second woman woke up to the dead child and realized he wasn’t hers. They took their case to King Solomon. This is how King Solomon responded.
1 Kings 3:24-25
24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.
25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.
The lying woman wanted the child cut in half. The true mother offered to let the other woman have the son; she just wanted him to be alive. Solomon obviously gave the baby to the woman who wanted to protect the baby at all costs.
Now, I want you to imagine being the true mother of the child who found herself in this nightmare through no fault of her own.
I don’t know exactly what she was feeling, but I think my response to this wild suggestion from the king would be this: “What?! I thought this guy was wise! Why would he do this? Is he crazy?”
I think this is sometimes how we react when the Lord makes decisions in our lives as well.
Sometimes the Lord sends or allows trials to happen in our lives. Sometimes we respond with, “What?! I thought the Lord was wise! Why would He do this?”
Throughout my life, and especially while working through sharing my testimony online, I have received this testimony over and over and over: The Lord loves me and works very carefully as He makes decisions to interfere in my life. He is wise! He knows what He’s doing! I know this testimony. I believe it. I find a lot of comfort in it.
And yet, even though I already had a testimony of this fact, I’ve found that there were limits to this testimony that needed to be expanded. When certain events have cropped up in my life, such as getting pregnant three months after having a baby, I have tried to trust in that growing testimony that the Lord loves me and is trying to give me the best of what mortality actually has to offer. Despite my desire to trust that He was trying to do what was best for me, I simply felt scared and betrayed and powerless.
I’m sure that woman was terrified when Solomon made the crazy suggestion to cut the baby in half. He was a king, and she was a harlot. I’m sure she knew what it meant to feel powerless and to have someone making decisions regardless of what was best for her.
And yet, Solomon wasn’t trying to torture her. He had very specific purposes. He was not rash or ridiculous. He was intentional. He was a mortal man blessed with wisdom to discern what was going on in his kingdom. He “sent a trial,” and it revealed the hearts of the women he was judging.
The Lord already knows our hearts, but He still sends little tests in mortality. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that He isn’t testing our hearts for His own sake, but for our’s. We spoke about this in my last post as well: He reflects our own hearts back to us.
Solomon actually needed to see the reflection of the hearts of the women so he could judge well. He was wise, but he did not know these women perfectly. He needed a way of seeing their hearts.
The Lord’s purposes are slightly different, but His methods are similar. His purpose is showing us our own hearts. Sometimes that means sending or allowing trials that allow the deepest parts of our heart to go on display. It highlights the boundaries of what we truly know and feel and desire. It gives us opportunities to expand those boundaries.
Going back to my example of getting pregnant so quickly, I felt incredibly betrayed by God. I am so miserable when I’m pregnant, and now I was going to be in that dark state of mind for 18 months with very little reprieve (honestly, with no reprieve since my body and mind still hadn’t completely recovered in between babies). I thought I had a testimony that the Lord loved me, and I did. But apparently there were limits to that testimony. This specific experience showed me the boundaries of my own testimony. It brought my heart right up to the surface where I could look at it very clearly. I then had the opportunity to work through those experiences and expand those boundaries.
Despite the fact that this woman likely thought King Solomon was out of his mind, I would guess that she felt differently after the experience. Despite the initial fear and distress it caused her, she gained a testimony that Solomon acted with purpose. By the end of this, she knew that Solomon wasn’t crazy. He was trying to be a good king and make sure that baby went back to its rightful mother.
Surely, the experiment could have gone poorly. What if both mothers had pled for the life of the baby? Yes, it could have failed, but this story is a parable. Even if Solomon’s experiments fail, the Lord’s “experiments” never have to. Solomon was a mortal man. The Lord has much more to offer in the way of helping us discern the boundaries of the testimonies that will carry us and help us get where we need to go. The Lord also has the ultimate power of delivering what will be best for us. Even when He sends or allows dark times, He has the power to help those difficult times become sacred experiences.
I testify that the Lord loves us. I testify He knows what He’s doing. I testify that He already knows our hearts, but like Solomon, He sends and allows trials that bring our very essence up to the surface where it’s noticeable. We get to find the holes and limitations of our testimonies, and in turn, we can fill the holes and broaden the boundaries until we are fully protected and constantly uplifted by them.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Samuel 11–12; 1 Kings 3; 6–9; 11 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jun 23, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Samuel 11–12; 1 Kings 3; 6–9; 11 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 22, 2026
What Would You “Wish” For?
by Autumn Dickson
Solomon, David’s son, has become king. Very early on in his reign, Solomon has a dream in which the Lord appears to him.
1 Kings 3:5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
This is a really incredible experience as Solomon is stepping into his kingship; the Lord appears and offers to grant a prayer to Solomon. Solomon asks for wisdom and discernment in judging his people. The Lord is pleased with what Solomon asked for especially since Solomon could have asked for more selfish things such as riches, long life, or the defeat of his enemies. Solomon does none of this; he wants wisdom.
For a moment, I asked myself what I would ask for. It turned into quite the exercise as I pondered what I really wanted. Going through this experience taught me a couple of principles.
Principle one: No dream required.
I began thinking of all the things that would bless my life the most. I thought of a grateful heart, seeing people clearly, or or to see His hand moving in my life. I thought of spiritual protection for my kids. I tried to think of which spiritual gift would be the most effective for my own life.
It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t have to wait for a dream from the Lord in order to ask for things, and I didn’t have to pick just one gift. I could ask for all of them. That’s my first principle. The Lord answers prayers regardless of whether He came to us in a dream and agreed to answer a prayer. What would you ask for? What do you ask for? What will you ask for now?
Ironically, I haven’t prayed for any of those things in a long time. I don’t think my prayers have been bad by any means, but I thought so hard about what I really wanted from the Lord and realized that those values had gotten buried by the day-to-day.
Principle two. It is powerful to have your heart reflected back to you.
The normal pathway for prayers and answers goes like this: We are encouraged by prophets and scripture to pray to the Lord, and He answers according to His wisdom.
The pathway for Solomon in this specific experience: The Lord appears directly to Solomon and essentially offers a wish.
So here are the differences:
The Lord appears directly instead of going through a prophet.
He basically offers a wish which is highly unusual (at least in my experience).
The experience that Solomon had was very different than normal. Why? The Lord is intentional so why did He make this particular choice with Solomon? Both of these differences combined to make a special thing happen. Whether this was the Lord’s intentional purpose is a question that only He can answer. However, one of the side effects was that Solomon had his heart reflected back to him. Let’s talk about both differences.
Difference 1: He appeared directly.
The Lord does not often appear when we have sufficient for what we need. For example, He doesn’t always answer “yes” to everything we ask Him about; sometimes He simply refrains from saying “no.” In my experience, He directly interferes only as necessary. Obviously, He is very involved in our lives and manipulates the details in our favor. I’m talking about when His actions would affect our faith. So the Lord is taking care of me behind the scenes and influencing things to help me out, but He’s not appearing in a manner where I can have a very clear conversation with Him.
And there are reasons for this.
Later in life, Solomon turns towards worshiping other gods, influenced by his many foreign wives. I wonder how much more intense Solomon’s betrayal was because Solomon had this dream from the Lord directly. The Lord is very involved in our life, but He also keeps direct interference to a minimum in order to protect our faith.
And yet, despite the fact that the Lord could have allowed Solomon to simply pray without receiving a dream, the Lord chose to come to Solomon to ask and offer. This extremely direct experience opened up Solomon’s heart in a way that normal prayer doesn’t always achieve. Perhaps ideally, normal prayer would achieve this, but I’m not sure that it often does.
If the Lord came to you, I have a feeling you would be much more intentional in comparison to praying in faith. As least, I would be more intentional…and because it forces intention, you get to see what really matters to you. It reflects your heart back to you.
Difference 2: He offers a wish.
If you knew you had the opportunity to ask the Lord for something that He had offered to grant, it changes how you approach what you’re asking. The Lord has already offered to answer prayers, but this is different. He offers to directly answer one prayer. It’s almost like He offered to give Solomon a wish.
When I approach normal prayer, I am very open and talk through things and ask for little things. I’m not always perfectly focused. I ask for a lot of things. When I was thinking about what my request would have been, I suddenly got extremely intentional and this wasn’t even my experience! This didn’t even happen to me, but all of a sudden I was way more concerned about what I was asking for. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on what really mattered to me. What are my values? What do I really want?
It’s interesting because the Lord already knows our hearts. While mankind looks on the outside, the Lord looketh on the heart. So this wasn’t about the Lord trying to figure out Solomon’s heart. One of the effects was that Solomon was able to take a good look at his heart as he ascended the throne where he would have power and responsibility. Not only do we pray more intentionally, it also pushes us to live more intentionally.
How did Solomon feel when he approached that throne to govern his people? How did this experience change how he approached that throne?
I have not stepped onto a throne recently. I have not received a dream or a wish, but even my less-intense experience of pondering what I would ask for has changed my prayers. And in turn, as I pray for help with specific gifts, I’m more intentional as I approach experiences that call upon those gifts.
I testify that the Lord is intentional. I testify that He already knows our hearts. I testify that He is very involved in our lives and acts with purpose. If we can learn to act with purpose as He does, we start to change more readily. Our lives become much more available to Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26; 2 Samuel 5–7 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 18, 2026
David Fought Goliath Without Armor
by Autumn Dickson
In 1 Samuel 17, we read about one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament: David and Goliath. It’s an incredible story of faith that can teach us a lot about following Christ. The fact that David saved the Israelites was a big deal, but how he defeated Goliath is likewise significant. Let’s talk about a couple of those “hows.”
Goliath taunts the Israelites for 40 days. David comes forward and offers to battle Goliath. Saul agrees, and he even puts his own armor on David. It doesn’t go well…
1 Samuel 17:39 And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.
David tried on the armor and “assayed” to go. In other words, David had a hard time moving. David hasn’t “proved” the armor, or in other words, David has never trained with it. He doesn’t know how to fight like a soldier, only like a shepherd. So David takes his shepherd weapons, forgoes the armor, and goes on to defeat Goliath.
Let’s talk about how David defeated Goliath and what it teaches us.
Detail 1. He went up with nothing but faith in God; the armor specifically hindered him.
A couple posts ago, we talked about how Israel came to Samuel and wanted a king. One of the direct messages we pulled from that story was the fact that the Israelites were rejecting God by wanting a king. They had a King; they wanted a different king.
In 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites specifically requested a king because they wanted someone to go out before them in battle. Like other nations, they wanted a physical defender in front of them when they were at war. This is significant.
So now we’ve found ourselves in 1 Samuel 17, and the Israelites are facing the giant Philistines. Goliath goes out and taunts the Israelites for 40 days. And where is Saul? Definitely not out in front of the Israelites.
Samuel gave the Israelites their king, King Saul, and then what do you know…Saul doesn’t go out before them. No one saw that coming. Shocking, right?
When we originally read this story, it would be easy to think David was being an arrogant punk by refusing the armor. Earlier on in the chapter, Eliab (David’s oldest brother) gets annoyed with David and accuses him of pride. But this isn’t about pride (even if David possessed some of that). This is about the fact that once again, the Lord was saying, “Hey Israel! I will go before you, not some mortal king!”
David didn’t just outright refuse the armor. He put it on, and it weighed him down. David was better off without man’s attempts to fight off Israel’s enemies.
The principle is NOT this: Don’t use anything manmade or you’re faithless. Refuse medicine. Refuse gear. The Lord will protect you if you have enough faith.
That is not the principle here. Sometimes having faith is understanding that the Lord inspired man to build tools.
However, for THIS specific example, it is important that David went without armor that weighed him down. The fact that David went without armor in this specific scenario can teach us the true principle: relying on man over God hurts us. It doesn’t help us. This is not every scenario. This is a very specific scenario in which the Lord was very clearly telling the Israelites that He was their King and Defender. The Lord didn’t want any confusion about why David won against Goliath. This detail is poignant with the backdrop of the Israelites rejecting God and choosing Saul. They didn’t want God’s protection; they wanted man’s. David and his lack of armor was God’s response.
Using tools is not wrong, but relying on tools over God is wrong. The armor in this story represents the same thing King Saul represented: insufficient protection from man. King Saul did not help the Israelites. The refused armor would have prevented David from defeating Goliath.
Detail 2. David showed up after Goliath had taunted the Israelites for 40 days.
So maybe the fact that David showed up after 40 days doesn’t necessarily seem like one of the “hows” of David defeating Goliath, but in my unqualified opinion, it is.
Gospel according to Autumn teaches this: If David had come sooner, he wouldn’t have been able to defeat Goliath because the Israelites wouldn’t have let him battle Goliath at all.
The number “40” is significant. It is used to describe a period of testing and trial. Christ fasted for forty days. It rained and flooded the earth for forty days. The Israelites wandered the wilderness for forty years.
Did Goliath truly taunt them for 40 days exactly or was this the Lord’s way of describing a full cycle of testing for the Israelites? Does the 40 really mean 40 or does it teach us that the Israelites had finally reached a point of desperation and were willing to utilize a young boy to fight Goliath?
Regardless of whether it was exactly 40 days of taunting, the lesson for us is clear: the Lord allows us to go through a period of testing until we finally reach the point where we are willing to rely on Him alone.
Have you ever reached that point in a trial where you’re like, “Hey Lord, if you could show up right now, I would really appreciate it! I’m dying down here!” And then He waits even longer before showing up? Perhaps it’s not forty days for forty months or forty years. Maybe it’s just the right amount of time for your testing period. Maybe it’s the right amount of days for us to finally reach a point where we are ready to rely on Christ alone and then recognize His hand when we come out on the other side.
That second part is just as important. If the Lord doesn’t allow us to wait for the full period, we might attribute our success to something else like our own fortitude. Allowing us to wait until we feel really lost serves the unique purpose of forcing us to realize that He was the only thing that could have saved us.
Would the Israelites have let David try his hand against Goliath if they hadn’t waited their full “forty” days? Honestly, I have no idea. What I do know is this: They got desperate enough to let him try and when he succeeded, all heaven broke loose and they cheered and ran against the Philistines at the same time. Their faith had been bolstered, and for a small moment, they recognized who was standing at their side.
I testify of a Lord who teaches us about Him in incredible detail in these stories. I testify that we start to see patterns as we study these details in the scriptures. More and more and more layers come out and teach us and refine us and help us invite Christ into our lives more fully. I’m so grateful the Lord has taken me on this journey to teach me these lessons in the scriptures. I testify that Come Follow Me can change your life if you use it, and I testify that Come Follow Me can change your life because it can teach you about Christ.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26; 2 Samuel 5–7 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jun 16, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 17–18; 24–26; 2 Samuel 5–7 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 15, 2026
Correction Without Condemnation
by Autumn Dickson
David is one of our center characters this week as he rises to the throne and protects Israel. There are a lot famous stories this week, including the famous story of David and Goliath. However, I want to talk about a lesser studied portion of the Old Testament. It’s a relatively tiny detail, but it can teach us a lot.
David has conquered Jerusalem and brought the Ark of the Covenant there. After all the celebration, David is sitting in his palace and it occurs to him that the Lord doesn’t have a proper place of worship. David is living in a house of cedar, but the Lord only has a tent. David feels a desire to correct this and approaches Nathan about it. Nathan approves and tells David to do what his heart desires; the Lord is with him. Later on, the Lord corrects Nathan.
2 Samuel 7:12-13
12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
So interestingly enough, the Lord disagreed. That night, the Lord sends a revelation to Nathan. David will not build the temple; his son will. David is associated with war, and the Lord approved much of that conquest. However, from a symbolic and theological standpoint, the temple is associated with peace and rest. Solomon’s reign was associated with rest, and so he was the one to build the temple. Nathan passes the message on to David, and David accepts this answer from the Lord.
Perhaps this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in comparison to other scripture that we’re reading this week, but that’s actually partially my point. Making a decision all on your own and then being corrected by the Lord doesn’t have to be that big of a deal. Let’s delve in a tad deeper.
Sometimes we get really caught up in making sure we’re following the Lord. The problem isn’t wanting to follow the Lord; the problem comes when we make it a problem.
There are two fears that we can often run into in regards to revelation:
Fear one. We don’t want to do wrong by the Lord and get in trouble.
I’m not 100% where this fear comes from…probably Satan? The Lord tells us over and over and over that He loves us and wants us to try and act. Yet despite His assurances, we get nervous about doing things wrong.
As far as I can tell, the Lord wasn’t angry with David or Nathan for getting excited about building a house for Him. I would be shocked if the Lord was anything less than beaming over two of His sons trying to worship Him. That didn’t mean it was the right direction, but the Lord wasn’t mad about it.
The Lord wants us to act and move forward and do good things of our own free will. He will course correct as necessary. Which leads me to my next point.
Fear two. Even if the Lord isn’t angry, we don’t want to end up in the wrong direction.
We’re often afraid to move forward without the explicit green light from the Lord. We don’t want to take the wrong steps.
When we were looking to get a house, I was really worried about making the wrong decision. I was praying about it and praying about it and praying about it. Conner didn’t. I had a hard time wanting to move forward without the Lord’s approval, but he approached the situation very differently. He weighed the pros and cons and went over our finances. He made the best decision he could with the information he had.
And that was it.
I don’t think he prayed about it even once.
It used to worry me. I wanted him to seek out the Lord’s will more often than I thought he was, but I had an experience with him that shifted my perspective. We were looking at getting a car years and years ago. We stopped to look at this van on our way to a family dinner. I stayed in the car while he went and looked at the van. When he climbed back in, I asked if we were buying it. He answered in the negative. I asked him what was wrong with it (he’s worked as a mechanic previously), and he told me that he didn’t see anything that was wrong with it. When I asked him why we weren’t buying it, he replied, “I had a bad feeling about it.”
Conner didn’t necessarily wait for green lights, but he listened to red lights when they came along as needed.
That was the first step in a journey that changed how I approach revelation. I no longer feel held back by fear. I’m not afraid of the Lord being mad. I recognize that the Lord wants me to be wise like Him, and that requires practicing my decision-making skills like Him. He knows that allowing me to make decisions also means that I’m going to make mistakes, but He’s not worried about that. Not to mention, He’s happy to course correct as necessary. I make a decision that I truly want and think is best, and I trust Him to speak to me if I’m wrong.
That’s how I pictured the context of this particular conversation between David and Nathan. They were rejoicing and ready to worship the Lord. They were purposefully thinking of Him and trying to do good works without being directly asked. Then the Lord simply corrected them as needed.
We can move forward in faith and excitement and trust the Lord to close the door or correct us if it’s not the right path. There is no reason to be afraid.
I testify that the Lord wants us to make decisions and become wise like Him. There is no other way to do this except to practice. I also testify that He is powerful and knows how to speak with us. He doesn’t give us our agency so that He can condemn us when we make mistakes. He paid for those mistakes and stands ready to help us along. He knows how to speak to you if you’re trying to listen. Trust that He can lead you along. Be excited about the decisions before you; the Lord can turn them all for your good when you’re seeking to worship Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 8–10; 13; 15–16 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 12, 2026
God Gives Us What We Ask For
by Autumn Dickson
In the last post, we talked a bit about how the people implored Samuel for a monarchy. They were insistent, and Samuel saw their folly. He tried warning them; he understood what they were really asking for even if they didn’t. Here is a modern rendition of that conversation.
Israelites-We want a king! Give us a king like other nations!
Samuel-Do you even understand what you’re asking? Kings take your sons for war and your daughters to be servants. They take the best of your property. They serve themselves. Why do you want a king?
Israelites-Give us a king!
Samuel knew Who they were rejecting, and he knew they were trying to replace the ultimate Defender with a mortal. The Israelites already had a King, but they wanted a different one. They insisted on it.
And interestingly enough, the Lord tells Samuel to go ahead.
Samuel 8:22 And the Lord said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.
The Lord tells Samuel to give them a king, and then He guides Samuel through the process of selecting and anointing kings. He gives the people what they want. The Lord literally just gives it to them. He didn’t directly condemn them. He literally just gave them the curse they asked for.
What I want to share today is my own interpretation of Judgment Day. I do not know exactly how Judgment Day or the eternities will look, but this is what I have come to believe thus far as I’ve studied the words of prophets and scripture. I’m sure it will evolve as I grow older, but this is my working theory.
Part (and I emphasize part because I’m sure there are exceptions to this) of Judgment Day is the Lord saying, “Give them what they want.” I think we often picture the Lord condemning and cursing and exiling people, but I think we’ve got it a bit wrong. I think people choose where they’re going more often than not. Let me give some examples of what I mean.
Woman-I refuse to be a baby factory. I won’t be oppressed like this.
Heavenly Father-Okay. I won’t force you. I’m not trying to make you a baby factory, I’m trying to make you a mother. I’m trying to save you from eternal emptiness, but I will give you what you want.
Woman-You can’t fool me! You’re just trying to control me!
The woman separates herself from what she perceives is a controlling, power-hungry god. She separates herself because she doesn’t know the true God, because she doesn’t understand what He’s trying to offer her.
It drives me nuts when people mischaracterize the Lord. Eternity is going to be painfully empty without posterity. PAINFUL. What do you even live for? Do you really think being single and childless is going to fulfill you for eternity? Sure, you’ll be fine for a while, but there will come a day when you realize that you have no purpose because there is no progression or struggle. Eternity will be hell, and you will have put yourself there. Someday you’re going to wake up and realize that God was trying to bless you, and you cursed yourself instead.
It often blows my mind how people get things so wrong, but this has been prophesied. In the latter-days, people will call good evil and evil good.
As a mother, I’ve been experimenting with how much agency to give my kids. And when I say “experiment,” I mean I get so tired of giving them instructions and being labelled a bad guy that I hide out in my room and let them go Lord of the Flies on each other. It usually gives me a small reprieve in exchange for hours of fixing the problems that cropped up while I was hiding.
If I were to let them choose exactly what they wanted, they would refuse any kind of schooling, sports, self-development, and anything else that is essential for healthy adjustment to adult life.
The irony is that for a long time, they would likely think they were happy, but I can see the misery that would come from never learning to read or work with a team. I can see the misery that would stem from watching their friends move on without them, watching the whole world move on without them. And if I allowed them to completely sink into TV and iPads, they would live there and be miserable and not even know it. If I let them take full control of their tiny-human-inclinations, they would scream at each other and kick each other, and they would turn into mean, miserable little gremlins who no one wants to be around.
I get it, Heavenly Father. It’s exhausting. It’s so frustrating to give your loved ones everything they need to be truly happy and live a worthwhile life only to be labelled bossy and mean.
Now that’s a pretty bleak assessment of my parenting right there, and it’s not always like that. Sometimes they appreciate me coaching them into better people. Sometimes I wake up and they’re making bagels for their baby sisters without me. Sometimes I watch them play games with each other for hours. I watch them control their anger or forgive each other or do any number of wonderful, mature, Christlike things. So we’re not complete failures over here, but I’ve definitely learned important lessons after becoming a mom.
I have learned that humans often love making themselves miserable. Heavenly Father doesn’t even have to curse us or send us to hell. We walk there willingly. We choose oppressive kings and empty saviors to fight our battles. We choose hell.
How much of Judgment Day will be arrogant people cursing His name because they supposedly know better? How much of Judgment Day will be people walking away from the Lord because they have Him all wrong? How long will it take for them to wake up and realize the path they took is a curse and He was trying to save them? I testify of a Lord who is not a tyrant. He doesn’t force our hand. He is the one who gave us our agency and protects it. Despite all that it costs Him, He preserves our agency while Satan would try to destroy it and enslave us. Despite the fact that He had to pay for it with the blood of His Son, despite the fact that He is spit upon by His enemies because He allows them to, despite the fact that He gets labelled as an oppressive tyrant (ironic when you consider the fact that He is allowing them to call Him a tyrant), He protects our agency. He will let us walk away and choose those difficult lessons. Don’t choose the difficult lessons. I testify that He knows what He’s doing. Follow Him! Let Him be your King.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 8–10; 13; 15–16 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jun 09, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Samuel 8–10; 13; 15–16 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 08, 2026
What King Will You Follow?
by Autumn Dickson
At the beginning of chapter 8, we find Samuel getting older. He made his sons judges, and they were corrupt. The people went to Samuel and asked for a king. Samuel didn’t like that much, and he turned to the Lord. Here is the Lord’s response.
1 Samuel 8:7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
The people wanted a monarchy instead of a theocracy. They wanted to be like other nations despite the warnings that Samuel gave them. He warned them of all the problems that come with a king, but they insisted.
We’re not in the same situation as the Israelites. None of us are asking President Oaks to give us a king, but there are still lessons for us here. Let’s look at some details.
Israel wanted a king; they wanted someone who would rule over them. The irony here is that if you had asked Samuel whether the Israelites had a king, he would have answered, “Yes.” The Lord was meant to be their king. The Lord had a mouthpiece, a messenger for how He wanted His kingdom ruled, but He was meant to rule over His own people.
So when the Lord says that the Israelites rejected Him, He is accurate. They had a king, but they wanted a different kind of king.
There are a lot of parallels we could find in our own lives. Rather than explicitly stating the parallel, I rather just give one potential manifestation of this parallel.
The Lord has come before each of us and promised to bless us. He wants to make us kings and queens, priests and priestesses. He wants to make us like Him. He wants to shower us with warmth and promises. He wants to open our eyes and show us everything. There is so much to be had as heirs of God.
All of that sounds pretty wonderful. Unfortunately, these things don’t just get bestowed upon us. We have to grow into it.
So when we are faced with the decision of opening our scripture app or social media, we often find ourselves on social media.
The Lord comes and says, “Let me be your king. I won’t ever betray you. I won’t take from you; I only want to give. I want to show you all that you can become.” The Lord comes and warns us, “Taking a different king can be dangerous. The king will take your children, and it will take the best parts of what you have. It only serves itself; you will be its servant.”
And yet, like the Israelites, we insist on choosing social media. We choose a different king. We choose a king that robs us of moments with our loved ones. We choose a king that does have the power to take our children away from us. We choose a king that is only looking to profit itself, and we make ourselves slaves to it.
Why?? Why do we do this??
And it’s interesting. The Lord doesn’t mind if we have a mortal king. In Mosiah 29, Mosiah tells his people that it would be fine to have a king if they could guarantee that their kings were righteous. The Lord doesn’t mind if we have social media, TV, video games, or any other of these other banal activities. The Lord can utilize these tools to enhance our life and make it better.
The problem comes when we essentially reject the Lord for something pathetic. If you had asked the Israelites if they were rejecting their God, I wonder what they would have said. Maybe they would have told us, “We’re not rejecting our God. We will still follow our God. We just want a king too. Having a king doesn’t mean that we don’t worship God.” If you ask us if we’re rejecting God when we pull open something vapid instead of something inspiring, we would probably answer that we’re not rejecting God.
Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps you’re not outright rejecting God.
But have you ever tried to connect with someone who was too busy on their phone? Have you ever gone to someone for help only for them to be too distracted to love you? Have you ever done this to someone else?
Perhaps you’re not turning to that person who is seeking a connection with you and saying, “Stop. I don’t like you. Go away. I hate you.” But aren’t you still rejecting them? Don’t you feel rejected when it happens to you?
So we can tell ourselves all we like that opening instagram instead of the scriptures isn’t rejecting God, but isn’t it? He’s trying to connect with us. He’s trying to draw us higher, and we turn away. That is rejection too.
I’m not describing a world where we become monks that don’t take part in any other type of material. Social media isn’t evil. I just think it’s wise to take inventory of who is ruling us. Our phones often do this cool thing where it keeps track of where we’re spending our time. Look at your phone. Where did you spend your time today?
And as a sidenote, this isn’t a message about social media. I’m sharing an example that shows an overarching principle. What is ruling us? Is it God?
As I was reading about the Israelites choosing a king, I thought of all the pain that was coming to them. I thought of everything we would read about Israel and the trials that were coming. If they could have seen what was coming, would they have chosen differently?
If we could see what our kings would bring us, would we choose differently?
The Lord has warned us about how to spend our time. He has warned us about what to invite in and what to leave be. Who is your king? What is your king taking from you or giving to you?
I testify that there are many good things to enjoy in life, but only one King who is willing to give rather than take. I testify that the Lord knows what He is talking about in how He directs our lives. I testify that you don’t have to verbally reject the Lord to be cutting Him out of your life, and that being careful of what we choose will bless us in the long run. It may seem easier to choose something else, but it’s not.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ruth; 1 Samuel 1–7 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 04, 2026
Trusting the Lord With Your Child
by Autumn Dickson
The story of Hannah is almost too much for me. Hannah struggled with infertility. She went to the tabernacle and prayed her heart out. She told the Lord that she would dedicate her son to Him. Her prayer was so intense that Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk. He tells her the Lord will grant her petition. She goes home, and it is fulfilled. She conceives a son.
Hannah kept him until he was weaned. This could have happened as early as 24 months and as late as five years old. After he is weaned, she takes him to Eli. She reminds Eli that she was the woman who was fervently praying for a child before, and then she says this.
1 Samuel 1:27-28
27 For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:
28 Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.
Hannah leaves her son with Eli. She gets to see him annually when they go to the tabernacle to make their sacrifice. This is the part that makes my heart desperately ache. I have two children who currently fall within that age group, and I can’t imagine dropping them off and only seeing them once a year. I am quite certain that it would kill me.
But Hannah had promised her son to the Lord, and she stuck to that promise. Samuel went to Eli at the temple.
Samuel goes on to do incredible things in the name of the Lord. He became the first centralized prophet to Israel in a long time. His ministry is marked by attempts to pull the Israelites out of apostasy and idolatry. He helped Israel transition to a monarchy first with Saul, and then he later anointed David and protected him from Saul. He was known as a great prophet like Moses.
When I attempt to put myself in Hannah’s shoes, I think there is really only one testimony that would bring me any semblance of peace in the midst of handing my child over.
The Lord can do better with him than I can.
Luckily, I don’t think most of us are facing a time where this sacrifice is required of us. We don’t drop our kids off at the temple and dedicate them to the Lord, but there is still a lesson here for all of us.
The Lord can do better with your loved one than you can.
That doesn’t just apply to our children. The Lord can do better with your sister, brother, friend, parent, cousin, grandchild, niece, nephew, spouse, or anyone you love. We can “hand them off” to the Lord and be at peace that the Lord can take them on a journey that’s going to be better than the one we can take them on.
What does that look like? I can think of two different ways that we can hand our loved one over to the Lord.
1) We closely follow what the Lord has in store for them.
I can think of two contrasting examples that depict one principle: I have two family members that strayed from the gospel for a while. They had zero interest in taking part of what the Lord wanted them to have.
The first relative was forced to go to church. As long as he lived under the roof of his parents, he would be attending church. His father was adamant about it. And you know what? One day, this relative of mine went to church and one of the speakers said something that reached him. He was no longer forced to go to church because he didn’t have to be.
My second relative went a different route completely. Her mother received the impression that she should allow her to stay home. This was the right way for my second relative. Because of her personality, forcing her to go would have only caused her to hate it more. It wouldn’t have fixed anything. In all honesty, it would have made things worse.
Two different approaches that teach a principle when placed side by side: We don’t always know what to do, but the Lord does. We may think we know what to do, but we have to let go of trying to control the situation and turn to the Lord for what’s going to be best for our child. If one of my children grows to hate the church, my knee-jerk reaction would be to force them to go as long as I could in a desperate attempt to draw them back. And perhaps that’s the right answer, but the key is to turn your loved one over to the Lord and follow the path that the Lord has in store for them.
Even if part of that path means letting them choose a different path for a while, it’s going to end up being the most powerful path if we’re following the Lord. Even if that path takes them on a journey like the prodigal son, that journey may be the very thing that makes them so powerful in the end. It may be the very experience they need to finally develop a relationship with a Savior who can watch over them.
Fear is natural when we worry about our loved ones, but we can hush our fears and lean on the promises of the Savior. His atonement reaches wide and far. It can turn sin into stepping stones. Consequences become opportunities to turn to the Savior. The Savior has earned our trust. We can lean on Him and let Him lead.
2) Sometimes trusting the Lord with your loved one is an internal battle.
Hannah’s path looked a little different than both of my relatives. She wasn’t trying to save Samuel. In many ways, she was simply letting him go. Sometimes that is the path we have to take. Even when our children are young, we can’t really control them. It can be easier to force them to do something when they’re little. However, even then, control is often an illusion.
As they get older, the illusion disappears and you have to hope they’re wise enough to follow the Lord.
But no matter how we hope, sometimes they take a different path.
Sometimes the Lord is going to seem rather silent on the matter when we’re desperately trying to save our loved one. That isn’t a sign that you screwed up or that He doesn’t love them; sometimes, that loved one is simply going to choose what they’re going to choose regardless of the path that you choose to take.
Sometimes turning your loved one over to the Lord means seeking out the Lord’s will for them; sometimes turning your loved one over to the Lord means finding peace in the midst of being powerless to help them (at least for a time). Even if the Lord is silent, that doesn’t mean He doesn’t have a plan. It likely just means there isn’t anything you can do to help that plan along at this point. When there is nothing you can physically do to help your loved one, you do what Hannah did. You let go and trust that the Lord has a plan for them.
Just like with Hannah’s situation, I think a knowledge of my Savior’s power and love is the only thing that would bring peace. I can’t change anything externally, but I can orient my heart towards the Savior and let His promises enable me to hope.
I testify of a Savior who does have a plan. He has the Plan of Salvation which included the creation, fall, and atonement, but He also has individual Plans of Salvation for each of us. He knows exactly where your loved one is. He has steps to take and action to follow through on, and He will do so. It may take a long time, longer than you want or even imagine right now, but the Lord’s plans can stretch that far. You can trust Him to take care of them, and you can put that burden down and rest. That doesn’t mean you don’t mourn, but it does mean you simultaneously carry the Savior’s promises in your heart so that you can keep going. I testify that He will fulfill His promises.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ruth; 1 Samuel 1–7 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jun 02, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ruth; 1 Samuel 1–7 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 01, 2026
Ruth Had Nothing to Offer
by Autumn Dickson
Ruth was a woman in an extremely vulnerable position, and she placed herself in an even more vulnerable position with Boaz. Let’s talk about it, and let’s talk about how it relates to us.
Ruth was a Moabite who followed her mother-in-law to Bethlehem. She was not originally part of God’s people, but she voluntarily chose to be a part of them at great risk to herself. She was vulnerable as a widow, and she was stepping into a life of poverty by following after her mother-in-law instead of going back to live in her father’s house. Not only did she face poor circumstances and the necessity of providing for herself and Naomi by gleaning the fields, she likewise faced potential ridicule and social rejection because of her foreign status.
But she wanted to be with Naomi and follow after the God of Israel, so she chose that sacrifice.
After spending some time in Bethlehem, taking care of Naomi and gathering up meager amounts of food from hard work, Ruth put herself in an even more vulnerable position.
Boaz, a respected and wealthy man in the area, had taken note of Ruth and took steps to make sure she was okay. After hearing about Boaz watching out for Ruth, Naomi encourages Ruth to essentially propose to Boaz. According to the direction of Naomi, Ruth follows Boaz to the threshing floor one night, uncovers his feet, and goes to sleep there. Boaz wakes up and finds her, and she asks him to essentially take her under his wing. She asks him to marry her and bring her into his protection. Boaz agrees to do so if another relative relinquishes his first claim upon her.
In order to understand the vulnerability that Ruth found herself in, it’s important to understand the context of the threshing floor. Threshing floors were not inherently evil; they were community spaces where people went and prepared their different grains to finish the harvesting process. However, threshing floors were associated with a celebratory period that sometimes got out of hand. It was a male-dominated space, and there was drinking. It was not uncommon for prostitution. Let it be known, it was also common for wealthy men to sleep there and protect their grain piles. Boaz wasn’t there to get in trouble; he was there to protect his grain. And yet, I want to highlight the potential danger for Ruth.
Naomi trusted the integrity of Boaz and sent Ruth anyway. Beyond just protecting her, here is an extra thing that Boaz did for her.
Ruth 3:14 And she lay at his feet until the morning: and she rose up before one could know another. And he said, Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor.
So Boaz protected her in every sense of the word. He could have taken advantage of her and probably gotten away with it. He could have thrown her to the wolves and ruined her reputation. As an outsider, she already faced scrutiny. She could have been branded a loose woman and made herself ineligible for future marriage. Regardless of whether it’s just or moral that he had the power to do this is a question for another day. The fact remains that he did have power to do so, and he didn’t. Not only did he avoid taking advantage of her, he also protected her from potential shame.
If we generalize some of these ideas, we might find some personal parallels in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Here are a couple of reflections.
1) Boaz didn’t actually have a responsibility to take care of Ruth.
It is important to note that Boaz didn’t have to legally take care of Ruth. In ancient Israelite custom, a brother of the dead husband would marry the widow and buy the land to keep the inheritance in the family. Boaz was a more distant relative. He was eligible but not required. It wasn’t expected of him. In fact, the relative who was closer to her wanted the land but refused when he found out he would also inherit Ruth.
Boaz married Ruth. He went above and beyond what was required of him to protect her.
And how poignant is that?
Christ was eligible to save us but not obligated. He chose to do it. He wanted to protect us.
2) She had nothing to offer Boaz except loyalty and need.
Boaz didn’t reap any benefit for marrying Ruth other than receiving her love and gratitude. Even beyond the fact that he didn’t have a legal obligation, he was essentially bringing on “dead weight.” I understand that sounds heartless, but let me expound.
Boaz had the option of marrying advantageously. He had to pay to get the land that had belonged to Ruth’s previous husband; it didn’t just come to him. He could have married someone that would have contributed to his own wealth or social standing without any complications of marrying a foreigner. Not to mention, any children he had with Ruth would be considered heirs of her first husband. That’s why the other relative had refused. It endangered his personal estate. Boaz was willing to pay the price for kindness.
Obviously Ruth had value as a human being. However, when she is logically compared with other options, she isn’t bringing much to the table.
Sound familiar? We hold very limited benefit in the traditional sense. Even as long-term investments, the Lord gives us everything we have and then gives us more when we try to serve Him. We don’t offer much. And yet, Christ knows the value of being loved in return. Boaz recognized a woman who would add much more to his home despite the costs. He watched her love Naomi, and he knew that she would be the kind of person that brings joy.
Christ is willing to pay the price of kindness, and He recognizes that investments don’t necessarily bring joy. Our loyalty and gratitude and willingness bring joy.
3) And then, of course, the point I highlighted before: Ruth was vulnerable and Boaz protected her.
Ruth could have been ridiculed and rejected. She was already prone to it because she was born a Moabite. It became that much more dangerous when she voluntarily chose to approach Boaz on the threshing floor.
Someday we will stand vulnerable before the Lord. Someday we will live in a time where secrets are shouted from the rooftops. What secrets are you worried about? What do you want protected and kept private?
I testify of a Lord who “forgets” our sins when we repent. I believe in a Lord who is willing to cover for us and take us under His protection. I believe in a Lord whose name is so powerful that we don’t have to fear rejection and ridicule. He covers us when we approach Him in faith and humility. He doesn’t despise our weakness; He honors it by taking it upon Himself.
I testify of a Lord who pays the price of kindness and simply wants our love in return. It brings Him joy. Do not withhold it from Him. Do not withhold yourself from Him. He loves you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
May 29, 2026
God’s Mercy With Gideon’s Doubt
by Autumn Dickson
The book of Judges records a time period in which Israel had no centralized prophet. There was apostasy and partial restorations as the Israelites would sway into worshipping like the Canaanites did. The Lord sometimes sent judges to help Israel against their enemies. These judges were charismatic, military leaders. Some of the judges would save all of Israel; other judges were more regional.
Gideon was one of these regional judges, primarily protecting Manasseh, Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Ephraim.
Gideon is interesting because he struggled with his faith in the Lord, and yet, the Lord was merciful. There are plenty of instances in the scriptures where the Lord doesn’t seem to respond to that very well. Right after the Red Sea parted, the Israelites demanded a sign of Moses to show his favor with God. They were complaining and challenging Moses to show a sign. The place was named Massah as a memorial to their lack of faith. When Zechariah was told that his wife would have a son, he didn’t believe it because she was old. He was struck as a mute. Thomas the apostle was likewise rebuked for his lack of faith.
Gideon receives not just one, but multiple signs from the Lord. The angel burns up his offering to the Lord. His blanket is covered with dew while the ground is dry one night; his blanket is dry while the ground is wet one night. As he stands in the camp with his 300 men to go against the Midianites, the Lord encourages him to go spy on the Midianites and see what they’re saying in order to receive comfort. He does so and overhears a Midianite sharing a dream in which a barley loaf came and flattened a tent. The Midianite’s companion interprets it as God helping Israel defeat them. Here is Gideon’s response.
Judges 7:15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the Lord hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian.
Multiple signs! God continually blesses Gideon and gives him signs to encourage him along. In fact, Gideon didn’t even ask for the last sign. The Lord just gave it to him, and He gave it to Gideon in a powerful way. It would have been one thing to send a dream to Gideon about defeating the Midianites. It would have been easy for Gideon to wonder if it was just wishful thinking. In comparison, hearing the mighty Midianites have a dream and interpret it as defeat by the Israelites was much more powerful in calming Gideon’s fears.
So why did Gideon get multiple signs while others seem to be rebuked for asking for the same thing?
I think there are a lot of reasons because the Lord works according to individual circumstances, but I want to talk about two potential reasons that can be applied in our own lives as we work to approach the Lord.
The first reason the Lord was willing to work with Gideon is because the Lord is wise enough to understand that Gideon didn’t have much of a relationship with the Lord. The fact that his father had a Baal altar implies that Gideon’s family had fallen into idolatry. How much did Gideon know about God? We know Gideon had some knowledge of God because he asks about the deliverance from Egypt, but how much had Gideon experienced God? There’s a difference. How much could the Lord reasonably expect Gideon to trust Him? The Lord knew Gideon, but did Gideon know the Lord?
The Lord isn’t looking for blind, obedient dogs. He is looking to have a true relationship with us. The fact that Gideon was cautious about running into danger isn’t a sign that Gideon is faithless; it is more an indication that Gideon did not yet know the Lord.
So what does this teach us about our own lives? The Lord will not begrudge us the time it takes to learn how to trust Him; He doesn’t mind allowing us to approach Him until we’ve built up a number of encounters and start to understand His character.
David fought off two wild animals before he fought off Goliath. We recently read about Moses whose trust in the Lord was extremely fragile in the beginning; Moses grew to the point where he encouraged the Israelites to have faith in the face of certain death even though he did not yet know the plan for rescue. The Old Testament gives us a front row seat to watching people experience the Lord and grow in their trust of Him.
In contrast, imagine a powerful stranger coming up to you and saying, “Trust me.” When you ask them why you should trust them, they respond with, “Because I told you to.” Um…what? You may not immediately hate them or be wary of them, but you’re not going to give them your darkest secrets or social security number (or hopefully you won’t…).
The Lord understands that He is a stranger to us; He is the one who put the veil there. He understands that we need experiences with Him before we’re ready to run into danger when He asks. Once again, He isn’t looking for blind, obedient dogs. He wants His children to be wise and consciously and voluntarily choose Him.
He gave Gideon experiences because Gideon likely hadn’t had many previously. He was patient with Israel. He was patient with Moses. The Lord has no problem being patient. If He seems impatient in specific scenarios, we can usually assume it’s for the benefit of the person He is working with. He is trying to get their attention or get them moving.
Which leads me to my second reason: The Lord allowed Gideon to approach Him multiple times for signs because Gideon’s heart was soft.
Over and over and over and over and over we read about the Lord responding with intensity in response to a hard heart and responding with mercy and encouragement to a soft heart. Gideon’s heart was obviously soft. Look at this verse.
Judges 6:17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.
Gideon approaches the Lord so humbly. When the angel gave him a sign, Gideon immediately built an altar unto the Lord. That night, Gideon went and took down the altar of Baal according to the direction of the Lord. We see this multiple times with Gideon. He approaches the Lord in humility and asks for help knowing the truth. Gideon was willing to follow the truth and power and peace; Gideon was just trying to make sure he was looking in the right direction before moving forward.
It is only when we’ve closed our heart off to that truth and power and peace that the Lord shakes the earth to reach us.
I think of the Egyptians that saw all the same signs as the Israelites but didn’t bother to ask whether they should follow after the same God as the Israelites. I think of Rahab and her people. The Canaanites were all terrified, but it didn’t change who they put their faith in. Only Rahab was willing to follow the Israelite God and was spared because of it. You would think that people would open their eyes and ask, “Is there something here?” You would think that they would pause long enough and open their hearts so that the Lord could speak to them.
Gideon asked, but Gideon was likewise prepared to follow through. This was part of why the Lord was so willing to encourage him along.
I testify of a Lord that responds with wisdom. He knows what He is doing. He will not condemn us for approaching Him for reassurances if we’re doing so with the intent to follow after Him. He doesn’t even condemn us when we struggle; His intensity is not a sign of condemnation. It’s a sign of God’s love in trying to reach us! However the Lord is working in your life, you can take it with the perspective that He is trying to do what’s best for you. I’m grateful for a Lord who is wise and can train me so purposefully and deliberately.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16 – Jennifer Roach Lees
May 26, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Judges 2–4; 6–8; 13–16 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
May 25, 2026
What Does it Mean to be a Prophetess?
by Autumn Dickson
In a day and age where many are curious as to why women can’t hold specific positions in the church or be ordained to priesthood offices, reading about Deborah the prophetess can be confusing. Here is a verse that describes her as a prophetess.
Judges 4:4 And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time.
If Deborah can be a prophetess, can we have a prophetess in our day? What does it even mean that she was a prophetess and what are the implications for women in the latter days?
I think it’s important to note that I’m not an official representative of the church. However, I’d like to share some of my own perspectives and interpretations surrounding Deborah and what it means as a female Latter-day Saint.
But first, some context.
Judges is a book of scripture that describes the time period when Israel had no king. Joshua, the prophet after Moses, died, and there was no prophet that directly succeeded him. We don’t know exactly how long it took before the Lord called another centralized prophet (Samuel), but educated guesses suggest 300-450 years.
As a society, they had the Law of Moses, and the government could be described as a tribal confederation. Despite having a law given unto them from God, they often fell in with Canaanites and found themselves in varying levels of apostasy.
Sometimes, in response to the Israelites finding themselves in trouble, the Lord would send a “judge.” The way that we define “judge” is not necessarily accurate in this particular book of scripture. In this context, a judge was a charismatic military leader that would help Israel. There were some major judges such as Samson; there were other minor judges that would help regions rather than the entire nation of Israel.
So who was Deborah?
Deborah was one of the major judges sent by God to help Israel. She was a judge in every sense of the word. She was a military leader, but people also literally went to her for guidance to settle their problems. She was also a spiritual leader over the nation of Israel.
Was she a prophet? The scriptures describe her as a prophetess, and she led all of Israel politically and spiritually. But was she a prophet in the way that we define “prophet” in our day?
At this point, I think it’s important to clarify what it means to have a prophet.
Definition One. The way that we usually define “prophet” in our church in the Latter-days is unique. It’s not just someone who studies the scriptures and knows them really well. It’s not just someone who receives revelation. When Latter-day Saints speak of prophets, we are often describing the man who has the authority to speak for God on behalf of the entire church. He is the only one with spiritual jurisdiction to lead (under Christ) the church. He holds all of the priesthood keys.
And yes, he is a male.
We don’t know if that will ever change. I don’t know if it’s doctrine that means this particular role will always be male, or if someday the Lord will use His unchanging love and wisdom to adapt His church according to circumstances as He has throughout the course of history.
But there is also a broader definition of this term, “prophet.”
Definition two. Anyone can have the spirit of prophecy which is defined as a “testimony of Christ.” We know that Jerusalem had centralized prophets in ancient times as well as lesser “prophets” who would also be sent by the Lord to teach and call upon people to repent. I am not a prophet in the sense that I hold all the priesthood keys or can define doctrine on behalf of the Lord for the entire church. However, I have come to view myself as a prophetess within my own family. Beside my husband, I lead our home. I receive revelation on behalf of our kids and what we need to do. I learn the will of the Lord for our family. I fulfill so many of the “prophetic” responsibilities often associated with prophets; I simply do it within the context of my own family. Most importantly, I am a witness of Christ to my family.
What kind of prophetess was Deborah? With the information we’ve been given, I feel pretty safe assuming she was the second kind of prophet. The Lord had declared that priesthood responsibilities would go through male descendants of Aaron and the tribe of Levi. Deborah was not ordained nor did she hold any keys.
So Deborah was a prophetess but not necessarily how we often define it in our day.
Perhaps there are some who are disappointed by this news. Perhaps there are some who hoped that because Deborah was a prophetess, we could have one in our day. Perhaps there are some who cling to the idea that things will change and long for the day to see a prophetess lead the church. I don’t know whether that will be a thing. If anyone has any insight into that particular doctrine, feel free to comment. But as far as I know, we don’t know.
Here’s what I do know.
Deborah doesn’t need to be disappointing. In fact, if we understand her properly, we should be exultant. If we understand what the Lord would like to bestow upon His daughters and His sons, then we would hold no fear. Deborah is excellent proof of what the Lord would have all of us do.
Deborah may not have been a prophetess in the modern sense of the word, but guys! She was still a prophetess! She was a national leader, and people followed her. She changed Israel. She made a difference. She has been regarded with respect by millions who learned about her generation after generation.
And she didn’t need the priesthood keys to do it.
The Lord is wonderful and wise and set up a priesthood organization with offices and keys. I know that can be a painful sticking point for some. I understand that. I’m personally grateful for this organization, but I can simultaneously understand why it’s painful. But that’s not really my point today.
My point is that you have all that you need to become everything God wants you to become, and He has much more in mind for you than you have for yourself. This has implications for men too. About 3-5% of men will hold priesthood keys at any given time in the church. That number jumps to 10-20% of men who will hold priesthood keys at some point in their lifetime.
BUT YOU DON’T NEED KEYS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE AND CHANGE THE WORLD.
No one came to Deborah and ordained her as a prophetess. The bible doesn’t tell us how she rose to that role, but I have my guesses as to how it happened.
It happened because she was a faithful daughter of God who chose to follow the Lord wherever He chose to lead her.
Following the Lord and handing your life over to Him in faith (female or male) does not mean you will be recorded for people to pore over your life story for generations to come. It doesn’t mean you’ll be famous or even particularly loud. But if that’s what you’re looking for, then you’re in the wrong place anyway.
I love the example of Deborah, if for no other reason than her story means that I can be a powerful tool for the Lord regardless of what mankind recognizes in me. Regardless of whatever official roles I’ve been given, I could part seas or change lives. Really what it comes down to is what the Lord wants for me and what He’s trying to teach me. Having enough power to change the world isn’t really the question here; the Lord will give me everything I need. The true question is whether I will give my life over to Him in whatever capacity He asks.
I have as well as I can, and I love my life.
I testify that we have everything we need to do everything the Lord wants us to do and become everything He wants us to become. I likewise testify that He has much more in mind for you than you have for yourself. If you (female or male) feel left out because you can’t be or aren’t a bishop, then hold tight. The Lord has much bigger plans for you. He loves you so much. You are so important to Him. It would be silly to ask more from Him when He already plans on giving you everything that He has.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Joshua 1–8; 23–24 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
May 22, 2026
Rahab: From Prostitute to Type of Christ
by Autumn Dickson
How could I not take some time to speak about Rahab? She was incredible. Here is our introduction to Rahab.
Joshua 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
Rahab was a prostitute who hid Israeli spies as they were coming to look at Jericho. In exchange for hiding them, she asked them to spare her and her family. They gave her a red cord to put in the window, and all of Jericho was destroyed except for her and her family.
In order to understand precisely why she was so great, it’s important to understand the background she was born into.
Jericho was getting utterly destroyed. There have been times throughout history where the Lord helped His people conquer without utterly destroying everything. Jericho was not one of those times. The land of Canaan was “full” of sin to the extent that destruction was necessary. It was so filled with misery that it needed a clean slate.
Except for Rahab.
The fact that she’s a prostitute during this time period isn’t unsurprising. What she’s had to go through is not a sign of her moral failings but of her society failing her. We can see the type of person she is from her reactions.
She is willing to follow the Lord after hearing the testimony of others.
She wants to save her family, not just herself.
She utilized her circumstances for the Lord’s work.
These are not the only reasons Rahab is incredible. The fact that she married is also amazing when you learn what trauma she likely accrued because of her circumstances. This is not a comprehensive list of her good qualities, but I specifically chose these ones. These qualities are what make her like the Savior.
Rahab is a type of Christ. Let’s talk about a couple of things in her life that reflect the Savior.
1) She is willing to follow the Lord despite what the society around her is doing.
Rahab could have been blinded by her own society. She could have followed what everyone else was doing and simply been afraid. Imagine if the rest of the Canaanites had the heart that Rahab had. Imagine if all of them had approached the Israelite army and were like, “We heard how your God protected you and took care of you. We would like to follow Him too.” Imagine if all of us were able to look at what was going on around us and be willing to follow a better way.
The Jews were not especially righteous when Christ came to fulfill His mortal ministry. In fact, many of them were evil. If Christ had been born to any other nation, they would have recognized Him as God. Some of the Jews of this time period were too wicked to see Him for what He was. Jesus broke a lot of their made up rules. He followed the Law of Moses perfectly, but He broke a lot of the rules that they had built up around that law. He looked at society and knew there was a better way to live.
2) She wants to save her family, not just herself.
Rahab could have followed the spies out. Perhaps that would have been easier than sitting in her home and hoping all the soldiers followed the direction to spare her. We don’t know all the reasons why Rahab stayed, but we do know she sought out her family and brought them into her home where they could be protected too. She cared enough about her family that she sought saving them too. Maybe she even felt that being saved wouldn’t be worth it if her family couldn’t be saved too.
Christ’s heart also pushed Him to look beyond Himself. Christ is the only One who was perfect enough to go to heaven. He could have come down here, lived perfectly, and gone on to live in heaven forever, but He loved us too much. He put Himself through difficult things in order to save us too. He was concerned with saving His family. He obviously didn’t think heaven was going to be good enough without us despite our many failings. He loved us, and looked beyond Himself.
3) She utilized her circumstances for the Lord’s work.
It was actually important that Rahab was a prostitute. With all of the tension in the air from the Israelite army, it would have been difficult for the spies to get into Jericho. Because she was a prostitute, it allowed them to enter into the city. It wasn’t as uncommon for strangers and foreigners to visit brothels in comparison to visiting repectable houses. Not to mention, Rahab’s house was within the city wall and allowed them to escape.
Now, the fact that she was a prostitute did not mean that the spies went undetected. Somehow, the residents of Jericho noticed the spies and they came knocking. Rahab hid them on the roof before helping them escape. This is actually also an important reflection of Christ.
Only Christ was in the correct circumstances to save us. Because of His birth, He held power that no one else had. He had the ability to save us because of His circumstances.
But, it was still ultimately His decision to save us.
Rahab’s circumstances put her in an ideal situation to save her family and help the Lord’s work, but her choices and faith were absolutely key as well.
Sometimes our circumstances make it difficult to believe that we could ever be like Christ. Sometimes what we’ve been through or are currently going through make us think that we can’t serve. Sometimes our circumstances are the very things that put is in a position to be like Christ.
I testify that like Rahab, we are all given opportunities to be like our Savior. I also testify that like Rahab, following the Lord and His prophet will ultimately save us. It doesn’t matter where we started; we can make choices that will put us in line with the Lord’s people. He can save us, and He can utilize us if we’re willing to leave our old lives behind.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Joshua 1–8; 23–24 – Jennifer Roach Lees
May 20, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Joshua 1–8; 23–24 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
May 18, 2026
Why They Marched Around Jericho 7 Times
by Autumn Dickson
The Fall of Jericho is epic for many reasons. There are a lot of details that we could talk about that would teach us about the Savior, but let’s just cover a few.
Jericho was a large city that was meant for the Israelites. The Lord was helping them gain their land one bit at a time. When Jericho saw the Israelites coming, they closed their gates and settled in for a siege. The Lord commanded the Israelites to circle the city every day for six days. Then on the last day, they were to do this.
Joshua 6:15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.
I can’t speak for the whole of the commandment (walking once a day for six days); I would need to study it further. However, I want to talk about the last day. The Israelites were to walk around the city seven times, trumpets would blow, and the people were to start yelling. They did so, and the walls fell. The Israelites flooded in and took the city. No one was spared except for Rahab and her house because she had helped the Israelites.
It is significant that the Israelites had to walk around Jericho seven times. Seven was a symbol of the covenant, and it was also symbolic of fullness or being complete. Jericho was the promised land; the Israelites needed completeness.
In the New Testament, the Lord commands His people to be perfect. Perfect was a translation from the word “teleios,” which has an alternate translation. It also means “end” or “complete.” The Savior might also be commanding His people to reach their full spiritual maturity in comparison to going constantly without error.
I find it beautiful that the Israelites needed to symbolically be “complete” in order to enter the promised land. I also find it beautiful that their completeness didn’t make the walls come down. They needed to keep the commandment to go around the city seven times, but that’s not what brought them into the promised land. Here is another important verse.
Joshua 6:16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.
The walls hadn’t fallen down yet when Joshua said this to the people, and yet, Joshua is speaking as though it already happened. “The Lord has given you this city, so shout!” Joshua knew the promises of the Lord were good for the money. He had no doubt that the city was their’s, and it reflected in the way he spoke to the Israelites.
So what do we learn from this?
The Lord was the one who brought them into the promised land, and He did so after they had become complete.
The Lord is the one who brings us into heaven, and He does so “after” we are complete.
I use quotation marks because “after” is a bit relative. There are many aspects of heaven that we already get to enjoy: family relationships, peace, freedom from past sins, and many more. In some ways, the Lord has already allowed me into heaven. I know that those blessings are a direct result of His atonement, and yet, He still wants me to walk towards completion. It is only when we have become complete, that we can truly enjoy heaven.
For example, in my imperfection, I am still working on fully appreciating the most important things in order to bring more heaven into my life. Because of my insistence on completing tasks, I often prioritize my to-do lists over my relationship with my kids. It is very difficult for me to set aside these tasks that I make monumentally important in my life, and my ability to feel heaven suffers. I inadvertently start to view my kids as obstacles rather than the treasures that they are, and my happiness lessens because of it. I get irritable and don’t treat them as good as they deserve, or I simply don’t go out and be with them.
Becoming complete isn’t about never losing my temper again, though that’s a nice side effect. Becoming complete is about spiritually maturing. It means taking a step back often enough that I change. I change to value my kids the way that Heavenly Father values me, and as I do that, I find more happiness than I could ever find within my completed tasks. It means that I become the kind of person who no longer feels a need to yell; it’s much better than trying the perfectionist route.
As I walk towards completeness, I gain more and more access to the promised land. This is not because I’m taking a hammer to the walls. I just work towards spiritual maturity, and the Savior is the one who actually delivers the promised land. He is the only one who can offer the promised land. We can’t get it ourselves; it has to be given to us. And yet, the Lord still asks us to walk towards completeness. He does this because it’s no use being in the promised land if we’re all keeping ourselves from being happy through our own values and choices.
The Lord asks us to keep His commandments and change towards completeness, but keeping His commandments doesn’t earn heaven. It enables us to appreciate the heaven that He is delivering to us.
The Old Testament is cool. The scriptures are cool. The Lord knows exactly what He’s doing as He tries to teach us about the reality of the Plan of Salvation. The more I study the scriptures, the more I see that He knows what He’s doing.
I testify that the Lord knows us. I testify that He is the One who delivers heaven through His sacrifice. He gives it to us. It’s a gift. He simultaneously pushes us and gives us commandments because He knows our growth is essential for our happiness. We can’t enjoy His gift unless we become like Him. I’m grateful for His sacrifice, His commandments, and His support every step of this process. I’m grateful He loves me enough to work this hard for my joy and benefit.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
May 15, 2026
The Promised Land You Can’t Enter Yet
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters this week, Moses is led to the top of a mountain where he is shown the promised land.
Deuteronomy 34: 1, 4
1 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan…
4 And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Interestingly enough, despite the fact that the Lord led him there to show him the promised land, Moses wasn’t allowed to go into the promised land because of prior disobedience. He had led the Israelites out of Egypt and across the wilderness. It had not been easy. At one point, Moses had even asked the Lord to kill him rather than deal with the Israelites anymore. Moses suffered plenty of hardship, and he learned many great and important lessons.
But despite this, Moses was still not allowed to step foot in the promised land. The Lord held true to Moses’ consequences for disobedience. According to modern revelation, Moses was translated and taken up to the Lord before the Israelites entered the homeland that was meant for them.
Details are always key. One of the details this week is the fact that Moses was taken up into a mountain where he could overlook the promised land that he couldn’t enter. Mountains in scripture are often compared to temples. Holy things often take place on the tops of mountains, and the Lord gives knowledge and power to some of His children in the tops of mountains. Hold that thought.
I wonder how he felt looking over the lands that were meant to be the inheritance of the Israelites. Did it hurt him that he would not be joining them or had he come to terms with the consequences that had been laid out for his disobedience? Did it hurt to see what had been meant to be his inheritance? Did it hurt to see the promises of the Lord that he would not be receiving?
Whether it hurt or not, I can assure you that it no longer hurts Moses. He was translated, and he ended up in a different promised land than he had pictured or seen on the top of that mountain. It was a better promised land. Yes, Moses is just fine.
I have found a surprising pattern in my life. I have multiple friends who dislike the temple, not because they don’t agree with what happens there, but because they can’t see the promises of the Lord being fulfilled for them. I have friends who have faced infidelity or family members who don’t want to participate in ordinances in the the temple. Going to the temple and hearing the promises that were meant to be theirs doesn’t feel particularly good. It is painful to hear about it and desire it deeply and not have current access to it.
I fully recognize that I have not been in their shoes, nor do I understand what it’s like to feel barred from those promises. Even as I share my testimony of these things, I fully own that I dont understand what it’s like to have to come to terms with feelings like that.
But sometimes objectivity is precisely what is needed. Strong emotions can be so overwhelming that it’s difficult to see the end from the beginning.
So let me testify of the end.
Moses did not enter into that promised land here. He could see it. He was so close, but it was something that wasn’t available to him.
I promise you that he’s okay. More than that, I promise that he is far more than okay. The Lord has taken care of Moses beautifully.
There are two specific promises I want to testify of if you are facing the same problem as Moses or my friends. If you feel that there is no happy ending in sight, these are the promises I want you to hold to.
Promise one. There is a promised land available for you even if it feels like mortality is barring you from in it one form or another. Mortality is not strong enough to keep you from your Savior’s ability to give you a joyful existence. He is mighty to save. He can take care of you. You are not actually barred from those promises.
And in all honesty, you don’t even have to wait to step foot in the promised land.
Moses’ disobedience was what kept him from the promised land, and even his own disobedience didn’t ultimately keep him from eternal joy. If you feel innocently barred, then Satan is lying to you. Christ can offer peace and comfort right now. You can go to the temple and listen to the promises and cling to them. Find comfort in them. You don’t have to know the how in order for those promises to take affect in your life. Those promises ARE for you even if you don’t know exactly how they will look.
And if you don’t feel strong enough to cling to those promises, He has the power to bring peace even when it’s illogical. You can go to the temple and call upon the blessings He promised you there. You can tell Him, “I’m here. I came like You asked. Can you help me feel peace?” And then allow Him to offer peace. Allow Him to comfort you.
Unfortunately, sometimes promises of joy feel empty without our loved ones who refuse their own promises.
Which brings me to promise two. The Lord can take care of those around us, just as He can take care of you.
Elder Orson F. Whitney, an apostle, taught this:
The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught a more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return.
I don’t believe the sealing power only applies to children. There is a reason we all get sealed together; I believe this likewise applies to spouses who have chosen to stray. The Lord has a plan for everyone who ever lived upon the earth to be sealed together. That sealing power is so strong.
And in the meantime, He will sorrow with you. He knows what it’s like to watch loved ones stray. He cannot force them to come back, but He knows how to succor you in your pain. He knows exactly how you feel, probably even stronger because His love is deeper. Take comfort in the fact that He has found eternal joy and hope. You can too.
Looking at the promised land doesn’t have to feel painful. I testify that if Moses had seen what was coming for him, any sting from being barred from the promised land would have been soothed. It would have had no power because Moses knew what the Lord had in store for him. We can be like Moses. If you could see the end, it would take away much of the sting for you as well.
I testify that as we consciously strive to strengthen our testimonies of His promises, we find the balm He promised us now, not just in the next life. I testify that the Savior can deliver on His promises of eternal joy. I testify that the ending is beautiful. I testify that He knows how to reach our loved ones, and we can trust Him with them.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34 – Jennifer Roach Lees
May 12, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Deuteronomy 6–8; 15; 18; 29–30; 34 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
May 11, 2026
Why Moses Never Entered the Promised Land
by Autumn Dickson
Moses was not allowed to go into the promised land with the rest of the Israelites. He wandered in the desert with them for 40 years, saw the promised land from a mountaintop, and returned to God before he could step foot into that land.
Deuteronomy 34:4 And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
The event that caused Moses to be barred from the promised land came at a time when the Israelites needed water. At one point in their sojourn, Moses was commanded to smite a rock in order to provide water for the Israelites, and it worked. At another time, Moses was commanded to speak to the rock in order to provide water. Instead, Moses hit it again. Because of this, the Lord told Moses that he would not step foot in the promised land.
And the Lord was true to His word. Moses never did enter the promised land that he had led the Israelites to. Despite the miracles and work and lessons that Moses had in his life as he led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the wilderness, Moses didn’t get to help them take those last steps into the promised land.
Seems a bit harsh for those of us who are also not exactly obedient. Everything that Moses contributed was not enough to earn him entrance into the promised land.
Despite its seeming cruelty, this consequence handed down by the Lord is not harsh. It’s true to life and important to understand. There are two portions that we need to understand in relation to Moses being barred from the promised land.
1) When we are not exactly obedient, it can bring lifelong consequences.
It was such a small thing. Moses hit the rock instead of speaking to it. He was supposed to hit the rock the first time. Was it really such a big deal that he hit it a second time? I wonder how Moses came to accept this punishment handed down by the Lord. Perhaps Moses accepted his punishment meekly and perfectly, but I’m going to show you a couple of potential responses from Moses that might reflect how we sometimes receive our own consequences.
“It was such a small thing. Why am I being punished so severely? I’ve done so much good. Isn’t that enough for the Lord?”
“I have to live with this the rest of my life. Every step I take towards the promised land is a reminder that I can’t ever go in. It’s too much to bear.”
“Why am I even walking towards the promised land if I can’t go in? Why can’t someone else lead them? What’s the point of me wandering for forty years if I can’t ever step foot in there?”
Sometimes the consequences of our disobedience seem too much to bear, but the fact remains that the Lord warned us. He doesn’t control us, and honestly, we would likely rail against Him if He tried. People rail against Him even when He merely tells them to stay away from certain behaviors and actions. He doesn’t want to control us, and we don’t want Him to control us, not really. So He warns us, and then He leaves us to decide whether we want to risk it.
No amount of service to the Lord is going to erase a DUI that hurt you, another passenger, or someone in the other car. Even if you’re doing everything right, pausing to look at pornography has the power to destroy your marriage or your happiness in marriage. Breaking the Law of Chastity just once can carry disease or bring a baby into the world who deserves two parents. None of these are things that you can’t overcome, and yet, these consequences follow you even when you continue walking towards the promised land. All of these little commandments handed to us by the Lord are meant to protect us because they carry potential consequences that will follow us for life.
This isn’t meant to shame; it’s meant to warn. You can choose what you want, and perhaps you’ll be one of the lucky ones. But don’t rail against the Lord if you end up with consequences that you have to carry with you until you die. He tried to warn you. He tried to help you set up a life that would be healthy and full of joy. He gave commandments for a reason.
Now here is my second point, and it is every bit as important as the first point.
2) Moses went to heaven even though he didn’t go to the promised land.
The Lord forbade Moses from entering the promised land, and that consequence followed him throughout his journeys in the wilderness.
BUT.
According to modern revelation, Moses was translated, so I’m not really worried about him. Maybe it hurt while he was alive. Maybe he carried that disappointment throughout his journeys. Maybe it hurt even as he stood on that mountaintop and the Lord showed him where the people were going without him.
But it’s not hurting anymore.
Moses is just fine. He carried those consequences; that’s an important part of life. Even despite our best efforts, most of us will carry consequences for life. We will have things we wish we had never done. We will have things we terribly regret that come back to haunt us occasionally.
But it’s worth continuing our walk towards the promised land even while carrying those consequences that are teaching us powerful lessons.
Because even if we don’t get to walk into the promised land here, there is one waiting for us on the other side. That’s the beauty of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The consequences are important for lessons, but lessons don’t have to be carried forever. Christ paid for it. We get to leave them behind and receive the fullness of the Lord if we keep walking towards the promised land.
I testify that the Lord tries to warn us and prevent us from carrying around things that hurt. I testify that even when we do it anyway, those consequences are gifts that teach us to rise to another level. I testify that we don’t have to carry those consequences forever, that Christ paid for them and we still get to go to the promised land even if it’s not the promised land we originally had in mind. I testify that Christ has something better in mind than we had for ourselves.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Numbers 11–14; 20–24; 27 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
May 08, 2026
How to Complain to the Lord
by Autumn Dickson
In Numbers 11, we read about the Israelites getting sick of their miracle, namely the manna in the wilderness which fed them. They remembered all the good food they used to eat in Egypt, and they were mad about eating the same thing for every meal.
Numbers 11:10 Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent: and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly; Moses also was displeased.
Moses gets so sick of the Israelites complaining that he asks the Lord to kill him rather than having to deal with them anymore (same, Moses, same). The Lord responds by sending too much meat until they get sick of it.
I want to share my own story, and then I’ll bring it back to the Israelites.
My daughter was baptized in December. It was beautiful. A lot of my family was in town for the wedding and so they got to be there which was magical for me; it also actually complicated things.
The week before the baptism and wedding, the stomach flu went through our house. I rejoiced that we got over it in time for my family to come into town because I don’t get to see my family that often, and I adore being around my family. Unfortunately, the day before the baptism, one of my babies started throwing up again.
I was actually rather devastated. I hadn’t realized how much excitement I had placed on being with my family and having everyone with us for this huge step in my daughter’s life until it was potentially getting taken away from me. I pleaded with the Lord for it to be a fluke, that she would just throw up once and go a full 24 hours without throwing up again before the baptism. Unfortunately, this miracle was not to be. She threw up again the morning of the baptism.
I texted the family and warned them all that I was still going to my daughter’s baptism and that the baby would be there because I had no one else to watch her. I told them I understood if anyone was too afraid to come because everyone was traveling for Christmas (some on international flights), and there were some pregnant women and other little children. We had some immunocompromised family members. There were many reasons to stay away.
And then I knelt down. I told the Lord that I accepted what He chose to give and withhold, and I worked really hard to feel that acceptance and not just offer lip service. Heaven knows lip service wasn’t going to make me feel any better.
And you know what? He blessed me for it. He opened my eyes to see the fact that I was blessed for having a family that I wanted to be around. Not everyone has that. He helped me see that I have an eternity of Christmases to be with family and celebrate. And most importantly, He helped me see that my daughter’s baptism wasn’t just about that single day. It was about the fact that she was binding herself to her Savior forever. In fact, because of her baptism, I would be able to be with her and the rest of my family for eternity. It was definitely a moment to celebrate. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding it, it would be one of the greatest blessings of her life.
Now, my family all came anyway, as did my husband’s family who live closer to us. It was perfect and chock full of the spirit and a surprising amount of fun.
BUT. If my family had chosen to stay away that day, I would have understood. There were plenty of reasons to bail. I would have been terribly disappointed and sad, but it would have likewise been tempered by the Savior’s soft reminders.
I’ve gotten frustrated with the Lord often enough in my life that I’ve realized it’s fruitless. There have been times when I’ve been filled with anger or sadness or betrayal and turned to the Lord in my immense overwhelm; He has responded by giving me a clearer perspective and teaching me that I can trust Him.
So after a million and one experiences with the Lord and His wisdom, I was able to approach Him with a lot more faith this time. Rather than getting angry with the Lord for not preventing the problem, I approached Him with meekness. As with all things in the Lord, I was the one who was blessed.
We don’t approach the Lord with meekness to placate His ego. We don’t approach the Lord with meekness to try and get Him to change His mind. We approach Him with meekness because it blesses US. It allows Him to show us the reality of our situation.
The reality of our situation is this: even in the midst of fast and direct trials like Egypt or in the long and arduous and uncomfortable trials of a journey through the wilderness, we have already won! We actually have every reason to be grateful and when we commit to meekness, we have the Lord to help us remember that.
Important sidenote: I have learned that meekness can coexist with many different emotions. We often picture a humble, quiet servant who doesn’t talk back or ever complain, but I don’t think that’s the only way to be meek.
Even in the midst of anger or frustration or exasperation or devastation or annoyance, we can simultaneously say, “I know Thee, Lord. I know I am in Thy hands, and I know that Thou art doing what’s best for me.” You don’t have to turn down your emotions in order to successfully approach the Lord. Just simultaneously bring your knowledge that the Lord is watching out for you. Better yet, take those big emotions to the Lord and ask Him to help you see more clearly so that it’s not difficult to be meek.
When I approached Him in prayer about seeing my family while they were in town, I was bawling. I’ve definitely approached Him and carried my anger with me. We don’t have to seem all pious and restrained. We can simply cling to our testimony that the Lord loves us and wants what’s best for us.
The truth is, the Lord is often going to do what He’s going to do anyway. If the Israelites had simply approached Moses (or approached the Lord, directly) and asked for some dietary variety, maybe the Lord would have sent the right amount of quail rather than sending a difficult lesson alongside it. However, the blessing of meekness is that regardless of what the Lord chose to send, the Israelites could have been happy.
We came here to struggle. He can’t take that away without simultaneously robbing us of the purpose of the Plan of Salvation (growth), and meekness softens that struggle enough that we can see it more clearly. It enables us to see around it and rejoice anyway.
I testify that the Lord has your best interest at heart. I testify that He loves you. I testify that meekness over complaining is a gift that blesses us. It honors Him with the deference He deserves, but even our meekness before Him gives back to us. I testify that trials are gifts, and that the Lord provides.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Numbers 11–14; 20–24; 27 – Jennifer Roach Lees
May 06, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Numbers 11–14; 20–24; 27 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
May 05, 2026
The Spy Report That Cost 40 Years
by Autumn Dickson
The Israelites are wandering in the wilderness before they’re led to the promised land. They’re having experiences with God and learning difficult lessons. They’re being provided for even if it’s not everything they had in mind. They have had experiences of faith as well as experiences where they betrayed the witnesses they had received. Let’s talk about one of the times they were rebellious and unfaithful.
In Numbers 13, Moses sends twelve spies (one from each tribe) into Canaan. Depending on where you read in the bible (see Deuteronomy 1), the timelines differ slightly. One suggests the people wanted to spy; one suggests the Lord recommended it. Either way, the church seems to emphasize the Lord’s approval of the mission.
The spies come back with the following report.
Numbers 13:27
27 And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
They then warned of the city’s defenses. Caleb encouraged the people to have faith, but ten of the other spies continued on with their report.
Numbers 13:31-33
31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.
It’s important to understand that Canaan was the promised land. It is eventually (mostly) conquered by the Israelites and divided out amongst the tribes. The Lord had led them through this entire experience from slavery to the edge of the land of promise, only for them to believe they wouldn’t be able to take the land.
So what does this teach us?
Your promised land is available. I’m not simply talking about the mansion being built for you on the other side. I’m talking about all the most important aspects of the promised land. Peace, contentment, joy, healthy relationships, all of these things are available to you. These are all crucial parts of our salvation and eternity. Sure, eternity also includes all of our needs being met and perfect bodies, but some of the most important portions of the promised land are available to us right now.
So what kept the Israelites from inheriting the promised land sooner?
A lack of faith.
What keeps us from inheriting the portions of promised land that are available to us on this side of the veil?
A lack of faith.
That’s it. That’s the first step on this journey towards your promised land. The Israelites didn’t need military might or impeccable strategy. They needed faith. You don’t need all of the things you think you need. You just need to trust the Lord.
It’s enough for you to see the land flowing with milk and honey and say, “The Lord meant for me to have that.” Sometimes it’s hard to feel that way when you see what you’re up against; namely, all of your own flaws and mistakes and imperfections. The Israelites certainly didn’t feel capable. However, you’re not conquering the land for yourself; you’re showing up for the Lord to conquer it for you.
So how do we do better than the Israelites so it doesn’t take us forty years to figure out how to be in the promised land?
Well if our problem is a lack of faith, maybe we should look at increasing faith. Here is one recommendation from Bednar on how to do that.
The enabling power of the Atonement is accessed by faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith is strengthened as we remember and acknowledge the hand of the Lord in our lives.
Remembering and acknowledging the Lord → Faith → Enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ steps in and gets us where we need to go
Would the Israelites have felt differently if all the spies had come back and started with a list of the ways the Lord had provided for them from the time they were in slavery? If they had started off with the miraculous infant survival of Moses to the steps right outside the promised land, it would have been a long list. There were many times that the Israelites didn’t even lift a finger for their own freedom and survival; the Lord took it completely on Himself. And that’s just the list of the society as a whole. How many personal miracles did the Israelites experience from family to family?
Would it have changed how the Israelites approached this experience? I’m not sure, but I know it’s changed how I approach my own life.
I think that’s partially why my prayers have been so powerful in my life, specifically the gratitude. When I’m facing a situation of uncertainty or tragedy, I pray. There are so many wonderful ways to pray and draw closer to the Lord, but one of the most powerful ways I’ve found is to start with true gratitude (even when it’s mixed with sorrow or fear or anger). When I’m struggling, I don’t list nice things that happened throughout the day. I consciously think of similar situations in the past where the Lord has shown up for me.
By the end of the prayer, I often find myself in some version of the promised land, even if the obstacle wasn’t removed.
I testify that the Lord has saved you many times before this, and He will continue to save you in the future. He will continue to teach you the lessons He needs to teach you until you’re ready to step into that promised land He has offered each of us despite mortal circumstances. I testify that if we take the time to record these miracles and tender mercies, it makes our faith powerful.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 35–40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
May 02, 2026
Repenting of Unintentional Sin
by Autumn Dickson
In my last post, we talked about Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. As a quick review in case you missed the last post, this day was a solemn event with an undercurrent of joy. The main ritual of the day included two identical male goats. One goat would be sacrificed with its blood spread on the Holy of Holies and its fat burned on the altar. The priest would lay his hands on the second goat, pronounce the intentional and unintentional sins of Israel upon it, and then send the goat out into the wilderness. The first goat represented the payment of Israel’s sins. The second goat represented the guilt being taken away from them.
The detail that I want to explore from this ritual is when the priest symbolically transferred the sins of Israel onto the second goat. There are parallels to Christ in all of these steps and details, but that’s the one I want to talk about today. Here’s the verse that teaches us about this.
Leviticus 16:21-22
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
Implication one from this detail: It is important to repent of unintentional sin. It is good for us. It makes us happier.
I think of when my oldest daughter finally lashes out at my son when he’s being purposefully obnoxious. My son often tortures his sisters repeatedly, not hurting them or saying directly mean things, but pushing their buttons until they explode on him. My daughter will hold out as long as she can until she finally explodes in a violent reaction.
The violent reaction is more jarring than the relentless teasing, but whose heart is actually sinning (Yes, I recognize that both my kids are young and one isn’t even accountable yet. This is about the principle, not the specific details)? My son is the one truly trying to make his sister batty; that’s his entire purpose. My daughter never set out to bug or hurt him; she simply has the emotional control of an eight year old.
And yet, she still needs to repent. She doesn’t need to repent because she’s evil and horrible and cursed. She needs to repent because it’s going to make her happier. Repenting isn’t just about atoning for what you’ve done; it’s about changing so you’re protected, close to Christ, and happier. In this specific example, my long-term goal for her repentance is to get to the point where her brother doesn’t affect her. She just goes on in her life, unbothered by people who are purposefully trying to make her life harder. That’s part of happiness, and therefore, repenting is a gift.
Obviously, I need to help my son change too, but my principle here is about repenting of unintentional sins, not intentional ones.
I used an example of violence, and I specifically used an example where she made a mistake because she’s flawed like the rest of us. It’s easy to see how violence needs to be repented of. However, these same principles apply when we’re trying to do what’s right but not worshiping how the Savior would have us worship.
We talked about this recently with the golden calf incident. Maybe Israel wasn’t trying to worship a different deity. Perhaps they had just created an idol in hopes of worshiping the God who had just delivered them. Perhaps their hearts were trying to do what’s right but were misguided.
Even if their hearts were in a good place, repentance of unintentional sin is important. Heavenly Father gives commandments to help us be good people, but He also gives us commandments to protect us from becoming bad. Seems like a silly nuance but let me elaborate. Israel could have very quickly devolved into worshiping the calf rather than the Lord even if their intention had been to worship the Lord in the beginning. They needed to repent because the Lord wanted to protect them.
So even if the Israelites had unintentionally sinned (and I emphasize if since we don’t know precisely where their hearts were), they still needed to repent! They still needed to repent of unintentional sins so they could remain close to the Lord where they would be happy.
So quick recap so we can understand where we’re going: The detail we’re covering is that the priest symbolically transferred the unintentional and intentional sins of Israel up on the goat that would be released into the wilderness.
Implication two from this detail: We’re trying to change our sinful nature, not just listing off individual sins and saying sorry. Ultimate repentance is about changing to be like God, not racking up individual points that tip the scales and put us in the Celestial Kingdom.
When I write my posts, I often use AI to help me get my details straight. I don’t use it to actually write my content in case anyone was wondering, but I do use it to make sure I’m understanding timelines and facts. For example, I asked it to give me a play-by-play of the ritual so I wouldn’t accidentally ruin one of the details.
I turned to AI as I was writing this early in the morning and asked, “Did the Israelites write down their sins and give it to the priest to transfer over to the goat?” It was only after hitting “enter,” that I realized how ridiculous that question was. I blamed the early morning and brain fog.
Anyway, AI responded by saying that no one gave the priest a long list of the sins they committed over the past year. First of all, that’s terribly impractical. It’s impractical (and unhealthy) to keep a list of all your sins, and it’s impractical to list each sin of each individual for the entire society for the entire year. Second of all, a majority of them were illiterate. Like I said, I blame the early morning for my ridiculous question, but I’m actually grateful that I asked it because it led me to a beautiful implication.
Because of my question, I more consciously realized that the Israelites weren’t listing individual sins. It’s not about repenting of individual sins and trying to garner points that put us in the Celestial Kingdom. It’s about changing our nature to goodness. The priest didn’t transfer each individual sin onto the goat for it to run out into the wilderness; the priest merely acknowledged the sinful nature for the year. Perhaps this seems cheap; it’s so easy to go to Heavenly Father and be like, “I sinned a lot last year. Forgive me please.” However, religious rituals are only as cheap as you make them.
This ritual wasn’t about reliving every mistake and rebellion. This ritual wasn’t about rehashing everything you did wrong. This ritual was about recognizing that you can’t make it to heaven on your own. It’s about fully understanding how lost you are without Christ and rejoicing as you watch that goat be taken away. It’s about wanting to change into a new creature, one who is worthy and joyful, a person who can live in heaven and contribute to the atmosphere there and appreciate the atmosphere there.
I testify that the Lord was sacrificed for our sins. I testify that He gave us an opportunity to remember that each week with the sacrament. Like with Yom Kippur, we have an opportunity to repent of unintentional and intentional sins so that we can be happier. We have an opportunity to sit with our reality as mortals who live in a fallen world who rely wholly on the merits of Christ and to rejoice that He is willing to carry us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 35–40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Apr 28, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 35–40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 27, 2026
Still Holding On To Guilt?
by Autumn Dickson
This week we’re learning about the sacrifices and rituals of the Israelites in the wilderness. They had a temple that would go with them as they travelled, and there was immense symbolism all throughout this temple. Much of this symbolism was meant to draw the attention of the Israelites towards the atonement of Jesus Christ. It was called a sacrifice, but it was actually a blessing.
One of the detailed rituals that we get to read about occurs on Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement. The central ritual on this day involved two identical male goats, both had to be perfectly healthy. Here are some of the details of that ritual.
Leviticus 16:7-8
7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
So the priest would cast lots to see which goat would take which role. The first goat would be killed, and its blood would be collected in a basin. The high priest would take that blood into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle it upward once and downward seven times. The fat would be burned, and the rest of the goat would be taken outside the camp and burned.
This symbolized the payment of Israel’s sins.
The second goat was the scapegoat. The high priest would lay both hands on the goat and confess all of the intentional and unintentional sins of Israel upon the head of the goat. Essentially, the priest was symbolically transferring the guilt to the goat. A designated man would lead the goat into the remote wilderness and release it.
This symbolized the guilt being removed from the Israelites.
I love that they are separate processes. There are so many layers of symbolism, but one of the layers is something I talk about often:
Christ already paid for the sins; what do we do with this knowledge?
Think about the power of that second goat when it was taken as it was meant to be taken. Imagine being an Israelite and watching these rituals take place. You watch the ritual with the understanding that the Son of God would be sacrificed to pay for your sins, and then you watch another ritual in which your guilt runs off into the wilderness.
I think one of the issues that we have in modern times is believing that the atonement of Jesus Christ occurred but holding on to our own sins anyway. It would be like having an understanding that the Son of God was sacrificed, watching the scapegoat be taken away, and still going home to reflect and beat yourself up over your own sins. The sacrifice of the first goat doesn’t matter if you refuse to let go of the second goat. The fact that the second goat is now out in the wilderness didn’t matter. You have to internalize both parts to receive joy.
The atonement of Jesus Christ was incredible in and of itself. The act of love was immense and singular. Everything hinged on this sacrifice performed by Christ. But Christ didn’t perform the sacrifice just to perform the sacrifice. The atonement of Jesus Christ enabled the Father to remain perfect with His promises, but it was meant for even more than that incredible purpose. It was meant to make us joyful. The atonement of Jesus Christ remains an independent fact of reality, but what we do with that knowledge determines whether it fills the fullness of its purpose in our lives.
If Yom Kippur had only included the first goat, the Israelites could have learned about Christ and His atonement. They could have rejoiced that He paid for their sins, and they could have garnered hope from this sacrifice. But I love that it included the second goat, the scapegoat, because it highlights our need to utilize the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives.
It’s not enough that He performed it; we have to bring that knowledge into our bones so that it changes us in a way that we are joyful. We have to send our guilt away from us. We have to put the weight down. It’s a conscious, voluntary choice.
I think many of us hope the guilt will simply be taken away from us, or at least that’s what I used to think. I believed that if I was truly forgiven, I just wouldn’t feel guilty anymore. The Lord would remove it for me. Interestingly enough, that’s not how it usually works. The Lord is too wise to vanish our guilt away from us.
The process of repentance wouldn’t be nearly as effective in this way. If the Lord simply took away the guilt because it was paid for, we would learn nothing and we certainly wouldn’t attach that redemption to the Son of God. We would just wake up in the morning and not feel guilty anymore. We might not even register the fact that the guilt was gone or we could unconsciously start to believe, “I can do what I want, and I don’t feel bad about it. Maybe it’s not even bad.” There were many times that I wanted the Lord to take the guilt away. I didn’t want to carry it with me and I asked the Lord to take it away, but He was wise enough to wait for me to trust Him enough to set it down on my own.
He waited for me to consciously say, “Christ promised that He took care of this. He promised that He’s strong enough to save me. I’m going to voluntarily step onto that trust and send my guilt away.” This is the most powerful way to repent. It pushes us to recognize the source of our renewed cleanliness as well as the fact that what we did was wrong. Having consequences (including guilt) magically dissipate is unhealthy for our desire to do better.
So the Lord paid for it, and then He waits for us to learn to trust Him so that we send the guilt away of our own accord.
That’s not to say Christ isn’t present for every step of this process. He paid for the sins, and He didn’t abandon me when I asked Him to take the guilt away. He just helped in a different way than making the guilt dissipate. The Israelites didn’t have to individually lead their own scapegoat into the wilderness. There was still a representative who did that for them. The key here is that it needed to mean something to them. They had to trust that their representative would take care of it, and it would truly be gone.
I’m grateful for a Savior who paid for my sins. I’m grateful that He was patient as I learned to trust Him rather than removing the very difficulties that helped me recognize my reality and love Him for it. I’m grateful that I’ve learned to set my sins and mistakes and embarrassments down; the Savior truly is mighty to save. That knowledge gives me hope in every situation I remember Him in.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 24, 2026
The Idols We Don’t Call Idols
by Autumn Dickson
The Israelites were delivered by incredible miracles. The plagues were immense in and of themselves, but the parting of the Red sea was next level. The Lord had freed the Israelites through marvelous power, just as He promised.
A short time later, the people find themselves in the wilderness. Moses is lingering up on the mountain away from everyone, and the Israelites have gotten antsy. They convince Aaron to make them an idol to worship. Aaron tells them to bring their earrings, he melts them down, and makes a golden calf.
Exodus 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
I grew up thinking these people were ridiculous. You just saw the sea part, and you forgot that fast? How could you be so blind? Why would you follow after another deity?
As I got a bit older, I remembered that they had just been slaves. Despite the miracles, I assume they were still very young in the doctrine of Christ. How much were they taught in the midst of everything else Moses was trying to take care of in freeing them?
Maybe I’m late to the party, but as I read the verses this time, I started to wonder if they really followed after another god at all. There was an Egyptian god that was represented by a cow, but ancient Near Eastern studies also explain a connection between bulls and calves and mounts and thrones for deity. Maybe they were just trying to build a physical representation of their God to carry with them.
In the verse we read, we even see that Aaron tells Israel, “This is the god who brought you out of Egypt.”
Perhaps they weren’t worshipping a different god at all. Perhaps their worship was merely corrupted. Maybe that’s why Aaron didn’t put a stop to it. Maybe he thought it was fine because he thought it was one way to worship the true God. Maybe he thought it was great that they were sacrificing their gold and trying to worship the God who had delivered them.
Obviously we don’t know. There aren’t enough details. However, there are principles we can learn about the gospel from studying it from either angle. Today, I’m going to speak as if this angle (corrupted worship over following after a different god) is the true angle, simply so we can explore it more effectively. However, before I begin, I completely concede that we don’t know for sure whether this is the truth of the account. Fortunately, whether I have the story’s details correct isn’t completely relevant. What’s important is that the principles I want to talk about are correct.
So that’s what we’re going to talk about. Maybe the Israelites were hoping for a symbol of Christ, not a separate idol to worship. Plot twist. When we don’t worship how the Savior prescribes (like building a golden calf), we run into danger of turning that symbol into an idol. I guess we’re talking about corrupted worship and worshiping idols.
Now, following another god is crazy after everything the Israelites experienced; worshiping in a corrupted manner is more understandable. However! Despite it being more understandable, it is still dangerous and needs to be corrected and prevented regardless of whether their hearts were in the right place. Sometimes the world looks at sin and gives a pass when your heart is in the right place. We can be understanding of a good heart and still make the correction; it is loving to make the correction.
When I was around 10 years old, I remember my mom walking into my room when I was saying my nightly prayers. I had a picture of Christ sitting in front of me while I prayed because I wanted it to help me remember Him. It made my mother a little bit uncomfortable (at least that’s how I remember it when I was 10), and she told me it wasn’t a great idea. The practice stopped that night.
Some would call this silly. Why not let a child put a picture in front of them to help them focus on Christ? I understand the sentiment. Having something in front of you to focus your thoughts and help you be reverent so you can focus on Christ can be a good thing.
But there’s another side to that coin too. It could be fine. I could have kept the picture of Christ and never run into dangerous ground. I don’t think I would have worshiped the picture, but let’s talk about a couple of perspectives I might have adopted had the practice continued.
I could have gotten to the point where I didn’t feel like I could pray without the picture there. I could have gotten ultra-protective of the picture. I could have wanted to carry the picture with me to make me feel safe even though I was perfectly safe without it. I could have attributed more power to the picture than the picture held. I could have given it power over me even though it had no power innately.
Even if I didn’t consider the picture my “god,” it still could have affected my life. And in perfect honesty, that’s how most idols work these days. People don’t call their priority their god; they don’t consider themselves worshiping idols. They just give all their time and energy and resources to something, hoping it will bring them deeper happiness than it is capable of giving.
We are worshiping incorrectly when we attribute power to things that don’t have power. We are worshiping incorrectly when we give things power over our lives and place all of our hopes for happiness on those things. Even if we don’t call them “gods,” we’re still worshiping wrong and hurting ourselves.
People do stuff like this all the time. Superstition is rampant in our world. It’s easy to start giving things power when they hold no power. Maybe I would have never been so silly as to give the picture any power, but I’m not totally sure. Let’s look at another example.
I got plenty superstitious as I played tennis through high school. I went through the same routine between each point, worried that if I changed it, I might lose. Plot twist 2. I lost a lot of the time anyway. And yet there I was, making sure I always did the short handshake with my partner in between points. I made sure I bounced the ball three times before serving, and then I would start over if I messed something up. I literally remember messing up my rhythm in between points and feeling cursed. I was convinced I had ruined the point before the point even began. Needless to say, I basically gave those points away.
The Israelites have just left Egypt behind where they were surrounded and ruled by people who worshipped things like the golden calf. It was dangerous to their spiritual health. Even if it was meant to represent Christ, it would have been very easy (as we see throughout the rest of the Old Testament) for them to turn it into their god instead. For example, when they run into problems, did they feel a need to go and talk to the calf or did they pray to God? If something happened and the calf was damaged, would they have cursed themselves by assuming they were cursed for hurting the golden calf?
I gave away points in tennis because I attributed more power to my routine than it actually held. What would the Israelites have given away because internally, they were giving more power to the golden calf than it actually held?
We worship how the Savior asks us to worship. That’s when we are at our most spiritually powerful. That’s when we are going to be led in the right direction concerning His character and decisions regarding us. That’s when we’re going to be able to get closer to the truth, and therefore, closer to happiness.
I testify that the Lord has revealed His own character and the way that He wants us to worship. I testify that He did this because He wants to protect us and keep us close to the truth of things. I testify that as we follow what He has given, we see reality more clearly and find deeper joy.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Apr 21, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 19–20; 24; 31–34 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 20, 2026
Why God Let the Israelites Worship the Golden Calf
by Autumn Dickson
The infamous golden calf incident; that is one of the stories we read about this week. Moses is gone a long time speaking with the Lord. The people grow impatient and tell Aaron to build them a god. He took their earrings (the ones the Lord told them they could take out of Egypt), melted them down, and formed them into the calf.
Here is one of the details I noted this week that I didn’t recognize before.
Exodus 32:7 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
I have a feeling that the Lord knew when and why the people were making the golden calf. While He worked with Moses, He knew far ahead of time that they were going to make an idol for themselves. What I’m trying to imply is the fact that He could have purposefully sent Moses down earlier to prevent the entire debacle. It never needed to happen…or did it? I suppose that depends on how you define “need.”
The word “need” has more nuance than we think sometimes. I need the Savior in order to live with my Heavenly Father again; that is a defined, definite, unaltering need without any leeway. I also use that word in this way: I needed my parents to teach me and love me into a testimony of the Savior. Perhaps I could have found the Savior without them, but so much of what I have was given to me by my parents. I was given so much from them that I feel comfortable using the word “need.” There is a spectrum of the word “need.”
We need the Savior, and the Savior is also wise enough to understand that we need supports to help us find Him.
Did the Israelites need to go through this incident of worshipping a golden calf after being freed from Egypt? Perhaps they didn’t need it to the extent that they needed a Savior, but I’m comfortable with utilizing that word to describe their situation. They needed to have this experience outwardly so that they could be taught in a powerful way. They needed this experience so they could flesh it out of their hearts.
So the Lord could have prevented the sin altogether by simply sending Moses down. I’m sure the Lord would have had plenty of time to teach Moses at other opportunities, and they would have been able to surpass this debacle altogether.
But is that what Israel needed?
There are some principles here that we can apply to our own lives.
The first principle is the idea that the Lord is more concerned with us learning powerful lessons than being perfect.
I have noticed a trend among parents that they would do absolutely anything to prevent harm from coming to their child. The sentiment is great. Of course we don’t want our children to get hurt. However, sometimes the most powerful thing for our children is for them to face real consequences rather than constant protection.
Last summer, my son would often run off and jump on his dirt bike without a helmet or shoes. Despite the fact that I got onto him again and again and again and again, I couldn’t perfectly keep him protected. Even when I sent him out with shoes and a helmet, he would often leave them behind throughout the day and do what he wanted.
I could have taken the dirt bike away completely, and I did for periods of time. But it wasn’t working. He wasn’t learning.
At the same time, I felt inspired to pray that he would make mistakes and learn powerful lessons without killing himself or getting seriously injured. To be honest, I didn’t make the connection between my prayer and his bad safety habits ahead of time. This is why I know it was an inspired prayer.
One day I sent Warner outside to play with his sister before school. I told him explicitly to stay in the yard because I didn’t want to have to run off and find him and have him be late for school. Unfortunately, the dirt bikes are kept in a shed in the backyard. He jumped on one and put his sister on the back, and they left the yard and rode off.
Thirty seconds later, they were hit by a car. The car was moving very slowly, and she threw on her brakes and essentially tapped them over.
No broken bones. I don’t even think there was any real blood. There were some skinned knees and bruises, but they were totally fine.
Warner was also petrified. The cops came and checked everything out to make sure they were okay. I don’t know if he thought he was going to jail. I don’t know if he was feeling the gravity of what could have happened (as much as a five year old can feel). I do know that he wore his shoes and helmet willingly the rest of the summer. I still had to remind him occasionally, but he didn’t fight me on it like he had before.
The lesson he learned from living the consequences was far more powerful than any words I could have shared, and he started to voluntarily use his agency more wisely than he had previously. That’s the true goal. It’s not about perfection or complete and total safety; it’s about us learning how to use our agency wisely and on purpose so that we can live happy lives.
I’m grateful for the lesson my son learned that day. I’m grateful that the lesson wasn’t so severe as to permanently injure him or his sister.
Israel learned a hard lesson when Moses came back down from the mountain. They learned it very clearly. Would they have learned it in the same way if Moses had simply told them the Ten Commandments? The Lord could have prevented the entire problem, but He was wise enough to know that allowing the incident and imperfection to teach wisdom.
I’m grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ which means that we can make these mistakes in a controlled environment where nothing has to permanently injure our spirit. Even when we make the mistake of creating idols out of the very things the Lord has given us, He doesn’t cast us aside. He purposefully allows us to make those mistakes so we can learn those powerful lessons, and then He pays for those mistakes. He is selfless in its truest sense. He just wants us to be happy, and I’m so grateful He paid for me to have these experiences.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 14–18 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 17, 2026
Parted Waters, Messy Leadership, and Miracles
by Autumn Dickson
The story of Moses freeing the Israelites through the power of God is an incredible parable for the atonement of Jesus Christ. It’s probably the most important lesson we can pull from that story. However, it’s not the only story we can learn from it. There are other principles at work too. Let’s talk about one of them.
Within the story, we find Moses exhorting the people to have faith in God and His ability to deliver. We’ve come a long way from Moses being worried about talking to Pharaoh. After exhorting the people to believe and trust, he turns to the Lord. The Lord tells him to move forward, and there would be a miracle. Moses listens.
Exodus 14:21-22
21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
I want to zoom in on some of the people who were experiencing these events. I have no idea how the individual Israelites were truly reacting outwardly and in their hearts, but let’s talk about relatable hypotheticals.
I want you to imagine an Israelite who was particularly grumpy about being saved; let’s call him Joshua. Despite the fact that Joshua was saved, he was still a little peeved over the fact that there were so many problems along the way. Surely, the whole process of saving Israel could have been a lot smoother. Moses wasn’t very good at convincing Pharaoh to let the people go, and they ended up with a lot of extra work. He had to put blood on his doors which just seems unnecessary; why couldn’t God just save them if He was really so powerful? And then, of course, Joshua was one of the first to call Moses out when they noticed that the Egyptians were chasing after them to kill them in the wilderness.
What was Moses thinking bringing them out here? Sure, their lives weren’t fantastic, but at least they were alive. Why did Moses feel the need to go ruin it and why did everyone follow after him? If you’re going to save someone, you should do it right and actually save them. Not just do it halfway.
Joshua is legitimately worried about himself and his family and this supposed prophet who has led them into the wilderness to be slaughtered. Despite the real danger behind them, Moses has the gall to tell them to just have faith. Who does that? Moses is the reason they’re in danger, and his response is for them to trust him? Who does he think he is?
But then something changes. Moses starts walking towards the water, and miracle of miracles, the water parts for the Israelites to walk through.
Maybe there is something here. Maybe Moses has God behind him. So Joshua follows.
Unfortunately, this process isn’t necessarily smoother than the experiences with the plagues. The terrain left behind after the parted waters can be treacherous. Trying to get families safely through it is downright dangerous. It can be steep and rocky. It’s hard to tread through the sand. Couldn’t Moses have summoned a boat instead? Surely that would have been easier than parting the entire sea.
Not to mention, how do we know this miracle is going to hold? Joshua is pretty skeptical about this whole thing. Does he have the power to hold this long enough or are they all just going to end up drowning anyway? Conveniently for Moses, they don’t have a choice but to follow him anyway.
Now, I want you to imagine for a moment that Joshua slips and slides down the face of a rock. He becomes injured, and he is fed up. He is so over this. How can Moses be so reckless with the lives of people he apparently loves and wants to rescue?
Joshua is done. He’s turning back. He’s done putting his life at risk for this mortal man who is supposed to be saving them.
Seems a bit ridiculous, don’t you think?
And yet, don’t we see this all the time? The church hasn’t been perfect. The programs aren’t perfect. Leaders aren’t perfect. In fact, some people who were called into positions were downright evil and dangerous. Sometimes people have gotten hurt along the way because of those imperfections. Sometimes there has been true fear involved.
These are all true and legitimate statements.
But it’s also true that the Lord sent plagues and enabled the Israelites to walk out of Egypt. It’s also true that the Red Sea was parted.
The path was messy. There was difficulty and fear and devastation. There were also miracles beyond our wildest dreams and covenants with a Lord who has a land for our inheritance. There is a life beyond slavery. It’s not necessarily going to be an easy life, but it’s a life worth living. It’s worth growing and owning your decisions and having the freedom to build something for yourself. It’s worth the difficulty to get a front row seat for the miracles. It is worth leaving slavery for.
It is worth it to follow the prophet. Don’t miss the miracles of the priesthood structure and church and The Book of Mormon and the youth programs and welfare programs and the missionary programs. The church is doing miraculous things and changing lives. It’s giving people an opportunity to rise above previous circumstances. The prophet is being led by the Savior even if you think things should be done differently.
Maybe you don’t like the whole list of plagues you had to go through before the death of the firstborn. Maybe you don’t like the blood on the door.
Maybe the Lord is trying to teach you about His atonement.
Maybe you don’t like the difficult path you’ve had to walk within the church.
Maybe the Lord is trying to teach you about His atonement.
The story of the exodus from Egypt is a powerful parable for the atonement of Jesus Christ. It’s also an incredible example of why it’s important to follow the prophet even if things don’t go perfectly smoothly or even if you think that you could have done things better. The Lord has called a prophet, and He knows what He’s doing.
So you can stay in slavery or you can join the Lord in this journey where even the treacherous parts can contribute to a glorious you.
I testify that the Lord loves His children. I testify that He led Moses even when things weren’t going smoothly. I testify that following the prophet enabled the Israelites to be freed through the power of the Savior. I testify that the Lord is leading His church through a living prophet today. Perhaps that prophet hasn’t been led perfectly, but it would be ridiculous to miss out on the miracles because of the mistakes.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 14–18 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Apr 14, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 14–18 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 13, 2026
Delivered…But Pharaoh Came Again
by Autumn Dickson
I love the story of Moses and the Red Sea. There is a reason it was used as an example time and time again throughout the history of the scriptures. There is so much goodness.
One of the parts of the story that used to stick out to me was the fact that Pharaoh released them, but then he came after them again. Here are some verses about it.
Exodus 14:8-9
8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand.
9 But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea…
I believe that the Lord is in the details, so what do we learn from this idea that the Israelites were free but then once again in danger? I used to think it had something to do with the fact that Christ suffered in Gethsemane and on the cross. He suffered twice as part of the atonement. Was that somehow relevant? Perhaps, but there are always multiple layers and details. Let’s talk about one of the potential parallels from the fact that the Israelites had to be saved from the Egyptians twice.
The Israelites were saved by the death of the firstborns in Egypt. Pharaoh is finally ready to release them, and he lets them pass by into the wilderness. Unfortunately, little time passes and Pharaoh is right back at it. He pursues the Israelites to come and enslave them again.
Think about this for a minute. Christ has saved us. We have passed through those gates and out of slavery.
But the work isn’t done. There is still an enemy after us that has the power to enslave us again. He is relentless despite everything that points to the power of God. He comes after us in his might.
What did the Israelites do? When they faced slavery, maybe even death, again, how did they respond?
Not well in the beginning. They were really afraid and they turned to Moses saying, “Why didn’t you leave us alone to be slaves? It would be better to be slaves in Egypt than dead in the wilderness.” Moses has an epic response.
Exodus 14:13-14
13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
14 The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Moses encourages them to have faith, turns to the Lord, and the Lord tells him to proceed. The Israelites walk through the Red Sea on dry ground.
So. Many. Cool. Parallels.
The Lord saved them out of Egypt, and He saved them again with the Red Sea. It is so important to note that. The Israelites didn’t make the ground dry so that they could walk across. Moses didn’t even do it. The Lord did it. He was the one who utilized Moses to part the Red Sea. It was the Lord’s power.
And yet, the Israelites still had a job. They had to walk forward in faith, just like Moses encouraged. They could have watched the walls of water form on either side, sat down on the beach, and said, “There’s salvation! It’s right there. How cool.” And then they could have just stayed there to be killed by the Egyptians. They could have feared that treading the sea floor would be too treacherous, or that the salvation wouldn’t hold and they would end up drowning after walking into the water. There were any number of responses that they could have had, but they took a leap of faith, followed the prophet, and trusted the Lord’s miracle. They took the chance that the Lord gave to them.
The death of the Firstborn has freed us, but an enemy still pursues after us.
We could sit down, observe the miracle changing the lives of those around us, and not actually take the opportunity that the Lord has given to us. We could think the miracle is really cool but not actually follow the prophet. We could look at the difficult path on the sea floor and feel like it’s too hard. We could worry and fret that the miracle wouldn’t hold, that Christ doesn’t actually have the power to save us.
Or, we could move forward in faith. We can trust that this miracle was made for us, to protect us from those who would enslave and destroy us. We could trust that maybe there is a Being out there who lives His life for the pure joy of saving us, who simply wants our faith and love in return.
Follow the prophet. The Lord will help you navigate the path. He will provide deliverance. Trust Him.
I testify that the Lord has provided deliverance. I also testify that there is still an enemy who wants us to be miserable and destroyed if he can help it. I testify that the Lord has the power to save us from that enemy and our job is to have faith. That’s our job. Have the faith necessary to trust that the prophet can lead us through on dry ground by the power of God.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 7–13 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 10, 2026
Find Joy in the Wilderness
by Autumn Dickson
When I was studying the Doctrine and Covenants last year, my pattern revolved around learning about the people who were receiving the revelations and how they were feeling so that we could better relate to them and receive the same comfort in the revelations that they did. As I’ve studied the Old Testament thus far, I’ve found a different pattern for learning principles from God. Namely, I look at the details in the class Old Testament stories, and I find the parallels for our day. It’s been powerful and helpful.
So without further ado, here’s another detail from the Moses and Plagues story. The God of the Hebrews is working to free His people from slavery in Egypt. There are some questions that we could ask as to why He didn’t jump right in with the death of the firstborn, but those questions can be asked another time. As the Lord continues on with His work through Moses, Pharaoh appears to relent a couple of times. He tells Moses, “Take back the frogs, and I’ll let them go.” But then he hardens his heart and refuses to free them.
It happens again with the flies. Pharaoh tells Moses to take away the flies and he will let the people go. Here is how Moses responds.
Exodus 8:29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow: but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
Of course, Pharaoh goes back on his word and refuses to release them. Maybe he was hoping Moses and His God would run out of power and not be able to send any more plagues? Regardless, Pharaoh still holds the Israelites captive.
There is a lot of goodness here, but I want to draw your attention to one detail. Moses wants the Israelites free so that they can go sacrifice to the Lord in the wilderness. This is not the only time this is mentioned. More than once, Moses specifically says this. Pharaoh needs to free the Israelites so that they can go and sacrifice to the Lord out of Egypt and in the wilderness.
Oof. Is there a better way to describe life after we finish our ordinances? We are made free by the death of the Firstborn, we pass through the gate, and what do we see? A whole lot of wilderness. For a long time. Why are we here in the wilderness? It seemed so exciting to be free before. Now it just seems dusty, hot, hard, and uncomfortable.
Interestingly enough, we didn’t walk through those gates to make it into paradise immediately. The gate was just the first step. We’ve been freed from slavery, but we don’t know how to be happy and healthy yet. There are many more lessons to learn. There is a lot of sacrifice to be made so that we can understand what it means to grow to be like the Lord and find what He found. We have a long journey ahead of us.
It’s funny. I remember being on my mission and working long hours with minimal breaks. I remember rushing to write in my journal at night so that I could pass out in my bed on time and get as much sleep as possible because I was so dang tired. I remember mentally aching when I had to leave the dinner table at the houses of members I was close to. I think that was one of the things I missed the most while I was on the mission. I grew up in a family where we all ate dinner together and talked the whole time. We had a lot of family come into town for holidays, and we would sit at the table for a long time afterwards and talk and laugh.
I missed that resting while on my mission. I remember getting on the plane, and I was so excited to eat a meal and then do nothing afterwards. I was excited to rest.
Lol.
I did get some rest for a while, but heaven knows life only speeds up after that. We came here to struggle in the wilderness, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to make sacrifices and grow and learn what we’re supposed to learn. We didn’t come here to finish all of that so we could rest. We came to sacrifice in the wilderness.
Which sounds horrible, but it doesn’t have to be.
This was a timely lesson for me. I have a goal right now to be grateful for the opportunity to wear myself out in the name of the Lord. I’m not talking about being a martyr, though sometimes that seems to be my default mode. Rather, I’m talking about completely turning my perspective upside down. I didn’t come to earth to preserve energy and my body. I didn’t come here to try and completely annihilate stress from my life or reach some magical point where I feel great enough to give all of myself.
Rather, when I catch the true feeling behind this goal I made, I find rest when I let go of my own concerns and cheerfully and willingly take advantage of these incredible opportunities God has given to me. Someday I’ll get enough sleep (or my body won’t need sleep? I don’t know?). Someday, I’ll have a perfect body and perfect perspective and all my needs met, and I won’t have to reach for those things anymore. They will be given to me. I’ll have a perfectly clean house with everything I could ask for.
Sometimes we get mixed up and wear ourselves out on the things that don’t matter, things that will be freely given to us on the other side. We’re putting all of our energy and hopes and focus on setting foot on that promised land. What if we let go and trusted that the promised land will make it to us at the right time? What if instead, we focused on the gift of the wilderness and what it has to offer?
I have found that when I stop striving to put my feet in the promised land here in mortality, I find beauty and rest and hope and peace in the wilderness.
Moses had it right. He didn’t tell Pharaoh that he was taking the Israelites to the promised land. Sure, that was the eventual goal, but there were some really important goals along the way before they would even be able to enjoy the promised land. Moses told Pharaoh to release the Israelites so that they could go and sacrifice in the wilderness.
When we let go of trying to hold on to ourselves, we find joy in the sacrifices we’re asked to make in the wilderness. That’s a true principle.
I’m grateful my Savior redeemed me. I’m grateful He let me walk through the gate and bind myself to Him through the ordinance of baptism. I’m grateful that He gave me a path with lessons along the way. I’m grateful that I don’t have to worry about reaching the promised land; He’s got that handled. All I have to worry about is learning along the way, sacrificing along the way. I’m grateful for my testimony that He will provide for all that I need in the wilderness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 7–13 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Apr 07, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 7–13 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 06, 2026
Magicians, Satan, and Cheap Imitations
by Autumn Dickson
This week we get to read about some of the plagues that occurred in Egypt before Pharaoh finally released the Israelite slaves. It’s a classic Old Testament story that has been told time and time again. It teaches us about Jesus Christ delivering us from sin, and there are many details that add rich layers to our understanding.
Let’s talk background to the verses I want to talk about today. Moses has told Pharaoh to let the people go, Pharaoh refused, and he gave the Israelites more work. Moses told Pharaoh to release them again, and then Moses turned the river to blood. Here is one of those details I want to talk about.
Exodus 7:22 And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said.
The magicians mimicked Moses. They turned more water into blood. We don’t know all of the details of how that occurred, but let’s explore another relevant detail.
Pharaoh didn’t release the Israelites, and Moses (through the power of the Lord) brought frogs up out of the rivers. Here is how the magicians reacted.
Exodus 8:7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.
As time moves on, more plagues come. Moses brings lice upon the Egyptians, and the magicians can’t mimic it. They tell Pharaoh that, “It is the finger of God.” After the lice, the magicians stop making an appearance. They are no longer active participants that we know of.
There are two parallels that I see.
Parallel 1. Satan mimics.
The magicians didn’t really do anything original, nor did they do anything on a grand scale like Moses did. They gave a watered down (pun intended) version of what Moses produced in order to give Pharaoh an excuse to ignore the miracles before his eyes. In the end, they gave enough that they saved their own skin for a while, but they were ultimately still walking towards their own misery.
Isn’t that ironic?
Satan may bluster and blow, but ultimately, we’re going to see how pathetic he is. Anything he is able to pull off will seem a little sad when we are finally able to pull back the curtain and see the majesty of God. Isaiah even prophecies about it.
Isaiah 14:16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
We’re going to look at Satan and be like, “This guy??” Satan may make himself and his followers feel better for a moment, but they’re really just walking on towards their own misery. They’re digging themselves further and further and further down into it rather than looking up and seeing the reality around them.
Parallel 2. The magicians just made it worse.
Has anyone else noticed the fact that the magicians literally added to the problem as part of their demonstration of power rather than saving the people? Am I late to the party in recognizing that? Because it blew my mind once the Lord helped me see it.
Perhaps some of us are asking why the magicians were able to mimic Moses at all. Maybe a more important question is, “If they’re powerful, why are they making more blood and more frogs rather than driving the plagues away?”
As we go through mortality, we’re going to see imitations from Satan.
We’re thirsty or hungry or feeling oppressed, and he’s going to whisper, “Do this. It will make you feel full and free.” The things we choose to engage in may fill for a while, but they’re actually just making the problem worse. We’ll see that it fills us for a minute and completely ignore the disasters happening around us. We’ll keep treading down that path, insistent that the God of the Hebrews has no place in our life.
Why did the magicians show their small demonstrations of power by making the problem worse? I’m not totally sure. However, it holds perfect parallels to Satan.
Satan can’t take away the plagues. He can placate you and make you feel as though the God of the Hebrews has no true power, but he is only making the problem worse. He is distracting you and giving you excuses to continue down your path towards misery.
There have been plenty of times in my life that I’ve wondered at the blindness of the world. Humans are so convinced that they’re doing things the right way to make themselves happy. They cry out against those who would have them show restraint, claiming that they’re controlling. When the plagues come, they blame the person who warned them rather than seeing natural consequences. Even more unfortunately, they lead their families into the same quicksand after them, ironically and falsely under the name of freedom and compassion.
Humans often love marching on to their own destruction.
It makes me wonder if any of the Egyptians wanted to follow the Hebrews. Did any of them put down their tools and weapons and ask themselves, “Maybe they do have the power of God with them. Should we follow them?” Or were they simply eager to kick out the Israelites and get back to their pathetic magicians in peace?
Blows my mind, but we see those patterns in the world all the time.
Fortunately, we can see things as they are. We won’t find the truth in the world. We can only find it from God, making Himself known to the people. He does have true power. He allows mimicry so as to preserve agency and faith, but He holds the truth as to leading healthy and happy lives. We follow Him, and we will find it. We will be protected, and we will find it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Easter – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 03, 2026
A Passover Question For You
by Autumn Dickson
For my last post this week, we talked about some specifics of Passover in order to better reflect on our free status because of Christ. I really love the Passover. My sister does a Passover meal for Easter each year, and there are so many beautiful traditions associated with it that can teach us about Christ if we choose to explore the symbolism. So I want to talk about a different aspect of Passover.
In Exodus, the Lord teaches His people to keep the Festival of Unleavened Bread (Passover) in Canaan.
Exodus 13:8 ¶ And thou shalt shew thy son in that day, saying, This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.
The Israelites were commanded to teach their children about their deliverance. Some of the traditions that formed as a part of this commandment are wonderful.
As the Jews do their Passover meal, they begin with strange ways that are different than any other day. This is meant to provoke curiosity in children. As they move through a couple of these strange steps, there is a ritual called Ma Nishtana. For this ritual, the youngest child would say:
“Why is this night different from all other nights?”
On all other nights we eat leavened and unleavened; tonight only unleavened.
On all other nights we eat all vegetables; tonight bitter herbs.
On all other nights we don’t dip even once; tonight twice.
On all other nights we eat sitting or reclining; tonight we all recline.
This would begin the story telling of how the Israelites were freed from Egypt.
Like with the Israelites on Passover, we, as Latter-day Saints, do things in a peculiar way. We live differently because of what we believe. And when our children (or anyone, for that matter) ask why, how do we answer them?
Because the answer should always connect back to Christ and His deliverance. Whenever we can connect it back to Christ, we should.
Why do we keep the Word of Wisdom? Because it keeps our bodies healthy and strong and better able to hear Christ.
Why do we go to the temple? To try and feel Christ more closely and to receive power from Him.
Why do we go to church every single week? Why do we keep the Sabbath Day Holy? Why are we so careful about our entertainment? Why do we keep the Law of Chastity? Why do we do Family Home Evening and Come Follow Me? Why are we making our lives harder and different?
These are peculiar traditions that were meant to put our lives in order so that we can better feel Christ and serve Him. It is always about Christ because in Christ, we find joy and peace.
When we try to do the gospel without Christ, it’s merely an extra burden. When we utilize the gospel to draw closer to Christ, that’s when it’s life-changing.
Whenever I start to feel like the gospel or church is a burden, I have learned that the problem is forgetting Christ. Let’s talk about it with a direct example.
I try to go to the temple once a month. I used to be so intense about it because I’m often intense about everything. I never missed a month, which is awesome except for the fact that it didn’t bring me closer to Christ. It just gave me a little rush of dopamine to cross it off my list and a weird sense of pride and martyrdom. Because I’m often intense about things like this, it can get really easy for me to overwhelm myself and reach the point where I want to give up entirely.
Everything changes when I switch my perspective to see tools and layers of bringing Christ into my life. This makes two great changes in my life.
The first is that I can utilize wisdom to know what to prioritize and to let go when things don’t come together. For example, I travelled a ton last month, and it was really difficult to go to the temple. We were gone for a little over half the month, and I have limited windows in which I can run over and participate in the temple. I had lined everything up one afternoon to go while my babies slept and my other kids were in school and Conner was downstairs working. I planned it all without the knowledge that Conner wasn’t actually going to be home to be with the babies while they napped.
What normally would have been an absolutely unreasonable irritation gave way to peace. I couldn’t go to the temple to find Christ, but that didn’t mean I needed to banish Him from my heart in anger. The temple is a tool and if something prevents me from picking up that tool, I have a myriad of tools at my disposal to draw myself closer to Him.
The second way that it has changed my life is probably even more important. The things that used to overwhelm me are now the things that relax me.
The temple used to be a rushed thing that took up some of my time. Now I see it for the worthwhile activity that it is. I calm my heart and utilize it rather than completing it. I can go to church with 5-8 kids (depending on whether my kids bring their friends) and I can simply be grateful for the opportunity to be there and show my devotion to Christ. I can be grateful for the opportunity for my children to also practice drawing closer to Christ even if it’s a rather imperfect effort. When I keep the Word of Wisdom, it’s because I want to nourish my body so that it stands ready to hear and serve Christ. When I keep the Law of Chastity, I am removing unnecessary drama and heartache that are distracting from Christ.
The gospel and commandments and church all become exactly what they were meant to become when we tie it back to Christ. In Christ, we find our ultimate joy and peace and hope. He lightens everything He touches. His yoke and burden are light because the yoke and “burden” are the very things that tie us to Him.
I am grateful for Christ in my life. He truly has changed my life. I look at my life and find all sorts of reasons to rejoice and hope for better days. I have also learned how to be grateful for the yoke and burden He gives me because I see it for what it is.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Easter – Jennifer Roach Lees
Mar 31, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Easter – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 30, 2026
Reclined. Redeemed.
by Autumn Dickson
This week we celebrate Easter, and with it, the ability of the Savior to redeem us. Because we are studying the Old Testament this year, I’d like to look at the predecessor to the holiday of Easter: Passover. There is a lot of symbolism that comes with the Passover; let’s talk about some of it.
Here is a verse that talks about one specific part of the first Passover that happened in Egypt.
Exodus 12:11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.
On the first night of Passover, the Lord commanded the Israelites to eat in haste. They were going to need to leave Egypt quickly once the Pharaoh said they could go. This commandment to eat in haste was just for the first night though. Throughout time, it changed to the opposite. The Israelites ate unleavened bread to remember the haste in which their ancestors had to flee, but rather than eat their own Passover in haste, the Israelites started a new tradition. They ate their Passover reclining.
Though it was not commanded, there was symbolism here. Free, wealthy people eat reclining and relaxed. They eat leisurely and enjoy themselves. Slaves eat on their feet, rushing. The Israelites ate reclining to show that they were no longer slaves.
Traditions can be really beautiful as long as we don’t turn them into commandments to show off our own righteousness. The Israelites sometimes had a problem with that.
However, I love this specific tradition. I think it’s beautiful. I think one of the reasons I enjoy this specific tradition so much is because I often put myself in a hurry. I get really caught up in trying to get everything done so that I can relax. Here is a tradition that caused the Israelites to pause their daily lives, take a meal, and rejoice and relax. They wore festive clothes, and they specifically took the time to eat like the liberated people they were.
How often do you take the time to realize that you are free? Do you go about your daily life knowing you are liberated? Do you fulfill your daily work in a manner that reflects your redeemed status?
When you deeply know what you are, it reflects in how you live your life. That’s why slaves eat on their feet and rich, wealthy people eat relaxed and reclining. I appreciate the symbolism even more because both parties are doing necessary daily tasks; they just go about their daily tasks very differently. Everybody has to eat, but they are eating differently.
The rich and free people went about their meal with peace of mind. They enjoyed the companionship of the family and friends they were surrounded by. They got to enjoy what they were bringing into their lives and eating, to be grateful for it.
In our own lives, “eating relaxed and reclined” may not look so literal. The really important part here is your heart. Like the rich and free, we go about our daily tasks with peace of mind. We take enough time to turn to those around us and enjoy the companionship of our family and friends. It means we take enough time to think about what we are bringing into your life while we’re “eating,” to be grateful for it and enjoy it. Whatever necessary tasks we’re doing in our lives, we are doing it with purpose and understanding.
This can reflect in so many different ways in our life; one of those ways is in how we take the sacrament.
Sundays are not as restful as they used to be before I was a mother. I’ve got my five kids, ages 8-1, and every other week, they bring their friends to church with us. On any given Sunday, my husband and I have 5-8 children scattered between us. Sometimes, because of my husband’s work schedule, I have 8 kids to take care of on my own.
Trying to help all of the kids stay reverent during the sacrament is a task, especially when they’re sitting with their friends. Trying to help them all take the sacrament in a manner where they’re not touching everyone else’s bread and water is also quite the task. There are many times that I’m eating in a rush so I can pull tiny, grabbing hands away from trays.
The rest of sacrament meeting isn’t necessarily better. My one year old is a wanderer and often finds herself frustrated to be stuck in the pew. My two year old wants my lap. My four year old also wants my lap, and my other kids want to giggle with their friends or fight with each other. I can’t sit between all of them. Some of the time, I can’t even sit with them at all because the baby is screaming about wanting to explore.
It is easy to frame this as frustrating. It’s easy to feel like, “Wo is me,” especially when I’m already tired or overstimulated. It’s easy to feel angry when I desire to be spiritually uplifted, but I have no choice but to be Martha unless I leave my kids at home. Eating the sacrament in an outwardly relaxed manner isn’t always a choice, but there is always my attitude. I can always relax inwardly even if I’m surrounded by chaos that I’m in charge of.
I can look down the aisle at the kids and feel tons of pressure, or I can look down at the aisle of kids and rejoice that I have my family with me at church (even if they’re not perfect). I can rejoice that my kids want to bring their friends to church. I can rejoice that there isn’t any test about whether my kids were perfectly reverent. I can rejoice that my kids get regular practice on how to be reverent so that over the course of their young lives, they will have opportunities to invite Christ into their own lives to save them in ways that I can’t. I can rejoice knowing that my Savior is just happy they’re there.
I can rejoice and relax even as I referee, balance, juggle, and interfere. The sacrament reminds me that the Savior has redeemed me. I’m happy to be there even if it’s chaos.
I testify that we are free and wealthy. I testify that because of Christ, we have every reason to rejoice. Or, at the very least, we have every reason to hope alongside our darkest despair. We can rejoice even when our efforts are imperfect or rushed. We are free, and if we take the time to truly know that, it changes how we do the necessary tasks we’ve been given each day.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 1–6 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 27, 2026
Seeing Through Anguish of Spirit
by Autumn Dickson
In our last post, we talked about how Moses turned to the Lord in despair. He had done what the Lord asked and told Pharaoh to free the Israelites. In response, Pharaoh gave them more work. Moses blamed himself and asked the Lord why He had been so cruel to His own people. In chapter 6, we get to read the Lord’s response to Moses.
He comforts Moses with assurances. He tells Moses that it’s not over; Pharaoh will relent, and the Israelites will yet be free.
The Lord then tells Moses to go and share this with the Israelites. Moses does so, and this is how the Israelites respond.
Exodus 6:9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
The Israelites were suffering so much that they had a difficult time believing that Moses would deliver them. There is a lot of depth here.
Let’s cover the first beautiful principle: The Lord saved them anyway. The Lord still kept sending Moses back. He kept sending miracles. He kept reaching out to those in bondage. He kept shining a light on them. Despite their lack of belief (which disbelief continues on even after the miracle of parting the Red Sea), the Lord kept reaching. He kept moving forward in saving them.
There are two parallels here.
Parallel one: The Savior suffered for all of us, not just the people He knew would accept His atonement. He didn’t look at each of us ahead of time and decide to only suffer for the people who were going to accept the saving. He suffered for everyone. Even those who did not or would not believe.
Parallel two: The Lord doesn’t wash His hands of us. Even when we wash our hands of Him (which is rather ironic), He doesn’t throw us over. When He steps back, it’s not due to annoyance or giving up. Stepping back is also one of the ways He reaches for us and tries to get us to see the truth of things.
The Israelites get a pretty bad rap throughout the Old Testament. They turn from the Lord frequently. They get distracted. They get the doctrine wrong and miss the mark.
They were also slaves. Their “cruel bondage” led to “anguish of spirit.” I’m not sure I would have fared much better had I been placed in their shoes. I think that’s partially why the Lord didn’t throw them off with the golden calf incident after showing them an incredible miracle with the Red Sea. The Lord knew what they were facing and what they were truly capable of. As a society, the Israelites didn’t know who they were anymore. They didn’t know the Lord or His goodness. Because of what they had been through, they didn’t have any sense that there was an all-powerful Being who might care for them and care about where they ended up.
They had a long way to go, and it started right here. They couldn’t find it within themselves to hope for deliverance through Moses, and so it started with the Lord sending miracles anyway.
Here is the second beautiful principle.
Their salvation was standing right in front of them even if they couldn’t see it. They were so broken that they couldn’t see their salvation. No judgment. I’m sure I would have been in a similar place had I been a slave. And yet, there is an implication for us here.
At what point have we reached “salvation?” When do we get to say, “I’m here. I’ve arrived. I’m saved.”?
I’m not sure there is a definitive level where you get to state that you’re saved. I think there are varying levels of salvation. Let’s talk about some of those different points of salvation.
Salvation 1: The Savior promised He was coming. The people don’t know it.
This is where we’re at in the Old Testament. Moses, their deliverer, is standing in front of them. He has been foreordained to save them, but they don’t know it. They’re too lost to feel it.
Interestingly enough, despite the fact that Moses technically hasn’t saved them yet, it’s as good as done when it comes to the Lord. If He has promised it, it’s as good as if it’s done, and so yes, this is a type of salvation. The Israelites are saved! Moses is here! Even if they don’t see it, they’re saved.
Salvation 2: The Savior promised He was coming, and there are people who do know it.
This is the next level, and we see this in The Book of Mormon. The Savior promised He was coming and would save; there are people who believed that so thoroughly that they acted as though He had already come. They believed so thoroughly in His ability to fulfill His promises, that it was as good as done, and they rejoiced.
Salvation 3: The Savior came and did His work, but the people don’t know it yet.
We see this all the time. This is as if Moses had opened the gates of Egypt, and there were people too busy slaving away for masters who no longer stood over them that they missed it.
The Savior has come, but there are many who don’t know it. This happens in the church and out of it. Even when we’ve been baptized and follow the commandments, sometimes we still don’t understand that we’ve been saved.
Salvation 4: The Savior came and did His work, and the people know it.
This one is self-explanatory. The Lord won, and we know it. This is the ultimate form of salvation.
I bring this up because there are two sides to the coin of salvation. There is the portion with Christ. There was a period of time before He came where His salvation was still a promise. That promise was as good as though it had already been done. When it comes to this side of the coin, we were always saved.
But then there is the other side of the coin.
Is salvation really salvation if we can’t enjoy it? Have we truly been saved if we’re still miserable because we don’t trust Him or because or our actions? It takes a long time for the Israelites to truly be saved. They make it out of Egypt, but they have not yet reached joy. They don’t know that the Lord is going to take care of them and lead them to that promised land. In that sense, salvation is a spectrum.
And let’s bring that full circle. The Israelites didn’t yet believe. They were in so much despair that they couldn’t bring themselves to believe. The Savior was going to keep sending miracles until they could see it. He paid for the salvation, and then He continues to reach out on top of it. He reaches and reaches until we finally see that the gates have been unlocked.
Where are you on the spectrum of salvation? The Savior has saved you. Do you see it? Do you see Him ready to lead you out of Egypt? Let Him heal the brokeness from the slavery. Let Him provide for you in the wilderness. Believe in His salvation so much that it’s as if you’re already in the promised land.
I testify that the Savior’s promises are solid. They are coming. We don’t have to live in despair even now because we have been taught what comes next. Even in our darkest moments (because dark moments aren’t evil), there is hope to temper it. We can rejoice. And if we’re still getting run over by life and can’t seem to lift up our heads and believe it, then hang tight. The Lord is sending miracles anyway until we do see it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 1–6 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Mar 24, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Exodus 1–6 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 23, 2026
Did God Send Me Here to Fail?
by Autumn Dickson
Moses was a prophet who delivered the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. He was such a good prophet that the Jews held him up as a standard for a long time. He is still revered as a great prophet.
And yet, despite his righteousness, his closeness with God, his foreordained role, Moses didn’t know everything. Moses was incredibly nervous to approach Pharaoh about freeing the Israelites, and the first time he approached Pharaoh, it didn’t go so well. Pharaoh did not release the Israelites. In fact, Pharaoh gave all of the Israelites more work to accomplish than they previously had.
This led to the Israelites getting frustrated with Moses, and in turn, Moses turned to God.
Exodus 5:22-23
22 And Moses returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me?
23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
Moses asks the Lord a few questions and makes some points that I think all of us have made at one point or another. “Why did you send me? I just made it worse. You said You would deliver them, but they’re still in bondage and Pharaoh has made things harder on them.”
There is a lot we could unpack there. Moses’ insecurity about his ability to do the job would be a good place to start. We could discuss the fact that Moses could only see his own limitations rather than the Lord’s plan in motion.
However, I want to take a slightly different angle that I mentioned earlier. Moses, despite his calling and the big job ahead of him, didn’t see the end from the beginning. He saw enough that he was willing to begin, but the Lord left out quite a few details about this long road that Moses would travel before he could be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in freeing the covenant people.
The Lord loves to leave out details.
Why? If the Lord has made a decision in relation to how He works with His children on earth, there are solid reasons behind that decision. Why does the Lord choose to leave out details? Why does He allow us to sometimes think we’ve failed? What purpose does it serve to push us to wait for the next step?
What reasons do you see?
One of the reasons is because we would probably get confused and lost and disillusioned anyway. The Savior tried telling His disciples that He was going to die and live again. He said it quite clearly, more than once, but they were still so surprised when it happened. If the Lord had told Moses more of the details, would he have grasped the plan?
I think a more important reason is the fact that it forces us to cling to Him.
If Heavenly Father had given Moses a play-by-play of what would happen in Egypt, how much would Moses have connected his success back to the Lord? How often would Moses have turned back to the Lord? It is very difficult to see the Lord’s hand when we are not turning to Him over and over and over.
When it comes to the Lord, it’s never just about the task that’s been given. The task always has a double purpose of drawing us closer to Him. One of the most effective ways of drawing us closer to Him, is to force us to keep coming back to Him, to work closely with Him.
This brings great comfort when we look at our own efforts and tasks. Like Moses, it’s easy for us to decide that we’re the weak link. We’re not strong enough or smart enough or persuasive enough. We’re the reason everything failed.
Moses is not the reason the task failed. Moses was just under the impression that the task was supposed to be easier than it was. The Lord could have explained this in great detail ahead of time to spare Moses this despair. However, it would have negated His purposes of keeping Moses close.
It had to be this way. The Lord needed you to have the task. Telling you in detail ahead of time would have made it really easy for you to forget Him and try to do everything on your own. It was important for you to stay close to Him, and He knows our propensity to wander. So He chose to do things this way. Unfortunately, sometimes we also have the bad habit of despairing when we hit obstacles. The Lord knows this, and He can work with it. It is much easier to work with your despair when you turn to Him than it is when you run off and try to do things on your own.
The Lord is wise enough to see all of this and make the decision to leave out the details.
So how can this change our response when we do hit obstacles in the tasks we’ve been given by the Lord?
We trust Him and know He’s not finished yet. Even when we do not know the details, He does. He is plenty aware of them and knows how to work with the children of men.
Give it your best shot, and look to Him with faith. That’s your real job. It wasn’t Moses’ job to deliver the Israelites, not really. It was Moses’ job to be willing. It wasn’t Moses who sent the plagues or parted the sea. It was the Lord who made man’s mouth and made the seas. The Lord knew exactly what He was getting with Moses, and He still decided on Moses.
It is no different with you. The Lord knew what He was getting when He asked for you. He knows better than you know what you are or aren’t capable of, and He decided on you. When you run into unanticipated obstacles, there is no need to despair. He didn’t tell you about this part, but He knew about this part.
Your job is to be willing. Give it your best shot, and look to Him with faith. The Lord can still work with despair; He worked with Moses through His despair. He can work with us through despair. However, the faith part serves us. Moses didn’t ever have to be afraid or upset that he had ruined everything. Those feelings were necessary so that Moses could go through the process of building his faith, but faith changes our entire experience by changing our perspective. Obstacles look different in the light of faith in Christ. It is a joyful way to live.
Trust the Lord. Trust Him when He doesn’t give you all the details. Trust Him that He chose you for a reason. Trust Him so that you can rejoice even in the faith of setbacks.
I testify that the Lord knew what He was doing when He chose you. I testify that He knows all of the details even when He doesn’t share them all immediately. I testify that He isn’t despairing or mad when obstacles appear. All He wants is our faith. He deserves our faith. He has earned it. He is worthy of it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 42–50 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 20, 2026
Judgment Day Isn’t What You Think
by Autumn Dickson
The story of Joseph teaches us so many things about Christ. There are poignant details that point us in the direction of Christ’s story. There are so many directions we could go. However, let’s talk about one principle.
Joseph’s story can teach us about Judgment Day.
For so long, I pictured Judgment Day as a time when Christ would weigh all the good I had done versus all the bad, and then He would weigh it against my privileges and disadvantages. That seems fair, right? I don’t think anyone would argue that this is unfair judgment. However, I have since learned that God doesn’t work that way at all. He does it better; He judges us by our hearts. Joseph’s story teaches this so beautifully. Here are a couple of details that prepare us to understand Judgment Day in relation to Joseph’s story.
Joseph had the grain that saved everyone who came and partook of it. He saved everyone.
If you move forward a couple of chapters, we see that receiving the atonement of Jesus Christ isn’t just about giving of ourselves. It’s not about weighing our good and bad deeds; it’s about who we are.
Joseph’s brothers come to partake of the grain in Egypt, and they don’t recognize their younger brother whom they sold into slavery. Joseph recognizes them and sets the brothers up for failure so that he can essentially kidnap Benjamin, the youngest brother. This was all a big ruse to see who his brothers had become, and they passed the test. Judah, the brother who originally conspired to kill Joseph, was ready to stand in Benjamin’s place. He was ready to stand in for another.
Joseph didn’t say, “Oh you thought about killing me, but you’ve done good things since then. You’re trying to make up for it by standing in for Benjamin. I guess that cancels things out.” Rather, all that Joseph truly cared about was whether they were different men. Joseph didn’t care about the past sin (horrible as it was). Joseph cared about who they were, and they truly had changed.
Here are a couple of verses that describe how Joseph, a type of Christ, felt when he had truly judged and discerned that his brothers were changed, good men. As I read these verses, I want you to draw the parallels between Joseph as he judged his brothers and Christ as He will judge us someday.
Genesis 45:1, 5-6, 10, 14-15
1 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast:
14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
Which part stood out to you most? Was it the fact that Joseph rejoiced in his betrayal and sacrifice that saved everyone? Was it his uncontrollable weeping that his brothers were good men? Was it the fact that Joseph offered Goshen to them? Was it the affection that he bestowed on his brothers?
All of those will be important parts of Judgment Day.
I picture Judgment Day as Christ discerning our hearts as they are right now. He is determining whether we are safe enough to bring into His home or whether we will hurt our brothers and sisters further. It’s not about mistakes that we’ve made. Those were done away with a long time ago. It’s about whether He can trust our hearts to live with Him and preserve heaven.
His sacrifice enabled Him to make that call, to judge our hearts righteously with justice and mercy. If He perceives goodness within us, then Judgment Day essentially becomes a lot of weeping and rejoicing and affection.
He wants to keep us. No matter how we’ve betrayed Him in the past, He wants to know who we are now, and He wants to keep us with Him if He can help it. The sins are paid for; Christ is fine. They don’t count against us any longer. Christ is simply judging our hearts as they are now.
That’s not to say that our actions don’t matter. Our actions change us. Our actions uncover who we are. What if Judah loved Benjamin and his father but didn’t step forward? Does that even count as real love?
Our actions do matter; they’re just not the end-all. They are the process for the end-all. Our actions matter to the extent that they change us. I’ll repeat that again. Our actions matter to the extent that they change us.
Repeatedly choosing light turns us into beings of light over time. Repeatedly choosing darkness pushes us in that direction. It doesn’t mean you can’t change directions, but become a person of integrity or humility isn’t a single choice. It’s a process that we should consciously take. It’s everyday choices that shape the hearts that the Lord is going to judge.
I testify that Christ is looking to keep us. He isn’t looking at past individual sins. He already paid those off; the ledger is clear. He redeemed you, and now He is looking at you as you are. His sacrifice enables Him to judge your heart. Let go of your sins that are holding you down, and walk closer to light every day. Invite more of the Savior into your daily life. Rejoice in His ability to save you because you desire goodness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 42–50 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Mar 17, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 42–50 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 16, 2026
We Can’t Afford Grace
by Autumn Dickson
Last week, we talked about some of the symbolism behind Joseph’s story. He offered food that filled the bellies of the Egyptians and saved them. Christ offers salvation, and we should be actively paying attention to whether we’re bringing the bread home or internalizing it and letting it fill us. We expanded this symbolism to missionary work; if we are full, people will come and see just like other countries traveled to Egypt for food.
This week, I want to expand upon that same symbolism again.
So here are the quick details of that story. Pharaoh has a dream that Joseph interprets. This dream warns Pharaoh that there will be seven years of plenty and seven years of severe famine. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of a food-saving program, and it works. The people are saved because a portion of food had been set aside during the years of plenty.
When the land was desolate, the people came in and started to buy food from Joseph. When they ran out of money, they started giving their cattle and flocks to pay for the food. Ultimately, even that becomes insufficient. Then this happens.
Genesis 47:18-20
18 When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands:
19 Wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate.
20 And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh’s.
It is at this point in time that the Egyptians become serfs to Pharaoh. Serfdom is an important distinction from slavery, especially as it relates to our conversation today. It is much more accurate to call them serfs. They’re not going to be bought and sold at will, but they’re tied to the land they don’t own. They have the right to work that land and provide for themselves, and they give back 20% of their food to Pharaoh.
Let’s talk about the implications of this policy that Joseph put forth in the land of Egypt as it relates to the symbolism of our last post, namely the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Implication 1. We can’t afford the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Joseph saved Egypt as well as the surrounding countries and the House of Israel. Plain and simple, he saved them all, and he did it with generosity. He didn’t resent the Egyptians for not being able to afford the food he had saved. In fact, he rejoices that his brothers betrayed him so that he could be placed in a position to save everyone.
In the seven years of the famine, the people got to the point where they had nothing else to give. Even after devoting all of their money, cattle, flocks, and land, they still came up short. It was never going to be enough. Nowadays, we are encouraged to build up our own food storage and self-reliance, and there are different principles that come with that prophetic counsel. This story, however, does not play out like that. Joseph saved the food, not the citizens. This is indicative of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Grace is free. No matter how much money we bring to the table, no matter how much we have saved up, it is insufficient to save us. Justice is a harsh master, and we don’t have the means to save ourselves. It’s impossible. Christ saved you. Yes, we believe that He judges us by our works, but the eternal truth stands: He saved us, and nothing we offer can ever pay that back.
Implication 2. None of this is ours; we can only give of ourselves. Even then, we are not our own. We become stewards, and Christ is a generous benefactor.
The food was not free. The Egyptians couldn’t afford it, and Joseph still offered it, but Joseph required something in return: their lands and themselves. The Egyptians agreed to this willingly.
Some people would call this coercion. How can you say no if your only other option is death? My response? That’s ridiculous. Why on earth would you be ungrateful? The best response you could have to this situation is, “Thank you. I couldn’t do this on my own. I couldn’t save myself. You saved me, and I will forever owe you for that. I recognize that I wouldn’t have anything without you, and so I willingly devote myself to give back some of what You gave me.”
In fact, this is how the Egyptians responded to their predicament.
Genesis 47:25 And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s servants.
Christ saves. We can resent Him for that. We can resent Him and falsely accuse Him of taking away our agency, but that’s not it at all. Joseph didn’t make them slaves so he could do whatever he wanted with them. He made them stewards and asked them to give back. He didn’t save them because he wanted to own them. He saved them so he could provide them with the opportunity to keep living.
Christ gave us an opportunity to make something of ourselves. He asks for a portion of what He gave us back. He asks us to devote ourselves and make the land fruitful. If we hate Him for it, then it’s tragically ironic. Not only does He own everything anyway, but He’s also trying to teach us how to make the best use of our land. He wants our land to be overflowing. He wants us to rejoice in what we’ve been given and gratefully give back. The more we do with what He has given, the more we have. Even when He asks for a portion back, it is actually continuing to serve us.
There are so many perfect, poignant details of Joseph’s story that teaches us about the atonement of Jesus Christ. It teaches things as they really are, and it gives us an opportunity to have the correct attitudes towards our true state of reality.
I testify that Christ can save us. We can reject His bread and try to find it elsewhere, but we’re going to come up empty. I testify that He didn’t perform the atonement so that He could own us and subject us to whatever He wanted. He performed the atonement so that our own agency didn’t ruin our eternity. He literally freed us, gave us more opportunity, and He teaches us how to make more of ourselves. We did not come out as slaves. Because of Jesus Christ, we have won.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 37–41 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 12, 2026
More Than Food Storage; Famine and Atonement
by Autumn Dickson
The Old Testament is full of stories, and oftentimes, those stories come as a type of things to come. They teach us about life. They teach us about our relationship with God and our dependence on the Savior. Joseph’s life is no different. We can look at the parts of his whole life and find incredible symbolism, and we can look at his life as a whole for symbolism. There is so much there. Let’s talk about just some of it.
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. After a series of miracles and difficulty, Joseph is made a ruler in Egypt after interpreting a dream for Pharoah. Pharoah puts him in charge of gathering food to save up for a horrible famine that is going to spread throughout the land. Here is what happens when the famine hits.
Genesis 41:54-57
54 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.
56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
First, the Egyptians come and get food from Pharaoh. Other countries, including Joseph’s brothers, follow suit and start coming in to get food from Pharaoh.
We believe in food storage and self-sufficiency, and this is a powerful example of that. However, that’s not the most important lesson we can learn here.
Believe it or not, this is an incredible example of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Before we delve into the deeper symbolism, I want you to think about some of these poignant details. Joseph was originally with his family who would grow to be the twelve tribes of Israel. After they rejected him, he ended up with Gentiles – Egyptians. He saved them from the famine first, and then his brothers came to buy bread as well. Christ originally stuck with the House of Israel until they rejected Him. Then the gospel went to the Gentiles before returning to the House of Israel once again.
The details are too beautiful. Even beyond the incredible parallels, there are deeper principles here. As I mentioned previously, this isn’t a story about self-reliance despite its ability to teach that principle. This is a story about the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Joseph knew the dearth that the people on earth would face. It was revealed to him, and he had been foreordained to handle it. He had been prepared throughout his life to handle it. He had the gifts necessary in order to prepare for it. A plan was set in motion to save everyone from this dearth. He was betrayed and placed into a position where he would be enabled to provide that saving grace when no one else could.
Joseph had the corn that saved everyone. There was nowhere else to go in order to be saved. Joseph was the only one who had legitimate bread to offer. Perhaps other people and sources tried to offer and lie about having some, but you had to go through Joseph to get bread.
Christ knew the dearth that the people on earth would face. It was revealed to Him, and He had been foreordained to handle it. He had been prepared throughout His life to handle it. He had the gifts necessary in order to prepare for it. A plan was set in motion to save everyone from this dearth. He was betrayed and placed into a position where He would be enabled to provide that saving grace when no one else could.
Christ provided salvation. There is nowhere else to go in order to be saved. Christ is the only one who has legitimate salvation to offer. Perhaps other people and sources tried to offer and lie about having some, but you have to go through Christ to be saved.
There are implications for this, implications for your personal life as well as missionary work.
Implication one. The Egyptians could have stood in line, filled their buckets, gone home, and put those buckets in the corner. They could have looked at the buckets, maybe even opened them, and still refused to eat the food that had been given to them. The dearth still would have killed them. It didn’t matter if they did all the things that enabled them to have food if they didn’t consume the food and let it fill their bellies.
Are you going to church? Are you doing Come Follow Me? Are you studying the scriptures, going to the temple, serving, doing your calling, praying, and studying your patriarchal blessing and conference talks?
Here’s a more important question. Are you allowing those things to fill you? It is very easy to cross things off a to-do list. It takes a different kind of work to internalize the to-do’s and bring them into your heart to fill you like they were always meant to.
Which leads me to the next implication.
Why did the other countries come to Egypt for food? The other countries, including the House of Israel, came because they saw that the Egyptians had full bellies.
Is your belly full?
Other countries looked at the Egyptians and saw that they had food. They didn’t look at the Egyptians and notice that they were standing in lines or carrying buckets. Other countries saw that their bellies were full.
Missionary work becomes simpler when the gospel is filling your life with light. When you are utilizing the to-do’s of the church to internalize the light of Christ’s gospel (not just doing the to-do’s), people will come to you. They will be drawn to you. In a world that offers empty bellies, we have the sustenance that a person can live and thrive on.
Bring the sustenance home. Do the to-do’s.
Consume the sustenance. Let the to-do’s fill you up and make you whole.
The other countries will see what you have and want it. One of the most powerful ways to share the gospel is to let the gospel fill you so that everyone can see your light shine and glorify your Father in heaven.
I testify that there is salvation in the world, and I testify of a Savior who offers it. There is bread to fill your belly. I testify that it feels good to have a full stomach, and I testify that there are so many people out there consumed by emptiness. They will be drawn to what we have. Share it. Internalize the Savior and His promises, and share it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 37–41 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Mar 10, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 37–41 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 09, 2026
When Doing What’s Right Brings Pain
by Autumn Dickson
It is no question that Joseph went through some tough stuff despite trying to do what’s right. Being betrayed by your brothers and sold into slavery, thrown into prison, being forgotten after helping someone. None of these things should be skimmed over or treated lightly. Those are the kinds of things that can really take a toll on a person, especially when it all happened because they were trying to do what’s right. I think that’s key here as well. These things didn’t happen despite doing what’s right; some of these things happened because Joseph was doing what’s right.
I can imagine that would be frustrating. Let’s talk about a couple of these roadblocks.
The first roadblock was when his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery. His brothers didn’t just betray him; they betrayed Joseph because Joseph had received revelation from God that they would honor him. It was one of the reasons they chose to sell him (though their original plan was to kill him).
Genesis 37:19-20
19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh.
20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
He did what was right and was punished for it.
Then there was Potiphar’s wife. Joseph found himself in an honorable position in Potiphar’s home when Potiphar’s wife came and tried to seduce him. He rejected her, she lied about him, and he was thrown into prison.
He did what was right and was punished for it.
There are a couple of tender mercies that happened along the way before Joseph is truly lifted out of this dark era. His brothers could have killed him but didn’t. Under normal circumstances, Potiphar would have killed Joseph for the accusation alone but didn’t. Joseph’s life was spared both times.
There were tender mercies, but I imagine that for most people, it would have been hard to see the tender mercies amidst everything else that was going on.
So it begs the question…why do you do what’s right?
When Joseph is tempted to sin by Potiphar’s wife, he responds in this epic way.
Genesis 39:9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
How can I sin against God? Potiphar gave him so much, but Joseph rightly asks how he could possibly sin against God.
Choosing righteously is certainly an act of faith, but that act of faith is fragile without doing it for the right reasons. If Joseph had refused Potiphar’s wife for lesser reasons, how would his loyalty have measured up against prison? Probably not favorably.
Joseph’s concern was about being loyal to God, regardless of how things played out. This is so powerful. Choosing to do what’s right for the right reasons makes you powerful because it grants you access to God in a way that you can’t get by any other means. Let me elaborate by zooming out.
We came down here to be tested. We came down here to grow and that requires pain. Honest, eternal truth right there. True growth is impossible without difficulty. So what happens when difficulty gives us the opposite result? What happens when our mind assumes that blessings immediately come from loyalty?
First of all, it’s not true loyalty if you fold with difficulty.
Second of all, you are completely destroying the Plan of Salvation in your own life. You are making it impossible for God to bring about His purposes in your life. Let me describe it in this way with Joseph’s example.
Imagine if Joseph had said, “What the heck? You sent me a dream that my brothers would honor me and because of my dream, I find myself a slave. How does that work? I’m done. I’m not serving you anymore.” The irony here is that the slavery (the difficulty) is what enabled him to save his brothers and receive that honor. Would they have ever honored Joseph otherwise? Would he have always been the favorite child, and therefore, the most resented brother?
The difficulty made the blessing possible. If we fold after the difficulty, we miss the true blessing. Folding after difficulty is the epitome of irony.
God is trying to make us marvelous. He is trying to make us amazing. The only way He can do that is by sending difficulty. If we get annoyed and turn on Him the second we face difficulty, it makes it impossible for Him to bring about the Plan of Salvation in our lives.
He doesn’t give us difficulty=We don’t grow. We don’t become amazing.
He gives us difficulty=We turn on Him, and we still don’t become amazing.
Embrace the hard. You don’t have to love it, but lean into it. He is delivering on the promises He made to you before you came here. Let Him. Stand by Him through it, and He will stand by you.
I testify that the Lord loves you and is trying to bless you. I also testify that blessings often come in the form of tests and opposition. Those are some of the biggest blessings because they deliver the hoped-for purposes of the Plan of Salvation. I testify that loyalty to God through whatever He gives you is powerful. It’s life-changing. It helps you become all you were meant to be. Doing what’s right for the right purposes is the only way we become all we were meant to become.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 24–33 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 06, 2026
You Haven’t Ruined Your Life
by Autumn Dickson
My first message of this week was about Rebekah and Jacob tricking Isaac into giving Esau’s blessing to Jacob. Rebekah had received a revelation that the older would serve the younger, and she took matters into her own hands to make that happen. It worked, and Jacob was blessed. Unfortunately, Jacob also had to run for his life from Esau. He was sent to his uncle’s house far away to keep him safe.
It had been prophesied that the younger would rule over the older, but there was also some favoritism going on. The bible literally tells us that Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved Jacob. Rebekah went above and beyond to make sure Jacob came out on top.
Unfortunately, the opposite seemed to occur. Rather than ruling over his father’s house, Jacob ended up exiled. He was anything but a ruler for a very long time. Jacob’s uncle tricked him, and Jacob had very little power to protect himself. His wages were unfairly changed up on him. He was separated from his family, not a ruler of his family.
When Rebekah sent Jacob away to live with her brother, I wonder if she regretted what she did. When she was separated from Jacob, did she wish she could do things differently? I wonder if she asked herself whether she had made a mistake and ruined everything. I don’t know about Rebekah, but I think I would have had those feelings.
I wonder if Jacob ever felt a little bitter. I wonder if he was angry that the ruse had upended his life so thoroughly and ironically did the opposite of what it was supposed to be. Did he regret listening to his mother and tricking his father? Did he feel that everything was ruined?
Have you ever wondered if you ruined things too much? I’m not just talking about sinning so deeply that the atonement of Jesus Christ can’t reach you. I’m also talking about mistakes or sins that seemingly messed up what we believed we were supposed to become. Maybe there was a promise in your patriarchal blessing, a revelation that you felt strongly about that seems to have fallen flat, or a direction you never anticipated your life taking that led to heartache rather than increased ability to go out and serve.
One of the beautiful things about this story is the fact that the Lord can lead you there and make things come together even after mistakes and pitfalls and detours and even sin. Rebekah and Jacob tricked Isaac. They deceived him, and they did so in the name of a revelation given to Rebekah by the Lord. And honestly, I don’t know if that makes it better or worse. I guess she was trying really hard to follow the revelation, but we also need to be supremely careful about doing wrong things in the name of getting to the “right” destination. As in, we shouldn’t need to do wrong things in the name of getting to the right destination. I digress.
They sinned. They weren’t evil people, but they did sin. And yet, despite this sin and interference, the Lord still helped them get where they needed to be.
Jacob prospered and returned home and reconciled with his family. Esau likewise prospered independently. Esau’s descendants ended up serving Jacob’s descendants (Edom and Israel). Things turned out how they were supposed to, and no damage was permanent.
When I was dating Conner, I was very confused. We were really struggling. That era of our lives was very dark for both of us. I really don’t understand how we ended up together, but we did. In the middle of all that difficulty, I had people telling me that I could miss out on the man God had prepared for me if I kept wasting time with Conner.
This became a legitimate fear of mine. I was so afraid God would be angry with me for being confused and not being able to find my way. I would break up with him, and I felt led back to him but then things were so hard and very few people (I think 4 people total and even that was iffy) supported us being together. I was afraid that I would miss out on what was supposed to be mine because I wasn’t good enough to figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
In the midst of all this, I had a dear friend who was so faithful and trusting. She had dated her boyfriend on and off for years. It had stretched on and on, and they finally reached a point where they truly broke up. I remember asking her the questions that were pressing on me. I asked her if she was afraid that she had missed out on someone she could have married because she was so distracted with this other guy.
Her response was simple and profound. She wasn’t worried at all. She didn’t believe in a God like that, a God who would punish her for not knowing immediately. She was trying the best she could with what she had, even if it wasn’t perfect, and she believed that God would honor that and help her along.
If your heart is turned towards God and trying to follow Him, you don’t need to fear. He can lead you along. Even if you make mistakes along the way, even if you end up on roads you never pictured yourself on, He can lead you back to where you need to be.
I remember another time in college. They had just changed the missionary age, and I was suddenly able to serve. I had wanted to serve a mission my whole life, but in that moment, I shied away from it. I found myself in a bit of trouble. I was very mentally sick. I had taken a break from classes to pursue a music career. I had a couple of friends who didn’t let me totally lose myself, but I wasn’t headed in the direction I needed to be going. I was pretty adrift and lost, and though not all of it was my fault, some of it was a direct result of my own naive or selfish choices.
I remember sitting on my bed one night, knowing that I wasn’t where I needed to be. I didn’t kneel down or fold my arms. I didn’t open or close the prayer. I just quietly whispered, “If You could get me out of this, I would appreciate it.”
And He did. Very shortly after, I found myself on a plane home to Texas where I had grown up. One thing led to another and I found myself serving in Indiana, right where I needed to be.
It didn’t matter to Him that I had taken myself all over the map. The detours and “lost” time ultimately meant nothing. I ended up right where I needed to be. I didn’t truly lose anything. There was difficulty and regrets, but there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be salvaged through the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
I have a feeling that if Rebekah and Jacob could have seen the exile they were setting into motion, they wouldn’t have done what they did. I have a feeling that there was some real introspection going on after everything went down. There were detours and difficulties on account of their own choices, but the Lord never lost sight of them.
I testify that He never loses sight of you. He is leading you along even if you don’t know it. I testify that He can take the worst parts and mistakes and turn them into good. I testify that all roads can lead home if we apply the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 24–33 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Mar 03, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 24–33 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 02, 2026
Feeling Alone? Trust Him.
by Autumn Dickson
The Old Testament is full of imperfect people. There is strife and difficulty. Families struggle together. We see people who are trying to follow God, sometimes in desperation, and they make mistakes along the way. We see a whole spectrum of human emotion. It makes me wonder how much we’re missing in the New Testament. We often tease about how the Old Testament and New Testament are so different, but are they truly? Or were they just written differently? Perhaps the curtain just gets peeled back a tad bit more with the Old Testament and we get to see the bad along with the good.
This week, we read about some of those imperfect people, and there is much to learn from them. We can learn from their mistakes in our own quest to follow after God. We can learn to watch our own predilections and flaws and hopefully avoid some of their same obstacles. I want to look at Jacob and Rebekah specifically.
It took a while for Rebekah to get pregnant, but when she did, she got pregnant with twins. They wrestled within her and caused her to ask the Lord what was going on. He spoke to Rebekah (likely through the Spirit) and told her that from the two brothers, two nations would be formed. It was also prophesied that the older would serve the younger.
Esau was born first and was Isaac’s favorite, and Jacob was born second and was Rebekah’s favorite. Rebekah had received a revelation that Esau would serve Jacob, but she took matters into her own hands. Isaac spoke to Esau and told him to prepare a dinner so that Esau could be blessed. Rebekah pushes and convinces Jacob to trick his father. This is what she tells Jacob.
Genesis 27:8-10
8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
9 Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
10 And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
She convinces Jacob to pretend to be Esau. Isaac is blind, and so the idea is that Isaac will give Esau’s blessing to Jacob. She takes the ruse even further by placing the hairy skins upon Jacob to further trick Isaac into thinking that Jacob is Esau (since Esau is hairy and Jacob isn’t).
Her ruse works. Isaac is tricked and gives the birthright blessing to Jacob rather than Esau. Esau comes home and is bitter and upset about what happened. He mourns his father but promises to kill Jacob when the mourning is over. Rebekah sends Jacob far away to her brother, Laban.
Jacob’s life isn’t made easier after this. He has been separated from his family. He starts working for his uncle and is tricked more than once. His uncle likewise changes his wages unjustly multiple times. The Lord calls upon Jacob to take his large family back home to where Esau is and Jacob fears his uncle and cousins enough that he tries to do it secretly.
It’s a long story, but I told the whole thing because the context is key in order to understand the principle I want to teach. I’ll shorten it to these four details. God whispers to Rebekah. Rebekah takes matters into her own hands, and Jacob listens. Jacob finds himself exiled.
Now the fraud and sin are not upon the head of Jacob alone. Rebekah pushed for this pretty hard; Jacob gave in and listened and did as his mother bade him. Both of them found themselves with poignant parallels.
When we don’t trust the Lord, we can find ourselves separated from family. Let me explain what I mean. I don’t necessarily mean that the Lord is going to exile you. I’m not prophesying that your children are going to be taken away. What I am teaching is this: not trusting the Lord can keep you separated from the family of God, spiritually and emotionally. It can make you feel like you’re all alone in the world.
Jacob had to go off on his own and try to make his own way. He didn’t have anyone to lean on. Do you feel that way? Do you feel that you have no one to lean on?
If you’ve been baptized and made covenants and kept those covenants and love the Lord but still don’t trust in His power to handle things (including your sins), you’re going to find yourself separated from Him. Not because He rejects you for not trusting Him, but because you are putting up a wall and keeping yourself from enjoying the relationship that’s possible.
Trust in the Lord is an irreplaceable part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can do all of the things, but it won’t matter without the trust. Rebekah was trying to help the prophecy along, and all it did was take her son away from her. She didn’t trust the Lord to handle it. It separated her from her loved one. Jacob listened and found himself separated from everyone.
I sat down with a loved one a couple of years ago, and she confided in me that she didn’t think she would make it to the Celestial Kingdom. She insisted that she had made many mistakes and didn’t know whether God would count her worthy. It made me so thoroughly sad. Sure, there had been mistakes, but there wasn’t a drop of rebellion in her. She loved the Lord and wanted to do what He wanted her to do.
And yet despite her goodness, she didn’t believe she could make it. Her lack of trust kept her from enjoying so many aspects of salvation right here and now. It kept her exiled and alone without anyone to lean on.
Do you know how good it feels to be a child of God? To feel close to Him even when you can’t see Him? It feels good. It feels tangible. I do not feel alone. I do not feel like I have to do this life on my own or figure out how to be okay all by myself without anyone to back me up. Trust in the Lord (whether that’s timing or unwanted answers or His ability to save) gave that to me.
If you feel that you’re supposed to be somewhere and it’s not coming together, don’t force it. Work appropriately, and trust Him. Trusting Him will keep you close rather than alone.
I testify that the Lord loves us. I testify that He wants to be close to us. I testify that His command for us to trust Him is a command because He knows it’s one of the most powerful tools for joy and peace. We are not alone. We do not have to take things into our own hands. We have an all-powerful Lord to guide us and lead us and open doors at the right times. We can rest, knowing He has our best interest in His capable hands.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 18–23 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 27, 2026
The Subtle Destruction of Looking Back
by Autumn Dickson
The story of Lot’s wife is an intense one. Sodom and Gomorrah was a wicked city, and God commanded Lot to flee with his family and not look back. They are told to leave immediately or be swept away in the destruction. Lot goes and tells his family members that they need to flee, and they laugh at him. Despite trying to warn family, he keeps lingering. It finally gets to the point where the angels grab the hands of Lot, his wife, and his daughters and run. Then Lot’s wife looks back.
Genesis 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Lot’s wife was destroyed because she looked back with longing and regret. It seems a bit harsh, but this is true to life. Regardless of how this story played out in real life, it teaches us something important. It is a warning. Looking back has the power to destroy you even if you technically follow the commandments in other ways. He’s not even warning you saying, “I will destroy you if you look back.” He is saying, “Looking back can lead to destruction.” If you look carefully at the wording, it says that she became a pillar of salt. It doesn’t say that God turned her into one.
Let’s look at these principles in the context of Lot.
The citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked. The Lord did rain down justice upon them, but honestly, they probably would have destroyed themselves anyway. The fact that they were trying to hurt the visitors at Lot’s house is proof of this. Not to mention, there comes a certain point where a person can be “destroyed” even if they’re still physically living. I would imagine that many within the city had found this emotional scarring, trauma, emptiness, and hopelessness. The Lord rained down justice on them.
But here’s the important principle I want to talk about today: He also rained down justice upon Lot’s wife as she looked back longingly at what she had left behind. The scriptures show a direct and immediate destruction of Lot’s wife. I have wondered what this looked like in real life, but regardless of how the details played out in reality, the principle is crystal clear. When we choose to look back in the same manner as Lot’s wife, we will find the same consequences even if they’re not immediate like they were in the scripture story.
What was Lot’s wife longing for? There are two potential answers. Perhaps Lot’s wife was legitimately longing for the sin within the city; she valued sin and set her heart on it. Or…perhaps she was longing for something more neutral. This is equally important to understand because its subtlety can make it even more dangerous. We know loving sin can lead to destruction, but do we also understand that looking back with longing at something more neutral can hurt us? Perhaps she wasn’t looking back at sin but at her home and belongings, things that aren’t inherently evil. Either way, this looking back has the power to eat away at us until we are destroyed (if not physically, then emotionally).
When we’re looking at our own lives, I want to focus on that second potential. Perhaps we are not secretly longing for sin. Perhaps we long for what might have been or for good things that we left behind, or even neutral things that we left behind.
Let me give you some potential examples of longing that could lead to personally destroying oneself.
“I wish I had married so-and-so. I wish I could rewind the clock and try again.”
“Why did the Lord ask me to leave my home behind? I hate this place. I hate that I lost so much.”
“I miss high school and college. Life is so hard now. It’s not fun.”
“The Church didn’t let me do anything. I missed out on so much growing up.”
In cases like this, we don’t often immediately turn into pillars of salt. Oftentimes, the consequences aren’t immediate either which is precisely why they can be so dangerous. Despite the lack of salt or immediacy, these thoughts have the power to destroy us anyway. Even if these thoughts never technically lead us all the way “back into the city,” they still hold enough power over us to make us miserable despite new and good circumstances. We can live our whole lives sitting at the window and looking back at what we lost, sacrificing what the Lord is trying to give to us or sacrificing the things that could give us happiness now and in the future.
Discontent poisons the present. Regret can become our identity. Your life right now feels barren, not because it is barren but because you refuse to see the good. These kinds of thoughts can poison your current relationships, the ones that have the power to offer the joy you apparently miss so much. You may have plenty, but you’re too busy emotionally investing yourself in an empty past. There is no gratitude, and therefore, no happiness. Bitterness has the power to leave you destroyed even if you’re not turned into a pillar of salt.
Let it go. It’s going to take a while to become something new if you have repeated old patterns of looking back over and over and over throughout the years. When you have trained yourself to fall back into seemingly rosier times whenever you hit roadbumps in your present, then it’s going to take some time to retrain yourself.
But it is only in retraining yourself that you’re going to avoid that emotional destruction and bitterness and find happiness in what the Lord can give you in your present circumstances.
You have to make a decision to leave it behind, and then you have to make that decision over and over and over until your eyes are opened to the gifts in your present, until you no longer automatically fall back into reminiscing instead of investing in your present.
The destruction of what you thought you wanted isn’t the end. There is more ahead in your life beyond what you’re leaving behind. Maybe you’re not longing for sin. Maybe you’re just longing for what you once had, but it can still hurt you.
I testify that Heavenly Father loves you. I testify that there is more goodness ahead and that looking at the past can prevent us from finding that goodness. I testify that He can send all the goodness in the world to your front door, all the most important goodness, but it won’t matter if we are looking back. We leave ourselves empty and bitter. I testify that the scriptures hold powerful lessons that give us a pattern to follow to make us happy.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 18–23 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Feb 24, 2026
Jennifer and guest Sarah Allen discuss the topic of polygamy.
Sarah Allen was a Senior Researcher with FAIR, a former member of Scripture Central’s research team, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. An avid reader, she loved studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She was a co-moderator of the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She was also a co-host of FAIR’s “Me, My Shelf, & I” podcast.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 18–23 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 23, 2026
On Behalf of Ten
by Autumn Dickson
The Old Testament is chock full of stories. One of the stories this week is about Sodom and Gomorrah. They were an incredibly wicked city, and the Lord destroyed them. Before the Lord does so, He talks to Abraham about it. Abraham has a whole conversation with the Lord where he asks the Lord not to destroy the city if he can find righteous people within it. First, Abraham asks the Lord to spare it if he can find 50 righteous people. Then he keeps decreasing that number until we reach this point:
Genesis 18:32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
The Lord agrees to not destroy it for the sake of ten righteous people.
This is an oft-repeating principle throughout scriptures. The Lord preserves nations because of a few righteous within it. The first example that comes to mind is Ammonihah. When Ammonihah killed and exiled all of the believers, it was ripe for destruction, and that was precisely what happened. The entire city was demolished by the Lamanites. The second one that comes to mind is in Isaiah 65 where the Lord talks about preserving the vine on behalf of a small cluster of good grapes.
It repeats far more than that, but those are just a couple of examples. And of course, there is a type in this. Let’s talk about it.
Sometimes it’s not about preserving a nation but a person. Abraham loved people enough that He pleaded with the Lord to save the city if he could find even a little bit of righteousness within it. Abraham is a type of Christ, and Christ pleads on our behalf even when there is only a little bit of righteousness within us. He loves us and wants us to have time to figure it out. It is important to understand what that means and why He does it.
When the Lord preserves a nation on behalf of the righteous who are dwelling there, He isn’t declaring the entire nation righteous. He isn’t turning a blind eye to the wickedness found there. He doesn’t plan on interceding on behalf of those who are unrepentant. For them, it will be as if no atonement had been made. Can you imagine how Lot’s daughters might have felt if Heavenly Father ignored what they had tried to do? Can you imagine how minimalized and cast aside and unsafe they would feel?
Mercy and intercession are not about ignoring wickedness. Rather, it is because He is providing the righteous with an opportunity to grow if possible.
In Alma 13, we read more about the king of Salem, Melchizedek. Melchizedek is a person from the Old Testament who blessed Abraham at one point. He was also king over a city that had waxed strong in abomination. They had “all” gone astray and were “full” of wickedness, except for Melchizedek. It was just Melchizedek. And yet, through the preaching of Melchizedek, the people repented and were saved.
When it comes to our own hearts, the Lord is willing to intercede if we repent. If there is a shred of goodness in us that holds sway, there is a chance to be saved.
On the flip side, we read about Ammonihah that I mentioned previously. Alma went there, was rejected, and left. He was commanded by an angel to return again, and in doing so, he came to Amulek. Amulek’s home welcomed him in and blessed him. After Alma and Amulek were preaching, some were converted but the leaders of Ammonihah killed them by fire.
Alma and Amulek escape, and Ammonihah is destroyed.
If we willfully kill those good seeds within us and reject Christ that thoroughly, He will not plead on our behalf. He does not save us in our sins. He saves us from our sins when we’re trying to escape them. He saves us long enough to let our choices play out in either direction, to the ultimate rejection of Him or to our repentance.
I want to expand the example of Ammonihah just a bit.
There are times when the Lord chooses to rain down His justice on purpose. There are times when He actively brings down trials and tragedy upon His people. When the wickedness is so bad that a softer answer won’t hit the mark, the Lord is not afraid of using a hard answer. There are times that He directly brings about difficulty in an attempt to reach us.
I wonder if it’s just a tad different with the city of Ammonihah. I wonder if the Lord didn’t have a hand in bringing the Lamanites to their doorstep to destroy them. I wonder if the Lord simply didn’t protect them any longer.
There is a type in this.
Sometimes the Lord purposefully rains down difficulty to try and shake us awake to our awful condition. But when it comes to a “final” judgment, He simply steps aside and doesn’t plead on our behalf. It is as if there is no atonement of Jesus Christ. Ammonihah wasn’t a final, final judgment, but it was a type of final judgment. It was meant to teach us something about the nature of eternity. The Lord wasn’t trying to reach them anymore; they had already shown that they didn’t want Him. Rather, He simply stepped aside and didn’t save them. His atonement simply didn’t apply in their lives.
Abraham pleaded on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah because he couldn’t stomach the idea of such destruction. It was hard for him to watch. After Lot was gone, I’m sure Abraham hated to watch it happen, but accepted the tragic necessity. Abraham is a type of the Lord. Our Lord and Savior pleads on our behalf. If there are even ten good people, He wants to give us time and let us play out our choices. He intercedes on our behalf and preserves us until the day that we completely reject Him. He performed the atonement, the intercession, because He couldn’t stand to watch us be destroyed when there was good in us. Honestly, I think He can’t stand to watch us be destroyed even after we have rejected Him, but He weighs that option with letting us destroy everything around us.
I testify that the Lord wants to save us. He is pleading with us to come and be saved. He isn’t standing there with a ruler ready to kick us out at any infraction. He is doing everything He can to get us to hear Him and find peace in Him. He stands ready to save us and then walk us through repentance towards a happier state of being like He did with Melchizedek and the city of Salem. He wants to save. Let Him. Work with Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 20, 2026
Do You See the Angels?
by Autumn Dickson
The beginning of Abraham’s story is a well-known one in our church. He was almost sacrificed on an altar because he believed in the one true God. The priests “laid violence” upon him, and then this happened.
Abraham 1:15 And as they lifted up their hands upon me, that they might offer me up and take away my life, behold, I lifted up my voice unto the Lord my God, and the Lord hearkened and heard, and he filled me with the vision of the Almighty, and the angel of his presence stood by me, and immediately unloosed my bands;
Abraham calls out to God, and he receives a vision of the Almighty. An angel stood by him and loosed his bands. Here’s my question.
How did this event play out for the priest? Did he see the angel or did he turn around and Abraham was free and running?
The scriptures later note that the priest was smitten, but that could mean anything. Did the angel smite him right there? Did he die later for something that seemed natural? The rest of the land was smitten by famine; this comes from the Lord, and yet, how many of the people saw the Lord’s hand in it?
And then, of course, this also happened.
Abraham 1:11 Now, this priest had offered upon this altar three virgins at one time, who were the daughters of Onitah, one of the royal descent directly from the loins of Ham. These virgins were offered up because of their virtue; they would not bow down to worship gods of wood or of stone, therefore they were killed upon this altar, and it was done after the manner of the Egyptians.
What did the priest see when he sacrificed these three women? I’m almost positive that he wouldn’t answer, “Divine intervention.”
What did the virgins see? Maybe nothing at first. Maybe there was no vision or angel to comfort them as they passed through to the other side, but they saw enough that they refused to bow down to idols. And then, after passing through to the other side, I’m sure they saw something wonderful.
When you look at your own life, what do you see? Do you see the angel? Do you see the loosed bands or are you still laying on the altar, convinced that you’re still tied down? Do you see the intervention of God? Do you see the Lord standing ready to welcome you to where you’re going?
Do you see the end from the beginning? Maybe not exactly, but do you see it?
I type my prayers. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it a million more times. Writing down my prayers has changed my life. In this specific context, I have realized that writing my prayers helps me see.
There have been times where I have seen the Lord’s hand as I’ve looked back. There have been times when I’ve written and asked for something very specific in my prayers only to find them answered with exactly what I asked. There have been times when I was subconsciously led to write something down, and I found the Lord intervening on my behalf according to what I wrote down.
But it goes beyond that. Writing my prayers has helped me see, to an extent, what the Lord has coming for me.
One of my favorite games to play is, “How do I want this to turn out?” Whenever I’m facing hard decisions or moving parts or uncertain details, I pray for the end that I want. I pray for my most important things, sometimes I add in a couple of extras that I would like, and then I end it with asking for His will.
It is so soothing. Our world is often plagued with anxiety. People find themselves overwhelmingly frightened by what the coming days could bring. Writing my prayers often placates that anxiety, not because Heavenly Father is going to give me whatever I want, but because praying reminds me that He’s going to give me what’s best for me.
There are times when I’m praying, and I feel guided. He starts to guide my words in a different direction. Sometimes I pray for a different solution that addresses things I didn’t anticipate. Sometimes I pray for deliverance, and He guides me to pray for growth and spiritual gifts to rise to the occasion. Even if I’m not delivered, I often feel empowered.
There are times when I’m praying, and I don’t necessarily feel guided. I simply feel much better after visualizing some of the best ways my scenario could play out. Honestly, it increases my faith. Even if my idea of a best-case-scenario doesn’t play out, I am reminded that the Lord is writing the best-case-scenario. I get to look at what I believe is a neat and tidy “happy ending” and remember that the Lord is writing my story.
I’m not sure Abraham or the virgins would have written their stories in the same way that the Lord wrote them, but I’m pretty positive that after seeing their “endings,” they applauded the Lord for His wisdom, mercy, justice, and foresight.
The Lord is on our team, and He truly does have the ultimate foresight. We can lean on Him for all of it. We don’t have to see the end from the beginning in vivid detail. The only end we truly need to see is the one where we are standing by the Lord. That’s the happiest ending, and no matter where your road takes you, that ending is available to you. No one can take it away.
So can you see it? Can you see the Lord leading you along where you need to go? Can you picture a future where He has taken care of everything? Do you see the angels and the intervention? Do you see the bright future with a grand inheritance like the one He had for the three virgins and for Abraham? Can you see it? He can.
I testify that the happy ending is available. When we look at our lives and whatever it is that we’re going through, the Lord can lead us to that happy ending. We just need the eyes to see it. It’s there. I testify that there are many ways that we can develop the eyes we need to see, but one of those powerful ways includes deep and heartfelt prayer that allows the Lord to guide us along throughout our lives. I testify that He is doing so, and I testify that seeing His hand changes your perspective on everything.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Feb 17, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 12–17; Abraham 1–2 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 17, 2026
What True Worship Looks Like
by Autumn Dickson
I have been thinking a lot about what it means to worship God lately. It keeps popping up through random little avenues in my life. We’ve had the opportunity to have the missionaries in our home who taught about the ten commandments and only worshipping the one and true God. I’ve engaged in a couple of conversations about our beliefs of exaltation and what it means to become like our Heavenly Parents. I also recently saw a post about how celebrating Halloween is worshipping the occult, and so I asked myself, is that the truth? I love Halloween, and so I wanted to speak with the Lord and make sure I wasn’t doing anything He didn’t want me to do.
What does it mean to avoid idolatry and only worship Heavenly Father? Let’s read a couple of verses in Abraham to give us some principles to live by.
Abraham 1:6 For their hearts were set to do evil, and were wholly turned to the god of Elkenah, and the god of Libnah, and the god of Mahmackrah, and the god of Korash, and the god of Pharaoh, king of Egypt;
“…their hearts were wholly turned to the god of…” Your heart is representative of what you truly love. You can go to church and still have your heart oriented somewhere else. You can profess belief in our Heavenly Father and still not worship Him. You can watch Come Follow Me videos all you want, but if your heart is not engaged, it won’t save you.
And I believe that’s the key here. Only the Lord can save us. There are many ways that He saves us, one of which being an entrance into the kingdom of God, but there are many ways that He holds us and cares for us here on earth. He saves us by bringing true joy and peace. That’s what it boils down to. He doesn’t save us for the sake of saving us, and though that may seem like a silly nuance, it’s really important. He saves us because He wants us to be happy.
Part of worshipping the only true God is understanding that. Only the Lord can save us. Only the Lord can bring us true joy and peace.
We often ask: Is your heart centered on Jesus Christ? Do you only worship the true and living God? Perhaps a fantastic follow-up litmus test is this: Is your search for joy and peace centered on Jesus Christ?
The key word here is “centered.” That doesn’t mean you can’t have other things that make you happy and bring you joy. I believe that the Lord did what He did in order to give us an opportunity to enjoy other things in the context of eternity. There is a reason we keep hearing about the mansions in heaven. We can enjoy incredible things, but what matters in relation to the word “worship” is where our enjoyment is centered.
Let’s make it come full circle. Why is it important to center our worship, joy, and peace on the Savior? Because everything else will leave us ultimately empty. Nothing else can save you. Nothing else can truly bring joy and peace. There are many wonderful, incredible things out there that bring deep and lasting joy, but all of it will come to naught unless you have something more solid and capable: namely, Jesus Christ.
So I go and have fun and enjoy Halloween, all while keeping an eye on the fact that it doesn’t matter without Christ. My joy and peace are anchored in Him.
Here is another verse to give us a second litmus test of worship.
Abraham 1:8 Now, at this time it was the custom of the priest of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to offer up upon the altar which was built in the land of Chaldea, for the offering unto these strange gods, men, women, and children.
Before, we covered, “What is bringing you happiness? Is your peace and joy centered on Christ?” My next question is this: what are you willing to sacrifice for these other things that you love? What are you paying for it?
There are more questions we can ask that relate directly back to the experience of Abraham. Namely, are you sacrificing others? Are you sacrificing precious relationships with your family members? Are you sacrificing the needs and wants of others who are depending on you?
Look at how you spend time throughout the day. Look at the things that bring you a lot of happiness. What do those things cost in time, energy, and resources? What are you dedicating to it?
Are sports taking up so much time that you fail to spend quality time with family? Are you so obsessed with to-do lists that your kids are viewed as obstacles rather than purpose? Are you so caught up in social media that your kids miss you? Are you so caught up in anything else on earth that you’re sacrificing true joy?
Which leads to another follow-up question. Are you willing to hand what you love over to the Lord should He ask?
I think of my love of Halloween. If the prophet came out tomorrow and said that we weren’t going to celebrate Halloween anymore, would I listen? It’s okay to mourn things you love, but are you willing to hand it over as a sacrifice if the Lord asks? He should stand above all other things in your life. Your peace and joy should be centered on Him to the extent that you’re willing to give up other forms of joy should He ask. That’s what it means to worship.
Only worshipping the true and living God means that your peace and joy are centered on Him. It means a deep and abiding understanding that only Christ can really save you, and your ultimate source of relief comes through Him. It means that you’re willing to let go of other forms of happiness should He ask you to. It means that you are weighing the costs of where you are investing yourself. The cost of what you love should never tip the scales dangerously away from the most important things, and it should never come at the cost of your relationship with Christ.
I testify that true joy and peace is only found in Christ. I testify that He is worth any sacrifice. I testify that anything He asks us to sacrifice is actually only leading us closer to truth and joy. I testify that there is nothing that is more valuable than a relationship with Christ. He is worth the cost of anything else.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 6–11; Moses 8 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 13, 2026
Was the Flood an Act of Mercy?
by Autumn Dickson
Noah’s ark is one of the most classic bible stories. Even when you’re not Christian, many people are aware of the story and what it means. I read these verses in the last post for this week, and I’m going to read them again with a new angle.
Genesis 7:19-20, 23
19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
The Lord destroyed everything. Oftentimes, this is rightfully seen as an act of justice. According to the Come Follow Me manual, the flood was also an act of mercy. I love that justice and mercy often come together, and I want to expand upon that.
Here is a quote from the Come Follow Me manual. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught, “corruption had reached an agency-destroying point that spirits could not, in justice, be sent here.” During Noah’s time, the world had become so dark and devastating that bringing new children into the world would have been wrong.
When you study child abuse and neglect, this makes complete sense. There comes a point when you are so traumatized that trauma is all you can offer others. And if there are no healthy adults to save the children, then society will just get darker and darker until it destroys itself anyway.
Perhaps God destroyed the evil, but they would have destroyed themselves anyway. Because of His decisions, He was also able to save many of the spirits that would have gone down and been destroyed alongside the rest.
Now this was an extremely large scale event, but that’s what makes it such an easy example to observe. Here is another scriptural example on a slightly smaller scale.
In The Book of Mormon, Nephi is teaching his brothers and trying to get them to repent, but they hate the things of God. Here is a verse that shows some of Nephi’s pleadings.
1 Nephi 17:45 Ye are swift to do iniquity but slow to remember the Lord your God. Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice, but ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words; wherefore, he has spoken unto you like unto the voice of thunder, which did cause the earth to shake as if it were to divide asunder.
The Lord had to be severe to reach them. We see this over and over and over again throughout scripture. Paul the apostle, Alma the Younger, the Israelites all throughout the Old Testament. You will see this theme all throughout Come Follow Me this year. The Lord is willing to do what’s necessary in order to reach us, but there is an important, adjacent understanding that goes hand in hand with this.
Jeffrey R. Holland taught, “Justice is not the work of an offended tyrant. It is the loving labor of a Father who is trying to get His children safely home.”
I LOVE this quote. He is not an offended tyrant. God is a loving Father, and He is wise enough to know how to reach His children. He’s not trying to punish us into submission. He’s trying to get through to us.
In 1 Peter, we learn that Christ went and preached to those in prison, specifically to the disobedient from the times of Noah. I wonder if they were finally ready to listen. I wonder if the flood and spirit prison reached them so that they were ready to live their life in a manner that brought happiness. I wonder if they are friends with Noah now. If they have repented, then I know this. They are grateful for the Lord and His wisdom in raining down justice and reaching them.
All of God’s decisions are based on love for His children, the seemingly severe and the softly spoken answer. He chooses the option that will most powerfully reach us. We’ve seen this on a large scale like with Noah and the flood, we’ve seen it on a smaller scale with Laman and Lemual. What does it mean for your own life?
We have to be careful not to take this principle beyond its proper bounds. The principle is this: God will use tragedy to reach us if it’s necessary because He loves us. The principle is not this: If you’re experiencing something tragic, it is because God is using tragedy to punish you or because you really need to repent. Tragedy does not equate to wickedness, but it can be a tool that God uses sometimes. It just depends.
I testify that all of God’s decisions are based on love. I testify that suffering in mortal life is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. I testify that death is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. I testify that God is wise enough to do what it takes to reach us, and I testify that He sent His Son to wash us, heal us, and suffer with us so that He could succor us when we’re prepared to accept that loving kindness. I testify that God uses justice to be merciful in our lives.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 6–11; Moses 8 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Feb 10, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 6–11; Moses 8 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 10, 2026
A Flood and a Fresh Start
by Autumn Dickson
This week we read about a couple of classic Bible stories, one of which is Noah and the ark. Let’s read a couple of verses.
Noah was led to build and ark, and then he went into the ark with his sons. God shut them up in the ark, and then this happened.
Genesis 7:19-20, 23
19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
The earth was completely covered with water, and everything was destroyed except for Noah, his family, and the animals who went with them.
The Guide to the Scriptures teaches us that, “During Noah’s time the earth was completely covered with water. This was the baptism of the earth and symbolized a cleansing.”
There is so much symbolism here, but I want to talk about one of the most important aspects of this symbolism. When we are baptized or take the sacrament, our sins are washed away and we start over.
The earth was filled with violence and corruption. Every imagination and thought of the people was evil continually.
That is a lot of cleansing. I have a feeling that you have not yet reached this point in your life. I have a feeling that if you’re reading Come Follow Me posts, your imaginations and thoughts aren’t evil continually. Maybe you’ve got some flaws that you can’t kick, but I’m guessing that if you’re inviting good into your life, you can’t possibly be thinking about evil continually.
And if God can wash away all of that evil at the time of Noah, He can wash away your sins too. He can make the baptism as “big” as it needs to be. He can “flood the earth” so to speak if that’s what it takes to wash away the sins that you do have. And that little tiny piece of you that is trying to do well and good will be preserved and provided with an opportunity to start over.
Every Sunday when you take up that little piece of bread and that little cup of water, you are remembering how the Lord paid for your sins. There was a tremendous amount of suffering, both in the flood and in the Garden of Gethsemane. Honestly, it’s crazy to think that there was more pain in that one night in the Garden of Gethsemane than there was during the flood.
But it is done. The suffering already happened. The price was already paid. It was a gift.
The gift offered is not automatic salvation. When Noah and his family were preserved, it wasn’t automatic salvation. They weren’t going to immediately experience joy just because all of that evil was all swept away. They still needed to build something after the water was gone. What would they build in the blank slate that the Lord gave them?
The gift is that the Lord is going to provide you an opportunity to build your life again without being weighed down by past sins. And you get to use that gift all the time, every time you repent.
We go to church on Sunday, we take the sacrament, we wash away all of the evil, and the Lord leaves the good. He doesn’t wipe away all of our flaws. Noah and his family weren’t perfect. He just wipes away all of the residue of sin, and from there, we begin to build again.
What are we going to bring into our new world? What will we bring into our new selves? As you look at the landscape of your life, it has been washed clean again. What will you create? What will you turn your life into?
Because it is about building. This is a story of grace, and it is a story of what we create with what we were given. Hopefully, we take the blank slate and choose to build up incredible things that bless us and bless those around us. We are given frameworks and blueprints that we can use to build our lives. It is not enough to want something beautiful built; the Lord gives us the beautiful opportunity to do the work alongside Him.
And as time moves on, hopefully we don’t need an entire flood every time we choose to take the sacrament. Hopefully the cleansings get smaller and smaller as we become more and more Christlike.
You may still grieve. I don’t think Noah and his family walked away from this experience lightly. I think they walked away with a lot of sorrow for what happened alongside the gratitude for being saved. Like Noah, washing away your sins won’t erase the memory of it. Even though it may bring grief, it’s a gift. It’s a gift because it can prevent you from walking down the path towards an earthwide flood again. It will bring depth to your gratitude. We don’t want to forget what happened, not really, despite the pain it may bring.
I testify that the Lord can wash away what you have. I testify that there are so many parallels with the flood and our own lives that can teach us about what the Lord did and what He offers. I testify that He did not automatically give us salvation; He gave us a blank slate so that we could build something worth having, so that we could enjoy eternity like He does. I testify that He will keep washing as long as it takes, as long as we need to build what He has in mind for us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 7 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 06, 2026
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay
by Autumn Dickson
In Moses 7, Enoch watched some of the most devastating events in human history. He watched the earth be traumatized. He watched violence and the consequent justice of God. There was death and abundant evil. I’m not sure I want to see the vision that Enoch saw.
And as Enoch watched these traumatic events, he also observed this.
Moses 7:28 And it came to pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept; and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains?
The God of heaven looked at what was occurring on the earth and wept. At one point in Enoch’s journey, he even “refused” to be comforted, and yet, God wasn’t angry with Enoch’s deep depression. There are things that will feel dark and unbearable even as we approach being like our Heavenly Father. In fact, there are things that will feel dark and unbearable simply because we are becoming more Christlike.
When Enoch asked Him why He could cry, the Lord responded with this.
Moses 7:32-33
32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;
The Lord is saying, “I chose this. I helped create this plan. I created all of this, gave knowledge to them, and I gave them their agency. I asked them to love each other, but they hate each other instead.”
The Jews in the Holocaust were the children of God, but so were the Nazis. Those who perished in the attacks on 9/11 were the children of God, but so were those who attacked. Abel was the son of God, and so was Cain. The children of God included the Israelites, the oldest sons of the Egyptians, and the slave drivers.
Regardless of wickedness, God loves and mourns His children. Regardless of what His children chose to become and regardless of the justice that He will choose to rain down, God knew His children when they were young and innocent. He loved them and cared for them.
He had to face what it meant to put the Plan of Salvation into motion. He had to face the victims who perished and those who continue on suffering. He has to face His children who are perpetrators and mourn the fact that they refuse to come be a part of the family. Despite all that they did, He has to face what it means to separate them from the rest of the family in order to preserve any semblance of peace and happiness within the rest of the family.
He shoulders that burden, and despite being from all eternity to all eternity, it weighs on Him. Despite His omnipotent strength, the weight that He carries is heavy. Can something be heavy when you’re perfectly strong? Apparently.
Is it okay to be upset even when you know the happy ending? Apparently.
Let’s take it a step further. Is it righteous to be upset even when you know the happy ending?
I think sometimes I picture God as colder than He really is. I picture Him without all of His emotions because for some reason, I have come to associate omnipotence with being above that kind of thing. What if the opposite is true?
As Enoch became more like God, as God taught him immense things in this vision, “his heart swelled as wide as eternity.”
Perhaps eternity (and therefore this life) is not about becoming so powerful and knowledgeable that the suffering doesn’t affect you. Perhaps looking forward with an eye of faith is not about saving yourself from deep and hard feelings.
Deep feelings are a part of eternity, deep feelings that are both happy and sad. If we are trying to become like God, then deep feelings will be a part of it. And if Enoch is to be believed, our feelings only grow deeper as we learn and experience more.
Even as I write this, I keep trying to take this principle further, but the Lord is stopping me. Perhaps that is the principle He is trying to teach me; that is the principle He is emphasizing today.
Deep feelings, and not just the happy ones, are part of an eternal existence. How does that change how you approach life? How does it change how you approach your difficult times? I testify that God’s eternity is full. I testify that part of that eternity is difficulty and grief because the happiness and joy would be hollow without it. I testify that we can lift up our hearts and be glad despite the other half of our eternity being heavy to bear. They come together. We do not need to fear that depth. I testify that because of Jesus Christ, we can feel hope alongside that difficulty.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 7 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Feb 03, 2026
Moses 7: Enoch’s Vision (Jennifer Roach Lees)
The vision of Enoch in Moses 7 bridges the gap between ancient scripture and modern discipleship. We can absolutely see ourselves in it.
On the one hand, it’s a text of great scholarly interest. Go read Jeff Bradshaw’s paper. It’s very long, very dense and very scholarly. Moses 7 expands the kind of sparse biblical account of Enoch into this big sweeping narrative.
And on the other hand, it’s a profoundly practical guide for Latter-day Saints seeking to live faithfully in the present, not in some future idealized world on the actual street that you live on.
The dual significance makes Moses 7 a cornerstone for both intellectual exploration and spiritual transformation. Those two are not pitted against each other, right? Those are the same thing.
Ultimately, Moses 7 matters because it shows that scholarship and discipleship are not separate pursuits.
Understanding the text’s historical or theological depth, it enriches our faith so that we are able to live our lives based on its principles.
Welcome Back
Welcome back to FAIR’s Come, Follow Me old testament year.
I am Jennifer Roach Lees and today we are talking about one of the most beautiful pieces of scripture, Moses 7. We’re going to look at both some scholarly insights into this passage as well as some of the practical applications.
This passage is one of the most expansive and theologically rich chapters in the Pearl of Great Price – or honestly, in any scripture.
In this vision, the prophet Enoch is transformed from this hesitant kind of slow-of-speech figure into a seer who beholds the entire cosmic drama of God’s dealings with humans.
And for Latter-day Saints, this chapter is remarkable for its doctrinal contributions such as:
a portrayal of God who has emotions, who weeps over his children,
the promise of Zion being taken into heaven,
the sweeping narrative of redemption.
It also has a lot of practical relevance in our modern day discipleship.
Zion as a Lived Reality
One of the most interesting things to me in this chapter is that Zion is not supposed to be just this distant hope or this past thing that Enoch got to experience. It’s supposed to be a lived reality, a community of unity and holiness that invites believers to come and to grow.
Now, it is not always that. And most of us do not live in a Zion-like experience all of the time. But it’s what we’re striving for, right? And I think that part is fascinating.
We will look at this chapter for its scholarly significance as a text and its devotional power as kind of a guide for:
how you even build Zion in your personal life,
your family, and
around the world.
By looking at Enoch’s transformation and God’s compassion, the translation of Zion, we can see how and why this vision is still so important to us today.
Ultimately, this chapter matters because it calls us to participate in God’s work of gathering, healing, and sanctifying. A work that isn’t about like the distant heavens, but about the ordinary choices that you and I make every single day.
Historical and Scriptural Context
So, first we’ll talk a little bit about the history here and the scriptural context. The account of Enoch in Moses 7 occupies this very distinctive place within Latter-day Saints scripture.
Enoch is mentioned in the Bible, but really only briefly. It’s in Genesis 5.
He’s someone who walked with God and then was translated – taken out of this world – but there is no story beyond that. There’s no narrative given.
So, by contrast, Joseph Smith reveals Enoch’s story as this big, sweeping vision of cosmic scale. He gives us actually 110 verses across Moses 6 and 7 about Enoch’s story compared to less than a handful of verses in the Old Testament.
This expansion really situates Enoch not as just a righteous patriarch, but as a prophet who establishes Zion, right? So, slightly different than some of the other Old Testament patriarchs that we see.
And Enoch beholds the destiny of the earth. As grand as that sounds, that’s what happens with him.
For Latter-day Saints, what’s happening here is that restoring this scripture underscores the restoration’s claim to recover lost truths.
Parallels Between Moses 7 and Apocryphal Writings
Now, scholars have long noted the parallels between Moses 7 and the Jewish apocryphal writings.
The Apocrypha is a collection of pre-new testament works. Somewhere between when the Old Testament ends and when the New Testament begins, we get these writings from Jewish people and we call them the Apocrypha.
Many of them are collected into this translation they call the Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament. We call those the official Apocrypha. And there are also other apocryphal books outside of that, that are not in this defined collection. But we refer to all of these as apocryphal writings.
There’s a lot in common between Moses 7 and some of these writings. It is pretty fascinating. There are actually connections in other ancient books beyond the accepted Apocrypha.
And one of those books is called the Book of Giants. We’ll get to that one in a minute.
First, let me tell you about one that is in the Apocrypha. It’s called the book of Enoch. Enoch is a visionary.
He ascends to heaven.
He receives some divine secrets.
He intercedes for humanity.
Joseph Smith may or may not have been able to read the Apocrypha. It’s connected to the Catholic Bible still to this day. It’s printed in their Bible. Perhaps he was able to read that.
Ancient Parallels: Book of Enoch and the Book of Giants
The thematic overlap is certainly there with the book of Enoch and with other ancient traditions. Most striking here is a depiction of a God who weeps over human suffering.
You see that in the book of Enoch and the Apocrypha. It’s very central to Latter-day Saint theology – this divine compassion. We don’t see that in a lot of other places.
The Book of Giants, another very interesting connection. This is the one that gets me.
It’s also on The Interpreter Foundation’s website. It’s a very long, dense paper. But it is absolutely worth the struggle to get through. If this intrigues you at all, I absolutely recommend you go download his paper.
It’s really, really good.
The Gist of Bradshaw’s Argument
Here’s the gist of it though. (And Jeff, forgive me for the simplification of your work here, but…)
Bradshaw makes connections between Moses 7 and a book that had long been lost to history called The Book of Giants.
This book, the Book of Giants, was found again when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. So, it existed, disappeared. We didn’t know of any copies of it. We didn’t know of its existence.
It pops back up along with the Dead Sea Scrolls. There’s a lot of things in those scrolls. The Book of Giants is one of them.
Why is this interesting?
Well, because if the worry is ‘Joseph Smith made up the book of Moses on his own,’ then it’s very hard to explain the similar names and phrases and themes that are found when talking about Enoch in the Book of Moses, and talking about Enoch in The Book of Giants.
There are a lot of similarities.
The Book of Giants was not available to Joseph Smith. It had not yet been rediscovered. And yet today you can go online actually and read the text of The Book of Giants if you want to. You can put that right next to Moses 6 and 7.
And it’s not a copy by any means, but:
There are similar names.
There are certainly similar themes.
There’s similar phrasing.
How did Joseph do that except for by the power of God?
That’s one of my favorite little academic tidbits about all of this.
Early Latter-day Saint Identity and Zion Aspirations
Historically, the Enoch material in Moses 7 really shaped early Latter-day Saint identity.
The vision of Zion taken into heaven inspired Joseph and his followers to pursue creation of Zion communities in Missouri and beyond.
The idea that a people could be so unified and righteous that they would be gathered into God’s presence gave them this really big blueprint for communal living. But also, it gave them some very practical ‘here is how that’s going to have to work out’ steps.
So Moses 7 is not only this expansion, but it’s also a foundational text for the church’s early social and religious aspirations.
Themes in Moses 7
The historical and scriptural context of Moses 7 reveals its double significance. It connects us to this great vision and it kind of gives us a framework for how to live today.
We’re going to move into the next section. I want to talk about some of the themes in Moses 7. It unfolds around several interwoven themes and we’re just going to cover a few of them here.
Enoch’s transformation: him as a man, his own transformation;
The establishment of Zion and
The compassion of God.
Actually –
The translation of the city.
All of these, especially when looked at together, offer a framework for understanding how ancient scripture speaks to modern-day discipleship.
And we’re going to look at each one of those closely so you can see what I mean.
Theme 1: Enoch’s Personal Transformation
First, Enoch’s own personal transformation.
The narrative begins with Enoch as this reluctant prophet. He’s described as slow of speech.
And yet through God’s empowerment, he becomes a mighty seer whose words cause mountains to flee and rivers to change course.
The transformation underscores this great restoration principle, which is: God magnifies the weak to accomplish his purposes.
And for Latter-day Saints, Enoch’s journey is a reminder that discipleship does not require innate brilliance or eloquence, but just willingness to act in faith. We all are standing on equal ground.
In daily life, this theme encourages believers to trust that God can strengthen them:
In their callings,
In their family responsibilities,
In their personal challenges.
Study and Prayer Are Not Opposites
Sometimes though, people maybe inside or outside of the church try to pit this idea (that God magnifies the weak to accomplish his purposes).
They try to pit that against the idea that it’s good to study and to learn as much as you can about the scriptures, and that intelligence is good. They want to pit these two against each other as if studying for guidance and praying for guidance were opposites.
But they’re not.
Study for its own sake probably doesn’t help very much. But when a scholar works to study all they can, that can be a form of prayer – as well as information that feeds back into how the spirit can speak to that person.
“Study to learn what God has for you” and
“Pray to learn what God has for you”
are not opposites.Those two things work together.
So when we say, “Enoch was this simple man. God magnified his weakness and made him great.”
We’re not saying, “Oh, study is bad. You just have to wait for God to miraculously zap this into you.”
It just isn’t that way. There’s no division between scholar and disciple when both parts have the same goal. Those are not two separate things.
So, that’s a little bit on Enoch’s own development.
Theme 2: The Vision of Zion
Theme number two, the vision of Zion.
Perhaps the most defining feature of Moses 7 is its portrayal of Zion, a people united in righteousness, dwelling in safety, and enjoying the presence of the Lord. Sounds pretty good.
And at different times in history, Latter-day Saints have seen Zion as a specific place to gather to, and at other times, we’ve seen it as a theological ideal of covenant community.
Let me give you probably the best example I can think of. If you’ve read the Saints books that the church put out a couple years ago, you see this illustrated really nicely.
The first volume, it’s all about the establishment of the church, right?
The second volume is about the Utah period, establishing Zion here, and the struggles that people went through to get to that goal.
But you get to the third book and the church is beginning to build temples around the world. The writers of that book do a fascinating thing at the end of the third book.
I actually kind of had my jaw open when I read the end of this one and realized what they were doing: the narrative significance of this move. It’s pretty brilliant.
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t read it yet, I’m about to tell you how the book ends.
The Story of Max and Erica Zimmer
The book follows the stories of a lot of people, but it follows one couple who are living in East Berlin, Max and Erica Zimmer. The Berlin Wall has been constructed, but somehow the Zimmers have received permission to leave Berlin and go to the Switzerland Temple.
And while they’re there in Switzerland, they have a legitimate chance to defect to the west and be free. They’re living in East Berlin. The wall is up. They’re behind the Berlin wall. They don’t have freedom here. They find themselves in Switzerland. And they could run. (I’ve got to admit, if it was me, I would run.)
But they don’t. Instead, they decide to go back to East Berlin. Why? To build Zion there.
I wouldn’t make the same choice. Maybe you wouldn’t have either, to be honest. But their story illustrates how the historical changes in the church, how we see Zion, how those have played out.
For this couple, the Zimmers, Zion wasn’t about, “oh, you must go to Utah to get to experience this.” It was “No, we’re going to build Zion exactly where we are.”
This becomes both a theological concept for them and a place that they can inhabit without having to uproot their lives to the other side of the world. It becomes both a real physical place that exists as well as a theological concept.
For modern saints, Zion is both this future hope and present task.
We’re building our homes and our wards and our communities where hopefully love and holiness prevail. And it’s hard, right? It just is. If you spend any amount of time – even with your own family – things are hard. Yet it is the work of building Zion.
There isn’t a place we can go. There isn’t a neighborhood you can move into where Zion’s already established and if you found it your presence there would ruin it and it wouldn’t be Zion anymore, right?
We’re all like learning and growing our own development to bring this together as both concept and place.
Theme 3: The Compassion of God
Third theme, the compassion of God.
One of the most striking passages in Moses 7 depicts God weeping or suffering on behalf of his children. You might not realize this if you’ve kind of grown up in our church and don’t know very much about the theology of other churches. But this image seriously challenges traditional notions about God and if he has emotions at all and if he’s impacted by us.
Sometimes they call it divine impassibility or the idea that God does not feel human emotions and certainly is not swayed by them. That’s the standard non-Latter-day Saint belief. “God doesn’t have passions” is how they would say it.
As silly as it might sound to you to think of God as being kind of cold and distant like that, that’s how he is viewed outside of our church for the most part.
However, interestingly enough, in the last 20 years or so, that conversation has started to change even for Catholics and Protestants.
The theologian Jurgen Moltman was incredibly prolific. He actually died last year. One of the most prolific theologians of the last 50 years. He really started to push the conversation to say, “No, no, we’ve been wrong about this idea that God doesn’t have emotions. We should start reconsidering that.” And because of his status and who he was as a theologian, people listened to him.
And you will find today in some corners of the non-LDS Christian world people who believe, “Oh yeah, of course God has emotions. Of course God is moved by us.” But that’s a new development for them. That has not always been the case.
I think it’s delightful that at least some of them are starting to move toward that.
God Shares in Our Pain
For us as Latter-day Saints, this idea that God feels for us and feels because of us offers profound comfort. God is not distant from human pain, but He shares in it.
Our daily discipleship involves seeing others through God’s compassionate eyes, right? Allowing them to move us just like we can move God. That we might suffer for other people just like God suffers for us.
As we work to alleviate suffering, we are doing the work of God the same things that he does for us. We are acting as his children to our brothers and sisters.
Theme 4: The Translation of Zion
Fourth theme: the translation of Zion.
Finally, Moses 7 describes the City of Zion being taken up into heaven. We call that translation, and it’s actually a really common theme in apocryphal writings.
Earlier I was telling you there’s a set of writings we call the Apocrypha. There are lots of other books beyond that, that we would just call “apocryphal writings”.
This is a really common theme: someone or something being taken from the earth and translated. They don’t die. They are just taken up to be with God. However, it’s usually just an individual that’s translated, not a whole city.
If you’re listening, I would love to hear if you know of any spots in apocryphal literature where a whole city is taken up and translated in that way. I don’t know of any. It’s usually just a single individual.
For Latter-day Saints, I think part of the message here is: we are redeemed together. All of humanity. All of us together, not just individuals.
We who are living, we care about the redemption of our dead. Because if there’s no redemption for them, there’s no redemption for us either. We are all bound together. If something is going to get saved, it’s not us just as isolated individuals. It’s us in the great chain of sealing all being sealed into the same system.
The fact that the whole city is taken up together, not just one holy individual, to me that really symbolizes the redemption of the entire world, of humanity together.
I think that’s really beautiful.
Practical Applications for Daily Life
A few practical applications for daily life.
Moses 7 offers profound theological insights and its enduring power lives and how it shapes our daily lives. So, it’s not just this big thing. It’s a small, little-step thing too.
Enoch’s vision of Zion is not simply this historical curiosity, a thing that used to exist. Or a future promise, something that will someday exist again. It’s a living invitation for us, for Latter-day Saints, for Christians everywhere to embody divine principles in their personal, family and community lives.
Your own personal version of Zion.
Enoch’s transformation from hesitant speaker to mighty prophet illustrates that God magnifies ordinary individuals. For modern saints, this means that discipleship begins with small, faithful acts.
Prayer
Study
Reading the scriptures
Service
Integrity
Right? Building Zion personally involves:
Cultivating compassion,
Resisting cynicism,
Resisting despair,
Trusting that God can strengthen your weakness.
These are all the little micro-building blocks of Zion. Zion isn’t something that’s going to happen to us, or that God is going to zap into us. It’s something we’re going to build with tiny little building blocks just like those.
Building Zion in the Family
We also have our families.
No family is perfect.
No family is perfect in unity all the time.
No family is perfect in love all the time.
But a family that’s striving to be like Zion is one where each member believes that no matter what happens,
They are still going to love each other.
They are still going to be moved by each other.
They’re still going to have compassion on each other the very best that they can.
Being a Zion family is not about being perfect.
It’s not about having children who behave perfectly.
It’s not about having adult children who make perfect gospel decisions.
It’s about having compassion for each other’s struggles.
Just like Heavenly Father has compassion on ours, he weeps for us. And sometimes, as sad and hard as it is, sometimes we weep for our other family members while not rejecting them, while still wanting to be there to support them to the degree that we can.
This model of Zion doesn’t require a family to live in some kind of false perfection. It allows lots of room for struggle because we can model the compassion that Heavenly Father has for us.
A Global Zion
And then finally, a global Zion. Moses 7 expands Zion’s vision to encompass the entire world. God’s weeping over all of humanity calls believers to see all people as children of God. For Latter-day Saints, this means engaging in peacemaking, justice, compassion in and outside of the church. Right?
Daily discipleship may involve
advocating for fairness,
advocating for dignity,
loving your fellow man, and
serving where you can.
In this way, Zion becomes not just a local community as if you happen to just move into a really great ward, right? Or you happen to be born in a really great family. No! This is all of us together, the entire human race, learning to do this with each other. It’s a global ethic.
Moses 7 matters because it transforms this lofty vision of all eternity and redemption into really practical calls to action by building Zion personally. All those little, small building blocks within your family. How we treat each other with compassion and in our worldwide community. We are building Zion.
Latter-day Saints participate in this same divine work that Enoch and his people participated in. This chapter’s relevance lies not in some distant history, but in the choices that saints are making every single day to embody unity and compassion and holiness.
Conclusion
The vision of Enoch in Moses 7 bridges the gap between ancient scripture and modern discipleship. We can absolutely see ourselves in it. On the one hand, it’s a text of great scholarly interest. (Go read Jeff Bradshaw’s paper. It’s very long, dense and scholarly)
Moses 7 expands the sparse biblical account of Enoch into a big, sweeping narrative.
And on the other hand, it’s a profoundly practical guide for Latter-day Saints seeking to live faithfully in the present – not in some future idealized world – on the actual street that you live on.
The dual significance makes Moses 7 a cornerstone for both intellectual exploration and spiritual transformation. Those two are not pitted against each other, right? Those are the same thing. Ultimately, Moses 7 matters because it shows that scholarship and discipleship are not separate pursuits.
Understanding the text’s historical or theological depth, it enriches our faith so that we are able to live our lives based on its principles. In Enoch’s vision, we find this beautifully woven together, a reminder that building Zion is the work of both mind and heart.
Next Week
Thank you for joining us today in this conversation. Come back next week! We’re going to look at the last chapter in the book of Moses, chapter 8, as well as Genesis 6-11.
We’ll see you then.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 7 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 02, 2026
Why We Build Arks When We are Saved By Grace
by Autumn Dickson
Moses 7 is powerful. There is so much. I have so many thoughts, but let’s keep it to a few. One of those thoughts came to me while reading this verse.
Moses 7:43 Wherefore Enoch saw that Noah built an ark; and that the Lord smiled upon it, and held it in his own hand; but upon the residue of the wicked the floods came and swallowed them up.
Noah and his family were surrounded by wickedness and danger. They built an ark, and the Lord protected them. The rest of the people were wiped out by the flood.
I want to draw your attention to two details. Noah built an ark, and the Lord held it in His hand. There is a type in this. Let’s talk about one of my favorite subjects: grace and works. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is frequently attacked for not being Christian because we believe that we will be judged by our works and desires and not just by whether we believe in the right Jesus. Other Christians believe that it’s just about accepting the Savior, not following Him. They believe that you don’t have to do anything. Some believe that if you try to do anything, you’re only taking away from His glory (or so I’ve been told by some of my friends; I recognize that there are nuanced beliefs within the Christian faith in general). I know others believe that it’s all about belief and works simply follow belief, but the works are just not necessary.
It is extremely important to note that Latter-day Saints believe 100% in grace. We believe that works are necessary, but works don’t save us. Christ saves us. Works are necessary, but they perform a different function, not saving
As I read the bible, over and over and over and over and over I get the message that the Lord does require works even if it’s not ultimately the works that do the saving. There are places in the bible that more directly teach this concept, namely in the letters of Paul, but there is also story after story after story that teaches this principle. Noah and the ark is just one of these stories. Noah and the ark can teach us about how Christ does the saving, and it teaches us about why the Lord requires works and will judge us by our works.
What do we learn from Noah’s story? How does Noah’s story teach us about grace and works? Let’s talk about it.
First of all, let’s look at it before Noah even builds the ark. The Lord saved Noah and his family because they were righteous. There is a type in this. Noah and his family weren’t perfect, but they were righteous. And even though they loved God, it didn’t save them. It just meant that God saved them. Would God have saved them if they hadn’t built the ark? My personal opinion is no. Why would He command Noah to build an ark if He didn’t actually care whether Noah built it?
Let’s look more specifically at Noah and the ark and not everyone who died in the flood. Our verse teaches us that the Lord held Noah’s ark in His hand. That’s the grace right there. The Lord protected Noah. The Lord saved Noah. The verse could have said, “Noah obeyed God and built the ark, and it saved him.” But that’s not what it said because that’s not what Latter-day Saints believe. In fact, it doesn’t even specifically say that God looked upon Noah, smiled at him, and saved him. It very specifically says that God looked at “it,” as in, the ark. God looked at the works of Noah. The works didn’t save Noah, but God looked at the works, judged them as good and smiled at them, and saved Noah.
If God is the one who saved Noah, then why did He have him build an ark? Why perform works?
That’s the million dollar question for Latter-day Saints. We believe that we are saved by grace, 100%. So why build an ark? Why do we believe in doing our best and performing works if the ark doesn’t do the saving?
It’s because God has to judge. He has to judge who will destroy heaven and who will be able to appreciate heaven and preserve it. He could have saved all the wicked by smiling at them and holding them in his hand, but the wicked would have destroyed heaven. They would have made it as miserable as they were making the earth with their violence and idolatry. They wouldn’t have been able to enjoy heaven because of their choices, because of their works. Beyond that, they would have ruined heaven.
Our works don’t save us, but God judges us by our works and saves us accordingly. That’s what Noah’s story is teaching us. The works don’t save us; they just allow us to appreciate heaven and preserve it. They determine whether God steps in with the atonement of Jesus Christ, saves us, and brings us back into our heavenly home.
So do Latter-day Saints believe that we are saved by works? No. We believe we are judged by them, but we believe that Christ does the saving with His atonement.
I think parents of addicts understand this more than most. If you have a child who is extremely addicted to dangerous drugs, you don’t keep bringing them back into your home just because they love you. They would destroy your home and any heavenly feelings that reside there. Even if you have the power to keep taking care of everything despite their addiction, I would hope that you wouldn’t bring them back in to destroy everything (unless God says differently, listen to Him for specifics). If you do choose to bring them back in, then it’s not home anymore. It’s not heaven so no one really got saved anyway.
So you make a judgment call. You pray your guts out for the child. You love the child, but you separate the child because of their works. You judge their works and preserve the home. If they repent and truly change, then they get to come back home. Not because of their works. Quitting drugs doesn’t pay for the house; it just makes it so that you trust them enough to bring them home.
I think it’s important to also note that not everyone’s ark looks the same. That’s one of the beautiful things about the atonement of Jesus Christ. It removed the absolute justice that kept us from heaven. It enabled Christ to be the judge and save who He decides to save. Some of us will build an ark. Some of us will look at the barren desert before us and be lucky to build a canoe, but you know what? The Lord judges perfectly. He looks at your entire situation and what you have, and He judges perfectly.
I testify that the Lord saves us with His grace. I testify that your ark is not enough to save you. I testify that even though your ark can’t save you, it builds you and God judges you by your circumstances and your ark and determines whether you’re going to contribute to our heavenly home. I testify that the relationship of works and grace is taught all throughout the bible.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 5; Moses 6 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 30, 2026
The Power of a Spiritual Record
by Autumn Dickson
I’ve given this message before, and I’ll probably give this message again someday. This message has been repeated so frequently throughout scripture so I figure it’s not the end of the world if I repeat it too. It is something that has been taught by modern day prophets. It has changed my life profoundly.
If someone were just beginning their family, what advice would you give them? What would you focus on? If you could give them advice that they were supposed to read over and over and over throughout their lives, what would you emphasize? If you were trying to teach a group of people how to build a society, which principles do you think would be some of the most valuable to learn?
Over the past couple weeks, we have been reading about the beginning of one of God’s projects. It includes the building of a world. It includes the building of God’s family, and the building of a new society upon the earth. There was a father and mother and a whole lineage of people. I have so many questions about how some of these things came to pass. How did they build their society? How did it change? Did they even consider the idea that they were setting up the foundation of a society?
I’m not sure.
But out of every message that the Lord could have sent us, one of the messages that He gave us was this.
Moses 6:5 And a book of remembrance was kept, in the which was recorded, in the language of Adam, for it was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration;
A book of remembrance was kept. It was given unto as many as called upon God to write by the spirit of inspiration. Was this one of the pieces of advice you would have chosen to give to this new society you were directing? Because it was one of the pieces of advice that God thought was important.
Do you call upon God? If you do, here is the bible teaching us that you’ve been called upon to write by the spirit of inspiration.
Please stay with me for a moment if you don’t feel like you’re ready for this message. If you hate writing and reading, if it’s not something that you particularly enjoy, stick with me. A book of remembrance doesn’t have to look like what you’re picturing.
I almost feel bad sharing this message because writing is something that comes naturally to me. Even if I wouldn’t classify myself as overly talented, I love writing. I’ve written regularly in a journal since I was 14 years old (and boy do I wish I could burn those journals).
My journals were not always written according to inspiration. For a lot of my life, my journals were where I angrily wrote about my angel parents that I didn’t appreciate, about boys, about friendships at a time in my life when I didn’t know how to be a good friend. It wasn’t until later that my journals became filled with true, uplifting purpose.
Writing in a journal has blessed my life. I have gone back to read what I used to care about. I have been able to observe the growth I had and watch how the Lord guided my life, page by page. It’s actually pretty fun. Not to mention, I record all the absolutely ridiculous things my children say and that is one of the best blessings of my life.
But the commandment we find in this verse is not necessarily what you think. It’s not about writing what you did every day or even every month; I love writing, and I think that would bore me to death. My life isn’t exciting enough for that.
We need to rethink what it means to keep a journal. When God gives a commandment, it’s to draw us closer to Him so let’s look at our book of remembrance through that lens. And as a matter of fact, let’s look at another phrase from the verse that we read from Moses.
Write by the spirit of inspiration. If that sounds intimidating, let me try and ease your worries. Let’s look at what it means to receive inspiration.
Inspiration is when God gives you thoughts and feelings to propel you in a specific direction. He gives it to you.
When someone gives something to you, are you the one who is supposed to be stressing about how the gift makes its way into your lap? No! That’s not your job. You just have to make yourself available to receive it.
Hence the writing. Make yourself available and trust the Lord to give you what you need. He knows how to give.
I have one practical piece of advice for starting your book of remembrance. It’s just one piece of advice to start things out so that God could push you in the correct direction that will fit your personality and circumstances.
Open a journal when you’re praying, open a note on your phone, or open your computer to type. Just open it and make it available once a day for one week. When you’re praying. That’s my tip.
You don’t have to write your prayers like I do. I just do that because it helps me focus when the last seven years of my life have been interrupted approximately every three minutes. Don’t do it before bed; I never write my prayers before bed because I’m not in the proper mindset to write by inspiration. I’m too tired. The Spirit can whisper through a lot of things but apparently not my exhaustion (or maybe I’m just bad at listening through my exhaustion?). It doesn’t have to be a long prayer. It doesn’t have to be an impressive prayer. Open it, and simply start talking. He may not say anything immediately because He usually only talks when He needs to. You may start to feel like you should pick up your pen. Trust the feeling and do it. Even if you don’t know what you’re going to write, just start and open yourself up and He will speak.
It’s remarkable. You will feel so close to God.
Just as the verse taught, if you have called upon the name of God, you have been called to write by inspiration. He wants to talk to you too.
I testify that God loves you and knows how to give you inspiration. I testify that it’s not your job to figure out how to receive a gift; it’s just your job to try and make yourself available to receive it. I testify that writing by the inspiration of God will change your life as it has changed mine.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 5; Moses 6 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jan 28, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 5; Moses 6 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 26, 2026
Revelation, Submission, Sacrifice
by Autumn Dickson
For this week, we get to read more about Adam and Eve and their posterity. While reading about this posterity, we find a really beautiful summary of how to live. It is so simple and yet so profound.
Moses 6:3 And God revealed himself unto Seth, and he rebelled not, but offered an acceptable sacrifice, like unto his brother Abel. And to him also was born a son, and he called his name Enos.
I want to take it one phrase at a time. God revealed Himself to Seth. Seth didn’t rebel. Seth offered an acceptable sacrifice like his brother did. Though this is about the personal life of Seth, there is a pattern that all of us can follow.
First, God revealed Himself.
It is not enough to try and interpret the bible perfectly. You can’t. It’s not possible for man to interpret it correctly even if it had been translated perfectly. God has to reveal Himself and the truth concerning why we are here and how we get back. You can’t go to school and have other people teach you about God because they have studied a ton. No matter how hard you think or how long you ponder, it is insufficient unless God chooses to reveal Himself.
He does this through a variety of ways. He reveals Himself through His prophets. He teaches us as we’re reading the bible. He teaches us as we listen to other people, but we have to remember that He is the one who gives us the information.
Then comes the next part. We decide what to do with it. Seth rebelled not.
Honestly, it reminds me of something that I read about the Tower of Babel. One of the reasons that God was so frustrated with the people in relation to the Tower of Babel was because He had told them how to reach Him. These people were descendants of Noah’s sons after the flood. Noah walked with God, and so it’s easy to assume that these descendants had been given a knowledge of how to form a relationship with God.
We do not know exactly what this looked like. We know that after Moses, there were more extensive ordinances contained in the Law of Moses that helped the people reach for God. In our day, we likewise make covenants and perform ordinances in order to reach Him and develop a relationship with Him.
I’m not sure what it looked like in Noah’s day, but these people had a prophet and it was likely that they had oral traditions to lead them along.
Unfortunately, they rebelled. They didn’t want to reach God in that way. They wanted to do it how they wanted to do it, and they ended up with chaos and confusion.
Through modern-day prophets, God has revealed how we can draw closer to Him. These avenues are not exclusive; they’re available to everyone who wants them. Some have had incredible experiences with the gospel but have chosen to only accept some avenues of closeness. Some believe they don’t need these extra things in order to draw closer to Christ rather than gratefully receiving any options He gives us to think of Him and follow Him.
I think of Cain and Abel. Cain was mad that God didn’t accept his crops even though God had asked him for a lamb originally. Cain only wanted to give what Cain wanted to give. And when God didn’t accept it, he was angry. Interestingly enough, God didn’t ask for a lamb for fun. It was very specific and meant to help Cain understand Christ. Cain missed the memo.
If you’ve had good experiences with the gospel, I can promise that accepting all of the gospel will only bring more goodness. Don’t rebel against it. Give it a chance, soften your own heart and see if God doesn’t bless you.
Then there is the last portion of this pattern that we’ll talk about today.
Seth offered an acceptable sacrifice like his brother. I love this part. We can offer acceptable sacrifices like our Brother.
There is much to be said of sacrifice, but I want to focus on one specific principle here.
The Lord asks for specific sacrifices. There are general ways that we draw closer to Christ through ordinances and covenants, but there will also be very personalized sacrifices that the Lord asks us to make. Christ had a very tailored sacrifice to give. It was perfectly picked just for Him.
There are very tailored sacrifices we will be asked to make. They are tailored in two ways: how we can give and how they can bless us.
Some of them are because God gave us gifts and expects us to use them to bless others. In ancient times, the oldest brothers received an extra portion in order to take care of the mother and sisters. Each of us have received some kind of specific extra portion, spiritual gifts that are not given to everyone. We are expected to take care of those who don’t have what we have. It is completely fair for Heavenly Father to ask us to give when He has given us more precisely for that purpose.
We have also been given a responsibility to make specific sacrifices because of how they will bless us. They will mold us to be more like the Savior in the exact ways that we need. Just like the lamb wasn’t random, our sacrifices don’t need to feel random. They can refine us.
I got pregnant 3 months after having a baby. My fifth child was born when my oldest was just six years old. I despise being pregnant. I’m grateful for it. My children are my greatest blessing, but I can’t begin to describe just how much I lose myself when I’m pregnant. Conner was out on the east coast every other week for work. I was overwhelmed and sick. My body was destroyed, and I still had a tiny baby that needed me so much. I had three other kids who also needed me, and I still felt the Lord telling me that I needed to keep sharing my testimony of Christ.
There were a million lessons learned through this specific trial given to me. The Lord needed me to change in specific ways in order to step into the life I wanted for myself and my family. I let go and let my kids step up in ways that were powerful for them, a beautiful blessing that I would have never voluntarily given over. I miraculously finished my work and still got a desperately needed nap almost every day. Both of these specific lessons have set me up in exactly what I want for my life. Most importantly, I learned that God really is on my side.
When I first found out I was pregnant again, I felt utterly betrayed. Believe it or not, we had taken some pretty intense measures to prevent pregnancy. This wasn’t a mistake on our part. It was a definitive choice for the Lord. I had told Him that I wanted to wait a bit. There have been numerous times in my life that the Lord has chosen different for me than I chose for myself. I grumbled and fought it just like anyone else. Getting pregnant again and losing myself for 18 months instead of 9 months felt like more than I could bear. For the first time, I felt truly betrayed by God. I felt like He had completely ignored everything I had wanted for myself. I felt like He had ignored what I needed, that He didn’t care what I needed. He was going to choose what He was going to choose. I knew logically that wasn’t the case. I had experiences with God and knew He loved me, and maybe that’s why it had been so painful. I had trusted Him, and this felt too far.
It took some time, but I learned the tailored lesson He sent me. I turned my heart around and accepted the sacrifice that had been asked of me and just like with any sacrifice, it was for me. He was trying to bless me, and He did. I thought I trusted Him before. It multiplied after this last baby. The Lord tailors our sacrifices for us, and in the end, we make them acceptable by putting our heart into it.
I testify that the patterns of the Lord are simple. I testify that He can guide our individual details in the midst of those grand patterns. I testify of a Lord who made an ultimate sacrifice and set an example for how we can draw closer to God. I testify that the scriptures can teach us of these patterns, and if we choose to accept them, He blesses us more than we can imagine.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 23, 2026
The Power of Giving God the Glory
by Autumn Dickson
We are learning all about how man came to be on the earth. The Lord is setting the stage for us to understand the context in which we were placed on the earth. Part of that context is understanding the Fall and everything associated with it. Here are a couple of verses that help us understand what we’re trying to emulate in the midst of this fallen world.
Moses 4:1-2
1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.
2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.
The Lord is telling Moses, “You were just tempted by this Satan guy, and you commanded him to leave in the name of Jesus Christ. Before the world was created, Satan wanted to redeem everyone, take away their agency, and keep all the glory. Christ came prepared to do My will and offered the glory back to Me.”
As a church, we talk a lot about following the will of the Father; this is a frequent discussion. We have also discussed how Satan wanted to take all the glory, and how Christ rightly placed the glory with the Father. Much of this life is a lesson in those two aspects: bending our will to match our Heavenly Father’s will as well as recognizing that the glory belongs to Him.
I want to focus on that second lesson: recognizing that the glory belongs to Him.
Glory is an interesting one because everyone likes to get credit for how they contribute. Christ gets credit for His role in the Father’s plan even if Christ is offering all of the glory back to His Father. Our prophet is just a man trying to follow the Lord, and yet, we honor him for the sacrifices he makes in order for us to hear the will of the Lord. I honor my parents for the continuous, ongoing sacrifices they make to bring me closer to Christ.
Hopefully, there is credit given when someone makes a sacrifice for you to draw closer to your heavenly home. This is a righteous principle.
And yet, Christ told the Father, “…the glory be Thine forever.” I think everyone knew Christ would be honored for what He did, and it is righteous to honor Him for what He did. He could have stopped at, “Thy will be done,” and left it at that. We all knew He deserved to be worshipped for what He was sacrificing, but He chose to keep speaking. He ended it with, “The glory be Thine forever.”
I’m sure Christ was aware that He would be loved and worshipped for it, but Christ was also aware of an important, adjacent principle. Seeking glory sucks the happiness out of life, and the entire reason He made the sacrifice was on behalf of our happiness. Setting the example for us to willingly hand over the glory whenever we follow the will of the Father was setting us up for success; it was setting us up to find happiness and joy more readily.
This wasn’t humble brag. It wasn’t lip service. Christ wasn’t saying, “I’ll go make this sacrifice and tell everyone that the glory is Thine because everybody knows I’m going to be worshipped for it anyway.” No. In His heart, Christ was saying, “If no one ever knew what I did, I would still choose to do it. If no one ever had an inkling of the sacrifice I was going to make, I would choose it if it means they can be happy.”
I’m sure when the prophet steps up, he knows that there are those who will respect him for his position. He knows that there will be honor for it. We don’t have to pretend there is not. It is righteous to love those who teach you about Christ. However, it can’t be about seeking honor or glory.
If you choose to step up and help with the Lord’s work, and if you do it with the right heart, you end up feeling grateful. You feel floored that the Lord let you come along anyway. Despite mistakes, lack of wisdom, and natural-man-tendencies, He let you be a part of it. When you’re participating in His work with the right heart, you’re filled with gratitude.
If you do not currently feel that way but want to feel that way, there is hope. If you find yourself with creeping feelings of vanity, if you find that you enjoy the praise of others a little too much, if you find this burning secret desire to make your sacrifices known, AND if you simultaneously don’t want those feelings, fear not. I’ve been there, and they don’t have to tear you up.
I battle those feelings often enough. I have always found guilty pleasure in people thinking I’m wonderful and smart and wise. Because of that weakness, I tried running anything that would tempt me. I didn’t want to experience that spike of happiness when someone told me that I was amazing. I didn’t want to be crushed when someone corrected me. I didn’t want my pride, and so I didn’t want to face my pride. I wanted to bury it.
And sometimes, the right choice is to bury it. Sometimes it’s better to run in the opposite direction.
However, I have learned that sometimes the right choice is to face it and keep practicing day after day after day after day after day.
When it comes to serving in the Lord’s kingdom and not seeking personal glory, there really isn’t another way. We are all asked to serve in one form or another. It is a responsibility to serve, which means you have to face the idea that someone is going to thank you for your service, and you’re going to have to face the weakness that isn’t gone yet.
So what do you do? Let’s discuss a general principle and then a couple of more practical tips.
General principle: You practice day after day after day after day after until you become. We battle our desires for glory until our desires no longer automatically jump towards glory. You school them. You become someone who knows better. That’s really what life is. You come down here and continually fight sin and weakness and consciously take hold of the direction of your growth. This is the overarching principle.
Here are some practical tips to help you fight that weakness when you’re presented with it:
It is easier to fill your life with good than it is to push out bad. Replace your pride with something that is more lasting, more important, more filled with joy. When I’m struggling to fight off desires for glory and it’s interfering in my ability to build the kingdom, I pray for a couple of things.
To see things clearly. I pray to help me see things as they really are. If I can see reality, then I don’t have to fight off feelings that I’m amazing and doing it all on my own. He helps me see the truth of how He’s holding me up. Beware of this one in high pressure environments; He is willing to teach you and let you flop on your own.
Gratitude. Rather than praying for gratitude (though that’s an option too), I just start being grateful within a prayer. When I start having those intrusive thoughts that say, “You’re the best. You help everyone. You’re so amazing. Everyone is lucky to have you,” I replace them with, “You are so lucky that Heavenly Father is taking you along for the ride. You are so blessed to be around these people who are carrying things you don’t understand. You are fortunate to be able to learn from them and be with them.” Oftentimes, when I start praying and focusing on gratitude, my feelings follow and the desire for glory gets silenced. It can’t stand up to that.
Charity. I mentioned earlier that Christ probably knew being honored was a part of making the sacrifice. It would be almost silly to pretend that’s not the case. Rather, the key here is that Christ wasn’t seeking glory. He would have done it without the glory because He just loved us so much. When I’m feeling prideful or wanting glory, I pray for charity to replace it. Loving others and wanting what’s best for them fills you. Trying to get enough validation and appreciation is like trying to fill a cup that has no bottom. Filling yourself with love for others pushes that cup aside completely and you find yourself overfilling.
I testify that our Savior is the ultimate example. He is the ultimate example in laying aside His own will, but He’s also the ultimate example in being so filled with love that glory seems silly. It’s not about the glory. He wants our love for sure; that brings Him joy. He knows how to live an eternal life that allows happiness rather than emptiness, and He set the example of filling yourself with love rather than glory in order to find that happiness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jan 21, 2026
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 3–4; Moses 4–5 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 20, 2026
From Sin to Stepping Stone
by Autumn Dickson
This week we get to read about how Adam and Eve made their way out of the garden and into the world that we know today. There are principles here that can change how you see your own efforts to follow Christ. Some of the principles we read about this week have the power to bring you out of perfectionism and into true salvation because they are not the same thing.
Background on the verse we’re about to read: Moses is learning about Satan because Satan had recently come to him to tempt him. The Lord starts to teach Moses about the man who was trying to get Moses to worship him, specifically about Satan’s role in the beginning of the Plan of Salvation.
Moses 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.
Satan wanted to tempt Eve in order to destroy the world. He wanted to destroy the plan of God because he was mad. Despite his original pleadings to come down and save everyone and bring them all home, now Satan threw away his supposed love for us and merely sought to destroy what God was planning. He was a fraud; he never loved us. He just wanted glory and honor.
There is beautiful irony here. Satan would have destroyed God’s plan if he had left Adam and Eve alone, but he knew not the mind of God. He didn’t know that tempting Eve and convincing her to sin was part of the plan.
One more time. He didn’t know that tempting Eve and convincing her to sin was part of the plan.
I want to switch up the verse just a little bit. I’m going to put in my name. You put in your’s.
Moses 4:6 And Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after him,) and he sought also to beguile Autumn, for he knew not the mind of God, wherefore he sought to destroy the world.
Satan tempts me because even though he already lost his chance to destroy the plan with Adam and Eve and then again with Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, he wants to destroy the effects of the plan in my life.
There is beautiful irony here. Sin was part of the plan, and not just as some unfortunate byproduct of a fallen world. It was one of the most powerful tools utilized to save Adam and Eve. Let me explain myself.
Let’s pretend for a moment that Satan predicted the mind of God and left Adam and Eve alone. We would have remained in the exact state where we were. Adam and Eve would have remained innocent in the garden, and we would have stayed in our heavenly home with God. God’s plan would have been thwarted. No sin would have occurred, but no true happiness would have occurred either.
Sin was part of the plan, and not just as some byproduct of a fallen world. Sinning teaches us powerful lessons.
Now we have to be careful with this principle and have the right attitude towards it. I don’t teach this principle so that someone feels like they can go try cocaine in order to learn that it’s bad. That’s ridiculous. I’m not even teaching that it’s okay to lie or cheat so that you can learn your lessons. I’m not teaching that it’s okay to go sin as long as your purpose is an education.
I am trying to break apart the ridiculous arguments of perfectionism.
We came here to grow and become. Our purpose in life should not be to stand frozen and still so that we don’t do anything wrong. Our methods should not include berating ourselves into perfection. We were meant to come down here and return to live with God, prepared to live His life and participate in His work. How do we get from Point A to Point B?
There are a lot of ways we acquire that growth. One of those ways is sinning. I have learned so much from reflecting on the times that I screwed up. This doesn’t give us license to go out and sin on purpose for the supposed goal of learning because that doesn’t get you to Point B. If you’re using “learning” as an excuse to sin, you’re not returning to God, prepared to live His life and participate in His work.
Rather, this gives you license to look at your sins the way Adam and Eve came to look at their sins. Here is another verse from this week.
Adam and Eve sinned. They disobeyed God and were driven out of the garden. They toiled, suffered, had children, and offered sacrifices to God. One day, an angel came to them and taught them about Christ. The angel told them that they could be redeemed after they sinned and return to live with God again.
Moses 5:10-11
10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.
11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.
They rejoiced. Because of his transgression, Adam’s eyes were opened. He got to experience joy because he had transgressed and he still had an opportunity to return to live with God whom he knew personally and loved. Eve rejoiced that she learned the difference between good and evil as well as the joy of Christ paying for them to come home.
We don’t look at a choice ahead of us and disobey God in the name of learning good from evil. However, we do have permission to look back at our transgressions through the lens of a testimony of Christ. We rejoice that He took our sins and turned them into powerful stepping stones that brought us closer to Christ.
Honestly, it makes me think of the Come Back podcast. Some of the stories we hear about on that podcast are so incredibly powerful. People learned from their mistakes and found rejoicing in Christ. We can find that too. We don’t have to let our sins weigh us down unto death. We can rejoice in Christ’s ability to save us from our sins and utilize our sins to help us become prepared to live God’s life and participate in His work.
When we beat ourselves up with perfectionism over our mistakes, it’s only because we don’t yet know the mind of God.
Satan wants you to believe that your sins and transgressions are the end of the story, that he’s destroyed you. He has since learned that his desire to thwart God’s plan ironically fell apart because of his own participation in that plan, but if he can keep you from understanding that, then he can win a couple of battles even if he can’t win the war.
He doesn’t want you to know the mind of God which is offering you joy, peace, and salvation. Thwart Satan. Let go of everything that keeps you from the feelings associated with salvation, namely shame and guilt that has been blown out of proportion and continues to hold you down. Rejoice! Gain a testimony of Christ like Adam and Eve did.
I testify that God didn’t fear Adam and Eve’s transgressions. He knew it would happen. He planned on it. It needed to happen. I testify that God isn’t afraid of your sins; why would He be? They’re already paid for and taken care of. Sometimes the only thing holding us back from salvation is our own inability to know the mind of God and let go of the sins that were already paid for. I testify of Christ’s saving power, and I testify that gaining a true testimony of that power can light up your life like you’ve never experienced.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jan 16, 2026
Jennifer is joined in this episode by Ben Spackman to talk about Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
Ben Spackman is a historian and scholar whose work spans Semitic languages, biblical studies, the history of science, and the history of Christianity—particularly the Reformation and modern American religion. He completed doctoral coursework in Comparative Semitics at the University of Chicago before earning his Ph.D. in American Religious History from Claremont Graduate University.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 16, 2026
Not Meant to Be Alone
by Autumn Dickson
The world is so confused. The more I learn about the gospel and the more I observe the world, the more I’m amazed at how lost the world is. The world is constantly seeking happiness, but it still seems so elusive.
I testify that there is joy to be found, and it is found in following the patterns of the Lord.
Moses 3:18 And I, the Lord God, said unto mine Only Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him.
And the Lord created Eve for Adam. They were married for eternity. They went through the “dating” stage where everything was perfect, and they also crossed over into the mortal, fallen world where they had a lot to learn and figure out. They had to toil and sacrifice together. They worshipped together.
This is one of the ultimate patterns of the Lord.
The ideal is marriage. It is not good for man or woman to be alone. That is the truth. God declared it Himself in the beginning. We were not meant to be alone.
Let’s talk about a couple of ways that our world is fallen and tries to take this away from us.
We live in a fallen world, full of hurt and selfishness and abuse and apathy and neglect. Somewhere inside, we know that we were meant to have true joy and so in a confused attempt to achieve this joy, we walk away from difficult and painful things. We shy away and assert that we’re happier on our own.
And honestly, that is probably true in specific circumstances. Perhaps a person who has been abused for years in a scary marriage has finally found peace in the quiet that has been left behind after that marriage has fallen apart. Perhaps this person has found themselves again and likes who they are. Of course they are happier than they were in a toxic relationship.
But ultimate joy is found in following the pattern of the Lord and no matter what you’ve been through, the Lord stands ready to walk that hard path back towards healing and peace so that you’re prepared to find joy on the other end.
We live in a fallen world where many find themselves without a partner through no fault of their own. We live in a fallen world where many long for this pattern but it hasn’t come to them yet.
Just because the Lord has an ideal and you haven’t received that blessing yet does not immediately equate with being unloved or being unworthy. It does not mean that your life has to be void of joy or meaning. When I say that marriage is the ideal, I’m not simultaneously testifying that being alone means worthless. It’s not worthless. The Lord can take any journey on any path and turn it into powerful, meaningful, joy-filled growth opportunities.
We teach that marriage is ideal, not because we want to rub salt in the wounds of those who find that truth painful but because we want to testify of what the Lord wants them to have.
He wants you to find what Adam and Eve found. He wants you to find what it means to labor alongside an eternal partner. He wants you to find what He has found with your Heavenly Mother. That blessing is there. He can see it.
We live in a fallen world where the ideal is far away from many. Even if you’re not abused, there are many who worship without a spouse who has stepped away. There are many who long for an eternal sealing, a full bench during sacrament meeting, someone to engage in the deepest parts of life with. There are many who have been victims of infidelity, and there are many who are the ones who engaged in the infidelity and also feel far away from the ideal.
I testify that the truth is this: It is not good for man or woman to be alone.
I also testify of another truth. Christ can take you exactly where you’re at, no matter how far away you feel from the ideal. I testify that Christ knows how you feel. I testify that He stands ready to walk the path before you with you.
In The Book of Mormon, we learn about the strait and narrow path to walk towards the love of God. It is not “straight.” It is “strait,” meaning “narrow.” I understand that this partially refers to the covenant path, but I also believe there is another layer of meaning.
When we picture the traditional life in church, we see finishing high school, going to college, serving a mission, coming home, getting married, finishing college, and having kids (sometimes with varying order). That’s the path. It’s straight. We can see it. We know how it’s supposedly meant to happen.
But God set us up for a fallen world, and that means that there isn’t a “straight” path. There are only “strait” paths. There is a path for you to walk, and along that path, there are pieces of salvation that you will be picking up. A spouse, selflessness, compassion, knowledge. God can see your strait path, and Christ stands ready to walk it with you. The ideal is available to you even if it’s not the path you would have chosen for yourself. Trust me; the path that God chooses is so much better even if it feels painful right now.
I testify that the ideal is to not be alone. The world will tell you that you’re better off alone or that you don’t need a relationship, and they’re right but only to an extent. You can be happy on your own. However, the ideal, the most amount of joy available, comes from being in a relationship centered on Christ. God declared this truth, Himself. Sometimes this truth feels unbearably painful because it feels withheld or tangled up with trauma, but it is still the truth. Luckily, I can simultaneously testify that if we cling to the Savior, He can help us find that ideal and He can help us be able to find joy in the strait path that eventually leads to the ideal. You can find joy now in less than ideal circumstances if you include Christ, and you will also eventually find the ultimate joy if you continue to hold to Christ.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Genesis 1–2; Moses 2–3; Abraham 4–5 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 12, 2026
Creation: What I Learned Watching My Husband Build a House
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we read about the Creation story. I don’t have a specific verse to share, but I have an overarching idea that I want you to contemplate while reading the Creation story. There are many principles that we can talk about; we could talk about the power of God or His creative abilities. However, there is one principle I want to focus on because I feel like I’m watching a mini-version of it right before my eyes. These scriptures are rather poignant for me right now.
My husband, Conner, is currently working alongside others to build a house for our family. He has worked so hard on it; he has been actively involved in every step of the process including the construction itself, and he has the chemical burns from the wet concrete to prove it.
It has been an exhausting process for him; there have been extra challenges to face that I won’t go into detail over, but I wish I could describe the depth for which he fought for us to have this. There have been many times that I have watched his tenacity with fascination and curiosity because it’s so different from my eager willingness to walk away and give up. I legitimately don’t understand how he can be so obstinate and relentless to have made this come together for our family. There have been endless nights of research, gray hairs, even legitimate nightmares over the challenges that we (but mostly, he) faced in trying to make it all come together.
There were a lot of times when I felt like, “Enough is enough. Let’s cut our losses. We’re happy enough where we are.” But not Conner. He wouldn’t let it go.
Conner had more than one motivating factor that kept him going when I’m convinced that 99% of people would have given up. When he was a young boy, his family moved to Sharon, Vermont. It’s a tiny town where Joseph Smith Sr. met Lucy Mack. We went back to visit this town a couple of years ago, and they were still using the same General Store that had been used in Joseph Smith’s time. You could see through the floorboards. Conner’s family lived on an obscure piece of land, and it was heaven for Conner. He spent all day every day outside, playing in the stream and running through the woods even when the snow was as tall as him. He loved it. He was so proud to take me back and show me.
Conner is building us a house on a bit of land where our kids can experience the happiness that he experienced. I’m convinced that’s his motivating factor. That was what caused him to continue on despite obstacles that would have chased away anyone else.
I have watched my husband labor (and honest, labor seems like a euphemism for what he’s done) on behalf of my family. I have watched him go through the wringer because he wants his kids to have what he had.
And yes, one of the parallels of THE Creation story and our mini-creation story is the fact that there was sacrifice involved. However, I want to draw your attention to another detail.
You are so loved. Christ worked so hard to make this come together for us, and He gave an unfathomable sacrifice all because He. Loved. You.
I look forward to the day that my kids can walk into what my husband built. I look forward to sitting on our porch and watching them play, get dirty, wash off, and do chores alongside us in order to grow.
I hope that one day, I can convey the price their father paid for them to have what they have. I don’t want them to become depressed over the price or feel like they can’t go out and learn for fear of ruining everything. I don’t want them to sit and mope and lament that they didn’t deserve all the work their father put into it.
Of course they don’t deserve it! Of course they didn’t earn it! It wasn’t meant to be earned. It was a gift. I hope they are filled with tremendous gratitude that only sweetens the gift that we want them to enjoy. I hope they take advantage of the gift. I hope they run their little hearts out, following our rules for safety. I hope the gift helps them grow so that they can be as good as their father.
I currently try to teach my children about the gifts that their Savior gave them. I don’t want them to become depressed over the price that He willingly paid. I don’t want them to be terrified of going out to learn for fear of making mistakes. I don’t want them to sit and mope and lament that they didn’t deserve it.
Of course we don’t deserve it. Of course we didn’t earn it. It wasn’t meant to be earned. It was a gift. I hope we are filled with tremendous gratitude that sweetens the gift that our Savior wants us to enjoy. I hope we take advantage of the gift. I hope we wear ourselves out utilizing His gift, following His rules for safety and also trying to grow to become as good as Him.
I hope my kids look at their father one day and realize what it cost him to build this. I KNOW that my husband will look back at them and feel like he got a gift back just because he had the pleasure of watching them grow and receiving their love in return.
I hope that we look at Christ and realize what it cost Him to build this. I KNOW that Christ will look back at us and feel like He got a gift back just because He had the pleasure of watching us grow and receiving our love in return.
I testify that our Savior gave us many gifts. I testify that He sacrificed and built us a home. I testify that it cost Him more than we can understand. I also testify that He did it because He wanted to. He really just wanted the pleasure of watching us find what He has. He wanted the pleasure of us loving Him for it. He just wants us all to be happy together.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 1; Abraham 3 – Jennifer Roach Lees
Jan 11, 2026
Jennifer and guest Sarah Allen discuss the books of Moses and Abraham.
Sarah Allen is a Senior Researcher with FAIR, a former member of Scripture Central’s research team, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She is also the co-host of FAIR’s “Me, My Shelf, & I” podcast. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 1; Abraham 3 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 08, 2026
God Will Pause to Save You
by Autumn Dickson
I got a little lost as I was reading in Abraham at 6:00 am after staying up too late reading a book. Abraham had received a vision that showed him the workmanship of the Lord’s hands. He discerned a whole lot, and then the Lord started explaining some deeper things to him. I was pretty tired, and my mind drifted until I came across this verse.
Abraham 3:20 The Lord thy God sent his angel to deliver thee from the hands of the priest of Elkenah.
Everything was feeling a tad confusing to my tired mind until I read that verse. Interestingly enough, as I backed up and read previous verses and when I continued reading forward, verse 20 felt like an interruption. The Lord is speaking of intelligences, including His own. He is speaking of how He dwelt in the midst of them and so on and so forth. The chapter is showing His absolute majesty.
But He pauses and recalls how He saved Abraham’s mortal life from a priest who was trying to sacrifice him.
It felt like one of the most relevant interruptions I had ever read. It felt perfectly inserted into a sermon of how Christ rules over all of His creations.
Christ is powerful and wise and loving. He is the Creator and King. He has many important works that He is juggling, but He pauses long enough to save you.
Saving you from a mere mortal trial is nothing and everything to Him. It is nothing in relation to His power, and it is everything in relation to His love.
I want to share a story about how the Lord saved my family. Honestly, I’m not even sure the extent to which it has saved my family yet, but I feel strongly that one day I will understand just what the Lord did for us in moving us across the country. Despite all the other works that the Lord was juggling, I watched Him masterfully manipulate detail after detail after detail to put Conner on track for his life’s work. I will share some details, but I don’t even think I’m fully aware of all the details and timelines that the Lord set in motion to take care of us. I probably don’t remember all of the details, but I will tell you of a few.
Conner had told me for years that we would never leave Utah, but there had always been a nagging feeling in my heart that we would leave. I had prayed about it, and the Lord kept telling me not to worry about it. The time would come when it came, so I left it alone. Though it was likely one of the more traumatic eras of my husband’s life, I felt the Lord’s hand hovering over us the entire time.
Moving to Virginia the first time around was wild. My husband’s job had been taken away from him through a series of lies told by another person. Looking back, I am 99% certain my husband would have never left. It had to be taken away from him in order to propel him in the correct direction for his life. I praise the Lord for taking it away. That’s detail number one.
Conner was meant to end up out in Virginia, and so the Lord sent a friend to ask for his help. That was detail number two. The only reason I was able to get Conner out of our house and into the car was because it was a friend who had asked him to come.
We lived in a hotel for three months with three kids before moving to an apartment of a friend who had moved out west. We stayed in that apartment for two months before we received a big enough miracle that even my husband couldn’t ignore (he still wanted to go back to Utah).
We were staying in that apartment and the contract was running out soon. We could renew it, but the price would go up to more than we could really afford (especially since the job we had moved out for wasn’t working out as we hoped). I was at church one day when that lady I ministered to asked me if we had found a place to stay yet. I answered no.
Now let me tell you this portion of the timeline backwards. Monday, the very next day, was when we really decided that this job was not working out with our friend. I know Conner, and I know that the moment we realized it wasn’t working out, we were headed back to Utah. It was much cheaper to go back, and we had just spent inordinate amounts of money to go and stay in Virginia and it just wasn’t doable anymore especially since we were leaving the job. I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if we had packed up that day and drove back immediately.
However, the night before this final decision about the job was made, we received a message from a lady who had been sitting next to my ministering assignment when my ministering assignment had asked me if we had somewhere to live. This lady was a stranger at the time, and I’m going to name her Jill so that we can follow the story more easily. It turns out that Jill and her family had just bought a house even though they were headed overseas for ten months. She had a friend who was supposed to live in her house while they were gone, but that fell through.
So Jill looked me up since they needed someone to come and stay in their house. As it turns out, we were related distantly through marriage. After asking some questions to our mutual relatives, she messaged us the night before we would have made the decision to head back to Utah. She sent us messages about the house and immediately, Conner and I realized we wouldn’t be able to afford it. We asked how much she would charge us, and it was miraculously lower than what we would spend living in Utah. That was the very first time that Conner was like, “Maybe we are supposed to be in Virginia.”
We moved in almost immediately. Conner was led to a couple of other jobs that were so healthy for him and have enabled us to be exactly where we need. When we needed to come back to Utah temporarily, we found a flight pass that enabled Conner to go back and forth across the country for $25.
Detail after detail after detail after detail has lined up perfectly for us to be exactly where we need. I have no idea how He set things in motion a long time ago to set these things up for us.
But I do know this. In the midst of all His incredible works, He paused long enough to save my family. I know that it was both nothing and everything to Him; it was nothing in relation to His power, and it was everything in relation to His love.
I was not saved from a priest who was trying to kill me like Abraham was. I don’t know how many of us will face situations like that. However, the Lord can save us. Whatever you’re going through, it’s nothing in relation to His power, and it was everything in relation to His love. I promise you that whatever you’re facing, you are safe. When placed in the context of eternity, you are safe and everything will turn out better than you can imagine. He has handled much larger things than this, and they were likewise easy for Him to handle.
I testify of the power of our Lord. I testify of the love of our Lord. I testify that whatever you’re going through is just a blip on the spectrum of eternity. Reading Moses and Abraham gives us a glimpse into the eternal and can help us recognize that what we’re going through doesn’t have to take us down completely. I testify that it’s okay for things to be hard, but I also testify that nothing can defeat us if we keep close to the Lord.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Me, My Shelf, & I – How to read the Bible and love it
Jan 06, 2026
Jennifer Roach and Sarah Allen host this discussion. Guests are Allen Hansen, Ben Spackman, and David Harper.
Note: After this was recorded, the Church gave new guidance on additional Bible translations besides the KJV, which allows their use in Church settings and personal study.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moses 1; Abraham 3 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 05, 2026
In Similitude; Becoming Full of Grace and Truth
by Autumn Dickson
Before we jump straight into the Old Testament and the Creation story, we have an opportunity to read in Moses and Abraham. There are many truths that were restored through these works, and there are many truths we already know that are echoed. In Moses this week, we read about a vision that Moses was given on the top of a high mountain where Heavenly Father was speaking to him. Here is a verse from that vision.
Moses 1:6 And I have a work for thee, Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten; and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth; but there is no God beside me, and all things are present with me, for I know them all.
There are a couple of phrases in here that are powerful, especially when put together. Let’s start with this one: “…and mine Only Begotten is and shall be the Savior, for he is full of grace and truth…” The Savior holds grace and truth within Him; He is full of it. Let’s talk about both individually.
Under Topics and Questions on the church website, we read this: “Grace is a gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ. The word grace, as used in the scriptures, refers primarily to enabling power and spiritual healing offered through the mercy and love of Jesus Christ.”
Christ is full of the enabling power and spiritual healing, and He offers it in mercy and love. There are a couple of other truths that we learn in that same topic page. Overcoming physical and spiritual death are part of the grace that He offers. He helps us do things we would not be able to do on our own. He strengthens us. He helps us return to live with God. He helps us every day.
The Savior is also full of truth. He knows things as they are. There are two different perspectives with which we can look at this idea of Christ being full of truth. One, we know that He is currently full of truth. He knows all things. He is omnipotent. When He tells us to do something, He knows what He is talking about. However, there is also another perspective. Christ may have all knowledge now, but it didn’t start out that way when He started His mortal journey on earth. On earth, He came as a baby and forgot everything. He had to learn truth through the power of the Spirit as He grew. He did not know everything on earth. Otherwise, He could not have remained on earth (Moses 1:5). So we know that Christ didn’t know everything while He was here, but He knew all of the most important truths and lived perfectly according to those truths.
There is another phrase in the first verse that we read that I want to utilize to add another layer here. “…Moses, my son; and thou art in the similitude of mine Only Begotten…” To be in the similitude of someone is to resemble them, not so much in looks, but in how one chooses to live one’s life. Moses was like Christ, even if he was not perfectly like Christ. Moses was likewise full of grace and truth.
When we are baptized, we promise to take the Savior’s name upon and become like Him. Essentially, we promised to be in a similitude of the Only Begotten. When people look at us, they should see something that roughly resembles the Savior. We can also be full of grace and truth. We may be full of grace and truth in a different way than Christ, but we can be full of it too.
Let’s go back through our paragraphs about how Christ is full of grace and how He is full of truth, and let’s look at the parallels in our own lives.
1. We can be full of grace.
We can offer the enabling power and spiritual healing with mercy and love. No, we cannot offer it in the same way that Christ can, but we can help with it. When you sin and harm your spirit, another person can’t go in and fix it. However, another person can take you to the doctor.
As I was growing up, I had a shame problem. I took guilt beyond its helpful, proper boundaries and tried to beat myself into submission in the gospel. Not a great way to approach the gospel.
I remember being on my mission, and my companion and I came in later than we were supposed to. We didn’t set out to be disobedient, but we did make that mistake and it could have been prevented with a bit more effort on our part. I remember telling my companion that I didn’t feel guilty and that I felt bad about not feeling guilty. With no hesitation she simply responded, “Maybe Heavenly Father knows you don’t need to feel guilty in order to do better.” And she was definitely right. Coming in late happened once on my mission. Making me feel guilty wasn’t going to change that. It wouldn’t have served me. It was such a simple, nonchalant thing for her to say, but it changed my life.
I had experienced a lot of self-inflicted spiritual damage in the name of trying to force myself to do better. Attacking myself and berating myself over mistakes didn’t draw me closer to Christ or help me be better. Ironically, it did the opposite. My companion did not spiritually heal me. She is not the one who could take away those feelings or pay the price for them. Rather, she took me to the doctor. The grace she offered me was not her own, but she was still full of it.
Overcoming physical death is a little different. We’re not sure how resurrection looks or how that comes to pass. Do we get to help with that process through the power of Jesus Christ in the same way that we help with ordinances like baptism? Even if we don’t, we can still point others towards Christ and hope for the resurrection. Overcoming spiritual death is similar to offering healing; it is a part of healing. It’s not our power, but we can take people to the doctor. His power can be offered through us.
We can help others do things they would not be able to do on their own. We can strengthen others. We can help others return to live with God. We can help others every day.
2. We can be full of truth.
Eventually, we are going to progress to the extent that we know all things. That will take a long time. Until then, we can know all of the most important truths. We can be so full of truth that we live our lives differently than we would otherwise. My dad used to frequently echo the truth taught by Boyd K. Packer that doctrine changes behavior faster than a study of behavior changes behavior.
When we see and know things as they are, we change accordingly and we feel differently. “As they are” is a really key phrase here. I’ve learned to see things as they are a lot more clearly since I became a mother. Let me give some examples.
My third child, KJ, is obsessed with our youngest baby. She is constantly running over to Vivian and rolling her over so she can hold her down and cuddle her. Vivian is less than impressed now that she can walk. I swear I sound like a broken record all day, “KJ, let her go. KJ, let her go.” There was one time that KJ did it where Vivian got hurt. Vivian’s leg got stuck at a bad angle while KJ was trying to roll her over, and Vivian started crying pretty hard.
KJ felt so bad she could hardly stand it. She ran and hid on the stairs. After making sure Vivian was okay, I called KJ over to me. KJ couldn’t even look at me. She was trying to swallow back tears, and her chin kept trembling. It was rather cute on her four year old face. I remember feeling that way before when I accidentally hurt my dog when I was younger. I could hardly bear to even look at my dog the whole day because it hurt so bad.
As I sat and thought about how that felt, the Spirit taught me something, and I was able to teach it to KJ. I told KJ, “The bad feeling is actually a good sign. It means you’re a good person because you would never want to hurt Vivian. If you weren’t feeling bad, then that would be a bad sign. Feeling bad just means you love her so much.” I guess the Spirit testified of that truth to her, and she brightened immediately and ran after Vivian again.
Being full of truth is more than being able to recite that God judges us by our hearts. It’s understanding how God’s judgment works and being able to thwart Satan when he tries to mix us up. It is understanding the knowledge. It is applying the knowledge to any given situation and acting accordingly.
If we want to be full of the truth like the Savior, it’s more than just reciting what the Savior said. It’s understanding what He said and seeing things as they really are.
I testify that the Savior is full of grace and truth, and I testify that one of His purposes is to help us become so as well. This is done line upon line, with each practice taking us closer and closer. It’s about taking our hearts with us into those actions, rather than going through the motions of the gospel. I likewise testify that the Savior is trying to fill us with grace and truth because He loves us and knows it will make us happier.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Introduction to the Old Testament – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 01, 2026
How to Fall in Love With the Old Testament This Year
by Autumn Dickson
This week is an introduction to the Old Testament rather than any specific group of scripture. With my last post for this scripture block, I testified of the value of studying the Old Testament. With this post, I want to talk about a couple of things we can do to maximize what we take out of it.
The first way is to let go of the need to read everything listed for the week. When I was in seminary in high school, we were encouraged to read the book of scripture that we were studying for that year. I am Type A, and so I read it all in order. There was a whole lot that was unhelpful to me at that period in time, and I walked away from the Old Testament with reinforced ideas that it was difficult.
You don’t have to push yourself to read everything for the week. Scripture study is not about finishing an assignment; it’s about drawing closer to God. Reading each and every line in high school didn’t draw me closer to God; it just gave my intense personality the satisfaction of saying I was able to complete the whole thing.
Instead of reading everything through, consider finding one story to study throughout the week, and then observe that story through multiple resources and angles. Summarize it so you understand what’s going on; you can actually also ask AI for a summary of the chapters from an LDS perspective. Make sure you understand where it is in the timeline as a whole. Ask AI about culturally significant points, Israeli history, and symbols to study. This is helpful because even though AI isn’t perfect, it can give you something to follow along so you’re not completely lost in the thick of it. It’s a game changer.
On top of using AI, utilize other Christian resources. We may not have everything in common, but Christians know their bible. I frequently utilize websites from other churches, including other translations of the bible, to help me understand what is going on in what I’m reading. Even if the King James version of the bible is the closest translation, other translations can help me understand what the King James version is trying to say. None of these translations are perfect, but that doesn’t mean they can’t add layers of understanding.
Another tip. Learn about the characters, and then ask yourself what they might have been feeling. Learn about the world they were born into and ask yourself how you might have been if you were born into the same world. Learn who they are and what makes them like or unlike Christ. Find modern day examples of their choices and learn how Christ might react in our day.
Which is my next practical tip. This one is found in the Come Follow Me manual, but I wanted to share my personal experience with it. Find Christ. Try to find Christ in a way that you haven’t seen before. Find Christ in the people and symbols. Find Christ for them. If they didn’t turn to Christ, ponder how things might have been different if they had chosen Him. Then take a minute to observe your own life and whether you’re rejecting Him in the same ways that they did. Ask yourself the question, “What decisions did Christ make in relation to His people? Why did He make that decision? How does it show His love? What is He trying to teach them?”
Whenever I’ve gotten stuck trying to pull something out of a scripture block, it is helpful to look for Christ. I’ve learned that there is always something there.
My last practical tip is simple. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to ignore the words completely and let the Spirit speak.
This is not an example with the scriptures, but it is an example with the word of God.
As I’m working on this, the October General Conference has just been completed. I didn’t have many questions written down. I didn’t try setting up my entire house so that my kids would be distracted and occupied so I could focus (that hasn’t worked in the past). At one point during the conference, I sent a picture of four kids climbing on my lap. I didn’t even know my lap was big enough to have four kids sitting on it, let alone climbing. I sent the caption, “If you ask me what I got out of conference, the answer is nothing.” And honestly, conference ended up being exactly what I thought it would be. I was always putting out small fires like giant bloody noses from my two year old or messes from our new puppy.
My goal for this past conference was low. I just wanted it on in my house, even if it was just background noise. I’ve learned that if I strive for more than that, I usually just end up angry with my kids for being kids. So rather, I wanted it on so it could invite the Spirit and if the Lord really needed to tell me something, then the Spirit would be there.
As I found myself watching my two year old in the bathtub (the bloody nose really was gnarly), I found peace with my computer sitting up on the counter playing conference on YouTube. I learned that even if I couldn’t sit at Christ’s feet like Mary, I could still feel the Spirit when my family needed me to be Martha.
You were not created for the scriptures. The scriptures were created for you. Utilize them for you. You don’t have to beat yourself over the head for imperfection. I testify of scripture study, but I also testify that studying can look like the scriptures playing in the background of whatever fire you’re putting out. It can look like carrying one of the people in your heart while you’re going throughout your day. It can look like completely missing the words of what you’re reading or listening to and simply leaning on Christ when you take a few moments to catch your breath. I testify of studying the scriptures in the exact way that they bring you closer to Christ. Don’t put pressure on yourself to make it look like someone else’s study. Let Christ show you how to draw closer to Him by utilizing the Old Testament this year.
I testify that the Old Testament is worth it, and I testify that it’s possible to get something out of the Old Testament. I testify that we live in a world where scripture study doesn’t have to look traditional; it just has to bring you closer to Christ. I testify that you can read words on a page and have the Spirit tell you something completely different. I always testify that Christ wants to draw closer to you, and I testify that He can do so through the Old Testament if you simply let Him know you’re willing to let it happen.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Introduction to the Old Testament – Jennifer Roach Lees
Dec 31, 2025
Why does the Old Testament still matter? What translations are good? Should I get a study Bible? These questions and more are discussed in this week’s episode.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Introduction to the Old Testament – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 29, 2025
A Nagging Feeling; A Gift
by Autumn Dickson
Welcome to the Old Testament. I remember the first year I prepared to teach from the Old Testament back in 2022, and I remember being quite overwhelmed with the idea of it. The Old Testament is a very foreign way of writing; it holds a lot of cultural context that can make it difficult. As I worked to prepare messages that year, I found that I wasn’t totally wrong in my apprehension. The Old Testament was hard, and it took me much longer to find messages in there and to understand the messages.
But I also grew to love the Old Testament that year. I testify that it is worth studying, and it’s worth the extra effort. Oftentimes the things that require the most of us are the very things that draw us closer to Christ and therefore, become our favorite things.
Which is actually what I want to share today.
I remember sitting in a church class and hearing someone say something along the lines of, “We need to stop making people feel bad if they don’t study everyday. Some of us just can’t, and God still loves us.” I thought that was an interesting observation to make for a couple of reasons.
The first reason I found it interesting was because I hadn’t heard a single comment that was remotely condemning towards those who hadn’t been studying everyday. If someone was feeling guilty about not studying, it wasn’t coming directly from the other people who were commenting. Was it coming from the Holy Ghost or from social pressure? I’m not sure. However, let’s focus more on my second reason for finding this comment interesting. That reason is going to take the rest of my message.
The Lord very strongly asked me to start creating content for the Come Follow Me program. It started with a blog; I felt much more comfortable with this because I could hide behind my writing and not put my face up there. I still didn’t want to do the blog because it sounded like it would take a ton of effort, but it sounded more doable than other forms of sharing content. The Lord is tricky that way sometimes because after I got the hang of a blog, He told me to expand my efforts to YouTube. Then a podcast. Instagram. Facebook. TikTok. I fought Him every step of the way if we’re being totally honest.
There are a couple of reasons I fought Him. The first reason was that I didn’t want to be more visible. I had spent a good portion of my life trying to make myself more visible to feel better about myself, and it had only ever burned me. There came a point when I started doing the exact opposite. The second reason is more applicable to what I want to talk about. It was going to be so much work.
And it was. Oh my, this has all been so much work. Each step of the way has required a huge learning curve. Creating a website was overwhelming, and there were many angry tears. I almost gave up completely the first time I ever filmed a video and if it hadn’t been for my husband forcing me back into the room to try again, I might have given up. Every step of the way, my soul fought with Him over adding just a bit more. I argued that I already didn’t have time to do what I was doing. I argued that it was already requiring so much of me to put myself out there. I argued that I was already sacrificing a lot for this.
But He persisted and has won up to this point.
The effort extended beyond just a learning curve for technology. Trying to share a message about Jesus Christ every single week has been…stretching. I can’t tell you how often I’ve felt that I had nothing left to share. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had writers block and stared at the screen for a collective number of hours with nothing to show for it. I’ve been led down research rabbit holes that sometimes amounted to something, and other times, it all came to an anticlimactic stop.
I’m a stay-at-home mom who started creating content in 2020. I will hit my 6 year mark this year. To say that I have studied the scriptures is an understatement because my qualifications for this were non-existent beyond what my parents had lovingly taught me at home. I had to study, harder than I ever studied in school, to allow the Lord to help me create.
I testify that it was so much work, and can’t testify enough of how this work has changed me. Behind the role of mother and wife, creating this content week after week after week has completely transformed me. It has changed me more than my mission changed me. I am completely new.
So should my friend feel bad about not reading the scriptures? Many people would say, “No! Don’t make them feel bad! It’s better to just teach them the happy effects of scripture study to inspire them.” And you know what? Maybe they’re right. I think oftentimes, it is most effective to try and inspire someone into doing the right thing to make their life better.
On the flip side, the only reason I started this journey was because I could no longer enjoy my TV show or book while my kids were napping. Every time I sat down to watch and take my break, I felt that nagging feeling that I needed to be investing my time in what God wanted me to do. To be 100% honest, I felt bad for ignoring Him. Feeling guilty that I wasn’t following what He had asked me to do is the very thing that got me started on one of the most life-changing things I’ve ever experienced. The bad feeling was exactly what I needed.
So was my friend feeling the Holy Ghost or the pressures of the society around her? I don’t know.
But I do know this. Acting on that guilty feeling and prioritizing study (because heaven knows the Old Testament requires study) is life-changing. It is hard, but all the best things are. Don’t miss out. Someday you’ll be given the opportunity to see what you missed out on, and I’m almost positive that’s half the reason for the gnashing of teeth on the other side. We will be so mad at ourselves for missing out.
Studying in order to create content each week has been so hard. So hard. So painfully hard. Weeks on end of feeling like I was trying to move the Great Wall of China with just my hands.
But studying is worth it. I can testify of that principle more than I can testify of a lot of principles.
You don’t have to be perfect. There were so many imperfect days, but even the imperfect days contributed to changing me. Commit to yourself that this year is the year that you’ll engage in scripture study. The Old Testament has to be studied.
When the day comes that you’re willing to engage in the commandment to study the word of God everyday, you will get to the point where you will wish you had started earlier. Oh how I wish I had developed the hope I have now while I was still in high school. It would have saved me in so many ways.
I testify that scripture study is worth it. I testify that the Old Testament has a lot to give if you’re willing to give. God stands ready to speak to you and change your life. He stands ready to let the hope of Christ completely transform how you feel about everything important in your life. Let the Spirit tell you that you need to give more of yourself because that is the Spirit telling you how to elevate your life to a whole new level. Listen.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Christmas – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 26, 2025
Jesus’ Lineage; Our Lineage
by Autumn Dickson
I opened up the New Testament this week to study the birth of Christ. I ended up down a bit of a rabbit hole, and I’m going to take you to part of it with me. My rabbit hole took me all over the place, but I’m going to try and simplify it into some basic ideas. It’s going to be very technical at first and there are some nice enough implications, but then I want to more broadly apply it to the rest of us.
The thing that really got me started down this rabbit hole is the fact that the very first verses we read in the New Testament are the lineage of Joseph. Funny enough, I had never noticed it consciously before because I usually just skip over that part. As I thought about it a bit further, I realized that it was odd. Why are we sharing Joseph’s lineage when Jesus isn’t of that lineage? Wouldn’t it be more effective and helpful to share Mary’s lineage (Yes, I know that wasn’t the tradition then; it just seems like it would make more sense considering the fact that she’s his biological mother).
I then learned that many biblical scholars believe that we do have Christ’s lineage through Mary. In Luke’s account, we receive another account of lineage. This listed lineage lists Joseph, but scholars believe that it’s Mary’s line anyway. It just mentioned Joseph because of social norms. There are some other theories surrounding Luke’s account of lineage, but the most widespread theory is that it really is Mary’s line. We’re going to go with that theory for all intents and purposes in this particular post.
Why is lineage important? Well, it’s important for a few reasons. We’ll talk about its significance in the life of Christ, and then we’ll talk about its significance in our own lives.
It had been prophesied that Christ would come off of the Davidic line. Beyond that, He wasn’t going to be just some random descendant but heir to the throne (if the Romans hadn’t been in charge at the time). Christ’s lineage through Mary and Joseph was really important for this particular prophecy.
Christ comes off of the Davidic line biologically through Mary. This biological portion of being from the Davidic line is important for obvious reasons. However, Joseph’s line is important too. Through Joseph, Christ is able to be known as an heir to the throne of David because that kind of thing always legally passed through males.
I spent some time learning about Jewish customs and laws surrounding adoption, and I’ll give you a couple of short facts. There wasn’t much of a legal proceeding with official records and paperwork when it came to adoption. Rather, if a man stepped up to the role of father in a child’s life, that child was legally adopted. If the father treated the child as his own, then the child held claim to everything that the other children held claim to. Inheritances, the family name, all of it. This was actually really important in a society where it mattered who your family was. Christ was of the Davidic line in all the ways that mattered.
And this is absolutely amazing. It’s cool to think about how God orchestrated every single detail to come together for Christ to fulfill prophecy. It’s amazing. Even with His human side coming through His mother, He was still legally adopted and considered an heir through Joseph’s line.
But I actually want to take this further to allusions surrounding our own heritage, inheritances, and legality in terms of God’s family.
Like Christ, there are two parts that play into our inheritance. Biologically (not sure if that’s the right word but we’re going to run with it because I don’t have a better word), we are spirit sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Because of our divine parentage, we were always meant to inherit a throne. It’s within our “blood,” so to speak.
But there’s another portion of this.
Through divine authority known as the priesthood, we are “legally” adopted into the family of God. There are three parts to this next thing I was to talk about. Christ could have stepped into His kingship if the Jews had been RIGHTEOUS enough to hold on to their kingdom. Joseph SACRIFICED and LEGALLY ADOPTED Christ and because of that, Christ would have been able to step into His kingship. If Israel had been righteous, Christ would have been king.
If we are RIGHTEOUS and lay claim upon Christ’s power to LEGALLY ADOPT us into the House of Israel, the because of Christ’s SACRIFICE, we are to be divine heirs.
As another detail in inheritance that is rich in meaning, primogeniture (firstborn son’s claim to the throne over other children) was overwhelmingly common but not the absolute rule. Through wickedness or directly through the decisions of God, the older could be deemed unfit to inherit such power.
Heavenly Father truly is the Master. All of the details are laid out so beautifully. There are a million parallels in the gospel that add layer upon rich layer to our understanding.
I testify that God is in the details. The more I learn about the gospel, the more I am filled with a sense of awe at all of His orchestration. I testify that we come from a divine family, and I testify that Christ made a sacrifice and gave us the power we needed to adopt us into His family as well. All of these combine to an astounding truth; we have been set up to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, to inherit a divine throne. There is so much we were born into. God has so much in store for us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Christmas – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 22, 2025
The Cost of Christmas
by Autumn Dickson
Christ is the center figure in history. He was the promised Messiah who saved and changed the world. He brings light into the world. He created the world.
But a long time ago, He was just a baby that was born in a small town to a couple who had just begun their life together. Despite all that it cost them, they welcomed Christ into this world.
This week is Christmas, and as such, we focus on Christ. I would also like to draw our attention to those who welcomed Him into the world. I want to talk about Mary and Joseph who welcomed Him into their family and watched over Him when He was vulnerable. Maybe we can learn what it truly means to invite Christ into our lives.
Inviting Christ into their home was not easy. Right from the beginning, the couple faced difficulty and potential ridicule. Mary could have been in a lot of danger for being pregnant without being married, and Joseph, her betrothed, was likely very confused when she came to tell him about what was happening.
Instead of being able to rest and bring him into the world at home, Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem. It was a small town six miles away from Jerusalem, and it was packed because people had travelled there as part of the census.
He was potentially born in a stable, and most people know that story. Other biblical scholars suggest that the birth story may have played out differently. From a different translation, it is possible that Christ was born amongst the animals on the first floor of a family home that Mary and Joseph were staying at. Regardless, it wasn’t a comfortable birth, and I can’t imagine that she was comfortable while travelling right before giving birth.
I had the tremendously unique experience of going to Bethlehem and Jerusalem while pregnant. I testify that it’s not comfortable, and I had a car and an air-conditioned room to sleep in.
Shortly after the birth, Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to protect their Son. Instead of going home, they spent anywhere from several months to two years in Egypt amongst people who were very different from the Jews. They were separated from family and friends with very little ability to communicate with them. Joseph wasn’t practicing his work where he had been previously, and Mary was on her own as a first time mother in an unprecedented situation of raising the Son of God.
The Bible gives us very little after that. There were the wise men. Christ grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Christ turns water to wine for Mary at a wedding. Somewhere along the line, Mary lost Joseph despite Christ’s power.
And then, of course, Mary also had to lose her Son. We don’t know how much she knew about what was happening on that cross. She had pondered in her heart, and the angel had warned her that her heart would be pierced with sorrow as a result of bringing Christ into the world, but did she understand what was going on? Or, like the apostles, was she confused at what happened? Did she feel dreadfully alone with Joseph gone and now her oldest Son as well?
When we speak of inviting Christ into our lives, we often speak of rejoicing and peace and miracles. These are very real factors that Mary and Joseph both experienced as part of having the Messiah be born into their home. I have found immense amounts of joy since I have accepted Christ as my Savior and leaned into His promises. They are real and true.
There is also difficulty that comes with inviting Christ into our lives. There was very real difficulty that came into the life of Mary and Joseph as a direct result of welcoming Christ into their home. There will be difficulty in your life that comes as a direct result of inviting Christ into your heart and home. It will be different from the kind of difficulty experienced by Mary and Joseph, but it will be difficult nonetheless.
It can be difficult to invite Christ into your home when it brings uncertainty, rocks the boat, or brings potential whispers and judgment. It can be difficult when we’re asked to jump into the dark and trust when we’re called to go somewhere, and we don’t know how it will work out. It can be difficult when the responsibilities we’ve been given take us away from our families. It can be difficult when the powerful God that you love doesn’t give you a miracle to save your family member. It can feel lonely and even devastating.
There comes a point where you get to decide if it’s worth inviting Him in.
If an angel appeared to you and warned you about the sorrow that would pierce your heart as a result of inviting Christ into your life, how would you respond?
He follows us into our darkest moments. Will we follow Him when things get dark? Will we follow Him when the bread stops? Will we follow Him when we don’t feel that gigantic hug from behind when we’re praying and asking for help? Will we follow Him when we have to face our own cross? Will we resent Him if He doesn’t answer how we want Him to answer us? Will we curse His name when He takes away instead of giving?
Would we invite Him into our hearts and homes again, knowing what we know?
Why would you invite Him in again?
I love to testify of how Christ shows up for us. I want to take this moment to testify of a grand opportunity to show up and give our loyalty to Him no matter where He chooses to take us. It can be difficult to follow Christ when it feels like He asks too much. It can be difficult to follow Christ when He requires not just our obedience and time, but our whole souls.
I testify that He is worth our loyalty. He has earned our undying loyalty, and we will never truly be let down if we’re willing to give it to Him. I testify that offering our whole souls, just as He offered His own, is liberating and beautiful. He will never let us down even when we have to follow Him through difficulty and darkness. We can hold to Him and His promises.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – The Family: A Proclamation to the World – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 18, 2025
Happiness in Marriage
by Autumn Dickson
This week is all about The Family Proclamation. Here is the topic I want to cover.
Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to talk about happiness in marriage specifically, but the principles I speak about can be applied more broadly to any relationship you’re going to be a part of.
Marriages are falling apart in our day. Satan is coming after the family in a multi-pronged attack, but destroying marriages is just one part of how he chooses to do this. Social media loves showing off images of bright and shiny couples, individuals who seem so much happier alone, and advice about how your spouse should be acting towards you.
We’re taught that we deserve to be happy and if we’re not happy, we should leave. We’re taught that if a spouse can’t meet our needs, we can’t be happy. We’re taught that it’s better for the kids if we’re happy. And yet, despite all of this teaching, the world can’t seem to get it together and be happy.
Oh the irony.
I love my marriage. I’m so grateful to have Conner, and there are a lot of reasons for that. One of those reasons is not because Conner or I have been perfect. It’s not because we agree on everything, or even agree on everything that’s really important. It’s not because we’ve never been mean to each other or because we’ve never had to navigate days at a time where we can’t really figure out how to get past something. It’s not because Conner is so intuitive at reading me or because I never complain.
We are two different people with different baggage, different perspectives, different personalities, different ways of handling things. We are two people who experience times of drowning stress, resentment, uncertainty, and traumas.
It can be easy to look at happy couples and assume that they have it easy, but that’s not true. It’s not true for anyone. There are relationships that hold more difficulty than others which is why I encourage everyone to seek the help of the Lord in knowing what to do. However, if you’ve married a generally decent person who doesn’t scream at you, belittle you, act violently towards you, financially abuse you, then there is hope for happiness.
And your best chance for happiness lies in following the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Christ didn’t focus on communication styles or on making sure you have everything in common ahead of entering a relationship. He didn’t focus on love languages or living together ahead of time to see if you’re compatible or any of the other stuff that the world tries pushing so hard. He doesn’t even focus on making sure the other person knows how to take care of you in a relationship. He didn’t focus on changing the other person so that you could be happy.
The foremost characteristic of Christ’s life was love, love for God and then love for others. Everything He did, the miracles and leading and teaching and forgiving and gratitude and serving all boiled down to that great love. If we want to be happy, we have to love the other person more fully.
In order to find this happiness, you have to have a correct understanding of what that love looks like. Otherwise, you run the risk of building up more resentment rather than finding happiness. Love does not mean you’re a doormat. It doesn’t mean you never say anything or complain. It doesn’t mean that you smile and stay silent when you’re hurting.
Love is not an outward action. It is an inward feeling that inspires different kinds of outward actions.
Sometimes love does mean looking at the back of a person and choosing to smile even when they’re doing something annoying again. Sometimes it does mean mercy and forgiveness and letting go when none of it was your fault. Sometimes it means accepting them exactly as they are and finding it within yourself to feel affectionate anyway.
Other times, the most loving thing you can do is speak up. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is tell someone they’re wrong. The beautiful thing about it coming from a place of love is that the Spirit can help you know how to handle the situation in the best way available. Chastisement also hits differently when you can feel that the other person is actually more worried about you rather than worried about how you’re making their life harder.
Think of it in this way. When Conner comes to correct me sometimes (which we do often enough for each other), I get up in arms sometimes. My gut reaction is to insist that he doesn’t understand what I’m going through, and criticism isn’t helpful. Luckily, I have a husband who gets this, and he often continues the conversation calmly. He also dives in and tells how it would be better for me if I chose to make different decisions. It’s extremely effective.
He once told me that I needed to be more consistent in my discipline with one of our kids. I was so mad. It is so difficult to keep up sometimes, and it’s hard to figure out the balance between disciplining your kids and letting it go because you’re desperate or because you don’t want them to feel like terrible kids. But he continued on calmly. He told me that I was actually making my own life harder by letting things go, that it would only take a couple of days of consistency and my kids would know I was serious. He was totally right but beyond that, he also did it with sincere love for me, and that made all the difference.
Correcting me was a form of love; it was Christlike. Not to mention, it landed differently because it was about love for me. He wasn’t correcting me because I was making his life more difficult. He was correcting me because he really wanted me to live better.
I’m not going to pretend this isn’t a hard point to reach. It is hard to love someone when you don’t feel loved. It’s hard to love someone when you feel like you’re the only one who has been stepping up. It’s hard to love someone when you’re drowning in your own stress. It calls upon some of your deepest willpower and self-observation.
I’m not talking about reaching down and hollowing yourself out and giving the last pieces of yourself. I’m not talking about resigning yourself to misery because you have to love them rather than begging them to change. I’m talking about letting go of your need to change them in order for you to find happiness. I’m talking about actively working on yourself, not to stop complaining or to stop nitpicking, but to actively and consciously choose to love them in the hardest moments.
If you want to be happy in family life, you have to follow the teachings of Christ. One of the foremost characteristics of Christ, the characteristic that motivated everything else, was a sincere and deep love of everyone. Including those who wouldn’t change or didn’t deserve it.
If you want to be happy, love freely. Happiness doesn’t come from being loved perfectly; it comes from loving more perfectly. That is the truth. You have to change yourself to love the other person more freely.
This goes for any kind of relationship. This doesn’t mean you need to stay in every relationship, but loving the other person will help you heal faster even if that person was awful. It’s counterintuitive but true. Truly loving someone frees you and heals you and brings happiness.
Perhaps it seems too simple for your problem. Maybe you’re insisting that I don’t know your spouse and how hard it is.
You’re right. I don’t. But I do know the power of changing to be like Christ. I do know that He was the most brilliant Man to ever walk the earth. I know that He knows what He was talking about. In any situation in your marriage (or any other relationship), trying to adopt love into your heart in the way that Christ loved will make the difference.
I testify that happiness in any kind of relationship comes when we act like Christ. We find happiness. I testify that even if you can’t find happiness directly in your relationship, there is a powerful happiness available in drawing closer to Christ. There is a powerful happiness that comes when you find it within yourself to love the other person and lean on Christ and His deep love when you need it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – The Family: A Proclamation to the World – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 15, 2025
The True Definition of “Preside”
by Autumn Dickson
The Family Proclamation turned 30 this year. It is a document that teaches about God’s plan for families. Though many believe it to be outdated, I testify of its ongoing relevance. Its principles hold truth that can protect and save. If everyone went home and tried to follow the principles within this document, society would evolve overnight.
As I approach some of these principles in this post, it’s important to note that The Family Proclamation is the ideal. None of us are going to reach the ideal on this side of the veil, but we still teach the ideal. Sometimes teaching the ideal has the undesirable side effect of making us feel discouraged. We cannot afford to let that take hold in our lives. Satan would love to take the ideal and twist it so that it crushes us, and we get to decide whether we let those feelings into our lives or whether we hold on to the hope that is Jesus Christ.
So, like the Family Proclamation, I want to try and teach the ideal. Your circumstances may not allow the ideal. How you grew up may not have even afforded you a glimpse of the ideal, but consciously choose how you’re going to look at this ideal. You can look at it and wonder if God doesn’t love you because you don’t have that ideal, you can feel hopeless about ever reaching that ideal, OR you can tell Satan to back off. God teaches the ideal so you can strive for it, but God also teaches the ideal because He’s trying to give you a glimpse of His promises to you. He is saying, “This is what I want for you because I love you. This is what you were always meant to have. This IS what you will have if you hold on.”
So let’s talk about one of these truths with that understanding.
One of the truths that is often mocked and twisted is regarding fathers.
By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.
There is a lot that we could dissect in that one sentence, but I’m going to pull out one of the first phrases.
Fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness.
“Preside” is the troublesome word in the eyes of the world. According to the dictionary, the word “preside” means to be in a position of authority so when we use this word, we often picture a home where the father gets the final say on any decision. Even when a husband loves his wife and listens to her honest opinion, it doesn’t feel good to think that the man still gets the final say, and that’s it. Is that really the end of the story? Even when he loves and listens to his wife, there are still moments where her perspectives go unheard because apparently it’s divinely appointed. Then, there’s the pressure that gets placed on the man for this kind of responsibility. No longer does he have a true partner to share life with. He carries it all because it ultimately falls on him.
There have been a lot of things in the gospel and church that haven’t always felt perfect or right when I’ve originally learned about them. I’ve learned that if I trust God and keep going, I’ve been led to answers from Him. It has been no different with this particular principle.
If you keep reading in The Family Proclamation, you come across this line as well.
In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.
This is our first hint that maybe we don’t fully understand what we’re reading. How can two people be equal partners if one person always gets the final say unless it’s specifically “given” to the other partner? So which part am I reading wrong? Which part don’t I understand? Is it the “equal” part or the “presiding” part?
As I’ve pondered this particular question, I had a thought come to my mind.
If I truly want to have the family that the Lord wants me to have, I have to ignore the world’s meaning of the word “preside” and embrace what the Lord means by the word “preside.”
This isn’t just me trying to skirt my way around a difficult issue. It’s not me doing mental gymnastics to try and make sense of it. Look at the Lord. The Lord presides differently than the rest of the world. He is the ultimate presiding officer and yet, we didn’t see Him going around and making demands. We didn’t see Him silencing good people and ignoring the opinions of others. He certainly wasn’t disregarding the women in His life in the name of presiding officer.
One of the foremost characteristics of Christ’s life was His desire to serve. He devoted His life to securing what was best for everyone around Him. He was the ultimate presiding officer, and He was also the ultimate servant. Perhaps in the eyes of the Lord, presiding means the first person to step up and serve everyone around them. Presiding meant making decisions sometimes, but it also meant encouraging others to step up and lead. Presiding meant washing feet; it meant laying down His life, not putting His life above all others.
Presiding, according to the Lord’s interpretation, also means lifting everyone. The ultimate purpose of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are to bring about our immortality and eternal life. They want to lift us to where They are. It’s not about controlling us and forcing us to do what they think is best. It’s about meeting us where we’re at and trying to lift us so that we can be as good and wise and loving and happy as They are.
I hold no issue with this definition of my husband presiding in my home.
I testify that the gospel holds up on closer inspection. Things that may seem troublesome or off can stand up to the light when we look at it with Christ. I testify that Heavenly Father has a plan for our families. I testify that His plan is based on serving each other and lifting each other, not ruling over each other.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 11, 2025
If God is so Powerful, Why Didn’t He Just Stop Their Enemies?
by Autumn Dickson
I want to share something from the Official Declaration 1, the declaration that ended the practice of polygamy in the latter-days. This post isn’t specifically about polygamy, but the principle I want to teach is being taught through the polygamy example.
The Lord has told me to ask the Latter-day Saints a question, and He also told me that if they would listen to what I said to them and answer the question put to them, by the Spirit and power of God, they would all answer alike, and they would all believe alike with regard to this matter.
He then proceeds to ask the people what would be better: to comply with the law of the land and cease the practice of polygamy or continue to practice polygamy and lose the priesthood organization and temples and be forced to stop polygamy anyway?
I’ve heard people express the idea that the church supposedly believes in revelation but fold the second they receive outside pressure. I’ve heard it conveyed that it was so convenient for the Lord to stop the practice of polygamy when things got too difficult for the people to live it. Even as a teenager, I believed in the church but remember thinking, “Isn’t there a third option? Can’t the Lord enable them to continue practicing polygamy without losing all of the men and the temples?”
Though polygamy is unique in many ways, there is not really any new argument against God. These specific questions boil down to a question that is as old as religion, “If your God is truly so powerful, why doesn’t He enable you?”
The answer to that specific question varies because the circumstances of mankind vary, but I’ll do my best to teach the overarching principles by referring to this specific example of polygamy.
According to President Woodruff, the Saints were facing some pretty dire circumstances. He had a vision of everything that the Saints would lose if they continued the practice of polygamy. To put it shortly, they would lose everything that mattered. I don’t think Satan was worried about stopping polygamy as he was about utilizing polygamy to stop the work in general. If the Saints continued on, this would surely stop the work. They would lose temples and the men; if they lost these, apostasy would reign and Satan would have won (especially since the Lord has promised that we will not fall into a Great Apostasy again).
When we face dire circumstances, the Lord can react in a number of ways and He makes wise decisions based on what will bring about His purposes.
The Lord’s potential reaction #1:
Sometimes He asks us to continue on through difficulty and lose everything. I think of Abinadi. Abinadi was asked to continue preaching despite the fact that it put his life in danger. Abinadi died. Sometimes the Lord asks for the ultimate sacrifice. He could have asked the Saints to make the ultimate sacrifice, but He didn’t.
The Lord’s potential reaction #2:
The Lord can tell His people to keep going and then remove the difficulty. There are a million examples of this, the most obvious being Moses parting the Red Sea.
When it came to polygamy, the Lord could have responded in this way. He could have “parted the sea” and removed the difficulty. The Lord could have enabled His Saints to continue practicing polygamy. He could have wiped out the entire earth other than the Saints if that’s what it took, but He didn’t.
The Lord’s potential reaction #3:
Sometimes the Lord tells us to stop. I think of Alma and his people. They were threatened with death if they prayed, and so they only prayed in their hearts. The Lord could have commanded them to keep praying, but it wasn’t their time and so He didn’t. Technically they kept praying, but there are other instances. For example, there was Zion’s camp. An “army” of members left Kirtland to go win back Missouri for the Saints, but the Lord told them to turn around after they got there. I did a whole video on why the Lord might have chosen after this manner. There was also the time when the Lord excused His people from building the temple in Zion for a time.
Sometimes the Lord does tell us we can stop. People love to act like this is because our God isn’t real or that He isn’t powerful. The answer is neither.
Sometimes the Lord tells us to stop because He is wise.
Despite the fact that the Lord could ask His Saints to sacrifice everything and despite the fact that the Lord could have removed the obstacles they were facing, He chose not to. I emphasize the point that we do not always know why the Lord makes specific choices unless He tells us directly, but let’s think for a bit about why the Lord would have made this decision.
Despite the fact that the Lord reigns over all and despite the fact that He is tremendously powerful, sometimes He chooses to act in a certain way with mankind because of His purposes. The “limitations” are not true limitations; they are self-imposed limitations that enable Him to push His purposes along.
His purpose is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of man and because of His chosen purpose, He often works within the constraints of mankind so He doesn’t ruin His own plan. Let’s look at this principle in the context of polygamy.
The Lord’s potential reaction #1:
The Lord could have asked them to continue on in difficulty and sacrifice. They would have lost the temples and priesthood organization that kept His restored church on the earth. That doesn’t really fit His purposes so He’s not going to choose this option.
The Lord’s potential reaction #2:
The Lord could have asked them to continue on and then removed the difficulty for them. This answers the question that I’ve heard posed more than once in my life. Believe it or not, this would have also frustrated His purposes. He COULD have destroyed everyone except the Saints, but that doesn’t contribute to His purposes. He COULD have sent down miracles to stop the rest of America from being able to infiltrate Utah and take the temples and arrest the men, but it would have taken some large-scale miracles in order to keep the work moving forward.
In the history of the world, the Lord has performed some incredible large-scale miracles. We read about these miracles, and we rejoice in them.
However, the Lord does not often choose to work after this manner. He just doesn’t. Why? Because faith is an essential ingredient in His plan. I have studied the purpose of faith over and over and over. You can’t bring about the Plan of Redemption if you wipe out the principle of faith, and large-scale miracles run the risk of doing just that.
The Lord could perform large-scale miracle after large-scale miracle and fix everything, but He doesn’t. Why? Because removing faith from the mortal experience has far dire consequences than anything we could potentially face on earth.
So the Lord COULD have chosen potential reaction #1 or #2, but He didn’t because they don’t contribute to His purposes.
The Lord’s potential reaction #3:
He stops it.
And honestly, this makes sense. Temple work and the priesthood organization were more important. Faith was more important.
I believe that polygamy was a policy laid down by God. I do. I also believe that polygamy doesn’t make logistical sense on a grand scale so it was the wisest choice the Lord could have made.
There are a million arguments made against the church. One of them is the idea of, “If your God is so powerful, why doesn’t He enable you to xyz?”
I testify that God is real and powerful, and I testify that He is in this work. I also testify that God is wise and because He is wise, He has self-imposed limitations in order to bring about His purposes. He could easily interfere with evil on a daily basis, but He knows the cost would be too high. I testify that the Lord is wise enough to make the decisions necessary to bring about our eternal life.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 08, 2025
When Things Feel Unfair, Remember This About Christ’s Atonement
by Autumn Dickson
In the past, I have shied away from talking about the Official Declarations, not because I don’t believe what’s in them, but because I feel that there are an immense number of people who can speak on those subjects with more knowledge, wisdom, and personal experience than I can. That being said, I do my best to simply share what the Lord wants me to share, and if I get some of the details wrong, the principles that I teach are true and I figure the Lord forgives me and is proud of me for making the attempt.
This week, we read about polygamy and race and the priesthood. For many, these are not easy topics. This post is not to try and convince anyone that the Church is true. Rather, I hope that this post can comfort those who still believe that this church holds the fullness of the gospel but simultaneously feel pain when reading these declarations.
As I was studying for this post, I came across a talk that we’ll discuss more about later, but I wanted to start with this quote from President Eyring’s April 2009 General Conference address titled “Adversity.” President Eyring is speaking of trials and difficulty when he says, “The anger comes at least in part from a feeling that what is happening is unfair…When they vanish, a feeling of injustice can come.”
I think some people can relate to these feelings of unfairness and injustice when speaking about the declarations. If you’ve received a testimony of the gospel and you know the Lord has led you here, sometimes this makes it more painful, not less. Instead of being able to say, “God would never allow something so unfair,” you find yourself with the feeling of, “God you’re telling me to come here, but this was so unfair. Don’t you love me? How could you do this if you really love me?”
Though you may be feeling these questions in a very specific context, these questions are not new or unique. You are not the only one to ask them. As part of our mortal experience, each of us reaches some experience where we ask those same questions. Is God truly fair? Does He really love us? Why does He allow such suffering? I have answered those questions many times in the past, but today, I don’t want to answer those questions. Rather, I want to share something that the Spirit whispered to me recently.
This is not an Article of Faith or excerpt from the Official Declarations, but I hope it soothes some of what people may feel when they struggle with the declarations. I want to share something from The Book of Mormon; Alma is speaking to the people of Gideon about the Savior.
Alma 7:11-12
11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
We read these verses at church this past week, and I had a thought occur to me. Perhaps I’m rather late in noticing this nuance, but that’s okay. It struck me rather hard.
Christ suffered for our sins. He paid for them. He died and was resurrected. This enabled us to return to live with our Heavenly Father. It saved us.
But Christ also suffered for our infirmities. I always knew that this particular suffering happened with the atonement. He suffered for our pains and sicknesses just like He suffered for our sins, but that’s two different ideas; isn’t it?
Did Christ have to suffer for our infirmities as part of the atonement? Was that absolutely necessary in order to help us return to live with God? Or did He just do it because He loves us and wants to be there for us? Did He really need to do that? Or did He simply want to? Could He have skipped that whole bit altogether and just brought us home at the end of the mortal experience? After looking into these questions a bit more, I found the talk from President Eyring that I referenced earlier.
President Eyring’s ideas are based on this phrase in the same chapter of Alma.
Alma 7:13
Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh…
In response to the passage in Alma 7, President Eyring teaches, “He could have known how to succor us simply by revelation, but He chose to learn by His own personal experience.”
He chose to suffer with you. He could have said, “Hey I know it feels unfair and unjust. I know it hurts, but we have to do this. Suffering, even unfairness, is so important to the plan, so important for your well-being and growth and glory. You need this. I’m sorry it’s unfair, but you have to go through this.” And He does say those things (not in so many words, but He says it).
And despite the fact that He already paid for your sins and despite all that it cost Him, He also says this, “I know exactly how you feel. Exactly how you feel. I have felt it too. I am here.”
There are reasons for unfairness. There are ways to turn these painful moments into powerhouse experiences that glorify you. There are answers.
But beyond that, there is an ultimate unfairness that was entered into voluntarily because of a deep love. Christ could have received revelation about how to comfort you. He had already paid the ultimate price, but that wasn’t enough for Him. He wanted to take the journey with you. He wanted to feel it personally and walk with you, and when necessary, carry you. He wanted to. Because He loves you.
He will make it up to you. He will one day answer all of your questions, but until then, rejoice that you are so beloved.
I testify that Christ loves us. He loves us enough to pay the ultimate price for us to come down here, grow, and return home despite our mistakes. But beyond that, He loves us enough to go through what we go through in order to succor us through the entire experience. He is the very definition of above and beyond and it is because of how much He loves you, how much joy He draws from being your greatest Friend.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 137–138 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 04, 2025
Nine Years: Why God Lets Good People Wait for Answers
by Autumn Dickson
This is a message for anyone who feels that they have found God and love Him, but also carry around a doctrine or policy that doesn’t make sense to them; this is for anyone who is having a difficult time reconciling the idea of a loving God (with whom they’ve had good experiences) with doctrines that don’t seem loving to them.
For this week, we are studying Section 137 and 138. It’s important to understand that Section 137 is not in chronological order. It was placed next to Section 138 because doctrinally, they fit together really well. It’s actually really important to understand that Section 137 is out of chronological order for a number of reasons. In order to understand what I want to talk about today, let’s talk about the chronological order of a few more things.
When Joseph was young, he struggled with which church to join. His mother was Methodist, and his father aligned more closely with the ideas of a unitarian. His father didn’t believe that God would send someone to hell because they hadn’t been baptized into a particular church. Joseph received the First Vision and over time, he learned more and more of what it meant to have the restored church of Jesus Christ.
Alvin died in 1823, a few years after the First Vision, before the authority to baptize had been restored. I wonder if Joseph was leaning towards his father’s views that Alvin wouldn’t go to hell just because he hadn’t been baptized. After all, Joseph was taught that the true church was not upon the earth. Maybe Alvin wasn’t in hell.
In 1829, Joseph received the authority to baptize. Joseph learned that baptism was essential, and it hadn’t been done with the right authority for a long time.
Think, for just a moment, about what this means to Joseph. He rejoiced in the restored church. In fact, he was overwhelmed with joy after baptizing his father.
But I also want you to think about the perspectives that Joseph was operating under at this period in time. He knew that authority to baptize was essential. He knew that his brother wasn’t baptized at all, let alone by any needed authority. For a long time, I believe that Joseph still thought Alvin had gone to hell.
It wasn’t until 1832 that Joseph learned there were different kingdoms in heaven. Can you imagine the relief that Joseph felt knowing that Alvin wasn’t burning up in eternal flame? But can you also imagine the pain that Joseph still felt when he believed he had still lost Alvin? There were some conflicting emotions there; Alvin wasn’t in hell, but were they still going to be separated?
Joseph received a vision of Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom in 1836. Here is part of that vision.
Doctrine and Covenants 137:5-6
5 I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept;
6 And marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.
Joseph marveled to see Alvin in the Celestial Kingdom; he was surprised. This is part of the reason for my assumptions. For three years (not including the time before the priesthood was restored), Joseph believed Alvin was still burning up in hell. For four years, Joseph carried around the wound from his beliefs that he would be separated from Alvin.
There is an important implication from this timeline.
Joseph loved God. More than most, Joseph knew that God was real and that there was truth and that you had to be baptized and that there was specific authority. He knew this. Joseph had good experiences with God, but Joseph also carried around this painful wound that something felt tragically unfair.
Despite his knowledge of God, I wonder if Joseph ever still struggled with questions. How could a loving God do this? How could required baptism and authority be congruent with a fair God who loves all of His children? How could God have let Alvin die before the church was restored? What about all the other people who suddenly don’t qualify because the authority wasn’t on the earth?
And perhaps the question most of us have related to at one point or another in our lifetime, “If God is truly so loving, how is this His perfect plan?”
It doesn’t make sense. Joseph knew that God is perfect and just and fair and loving, but for a long time, Joseph was also operating under the assumption that God was going to let those who were unbaptized just suffer. How did Joseph reconcile this? Did he ever reconcile this or did he just hold on anyway?
Do you carry around anything that doesn’t seem congruent with a God who is perfect and just and fair and loving? Have you also had experiences with God and you have felt that He loves you and is leading you along here? Are you having a difficult time reconciling these two facts: that God is good but He also allows “xyz?”
I promise you two things. There is an answer, and there is also Christ’s atonement. Joseph was a prophet who received plenty of revelation, but God chose not to give that particular revelation for a while. Despite Joseph’s close relationship with God and despite his near constant influx of restored information, it took nine years for Joseph to learn that Alvin wasn’t going to be punished for dying before Joseph received the proper authority to baptize.
Take a page out of Joseph’s book. We don’t know everything yet. Is it really so implausible that God knows what He’s doing, that He has a plan that will take care of everything that you’re worried about? This isn’t said to negate any pain that you’re feeling trying to deal with this. Rather, it’s meant to give you hope in the midst of it. There is an answer and beyond that, there is the atonement of Jesus Christ. I don’t know why Joseph had to wait 9 years to learn about Alvin. You would think that Christ could have slipped that in at some point, but Joseph waited.
And Joseph was blessed. God is perfect and is handling everything beautifully. Beyond just a perfect answer, Christ suffered deeply so that He can carry us through the pain while we wait for those answers.
There are answers. If you hold on and rely upon the atonement of Jesus Christ and all of His adjacent promises, you will find answers and you will find joy. Not to mention, everything you’re experienced shall be for your good. The difficulty you’re wading through will transform you into exactly what you were meant to become.
I testify that God has a perfect plan. I testify that He truly is loving and perfect and fair and just. I testify that He is good and is handling everything beautifully. You don’t have to carry this. He’s got this. I also testify that beyond having a perfect plan, Christ paid for the plan and suffered what you suffer so He can run to you and comfort you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 137–138 – Mike Parker
Dec 02, 2025
Joseph Smith’s Vision of the Celestial Kingdom; Joseph F. Smith’s Vision of the Spirit World (D&C 137–138)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Joseph F. Smith, “Status of Children in the Resurrection,” Improvement Era 21, no. 7 (May 1918): 567–74. In this address given in the Salt Lake Temple—given only eight months before his vision that is now section 138—President Smith taught about the status of the spirits of children who die and how they will be resurrected.
Mary Jane Woodger, “From Obscurity to Scripture: Joseph F. Smith’s Vision of the Redemption of the Dead,” in You Shall Have My Word: Exploring the Text of the Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Scott C. Esplin, Richard O. Cowan, and Rachel Cope (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University / Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 234–54.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 137–138 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 01, 2025
The Spirit World is Already Here
by Autumn Dickson
We have the opportunity to read two revelations this week. Despite the different times in which they were given, the two revelations were placed together in the Doctrine and Covenants, and they hold more power in that manner. The first recorded vision was received by Joseph Smith, and the second recorded vision was given to Joseph F. Smith. I want to share a couple of verses from the section given to Joseph F. Smith regarding the spirit world.
Doctrine and Covenants 138:22-24
22 Where these (the wicked, unrepentant, rebellious) were, darkness reigned, but among the righteous there was peace;
23 And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell.
24 Their countenances shone, and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto his holy name.
These verses talk about the spirit world on the other side of the veil. It gives us a glimpse into what life holds depending on how you chose to live your life and how those choices affected who you became. Taking the time to imagine what it will be like is powerful, especially when you’ve lost someone you love.
But rather than read it from the perspective of the spirit world, I want you to read it again as if it’s speaking about where we dwell now. Despite its insight into the spirit world, it can also be a very accurate description of the mortal life we’re living in.
In the fallen mortality where we dwell, there are people who want nothing to do with the Savior and His gospel. There are many who want the exact opposite of what He stands for and believe the Savior to be oppressive. In those specific places and hearts, darkness reigns. God doesn’t necessarily send darkness or make their world terrible; it’s what they’ve invited into their lives.
Important tangent here. This gets slightly tricky because I don’t believe all non-Christians are dark people. Rather, I believe that at any given moment, we are inviting or shunning darkness. There are a lot of people who accept so much of Christ’s gospel even if they do not yet accept Him personally. They have invited portions of light into their lives by living their lives in a Christlike manner. So not immediately accepting Christ doesn’t mean you live in utter darkness and allow it to reign over you. I do believe they’re missing out on light, but that doesn’t mean I assume they are voluntarily inviting darkness to rule their lives.
Let’s keep going on with reading the description of the spirit world and mortality..
So there are people who don’t want Christ and voluntarily shun Him. They want the darkness. They like it. They don’t see any reason to change.
In other places, sometimes very nearby, there are Saints who are living in the same space but find themselves rejoicing in their redemption. They love the Savior and trust Him. They acknowledge Him and worship Him.
Then, of course, there is a whole spectrum between these groups of people. Even on that spectrum, we’re finding ourselves moving back and forth depending on what we’re inviting and focusing on.
Despite the fact that we can find people all along that spectrum, I want to bring your attention to one other grouping: there are Saints who are trying to live the gospel but still have not found the reason to rejoice. They don’t always feel hope or peace. They don’t feel the radiance of the Lord shining down on them.
We believe in Christ and the gospel, but have we found salvation?
We read this in Alma.
Alma 34:31
Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.
Immediately. Not just in the spirit world. Immediately. If you truly find Christ, the plan of redemption is brought immediately. Today can be the day of your salvation if you repent and don’t harden your heart.
Immediately, you can find yourself in the same state as those dwelling in spirit paradise. You can rejoice in the Redeemer who freed you from hell and any aspects of it that you may still be clinging to. The radiance of the presence of the Lord can shine upon you.
If you do not yet feel these aspects of salvation, I have a small warning for you. Dying and going to the other side does not immediately bring about those feelings. Dying has very little to do with it. Experiencing spiritual paradise stems from your relationship with Christ. Dying happens somewhere along the way for good reason, but experiencing salvation doesn’t necessarily wait for death. It’s just waiting for you.
When was the last time you let yourself rejoice in Christ? When was the last time you chose to trust Him so deeply that it swallowed up your pain and carried it for a while? When was the last time you chose gratitude for His promises even if you couldn’t choose gratitude for what was directly going on in your life?
Spiritual paradise is a choice, not just a destination on the other side. What happens there is just a continuation of what happens here. You don’t change on the other side unless you go through the same process of changing that you have to experience on this side.
I love the verse from Alma 34 because it doesn’t say, “Follow the Law of Moses perfectly and then you will experience salvation immediately.” It says, “Repent and soften your heart and then you will experience salvation immediately.” Change! Soften! Trust! He loves you and is mighty to save. When you find it within yourself to say, “I’m going to try putting weight on these promises,” you’ll find solid ground. Even if everything comes to disaster in mortality, there is solid ground in Christ.
I testify that trusting Christ and taking Him at His word was one of the most joyful decisions I ever made. Though I obviously fluctuate in that trust as I move about life, continually spending time with Him every day has made that trust more consistent. Spending time with Him every day has forced me to remember His promises. As I’ve moved about my daily life and run into new challenges and all of the pitfalls of mortality, I have found rejoicing alongside my pain. It didn’t come from living the gospel more perfectly; it came from trusting Him more perfectly.
I testify that spirit paradise or allowing darkness to reign are choices we make on a daily basis; they’re not just destinations in the spirit world. I testify that the day of your salvation, the day you find rejoicing in Christ, can be today, and you don’t even have to die in order to find it. You just have to trust.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 135–136 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 27, 2025
An Underrated Section: How to Become Zion…and Heaven
by Autumn Dickson
With Joseph and Hyrum martyred, Brigham Young was now the prophet. After the Saints were expelled from Nauvoo, Brigham was in charge of finding them a permanent home in the mountains of the west. Though the westward movement of the Saints was among the most impressive immigrations of Americans, it did not start out that way.
The Saints were starving and freezing along the trail. Muddy quagmires kept the Saints from reaching their goal to plant crops ahead of everyone coming. Brigham described feeling like he was dragging around a 25 ton weight. He felt like he had a large family with no way of taking care of them. At Winter Quarters in Nebraska, he turned to the Lord for guidance.
The Lord told Brigham how to organize the company, but He taught Brigham much more important things that would turn the tide for the Saints’ ability to make it to their destination.
Here is the verse that introduces the important concept that turned things around.
Doctrine and Covenants 136:2
Let all the people of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and those who journey with them, be organized into companies, with a covenant and promise to keep all the commandments and statutes of the Lord our God.
The Saints were to be organized into companies that would stick together, and they entered into those companies by making covenants to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord.
There were two major principles at work here that changed the game.
Principle one. When people normally made their way across towards the west (Saints and non-Saints alike), it was done very loosely with every man vying for his own family. They often travelled together for safety, but companies broke apart and came together with different members more than once. That is the first principle: Brigham Young organized them into companies with leadership at different levels, and each company was expected to stick together throughout the entire journey. If one made it, they were all going to make it.
The second principle was to focus on spirituality again. Not only were they to focus on the eternal nature of their work, but they were to focus on the fact that they believed in the same God who helped many groups of people travel to new destinations, the God of Israel.
This becomes even more significant when you recognize what the Lord was preparing Brigham for.
In 1877, Brigham Young organized the priesthood structure of the church. After travelling around Utah, he found that there were many people scattered and not enrolled in wards. There were overlapping authorities where spiritual jurisdictions were confusing, and it was unclear who would have the responsibility of showing their stewardship to the Lord. There were bishops who had never been ordained, and this was setting the stage for people to become more vulnerable as they were travelling the covenant path.
The Saints had now grown large enough that they needed to be organized or two things would happen: losing people and losing the doctrine that had been restored with such difficulty.
So that’s what Brigham did. Under the direction of the apostles, Saints scattered across Utah were better organized into stakes and wards. Bishops were set apart. Every member found themselves in a ward with a leader who would watch over them. Priesthood roles were clarified so that everyone understood what they were in charge of. This would lessen the gaps in which people could fall through with no one to watch over them, and it would also serve to help the Lord speak to His entire church when He revealed something rather than sending word out and hoping everyone was able to receive it.
It’s hard to overstate the unglamorous importance of what Brigham did.
Let’s tie it back to what we talked about in the beginning, and let’s talk about it from the perspective of an imaginary Saint who could have lived it
A widow is trying to get her kids across the plains to gather with the Saints. Her oldest child is 10 years old and he helps, but he is still only 10. She started out with one company as she began her journey across the plains only to have fallen behind and found herself in a new company. As she tries to nurse her sick baby back to health, they fall behind again as the 10 year old can only get the wagon going so far. She finds herself in a new company once again. At this point, she is simply hoping that she gets to their destination before she reaches the end of the line of companies.
Organizing the Saints into companies that cared for each other changed the game. No one got left behind. This is powerful for the widow, but it’s also powerful for the ones who are watching out for the widow. It’s powerful for the entire company who works together, mourns together, lifts one another. If you can cry with someone, you are very likely to rejoice with each other as well. Everything changes when you’re not alone.
The widow cries as she holds her baby and a 16 year old from another family has stepped up to drive her wagon along. Her 10 year old looks up at the 16 year old with something akin to hero-worship. This is the beginning of hope. The widow finds renewed faith in her ability to make it, and the 16 year old is changed too.
This doesn’t even mention the fact that all of this hope and change invites the Lord to rain down manna on the heads of the Saints.
Now let’s fast forward. The Saints are in the valley, and it is now 1877. There is a young family whose father has broken his leg in a wagon accident. Mother and teenage daughter are doing everything they can to keep the farm and home running, but it’s not going well. What will winter look like if they can’t finish the work?
But then a man shows up and knocks on their door. He sees the ragged family and introduces himself as their bishop. Over the course of the next few weeks, there are rotations of brethren coming in to harvest the family’s crop. There are young women who come in and help mother prepare the crop to last through the winter.
This is all good and beautiful and inspiring, but I want to fast-forward again.
We are accustomed to living in wards and stakes with leadership that enables lightning fast communication from our beloved prophet to each member. If there is a change wanted by the Lord, it is implemented overnight if that’s what He wants. We are organized, and we enter into a covenant in order to become part of the organization.
It changes the game when this kind of organization is used effectively. It didn’t do much good if the companies that were travelling the plains stayed in the same geographical area but still found themselves laboring alone.
When was the last time you looked around your ward and saw a family? When was the last time you made a valiant attempt to make it a ward family? When was the last time you ministered to make sure no one was lost out on the plains, physically or spiritually? When it comes to the Lord’s work, it’s not just about the widow who is being served. It’s about how we change when we forget our own problems, and we all work together towards common purposes.
Picture the vast difference between the beginning of the Saints journey towards Utah and the end of it. That’s the difference we will find in our own lives if we recognize what the Lord has given us in His organization of the church.
I testify that wards and stakes and leadership and priesthood organization are gifts from the Lord. I don’t believe we recognize the full power of what we’ve been given. I worry that we won’t recognize the full power until we’re ready to bring everyone along the covenant path together. Zion is available everywhere; we do not have to wait. The Lord wants us to experience those blessings today, but He can’t force us to find them. He can simply offer the opportunity and wait for us to step into those blessings. I testify that He loves us and gave us organizations to protect us and lift us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 135–136 – Mike Parker
Nov 25, 2025
Martyrdom of Joseph & Hyrum Smith; Brigham Young led the Saints west (D&C 135–136)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review 9, no. 4 (Winter 1965): 862–903. Oaks argued that the Nauvoo city council’s action to destroy the Expositor press was legal within the understanding of the law in Joseph’s time. (This article was published twenty years before he became an apostle.)
D. Michael Quinn, “The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844,” BYU Studies 16, no. 2 (Winter 1976): 187–233. Quinn argued that Joseph did not leave clear directions on who should succeed him and this spurred a crisis that was resolved only when the majority of the Saints threw their support behind Brigham Young and the Twelve.
Ronald K. Esplin, “Joseph, Brigham and the Twelve: A Succession of Continuity,” BYU Studies 21, no. 3 (Summer 1981): 301–41. Esplin countered Quinn’s article by arguing that the path of succession was clear from Joseph’s statements and the canonized revelations.
Russel R. Rich, “Nineteenth-Century Break-offs,” Ensign, September 1979, 68–71. Rich described some of the schismatic groups that broke away from the restored Church during the Prophet Joseph’s life and after his death.
R. Jean Addams, “Aftermath of the Martyrdom: Aspirants to the Mantle of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 62 (2024): 335–402. Addams examines the individuals who claimed the mantle of the Joseph Smith, their motives, and the churches or organizations they founded in the decade following the death of the Prophet.
Road to Carthage: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is an eight-part documentary miniseries that explores the history of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844. The episodes focus on the historical events that led to the assassination of the Prophet and his brother by a mob, as well as the aftermath of that tragic event. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 135–136 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 24, 2025
You Don’t Have to be Ready, Just Willing
by Autumn Dickson
Joseph Smith was 38 years old when he was murdered in Carthage Jail. He received the First Vision at age 14. He began translating The Book of Mormon at age 21, and he completed it at age 24. The Church was also organized when he was 24. The Kirtland temple was built, the Nauvoo temple began, temple ordinances were restored, the work of salvation for the dead was set in motion, numerous revelations were received, and missionaries were sent abroad.
He had the vision at age 14, and he was taught annually by Moroni, but his true ministry began at the age of 21 as he started translating The Book of Mormon. His ministry was 17 years.
Here is a verse in the Doctrine and Covenants that was written in the announcement of his death.
Doctrine and Covenants 135:3
Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it. In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fulness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose this book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain. He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord’s anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood; and so has his brother Hyrum. In life they were not divided, and in death they were not separated!
Could anyone else do what Joseph did?
I don’t know.
I believe that the Lord can enable anyone to do anything if they’re willing, but were any of us willing? I really don’t know. I believe so, but I don’t know. I think of great men like the apostles who stood with Christ during his ministry. I think of Old Testament prophets and New Testament missionaries. I think of the stripling warriors who learned from their own mothers and followed in obedience. I think of pillars of faith in latter-day church history. I think of other men who were placed in different roles who were willing to do what God has assigned them to do, men like Martin Luther King Jr. Beyond that, I think there are a great number of quiet individuals who went about doing the Lord’s will in their own lives even though it brought about no acclaim. I know plenty of women who are likewise incredible if that was the organization that the Lord had chosen.
But He chose Joseph.
I’m not sure why God places us in the roles that He does. I’m sure there are many reasons for His decisions, but I’m not sure what they are. He probably doesn’t explain Himself because the reasons are situational. For example, He had specific roles that needed to be filled, and perhaps there were multiple people who could have filled those roles, but He also looked at us as individuals. What were the lessons we needed to learn in order to become what He wanted us to become?
If we want to learn what the Lord wants us to learn and if we want to bless the world in the most powerful way available to us, there are a couple of characteristics of Joseph’s that we can develop.
The number one characteristic that came to my mind today is the willingness to follow His will no matter where it takes us. I believe that all the other attributes we could possibly develop in order to be prepared to fulfill our roles here on earth can all contribute to this one significant characteristic: we follow Heavenly Father and what He wants for us. If we can stand before God, (or better yet, kneel), and tell Him, “I’m not sure what you want me to do. I don’t know what I need to learn in order to do it. I don’t know who I need to become in order to do it, and I’m sure there will be many times that I feel that I can’t do it. And yet, I want Thou to show me the way and make me who I need to be. Lead me. I will follow.”
You don’t have to be ready for your various roles yet. I repeat, you don’t have to be ready. You just have to be willing. He can take care of the rest. The only thing you can truly give Him is your willingness to follow Him and do what He asks. He is capable of speaking to you in a way that you can understand and helping you know what you need to know. He can help you develop the specific testimonies you’re going to need to carry you through. He can mold you. Sure, you’ll make mistakes, but that’s why we start today. We give Him time to work with us so we have had time to practice what we need to be.
I was thinking of some grand moment in which you could promise God to follow Him, and yet, many of us already made that promise a long time ago at 8 years old. Some of us made that promise when we were a bit older, and maybe some of us have yet to make that promise. Perhaps we have already made the promise, but we are only just now feeling prepared to truly hand over our will.
Lucky for us, we have this thing called the sacrament where we renew those promises every single week. How powerful could we become if we simply whispered to the Lord (and to ourselves) each week that we were willing to follow wherever, willing to learn what was necessary, willing to become what God wanted for us?
When I think of Joseph’s willingness, I don’t think it was just one decision. I think it was a million decisions. When he would look at the vast amount of work he needed to do, he would turn to the Lord for guidance about what to prioritize. Then he would have faith that the Lord would enable him to do what was absolutely necessary. There was so much that needed to happen to restore Christ’s church upon the earth; there is only so much he could accomplish with the time he was given on earth. So it wasn’t about accomplishing everything; it was about just doing what God had for him each day.
I love and honor Joseph Smith for his willingness to jump in and devote his time and life to what God wanted, whether that was building an impressive temple or living in squalor for four months in a prison.
Most of all, I love and honor Joseph because he set the foundation a long time ago for me to find Christ.
Joseph did more, save Jesus only, to save mankind. I think it’s important to note that Jesus was the one who did the most.
And wasn’t this His defining characteristic? He was willing to do what the Father sent Him here to do. His ministry was only four years, He spent some of that time playing with children or taking quiet time to Himself. You would think that having only four years available to change the world would make someone rush a bit more, but that’s not what the Father needed. Christ simply did what the Father wanted and because of that, His four year ministry changed everything.
I testify that each of us have roles in the work of salvation. I testify that the Lord is capable of helping you fulfill that role if you simply tell Him that you’re willing and ask Him to lead you along. I testify that you don’t have to be capable or incredible, just willing. I testify that He is more than capable, loves you, and wants to include you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 133–134 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 17, 2025
Leaving Babylon, Building Zion
by Autumn Dickson
At one point in time, the call to gather Zion was a physical one. The Lord commanded those who were getting baptized to come and gather with the rest of the Saints. That commandment changed to a spiritual one as the needs of the Saints likewise changed. It will one day change again as we are commanded to gather in one physical place to await the coming of the Savior.
But for now, we gather Zion spiritually. We leave Babylon, and we create Zion by changing the state of our hearts rather than the state in which we dwell.
The Lord repeats the sentiment that we should gather to Zion multiple times throughout Doctrine and Covenants 133, but here is one of those repetitions.
Doctrine and Covenants 133:4-5
4 Wherefore, prepare ye, prepare ye, O my people; sanctify yourselves; gather ye together, O ye people of my church, upon the land of Zion, all you that have not been commanded to tarry.
5 Go ye out from Babylon. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord.
Prepare and sanctify. Gather together upon the land of Zion. Leave Babylon and be clean.
There is a quote in the Institute Manual that gives us some extra insight into Babylon.
“The antithesis and antagonist of Zion is Babylon. The city of Babylon was originally Babel, of Tower of Babel fame, and later became the capital of the Babylonian empire.”
The Institute Manual goes on to describe how Babylon worshipped evil with perversions and decadence. There are a lot of things we could cover in those two topics, and yet, my very first thought was this: the people at the Tower of Babel were cursed by the Lord to all speak different languages so that they couldn’t understand each other.
Zion is meant to be a place of unity where everyone understands each other, takes care of each other, loves each other despite our differences. I think sometimes people picture a place where everyone is going to think the same and have the same perspectives but not so. Zion will be a place of peacemakers and bridge builders.
At the time of writing this, the United States has just experienced a politically motivated assassination. Though most of the rhetoric I’ve seen condemns the violence, there is still plenty of vitriol between people of differing political parties. There is an immense amount of division. There are a lot of unproductive conversations taking place, and it seems very difficult to understand one another. Almost as if we’re speaking different languages.
Babylon is the opposite of Zion, and one of the key characteristics of Zion is unity. Note that the key characteristic isn’t eerily similar tastes and perspectives; it is unity.
When we read The Book of Mormon, we are constantly reading about how two nations were enemies despite the fact that they were brothers. They all came off of the same family. They couldn’t find it within themselves to love each other.
I’m convinced that Satan isn’t walking the earth parading as one political party or the other in any nation. He utilizes political parties to his own destructive ends in a myriad of ways, and one of those destructive ends includes creating nations of “us” and “them.”
The true enemy here is division. That is one of Satan’s favorite tools. He makes us believe we’re the good guys and the others are the bad guys. The true solution is unity despite differences.
The Savior isn’t waiting for the world to become wicked enough for Him to come again; He is waiting for the world to become righteous enough. President Nelson could announce tomorrow that we need to gather in Missouri, and we could all do that. We could create the buildings and homes and businesses, but if we do not spiritually create Zion, it’s going to be a while before Christ shows up.
Are we ready to build Zion in all of the ways that matter?
If you were called to go to Zion tomorrow, would you be able to love your neighbor if they felt differently about healthcare, approaching LGBTQ issues, world affairs, government systems, and how to combat poverty?
I guess a better question is this, “Do you currently love your neighbor who looks at all of these issues with a different perspective?” And I’m not talking about “trying to change all of their perspectives to your own because you love them” kind of love. I’m talking about being able to look at another person with respect and dignity, to look at another person and assume that they’re trying to make the world a better place. I’m talking about building Zion right where you are with any neighbor you’ve been given.
President Nelson has asked us to build bridges. Building bridges doesn’t mean making everyone move from one body of land to another body of land. It means creating a space where people can come from different places and meet together.
The Lord has asked us to leave Babylon and come to Zion. We have not yet been called to that physically, but we have been asked to build Zion spiritually. This includes living righteously in terms of worldliness and chastity, but it also means that we speak in a way that we can understand each other. We seek to understand each other. We seek to be unified.
I testify that the Lord asks for unity because He knows it’ll bless us. He’s not worried about everyone having the perfect perspectives just yet. Someday, we will all gain the knowledge we need to see the world clearly. Until then, the most happiness we can possibly garner will come from being unified despite our differences. It will come from watching out for each other and loving each other. Our different perspectives will enlighten each other and help us draw closer to the truth until the day when we will understand everything. I testify that the Lord asks for unity because He knows what it will do for us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 132 – Mike Parker
Nov 14, 2025
Eternal marriage & plural marriage (D&C 132; Official Declaration 1)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Gospel Topics Essays on plural marriage. These articles, published by the Church with the help of Latter-day Saint scholars, review the history and practice of plural marriage in nineteenth century:
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy is the website for Brian and Laura Hales’ book series on Joseph Smith and the establishment and practice of plural marriage in Nauvoo. The Hales are the most thorough and reliable scholars working on this subject. Works in the series include Brian’s three-volume scholarly examination of Joseph’s practice of plural marriage and Brian and Laura’s brief, one-volume book that summarizes his work for a lay audience.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 129–132 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 13, 2025
The Second Coming: Is the World Righteous Enough?
by Autumn Dickson
In the readings for this week, Joseph Smith helps us glimpse into eternity so we can see a portion of what it looks like. Understanding what eternity looks like can help us more fully take advantage of what the Lord has given us with this mortal experience. He covers a variety of topics. Here is one of the things that Joseph Smith taught.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:14-15
14 I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the coming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following:
15 Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore let this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.
Before I went to bed last night, I had a very clear thought pop into my head. I knew it was revelation, and so I rolled over and wrote it in my phone quickly before rolling back over and falling asleep. When I woke up in the morning, I couldn’t remember what the Lord had whispered to me until I opened my phone to reread it. It said this.
“The Lord is not waiting for the world to become wicked enough in order to come again. He is waiting for us to be righteous enough. We seem to be waiting on the world to grow wicked enough rather than ardently focusing on becoming righteous enough.”
The scriptures often speak about how the world will grow more and more wicked and scary in the last days, and yet, I don’t think that’s a product of the Lord’s minimum level of wickedness before He’s willing to come. I think it’s merely a prophecy about the state of the world when we finally become prepared to receive Him.
The Second Coming is not a waiting game for us. The Lord is waiting, but we should not be. We should be building.
I studied Elementary Education in college, and one of the courses you take is how to design assessments for your students. When you’re trying to build a foundation of knowledge for your students, it’s important to understand where they’re at. If you skip steps in the foundation, there will be shakiness as you continue to build. If you keep trying to pour the same layer, you’re going to be wasting time. It is essential to understand where your students are at so you can take them where they need to go.
I actually loved this class for a lot of reasons and one of those reasons included the fact that my idea of what assessment truly looked like was immensely expanded. When we think of assessing our student’s knowledge, we often picture traditional multiple-choice questions. This class taught me that the most powerful way of assessing a student’s knowledge and skill was to design an assessment that put them as closely as possible to a real-life scenario.
Isn’t that what we’re trying to prepare them for as teachers? We’re trying to prepare them for life. Maybe they can use a formula that you repeated over and over and over, but if they run into a problem in real life, will they know to use that formula and how to plug the right information into that formula?
That is the ideal kind of assessment. If your goal is to prepare your student to function in real life, then designing an assessment that is close to real life is your best shot at understanding whether you succeeded and how far you have to go.
So what is God’s goal? To bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Immortality? Check. Thank you resurrection of Christ.
Eternal life? Well, let’s read a verse from this week’s reading.
Doctrine and Covenants 130:2 And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.
Society will be similar to what we experience here except there will also be glory. It’s almost like God took the same class that I did.
This life is our assessment. Eternal life is the goal.
There are a lot of directions I could take this idea. I could talk about the importance of relationships. I could talk about how we seek righteousness and change, but ultimately, glory is added later by the power of Jesus Christ. So many directions, but I’m going to choose to pursue what the Lord whispered to me last night.
We often picture this life as an individual assessment, and ultimately, it will be an individual assessment. How those around you act will not influence your judgment other than context. The Lord will be looking at you, what you produced with what you were given, and whether you’re prepared to live how He lives.
So yes, this life is an individual assessment. However, there are other parts of this assessment that we should be aware of.
I want you to picture the idea that we’re all part of a group project. Our goal? To make a society that is righteous enough to welcome the Savior back to earth, to create Zion.
This is so powerful because that’s what we’ll be doing on the other side. Heaven is where you go to be amongst others who actively choose to love and serve and give. That’s Heavenly Father’s goal. Perhaps He is waiting for us to create that here as our group project.
Down here, it’s a little bit different. We are surrounded by people who have different perspectives even within the church. Down here, we are all plagued by mistakes and flaws and blindness. If our goal is to eventually live in heaven where these won’t be a problem, why didn’t the Lord create a mortality that was more closely aligned with heaven?
Because we will still need to be prepared to work with and love future generations that still have lessons to learn.
We have to start truly loving our neighbor. This isn’t about being polite but secretly just tolerating. This isn’t about being nice and smiling at someone we disagree with but wishing they would just go away. This is about changing deeply within our core to love and offer dignity to everyone around us.
And so we practice and build it here. We show the Lord that we are prepared to survive and thrive in our next life. Most importantly, we become the kind of people who are prepared to survive and thrive in our next life. And as we build Zion, as we build heaven (or as closely as we can considering we dwell in a fallen world), we create a society in which the Savior can come again.
I testify that the Lord is waiting, and we should not be. I testify that creating Zion around you will be one of the most important and rewarding projects you step into. I testify that as we strive to be prepared to live in our next life, the Lord will take care of the rest (cleansing and adding glory). I’m grateful that changing and becoming are the tasks that were delegated to me. I’m grateful that despite my flaws, the Lord felt I was worth investing in. I’m grateful that He paid and paved the way for me.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 129–131 – Mike Parker
Nov 11, 2025
Doctrinal Developments in Nauvoo
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Stan Larson, “The King Follett Discourse: A Newly Amalgamated Text,” BYU Studies 18, no. 2 (Winter 1978): 193–208. Joseph’s 7 April 1844 sermon, delivered at the funeral of his friend, Elder King Follett, is arguably the most important of his published discourses. In it, Joseph explained his understanding of the nature of God, including the doctrine that God the Father is an exalted Man who once had a mortal existence. Four different individuals took notes during Joseph’s sermon. Their accounts were synthesized into a single text in 1855 by Church scribe Jonathan Grimshaw; Grimshaw’s version was published by B. H. Roberts in his seven-volume History of the Church (6:302–17) and in many other Church publications. Stan Larson’s 1978 amalgamated text attempted to remove Grimshaw’s textual emendations and provide proper weight and balance to the various accounts.
On 16 June 1844, only eleven days before his death, Joseph gave his “Sermon in the Grove” that expanded on the nature of God and other ideas he had presented in the King Follett Discourse. The most complete account of his sermon was made by Thomas Bullock; you can read his handwritten notes on the website of the Joseph Smith Papers or a parallel comparison of his and two other accounts on the archived website of the Book of Abraham Project.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 129–132 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 10, 2025
Is Exaltation Blasphemous or Worship?
by Autumn Dickson
In case it was ever in question, we believe in exaltation. As I worked on this post, I felt like I was addressing a non-member even though it’s usually members who look up Come Follow Me posts. In the end, I decided to keep it that way. Even if non-members don’t look up this content, we can learn how to potentially respond to those who question our beliefs.
So let’s talk about exaltation.
Exaltation is one of the topics that is covered in our readings this week, but what does that really mean? What does it mean to inherit exaltation? Let’s look at what the Lord says.
Doctrine and Covenants 132:20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them.
The Lord defines (to an extent) what it means to be exalted. He describes His righteous children as capable of becoming gods (note the “g” and not the “G”) because they have no end. They shall be from everlasting to everlasting, but they also “continue.” They become above all things, and all things are subject to them. They have all power and angels are subject to them.
In other sections in Doctrine and Covenants, exaltation is described as “made equal with the Lamb of God” and “receive of the Father’s fulness.”
There are also references to this idea in the bible. Romans 8 teaches that we are children of God, and because of that, we can be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. We can all be glorified together. In Revelation 3, the Lord talks about how He will allow us to sit on His throne with Him. In Psalm 82:6, it describes us, as His children, as gods with a little “g” just as it does in Doctrine and Covenants.
There are a few reasons that people believe this doctrine is blasphemous. I actually believe that exaltation is the antithesis of blasphemy, and I want to explain why. First, I’ll explain it from the perspective of God looking down. Then, I want to turn our perspective from the child looking up.
First, let’s talk about blasphemy from the perspective of God.
I can only think of two reasons why exaltation would not be real. The first possible reason is that God is incapable of doing so. Maybe He can’t lift us up that high. Maybe He can only lift us as high as heaven but no further.
When I’ve had conversations with friends over this, I always hear them say, “Oh no. I’m way down here, and God is just so high. I can’t ever be on His level.”
Well duh. We also can’t earn heaven because it’s just so high, and we’re down here. And yet, He toiled and sacrificed and paid the price to lift us above where we are. Why can He only lift us so high? I think He lifts us to where He is despite our lack of earning it.
I don’t think exaltation is blasphemous. I think it’s blasphemous to suggest that God is incapable of lifting us to where He is.
I think most Christians would agree with that statement. God can do anything. He already sent His Son to die for us so that we could be lifted higher than we were, so the only other reason is that He chooses not to do so.
Can anyone think of a reason why God would not want to lift us to His level?
Let’s view this from a parent-child relationship, the parent-child relationship that God set up here on earth. On purpose. Intentionally.
Why would a parent keep their child down below them?
Usually, the answer is narcissism.
Narcissism often springs from deep insecurity, and it often translates as a person trying to keep themselves above everyone else. They want everyone to essentially worship them because they’re trying to fill that scary, deep void of insecurity. I know a few parents who are narcissistic. I know parents who have purposely tried to keep their kids down so that they could feel better about themselves. They have days where they’re lifting the child and then bragging to friends about it because it makes them look good, but they also have days where they’re undermining the child because they can’t bear the idea that the child will become independent and powerful and joyful and not need them. They do what they can to keep the child on a lower level because their ego can’t handle it. Sometimes this looks like constant criticism, mocking, or belittling. Sometimes it includes more nefarious plots, but it all boils down to this idea that they want the child on a lower level.
I know non-narcissistic parents who are the exact opposite. They look at their child and want that child to grow and become more than they ever did. They know that the child could potentially become very powerful, and they want that for the child.
I believe that’s how God loves us. I believe that He saw our potential and invested in it. I believe He loves me more than I love my kids, and I want my kids to be so much better than I was. We can’t be better than God because He is perfect, but if He loves me so much more, than why would He want anything less for me?
I don’t think exaltation is blasphemous. I think suggesting that God wants to keep us down is blasphemous.
Maybe someone else can come up with a logical reason as to why our growth is capped, but I can’t think of any reason that would not be blasphemous in and of itself.
Now let’s view this from the perspective of the child.
Another line of reasoning that I run into with the doctrine of exaltation is the idea that putting us on the same level as God diminishes Him somehow. Once again, only a narcissist sees it that way. God saving me and glorifying me and lifting me does not diminish Him.
IT DOES THE OPPOSITE.
Blasphemy is often associated with the idea that the human is mocking God.
I’m not mocking God with exaltation; I love Him more because of exaltation.
Swinging back around to the narcissistic parents and the non-narcissistic parents. Think about the children who grow up in those kinds of homes.
Which child adores their parents more? Which child loves and honors and follows their parents more? Which child is more likely to worship their parent?
The child who lives in the home with parents who love them and want to lift them as high as they are capable of reaching. I ADORE God because of exaltation. I don’t earn it. I worship Him for making sacrifice after sacrifice to make it possible. I worship Him for offering something that is priceless beyond my imagination. I worship Him for offering it when I don’t deserve it.
You don’t have to agree with the doctrine of exaltation. Perhaps you have a logical reason as to why the Lord would cap that growth. Perhaps you don’t, and that’s okay too. Heaven knows I don’t have logical reasons for everything that I believe in (though I’m trying awfully hard to get there). What I’m merely trying to suggest in this post is that our belief in exaltation doesn’t automatically equate to blasphemy.
I testify of a God who adores us. I testify that He is capable of lifting us and that He desires to do so. I testify that lifting me is possible because of the sacrifice of His Son, and I testify that lifting me doesn’t diminish His glory. It adds to it because it makes me worship Him all the more. I am grateful God calls me His child and set up parental relationships on earth so that I could observe that pattern and learn from it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 125–128 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 07, 2025
Redoubling Works or Effort: A Lesson on Faith in God’s Timing
by Autumn Dickson
There is a verse in this week’s readings that always jumps out to me. It came at a time when I was praying about what I needed to do. I had started my blog, and then a while later, I found out that I was pregnant. I prayed about taking a break during the pregnancy and postpartum periods before working on everything again. I prayed, confident that the Lord would be fine with me taking a step back and then continuing on again.
Boy, was I wrong.
I prayed, flipped open my scriptures at random, and read this:
Doctrine and Covenants 127:4 And again, verily thus saith the Lord: Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts…
I wasn’t doing temple work, but I knew what work the Lord was referring to. At that moment, I also knew that the Lord expected me to start creating posts for multiple weeks in order to give myself a break after having a baby. I had to redouble my efforts.
This verse has always stuck out to me for that reason. I’ll never forget the shock I felt when I read that. I had been so sure I would be able to just step away for a little bit and come back. Nope.
And though this verse has always stuck out to me and reminded me of this time and season, a couple of other things stuck out to me as I read it this time. For anyone who feels overwhelmed with the sheer volume of expectations in the church, this is a powerful verse in understanding what the Lord truly wants.
Let your diligence, perseverance, patience, and works be redoubled. Diligence and perseverance are both wonderful principles in helping to build the kingdom on earth. When I think about the Lord asking me to redouble my diligence and perseverance, those feel pretty normal. However, it was actually the other two words that struck me this week: patience and works.
So first: patience.
When the Lord gives us a work to do, do we often consider our need for patience with the project? We think about how the Lord often requires sacrifice, but does that sometimes include our best efforts for patience? Sometimes holding still feels like it requires more sacrifice than the Lord enabling us to finish everything at once with one huge, herculean effort.
I’m a herculean effort kind of girl. I want to get everything done at once, and I have a very difficult time enjoying myself when there are tasks that I could be completing. This was all fine and dandy when I received a syllabus in college and literally wrote all of my term papers in the first month of school so I could enjoy the semester. This has not translated well into motherhood and has been a consistent lesson the Lord has tried to impress upon me.
I struggle with the patience of His timeline because I’m willing to kill myself to get it done now so I don’t have to do anything tomorrow. Instead, He lets me sit in anxiety throughout today and still have to do it tomorrow. Why? Why does He make us wait to get it done if we have the time and desire to do it today?
I talk often about how the Lord requires our best efforts because anything less would leave us unprepared for what He wants to give us. Our best efforts include the acquired attribute of patience. The Lord puts us on a timeline because if we want to be able to do the work that He does, patience is absolutely essential. We have to acquire the patience needed to wait for the right moment to move.
So why does the Lord let me sit in my anxiety instead of giving me what I need to complete my tasks today? It’s because He needs me to acquire this valuable attribute: patience. I have to learn to be comfortable waiting, and I won’t ever learn it if He gives me what I want and helps me finish it all the first day. He keeps giving me opportunities to sit and wait and learn to be okay.
Second: works. Let your works be redoubled. This might feel opposite to what we were just discussing. Some of the time, I believe this implies the idea that we literally need to double the number of actions we’re utilizing to draw closer to Him. There are times in my life when redoubling my actions would have been helpful. However, I read this differently today. The wording of this verse is so particular, and the Lord is nothing if not careful in His words.
Let…your works be redoubled.
As in, allow your works to double. Sometimes, it’s not about doubling our actions so much as getting out of our own way and allowing the Lord to magnify our efforts.
There have been times in my life where I’ve needed to increase the amount of my efforts, and there have been times when I’ve needed to decrease the amount of my outward efforts and increase my faith.
I used to prepare these Come Follow Me posts the week before I needed to post them. I’m farther ahead now, but that was not the case for a very long time. I would write and prep everything throughout the week, film on Thursday, and then I would edit and upload on Fridays for the posts to go live Sunday at 12:00 am.
The Lord had been telling me to slow down for a long time, and I was adamant in my refusal to listen. I insisted that if I slowed down, everything would fall apart. After a long time of refusing to do this voluntarily, the Lord took away any other option. For a couple of months, I found myself beating my head against a wall in trying to prepare content. I felt so strongly that the Lord wanted me to do this, and yet, He wasn’t giving me anything. I tried redoubling my efforts, denying myself any naps or downtime in the evenings. I would sit in front of my computer for hours, trying to get anything written down, but it was to no avail.
Then, each Friday, the Lord would help me write a post, prep it, film it, and edit it all in one Friday afternoon while my kids napped. I finally got the memo that this pattern would continue until I chilled out and let it go. And so I did. Every day, I would sit down and put my heart into it for 20 minutes. If nothing was forthcoming, I would step away and accomplish something else or go take a nap. After doing this repeatedly, the Lord stopped pushing everything to Fridays and let me start getting things done throughout the week again. I started getting inspired on other days instead of Friday afternoons.
The Lord could do His own work. I just had to let Him do it according to His own terms. Redoubling my patience helped, and then I needed to let the work be redoubled.
Sometimes the lesson the Lord is trying to teach us has nothing to do with the idea that we’re not giving enough. Sometimes the lesson is that He wants more of our trust, trust in His timeline and trust in His ability to do His own work. Redouble your faith that He can make a mountain of miracles out of the molehill of effort that you can currently provide. He’s got this. He just wanted you to be a part of it so that you could grow.
I testify that there are appropriate times to put in more effort than we’ve been doing. I testify that there are also appropriate times to increase our faith instead. I testify that at any given moment, He is asking for what is going to truly prepare us to step into our divine destinies. He is asking for what is going to give us the most fulfilled, free, satisfactory life that can be provided in mortality. I also testify that it won’t be the fulfillment, freedom, and satisfaction that the world tries to peddle, but a deeper, more abiding kind.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 125–128 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 04, 2025
Deep Water: Lessons from Joseph Smith and a Croatian Free Diver
by Autumn Dickson
Context for this week: Joseph Smith and his companions were freed from prison by sympathizing guards during a transfer. Though they returned to their families, persecution rendered it necessary for Joseph to go into hiding. Some of what we read this week came through letters that Joseph had dictated with the will of the Lord.
In Section 127, there is a verse written by Joseph Smith that speaks of his ability to handle stressful situations. After repeatedly being placed in difficult circumstances, his ability to handle it grew tremendously.
Doctrine and Covenants 127:2 And as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me…deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it.
Deep water is what I am wont to swim in.
I feel like coming across this message was rather timely for me. At the time that I’m writing this post, I just read about a Croatian freediver named Vitomir Maričić. Maričić just set the world record for holding your breath, a whopping 29 minutes and 3 seconds. He beat the last world record by almost five minutes.
I researched what Maričić had to do in order to become this incredible freediver who could handle this kind of extreme duress. He obviously engaged in cardiovascular training, but it was not sufficient for this kind of world record. He also engaged in specifically training his diaphragm to take much slower, longer breaths. He stretched and performed breathing exercises in order to increase lung capacity. He worked with carbon dioxide tables in which he would hold his breath for a set amount of time and gradually decrease his rest intervals; for example, he would hold his breath for two minutes at a time while taking breaks that gradually shortened in between each two-minute period. He did the opposite with oxygen tables where the rest intervals were fixed, and the amount of time he would hold his breath would increase. He would walk while holding his breath to put extra stress on the body to acclimate. He literally worked to condition his spleen to release an increased number of oxygen-rich red blood cells.
He also worked mentally. At a certain point in holding your breath, your diaphragm starts to contract as a defense mechanism for the lack of oxygen. At about 20 minutes, Maričić felt these contractions but held the mental resolve to continue.
In order to prepare for the dive, he breathed pure oxygen for ten minutes. This can also cause problems, and he had to consciously work on building up his endurance for pure oxygen.
One of the main principles Maričić took advantage of was progressive overload where you continuously increase the stress you’re under to increase the amount of pressure you can handle. He did this under proper safety protocols and teams who could take care of him if something went dramatically wrong.
Deep water is what I am wont to swim in. Deep water is what Joseph Smith was accustomed to swimming in. It is one of our goals of mortality: to learn how to swim in deep water.
Why does it matter if we can swim in deep water?
Because that’s where Heavenly Father lives His life, in the deep end. He is fully engaged, completely immersed, surrounded by difficult circumstances that He doesn’t shy away from. Because of His willingness to enter into this state, He finds its opposite side of the coin: deep joy, contentment, and satisfaction in an eternal existence that has the potential to hold a lot of emptiness.
If we want to find that same kind of existence, an existence where we find meaning and purpose and joy in a never-ending lifetime, we have to be prepared to swim in deep water. You can’t get involved in loving imperfect others without consequent pain, but you can’t completely avoid relationships if you want joy. They come together.
Somehow, we have to develop the kind of fortitude where we can find joy while buried in deep water. Eternal life is not actually about waiting to get pulled out of the water; it’s about finding the resilience to be okay in the thick of it.
That’s difficult to find when the Lord allows us to perpetually stay in the shallow end.
There have been times in my life where I have found myself in the deep end, and I did not improve in my ability to find peace or joy. There have been times when I have simply panicked the entire time. Yet, there are other times when I have been able to school myself into being okay while being placed in a situation that’s uncomfortable.
Just like with Maričić, there are many methods that we can utilize to purposefully maximize our training rather than floundering and screaming the whole time and missing the entire point of the exercise. Let’s talk about one method today.
I taught swimming lessons growing up, and I’m not too shabby at it. As I taught my oldest daughter to swim, I would take her out into the deep end while holding her. I would count to 3 and dip her all the way under the water. I wasn’t holding her under. We were literally just dipping under and out. I made her do it 3 times every time we swam (which was nearly every day), and then she could be done and do whatever she wanted in the shallow end.
For the first week, she screamed bloody murder at me every time. I think I made the lifeguards rather uncomfortable. I definitely made the other patrons uncomfortable. But I knew that my daughter could do this, and I also knew that she would be a very happy person once she learned that going under the water wasn’t going to kill her.
The true turning point in this practice was when I asked a friend to take a video of her going underwater. She still screamed, but then I showed her the video. I made a big deal about the fact that she was so cool for being able to do that. I showed her what she was capable of.
She literally never screamed again. She didn’t love it immediately, but she didn’t scream anymore.
And then she did grow into what I knew she could be. She did grow into someone who had more opportunities for joy. I can’t keep the girl above the water anymore. Her siblings have followed right in after her, and no one is stressed or screaming about it except for me trying to keep an eye on three of my five young children, trying to determine who has been underwater too long.
One of the methods for taking full advantage of mortality is realizing who we are meant to be like. When you can catch a glimpse of what you’re meant to be, it makes the water worth it. And when something is worth it, it changes the game. It changes you. It is much harder to handle training and coaching when you don’t realize that there is a purpose in it.
I testify that you can swim in deep water. I testify that it’s worth training. I also testify that like Maričić, you have an extremely talented team that knows the progressive overload you need and can handle. There are angels standing around you to guide you. And, of course, you have the ultimate Lifeguard. The only thing that matters in that water is that you grow. He doesn’t care if you make mistakes. In the end, it won’t matter what happened to you because He can heal it. You just have to grow, and He will be there to fix everything.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 124 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 31, 2025
Choosing Faith Through Failure: God’s Timetable for Zion
by Autumn Dickson
Because of an extermination order, the Saints were driven out of Missouri and into Nauvoo. In Doctrine and Covenants 124, the Lord excuses His people from building the temple in Missouri after they had been driven out.
Doctrine and Covenants 124:49 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.
The Saints were driven out and persecuted. They had been commanded to build Zion, and they had been commanded to build a temple, and it didn’t happen. The Lord explains Himself by saying that if people work really hard to do what they were commanded and they are stopped by enemies, He accepts their offering and doesn’t require it anymore.
Some might see this as rather convenient for Joseph when his prophecy didn’t work out, but what do you see?
What we choose to see is important because perspective is a choice. There are so many ways to look at any given scenario. Do we choose faith?
We can choose to look at what happened in Missouri, and say, “The Lord must not be in this. He commanded something, and it didn’t work out.” Didn’t Nephi say that if the Lord commands something, He will make it happen? Don’t we teach that all of the time?
Absolutely, we teach that. I reaffirm that. I also reaffirm that what the Lord declares can take a long time to come to pass. Let’s look at a couple of other scenarios.
First, there is the mortal ministry of Christ. Many of the Jews rejected Christ because they were looking for a different kind of savior. They wanted someone to come and throw the yoke of the Romans off their backs. They interpreted the scriptures incorrectly and because of that, they missed out on some of the greatest miracles that ever took place. They didn’t see. Their perspective was wrong.
Second, there is the death of Christ. The apostles were quite forlorn after Christ was crucified, and they were all immensely surprised to find Him alive again. One of them refused to believe that Christ had risen again until he personally saw Christ. Do we abandon our faith when things don’t look how we thought they were supposed to look?
Let’s look at some other examples.
One of the Old Testament stories that strikes me as important is that of Daniel and his friends. Babylon besieged and conquered the kingdom of Judah. As part of the conquest, they took the sons of Jewish nobility and put them into the Babylonian court to train and assimilate them. Daniel and his friends refused the food from the king’s table because it had not been prepared according to the Law of Moses. Daniel and his friends believed it would be a sin to eat it.
Think about that for a moment. Biblical scholars believe that these boys ranged from age 14-18. Their home had just been conquered. They had lost against a wicked, secular kingdom. It would have been easy for Daniel to think, “Is God really on our side? Do I really want to make the Babylonian king mad? He beat us. Why would I believe that we have the true God? Why would I keep following the religious laws of my defeated nation when it puts my friends and me in danger?”
But that is not the perspective that Daniel chose. Despite evidence that pointed to the contrary, David chose to believe. Despite religious beliefs that the Jews were chosen by an all-powerful God and still getting conquered, David chose to believe. Despite the fact that conquering nations paid homage to their gods in response to winning wars, David did not see His God as less powerful. He kept obeying.
Perspective is a choice.
Some may see a God who abandoned His people or was never there. Some may see the effects of a frenzied mind. Some may see a fallen prophet or a charlatan.
I see a God who is actually rather unconcerned with a location. Everyone is so caught up in wanting to know where Zion is or move there immediately, and Heavenly Father is like, “Okay. I see the future. I know where it is, but you’re missing the most important part…” I see a God who knows what mortality is actually for, and He delivers on His promises of growth and deliverance. I see a God who makes and keeps promises but also doesn’t have a pocket watch because time is only measured unto man. Sure, the Saints were driven out, and they didn’t build a temple. It took Nephi a couple of tries to get the plates. Let’s do this on God’s timetable, not our’s. We will build Zion, and we will build a temple there. Just because it hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean it’s not going to. It doesn’t prove anything.
I testify of a Lord who was very aware of His Saints. I testify that He was powerful enough to win Zion over immediately and kick out all of their enemies, but I also testify that He has reasons for what He does. I testify that He has a plan and a timetable, and I testify that it is the best that we could ask for. I testify that trusting Him and choosing a perspective of faith brings blessings and hope and peace.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 124–128 – Mike Parker
Oct 30, 2025
Establishment of Nauvoo; Baptism for the Dead & the Endowment
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
T. Edgar Lyon, “Doctrinal Development of the Church During the Nauvoo Sojourn, 1839–1846,” BYU Studies 15, no. 4 (Summer 1975): 435–46. Lyon gives a brief overview of the new doctrines and interpretations Joseph Smith introduced in Nauvoo concerning the Godhead, the priesthood, the temple, and salvation.
Minutes of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842. The Relief Society’s minutes record the counsel given by the Prophet Joseph Smith and by Society President Emma Smith on the date of its founding and the discussion over its name and goals.
FAIR has information on the Kinderhook Plates with links to several other resources.
The Nauvoo Temple: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is an eight-part documentary miniseries that explores the history and legacy of the temple that Latter-day Saints constructed in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s. The episodes consider what the Nauvoo Temple meant to the men and women who constructed it and the role in played in their religious devotion and worship. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Classic FAIR – Why Did Joseph Smith Practice Polygamy? – Brian Hales, 2010
Oct 30, 2025
“Controversies in Joseph Smith’s Polygamy: New Evidences and New Observations Indicate Fawn Brodie Should Have Done More Research” by Brian C. Hales at the 2010 FAIR Conference
Why did Joseph Smith practice plural marriage? There are three different places we could go for answers.
We can go to the naturalists—like Fawn Brodie—and the cynics, which are kind of in the same group. We can go to Latter-day Saint apologists, who gave us their own set of reasons. And then we can go to Joseph Smith himself. I’d like to look at these three sources.
The first source is the naturalist—and what I mean by that is somebody who is sure God’s not involved. Okay? It’s all natural processes—hormones, libido, job one—and sex. That’s what’s driving polygamy. That’s their answer.
And Fawn Brodie kind of codified this idea in her 1945 biography, which unfortunately is still probably the most influential book ever written on Joseph Smith. Brodie totally botched the treatment of his sexuality in polygamy. She didn’t even want to get it right—that’s my frustration.
The purest naturalistic view is found in George D. Smith’s 2008 novel, which he called “Nauvoo Polygamy: … but we called it celestial marriage.” I doubt there will ever be a purer naturalistic view written of Joseph the man.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 124 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 29, 2025
An Unchanging God, Individualized Grace
by Autumn Dickson
In August of 1840, Joseph Smith delivered a sermon that introduced the concept of baptisms for the dead. People rejoiced and began being baptized for their kindred dead shortly thereafter. The Mississippi River was often the choice of setting for these sacred ordinances.
In January of 1841, Joseph Smith received Doctrine and Covenants 124 along with this instruction.
Doctrine and Covenants 124:31 But I command you, all ye my saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me; and during this time your baptisms shall be acceptable unto me.
The Lord commanded the Saints to build a temple again, and He told them that He would give them sufficient time to do so. Until then, He would accept their baptisms for the dead that occurred in the river.
We’ve talked about the fact that the Lord tailors His commandments for His people. For example, He made the Word of Wisdom advice before He ever made it a commandment or requirement for the temple. In this case, He allowed the Saints to give their best effort in preparing the temple but allowed them to still offer salvation to their loved ones in the meantime. The willingness exhibited by the Lord to work with us is always a gift.
And yet, in other examples, He seems unrelenting in what He demands of His Saints. For example, some of the trials the Saints went through leading up to Nauvoo are difficult to read about, let alone endure. He required a beautiful, massive temple from people who were poverty-stricken and inexperienced. He sent fathers out on missions while their families struggled at home.
At times, He stands ready to accept their best efforts. At other times, they are chastised for not fulfilling commandments to the letter. Some may see this as variability in personality. Some may see an arbitrary God who demands or allows depending on His mood.
I see a God who eternally loves us and makes decisions based on His purposes for us: to turn us into little versions of Him so that we can enjoy what He enjoys.
This is why He can simultaneously overthrow moneychangers in a temple but speak gently to an adulterer. It’s why He can strike Uzziah but forgive a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab. These decisions aren’t based on His ever-changing moods. They’re based on individuals who actually need wildly different things. And even within those individuals, their needs are going to vary from day to day.
There is a philosophy adopted by humans that we need to treat all of our children the same. I understand that consistency is vital to a child, but maybe we’re being consistent in the wrong things. I have tried to approach parenting a little differently. Rather than being consistent across the board with each child, trying to remember how I handled any given situation so that I can do the same thing for a sibling, I am consistent in my love for each child.
And because I am consistent in my love for each child, my reactions and decisions are going to vary by child.
At any given moment, does my child need me to meet them where they’re at or hold to a high standard? What is going to help them progress depending on how they slept, whether they’re hungry, whether they’re stressed from sitting at school all day? Do they need connection and mercy or connection and discipline? Which will help them see reality more accurately and help them acquire correct attitudes towards that reality?
I am not Heavenly Mother (or Father) and so unfortunately (or fortunately) for my children, sometimes my decisions ARE based off of my mood and limited capacities for wisdom and patience as much as I try to center them on each individual child.
But not so with the Lord.
He stands ready with infinite wisdom and patience in guiding us along. If He seems impatient or demanding, perhaps it is us who need to reframe our perspective. He is not annoyed with us; He isn’t ready to wash His hands of us (even when we wash our hands of Him). Rather, He is making individualized decisions about what to require and how to meet us where we’re at. He is parenting and coaching and coaxing in the most divine way possible.
If He seems cross or unrelenting, it is likely because He knows that pushing us to a higher standard is what we need. It’s going to require more of our souls. It’s going to push us to the point where we need Him; or more accurately, it will push us to the point where we recognize how much we need Him.
If He is gentle and accepting, it is likely because that is the approach that is going to help us progress faster in that moment.
The Saints had just experienced some intense devastation. They had been harmed cruelly. They had sacrificed so much. That sacrifice and difficulty wasn’t necessarily over, but Nauvoo became a period of rest for the Saints. The Lord knows what He’s doing. He knows that difficulty is why we came here; He knows the divine purpose of opposition. And yet, He’s also wise enough to know that we’re not ready for constant opposition. Moments of quiet and peace can balance all of that out and help bring out the best in us.
So here we see the Lord meeting His Saints where they’re at. He rejoices in the excitement of their hearts to perform this work. He loves their eagerness to provide saving ordinances for their kindred dead. That doesn’t mean He let go of the standard; baptisms for the dead belong to the temple. But He was also willing to give them stepping stones towards that standard.
He is not a changing Lord, making decisions based on whether He slept good last night or whether He’s hungry. He is a perfect Lord who knows whether His Saints need a stepping stone or chastisement.
I testify of a Lord who loves us and makes decisions based on each individual. I testify that even in the most tragic circumstances, He is there ready to carry us and give us the hope we need to be resilient. I testify of a Lord who loves us enough to whip us into shape or meet us where we’re at, depending on what is going to help us progress into our best selves. He is infinitely good, wise, and patient, but He is not afraid to push us. I love Him, and I’m grateful for how He has pushed me.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 121–123 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 23, 2025
There is Love in the Lack that God Gives
by Autumn Dickson
In my last message, I shared some of the words of Joseph Smith when he spoke to the Lord. Those words have been canonized as part of Section 121. For this message, I want to share something similar from the same time period though it’s not canonized. Like the prayer of Joseph Smith, I hope that these words can become our words.
Emma Smith was amongst the Saints who were driven out of Missouri at gunpoint. She left behind what she owned and took her children into a frozen wilderness. Not only did she leave behind her possessions, but she was leaving behind her husband who was stuck inside of Liberty Jail. She wrote about this in a letter to her husband, but here is the portion that I hope to emulate in my own life.
Was it not for conscious innocence, and the direct interposition of divine mercy, I am very sure I never should have been able to have endured the scenes of suffering that I have passed through … ; but I still live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven that I should for your sake.
What Emma went through would not be described as divine mercy by most, and yet, she found the hand of the Lord. She saw the Lord and His goodness and mercy (just as Joseph did), and because of what she saw in faith, she was “yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven…”
That is a powerful point to reach. To look at the Lord in any situation and say, I will take whatever You choose to hand out, good or bad. To accept your cross, pick it up, and start following with a childlike trust that He has your best interest at heart.
There are many little lessons that lead us to this point. There are many trust-falls that lead to the kind of relationship where you’re willing to accept what the Lord sends your way. There are a lot of principles and truths that we can internalize in order to reach this powerful point in our relationship with God.
Let’s talk about one truth that we can internalize that will shift how we look at our lives.
As I sat in Relief Society this weekend, the Spirit whispered to me, “There is love in the lack that God gives to you.”
We love to testify of tender mercies and divine “coincidences.” We rejoice when someone knocks on our door at the right time. We celebrate the moments when everything comes together for our good. In so many instances, these are the circumstances that build the foundation of our trust in God. It is because of these small moments that we look up and say, “I know He loves me and takes care of me.”
What if we could recognize the hand of God in everything?
Whenever Conner and I struggled to make things come together, my mom loved to tell me that the Lord would take care of us. She’s absolutely right and yet one time, I responded with, “Like He took care of the Willie and Martin handcart companies?” I was being facetious rather than bitter, but there’s still a lesson there.
The Lord did take care of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, and I’m not just talking about the moment they were rescued or the moment they stepped through the veil into spirit paradise.
It is easy to associate comfort, intervention, and safety with the Lord’s love; it is powerful to associate discomfort, silence, and perceived danger with the Lord’s love. We needed and wanted mortality with all of its pitfalls. And yet, when the Lord delivers on His promise of growth, we suddenly start to question whether He’s even there. There is no other way for Him to deliver on that promise!
Imagine for a moment that He sent us down here and didn’t allow bad things to happen, or maybe He just didn’t let super bad things happen. Being annoyed doesn’t call upon the depths of our soul. It doesn’t prepare us to step into His shoes and perform the work that He performs. Sure, the Lord lives in heaven and experiences all of those positively associated emotions, but He also has to stand back and watch the tragedies unfold on earth. If we can’t hang, we don’t get to step into His shoes.
He is giving us exactly what He asked for. He is giving us depth of life. The depth of your sorrow can unlock the height of your joy. They are inseparable sides of the same coin.
Life changes when we see the Lord’s hand in the tragedy and not just in the rescue. It changes even more when we see His hand in the tragedy before we reach the happy ending. When your spouse loses their job, when you’re lonely, when your family member or friend gets sick, when you lose your favorite pet, when you lose your health. How would these experiences change if you knew that the Lord had His hand in it and that He had your best interest at heart? What if He could show you the ending? And by the ending, I mean, what if He could show you how powerful you become as a result of the tragedy? What if He showed you the end result, your glory, as well as what He went through to make sure you wouldn’t walk the path alone?
Would it change your fear? Would it change your bitterness or devastation?
How would your life change if you saw His love immediately as tragedy strikes? How would your life change if you could see His love in the lack that He gives to you?”
It enabled Emma to carry more than most. The perspective of “His love in the tragedy” carried her.
That doesn’t mean that Emma never suffered again. Her faith didn’t immunize her against mental, emotional, and physical suffering. In her letter to her husband, she also references deep pain. Our trust in God’s love, whether in the rescuing or the tragedy, doesn’t take away the suffering. Life isn’t about escaping pain; eternal life isn’t about escaping pain.
Which is why I ask again: How would your experience change if you knew He had a hand in it and that He had your best interest at heart?
How do you describe the change that comes from knowing heaven is right on the other side of the veil? I’ve shared this analogy before, and I share it again.
It’s like being homeless, hungry, and exposed to the elements but knowing that everything you could possibly dream of awaits you in a couple of days. It doesn’t erase what you’re immediately feeling. You still feel the hunger, the weather, the lack of a bed. And yet, it does change how you feel about what you’re experiencing.
I testify that every decision the Lord is making to manipulate the details around you is in your favor even when it doesn’t feel like it. I testify that there is love in the lack that He chooses to give just as there was love in the suffering that ultimately rescues us. I testify that trusting Him through everything changes you for the better, and it brings the hope He promises.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 121–123 – Mike Parker
Oct 21, 2025
The “Mormon War” of 1838; Joseph Smith’s letter from Liberty Jail
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
FAIR has an article on The Danites with links to several other resources.
R. Scott Lloyd, “Hawn’s Mill Massacre: ‘New Insights and Interpretations’,” Church News, 9 November 2013. Recent research indicates that the name of the Mormon settlement was spelled Hawn’s Mill, rather than Haun’s, and that the Saints there were not aware of Joseph Smith’s counsel to move closer to Far West to avoid violence.
Transcript and photograph of Governor Lilburn W. Boggs’ “Extermination Order,” Missouri Executive Order 44, issued 27 October 1838.
Emma Smith’s letter to Joseph Smith, Jr. in Liberty Jail, 7 March 1839. In her letter, Emma updated her incarcerated husband on her status and the the welfare of their children: “Was it not for conscious innocence, and the direct interposition of divine mercy, I am very sure I never should have been able to have endured the scenes of suffering that I have passed through…but I still live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven, that I should for your sake.”
Sections 121, 122, and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants are extracts from a letter written by Joseph Smith and other Church leaders from Liberty Jail on 20 and (c.) 22 March 1839. Images of the original letter, along with an uncorrected transcript, are available on the Joseph Smith Papers website: Part 1 (20 March 1839); Part 2 (ca. 22 March 1839).
Kent P. Jackson and Robert D. Hunt, “Reprove, Betimes, and Sharpness in the Vocabulary of Joseph Smith,” The Religious Educator 6, no. 2 (2005): 97–104. Jackson and Hunt explain what these words meant in 1839 and the context in which they were used in D&C 121:43.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 121–123 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 20, 2025
Three Truths to Transform Your Prayers
by Autumn Dickson
Context.
Joseph stayed in a frigid prison with some of his companions for four months. It was one of the coldest winters on record in Missouri. They didn’t have sufficient clothing to keep them warm; the food was scarce and rotten. On at least four occasions, the food was poisoned. They couldn’t stand up straight because the prison was too short. There was no trial because of insufficient evidence, and witnesses were intimidated from testifying on behalf of Joseph and his companions.
This suffering was compounded by what was happening to their loved ones. They were separated from family and friends who were also suffering tremendously. Joseph’s band of followers had been expelled from Missouri through an extermination order and found themselves camped on the side of a river in winter time. As the men froze in the horrible prison, their people froze on the banks of a river. Joseph and his friends listened to their captors tell stories of the assault and murder of their friends and family back in Missouri, specifically the recounting of Haun’s Mill.
Dark times.
I have experienced some level of darkness and even if mine is comparatively lesser to Joseph and the Saints, I still believe that what we read in these sections can uplift us, carry us, and help us see more clearly. There are three principles that we’re going to talk about in relation to prayer that have the power to bring light back into our life.
Doctrine and Covenants 121 is a revelation that occurred during this time period, and it is unique in the sense that it is one of very few sections that include words spoken by man and not just the voice of the Lord. I want to talk about the specific verses coming from Joseph’s own voice. Though it was Joseph speaking and not the Lord, we can learn something profound.
If you want a good example of how to pray in faith, look no further than Joseph in Liberty Jail. Instead of reading consecutive verses, I’m going to read phrases from different verses to emphasize my point. Here are some of the words we read from Joseph.
Doctrine and Covenants 121:1-6
O God, where art thou? How long shall thy…pure eye, behold the wrongs of thy people…? O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are…Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever.
Are we able to rejoice in the Lord under all circumstances? Even in the midst of tragedy, do we acknowledge His presence, purity, and power? In the midst of despair, are we able to still recognize ourselves as His?
Let’s talk about three ways Joseph shows his faith.
First, Joseph acknowledges Him. Perhaps we have not received manifestations to the extent that Joseph did, but we have had manifestations. Though the Lord wasn’t providing solutions or softening hearts or providing ways of escape, Joseph reached for the Lord.
Second, he acknowledges the perfect characteristics of God. Despite the less than perfect circumstances, despite the seemingly juxtaposed concepts of God’s goodness and God’s willingness to allow the current despair, Joseph calls His Lord good.
Third, Joseph acknowledges the sacred relationship between him and his God. It’s easy to be tempted to believe that God is angry or disappointed with us when things get sticky. If I had been in Joseph’s circumstances, I surely would have felt like I had done something wrong. I would have assumed that if I had been better or wiser or more righteous, I could have circumvented this terrible halt in the Lord’s plans. Not Joseph. More than once, Joseph describes the Saints with adjectives that imply ownership. Joseph and the other Saints belong to Christ. At least within this prayer, Joseph doesn’t waver in that.
Joseph’s prayer is filled with faith. It is fascinating to me how each of these three principles of faith are almost like stepping stones in our progression of faith that eventually becomes powerful enough to move mountains. As we apply that faith in prayer, we find the salvation we’re looking for. Here are the three principles of faith put into concise terms.
1) I believe that God is there.
2) I believe that God is good and powerful.
3) I belive that I am God’s child, and He loves me.
After it became a habit to write my prayers, I found myself inadvertently going through these three principles when I found myself in trouble. I didn’t even realize I was doing it (thank you Spirit) until the Lord guided me to write this. As I acknowledge the pattern this Lord has helped me establish, I realize that it has changed the course of my prayers, and therefore, my life.
If you are in a place of darkness, there is a lot of benefit in taking your troubles to the Lord. I’m sure there were plenty of times when Joseph talked to the Lord about all the things that he and the Saints were experiencing. I have found a lot of goodness in this strategy, and I employ it often.
And yet, some of my most powerful prayers have not come when I’ve poured out my heart about what’s going on and pleaded for some specific form of deliverance. My most powerful prayers are those drenched in those three principles of faith: I believe God is there, I believe He is good and powerful, and I believe that I am a child of God and He loves me.
When I take the time to acknowledge those three beliefs (in the same way that Joseph did), I find myself healing and comforted before I’ve ever gotten direction or deliverance. My problems and danger feel much smaller, the rewards greater. It makes everything I’m going through more manageable because I have remembered to compare it against some of the most powerful facts in existence. My problems don’t stand a chance against that.
I think it’s important to acknowledge that Joseph wasn’t immediately delivered from his prison after showing faith. Faith can move mountains, but the most important thing that faith can do is change us in the face of those mountains. Being changed at the end of this mortal experience is infinitely more important than being delivered from a jail cell. There’s no comparison.
I testify of God. I testify that He is there, that He is powerful and good, and I testify that He loves you because you are His child. I testify that those facts are true, and yet, they don’t hold much power in our life if we don’t believe them. God cannot prove Himself, His goodness, His power, or His love any more than He already is. We have to be the ones who change if we want to find those pieces of salvation He keeps handing out.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 115–120 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 16, 2025
Rejoicing During Failing
by Autumn Dickson
We are in an interesting section of church history here. This portion of history is often very difficult for some people because it calls Joseph’s prophetic calling into question…again. While the Saints were living in Kirtland, Ohio, Joseph encouraged the Saints to invest in the Kirtland Safety Society. The Kirtland Safety Society was meant to be a bank, but the state of Ohio rejected the Saints charter to form one. Instead, they utilized a loophole and made it a joint-stock company. You don’t really have to understand economics or legalities to understand that it failed. Many people lost a lot, and when we consider the fact that there are many people who don’t have a lot already, it can be easy to wonder how Joseph got it so wrong.
Why didn’t the Lord help the Saints with this? Or, at the very least, why didn’t the Lord warn Joseph against forming the Kirtland Safety Society? People listened to him because he’s the prophet, and they got burned. In fact, this is one of the reasons many Saints (including members of the twelve apostles) apostasized.
Interestingly enough, very shortly after the Saints fled Kirtland, Joseph was praying about the church’s difficult financial situation. Here is one of the verses in the revelations he received.
Doctrine and Covenants 119:1, 4
1 Verily, thus saith the Lord, I require all their surplus property to be put into the hands of the bishop of my church in Zion,
4 And after that, those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever, for my holy priesthood, saith the Lord.
So the Kirtland Safety Society failed, and then Joseph received a revelation that the Saints needed to give more. Again.
If this is the Lord’s church, why isn’t He enabling them to do what they need to do? LIke build Zion? Or build temples? If He has all of these expensive things that He desires of His Saints, why does He keep taking away? Or, at the very least, why is He allowing it all to be taken away?
I’ve got a theory.
My theory calls upon a story found in the New Testament, specifically in John 6. Christ feeds the 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread and fish. In modern times, we revere this beautiful miracle and use it to teach all sorts of lessons, but the story gets even more interesting. The people did not take all of the spiritual lessons that we often pull from it. Instead, they try to force Christ to be their king. He departs, and they find Him again, presumably to look for more free bread. I presume this because they don’t really like it when He refuses to make more bread. Many disciples leave and walk no more with Him.
Despite the gigantic miracle that did take place, we find a bunch of murmuring people who start to get mad at Christ. The second that Christ takes away the free bread, the people essentially start saying, “Who is this guy? He is just the son of Joseph and Mary.”
The parallels with the people who apostasized during this period in church history is astounding. Anyway.
Christ had to take away the bread in order to provide an opportunity for people to follow after Him for spiritual reasons. Otherwise, they would have followed Him for eternity continually receiving the bread but never actually finding the joy that was meant to be theirs. They never would have found it. They were too distracted by bread.
The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. We rejoice in Him when He gives, and we rejoice in Him when He takes away. Otherwise, it’s not really the kind of faith that brings salvation. If we want salvation from our faith, it has to be a specific kind of faith. Let me show you the differences.
It cannot be faith that says, “I trust that God can give me everything I want.”
It has to be faith that says, “I trust God no matter where He takes me.” It is only this kind of faith that moves the mountains within us. It is only this faith that brings salvation in the truest sense.
Let’s bring this back to the Kirtland Safety Society. It would have been very easy for Heavenly Father to build up the city and the bank and the temple all by Himself. He built the earth; I’m pretty sure construction is not the problem here. I’m sure He could have enabled the Kirtland Safety Society to succeed wonderfully. But He didn’t, and it shook the faith of many. This is not the first time that Christ has “taken away,” and it’s not the first time that people abandoned ship because of it. It’s not the first time that people turned their backs on all of the other miracles that were performed. It’s not the first time people were too distracted by earthly problems to miss the eternal, spiritual lessons that had far more significance.
Let’s take this a step farther. The Lord took away, and then He called upon the people to give even more after they had just fled their homes in Kirtland.
In our day, I have seen many people call for an end to tithing, at least for the poor. For a church that is worth a lot of money, it really makes them upset that it would require the sacrifice of the widow who only has a mite to give. I understand where they’re coming from. Imagine a billionaire asking the poor for donations. It would spark outrage.
But, like the disciples of old who walked no more with Christ, they are missing the entire point.
Christ is the ultimate billionaire. Trillionaire. Yeah, it goes beyond that but I don’t know the label for someone who has infinite funds. He could end world hunger and physical suffering. He could stop all of it, but then we would be so distracted that we would never learn the weightier matters.
I don’t care what you say; bread can’t bring true happiness. Bread will one day be a part of our eternal reward. If you live righteously, all of your needs will be provided for. I’m pretty sure that even if you live wickedly, all of your needs get provided for in the other kingdoms. However, none of that will amount to the joy and peace and salvation that is meant to be yours if you do not learn the weightier matters.
Our God is wise and knows that taking away is essential to learning the weightier matters. He takes away, and He asks for sacrifice because only complete and utter faith in Him will bring salvation and all of its associated positive emotions. Christ doesn’t need your tithing. You need your tithing.
In Doctrine and Covenants 119:6, the Lord says that if His people do not follow the law of tithing, “…it shall not be a land of Zion unto (them).” I want to give an analogy to take this further.
Let’s say I build a house for my kids. It has absolutely everything they need, and I give it to them for free. It’s a gift. However, I can’t force my kids to enjoy the house. I can’t force them to live together in harmony and work together and love each other. I can’t force the house to be heavenly. They have to do that with their actions and more importantly, their attitudes. It doesn’t matter how much I gift them heaven if they’re not living in a heavenly manner so that it brings all the joy that the gift was meant to bring.
In that sense, I am offering them a gift of “Zion” in which they can have everything they need and where they can experience all the joy that comes with living in harmony and love with others. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), I cannot truly force Zion’s joy upon them. I can tell them how to experience it by forgiving and loving and taking care of what they’ve been given, but if they choose to ignore my laws, then it will not be Zion to them. It doesn’t matter how much I provide and offer the gift. It will not be Zion to them if they are not living Zion-like lives.
If my children continue to ignore my laws to the extent that they’re miserable, then perhaps the most merciful and loving thing I can do is to kick them out of the house so that they can learn to appreciate what they were given. Perhaps that sounds dismissive, unmerciful, or uncaring, but it also holds a grain of truth. We can’t experience Zion unless we are changed to appreciate it. No matter how long you stay in the land of Zion, you will be miserable until you are changed.
Sometimes the only way to change is when He takes it away or when He asks us to sacrifice it. Maybe you don’t believe me, but believe Christ. He knew He had to take away the bread FOR THE BENEFIT of His disciples so long ago. They chose to leave anyway, but they would have refused the eternal blessings anyway because they would have been distracted by a piece of bread.
I testify that following the Lord no matter where He leads is the most incredible journey you can take. I testify that if you want joy, you trust the Lord. I testify that you need tithing, not the Lord. I testify that the weightier matters will bring you more than a piece of bread.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 115–120 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 13, 2025
When You Covet What You Have
by Autumn Dickson
The Saints began to flee Kirtland in January 1838 because of religious persecution and mounting debts. A majority of them went to Far West, Missouri. When July came around, Newel K. Whitney and William Marks were still in Kirtland. They had originally been left behind to settle affairs, but they had remained there longer than necessary because they were attached to their property and didn’t want to liquidate it too quickly.
Honestly, no judgment. It would be hard to flee. It would be hard to just close the door on something you had worked so hard for. It would be hard to turn off the lights for the last time and know you would likely never see the place again. It’s difficult to close a chapter even when you have confidence in a well-laid plan for the next chapter, which Whitney and Marks didn’t necessarily have.
And yet, here is what the Lord counseled them.
Doctrine and Covenants 117:4 Let them repent of all their sins, and of all their covetous desires, before me, saith the Lord; for what is property unto me? saith the Lord.
According to the “Guide to the Scriptures,” part of the definition for “covet,” is to “have an excessive desire towards.” Our desires for our own things can be excessive. We are not always accustomed to speaking of coveting something that already belongs to us. Usually when we speak about coveting, we’re talking about wanting something that someone else has. And yet, the Lord is speaking to these men about their own property. You can covet your own property.
I think it’s important that the definition includes the word “excessive.” We do not need to banish any desire we have for things. We can want a house, good food, clothing, and objects that make our life nicer or easier. We just need to keep our desires from becoming excessive.
I believe that excessively desiring our own property can look like a couple of different things. I want to talk about two different scenarios of coveting your own property as well as ways that we can overcome that coveting.
I’ve watched people be perfectly content with what they have until after they started earning more and having more. I’ve watched them start to covet what they already have only after they were given more. This is a legitimate pattern. Despite the fact that we usually speak of coveting something that someone else has, I’ve found that the most common form of coveting is when you have an excessive desire for your own stuff. We see it all the time in The Book of Mormon with the pride cycle. The people start out humble and poor and taking care of each other. It’s only after they start having nice things that they truly get caught up in the things of the world.
So how do we keep ourselves grounded? How do we not get caught up in owning things in this scenario?
It can feel tricky since the Lord doesn’t begrudge us laboring to increase what we have. There isn’t anything wrong with an appropriate desire for things. Those desires just can’t be excessive. How do we keep our desires balanced?
I’m sure there are plenty of ways that we can keep our desires for our own things at appropriate levels: humility, gratitude, giving, recognition of stewardship. However, I want to talk about one specific way we can keep ourselves from coveting our own property when we find ourselves with more than what’s normal.
We keep ourselves grounded by accurately placing our desires alongside our desire for eternal things. When we have an accurate view of eternity and what that entails, it becomes much easier to see the actual worth of our property. So what is this accurate view of eternity?
The accurate view is that the Lord is building a mansion for you. You are meant to be a king or queen. It is your divine birthright to walk on streets of gold and have everything you need. It is also part of your birthright to grow into a glorious being capable of eternal happiness. Walking on streets of gold can only bring so much happiness. When you find yourself in the eternities, you’re not going to be able to derive any little bursts of happiness from having more than those around you because they will also be walking on gold. When you’re in the eternities, walking on gold will be nice to the extent that you have what you need. However, you will very quickly start to realize that there is only so much joy you can derive from gold. The accurate view of eternity is that you will have all you need and want; however, if you don’t also have the weightier matters, you’re going to be miserable and empty.
So we keep ourselves grounded by balancing our desires for our own stuff with our desires for what truly brings happiness. When you’re feeling a little miserable or empty, it can be tempting to want to go buy something to fill that little void. Rather, if we can remember to invest in relationships and serving and turning outwards when we’re seeking happiness, we’re going to find it. You cannot find deep, lasting happiness in stuff in this life or the next. It is only when your stuff is a part of something more important and enduring, that you can derive all the joy and peace that was meant to be your’s.
There is another way that we can covet our own property, and I think this particular scenario is closer to what William Marks and Newel K. Whitney were experiencing.
We have observed a pattern of how becoming richer can actually make you more susceptible to coveting your own property. Despite this being a regular pattern, I believe it’s just as possible to covet your own things when you don’t have as much. Perhaps you’re not looking around and yearning for what everyone else has, but perhaps you’re plagued by fear of losing what little you do have.
And isn’t that the very definition of sin? Wickedness never was happiness. Being plagued by fear of losing what you have is not happiness which is why it can also be classified as sin. We have already established that getting richer doesn’t inoculate you from coveting your own property. The only way we can truly rid ourselves of the weight of envying our own property is by changing our hearts.
The only way to experience true happiness, and not Satan’s counterfeit, is by changing our hearts to trust Him and desire righteousness.
You don’t have to wait until you have more stuff to find the peace you’re looking for. You don’t have to wait until your pantry is full to trust that the Lord is taking care of you. In fact, you may not find peace or trust even after you have everything you wished for.
We are seeking joy and peace. That doesn’t come from our stuff. It cannot come from our stuff! Property is incapable of providing it. Joy and peace only come from following the pattern of living laid down by our Savior. Just as the Lord instructs in Doctrine and Covenants 117, we have to repent of our covetous desires. We have to change our heart to desire the best things and to trust Him enough to find peace in a world that is filled with turmoil.
I testify of a Lord who loves us. I testify that it is not difficult for Him to give you everything you could possibly desire and want. Property is nothing to Him because there is no end to His property. He’s trying to teach us that. We don’t want to be afraid of what we won’t have tomorrow but that doesn’t come from having enough. Even if you become the richest person in the world, you can still lose everything. There is no security but in the Lord. I testify that if you want joy and peace, you have to follow after the Lord.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 111–114 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 10, 2025
Mistakes Were Part of the Plan
by Autumn Dickson
The church is running into some issues. They have incurred heavy debts, and leaders are growing increasingly worried. There was a member, Brother Burgess, who spoke of a widow who had left behind a lot of money hiding in her cellar. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery travelled to Salem, Massachusetts to attempt to find this treasure. It was never found.
It’s important to note that this account was written 53 years later by a former church member. We may not have every detail correct, but here is a verse from that stay in Salem that may be referring to this experience.
Doctrine and Covenants 111:1 I, the Lord your God, am not displeased with your coming this journey, notwithstanding your follies.
The Lord isn’t mad that they went to Salem despite their follies. A folly is an error in judgment, a mistake. The Lord is not afraid of us making mistakes. He warns against sin making us unhappy, but an error in judgment does not need to tear us down. Joseph and his companions had sought means to relieve the debts of the church. How could the Lord be upset with that? They were proactive and sought to do all within their power to fix the problems they were facing.
This is actually really important to understand; it’s very important to internalize. The Lord isn’t angry when we make mistakes.
We came to earth so that we could eventually become like Jesus Christ. We did not come to earth to never make mistakes.
It may sound like the same thing sometimes, but it’s not.
I’m going to ask some questions now that I’m desperately hoping do not come off sounding sacrilegious. There are many definitions of some of the words I’m about to use, and I’m asking questions so we can better understand the scriptures.
What do the scriptures mean when they say that Christ is perfect? Did it mean that He never fell down when He was learning to walk? Did it mean that He never found Himself with setbacks on a journey because of unforeseen circumstances? Or did it mean that He handled unforeseen circumstances with absolute faith? Is that partially why people in Nazareth rejected Him? Is it because they had seen Him grow up and make mistakes (not sin! mistakes!)?
This is the gospel according to Autumn, but I’m not sure that’s what the scriptures meant when they described Christ as perfect. I believe He faced a lot of the same trials we did in mortality. He had the same veil placed over his eyes and had to learn who He was. He faced situations where He didn’t know the outcome or the most effective decision, and maybe He didn’t even know the perfect thing to say. We know that scriptures taught that the Savior increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. How can you increase beyond the traditional definition of perfection?
When the scriptures say that Christ was perfect, I believe it means that He never sinned. Sin is not the same thing as a mistake. I believe that when He faced two roads that He could travel, He didn’t always know which one to take. Instead, He moved forward with faith and listened to see if His Father would correct Him. I believe that when He faced setbacks, He never faltered in that faith and devotion. I believe that when He faced people who had experienced tremendous grief, He wasn’t necessarily given perfect words (because I believe there are situations in which there are no perfect words) but His words were filled with power because of His perfect love.
When the scriptures ask us to be perfect, I believe the scriptures are asking us to become devoted to the Savior. We become so devoted that our hearts become perfectly filled with faith in the Savior and perfectly turned outwards towards others. Does that mean we will never face a situation where we don’t immediately know what we’re supposed to do? No. Does that mean we’ll never face obstacles because we’re simply going to know everything to say ahead of time? Does it mean that we’re going to be proactive in making decisions that we completely circumvent every setback as we’re going about the work of the Lord?
I don’t think so. I could be wrong for sure. But I believe perfection, as described by the scriptures, is a state of heart in which we are wholly turned towards the Lord and then towards others. I don’t think it extends to omnipotence until the next life.
If we become paralyzed with fear of mistakes, we prevent ourselves from acquiring growth. Growth is essential to the entire purpose of the Plan of Salvation. So there you go. We didn’t come to earth to avoid mistakes. We came to earth to become like Jesus Christ.
And honestly, I believe this extends towards sin. This is the part where we obviously differ from Christ. We’re going to sin and make mistakes. And though the Lord was talking about the debts the church had incurred in Kirtland, the Lord loves to have layers of meaning in His words. Here is another verse from the same section.
Doctrine and Covenants 111:5 Concern not yourselves about your debts, for I will give you power to pay them.
Christ is not concerned with our debts. He already paid them. He knows the price because it was paid a long time ago. He isn’t concerned. He had enough to cover it.
He is wholly focused on your growth.
If Heavenly Father was wholly focused on avoiding sin, He never would have sent us here to earth at all because it was impossible to come to earth without sinning and making mistakes.
This doesn’t mean that we run around excusing ourselves and doing whatever we want because Christ paid the debt and Heavenly Father is wholly focused on our growth. He is not concerned when we have flaws we’re trying to overcome, and He is not concerned with our follies. He is concerned when we’re refusing to grow and receive the joy that comes with following after Him.
If you are actively repenting, if you are trying to orient your heart towards the Savior, if you are trying to turn your heart outward towards your fellow man, then rejoice. The Savior isn’t mad at your mistakes. Rejoice; don’t be concerned about your debts. They are taken care of.
I testify of a Savior who is perfect. I testify that He was wholly devoted to His Father and rejoiced in His Father because of His faith. I testify that He rejoices in your repentance and growth to the extent that He is not angry, nor concerned. I testify that He loves you perfectly even though He knows you exactly as you are; you don’t have to be afraid of your flaws or lack of wisdom about how to handle every circumstance in your life because He already knows and He loves you anyway.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 111–112, 114–115, 117–120 – Mike Parker
Oct 09, 2025
End of the Kirtland period; revelations in Missouri, 1838
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
BMC Team, “Why Was Martin Harris Cut Off from the Church?”, Book of Mormon Central, 1 June 2021. This brief article explains why Martin Harris, one of the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, was excommunicated from the Church in late 1837 during a period of mass apostasy.
Stephen C. Harper, “The Tithing of My People,” Church History: Revelations in Context, last modified 13 January 2016. Harper, a historian for the Church History Department, explains how the Saints in Missouri understood how to calculate “one-tenth of all their interest annually” as tithing. (D&C 119:4)
Dennis B. Horne, “Reexamining Lorenzo Snow’s 1899 Tithing Revelation,” Mormon Historical Studies – Fall 2013, Vol. 14, No. 2. President Lorenzo Snow did not prophesy an end to the southern Utah drought at the time he received his famous tithing revelation in St. George in 1899 (as portrayed in the church-produced movie “The Windows of Heaven”). The tithing manifestation was indeed true and real, but President Snow’s son LeRoi C. later created an accompanying fiction of a prophecy that if the locals paid their full tithing it would yet rain that very season and save their livestock and crops. President Snow uttered no such prophecy and there was no end to the drought for two years.
Elder Boyd K. Packer, “The Least of These,” General Conference, October 2004. “I remember my servant Oliver Granger; behold, verily I say unto him that his name shall be had in sacred remembrance from generation to generation, forever and ever, saith the Lord.” (D&C 117:12)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 111–114 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 07, 2025
The Power of Conversion: Healing Through Christ
by Autumn Dickson
Thomas B. Marsh was frustrated with Joseph Smith for calling two of the apostles on missions without consulting him. He received a revelation that helped him repent and gave him spiritual counsel. Within the counsel he receives, there are two phrases that are found next to each other which take on profound meaning when you observe them together.
Doctrine and Covenants 112:13 And after their temptations, and much tribulation, behold, I, the Lord, will feel after them, and if they harden not their hearts, and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted, and I will heal them.
The Lord is talking to Marsh about the apostles. The Lord told Marsh to correct them and be an example to them before sharing this verse where He promises to reach out to them. The phrases that are interesting when placed together are, “…they shall be converted, and I will heal them.”
There are a couple of definitions of the word convert that are relevant. The first one is, “change in form, character, or function.” The second definition is to, “change one’s religious faith or other beliefs.” Let’s talk about both definitions and how they lead to healing. I’m actually going to talk about the second definition first.
To change one’s religious faith or other beliefs. This is an interesting one. We’re obviously not talking about converting to a different religion, but even within our own church, we need to be evolving our own beliefs as we learn more about the gospel. Let me give an example. It’s a long one, but sharing all of the details helps me teach the principle.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve actually had multiple friends come to me with marital problems and I shared a piece of advice that I had received. Love your spouse when you don’t feel loved. Interestingly enough, this is good advice no matter what kind of marriage you find yourself in. Even more interestingly, this is good advice for any relationship you’re in.
I can imagine that this might cause some outrage, especially for people who have escaped abusive relationships, but let me explain further.
God loves us infinitely more than anyone else. His love leads Him to act mercifully, to make sacrifices on our behalf, to continually turn towards us even when we’ve rejected Him. God’s love has also led Him to reject us, to put up boundaries, to separate us from Himself and others.
Love is a feeling, not a specific action.
When I originally shared this advice with my friends, some of them struggled with it. They felt that they had already sacrificed enough, and they weren’t seeing enough sacrifice on the part of their spouses. AND THIS IS PRECISELY WHAT I’M TRYING TO TEACH.
They struggled with the advice because they had inaccurate ideas of what love means and what it looks like. When I explained to them that my definition of love was a feeling that could lead to several different appropriate actions, that softened the blow a bit.
When we talk about converting in relation to the gospel, we’re talking about changing aspects of our faith and beliefs. I’m not talking about getting baptized in a different church; I’m talking about true, internal change within our hearts as we receive new perspectives and interpretations of doctrine. The more we convert, the more we heal. Let’s look at our example of love again.
I also gave this piece of advice to a friend whose significant other broke up with them in a hurtful way. I told my friend to love her, truly love her enough that you wanted what was best for her. I told him that if he wanted to heal from getting hurt in this manner, his best strategy was to love her. Love didn’t mean following her around. He had to change his belief of what love was and looked like, and if he chose to allow a more accurate definition of love to take hold in his heart, he was going to find healing.
As we convert closer and closer to the gospel, we are going to naturally find healing. Even as members of Christ’s church on the earth, we still have some inaccurate ideas surrounding gospel principles that we’re going to weed out as we grow older.
When we learn that forgiveness can look like complete mercy and letting go of past grievances as well as loving someone from a healthy distance, we can find healing.
When we learn that serving can bring about resentment if we’re not throwing our heart into the mix, we can soften our own hearts and find healing.
When we learn that humility doesn’t mean squashing ourselves and the spiritual gifts we’ve been given, we start to step into our divine destinies, and we find healing.
There are so many different aspects of faith that need to evolve as we learn more about the gospel. Following gospel principles inaccurately can make things more difficult, but if we convert our faith as we learn a more accurate perspective on these same principles, we will find the healing that Christ has talked about.
The first definition that I mentioned was to “change in form, character, or function.” I’m not going to elaborate too much on this because it’s simply another way of saying what has already been said. We change. Not only do we change our functions (i.e. the outward actions of the gospel), but we change in character. If you can utilize the actions to actually change your character, you find the salvation that Christ promised.
I testify that following Christ accurately is what brings about the true blessings of the gospel. I testify that we do need to convert as we learn more and more and more about what Christ meant when He gave certain commandments. I also testify that when we allow our faith to convert and transform, we will find the healing that He promised us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 109-110 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 03, 2025
Building the Kingdom in Diapers and Day Jobs
by Autumn Dickson
The Saints have built the Kirtland temple. This week we read about the dedication event, including the revealed prayer from the Lord, and we read about the Lord restoring priesthood keys within the temple. Here is one of the verses from the prayer that was revealed to Joseph Smith.
Doctrine and Covenants 109:9 That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord, that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord, that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hand unto the Most High–
This verse is talking about temple worship. When you come into the temple, your heart should be turned towards the Lord. When you leave the temple, that state of heart should follow you into the world. During temple worship, all of your salutations (or, in other words, your interpersonal communications) should reflect the Lord and His holiness.
There is a lot of power in focusing on Christ in the temple. Temple worship reflects the antiquity of the gospel, and it can feel very different than how we normally worship. When we use every part of the temple to reflect on Christ and look at every symbol through a lens of Christ, the worship experience becomes more meaningful.
However, I want to take this beyond the walls of the temple.
When I was a teenager, I remember attending EFY camps, fireside, Sunday youth classes, and all sorts of youth activities. Oftentimes, we would be invited to spend more time with the Savior. Being the perfectionist that I was, I often took this goal beyond what my leaders had likely intended. I would make goals about reading my scriptures, praying, and doing other spiritual activities that went beyond the bounds of what was balanced or even appropriate.
As an adult, I recall the Spirit whispering a very important truth to me. Spending time with the Savior is not just about going and doing traditionally spiritual things; it’s also about inviting the Savior into the rest of your life. Our incomings, outgoings, and salutations can be in the name of the Lord regardless of whether they are directly about the Lord.
Rather than constantly immersing myself in scripture study, I can take my learning to a new level as I bring Christ into the rest of my life. This has many outcomes, but let’s talk about a couple of them.
The first effect is that it transforms my life.
I can listen to secular music, read my favorite romance novels, go out to dinner with my husband, and hang out with my girl friends with the Savior as my companion. I remember driving to go buy a dress for a Christmas party. The sun was shining, and my Apple Playlist was giving me all of the best songs. The Spirit whispered to me that I should remember Christ, and I did. I thanked Him for moments like that, and it made it all the sweeter. I knew He was happy for me and that He was enjoying my happiness and gratitude.
Eternal life isn’t all work. I don’t know what the Savior does for fun, but I believe that fun is an important part of a healthy and balanced spiritual life. The Savior wants to be included in those moments too.
As a stay-at-home mom, my life can also get a bit repetitive meeting the needs of my kids. Helping the kids with their tasks that I’m trying to teach, making bottles, changing diapers, wiping the counter, picking up things so that I don’t trip over it, and refereeing can take its toll sometimes. The daily tasks can feel so mundane sometimes until you place them in the context of eternity. But then I bring the Savior into it. Eternity isn’t about learning some huge new lesson every few weeks. It’s not about giant, transformational experiences. It’s about daily habits that make us who we are.
When I invite the Savior to walk with me in my experience, it reminds me that I’m building discipleship into the rapidly developing brains of my children. Showing up for them over and over and over and over and over sets the stage for them to understand their Savior. He gives power and purpose to the mundane parts of my life. And though I speak of my personal experience as a stay-at-home mom, these principles extend beyond that. You can find power and purpose in the mundane parts of your life.
So we’re working on letting our incomings, outgoings, and salutations be in the name of the Lord. The first effect is that it transforms our lives. It makes sweet moments sweeter. It fills the mundane parts of life with purpose. And I didn’t talk about it, but it also soothes the hard moments.
The second effect is that it makes your work more powerful.
When you do something in the name of the Lord, it adds power. Acting in His name means that we are standing in for Him as if He were here. We are His representative. We are doing what He would do in our situation. Christ left His carpentry job to be a full-time missionary for 3 years, but that’s not our mission. He made premortal promises, and He fulfilled them. We also made premortal promises, but ours are not the same as His.
You don’t abandon your day job. You transform your day job. It’s “Bring the Savior to work day.” This has a couple of outcomes.
It quickens your ability to do your job. I watch my husband receive revelation all the time in his engineering designs. I pray all the time for his inspiration. The Saints were building the Kirtland temple, and I’m sure they learned a lot of spiritual lessons. They also developed some major construction skills. Maybe that doesn’t seem like an important skill until you realize that the Lord is preparing us to create like He did. Invite Him to join you, and do all things in His name. It can add purpose, and it can make you more capable.
When you do your day job in the name of the Lord, you also find ways to build the kingdom in creative ways. Sometimes we think building the kingdom means we go to church and do our calling, but building the kingdom can happen everywhere around you. Can you imagine how quickly our ability to build the kingdom would collapse if all the farmers left their jobs to be full-time missionaries? Jobs that are not traditionally thought of as spiritual can be done in the name of the Lord, and they can help build the kingdom.
Let all your salutations, incomings, and outgoings be done in the name of the Lord. That doesn’t mean you immediately need to preach to your coworker. It can also mean finding purpose, power, and fulfillment in the work that you are a part of. It doesn’t mean abandoning your day job to knock doors; it means bringing the Savior with you everywhere you go.
I testify that doing so transforms your life and your work. The Savior is the best companion on this unofficial mission we’ve been called to do. He knows the importance of daily tasks and can help us remember how our small contributions matter. He knows how to have fun. He finds great joy in your joy. He can expand your capacities and help you creatively utilize them for good.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 109-110 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 29, 2025
Your Body as a Temple: Surprising Lessons from the Kirtland Temple
by Autumn Dickson
We have been asked to liken the scriptures unto ourselves. Oftentimes, I look at this from the perspective of studying the people who lived at the time of the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. As I study the events surrounding the revelations, I am able to learn so much more about what the Lord is trying to teach. I am able to relate, if not in situation than in feeling, to these Saints and the Lord’s words answer me just as it answered them.
Though I often go through this process in relation to people, there is another way to liken the scriptures to us this week.
The Lord declares that our body is a temple. When He declares this, He implies many things. Our bodies are tabernacles through which we experience mortal life and the (hopefully) resulting spiritual growth. Our bodies can house the Spirit. We treat our bodies as a gift from the Lord.
What can we learn from Section 110 that teaches us even more about our bodies that were given to us by the Lord? I want to pull out a couple of phrases and ideas.
The first idea is that the Kirtland temple was unique amongst temples in this dispensation.
Traditionally, a temple in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a place where we go to receive further instruction and power by entering into covenants with the Lord. Interestingly enough, temples looked very different before the Lord came to fulfill His mortal ministry. Even in this dispensation, we have the Kirtland Temple. Within the Kirtland Temple, there was no baptismal font or rooms for sealings. There was no endowment. It looked like a church. There was a place for the congregants to sit, worship, learn, and sing. There was a pulpit.
This uniqueness holds many implications for our own bodies. The first implication I can think of is the progression of the gospel, or the idea of a living church. We believe that the church does change. The doctrine doesn’t change, but we grow closer and closer and closer to the truth. The Kirtland Temple was not completely ready to start performing additional ordinances en masse. Neither were the people ready en masse to receive that ordinance. It was a step in the right direction as the Lord continued to give further light and knowledge. We grow and progress and sacrifice and learn before we also receive further ordinances.
There were also three keys that were restored in the Kirtland temple. Moses came and gave the keys of the gathering of Israel. Elias came with the gospel of Abraham, and Elijah came to restore the sealing power. A grand majority of us will never hold those keys, male and female alike. However, those keys unlocked power for everyone there. One of those purposes of the Kirtland Temple was to create a place and a people who were prepared to receive these keys, and it worked. The Saints sacrificed and toiled, and it prepared their hearts to utilize the power that was unlocked from those keys.
And so we work and sacrifice and prepare ourselves to receive the power of those keys to the same extent that the Saints felt the power of those keys. Priesthood keys unlock power. The Lord wants these restored keys to unlock power in each of our lives. He wants us to experience the power of the Gathering of Israel. He wants us to understand what it means to be part of the family of Abraham. He wants us to be sealed together as part of His eternal family.
There are more phrases and implications, but I want to discuss one more verse.
Doctrine and Covenants 110:7 For behold, I have accepted this house, and my name shall be here; and I will manifest myself to my people in mercy in this house.
In verse 7, the Lord accepts His house and places His name upon it. He also promises to manifest Himself there. We looked to eventually be accepted of the Lord as we build and refine ourselves. We carry His name upon us. And then there is also the matter of the manifestation of the Lord.
The Lord visited the Kirtland temple as a fulfilment of the promise He made that He would enter into His house if the Saints would allow no unclean thing to enter therein. I believe the Lord is willing to reveal as much as we are willing to bear, including the manifestation of Himself, and so we utilize His atonement to be cleansed and we work on ourselves to be prepared to hold that responsibility.
I believe this has another implication. The Lord will manifest Himself to His people. Sometimes a manifestation of the Lord is not always the act of standing in His presence. Honestly, looking at a sunset is a manifestation of Him if we’re looking through spiritual eyes. I believe that we can manifest the Savior to others. He can visit His people through us as we work to lift where we stand. When I strengthen my husband, kiss my children, and love my friends, they are receiving miniscule doses of the Savior. We can be walking temples that house the Spirit and bring the Savior closer to everyone on this earth.
I testify that there are many reasons that the Lord described our bodies as temples. I testify that one of those reasons is because we can parallel temples in many regards. We can look to temples to better understand what the Lord has in store for us. We can look to temples to better understand what the Lord expects of us. I testify that He can sanctify our sacrifices and efforts and make us clean as we work to become a type of the House of the Lord.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 106-108 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 25, 2025
Priesthood Privilege
by Autumn Dickson
Disclaimer. I want to talk about the priesthood this week, but the more I dive into it, the more I realize that I know hardly anything about it. There is so much; it’s rather overwhelming. I have done my research. I have tried very hard to understand, but it’s also important to note that I’m imperfect. If I have made any mistakes about principles surrounding the priesthood or even policies, I apologize. Please feel free to correct; I’d much rather learn truth in comparison to standing in ignorance.
Another disclaimer. Elder Neil L. Anderson teaches, “There is an important principle that governs the doctrine of the Church. The doctrine is taught by all 15 members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve. It is not hidden in an obscure paragraph of one talk. True principles are taught frequently and by many.”
There are quotes that I’m sharing today that are doctrine, taught over and over through inspired church leaders. I also want to declare that I am sharing personal interpretations, as well as ideas that have not been taught frequently or been canonized. Why do I share them if they are not official doctrine?
I share them for a lot of reasons. They inspire questions, revelation, and for me, they inspire wonder. How much do we not know yet? It’s mind boggling and beautiful. I don’t think there’s anything objectively wrong with exploring doctrine and learning and wondering and asking questions and forming theories as long as we keep a healthy understanding that the Lord reveals official doctrine through a prophet to the whole church.
So without further ado.
Section 107 helps to explain the idea of different aspects of the priesthood. One of the clarifications we receive about the priesthood is as follows:
Doctrine and Covenants 107:18, 5 (why yes, I’m sharing them out of order)
18 The power and authority of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church-
5 All other authorities or offices in the church are appendages to this priesthood (Melchizedek Priesthood).
Before I continue on, I want to give a quick tangent here that will help me clarify what I’m talking about as I go through my post. The Melchizedek Priesthood is the power we’ve been given on earth from God. It holds all the spiritual blessings of the church. There are many powers we have not been given in the church. God’s power extends far beyond what we currently have the ability to utilize. In other words, there is Melchizedek Priesthood and then there is priesthood.
But for this post, I may use Melchizedek Priesthood and the general term “priesthood” interchangeably. This is not because they are synonymous; it is because it’s much shorter to just say priesthood. So, when I use the word Melchizedek Priesthood or just the general term priesthood, I am referring to the power that is currently given to the church to bring about the salvation of mankind on the earth.
Phew. Lot’s of groundwork today. Back to the verses.
The Melchizedek Priesthood is the power and authority of God given to us today; all of the other permissions and powers we structurally recognize in the church have grown out of that one priesthood. If you continue reading on in Section 107, we learn that even the Aaronic priesthood is an appendage to the Melchizedek Priesthood. The Melchizedek Priesthood stands independent of all these other offices and authorities.
In the institute manual, we read a quote by Joseph Fielding Smith that teaches this.
“There is no office growing out of this priesthood that is or can be greater than the priesthood itself. It is from the priesthood that the office derives its authority and power. No office gives authority to the priesthood. No office adds to the power of the priesthood. But all offices in the Church derive their power, their virtue, their authority from the priesthood.”
This is actually a critical understanding. The Melchizedek Priesthood is the power and authority of God. Here is another quote from Joseph F. Smith; “Priesthood is the power of God, delegated to man (as in mankind, humanity), to act in the earth for the salvation of the human family.” That’s it. It’s the power of God given so that we can help people return home to Him. We often limit the Melchizedek Priesthood to the specific offices of Elder, High Priest, Patriarch, Seventy, and Apostle. Those are offices within the Melchizedek Priesthood, but if the verse we read earlier is correct, then those offices are literally just appendages. The Melchizedek Priesthood is actually so much more.
All of the other stuff we read in relation to the priesthood (performing ordinances, men getting ordained to the priesthood, etc.) are actually just appendages. They utilize priesthood, but they are not THE priesthood.
Here is my perspective on what that actually means. Once again, gospel according to Autumn.
The Melchizedek Power is just a fancy way of saying that God is supplying the power behind our actions in order to bring His children home. This is doctrine. So much of what we interpret as the Melchizedek Power is actually just policy.
For example, when a boy turns 12, he gets ordained as a deacon. When he is 14, he becomes a teacher. When he is 16, he becomes a priest (This is why it was able to change! Boys went from passing the sacrament when they turn 12 to passing the sacrament at the beginning of the year in which they turn 12). This list goes on and on. All of this structure is actually just policy that is meant to help us along. It is a structure that the Lord has put into place. Think of it like a calling. The actual priesthood acts independently of the calling. You don’t need callings for the Melchizedek Priesthood to exist. Rather, the Lord organizes everything so that it’s easier to come back home to Him. The priesthood structure that was given by the Lord (from deacon to prophet) were all put in place to help us, but are they necessary?
That’s an extremely complicated question. It’s like asking whether a prophet is necessary. In an ideal world where we were all tremendously righteous, no, a prophet would not be necessary. We could all be prophets unto ourselves. Unfortunately, most of us need more of a support system than pure intelligence coming into our minds through the power of the Spirit. In that manner, YES, we need a prophet.
It’s the same with the priesthood organization. If we were all righteous enough, I wonder if we would still be operating on the patriarchal form of priesthood in Abraham’s day where the dad was the presiding officer and took care of his family. There wasn’t a more complicated structure than that.
The point I’m trying to make boils down to this: the Melchizedek Priesthood is the power of God, and it extends far beyond the priesthood structure that God put into place. The structure is helpful, and because of that, it’s necessary. However, the priesthood structure is not the priesthood.
So I’ve made my point. Why the heck does it matter?
BECAUSE IT PUSHES US TO LIVE UP TO OUR PRIESTHOOD PRIVILEGES.
Example.
I was reading a message delivered by Wendy Ulrich, a member of the Relief Society Advisory Council Member. She said this.
“…when women give birth within the new and everlasting covenant, they are in essence performing for themselves for their child that sealing function that cannot otherwise be done except by a sealer in the temple.”
Um. What?!
I love being a mother. I appreciate pregnancy (as much as I hate being pregnant), childbirth, all of it. I have a deep reverence for the female body I’ve been given, and I am in awe that God has trusted me with this divine calling that embodies all the most important aspects of my Heavenly Mother.
In a world that increasingly diminishes and detests motherhood, I declare that I am utilizing the most powerful force in existence: the Melchizedek Priesthood. The childbirth process that I participate in seals my child in the new and everlasting covenant by the power of God, by His Melchizedek Priesthood.
Let’s extend this further. Let me bring two ideas together.
Idea 1. I’m repeating a quote from earlier. Joseph F. Smith said, “Priesthood is the power of God, delegated to man (as in mankind, humanity), to act in the earth for the salvation of the human family.”
Idea 2. Childbirth somehow creates a soul. We know that a woman’s body creates a physical vessel, a body. But somewhere in that process, a spirit is placed into that body.
Creating physical vessels for the spirit children of our Heavenly Parents is absolutely essential for the salvation of the human family. Does that mean pregnancy and childbirth (independent of the sealing power) are also acting by the Melchizedek Priesthood?
Honestly, I’m not sure. There are so many things that have not been revealed to us. We don’t know when the spirit enters the body. We don’t know how that process occurs. But this I do know. When a man baptizes his child, it is said that he is acting with the priesthood to further their salvation even though it’s not really the man’s power. He is merely the vessel in which God is furthering the salvation of that child. Is it really so different from bringing a child into the world? I didn’t design this body to do this miraculous process. I don’t even have to think about it. Like a man who baptizes his child, I am merely the vessel in which this sacred process is occurring.
Once again, I don’t know for sure. All of that was just a long-winded way of saying something I do know.
The Melchizedek Priesthood is available for all of us to utilize. The very power that shaped the universe is the same power that God extends to you regardless of whether you’re a deacon, bishop, prophet, or mother. It’s not about being a leader in a priesthood structure. It’s about serving. And as we serve in the way that Christ served, we change the world.
I testify that God’s power is available to all who are willing to follow Him and try to serve His children. I testify that women can hold as much power as any man. I testify that the power God is willing to extend to any person is proportionate to how willing we are to follow the Lord. That is the only qualifier for how much priesthood power we are capable of wielding.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 106-108 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 22, 2025
What are Priesthood Keys?
by Autumn Dickson
The Lord restored the priesthood to mankind some time ago, and yet, He did not reveal the structure in which He wanted everything to be organized. There were many who had received callings and knew their responsibilities, but putting it together in a structural whole would serve to provide organization so that the Lord’s house could be a house of order.
One of the organizational tools for the Lord’s priesthood is that of keys.
Doctrine and Covenants 107:8-9
8 The Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency, and has power and authority over all the offices in the church in all ages of the world, to administer in spiritual things.
9 The Presidency of the High Priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek, have a right to officiate in all the offices in the church.
These verses are talking about rights. Verse 8 explains that the Melchizedek Priesthood holds the right of presidency, and the Presidency of the High Priesthood (or in our day, the First Presidency) has a right to officiate in any capacity in the church.
Here is a quote that connects the idea of rights to keys. Joseph Fielding Smith taught, “While all men hold the priesthood who are ordained to any office, yet there are special, or directing, authorities, bestowed upon those who are called to preside. These authorities are called keys.”
I’m going to zoom out a bit so that we can attempt to understand different aspects of the priesthood and organize it all.
First, we have the priesthood. The priesthood, in its simplest definition, is the power of God. It is the power by which He created. It is the power by which rules.
Second, there is the Melchizedek Priesthood. As stated in my previous video from this week, the Melchizedek Priesthood stands independent of any office or calling. In its simplest definition, it is the power of God that is given to man to further the work of salvation on the earth. In other words, it’s a portion of the priesthood power that is held by our Heavenly Father. He only gave us a portion of the power that we needed for this life.
Third, there is the Aaronic Priesthood. This is actually not a separate priesthood from the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is an appendage of the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was another way of organizing the priesthood and delegating responsibilities.
Fourth, there are priesthood ordinations and offices. When men come of age, they are ordained to the priesthood and progress through priesthood offices. Different priesthood offices delegate different priesthood responsibilities. Quick tangent. Only men are ordained to the priesthood, but women can utilize the priesthood without being ordained. The Lord has still not answered why He has chosen this path or whether it’s doctrine or policy. There are plenty of theories, but the Lord has not chosen to explain it.
And the last thing I want to talk about today: priesthood keys. Priesthood keys take priesthood offices just a tiny step further. Priesthood keys are the right to govern. You can hold a priesthood office without holding any keys. You can hold the office of Elder or High Priest but not have any keys with which to direct the work. You simply have responsibilities to function underneath those keys. The church website teaches us which offices and leaders hold keys.
Members of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles hold all the keys necessary for governing the Church. Only the President of the Church has the right to exercise all of those keys. He delegates these keys to others who preside in the Church—temple presidents, mission presidents, stake presidents, district presidents, bishops, branch presidents, and quorum presidents, including deacons and teachers quorum presidents.
Oftentimes these keys are to overlook specific responsibilities and geographical jurisdictions. They eventually trace back to the prophet, and ultimately, to the Savior, Himself.
When I think of keys, I think of unlocking rooms. Let’s pretend that God’s various works (including those not directly associated with the earth) are a giant castle. Different rooms hold different responsibilities and powers that the Lord governs.
The Lord has given a grouping of rooms to the President of the Church on earth, or the prophet. When the Lord gave the prophet the keys, a couple of things happened. He gave the prophet a stewardship. The prophet is now in charge of making sure that what occurs in those rooms are in alignment with what the Lord would have occurring in those rooms.
But as the church grew bigger, it became very difficult for one prophet to oversee so many rooms and consequent responsibilities so he started delegating keys. The prophet can still access any of these rooms and perform responsibilities associated with those rooms, but he often chooses, delegates, and allows other leaders to perform their responsibilities without too much interference.
A mission president is over a room of missionaries found within a geographical area. If a mission president is called over the Salt Lake City North mission, he has no jurisdiction over any other missionaries than the one in his mission. He also doesn’t hold authority over the members. His specific room is for the missionaries.
The same idea goes to temple presidents, stake presidents, bishops, and quorum leaders. Eventually these men get released from their callings and they hand their keys back to be given to a new leader.
As I said previously, the person who holds the key for a specific room is in charge of making sure that everything that occurs in that room aligns with the Lord. Are ordinances being performed correctly? Is the doctrine kept pure from apostasy? Keeping a massive, worldwide church on track is no easy task. Keys help to make sure that the Lord’s church is the same everywhere.
It is also important to note that you don’t need keys to help push the work further along. Though a leader is chosen to hold the keys, all of us have access to God’s priesthood power to make a difference. We can’t get caught up in the idea of leadership. Christ’s example of leadership should give us a real taste of what it means to govern. You don’t have to be a leader to access power or even change the world.
Interestingly enough, I don’t know if priesthood keys are doctrine or policy. If anyone does know, please feel free to comment. I don’t know if keys exist independently or if the Lord created the priesthood organizational system, and the keys were part of the system that He created. I don’t know if keys were just meant to help create a house of order or if they belong to the category of doctrine in which they don’t really get changed.
This post definitely was definitely more informational than some of my other posts, but being able to zoom out and understand some of the basic organizations of God’s priesthood has also helped me better understand my own priesthood responsibilities. It helps me understand the access I have to priesthood power, not just in the form of receiving blessings but also the power I am capable of wielding to further the work of salvation.
There is beauty in the fact that the Lord knows what He’s doing. There is beauty in knowing that there is truth, and I can trust that truth to remain pure no matter where I go and attend church services. The Lord has achieved an incredible amount of unity and continuity in a worldwide church that many world leaders only dream of.
As we come closer and closer to a knowledge of Christ’s character, we receive more and more salvation. We experience more happiness. That’s why the keys are so essential. It keeps our knowledge of Christ accurate and enables us to remain close to Him through the ordinances that He put forth.
I am grateful for a Lord who is wise enough to set up His church as He did. I’m grateful that despite all the imperfections of mankind, He has done a phenomenal job of keeping His truths and ordinances pure so that we can draw as close to Him as possible. I testify that the priesthood is ultimately His to delegate, and that He offers His power to anyone who is worthy and willing. I also testify that He set up a priesthood organization in which He delegated certain responsibilities to push us to become better and keep things as close to the truth as humanly possible.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 102-105 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 18, 2025
Prevail Against Mine Enemies
by Autumn Dickson
The Saints were driven from their homes and living as refugees in Clay County, Missouri. Joseph Smith and other church leaders received letters with news regarding what had happened. Besides the letters, Joseph also received a revelation from the Lord with this declaration:
Doctrine and Covenants 103:6 Behold they shall, for I have decreed it, begin to prevail against mine enemies from this very hour.
The Lord declares that the Saints will begin to succeed over His enemies immediately. This likely brought great hope to those who were worried about the redemption of what was meant to be Zion. As Joseph and other leaders gathered Zion’s camp to go and win back the Saints’ lands, I’m sure they were full of faith that the Lord would help them restore the Saints back to their homes.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Zion’s camp was disbanded. The Saints lived in Clay County and then Caldwell County before being ultimately expelled approximately five years later. They never made it back to their homes in Jackson County where Zion was supposed to be.
Some would argue that they did not succeed against their enemies. Then again, perhaps they were succeeding against the Lord’s enemies. And who is truly the Lord’s enemy? Satan.
It brings to mind different stories from the scriptures.
The Lord commanded Nephi to go and get the brass plates. It took multiple tries before Nephi succeeded against Laban, but what did Nephi learn as he “failed” first? The growth that Nephi received must have been a true victory for the Lord.
The Lord commanded Moses to go and save the Israelites. Plague after plague seemed to fail in softening Pharaoh’s heart. What did the Israelites learn in the meantime as things actually grew progressively harder for them at first? What did they learn as they looked back upon the fact that things were difficult before they were free?
And then of course, the most important battle that ever occurred.
Christ suffered in Gethsemane, and no mortal man watched. He was taken by soldiers, tortured, and then killed. Not exactly a resounding victory to anyone objectively looking from the outside. He rose three days later, and yet, that was only part of the victory. The victory was found in His resurrection, but the victory was also found within His pain and death.
Interestingly enough, the Jews were looking for a Savior to free them from the Romans, and so they completely missed the mark of what would be the most important victory in their unending lives.
What does victory look like to the Lord? His ways are not our ways, and so we can assume that the Saints were likely mistaken when He declared that they would prevail over their enemies and they got excited that they would be restored to their homes in Jackson County.
Some of my most important victories have occurred in what would objectively be seen as losing a battle by the world.
There was a time when my husband’s chosen career path was being taken away from him by lies. I remember watching it all unfolding, and I remember retiring to my room and praying. I told the Lord I knew how powerful He was. We were scrambling to find alternate solutions to keep things on track, but nothing was looking super promising. I pleaded with the Lord to stop the man who was lying and to stop the men who were acting because of those lies. I told the Lord that I knew He was more powerful and could open a door that we didn’t know about and stop everything in its tracks. I knew it would be easy for Him to save us.
I also distinctly remember the Spirit whispering that I should stop praying for that. At that moment, I knew we would “lose.”
Of course, those moments of loss marked the beginning of much more important victories in our lives. The Lord has been merciful in helping me see that our loss led to my husband being placed on a path that would ultimately lead him towards fulfilling the promises he made before he came here. That loss made him grow. It made me grow. Despite all worldly signs pointing to the opposite, I count it as a great victory.
As those Saints struggled along the banks of the river, as they fought persecution for years to come, as they found themselves ultimately driven out, and as they were pushed thousands of miles west, they were finding a victory much more important than land. Within these darkest moments, the Lord was winning His most important victories.
I testify of a Lord who knows what He is talking about and fulfills all His words. I testify that Zion will be redeemed one day, and that the Saints will return there. I also testify that the Lord was beginning His victory against His enemies in the moment He declared so. I testify that He is mighty to save, and I testify that He utilizes our dark moments as part of that victory.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 102-105 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 16, 2025
Did the Lord Fail?
by Autumn Dickson
To give a bit of content for what we’re reading about this week, the Saints have been driven from their homes in Missouri, and Joseph Smith received a revelation that talked about gathering a group of Saints to go and win back their homes. After marching towards Jackson County, the camp was actually disbanded.
Doctrine and Covenants 105:13 Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion.
The Lord called off what the Saints believed to be the original purpose of the Zion’s camp: redeeming the Saints’ lands in Missouri. Here is a bit of what the Lord said about His true purpose.
Doctrine and Covenants 105:19 …and it is expedient in me that they should be brought thus far for a trial of their faith.
There are two ways that the Saints could have their faith built during this experience. The first way is how to stick around when the going gets tough.
Being a part of Zion’s Camp was not an easy thing. It was hot and muggy. Food and water could be scarce. There was disease, and members of Zion’s camp even died of cholera on this expedition that did not provide the results that many Saints looked for.
One of the characteristics the Lord is trying to instill and test us in is the idea that we will follow Him. Truly follow Him, not just rewards.
In the New Testament, many followers left when they realized that He wasn’t going to keep miraculously giving out bread. Interestingly enough, the bread was a distraction from the most important, life-changing aspects of following Christ. They couldn’t see the miracle of who Christ was because they were too distracted by their want of bread. Never mind that Christ had performed an incredible miracle and dispersed an immense amount of food. The people in the New Testament were too distracted by the fact that their bread stopped to remember that He had done something powerful in their lives. They were too distraught by the lack of bread to stick around and wonder if there was something more powerful at work.
The Lord doesn’t want obedient dogs. He didn’t keep giving out bread just to keep people coming back. He wants the loyalty and love of His people through anything. He doesn’t want to give us a treat every time we show up. He wants us to truly follow Him through thick and thin. He wants us to trust Him when the treat doesn’t immediately appear. He wants us to choose to love Him and follow Him through difficulty just as He followed us through difficulty. The only way that He can instill and test this aspect of faith is to allow us to face incredible obstacles and choose Him.
Trials can try the faith. When you’re trying to fulfill the Lord’s commands and there are obstacles, it can lead you to wonder whether you’re truly fulfilling the Lord’s commands. Understanding the purpose of mortal life can help us understand the irreplaceable effect of trials. The Lord needed to try us or we would never be able to grow into what we needed to become. Trials are not just a punishment; trials are also to help the righteous grow. We cannot afford to see them as proof that the Lord is not with us otherwise it completely prevents us from accessing a level of growth that is completely necessary.
But this experience wasn’t just about trials. There was a second way that this experience could make or break the faith of the Saints.
This faith-shaking experience was not just about a difficult trip; it was about the fact that the trip seemed unsuccessful. This could easily call Joseph’s prophetic call into question, and it did. This experience caused many to wonder, and yet, it did the exact opposite for others. In the Come Follow Me manual we read, “Faithful members of Zion’s Camp, many of whom later became leaders of the Church, testified that the experience deepened their faith in God’s power, in Joseph Smith’s divine call, and in Zion—not just Zion the place but Zion the people of God.”
It deepened their faith in God’s power and Joseph Smith’s divine calling as prophet. From the world’s perspective, this is ridiculous. Why would you believe more in the God that is being preached to you when He couldn’t deliver on His promises? Why would you believe more in Joseph’s calling at the end of this? The idea that the Lord was trying to create a Zion-like people may feel like a thinly-veiled excuse for bailing after the governor rescinded his promise to send a militia to aid the Saints. Why on earth should we believe and continue to follow?
Exploring this concept is important because there are plenty of aspects in the church that don’t make sense from a worldly perspective. There are revelations that seem like sad excuses. For example, the Lord rescinded His command for polygamy when the United States threatened to take away everything that was beloved by the church and Saints. If the Lord is so powerful and if He is truly leading His Saints along through a prophet, why did He bail on Zion’s Camp? Why did He continue to enforce polygamy until the going got too tough?
When it comes to the gospel, it is IMPOSSIBLE to make things make sense from a worldly perspective. Faith precedes understanding. It is impossible to convince someone of Joseph’s prophetic call. If you try to explain that the Lord was trying to build a Zion-people rather than being concerned about the land, they will laugh in your face.
When it comes to the gospel, your testimony cannot form from the idea that it has to make sense before you choose to believe. Sooner or later, you are going to come across something that doesn’t come together in your mind. You are going to come across principles, policies, or history that feel like they create cognitive dissonance in your mind.
It would seem like the Lord would try to avoid these faith-shaking experiences altogether. He’s trying to build our faith. Why would He allow it to be shaken after this manner?
Interestingly enough, the only way to build a truly strong faith is to let it be shaken. Faith is not knowing everything. Faith is choosing to trust when we don’t know.
The Lord wants to take our testimony from, “I know the Lord leads His church today because He made this miracle happen,” to, “I know the Lord leads His church today, and I will follow Him through hell if He calls me to do so.” When we can unlock that second level of faith, we become powerful disciples. We find a new level of salvation when we find that trust and relinquish our need to control and understand everything.
How do we make that jump in faith? How did the members of the Zion’s Camp come out of this experience with stronger faith rather than weaker faith?
I’m sure there are many answers, but I can only truly share my own.
I talk to God, and He answers. For me, that is the single largest portion of my testimony.
I have had experiences where I have looked back in awe at how the Lord made everything come together for me. I was amazed when I saw how He manipulated details from the years before to help everything stitch together and help me come out on top. Those are faith-building experiences. They helped me grow in my faith.
But they no longer define my faith. I am immensely grateful for those experiences. I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to look back and see how the Lord saved me because He has indeed saved me. I am grateful, but they do not define my faith.
My faith has shifted. I talk to Him on a regular basis, and He answers, and I will not deny it. When things don’t go as planned, when I feel confused, when something new comes along that makes me wonder if I’m on the right track, I talk to Him and He answers. Regardless of whether He chooses to give me a new perspective or help me understand something, I have talked with Him enough that I trust Him. He is my Friend. He has shown me His power enough, and I will follow Him.
I have had enough experiences with Him to hold on, and I am happier since I have let go and chosen to trust Him through anything. I testify that when you choose to keep at it and continue to follow this path that has been presented to you, you will find the same results. In fact, you will be grateful that He allowed you the experience of questioning and finding Him again and again.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 98-101 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 12, 2025
To Become Like Him
by Autumn Dickson
We read about many stories in the scriptures where someone is a type of Christ. We seek to be a type of Christ. We seek to pattern our lives after Him. There is a verse in Doctrine and Covenants that puts forth a similar idea.
Doctrine and Covenants 101:4 Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son.
In the story of Abraham and Isaac, Isaac is a type of Christ who was willing to follow his father’s will. And though we often speak of people being a type of Christ, it’s interesting to me how Abraham was able to be a type of Heavenly Father. He was willing to sacrifice his son if that’s what was required.
The Saints in Missouri at this time were driven out of their homes and were camped out on the river in the cold. Approximately 200 of their homes had been burned down, and many had lost all. They had not been asked to sacrifice their son, but they had been asked to sacrifice something they had longed for – a safe home.
Why would the Lord ask His people to sacrifice these things? Why would He ask Abraham to sacrifice his son? Why would He allow the Saints to be tried in this manner? As the Saints continue to flee persecution in this time period, many will lose more than homes.
Why does the Lord take away so much and ask us to love Him anyway?
Let’s explore it.
We are meant to be more than a type of Christ. We are meant to be more than a type of Heavenly Father. We are meant to become like Them. We are meant to inherit what They have. We are meant to inherit Their characteristics, who They are.
Our Heavenly Parents cannot allow us to inherit all that They have without us being prepared to act responsibly.
The Lord allowed the Saints to be expelled from Missouri because they were not spiritually prepared to build up Zion, and they would not become spiritually prepared by remaining there. Zion would have been forever lost if the Lord allowed anyone to live there just as heaven would be lost if He was not willing to make the necessary judgment calls. In order to preserve Zion, in order to preserve heaven, the Savior had to be willing to make the difficult decision.
Why does He ask us to sacrifice so much? Because we have to be like Him; we have to be prepared to make difficult decisions. We have to be tried to the extent that we are willing to sacrifice as Abraham was willing to sacrifice. If we are not prepared to live like Him and if He chose to allow us to inherit all that He has anyway, we would destroy heaven when we couldn’t make the difficult decisions that He has to make. When we have to watch our own children experiencing mortality, will we be strong enough to allow them to struggle and strive in order to become all they’re capable of becoming? Will we love them enough to let them suffer if it is the only means by which they can eventually reach a full happiness? If not, the Lord has to be willing to withhold some of His blessings in the next life. He has to be willing to sacrifice all that He had in mind for us if we are not prepared to receive it.
Despite His willingness to make those decisions, make no mistake; it was difficult for the Lord to watch His Saints on the bank of that river. It hurts Him to watch us suffer.
Doctrine and Covenants 101:9 Verily I say unto you, notwithstanding their sins, my bowels are filled with compassion towards them. I will not utterly cast them off; and in the day of wrath I will remember my mercy.
He loves us. He, more than anyone, loves us. And this is precisely why He requires so much sacrifice of us.
Going back to the original verse in this post, we read that the Saints have to be chastened and tried even as Abraham. The word “chasten” means to correct or to discipline. We’ve heard that definition many times. I was interested to learn that “chasten” also means to “have a restraining or moderating effect on.” It implies the idea of subduing intense feelings. This definition makes a lot of sense when I think of Heavenly Father having to sacrifice His Beloved Son. He had to subdue His intense love for His Son on behalf of the rest of us; there was no other way. And then He also needed to not hate the rest of mankind for requiring such a sacrifice.
That’s what we have to become. We have to be willing to sacrifice and continue to love those around us because that’s what our Heavenly Father is. That’s what our Savior is. It is the only kind of Being that can truly live an eternally joyful life.
To recap, our Heavenly Father loves us dearly. We are His children. He was willing to sacrifice His Son on our behalf, and He was willing to love the rest of mankind that required that sacrifice. It was the only way He could save us. He was willing to watch His Saints sit on the river banks in the dead of winter for their own behalf. It was the only way He could save us. He had to subdue His intense feelings of love in order to help us reach the greatest good. More accurately, He had to subdue the intense desire to shield us because He loves us.
If we want to receive all that He has, we have to hold those same characteristics. The only way we can gain those kinds of characteristics is in real-life practice. And so the Lord allows us to be chastened and tried even as Abraham, and we get to see whether we’re willing to endure chastening and still love Him afterwards. We cannot learn the importance of these lessons unless we live them.
I testify of a Lord and Savior who loves us so much that He is willing to subdue His strong inclinations to protect us in order to help us become all that we are capable of becoming. I testify that all that we suffer can one day contribute to the glory He intends to give. I testify that loving Him for what He gives and loving Him for what He chooses to take away can bring the greatest peace, happiness, and joy.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 98–99, 102, 106, 108, 134 – Mike Parker
Sep 10, 2025
The Lord’s people & secular governments
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
In March 1907, the First Presidency issued a proclamation affirming that the Church is politically neutral, and that the state should not control the church, neither should the church control the state: “An Address: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the World,”, Improvement Era 10, no. 5 (May 1907): 492–93.
Today’s First Presidency has continued to reaffirm this policy; see “Political Neutrality,” Newsroom of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship,” Ensign, June 1976, 3–6. President Kimball’s First Presidency message, criticizing militarism among Latter-day Saints, was published one month before the commemoration of the United States bicentennial.
Rodney Stark, “The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History,” PBS Frontline: From Jesus to Christ, April 1998. Stark, a world-renowned sociologist of religion, argues that what made early Christianity unique—and one reason why it prospered and became a world religion—was because it “taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful.”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 98-101 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 08, 2025
In Peace and Trouble
by Autumn Dickson
The Saints in Missouri were experiencing tremendous persecution at this time. The leaders of the mob wanted the Saints to promise that they would leave Missouri by spring, and they wanted the Saints to promise it within 15 minutes of demanding that they do so. The situation was tricky. The Lord had commanded them to build up Zion, but the opportunity to do so was being taken forcefully out of their hands.
How would you have responded? You’ve been commanded to build up Zion, but you’re still finding yourself under the influence of evil men. The Lord is all-powerful and able to defend you against all your enemies, but He’s been pretty quiet.
When the leaders didn’t immediately promise that they would leave, the violence escalated. Property was destroyed. People were attacked. The leaders finally relented and promised to leave.
I’m not sure how many of us have been threatened with bodily harm if we do not relent following the commandments, but the Lord often allows obstacles to arise to oppose us as we try to follow His commandments. So what do you do?
The Lord recommends this course of action.
Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-2
1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;
2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.
Fear not. Be comforted. Rejoice. Give thanks. Wait on the Lord.
Let’s talk about the first three together. Fear not; be comforted; rejoice.
Whenever I’ve felt commanded by the Lord to do something and it’s not working out, my main fear has become that I’m not doing enough to follow through on the Lord’s commands. I think of Nephi. If the Lord commands it, then it’s going to happen. So am I not being faithful enough? I worry that the Lord is upset with me or that I’m not being good enough.
Since then, I have learned that if I am putting forth an honest effort, I don’t need to be afraid of the Lord being angry. Nephi didn’t obtain the brass plates the first time despite his tremendous faith. The Lord wasn’t punishing him; He wasn’t upset with Nephi. Sometimes, the Lord simply doesn’t allow us to succeed the first time despite His ability to help us succeed the first time. It’s not because our faith is insufficient to bring the miracle immediately; it’s because true faith is acquired and shown when we keep at it after it didn’t work out the first time.
We do not have to be afraid that the Lord isn’t powerful enough to follow through. We do not have to be afraid we’re innately insufficient to fulfill what He has asked. We do not have to be afraid when it doesn’t work out how we were expecting. We do not have to be afraid that the Lord is angry with us because it doesn’t feel like it’s immediately coming together.
We can choose to trust the Lord so completely that we feel comforted and rejoice in His yet-to-be-fulfilled promises. If He promised it, it’s happening even if it takes a little while.
So fear not. Be comforted. Rejoice.
His next piece of advice is to give thanks. Interestingly enough, giving thanks is one practical way to help ourselves get to the point where we can set aside our fears, allow ourselves to be comforted, and rejoice. “Giving thanks” isn’t an “end;” it’s a journey that takes us to our desired end: peace and joy in Christ. We thank Him for the times He has shown up before. We thank Him that nothing in this life can take away our happy ending. We thank Him that despite our own imperfections, He is mighty to save. As we reflect and find gratitude for Him and His choices, we find that comfort and joy.
And as we rejoice, we show up diligently doing our best and wait on Him to come and do His own work on His own timetable. Waiting on Him is His last piece of advice.
If you were a leader in Missouri at this time, the right course of action is to wait on the Lord. We read about stories in the scriptures where the Lord fights all the battles for His people. We read about stories where the Lord commands His people to flee. We read about stories where He allows them to be attacked regardless of whether they were being righteous because sometimes He simply allows His children to be tried.
We might not be sure which scenario the Lord is going for, and so we wait on Him to answer and do the best we can in the meantime because He doesn’t always answer immediately even when the situation feels dire. We choose to trust the Lord in times of plenty and in times of scarcity. We rejoice in His wisdom in what He allows to come to pass, and we wait for all He’s promised.
I testify of a Lord who is all-powerful to save, but I also testify of a Lord who doesn’t step in to stop every tragedy. I testify of a Lord who has a plan even if He doesn’t reveal it immediately. I testify of a Lord who we can trust in, and I testify that if we trust in Him, we will find comfort and peace even when the situation is trying to pummel us with the opposite. We can set aside our fears, allow ourselves to be comforted, give thanks for however He chooses to let things play out, and we wait.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 94-97 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 06, 2025
Unclean
by Autumn Dickson
The Lord is giving instructions about things He wants built in Kirtland, Ohio. The verses I’m about to share describe a building that was meant to be a meeting place for the First Presidency to carry out their work, but it was never built. The Lord gave some pretty specific instructions for its construction; these instructions were both spiritual and temporal. Here are some of His spiritual instructions for the building.
Doctrine and Covenants 94:8-9
8 And ye shall not suffer any unclean thing to come in unto it; and my glory shall be there, and my presence shall be there.
9 But if there shall come into it any unclean thing, my glory shall not be there; and my presence shall not come into it.
The Lord is very clear here. In fact, He is doubly clear. If it is kept clean, He will be there. If it is not, He won’t be.
We live in a world that despises being called unclean. It flip flops between playing a victim and being enraged that we would dare to label it. We are the bad ones for using the word unclean. And yet, here is the Lord, Himself, using it. He’s not necessarily pronouncing eternal judgment, but neither is He afraid to call it what it is. There is power in being able to label something as unclean as long as we don’t let Satan push us to use it in a damaging way.
When the Lord describes something as unclean, it’s for two reasons that boil down to one reason. The two reasons are: He is trying to keep you safe, and He wants to make you the best person you can be. Both of those reasons boil down to one: He loves you.
Let’s look at this idea of uncleanliness through the lens of those two motivations of the Lord: keeping you safe and helping you be the best you can be.
The first lens is keeping you safe. One of the examples that the world truly hates is the Law of Chastity. I view teaching the Law of Chastity in the same way I teach my kids about safety regarding the street.
I teach my kids how to utilize a street correctly. I teach them when it’s safe to cross the street. I teach them to look around and make a judgment call about whether it’s safe to cross the street. I teach them that crossing the street is an important part of life (okay, I don’t really teach that but I plan on teaching the Law of Chastity equivalent). I teach them all the important aspects of crossing the street, and I teach them that there are appropriate times to cross the street.
But you better believe that I’m also teaching them about how incredibly dangerous it can be to cross the street if you do it unwisely.
I don’t hesitate to tell my kids that they can get hit by a car. I don’t hesitate to tell my kids that even if they’re big enough to look across the street, their baby sister is not. I am unafraid of teaching my kids the consequences of ignoring danger. Everyone can understand this when it comes to crossing the street. For some reason, the world has a difficult time understanding this in terms of the Law of Chastity.
You can teach a child that intimacy is good in the right circumstances, and you can teach them that their divine identities rejoice in the righteous use of sexuality. In fact, you should teach them this. There doesn’t need to be any shame. Interestingly enough, you can simultaneously teach them that using it inappropriately can cause a lot of harm. You can teach them that breaking the Law of Chastity is unclean. Or, in other gospel words, it can bring a mess into their lives that the Savior can heal and put back together after a lot of work.
The Lord uses the label unclean so that we know to stay away from it. It’s to keep us safe.
But uncleanliness isn’t just about the Law of Chastity. There are many thoughts, feelings, and actions that can be unclean.
We can also view the term “unclean” by looking at it through the lens of the Lord trying to make us a better person.
When I first read this verse, I had a slightly inaccurate picture come to my imagination. I pictured the Savior wanting to walk into the building that was meant to be kept clean before realizing that there was someone or something inside of it that was unclean. I pictured Him not turning His back in a rage, but in frustration that He couldn’t come in because His glory would burn whatever was unclean. Obviously, there are some serious logistical flaws with that imagination, but it also holds a tiny portion of truth.
Our Heavenly Father and Savior will not allow uncleanliness into their kingdom because it would be devoured in the fire in which they dwell.
Oftentimes, Satan tries to use this concept to influence us to despair and give up, but what if we flip that on its head?
Instead, we can realize that the whole point of coming here was to become like our Heavenly Father and Savior. We came here to internalize the fact that we are meant to be glorious; our countenances are meant to grow into the countenance of our Savior. We are meant to become so incredible that our countenances are like lightning, that we dwell in that same burning fire that He does. All of the things that the Savior deems “unclean” are actually beneath us. Like our Savior, we don’t deign to utilize things that cause harm.
And when we are imperfect (because we’re not like the Savior yet), He cleanses us. That was always the plan.
The term “unclean” was utilized to warn us that something could harm us and make a mess in our lives (such as in the street example); it was also utilized to warn us that something was beneath what we were meant to become.
Satan likes to twist it. Satan is the one trying to tie the term “unclean” to your identity when you make mistakes, and then he likes to point at the Church and blame them for making you despair. Satan is the one who likes to bring a mess into your lives and whisper to you that the only reason you feel unhappy is because the Church shames you.
When used correctly, “unclean” is a warning from a loving Savior. It was never meant to describe your identity! Why on earth would the Savior go through what He went through if He believed you were just innately unclean? Satan is the one who whispers it when in actuality, the opposite is true. “Unclean” was meant to help you keep your divine identity and make you realize that you deserve so much more.
I testify of a Savior who loves us enough to warn us. I testify that the word “unclean” can seem so harsh, but it can also be descriptive and teach us something valuable, namely the fact that the Savior can cleanse us and make us whole. I truly testify of that; we can rejoice because the Savior can cleanse us and make us whole. Because of Him, we can eventually reach the point where we internalize that all of that unhappiness is beneath us and no longer allow it to bring us down.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 2, 94–97, 109–110 – Mike Parker
Sep 05, 2025
The Kirtland Temple
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
“The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by The First Presidency and The Twelve,” Improvement Era 19, no. 10 (August 1916): 934–42. This official declaration firmly rooted the identification of Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament, with Jesus Christ. Prior to this, the name-title Jehovah was used by Latter-day Saints to indicate either the Father or the Son (as seen in section 109).
These two articles explore the identity of the figure of Elias who appeared in the Kirtland Temple on 3 April 1836 (D&C 110:12): Kevin Barney, “Who was the Elias of D&C 110?,” By Common Consent, 2 March 2006; Samuel Brown, “The Prophet Elias Puzzle,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 39, no. 3 (Fall 2006): 1–17.
Trever Anderson, “Doctrine and Covenants Section 110: From Vision to Canonization,” master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, July 2010. Anderson explores how the account of the appearances of Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah was recorded, taught, and eventually canonized in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 94-97 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 04, 2025
Building the Temple
by Autumn Dickson
One of the most impressive accomplishments made by the early Saints of this dispensation was to build the Kirtland temple. Many Saints didn’t have much to begin with, and many of them abandoned what they had in order to gather in Kirtland, Ohio. Brigham Young recorded that some of the workers didn’t have shoes.
But the temple was a requirement of the Lord, and He strongly reiterated His command to build one.
Doctrine and Covenants 97:10 Verily I say unto you, that it is my will that a house should be built unto me in the land of Zion, like unto the pattern which I have given you.
The Lord wanted His house built, and He wanted it according to His own plans.
In the book Saints, we learn that, “Lucy Mack Smith remembered a council meeting in which it was decided that a frame building would be too expensive; a log house was proposed instead. Joseph Smith reminded them ‘that they were not making a house for themselves or any other man but a house for God.’ He said, “And shall we, brethren, build a house for Our God of logs? No, brethren, I have a better plan than that. I have the plan of the house of the Lord given by himself.”
Sometimes the Lord gives us a task, and we want to use logs. It’s practical to use logs. It’s cheaper. You can do basically the same thing with logs. If you use logs, then you can use other resources for other important tasks. And yet, sometimes the Lord asks for stone anyway.
Why does the Lord require stone? Judging from what we know about Him, I wouldn’t say it’s because He’s got an ego and refuses to take less. It’s not because He wants us to spend as much as we can on Him. Honestly, it’s not really about Him.
My mother always taught me that serving someone helps you love them. The world often thinks that love stems from someone treating you right and saying all the perfect things, but it’s not true. That can help the process, but real, lasting love comes when you choose to serve someone else before yourself. We see this process occur constantly with mothers and children.
When the Saints left Kirtland, they were devastated to lose their temple so quickly after dedicating it. Some might argue that it was cruel for the Lord to ask for those sacrifices when He knew that they would be driven out shortly after. Some might question Joseph’s connection to heaven; how come he didn’t know they would lose the temple? Why would he waste so many resources when they could have saved and built a temple in a more permanent home?
But it’s not really about the building!
Imagine for a moment that the Lord told the Saints that they could build a log cabin instead of the mighty temple that they built. I understand that I’m making assumptions here, but I’m also making assumptions off of normal human nature. If the Saints had built their temple from logs, I imagine the Saints looking back in devastation over their homes rather than the temple as they were driven out. I’m sure many Saints mourned their homes AND the stone temple, but if the temple had been constructed of logs, I imagine very few of them would have missed it in the same manner.
Why do I make these assumptions?
Because we see it all the time in our day. I am grateful for the temple, but I don’t think I appreciate it on the same level as someone who has saved and worked and waited for the opportunity to travel hundreds of miles in order to go and take out their endowment and be sealed to their families. It is actually more difficult for me to prepare my heart for the temple in comparison to someone who has had to work so hard for it. Ironic, right?
The Saints mourned the temple they had worked so hard for because the Saints loved the temple and what it gave them. The Saints appreciated what they were given there because they dedicated so much to it. It was difficult to leave it behind, but that’s precisely the type of heart the Lord was looking to nurture. Though they mourned that magnificent building they had sacrificed for, the Lord rejoiced over how their hearts had turned towards what He was offering them. He rejoiced that requiring stone gave them the opportunity to give over their hearts bit by bit. It enabled the process by which they could more fully appreciate the ordinances therein.
The Lord wants us to love Him more than anything else. He wants us to love Him more than anything earthly and sometimes developing that kind of love requires an opportunity for us to choose Him over earthly things. What do we really prioritize? What do we really value? You can’t truly know until it’s asked of you. And if it frustrates you that the Lord would ask you to sacrifice, then you probably love what you’re sacrificing more than you love the Lord. Hence, He asks us to sacrifice. He wants our hearts.
The Lord can endow us with power in a log cabin, but preparing our hearts to love and receive and honor requires more. He can’t force us to love Him. He has to give us opportunities to build that love and then hope we take advantage of it.
I testify of a loving and wise Heavenly Father. I testify that He does ask for sacrifice, not because He can’t provide enough resources and make the process easy but because it’s difficult to hand over our hearts when we don’t have to lose anything for it. He gave us agency, and He refuses to take it away. So instead of taking away our agency and forcing us to “love” Him, He provides us with opportunities to decide whether we’re going to choose Him.
I testify that choosing Him is worth it. I’ve never had to sacrifice much to attend the temple, but I have had to sacrifice things I love to put Him first. It has been worth it every time. Even when those sacrifices didn’t seem to amount to anything, they pushed my heart towards the Lord and that’s the most important thing. I’m so grateful He gives me opportunities to choose Him and love Him. I rejoice in it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
FAIR Conference Podcast #84 – Ahmad S. Corbitt, “Prophets of the Past, Faithfulness in the Present”
Sep 03, 2025
This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2024 conference. If you would like to watch all the presentations from our 2025 conference held last month, you can still purchase the video streaming.
This audio podcast version has been made available for convenient listening. If you would like to watch or read the full presentation, it is available here.
Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in April 2023. A former mission president, public affairs director, and trial attorney, he holds a law degree from Rutgers. Currently, he serves the Church with extensive experience in leadership, communication, and global outreach.
Classic FAIR – “What I Learned about Life, the Church, and the Cosmos from Hugh Nibley” – Boyd Petersen, 2005
Aug 29, 2025
“What I Learned about Life, the Church, and the Cosmos from Hugh Nibley” by Boyd Petersen at the 2005 FAIR Conference
February 24, 2005 was one of those beautiful false-spring days when we all leave our coats at home and venture out in shirt sleeves, despite the fact that we all know that winter will have one final gasp before yielding to spring. The snow had all melted from the valley floor, but the mountains were covered with a brilliant white snow pack that contrasted sharply against the deep blue sky. The temperatures were making their first climb into the seventies, and everyone wanted to be outside. My students and I were all restless as I plodded through another lecture on formatting research papers. Between classes, I stopped by my office to check my e-mail when I got a call from my wife. “He’s gone,” she practically whispered. I immediately knew. Hugh Nibley was no longer with us. We believe that, like the rest of us, Hugh had simply longed to be outside, to leave the hospital bed that had been his home for almost two years and enjoy the beautiful day.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 93 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 28, 2025
Glory of God
by Autumn Dickson
Section 93 is full of truth that revolves around how eternity works. It speaks of light, knowledge, and application. It speaks of our eternal nature. Here is one important, eternal principle.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:36 The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.
Here is a quote from Joseph Smith that is enlightening. He taught:
God has created man with a mind capable of instruction, and a faculty which may be enlarged in proportion to the heed and diligence given to the light communicated from heaven to the intellect; and that the nearer man approaches perfection, the clearer are his views, and the greater his enjoyments, till he has overcome the evils of his life and lost every desire for sin…
When I was on my mission, I taught a lot of Chinese students who had come to the United States for an education. Many of these students had backgrounds in Buddhism, and I learned a bit about their beliefs as I worked with them. Forgive me if I get a bit of their beliefs wrong, but I’m going to try and describe a bit of their understanding.
Buddhists believe that suffering is something that occurs because of our nature here on earth. They believe that suffering can be ended, and that you overcome suffering by letting go of attachments and cravings for things that are not permanent (we would probably say eternal). Eventually you reach a state called enlightenment where I would repeat what Joseph Smith described. You receive truth, approach perfection, your views become clearer, and your enjoyments grow deeper until you overcome all the evils that are holding you back.
I grew to love many of their perspectives and found that they held a lot of truth. The gospel according to Autumn believes that they once received truth but apostasized just like many of the Western religions; they just went in the opposite directions. Where many Western religions left behind the idea of personal progress in exchange for faith-only based salvation, Buddhism went to the other side of the spectrum. You grow and grow and receive more and more joy, but they lost the incredible aspects of Christ and His grace. There is truth there, just not all of it.
And though they lost that essential portion of salvation, I believe that they hold perspectives that can add to our understanding of the truth.
Part of salvation is receiving light, growing, overcoming natural tendencies and cravings, and eventually arriving at a state where you can enjoy all the eternities have to offer. I know of many people who have walked further in their path of enlightenment, and they truly enjoy much.
Section 93 speaks of truth, and one of the truths that can add to our understanding of this section is that wickedness never was happiness. There is innate suffering with clinging to things that are not eternal. When we can school our thoughts, desires, and loves to cling to the things of eternity, we let go of the wickedness that binds our soul to unhappiness.
Christ can cleanse us and keep us in the Celestial Kingdom all He wants. However, if we continue to cling to unhappiness we cannot partake in the fullness of salvation because salvation is the epitome of deepest joy. How can you experience the deepest joy if you still love unhappiness?
So we work and overcome and walk towards enlightenment, or more accurately, towards exaltation where we are in a state where we can actually receive a fullness of joy. All the while, Christ keeps us continually clean until that beautiful day that He no longer has to. We rejoice and worship Him for making our journey mean something, for paying the price so that all the suffering we caused others can be made up, for paying the price so that we can be cleansed and cleansed so we can stand in the presence of our beloved Father. We rejoice and get to enjoy being around Him.
The Institute Manual shares a quote from President Joseph F. Smith. He teaches, “…Intelligence is the glory of God; and no man can be saved in ignorance.”
You can’t be saved in ignorance because salvation is not just about cleanliness and innocence. You can’t be saved in ignorance because you can’t fully enjoy all there is to enjoy without intelligence, and salvation is the epitome of joy.
We believe in receiving light and truth. We believe in overcoming the natural man so that we no longer cling to unhappiness. We believe in Christ’s atonement that saves. We believe in a fullness of joy, a fullness of salvation.
I testify of a Savior who has so much more to give. I testify that He yearns to give it as soon as we are ready to receive it. I testify that His salvation includes His cleansing and healing; I also testify that His salvation includes His knowledge and power and glory that we can progress towards.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 93 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 25, 2025
A Type of Christ
by Autumn Dickson
Doctrine and Covenants 93 teaches us about the character of God and our Savior who came to the earth. Here is just a little of what is taught to us.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
There is a quote in the Institute Manual that provides some more clarification.
President Lorenzo Snow taught:
When Jesus lay in the manger, a helpless infant, He knew not that He was the Son of God, and that formerly He created the earth. When the edict of Herod was issued, He knew nothing of it; He had not power to save Himself; and [Joseph and Mary] had to take Him and [flee] into Egypt to preserve Him from the effects of that edict. … He grew up to manhood, and during His progress it was revealed unto Him who He was, and for what purpose He was in the world. The glory and power He possessed before He came into the world was made known unto Him.
When we place this side by side with a quote from the Come Follow Me manual, we learn an important truth.
We learn from Joseph Smith that, “If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves.”
We came here to become like Christ. Ideally, people would be able to look back at our lives and see a type of Christ. There are so many things that we could talk about in the scripture and quotes I just shared. We could talk about what perfection actually looks like. Christ has always been perfect, and He still had to grow and learn who He was. We could talk about who our Savior wants us to become and what He wants to share with us. Many people believe exaltation is blasphemous; I say that I worship God all the more because He wants to give me so much more than I deserve. There is so much we could talk about.
I want to talk about the fact that Christ had to learn who He was. He grew from grace to grace. In the manger, He was as unaware as the rest of us and had to progress. Part of that progression included learning about why He came to earth. I want to talk about the fact that understanding this portion of His character can help us understand ourselves. This is yet another way that we can mimic Christ.
You have to learn who you are. You came here to learn and grow and become, but you were also given responsibilities. They are not as magnificent as the Savior, but they do typify Him. They are still important.
There are many whose gut reaction is to say, “Oh no…I’m not important. I’m not anything special. I was not special before I came here. I’m not good enough to contribute.”
Imagine the power that Satan would have gained if he could have convinced Christ that humility meant giving up His identity. Imagine, for a moment, the power that Satan does hold because He has convinced us that humility means allowing him to tell us that we have nothing to contribute.
It is a powerful day when you’re able to cast off the idea that you have to make yourself small. It is a powerful day when you decide that through the power of Christ, you can do anything He needs you to do. It is a powerful day when you learn that accomplishing grand and important things does not always look grand and important. It is a powerful day when you simply accept what the Lord wants you to do without allowing Satan to whisper that you’re incapable or that your role isn’t particularly paramount.
When I think of my most important calling, I think of being a mother. I am a mother to my own children, but I have been a mother to many before that and I will mother many who come after. Being a mother is part of accepting my divine identity to nurture God’s children and help them know who they are.
It is not glamorous or loud. The world will often laugh at it or outright scorn it.
But I am powerful. I know who I am even if the world rejects me like they rejected Christ. No, I do not innately hold the power that He held, but I have all the power I need because He carries me and enables me. I can do all things through Christ. “All things” does not necessarily mean that I will move a mountain. Likely, it means that I will do something far more important. It means that I will powerfully love those around me.
Christ came here without any idea of who He really was. He did not know He was a God at first. He did not know that He could wipe out Herod or the Romans or the evil Jews if necessary. And when He did learn it, He did something more powerful. He loved and made Himself a servant. And by doing so, He stepped into His identity and changed the world. We can be a type of Christ and follow after Him.
I testify that Christ wants you to be His joint heir. That doesn’t mean simply receiving a mansion. It means so much more. He wants US to become so much more, and that blessing is readily available to us regardless of where we were born or how much we were born with. Even the least of us can be incredibly powerful with nothing but our faith in Christ. He can make us mighty to save with His power. We can let Him lead us to our roles in life, and we can trust that those roles can change the world as He did. We can also remember that changing the world as He did will look like Him, quietly serving and lifting where we stand.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 89-92 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 21, 2025
The Destroying Angel
by Autumn Dickson
There is a reference to an Old Testament record found in Doctrine and Covenants 89, and it can give us insight about the power of the Word of Wisdom in our day.
Doctrine and Covenants 89:21 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise that the destroying angel shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.
When Moses was working to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, the last plague involved a destroying angel that would enter into the houses of man and kill the firstborn son. The Israelites were instructed to sacrifice a lamb, paint its blood on the doorposts, and remain home on the night of the Passover. If they did this, the destroying angel would not enter into their homes to hurt their child.
I noticed two parallels between the story of Moses freeing the Israelites and the Word of Wisdom in our day. Let’s talk about them.
When the Israelites were instructed to put blood on their doorposts, it was only to protect their oldest son. The destroying angel wasn’t coming for everyone; it was just coming for one of them. Even if the Word of Wisdom only protected one of your children, would you teach it? Would you apply it? Perhaps many of us could have lived without the Word of Wisdom and ultimately escaped nasty habits, compromising circumstances, and situations where you weren’t able to adequately protect yourself. However, I have enough friends who have been negatively impacted by alcohol alone (not even including drugs) to know that making a blanket commandment to avoid it is wise on the part of the Lord. I have no idea if I would have been the one destroyed if I had partaken in these substances, but I’m grateful I didn’t have to find out the hard way. I’m grateful that it provided protection to many of my loved ones.
Another parallel.
Sometimes I wonder what killed the firstborn son. Sometimes I wonder if the blood on the doorpost did something scientifically to protect the family. Does the Lord know something we don’t about how blood on a door might protect against a certain disease? Or, did the Lord simply choose something symbolic and performed a miracle so that it would not touch the Israelites?
Regardless of whether this was some kind scientific application, I hope I would have been wise enough to follow Moses and receive that blessing.
It’s easy to see how alcohol, tobacco, and drugs should be avoided. Even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, I feel like most people recognize that alcohol, tobacco, and drugs can be dangerous. Coffee is less dangerous, but it’s still easy to recognize how it affects our bodies and that it can be addictive. Tea is interesting. Numerous sources teach the benefits of tea. You can develop a caffeine addiction with tea, but even that is possible to avoid. So what’s the deal with tea?
The Lord taught Joseph Smith how dangerous tobacco was decades before scientific research followed. It wasn’t until the 1950’s or 1960’s that solid medical studies were being published about the potential harmful effects. The Lord warned His Saints to avoid it and protect themselves. This was really interesting since there were even doctors who promoted tobacco as a health cure through the 19th century. What I’m trying to express is the idea that the Lord knew the dangers of tobacco long before the health community did.
Is this also the case with tea? Is there a scientific reason that the Lord has banned tea? Is there something about tea that we do not yet know? Or, is it truly just a sign of obedience?
In the end, does it matter?
Whether it’s scientific or arbitrary on the part of the Lord, we have been given a specific promise that the destroying angel will pass over us. Really, it comes down to whether we believe in a modern-day prophet just as it came down to whether the Israelites believed in Moses as a prophet. Will we choose to place the blood on our doors despite all of the logical reasons to avoid doing so? Do we believe in a prophet?
I testify of a Lord who makes and keeps promises. I testify that the Word of Wisdom is not the first time the Lord has utilized a covenant to protect the health of His people. I testify that following a prophet, even when it doesn’t seem to outwardly make sense, will provide protection whether that’s through natural consequences or from pure obedience and blessings directly given by the Lord.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
FAIR Conference Podcast #83 – Daniel C. Peterson, “Brigham Young and Slavery”
Aug 20, 2025
This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2025 conference held earlier this month. If you would like to watch all the presentations from the conference, you can still purchase the video streaming.
This audio podcast version has been edited to make it easier for listening. If you would like to watch the full presentation, it is available here.
Daniel C. Peterson is the president of the Interpreter Foundation, which publishes the online periodical Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, produces books, convenes conferences, and sponsors a weekly radio program: https://interpreterfoundation.org. He and his wife were the executive producers of the 2021 theatrical film Witnesses and have served in the same capacity for its 2022 docudrama sequel, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon.
A native of southern California who earned his doctorate at UCLA after study at BYU, in Jerusalem, and in Cairo, he retired on 1 July 2021 as a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic at Brigham Young University, where he had taught since 1985.
Formerly director of research and chairman of the board of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), now BYU’s Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, he is also a former president of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology and is currently a member of the board of the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy.
Dr. Peterson served in the Switzerland Zürich Mission (1972-1974), and, for approximately eight years, on the Gospel Doctrine writing committee for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also presided for a time as the bishop of a singles ward adjacent to Utah Valley University.
He is married to the former Deborah Stephens, of Lakewood, Colorado, and they have three sons and three granddaughters.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 89 – Mike Parker
Aug 19, 2025
The Word of Wisdom (D&C section 89)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 89-92 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 19, 2025
For the Weakest Saint
by Autumn Dickson
The Word of Wisdom is a gift. Some view this advice as ridiculous and unnecessary. Honestly, it reminds me of when my son thinks it’s ridiculous and unnecessary for him to wear shoes and a helmet when he rides his dirt bike. Sure, he may ride his dirt bike and never get seriously injured. Maybe it even feels better to ride his dirt bike without a helmet, but it is worth protecting yourself.
As I read the Word of Wisdom this week, this verse stuck out to me.
Doctrine and Covenants 89:3 Given for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints.
The Word of Wisdom, our health law given from God, was “adapted to the capacity of the weakest of all saints.” If the Lord adapted it, it means that He “made something suitable for a new purpose.” The Lord modified the Word of Wisdom so that the weakest saints would be capable of following it. The Lord did this in a couple of ways.
The first interpretation was the fact that the Word of Wisdom did not originally come as a commandment. In 1833, it was given to the Saints as some strong advice, as a revelation filled with wisdom. In 1882, the Lord told John Taylor that the Word of Wisdom was to be formally recognized as a commandment. In 1919, Heber J. Grant made it a requirement for the temple recommend. The Lord could have come out and made it a commandment immediately, but there were many people who were addicted to these substances. So the Lord adapted the law for His vulnerable saints. He changed it to start out as advice so that the people could become prepared to live it before it would condemn them.
Though this section is about the Word of Wisdom, this idea of adaptation from the Lord has numerous implications. One of those implications is the fact that the Lord is willing to meet us where we’re at and work with us until we’re where He wants us to be. He knows we’re imperfect and weak. He adapts on a societal level such as when He installed the Law of Moses to give the Israelites a step up towards His higher law. He also adapts on an individual level where He chooses to look at the bigger picture, unafraid of our mistakes along the way.
I had a dear friend who was overcoming a serious, serious pornography addiction. Addiction is definitely a spectrum, and he was thoroughly enmeshed. He didn’t have much support at home and had started extremely young. If I remember correctly, he found himself entrapped in pornography even before the age of accountability. In many ways, he was on his own to overcome it. And without support, especially as a young kid, overcoming it was going to be difficult (to put it lightly).
He had some wonderful youth leaders who took him in. One of those leaders was inspired by God to help him change his goals in relation to pornography. Because he was so deeply addicted, she recommended taking baby steps. Instead of trying to cut everything out and move on, she recommended starting with smaller goals that would eventually build to that ultimate goal.
His first goal was to make it an hour without looking at some version of pornography. That goal would build to 24 hours. Eventually he would make it to a week, a month, a year. She didn’t worry about what he would pull up at the end of that hour when he had reached his small goal. Rather, she gave him baby steps to work towards that law.
As we speak of adapting, I worry that this could sometimes get taken out of context and used as justification. Adaptation and justification are not the same thing. The entire point of adaptation on the part of the Lord is to help us step towards exaltation. The Law of Moses was definitely a step down from the law Christ wanted to give the Israelites, and yet, it was a step in the correct direction. This is not about justifying our sins or changing the law because we think we’re too weak. It’s about setting ourselves up for eventual success in following the Lord.
The Lord did not give the Word of Wisdom as a full-on commandment in the beginning because He needed to adapt it for those who were already addicted.
There is also a second interpretation of adaptation that I find important. I want to teach this second perspective by jumping back to that original analogy I used with my son and his helmet.
We have a rule in our home that you wear your helmet when you go out on the dirt bike. Imagine if our house rule was actually, “You don’t have to wear a helmet if you’re really strong and talented. Only the weakest family members need to wear a helmet.” There are a few problems that could arise.
First of all, none of my kids would classify themselves as weak riders, not even the four year old. I might as well not bring up the helmets at all. Secondly, even the strongest riders can make mistakes. No matter how strong and talented you are, a blow to the head can cause serious and permanent damage.
The Lord created the Word of Wisdom to protect the weakest of Saints, but He asked all of us to live it because He’s wise enough to know that none of us would classify ourselves as weak. We all think we would be strong enough to use dangerous substances wisely, and there would be significantly more problems. I’m not just talking about addiction. I’m also talking about the kinds of problems that arise within families when inhibitions have been dampened and lines are crossed.
This concept also extends to the idea of the strongest members running into issues. Even if you’re spiritually strong and only utilize substances at certain times, you are still leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable to others with bad intentions. Even the strongest can take a “blow to the head” when they are not adequately mentally present to protect themselves.
The Lord knows that experiences with substances do not always lead to destroyed lives, but the Lord is also wise enough to know that it causes enough pain and destruction to just avoid it altogether. He adapted these principles for the weakest of saints, but these principles protect all of us.
I testify of a Lord who is wise enough and cares enough to get involved and help us stay away from compromising and dangerous situations. I testify of a Lord who wants us to be safe and even though He desires a world where the most vulnerable are protected, I testify that He’s smart enough to know that’s not the world we live in yet. For now, we need these rules to keep us safe and help us protect ourselves more fully. Some see the Word of Wisdom as a desire to control. I see a wise and loving Father who is just trying to help His children live life more fully and healthy. I’m grateful for His protections and sage advice.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 88 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 15, 2025
Accepting Christ’s Gift
by Autumn Dickson
I love when the scriptures give us more insights into how the relationship between the atonement of Jesus Christ and our works come together. I think it’s a relationship that needs to be studied thoroughly if we are to understand how to enjoy Celestial Glory. For while we believe in worthiness and the necessity of following after Christ, we also believe that we were given a gift. Here is a verse that can add another layer to our understanding of the relationship between grace and works.
Doctrine and Covenants 88:33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.
Christ gives us a gift, but we have to utilize the gift. That is one way of describing the relationship between grace and works. Gifts are free. There are no strings attached. There are many who argue that we, as Latter-day Saints, do not believe in grace because we believe in the necessity of worthiness. I do not believe that grace and works are mutually exclusive, and this verse helps to describe it.
When someone gives you a gift at Christmas and you open it and utilize it, does that suddenly mean the gift wasn’t free because you had to work to use it? I’ve been accused of not being a Christian because if we believe in the necessity of works then I don’t truly believe that His gift is free. Believing in the concept of worthiness does not negate the fact that Christ gave His gift. If Christ had been unsuccessful in atoning, and I had still worked towards worthiness, I still wouldn’t have made it to the Celestial Kingdom. No one would. Christ gave a gift of atonement.
As for worthiness, this verse also describes it beautifully. When someone places a gift in your lap, you can be grateful and love that person for putting it in your lap. But who is going to be more grateful to the giver: the person who just stares at the beautifully wrapped gift or the person who opens it and utilizes it?
The gift is free, but salvation has multiple parts because heaven has multiple parts. You enjoy heaven because you’re perfectly clean, near the Savior, and you’re enjoying a heavenly society where love abounds.
The cleanliness (and therefore, the ability to be near God and the Savior) comes from Christ. You cannot stand in the presence of God without that cleanliness or you’ll get eaten alive by the fire that He dwells within. This is where the gift of Christ’s atonement comes into play. He just cleans us. Even if we worked and practiced, our works do not cleanse us. It is free.
But salvation is more than cleanliness. Even if Christ is continually cleaning you (because you don’t believe in worthiness; you didn’t have to change or shed natural man tendencies), you won’t experience salvation even if you’re standing in the location of heaven. You have to be perfectly clean (thank you gift of Christ’s atonement), but salvation is also about enjoying eternity. If you want to enjoy eternity, the works part is necessary.
There is innate unhappiness that comes with wickedness. Wickedness never was happiness. So even if Christ cleanses you continually so that you are capable of standing in heaven, you still won’t be able to enjoy heaven because you are still actively pursuing wickedness that brings in innate unhappiness. You didn’t even really touch your gift. You didn’t open it. It was free. It’s sitting in your lap, but it brought you no joy because you didn’t even use it.
There is another aspect of this verse that I think is really important for Latter-day Saints who overemphasize works. While we believe in worthiness, I believe that Christ is much more willing to save than we think He is. He worked so very hard, harder than we can comprehend, to place that gift in our laps. Fewer things bring Him more satisfaction than when we rejoice and trust in that gift.
He does not want us to be leery of that gift. He doesn’t want us to look at His gift and think, “Mmmm I just don’t know if He really wants me to have this.” HE DOES. Use it. Rejoice in it. Trust it. It was a gift. Rejoice in the fact that He has the power to cleanse over and over and over. Rejoice in the fact that if you’re willing to follow Him, He can work with that.
I’m not perfect. I am so not perfect. But I have found salvation. I have opened the gift and got excited about it. I wave it around for everyone to see. Look what Christ gave me. He gave it to me. I didn’t earn it. I’m getting better at using it. He is teaching me to use it, and that’s going to be enough.
I testify of a Savior who loves you and wants you to rejoice in His perfection. I testify that if you’re willing to follow Him, if you’re trying to do as He asks even if you fail repeatedly, He has the power to pull you along anyway. He can cleanse you until you’ve completely changed and figured it out. He can keep you clean, and you can enjoy the happiness that innately comes with striving to love God and love others. You can rejoice in your salvation.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Classic FAIR – I Don’t Have a Testimony of the History of the Church – Davis Bitton, 2004
Aug 15, 2025
“I Don’t Have a Testimony of the History of the Church” by Davis Bitton at the 2004 FAIR Conference
I don’t have a testimony of the history of the Church. That is why I can be a historian and also a believing Latter-day Saint. I will expand on this idea, but first let me address some related questions.
Do all well-informed historians become anti-Mormons?
The critics would have you believe that they are disinterested pursuers of the truth. There they were, minding their own business, going about their conscientious study of Church history and–shock and dismay!–they came across this, whatever this is, that blew them away. As hurtful as it is for them, they can no longer believe in the Church and, out of love for you, they now want to help you see the light of day.
Let’s get one thing clear: There is nothing in Church history that leads inevitably to the conclusion that the Church is false. There is nothing that requires the conclusion that Joseph Smith was a fraud. How can I say this with such confidence? For the simple reason that the historians who know most about our Church history have been and are faithful, committed members of the Church. Or, to restate the situation more precisely, there are faithful Latter-day Saint historians who know as much about this subject as any anti-Mormon or as anyone who writes on the subject from an outside perspective. With few exceptions, they know much, much more. They have not been blown away. They have not gnashed their teeth and abandoned their faith. To repeat, they have found nothing that forces the extreme conclusion our enemies like to promote.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants sections 88, 93 – Mike Parker
Aug 14, 2025
“The Olive Leaf”; the divine natures of God and man (D&C sections 88, 93)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Kenneth W. Godfrey, “The History of Intelligence in Latter-day Saint Thought,” in The Pearl of Great Price: Revelations from God, ed. H. Donl Peterson and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1989), 213–36.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
In 1997, I logged in to America Online Mormonism message board 1 expecting to find friends. Instead, I found critics. I was quickly surprised by the sheer volume of vitriol and criticism of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Common claims included:
You can’t add to the Bible (referencing, of course, the Book of Revelation)
You preach a different gospel (quoting from Galatians),
You believe Jesus is the brother of Satan (I’m not sure where that comes from in the scriptures, but it was there)
You’re getting your own planets; and
Mormon women will be eternally pregnant.
Even baptism was weaponized, declaring that it was a work that can’t save you.
These arguments, of course, were unfair, misrepresentative, or flat out wrong. And yet, this year, some seminary students in my ward in Redding, California, reported hearing these same arguments at school.
Scott Gordon serves as President of FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response) which can be found online at www.fairlatterdaysaints.org. FAIR is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping members deal with issues raised by critics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He has an MBA and a BA from Brigham Young University. He is currently an instructor of business at Shasta College in Redding, California and teaches business classes online at BYUI. Scott has held many positions in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including serving as a bishop, ward mission leader, seminary teacher, and member of the elder’s quorum presidency. He is married, has five children and 14 grandchildren.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 88 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 12, 2025
Receiving Joy
by Autumn Dickson
There are eternal truths in this world that spill over in the world to come. Whether we fight against those truths determines what we’re going to enjoy. The Lord said this:
Doctrine and Covenants 88:32 And they who remain shall also be quickened; nevertheless, they shall return again to their own place, to enjoy that which they are willing to receive, because they were not willing to enjoy that which they might have received.
This verse is actually speaking about Outer Darkness and the sons of perdition, but I feel like there is doctrine here that spreads itself across all kingdoms. Judgment day is about being placed somewhere that we can enjoy as much happiness as our choices allow.
The Lord will place us somewhere good and safe and whole where we can receive as much joy as possible. The Lord paid for our sins so that we could enjoy all that the Father has. This was a free gift that He gave, but He will not force joy upon us. We still have to live after the manner of joy. The Lord wants us to enjoy bright, whole, healthy families. He wants us to enjoy a perfect society where everyone cares for each other. He wants us to know what it feels like to be perfectly wise, kind, and good. Therein lies joy.
Interestingly enough, He offers it now, not just for the next life. So many aspects of heaven are available to us here. There may be some aspects that are out of reach at this small moment in your never-ending life, but the Savior has promised that all aspects of joy are going to be available to us if we desire them in the next life.
This is one of my favorite doctrines. At first glance, it might not seem to make sense. Why would anyone choose anything less than the most glorious kingdom? Why would anyone refuse any manner of joy that the Lord is trying to offer? And yet, receiving joy is more than walking into the celestial kingdom. Receiving joy is more than plugging into some eternal happiness drug.
A willingness to receive joy is a willingness to follow the Savior.
Though this principle applies to a million different gospel principles (forgiveness, repentance, pursuing education), I’m going to talk about one gospel principle specifically.
I had a friend who worked at a hospital. A bunch of the nurses were talking, and one of them announced she was pregnant. An older nurse responded with something along the lines of, “Oh my goodness! I’m so excited for you. You never know love until you become a mother.” Another nurse became offended by this. She had chosen to not have children, and it made her upset that someone would suggest that she didn’t love as deeply.
Let’s talk about this idea because there are different facets, and I think it’s important to be specific about what I’m discussing here. I wholly recognize that there are men and women who are deeply mourning the fact that they do not have children. I do not place these individuals in the same category of not being able to love as deeply. After all, the verse we read earlier talks about being willing to receive joy. If you are deeply mourning the fact that you have not yet been blessed with children, then you are obviously willing to receive joy. Not to mention, if you’re mourning that missing opportunity, you sometimes have an even deeper appreciation of parenthood and consequent love. You already love deeply if you are open to the opportunity for spirits to join your home.
I think the case is different when you have chosen to remain childfree. When you have chosen to remain childfree, it’s usually for selfish reasons. I’m not saying that you’re a terrible person, but I would argue that most people who choose not to engage in parenthood are doing it because they don’t want to sacrifice what they enjoy. Ironically, they do not realize that there is more joy available to them in losing oneself and sacrificing everything to love someone else. There is inherent joy in not just in children but in the selflessness that it requires of you.
I don’t think there is a single other product or service that receives more five star reviews than parenting. Even as we all stand to lament the juxtaposition of never-ending chaos with never-ending mind-numbing work, parenting is joy incarnate. Parenting in all of its forms (beyond just traditional ideas of biologically birthing someone) is joy incarnate.
And this is the case with so many gospel principles. Forgiving others is freeing. Repentance brings you closer to the Savior. Pursuing education opens up your perspectives and enriches your life. God has given laws and principles. He teaches us. He tells us how to receive joy, but He will not force that joy upon us. Receiving joy is more than walking up to the Lord and asking for the Celestial Kingdom. If you are refusing aspects of joy, then walking into the Celestial Kingdom isn’t going to suddenly make that joy burst upon you. You have to be celestial.
A willingness to receive joy is a willingness to follow the Savior. I testify of a Savior who has shown us the way. He walked the difficult path because He loved us and because it was the most joyful path despite everything it put Him through. I testify that He paid for us to have this experience so that we might learn what He has learned and live how He lives. I testify that following Him brings difficulty, but that difficulty helps contribute to the deepest joys available to God’s children.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 87, 90, 100–101, 103, 105 – Mike Parker
Aug 09, 2025
Prophecy of war; expulsion from Independence; Zion’s Camp (D&C sections 87, 90, 100–101, 103, 105)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Elder Graham W. Doxey, “Missouri Myths,” Ensign, April 1979, pp. 64–66. Brother Doxey, who had been president of the Missouri Independence Mission (1973–1976), explored some of the “urban legends” about Missouri that persist among Latter-day Saints.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 85-87 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 06, 2025
Holy Places and Tares
by Autumn Dickson
I want to talk about two different themes from the sections assigned this week, standing in holy places and the parable of the wheat and tares. I’m not sure whether the Lord purposefully put these two themes right next to each other, but now it’s caught my attention and won’t leave me alone. Here are just a couple of excerpts from the Lord regarding these themes.
In the parable of the wheat and tares, the Lord says this.
Doctrine and Covenants 86:6 But the Lord saith unto them, pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender (for verily your faith is weak), lest you destroy the wheat also.
In the parable of the wheat and tares, the wheat are the righteous and the tares are the wicked. Many biblical scholars believe that the tares are darnell, a plant that looks incredibly similar to wheat until it’s fully grown. Only at the last day are they divided, after what they truly are comes to fruition.
Then the Lord prophesies of immense war through Joseph Smith before teaching us this:
Doctrine and Covenants 87:8 Wherefore, stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.
In Section 86, we learn that we will be surrounded by the wicked and the righteous until the day of the Lord.
In Section 87, He tells His Saints that they should stand in holy places until the day of the Lord.
Even though the Lord allows us to grow amongst wickedness, He asks us to stand where it’s holy.
How do we stand in holy places when much of the world around us isn’t holy? We cannot forever stand on temple grounds. We cannot stay in the chapel indefinitely. Even if we can turn our homes into sacred spaces, I don’t think it’s advisable to never leave your home.
In the guide to the scriptures, we learn that “Holiness indicates purity of a person’s heart and intent.”
THIS IS SO DANG COOL TO ME. It’s cool because wheat and tares look incredibly similar. You can’t really tell them apart in a field until they are fully ripe. And though wheat and tares look similar, what they truly are is hidden internally. Holiness is something that happens internally. When a place is holy, it’s because the things that are happening within that place are turned towards the Lord.
We can make ourselves a holy place. The space that we inhabit, the air that we breathe, can be a holy place if we are pure in heart and intent. We can stand in holy places by making ourselves holy.
How do we make ourselves holy? How do we purify our hearts and intent?
Get this. We weed out any of our personal tare tendencies.
Tare and wheat look similar. Sometimes we have traits that look Christlike but aren’t. Sometimes we do things that look Christlike but are not truly so.
For example, sometimes we serve and find resentment. Sometimes we go out and try to correct someone from a pedestal we’ve put ourselves upon. Sometimes we think we’re so wonderful for tolerating someone to their face, but find ourselves relieved when they’re gone because we haven’t taken the time to truly develop love for them. Christ felt true love. He didn’t tolerate people and then secretly rejoice when they left. And yet sometimes we think we’re being Christlike because we’re nice on the outside. We’re nice, but we’re not actually being Christlike. We’re not wheat. We are being tares, and we have to work to weed those tendencies out of ourselves.
As we extend ourselves to being truly Christlike, we become wheat. As we practice truly seeing others and loving them in our heart, we purify ourselves and become holy.
The Lord placed us in an environment that has plenty of tares. And though He placed us in an unholy environment, He asks us to stand in holy places. There are many ways to stand in holy places, but one of the best ways is to take holiness with us. We take holiness with us by weeding out the parts of ourselves that are not truly Christlike even if it mimics Christlike behavior.
I testify that as we shed those parts of ourselves that look like love but are not based in love, we will become a blessing to others and to ourselves. I’m an introvert. Being around people is often tiring for me. There have been plenty of times that I’ve been a tare, and I’ve just endured people until I could get some peace. However, as I truly engage and connect with others, I have found that those encounters are worth it even if I’m tired after. I’ve learned that the Lord is extremely willing to help us shed those tendencies. I testify that He stands ready to help purify us so that we can experience life as He does.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 85-87 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 05, 2025
Steadying the Ark
by Autumn Dickson
There is a reference to an Old Testament story found in the sections for this week. Let’s talk about the background and then read the verse.
In 2 Samuel, the Israelites are bringing the ark of the covenant back into Israel after an enemy nation had captured and released it. An oxen shook the ark of the covenant while they were crossing a river, and Uzzah touched it and tried to steady it even though no one was allowed to touch the ark. He was struck dead immediately next to the ark of the covenant.
Here is the verse in the Doctrine and Covenants.
Doctrine and Covenants 85:8 While that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning.
Around the time this verse was given, Edward Partridge and Joseph were disagreeing. Partridge thought the quality of land in Missouri was poor and didn’t want to buy it, and it took a while for him to reconcile with Joseph over the matter. This warning would have been to Partridge had he not repented. In 1834, Oliver Cowdery recorded that Joseph clarified that this verse didn’t apply to any individual. It was a warning to anyone.
So what is the warning?
Just like with any scripture story, there are a few different lessons. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught that trying to direct God’s work without authority can bring spiritual death. We learn that good intentions aren’t sufficient to protect us. It teaches us that approaching God with a lack of immense reverence is dangerous. The ark of the covenant was a representation of God, and only the high priest (as a type of Christ) could approach that ark and only after a series of cleansing rituals.
This can be a tender spot for some who are struggling in the church. Our belief in a prophet who is led by God can create a sense of all or nothing when attempting to follow the church. And while I desperately hope for everyone to continue working out their salvation within the church, this is a legitimate warning. When we try to change things without authority or try to steady the ark when we think it’s out of balance, it really can bring spiritual death.
I have a friend who has left the church over the past few years. As I’ve had conversations with him about it, I have repeatedly heard the phrase, “I just don’t think God would do something like that.” This sentiment was repeated over and over. I often found myself internally asking, “Well, have you asked Him if He would do something like that?”
With the way the church is set up, it really boils down to whether it’s true or not. It’s hard to find a way around that sticking point. Either the prophet is led by God or he isn’t. Sure, we all receive personal revelation and the Lord can guide us about specific principles and policies in our lives. But, we also believe that the Lord only gives revelation to the prophet if He is trying to direct His church. Just like in the New Testament, the Lord didn’t teach every individual that the Law of Moses was completed and done away. He sent that revelation to Peter, the head of the church, and then people got to decide whether they would follow.
Just like with most people in the church, I have found myself struggling with doctrine, policy, and history. While I was growing up, I would often choose to ignore it and just keep going. As I got older, I decided I didn’t really want to do that anymore. If I couldn’t face these doubts head on and work it out with God, then I didn’t want to be a part of this. If these issues couldn’t stand up in the light, then why am I working so hard to follow the church?
When we are trying to figure out whether the prophet and church are led by God, we have to be ready to follow. That is one of the major keys here. If you want Him to answer you about the truthfulness, you have to be ready to lay aside your own thoughts and opinions in favor of His greater knowledge and wisdom. You have to be prepared to say, “I don’t understand, but I will trust that God does and I will follow Him until I do.” You have to be prepared to follow regardless of whether He tells you why He is working in a specific manner.
And so I often approach my struggles in this manner.
I work it out in my head first. When I run across something that I struggle with, I try to approach it head on. I try not to hide from that discomfort. I try to write everything I understand about God and eternal realities. I try to place what I don’t understand into the context of those eternal realities. Sometimes that has been enough to soothe the disquiet. Other times, I just feel more and more troubled.
This is when it’s time to go directly to the Lord.
I lay it all out for the Lord. I tell Him everything. I tell Him why I think it’s wrong or skewed or incorrect or faulty. I try to get to the root issue of what I’m really struggling with, and I take it all to Him.
And then I tell the Lord that I don’t know as much as He does. I tell Him that even if I don’t understand, I tell Him that I will choose to follow Him in faith and rejoicing. Sometimes He will help me understand, and sometimes He just tells me to keep following. Either way, I know that He’s got this. Maybe the time has not come for Him to change things. Maybe He will never change things because there are aspects that I do not understand with my limited knowledge. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
But there are two aspects that are not a “maybe.” God knows all, and He loves His children. I feel this in my bones. So if He says that I’m on the right track and if He tells me that this is where I need to be, I feel safe enough to do so. I have gotten to know God, and though I don’t understand all of His decisions, I understand His love and omnipotence and I am not afraid. I am excited for Him to show me all that He sees when He deems that it’s the right timing.
So when I feel that the ark is off balance, I have learned to steady myself rather than the ark. I have learned to let the Lord do His own work, and I’ve learned that the ark will be just fine. If I follow, I’ll make it across the river and home someday.
You don’t have to follow blindly. You don’t have to hide from scary doubts. You can work them out in your mind and do your best to understand them. But you can also get to know God. You can deeply internalize His love and omnipotence, and then you can go to Him. You can tell Him that you’re willing to follow where He leads because you have come to trust Him deeply. You can be willing to let go of what you don’t understand because you trust that He understands.
Everyone is going to have to work this out in their own lives. You have to receive that answer for yourself. Is the prophet truly being led by God? This can feel like a difficult answer when it seems like it conflicts with some deep part of you, but the conflict only exists because we do not see all that He sees. I can testify of His God’s love and omnipotence. I can testify that He isn’t betraying you or setting you aside. I can testify that He sacrificed everything so that no hurt would go unhealed. I also testify that He leads His prophet and church today.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 84 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 02, 2025
Renewal
by Autumn Dickson
There is a promise found in Section 84. And though it is specifically in relation to priesthood ordinations, I believe the promises we find there can apply to all of us. Here it is.
Doctrine and Covenants 84:33 For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.
There’s a lot of good stuff here. Sanctification by the Spirit is a huge part of receiving and magnifying a calling. Some might even say it’s the entire purpose of receiving and magnifying a calling. However, the specific portion I want to speak about is the “renewing of their bodies.” I find this to be a very unique promise that coincides with something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.
Namely, the widow of Zarephath found in 1 Kings in the Old Testament. It is one of my absolute favorite scripture stories of all time which is probably why I’ve spoken about it on more than one occasion. The gist of the story is this.
There is a great famine in the land, and the widow of Zarephath only has enough food for one more meal with her son before they starve. The prophet Elijah is led to her door, and he promises her that her food will never run out if she feeds him first and then feeds herself and her son.
I think about that widow a lot. She didn’t have much to lose since they were already facing starvation. I think about how she chose to give out of what she didn’t really have. I think about how she must have felt when she looked at her son and made the decision to feed Elijah.
I also think about what happened after she fed Elijah. What happened right after? What happened the next day? What did this miracle look like?
Did she wake up to a full barrel? Or in the days that followed, was her barrel always full? Would it get replenished the second she took from it?
Or perhaps the miracle looked different. Maybe she opened that barrel the next morning, and it was full. Perhaps she emptied that barrel all the way to the bottom over time and when she arose the morning after emptying it, she found that barrel filled again.
Or maybe it looked even different than that. Maybe there was always just enough for the next meal. I think this option would have felt the scariest. Did it feel scary to open the lid every day and find an almost-empty barrel? Did she still feel adrift and worried? Or did she see the miracle and recognize that whether the barrel was completely filled up or not, it would never be empty?
This is a story that teaches a great many things. One of the things that it teaches is renewal.
When it comes to priesthood ordination or any kind of service you choose to do in the name of the Lord, there will be enough in the barrel. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, there can enough energy, time, resources, and love when you are magnifying your calling in His name. You can be renewed to do what needs to be done, what the Lord wants you to do.That doesn’t mean He will enable you to do everything, but there will be enough in the barrel for what He needs you to do. He will renew you for what you need done.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – D&C sections 84, 107; Official Declaration 2 – Mike Parker
Aug 01, 2025
The priesthood & its quorums (D&C sections 84, 107; Official Declaration 2)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Elder L. Aldin Porter, “A History of the Latter-day Seventy,” Ensign, August 2000, 15–20. Elder Porter reviews the organization and growth of the modern office of the Seventy.
“Race and the Priesthood,” Gospel Topics Essays. This scholarly article on the Church’s website explores the origins of the ban on ordaining men of African descent to the priesthood.
Edward L. Kimball, “Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood,” BYU Studies 47, no. 2 (Spring 2008): 4–78. Edward L. Kimball discusses the chain of events that led his father, President Spencer W. Kimball, to seek revelation regarding changing the Church’s ban on ordaining black men to the priesthood. The article describes how President Kimball went about obtaining the revelation, how the revelation was spiritually confirmed to other leaders, and members’ reactions when the change was announced.
Lester E. Bush Jr., “Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 8, no. 1 (Spring 1973): 11–68. This seminal article—which appeared before the 1978 revelation that reversed the Church’s ban on ordaining men of African descent to the priesthood—examines when the policy began and developed, and what scriptures were employed to explain it.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie, “All Are Alike unto God,” address in the Second Annual CES Symposium, 18 August 1978. Elder McConkie’s address came just two months after the 1978 revelation that extended the priesthood to men of African descent.
The Priesthood Restored: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is a six-part miniseries that explores the events and circumstances that played a role in the restoration of the priesthood. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 84 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 31, 2025
A Legitimate Question
by Autumn Dickson
When I was growing up, I remember being worried about receiving revelation. How could I differentiate between His voice and my own internal voice? I know I wasn’t the only one who asked this question and as I’ve become an adult and occasional leader over the youth, I have heard that same question frequently.
I am not perfect at it, but I have learned to recognize a distinct feeling in my head when the Lord is trying to say something to me. When I start to receive that subtle, distinct feeling, I turn to my journal, start to write, and the Lord will often teach me something.
Elder Bednar once taught that it doesn’t matter whether it’s coming from the Lord or not. If something good pops into your head, you should follow it regardless of whether it’s an official prompting. I agree with him. If a thought pops into your head about serving someone or doing something uplifting, it doesn’t really matter whether the Lord is asking you to do it. Do it anyway.
But there are some cases when it is necessary to be able to discern between your own voice and the Lord’s.
For example, when Joseph Smith asked the Saints to pack up and leave their comfortable homes in New York for the rugged frontier in Ohio, it was probably pretty important that Joseph knew whether it was a commandment from the Lord or whether it was just something that popped into his head. I’m sure Joseph Smith could discern the Lord’s voice. I’m merely pointing out a situation in which it was pretty important to have that ability to discern.
There is a verse found in Section 84 that reminds me of one of the most powerful admonitions I have heard from President Nelson. The admonition is to hear Him. The verse is as follows.
Doctrine and Covenants 84:52 And whoso receiveth not my voice is not acquainted with my voice, and is not of me.
The definition of “acquainted” is to “make someone aware or familiar.” Are you aware of the Lord’s voice? Is it familiar to you?
How do we become aware of His voice? How do we become familiar with it? How do we become acquainted with how the Lord speaks to us?
Develop an awareness
There is a difference between an awareness that He is speaking to you and a familiarity of His voice. Developing an awareness that He is speaking to you is a matter of developing faith. It’s a matter of purposefully choosing to believe that He wants to talk to you. If you don’t believe the Lord would ever deign to talk to you, then you’re cutting off your ability to hear. You have to develop faith that He has something to say or you’re not going to listen and become aware.
Sometimes this faith is most easy to develop when you are seeking His voice on behalf of someone else. A grand majority of the revelation I receive from the Lord is when I’m seeking it on behalf of someone else. I’m studying a question that was posed to me. I’m studying it for my blog. I’m seeking answers for how to help my family or friends. The Lord has often spoken to me for my personal life, but it is usually in conjunction with the fact that I’m seeking it on behalf of someone I love. When I am seeking revelation to serve someone, it puts me in an uplifting mindset where I’m more sensitive to the Spirit, and it also helps my faith that the Lord would choose to speak to me. Maybe the Lord doesn’t have anything to say to me, but I know He’s going to be willing to help me help someone else.
So first develop an awareness of His voice. Believe that He is willing to speak to us. You have to believe that He is willing to speak if you’re ever going to become familiar with His voice. Once you believe that He’s willing to speak, awareness of His voice is a matter of checking in consistently.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 81–83 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 21, 2025
Much is Required
by Autumn Dickson
Rather than talking about a specific verse from this week, I want to talk a bit more about context so that the verses we read are more powerful. Hearing the Lord speak about gospel principles is wonderful, but sometimes understanding the stories behind the principles He chooses to talk about make a big difference because it makes it more relatable. So let’s talk a bit about what’s happening in the lives of the people who the Lord is speaking to.
It is no secret that Emma and Joseph suffered much in their personal lives during the restoration of the Lord’s church. They buried several children, many of whom did not live past babyhood. For a moment, I want you to think about this timeline that is shared in the Institute Manual.
March 15 – Section 81 was given.
March 24 – Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were taken by a mob and tarred and feathered.
March 29 – One of the adopted twins of Joseph and Emma died from measles.
April 1-24 – Joseph and other leaders travel to Missouri.
April 26 – Section 82 was given.
April 30 – Section 83 was given.
Joseph is tarred and feathered. Five days later his son dies. Two days later he leaves to go to Missouri. Emma is left behind after a traumatic couple of days.
The fact that Joseph preached to the Saints the day after being tarred and feathered, and the fact that he still followed the Lord’s command to go to Missouri after all of this is a sermon in itself. The fact that Emma stuck around is a sermon as well.
This is a strange analogy, but it’s the only way to explain what I’m picturing.
I picture this earth life as some kind of virtual reality game that we’re trying to conquer. We put on our helmets, and we’re put into this very intense training arena where we actually have very little control. Everyone can choose their own path. You are given a team, but some teams are effective and other teams are not. You receive little missions to accomplish, but there are so many obstacles. Sometimes those missions feel worthwhile, and sometimes you look back and think, “What was the point of all that effort?” The arena can be dangerous, disheartening, discouraging, devastating.
It feels so real, and that was the point; the Lord wanted to train you. It was meant to be real because anything less than a completely immersive experience would hinder your progression.
And this immersive experience is rough. You are actually quite limited in how missions go, and you are also quite limited in saving your team. Sometimes it feels like you’re pushing against this giant unmoving wall. Sometimes it feels like you’re losing more ground and more people than you’re gaining.
But in the end, it really is only a virtual reality game. Though it doesn’t feel like it, you are actually completely safe. Someday, when it’s time to take off the helmet, you’re going to look around and see that you were never truly in danger. You’re going to laugh at yourself for some of the things you’re stressed over. You’re going to rejoice that some of the things that were drowning you weren’t “real.” This was all just an intensive training experience that the Lord paid for. The Lord isn’t cruel. He didn’t look the other way when it seemed like the missions He gave were impossible. He didn’t send you on wild goose chases for nothing. He wasn’t permanently taking away things that uplifted you. He wasn’t just manipulating everyone like game pieces for His own glory or fun.
He was manipulating everything, but He was manipulating everything in order to try and train His children to become as powerful as possible.
Without the Savior’s atonement, this virtual reality experience would have trapped us and the stakes would have been impossible. You may have learned, but it would have all come to naught. It is the Savior’s atonement that enabled Him to make this training experience mean something, and our success literally boils down to whether we love Him and are trying. You can’t lose if you lean in and garner the experience He meant for you to have.
The devastation that Joseph and Emma experienced was real. What you’re feeling in your life is real. I’m not trying to make light of difficult situations or minimize what you’re going through. What I’m trying to do is place your pain in the context of eternity so that it doesn’t drown you. You can grieve and experience hope at the same time. You can lean into the immersive experience and trust the Lord’s plan, resources, and abilities. You can recognize that you didn’t step into this virtual reality to actually complete anything or save anyone. You didn’t step into this arena to feel safe or have the Lord take care of you. You don’t need the Lord to take care of everything in order to prove His love. Rather, the real and difficult immersive experience and readily available happy ending is the proof of His love.
You came because you wanted that growth that the Lord wanted you to have, and He is delivering it. Lean into the growth and accept the price you have to pay in order to gain that growth. Simultaneously recognize that the price you pay for that growth is paid back by the atonement of Jesus Christ. You lose nothing and gain everything because of a Savior whose purpose is rooted in love.
In the beginning before I described my analogy, I said that sometimes the Lord waits to ask us to do something when we’re drowning. Joseph could have very easily been drowning. He could have resented the Lord for what was asked of him in his deepest grief. And yet, the Lord didn’t ask it of Joseph because He’s cruel. It’s because when we’re drowning, it pushes us to more readily lean into Him where we find true safety. Sometimes we get to the point where we have no choice but to trust in Him. If we can remain in a state where we’re looking to Him and leaning on Him, this virtual reality experience will be at its most effective. It won’t wear us down or destroy us. We will know that everything that happens is a sign of His love as He coaches us through specific experiences to garner the characteristics we need to live like Him.
We have a Savior who loves us. Everything He and the Father arranged in this plan are signs of that love.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 81–83 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 17, 2025
A Recycled Revelation
by Autumn Dickson
This week I’m talking a lot about context rather than any specific verses which is not usually my norm. However, I think that delving into the context of these sections is really important and can make the scriptures feel more rich. Just as we learn from the stories in our other books of scripture, we can learn more about the revelations from the Lord by studying when they were given. So here is some context for what we read this week.
Section 81 was originally given to a man named Jesse Gause who was called to serve as Joseph Smith’s counselor in the forerunner of what would eventually evolve into the First Presidency. When Gause was excommunicated, he was replaced by Frederick G. Williams. Gause’s name was also replaced by Williams’ name in the revelation that was given.
I wonder if it slightly bothered Frederick G. Williams when he didn’t get his own revelation upon being called. Please note that I’m not saying it should bother him; I just wonder if it did.
Imagine being in a ward where the bishop gets called and then moves six months later. A new bishop comes in, and the stake president is just like, “Here. We recorded the blessing for the last bishop. We’ll set you apart, but this blessing is just going to be yours now.”
Imagine going in to receive your patriarchal blessing and the patriarch recycles an old blessing he gave and inserts your name in it. Would you feel a little shafted? These are supposed to be individualized, right?
Now, I’m not sure that it bothered Williams at all. Maybe he didn’t think twice about it, but it can’t hurt to explore the concept and dig deeper.
Joseph Smith was receiving a lot of revelation during this time period. He probably could have easily received something just for Williams, but he didn’t. Have you ever felt skipped over at church? Have you ever felt like everyone else was receiving something special but you weren’t? Maybe it was a calling or a special experience. It could have been anything.
I have. I used to feel that way all the time. I remember having experiences where parents told me about how special the patriarchal blessings of their kids were. They talked about how it felt so powerful and singular, and I remember feeling very un-special.
I’m going to tell you a little secret that changed my life. When we seek to be set apart from others, to be singular, to receive something that no one else has received, we usually end up having the opposite experience. Trying to be more than others is an insatiable desire; you can temporarily please it but you can’t quench it. Maybe we don’t think we’re trying to be more; I certainly didn’t recognize it at the time, but I was. There was a comparison, and you can’t win with comparisons. No matter how things play out, you lose.
In my own life, those deep and unrelenting desires to be special were coming from a place of insecurity about my Heavenly Father’s love for me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t just trying to feel loved. I wanted to be more loved, probably in some mistaken belief that it would drive away the insecurity.
Luckily, the Lord is smarter than giving me what I want sometimes.
He could have given me something special. He could have given me some experience that no one else got to have to make sure that I knew that He knew me and that I was important to Him. He could have looked at me and worried about the insecurities and worried about the fact that I didn’t have a testimony of His love.
But He didn’t want to do that for a couple of good reasons. He didn’t communicate that I was more special because I’m not more special. It would be silly to tell me an untruth. He also didn’t give some overt, flamboyant sign of His love because it would have actually just fed the insecurity. You would think that I’d be able to take these huge signs of love and accept them. But in my experience, it simply doesn’t work. Think about it from a mortal perspective. You can make huge overtures of your love to someone, but until they’re ready to believe it, the signs you choose to give don’t change their insecurity.
Rather, He continued to feed me a healthy, quiet kind of love and left me to accept it. He never caved when I felt unloved, insecure, and assumed He was so angry with me. He just kept feeding me that unrelenting, reverent love and waited for me to finally accept it.
Drawing this back to Frederick G. Williams, I would have felt distraught over getting a recycled blessing that had originally been given to someone else. At the time that I was still seeking that unhealthy form of love, I would have let that circumstance speak to me, and it would have said, “You don’t really matter. You don’t even get your own blessing.”
I’ve learned a few things since my angsty teen years. The Lord does love me. I’m so important to Him even if that’s illogical. Nowadays, if I were to receive a recycled blessing, I would be able to quietly read it in gratitude. That gratitude would have enabled me to see the quiet, personalized messages He was sending. The recycled blessing would have been as personalized as I allowed. The help of the Spirit, love from our Heavenly Father, and my own belief in that love would have given me what I was seeking – a reassurance of His love for me.
The most interesting part about this experience is the fact that once I let go of comparison, once I let go of desperately seeking some inarguable sign that I was valuable, I was able to start seeing the small tokens of His love. If I had received a “recycled” blessing and chosen to let go of any whispers of insecurity, the experience of receiving this revelation would have been a sacred and treasured experience. Letting go of the need to have my own, I would have been able to read this blessing in a state of mind where the Spirit could whisper the personalized messages I needed to do my work to serve others.
Isn’t that ironic? Once I let go of trying to receive some ostentatious sign that I was special, I was able to see and receive those smaller, special messages that were meant for me at a specific time period in my life. And once I began appreciating and accepting those small, special messages, I have become convinced that I’m special to my Heavenly Father.
I testify that the Lord loves you. He recycles the same values, words, and lessons that He teaches everybody because He loves all of us. You’re not going to receive anything “new,” but I promise that you can receive something better, something that fills you up more.The need for something singular can be sinister. It can prevent you from receiving the healthy kind of love that sticks with you and fills in all of the cracks. I testify that the Savior loves you with a deep and abiding love and that His love is enough to fill you up, even if it’s not more than the love He gives to others.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Introduction to the Session “Faith and Growth of the LDS Church in the DR Congo” – Dan Peterson
That’s fun to do this, because if you’re an academic, if you’re a professor, you talk for a living. So, you’re glib; you don’t have to know anything about what you’re talking about, but you can sound really convincing.
So that’s what I’m going to try to do here. I’ve been asked to chair this session, I guess because I’m the president of the Interpreter Foundation, and this project is really fascinating. The project that they’re going to be talking about is under the auspices of the Interpreter Foundation, so I’ll let them do that talking. Then we’ll see how this goes.
But I thought I would first introduce Jeff Bradshaw, who will then introduce Junior Bonza, and then we’ll get the ball rolling.
Junior Banza was born and raised in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. In October 1979, his parents joined the Church in Geneva, Switzerland, but they returned to the DR Congo soon afterward. Junior was baptized in June 1986 right after the Church was officially recognized there. As a young man, he began his full-time mission in the DR Congo Kinshasa mission and finished in Johannesburg, South Africa. Junior and his family live in West Jordan, Utah, where he works in the financial industry. He and his wife Annie are the parents of two daughters and a son. Department in efforts to encourage outreach and historical engagement.
Jeff Bradshaw is a vice president of the Interpreter Foundation and a Church service missionary for the Church History Department. See www.TempleThemes.net for his Church-related publications. Jeff and his wife, Kathleen, began to research and recount the stories of Church history in Africa during their first mission to the DR Congo in 2016. They have four children and sixteen grandchildren. Professionally, Jeff is a senior research scientist for the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (www.ihmc.us/groups/jbradshaw).
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 78, 80–83, 85, 92, 104 – Mike Parker
Jul 15, 2025
The office of high priest; the United Firm (D&C sections 78, 80–83, 85, 92, 104)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 77–80 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 14, 2025
Be of Good Cheer
by Autumn Dickson
The Doctrine and Covenants are interesting as a book of scripture. They are different from other books of scripture. So many of the scriptures that we read are stories from which we can draw lessons or sermons given by the people in those stories. The Doctrine and Covenants is simply the voice of the Lord as He directs His restored gospel. He reveals things a bit at a time as the people are prepared to receive. And though He is revealing much, He is not revealing everything.
Doctrine and Covenants 78:18 And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.
The first phrase found in this scripture, “ye cannot bear all things now,” reminds me of the promise that the Lord gave through Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith taught that the Lord is willing to make all things known even unto the “least” Saint as soon as that person is prepared to “bear them.” A grand majority of us are not prepared to bear all that the Lord wants to offer. We aren’t ready. We’re not strong enough or prepared enough or faithful enough or obedient enough. The list goes on and on. We are not yet ready to bear all things.
And yet, the very next phrase reads, “…be of good cheer, for I will lead you along…”
There are many ways to interpret this verse so that it speaks to us personally, but I will share what I am “hearing” today when I read this message from the Lord.
“You are not yet good enough, but rejoice anyway because I’m going to lead you there. The kingdom and blessings and riches of eternity are yours.”
He isn’t saying, “Hey, once you finally pay for your own sins, you can rejoice.” He isn’t saying, “Hey, once you finally get over those flaws, you’re going to have the riches of eternity.” He is saying, “Hey, you’re not ready yet, but rejoice RIGHT NOW anyway.”
The idea that we are not yet good enough makes it so easy to get bogged down and depressed. Even when we have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can still find ourselves wondering whether we can make it. It is easy to feel the weight of our own sins and flaws. Even when we’re trying our very best, those mistakes can come back and yell in our faces. Sometimes, it’s even worse when we’re trying our best because our best isn’t “good enough.” Other times, we feel like we’re even falling short of our very best. We know better, and yet, our same flaws keep running around to pull us down.
And yet, here is the Lord, telling us that we can rejoice. He doesn’t say dance around it. He tells us, “You’re not ready yet.” Interestingly enough, we all believe that part. We know we’re not ready yet. And yet, when He also tells us to be of good cheer, we seem to bypass that part. When He tells us that the riches of eternity are our’s, we seem to skim over that part and focus on how we’re not prepared to receive everything yet.
We don’t give ourselves permission to rejoice. We do not yet believe that the riches of eternity are our’s. I think it’s critical that we note the Lord’s specific wording here. He didn’t say, “If you keep following this path, the riches will by your’s.” He says, “The riches ARE your’s.” And yet, we don’t feel like rejoicing or being of good cheer. The weight of our sins is too heavy and tethers us down.
Yesterday, in Relief Society, a woman named Sydnee shared a beautiful comment in Relief Society and gave me permission to share what she was expressing. It’s not exact by any means, but the message is similar. She taught me this:
Are we really allowed to let go of being sad over our mistakes? Are we really allowed to set those flaws aside and not hold on to them? Yes. I cannot yet rejoice in myself, but I don’t have to carry those sins around. I can rejoice in Christ and the fact that He’s perfect.
And if you don’t believe my friend, believe the Savior. He knows you’re not ready to bear all things yet. He knows you’re not ready to be exalted, or maybe you’re not even ready for the Celestial Kingdom. None of us deserve the Celestial Kingdom, but that’s the entire point of the gospel. Because He paid for our sins, He’s giving it to us anyway.
You don’t have to be perfect in order to receive the riches of eternity. You don’t have to have a knowledge of the universe to receive the riches of eternity. The Lord was not speaking in a future tense. He told the Saints that the riches of eternity ARE already theirs. They weren’t perfect either.
Here is another verse where the Lord teaches us the exact same thing.
Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Set aside every weight and sin which besets you. I used to interpret this verse as saying, “Set that weight and sin aside. Don’t do it anymore. You’re so easily tempted,” but that isn’t what the verse is saying. The definition of “beset” is “to trouble.” Lay aside all of your sins and flaws that are troubling you. Set them down. The Lord already carried them. You have permission to set them down. You don’t have to carry them so that they keep you in line.
Rather, carry the perfection of Christ. Carry His sacrifice. The joy that springs forth from that sacrifice is much lighter, and that is what He wants you to carry around. The love that inspired that sacrifice will “keep you in line” much better than any shame you might be hauling with you. It will inspire you to rise above the things that are holding you back and propel you towards the preparation that’s needed to follow after Him.
You are not ready. You are flawed, and you sin. You will continue to sin, and those flaws are going to be around for a while. But be of good cheer. Find good cheer in Him, His perfection, His ability to save you anyway. You are not perfect, but the kingdom and blessings and riches of eternity ARE your’s. Find joy in that. Rest in it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 76 – Mike Parker
Jul 12, 2025
The Vision of the three degrees of glory (D&C section 76)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Philo Dibble, “Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 10 (15 May 1892): 303–04. Dibble recalled his firsthand experience being in the room when Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon experienced the Vision now canonized as section 76.
Joseph Smith, “A Vision,” Times and Seasons 4, no. 6 (1 February 1843): 81–85. William W. Phelps wrote a letter in poetic verse to the Prophet Joseph about the celestial kingdom, and Joseph responded with a poetic form of section 76.
Elder Russell M. Nelson, “Perfection Pending,” General Conference, October 1995. Then-Elder Nelson offered a suggestion on the meaning of the word telestial.
Kevin Barney, “The Etymology of ‘Telestial’,” By Common Consent, 27 January 2010. Barney takes a scholarly approach to the origin of the word telestial.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Classic FAIR – Ancient Names in the Book of Abraham – John Tvedtnes, 2005
Jul 09, 2025
“Authentic Ancient Names and Words in the Book of Abraham and Related Kirtland Egyptian Papers” by John Tvedtnes at the 2005 FAIR Conference
Over the last century a number of scholars have looked at names and other transliterated words in the Book of Abraham and in the Kirtland Egyptian Papers in an attempt to determine their authenticity. In some cases it can be demonstrated that the name is actually attested in Ancient Near Eastern documents. For unattested names it is sometimes possible to postulate an etymology based on known words in Egyptian and other ancient languages in use in the time of Abraham.
While I can claim credit for some of the work contained in my presentation today, it is appropriate to acknowledge that I’ve drawn upon research by various others such as Hugh Nibley, A. Richards Durham, Robert F. Smith, John Gee and John M. Lundquist. Indeed one of the most thorough researchers of the Book of Abraham onomasticon is Robert F. Smith most of whose contribution is embodied in a series of unpublished manuscripts that he shared with me during the 1960s and ‘70s. I’ve mentioned some of his research in previous publications. I must acknowledge however that I’ve added my own contributions and I’m the only one who can really be faulted for any mistakes here.
One of the primary sources of the names used in this study is of course the Book of Abraham as published in our Pearl of Great Price. These names have been carefully compared with the forms as found in the four extant handwritten manuscripts of the Book of Abraham, one of which you see on the left here, that’s held in the LDS Church Archives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 77–80 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 08, 2025
Equal in Earthly Things
by Autumn Dickson
In Doctrine and Covenants 78, the Lord is establishing a practical system to help the Saints live the Law of Consecration. Here is some of what the Lord said regarding the Law of Consecration.
Doctrine and Covenants 78:4-6
4 For a permanent and everlasting establishment and order unto my church, to advance the cause, which ye have espoused, to the salvation of man, and to the glory of your Father who is in heaven;
5 That you may be equal in the bonds of heavenly things, yea, and earthly things also, for the obtaining of heavenly things.
6 For if ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things;
The Institute Manual explains what it means to be “equal in earthly things;” being equal is not about having the same. It’s about having “equal claim on resources” according to what they need. The Lord explains that the Law of Consecration advances the cause of the salvation of man.
When you originally study the Law of Consecration, it is easy to see how it would benefit the poor and further the cause of salvation. It’s really hard to study the gospel when you don’t have the necessities of life. It’s hard to feel peace when you’re worried about feeding your kids or where you’re going to sleep. Having your needs met at a basic level allows you to step out of that state of anxiety and into a place where you can more readily accept heavenly things.
When we continue studying the Law of Consecration, it also becomes easy to see how this law isn’t just about the poor. It’s also about bringing salvation to those who are doing the giving.
The Lord has no ego. He wants to lift each of us up to where He is. He is driven by love for us. He isn’t worried about remaining over us and controlling us. He isn’t constantly plagued by the desire to have more. He isn’t trying to separate Himself from others by having more.
If we want to enjoy the kingdom He has created, we have to be like Him.
Doctrine and Covenants 78:7 For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you.
I’m going to repeat what I said right before this verse. If we want to enjoy the kingdom He has created, we have to be like Him. We have to prepare, or in other words, we have to become like Him. And according to verse 7, we prepare ourselves by doing what He commands.
Let’s make this a little more concrete in regard to the Law of Consecration.
One of the aspects of heaven many of us are desperately seeking is a feeling of safety. We want to know that everything will be okay tomorrow. We want to know that we will have everything we need. We want to know that we are safe in the hands of the Lord.
Interestingly enough, we don’t have to wait until heaven to receive that feeling of safety. The Lord has already made promises about taking care of us here. He has already promised that we will have what we truly need. The true problem lies in the fact that we do not yet fully trust Him. I speak from personal experience.
We are taught that we will continue to be the same people on the other side. So what does that look like in the context of what we’re talking about?
It looks like the fact that I am holding myself back from enjoying the blessings that have already been offered to me here on earth. Is it possible that I may continue to hold myself back from enjoying the blessings offered to me on the other side? Will I continue to worry? The Lord has already promised me safety; He has already promised to take care of me. If I cannot trust that promise here, what makes me believe that I will suddenly be able to enjoy that promise on the other side? I interfere with my ability to enjoy the Celestial Kingdom and all of its blessings when I do not change to trust the Lord.
This also goes for any ego that arises as a result of having many things on earth. Always being worried about having more, being worried about whether people notice that you have more, garnering your joy from the idea that you have more than the next guy will hold you back from the enjoyment that the Lord wants to offer. There is innate beauty and happiness found in serving others who need help, in recognizing that the stuff we have here is for everyone, and there is innate beauty and happiness in being free from that ego.
The Law of Consecration (as well as our covenants in the temple) were given to us to further the cause of salvation; it was given so that we could be more prepared to enjoy the blessings of the Lord.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 76 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 05, 2025
Hear Him
by Autumn Dickson
In Section 76, we receive an immense amount of information that had been lost over time. If you grew up with the Plan of Salvation, it may not feel that way but this was all very new. Though it was hard for some Saints to accept it at the time, we rejoice in this doctrine that the Lord restored. I am so grateful to know it.
And though we received this immense amount of information from the Lord, we also read this at the end of the vision.
Doctrine and Covenants 76
115 Which he commanded us we should not write while we were yet in the Spirit, and are not lawful for man to utter;
116 Neither is man capable to make them known, for they are only to be seen and understood by the power of the Holy Spirit, which God bestows on those who love him, and purify themselves before him;
117 To whom he grants this privilege of seeing and knowing for themselves;
118 That through the power and manifestation of the Spirit, while in the flesh, they may be able to bear his presence in the world of glory.
We did not receive everything that Joseph and Sidney received in this vision. It reminds me of 2 Nephi 32:7. The Spirit stops Nephi from saying more.
The Lord wants to give more. He has more to give. Our eventual goal is to be reunited with Him, and that goal doesn’t have to wait until the next life. There are a myriad of quotes and scriptures that seemingly plead with us to actively seek Him so that He can give more than we’ve received. The scriptures can only give so much. There are things we have to receive directly from the Lord through the Spirit, and the Lord wants us to receive it as soon as we are able.
When I was younger, I remember very distinctly praying for a vision. I did it periodically as I was growing up. I wanted the Lord to just give me a dream or something. Some of my intentions were pure. I did want to be with the Lord again, but there was also some pride involved. Regardless of my intentions and spiritual readiness, I would pray very sincerely for this type of revelation. I figured if the Lord wanted to give more, I wanted to receive it. Luckily, He is wise enough to do what’s best for us and not just give us everything we ask for.
I have stopped asking for visions because I have learned that the Lord doesn’t often work that way. Doctrine and Covenants 76 holds a record of one of the most significant restorations of truth in the early church, possibly in the whole history of the latter-day church. It is significant to consciously recognize how Joseph and Sidney received this vision.
Doctrine and Covenants 76:15, 18-19
15 For while we were doing the work of translation, which the Lord had appointed unto us, we came to the twenty-ninth verse of the fifth chapter of John…
18 Now this caused us to marvel, for it was given unto us of the Spirit.
19 And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about.
Joseph and Sidney did not ask for a vision. They just asked for clarification regarding scripture. This is truly significant because it gives us a path to follow. The Lord has so much to give you, but it has to be built. You have to be prepared. He doesn’t just hand it out as soon as you recognize the fact that He has more and wants to give it to you. It requires seeking and study and learning His voice and character. It requires work. Otherwise, we get to remain in the dark.
These verses that we just read, specifically 18-19, can give us a clue about how to start building and preparing for what the Lord wishes to give. The verse in John caused them to marvel because it was given to them by the Spirit. I recognize this pattern now. When I’m seeking what the Lord wants me to share in my weekly messages, the Spirit “gives” me something. I’m reading and a phrase jumps out to me. The feeling is extremely subtle, but if I pause and start to write about it, it expands and expands and expands and I receive so much more than I would have otherwise.
I have noticed that it has expanded beyond just the scriptures. I can be having a conversation or walking by some people and overhear a phrase, and that subtle feeling comes over me again. It’s as if the Lord stamps it softly into my head and if I take the time to pause, or if I hold onto it until I have time to think about it, the Lord often gives more.
President Nelson has asked us to learn how to “Hear Him.” I echo President Nelson’s request. Learn to hear Him. Seek Him. He has more to give. It does not start out with visions, and receiving everything He wants to give starts with preparation. So prepare. It’s worth it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 76 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 04, 2025
A Glorious God
by Autumn Dickson
For those of us who grew up with the concept of the Plan of Salvation and its many kingdoms, the vision recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 76 is nothing new. Because of our familiarity with it, I think it can be easy to miss the majesty and goodness that is God. One of the things I love about the doctrine we received in this section is that it upholds the idea that God is good and perfect and just. As Latter-day Saints, we don’t just claim that God is a perfect judge. He actually is a Perfect Judge.
The traditional beliefs surrounding what is recorded in the bible about heaven and hell make no sense upon closer examination. I have had friends who have believed I was going to hell. They very specifically iterated that Conner and I were good people, but they still retained their beliefs that God would throw us into an eternally burning pit. I pondered this for a very long time.
There are many interpretations of heaven and hell and judgment, but the most common I’ve come across is the idea that if you believe in Christ (the right Christ because apparently we don’t believe in the right one), you will be saved. If you don’t believe in the right Christ, you will be thrust into an eternal fire. For many, it doesn’t matter how evil you lived your life. If you believe in Christ, you’re good to go.
I want you to imagine, for a moment, that you were saved on Judgment Day. In fact, God even asked you to come and help carry out His judgment because your belief was sufficient. One day, He sends over a man for you to toss out of heaven. This man was a good man who loved his family, freely gave to all of his neighbors around him, and deeply sacrificed on behalf of his belief in God. But he was not Christian. It is now your job to toss this uplifting man into a literal fire pit, and that man gets to stay there forever.
Would you do it? How would you feel about God afterwards? Would you look at Him and call Him perfect because He calls Himself perfect?
As Latter-day Saints, we believe in heaven and hell but have different interpretations of it. There are many different kingdoms in heaven so as to make room for all the children of God to fit perfectly and comfortably. The bible declares that God is good and perfect and just, and I believe that. If I had never heard of God and someone came and taught me the truths found in Doctrine and Covenants 76, I would not need someone to declare to me that God was good and perfect and just. His plan declares it for Him.
There are so many ways that this doctrine plays out in individual lives, but I suppose that’s the point. This doctrine allows Christ to judge perfectly rather than trying to fit the whole spectrum of humanity into something as stark as heaven and hell. Let’s observe how this might play out in one circumstance so that we can better understand how beautiful this truth is.
Let’s say that you don’t believe in God and don’t want to worship Him. Even if you got to the spirit world on the other side and people tried to preach to you, let’s say that you still refused to worship God. Heavenly Father would send you somewhere safe and warm because you are still His child. He would send you to a place that has everything you need, and you would be surrounded by people who feel similar to you. As a mother, this kind of judgment makes perfect sense to me.
But there is still judgment, and though you would be “saved” in a place where you’re safe and warm, you would still experience some level of hell because you refused to worship God. The aspect of hell that you would experience is opportunity cost. I believe in a God who is worth worshipping. I picture an adult child who reflects on their life and sees all of the opportunities given to them by a loving mother. I picture an adult child who can see the heartache and sacrifice experienced by this loving mother, and I picture that adult child feeling such a deep attitude of awe and gratitude that it’s akin to worship.
I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have seen the sacrifices He, and His Beloved Son, have made on my behalf. I have personally felt how the Lord is turned completely towards my eternal joy, and I worship Him for that. I experience heaven when I experience that awe and gratitude. Being around Someone who loves me like He does is an incomparable feeling that I have only glimpsed. You would experience hell to the extent that you miss out on experiencing the greatness that is God.
We believe that God is a perfect judge (not just because He says so but because He really is perfect). We believe that He loves His children and will place them where they will have all they need and will experience as much happiness as their choices allow.
And so with Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon and so many, many other Saints, I declare these words as well.
Doctrine and Covenants 76:1-3
1 Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice ye inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior.
2 Great is his wisdom, marvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out.
3 His purposes fail not, neither are there any who can stay his hand.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 71–75 – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 30, 2025
Purpose Drives Revelation
by Autumn Dickson
Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon paused work on the translation of the bible and were called to go and preach the gospel in order to dispel some of the hatred and persecution being heaped up against the church. After a conference held with the elders, Joseph and Sidney were called once again to work on the translation of the bible.
Doctrine and Covenants 73:3 Now, verily I say unto you my servants, Joseph Smith, Jun., and Sidney Rigdon, saith the Lord, it is expedient to translate again;
Here is a quote in the institute manual that can give us insight into how this verse can apply in our own lives.
The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible had ‘a significant influence on the Church in the way it shaped the content of the Doctrine and Covenants. More than half of the current Doctrine and Covenants consists of revelations received during the three-year period in which Joseph Smith labored over the Bible translation. Many revelations were received as direct answers to questions Joseph was inspired to ask as his understanding of the gospel expanded during the effort to restore plain and precious parts of the Bible.
Joseph was commanded to work through the bible, and as he did, he was able to receive revelation because of his intentional study. We see an example of this directly after in Section 74 where Joseph receives revelation regarding 1 Corinthians 7. He received a variety of revelations, not just the portions that were corrected and expanded upon in the bible. This is actually really interesting to me because we have never fully canonized the Joseph Smith translation. We believe it is divinely guided and it’s been included in our scriptures as a study aid, but it’s not canonized.
Joseph spent a lot of time on this translation for it to never be canonized. We receive a lot of insight from the Joseph Smith Translation, and yet, maybe one of the major purposes of this translation wasn’t about the translation. It was about how the translation prompted intentional study, heartfelt pleading, and specific questions. It changed Joseph, and it shaped much of our understanding of the restored gospel because of the revelations Joseph received while working on it.
I noted similar experiences as a missionary. Every day, we would have dedicated time to study the gospel. As I chose to study on behalf of those I had been called to teach, my understanding of the gospel would improve and I would also receive revelation for my personal life. We had been called to do a specific work in the gospel and as we worked on that, revelation flooded in regarding many things – not just the specific work. I know other missionaries had very similar experiences.
As life moved on, I felt very called to work on a blog. Once again, the revelation started coming, but the revelation expanded beyond just the work I felt called to do. There were days when I would start writing a message I felt prompted to share, and I would end up in my journal writing and writing and writing about experiences in my family and things that the Lord wanted me to know and do in my personal life. I would get to the end of the time I could dedicate to studying and though I hadn’t made any progress on a post, I had received very special communications on behalf of my family. I really don’t think I would have received even a small portion of what I’ve received if it had not been for the fact that I was trying to prepare weekly messages.
And that’s why we receive callings and responsibilities in the church. Having a calling hones our focus and draws our mind in the direction of the Lord so that we’re prepared to receive. It also pushes us in a direction where we deeply need the Lord because we feel inadequate. This is not just about official callings! Being part of a family, being a friend, or even working to better mankind in your professional life can teach you about the gospel if you include the Lord. I watch my husband receive revelation on a daily basis as he works to create things as an engineer. And though it may not seem “churchy,” he is still learning about his Heavenly Father who is also an engineer.
What purpose has the Lord given you in order to more fully teach you His gospel? What responsibilities have you been given in which you can include the Lord to expand the amount of revelation you can receive for your life and family?
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 71, 73–75, 77, 86, 91, 113 – Mike Parker
Jun 27, 2025
Joseph Smith’s “new translation” of the Bible (D&C sections 71, 73–75, 77, 86, 91, 113)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Kent P. Jackson and Peter M. Jasinski. “The Process of Inspired Translation: Two Passages Translated Twice in the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible.” BYU Studies 42, no. 2 (2003): 35–64. This article demonstrates how Joseph Smith translated the same passage from the New Testament twice, and got different results each time. (This is evidence that the Joseph Smith Translation is not a restoration of a lost, ancient original text, at least in all of its parts.)
Nicholas J. Frederick. “Section 77 and Book of Revelation Scholarship.” Religious Educator 22, no. 2 (2021): 46–71. Section 77 contains Joseph Smith’s inspired answers to questions posed to him about the symbols in the book of Revelation. Frederick compares Joseph’s interpretations to those in commentaries on the book of Revelation published between 1817 and 2014.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 71–75 – Part 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 26, 2025
Bishops and Consecration
by Autumn Dickson
Hello friends! Just a quick PSA. My normal format up to this point has been to post one message a week. The Lord has pointed me in a different direction, and I will now be sharing two shorter messages posted throughout the week. Thanks for sticking with me as I work to figure out my new posting schedule!
In Section 72, the Lord is calling a bishop (Newel K. Whitney) to serve in Ohio because the other bishop (Edward Partridge) is in Missouri. At that time, the Saints were living the law of consecration in which they offered up their land to the church; they also offered up their excess when they had it. One of the roles of the bishop was to handle the logistics of the law of consecration. The bishop would determine what was needed by a family, and then he would deed that property back over to that family. The idea was that the church would be able to organize what everyone needed and make sure life necessities were being taken care of, but the land would still belong to the individual families. In essence, they could do what they wanted with it, and they were responsible for doing all they could to take care of it. Here is part of what the Lord says about it.
Doctrine and Covenants 72:2-3
2 For verily thus saith the Lord, it is expedient in me for a bishop to be appointed unto you, or of you, unto the church in this part of the Lord’s vineyard.
3 And verily in this thing ye have done wisely, for it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity.
The Lord wanted a bishop called so that the people had an opportunity to show responsibility for what the Lord had given them. These men, Newel K. Whitney and Edward Partridge, were called to be representatives of the Lord, and we can learn about our Savior from the roles that they were given. These bishops would meet with the Saints and essentially ask two questions, “What do you need?” and, “What can you give?” Both questions are important, and both questions are posed to us by the Savior.
At this time, we do not deed our property over to the church and receive what we need in return. However, we do covenant to live the law of consecration in the temple. In essence, we are covenanting to dedicate all that we have and are to the Savior and His kingdom on the earth. What do you need? What can you give?
The law of consecration doesn’t necessarily mean giving everything away. Sometimes it also means working to build what you have so that it is sufficient. When we’re trying to answer these two questions, two internalizations can help. One: everything we have belongs to the Lord and He can help us know the best way to utilize what we have and two, the Lord doesn’t just ask what we can give. He also asks what we need. And unlike Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney, who were often drawing on empty wells to try and take care of the Saints, our Savior can easily give us what we truly need in order to do what He wants us to do. He is wise in what He chooses to give.
And like Edward Partridge and Newel K. Whitney, the Savior lives the law of consecration with us. He loves us so much that few other things occupy His mind. He devotes all of His time, energy, and resources to us. And I suppose that’s the point. We’re trying to become like Him. There is power in devoting all that you have and all that you are to others. There is power in loving others that much. There is power in letting go of “owning” things. There is power and security in a community that truly gives and leans on each other.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Classic FAIR – Defending the Faith – David L. Paulsen, 2004
Jun 25, 2025
“The God of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph Smith: Defending the Faith” by David L. Paulsen at the 2004 FAIR Conference
Scott asked me if I would share with you some of my work defending our LDS understanding of God and to that end I have prepared a bibliography. There’s two sets of materials being passed out, one is a packet. There is a copy of the bibliography in that packet and then there’s two individual sheets and you should either get the packet or the pair of two separate sheets and you’ll find the bibliography in one of them. I’ve also copied a few reprints of articles.
As time permits, I want to look at two or three of these articles but before I launch into a consideration of those, I’d like to provide just a little personal background if you will indulge me that will perhaps explain how I developed a passion for apologetics and also put apologetics in a proper perspective.
Growing up in Ephraim in Sanpete County I was acquainted, and then only casually, with four non-Mormons–two of whom subsequently converted. There must’ve been some in my community who openly challenged Mormon beliefs, but somehow I never encountered them. My first exposure to such challenges occurred after my sophomore year of college when I began my tour of active duty with the United States Army Reserve.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 67–70 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 19, 2025
A Testimony of the Revelations
by Autumn Dickson
Joseph Smith and various elders gathered this week to decide whether they would publish the revelations that Joseph had thus far received. Many of the elders were prepared to write their testimonies to be published right alongside the revelations, but others were hesitant. Joseph was not always eloquent, and he was not incredibly educated. Several of the elders did not yet believe that the revelations had come from the Lord.
In Section 67, the Lord issues a challenge. He tells the men to select the “least” of the revelations and then to take their wisest man and have him try to write a revelation like it. William McLellin, a school teacher, took up the challenge. According to the institute manual, this is how things played out.
Joseph Smith described the outcome of William’s attempt to write a revelation: ‘[William] E. McLellin … endeavored to write a [revelation] like unto one of the least of the Lord’s, but failed; it was an awful responsibility to write in the name of the Lord. The elders, and all present, that witnessed this vain attempt of a man to imitate the language of Jesus Christ, renewed their faith in the fulness of the gospel and in the truth of the commandments and revelations which the Lord had given to the church through my instrumentality; and the elders signified a willingness to bear testimony of their truth to all the world
Since we’re talking about how the Lord’s words are more powerful than man’s (even when it is filtered through a man), let’s look directly at some of His words. I want to talk about three different principles found throughout the chapter.
To gain a testimony
Here is how the Lord starts out the revelation in response to this situation we’ve been discussing.
Doctrine and Covenants 67:1 Behold and hearken, O ye elders of my church, who have assembled yourselves together, whose prayers I have heard, and whose hearts I know, and whose desires have come up before me.
Does the Lord sound angry with these elders because of their unbelief? I don’t think so. He’s literally telling them, “I’ve heard your prayers, and I know your hearts and desires.” The hearts of these elders are apparently soft enough that they don’t need rebuking. Rather, the Lord, in His infinite wisdom and perfect knowledge of us, knew that these elders simply lacked the testimony they needed as of yet.
It could have been easy for Joseph to get offended that these men felt his words were insufficient, but this wasn’t coming from Joseph. It was coming from the Lord, and the Lord knew His children enough to know that they simply needed more opportunities to practice faith and see Him in this work.
And so He set them up to gain a testimony of the revelations received by Joseph Smith.
The Lord does rebuke His children sometimes, but that is usually the result of hard hearts. If the Lord is calling someone out and forcefully calling for repentance, it is usually because a softer approach will be ineffective. For this particular chapter, I picture the Lord being very matter-of-fact about it.
So what do we learn from the Lord’s relaxed tone?
We learn that we don’t necessarily have to be afraid or ashamed if we have doubts. We don’t have to worry or put immense pressure on ourselves to “already know” or “just have faith already.” Rather, we can work to make (or keep) our hearts soft and give the Lord an opportunity to lead us along and show us. He knows our hearts, and He knows if you’re sincerely trying to find Him. He can work with that. It reminds me of the father in the New Testament who asked the Lord to “help Thou mine unbelief.” The Lord can give us eyes to see reality, and He can give us reasons to trust Him. We merely need to seek Him out and be willing to experiment upon His words, just like these men experimented.
Missing out
Here is another tidbit from the Lord.
Doctrine and Covenants 67:5 Your eyes have been upon my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., and his language you have known, and his imperfections you have known; and you have sought in your hearts knowledge that you might express beyond his language; this you also know.
There is at least one general principle here that we can pull out and apply it many different ways. It is this: when we hyperfocus on the mistakes and supposed flaws of others, we miss out on so much goodness. When we scoff or mock, we’re voluntarily skipping over blessings.
This actually makes me think of Christ’s mortal ministry. Christ’s words and actions were obviously perfect, but I’m not sure they were perfect in the sense of how we sometimes picture the meaning of that word. He was a traveler. He was likely dirty from walking everywhere. He didn’t wear priestly robes or hold any worldly authority or education except in carpentry. Think of what the Pharisees and Sadducees missed out on because they couldn’t see past what they perceived as beneath them.
Think of what these elders might have missed out on had they continued on that path where they perceived the revelations of God as beneath them.
What are we perceiving as beneath us? What are we missing out on? The list could be endless: sacrament talks, good people, wisdom from parents.
Set aside our fears
In verse 3, the Lord tells His elders that they tried hard to believe that they would receive a blessing, but fear prevented them from actually receiving it. He also said this.
Doctrine and Covenants 67:10 And again, verily I say unto you that it is your privilege, and a promise I give unto you that have been ordained unto this ministry, that inasmuch as you strip yourselves from jealousies and fears, and humble yourselves before me, for ye are not sufficiently humble, the veil shall be rent and you shall see me and know that I am—not with the carnal neither natural mind, but with the spiritual.
There are a lot of things that we could talk about in this verse. How might jealousy have played into the elders not being able to recognize the revelations for what they were? There are so many phrases we could pull out and talk about, but I want to talk about stripping yourself of fear instead.
One of the steps for preparing to “see” the Lord is to remove fear.
I always try to put the Lord into the context of parenting because that is when I best understand Him. In this instance, it reminds me of when my son comes down and tells me that he’s too scared to go to bed. There are times when it’s appropriate for me to go up and comfort him, but usually he just gets scared again the second I leave the room. I have often found myself saying, “There is no way that I can make you any safer than you are now.” I assure him of all the reasons he is safe. We’re downstairs, dad has adequate means of self-defense, and we’ve got a dog that has protected my family before. Unfortunately, sometimes my son doesn’t believe in that safety. It’s a process to learn that kind of trust, but as we actively engage in choosing that trust, we’re going to find enough peace to rest.
The Lord is even more capable of protecting us than I am of protecting my son.
After over four years of trying to settle out on the east coast, things have finally lined up and we’re moving forward on a house. We did a lot of research in order to decide if this is what we wanted. We put in a lot of time to make sure this was a good move for our family. We prayed about it, and we felt good about the house, or at the very least, we didn’t feel bad about the house. When we were moving through this process, I felt like this is where we had been led after four years of searching.
But it’s easy to backslide and get scared again. I was so scared that we had chosen wrong or that the Lord had washed His hands of us and left us to fail. Logically, I know that the Lord doesn’t work that way, but that’s what my fear was saying. My husband is an entrepreneur which means that things can go really well, but they can also go really wrong. The risks of life suddenly seemed tremendously overwhelming. What if I had missed His warnings? What if we expected more than the Lord was willing to give at this time?
I’ve prayed for reassurances so many times, and the Lord has often answered. But even after the Lord answered, the fear remained or came back again. I was scared that I misunderstood Him or that I was seeing revelation where it wasn’t.
The Lord isn’t going to force me to lay down my fears. He is not going to constantly whisper in my ear that we’re going to be fine because that’s not what is best for me. He wants me to choose to trust Him. If I want to feel better and find rest, I have to choose to believe that the Lord is making my family as safe as we need to be.
The Lord promises His elders that if they can strip themselves of fear (alongside a few other things), the veil will be rent and they shall see Him.
As I hush my fears, as I remind myself of all the times He’s never abandoned me, I start to “see” Him again. This past week, the fears did come up and try to overwhelm me and there were moments when those fears were successful. But as I consciously remembered my experiences with the Lord and who I’ve come to know Him as, it was as if I put on spiritual glasses. Not only was I able to remember old experiences, but I started to have new ones. He started to whisper insights that helped me believe I was on the right track. I could “see” Him again.
I testify of a Lord who is willing to help us have the experiences we need to build trust in Him. If we keep our hearts soft and seek to trust Him and His prophets, He will give us what we need to know that we’re on the right track. If we push back against our fears, we will be able to see Him in our lives.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Nine years ago, I had the opportunity to start attending meetings at the United Nations. After the very first time going, I knew that it was going to be a hinge point in my life; and that I would never be able to unsee just how calculated the efforts were to undermine and fight against God’s plan in many areas of society. I knew that I would have to get to a point in my life where it became a well-used habit to be able to view the culture and trends of the world with a gospel lens.
So each time, after coming home from the United Nations, I would discuss things with friends and family about my experience. I shared with them some of the things that we needed to watch for and that we would start seeing in society. And some of the people really took things to heart and believed what we were seeing, and others didn’t.
Mandy Davis grew up in Alberta, Canada. She graduated from Utah State University with a Communications degree. While there, she met her husband and they now reside in Cache Valley with their 3 children. Mandy has had the opportunity to attend meetings at the United Nations both in the United States and abroad. Her experiences at the United Nations deepened her resolve to defend the family at a time when it was becoming unpopular to do so. Her Instagram account, @ChristianOverCulture helps encourage people to view trends in society through a gospel lens. She teaches how to put Christ over the culture of the world and practice intentional discipleship.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 64–66 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 12, 2025
The Greater Sin
by Autumn Dickson
The Lord talks a little bit about forgiveness this week. Section 64 was given at a time when tempers were running hot and Zion felt far away. What did the Lord have to say about forgiveness?
Doctrine and Covenants 64:9 Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin.
I remember being young and thinking that didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand how the Lord could condemn a victim for holding on to their anger against someone who hurt them. As I’ve learned more and more about the gospel, I’ve received a different perspective. That’s not what the Lord is doing at all. It was merely me misunderstanding the Lord. Let’s talk about it.
Different kinds of sin
My definition and understanding of sin has evolved. It’s probably important to highlight that this is how I define the concept of sin personally. I likely don’t have it all correct, but we’re working towards perfect knowledge still, right?
Sin is sin. It is bad. We should try to avoid it as much as possible. Let it be known; I absolutely believe that the Lord cannot look upon sin with any degree of allowance. It would thwart the Plan of Salvation, His perfection, and it would stunt our growth dramatically.
But I used to take the concept of sin and tag on extra implications that weren’t necessarily true. I used to connect sin with an inherent badness on the part of the sinner. When there was condemnation, it was the Lord doling out punishments because we had been bad.
After becoming a parent, I have learned that it’s not necessarily that black and white. Making mistakes does not mean you’re bad, and the Savior is coaching us towards exaltation. Sometimes He utilizes consequences but not because He’s looking to make us suffer. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Consequences teach us so we don’t have to suffer any longer.
And then sometimes He doesn’t dole out consequences at all. Sometimes our choices come with inherent repercussions. He seeks to pull us out of those choices, but another form of condemnation is when we refuse Him and stay right where we’re at. I repeat. Another form of condemnation is when we refuse to accept His healing and grace. We condemn ourselves.
In my mind, sin has expanded beyond just a definition of “badness” to “anything that takes us farther away from the Lord.” This expanded understanding has many implications that have shifted how I look at the gospel.
One of the implications applies to the verse we just read. There are times when the Lord condemns; we see that most especially when someone is hard-hearted. When you read the New Testament, the Lord would condemn the Pharisees because softer forms of teaching were ineffective.
But sometimes condemnation isn’t coming directly from Him. When you read that verse more carefully, it doesn’t say that the Lord condemned the person who refused to forgive. It says that they stand condemned before the Lord. Sometimes, we stand before the Lord condemning ourselves because we refuse the salvation He is offering.
My personal interpretation of this verse is that the person refuses peace (and therefore, salvation) by refusing to forgive those who hurt them.
Putting it into context
I’m going to use a real-world example, and then I’m going to expand upon it.
I read a book about trauma a couple of years ago, and there is a story that has stuck with me. It spoke about a girl who had been locked in the closet from the time she was very little. When I studied the effects of abuse, I was surprised to learn that neglect from a very young age leaves deeper scars than actual abuse. This little girl was essentially feral when she was finally found and taken out of the custody of the parents. She was placed somewhere safe and spent far more time in a wholesome environment than she did locked inside that closet.
Unfortunately, the first three years of our lives often make the biggest impressions because our brains are developing so rapidly. When neglect and abuse happen in the first three years, it gets built into the brain as a blueprint for how someone looks at life. It can be changed, but because the growth of our brains slows down significantly, it takes far more time to undo the damage than it did to make the damage.
This girl grew up, became an adult, and went on to abuse another child. From a person who grew up healthy, it would be easy to wonder, “You know what it’s like to be hurt! Why would you do that to someone else?” But when you study the brain, you recognize a perfect storm. This adult girl was essentially unable to grow up. Her body matured, but her brain did not. She didn’t have the inhibitions of an adult. She didn’t develop empathy (because that develops in your second or third year). And when she wanted to be romantically involved, she was completely unable to relate to adults. She could only relate to a child.
She never really had a chance. And even as I speak about her struggles, we don’t allow cycles of abuse to continue. We work to protect potential victims. We do the logical thing and stop her from hurting others. However, it’s possible to protect victims, stop the abuse, and have compassion for the girl who suffered in ways that most of us don’t understand.
Here is the part where I expand upon this story with hypotheticals. The Lord is the perfect judge so we’ll ultimately leave this up to Him, but I’m going to postulate so that we can explore the forgiveness principle we were talking about before.
Fast forward to the next life. This girl has been healed by the Savior. She is no longer constrained to a brain that is broken and undeveloped because of what happened to her. Her spirit is free to be good and wholesome, and let’s say that’s exactly who she is.
How would you judge her? If she were your child and you loved her, would you banish her away from you? I hope not.
Now let’s look at the child who was abused by this broken woman. Let’s say this child grows up and passes away. He gets to the other side and sees her enjoying the presence of the Lord and being welcomed by good people around her. Let’s say this child is enraged by this.
How would you judge him? I would hope you wouldn’t judge him harshly. He has also been through some horrific things. But would you throw her out because he demanded it? I would also hope not.
I hope that we would be pleading with this young man to trust that the Lord knows everything perfectly, and she is safe to be around. I would hope that we would be pleading with him to come and join us and be healed and enjoy everything that the Lord meant for us to enjoy.
If he refuses to forgive and join in on the “heaven,” then yes, he is standing condemned before the Lord. He is condemning (or, in other words, consigning) himself to hell by clinging to pain and anger. He refuses to accept the healing and the celestial possibilities. He refuses the happiness that’s standing in front of him. He holds the “greater” sin because he is refusing to let go of hell. He is separating himself from the Savior and those in His company, and that’s the definition of hell.
We have to change how we interpret sin and condemnation and damnation. Sometimes the Lord does step in and mete out judgment as needed. Sometimes it’s just us condemning ourselves by refusing the path of healing, peace, and goodness.
For those struggling to forgive
I want to take a moment to talk about forgiveness and what it looks like. Forgiveness is a process that occurs in the heart. Because it’s an internal process, the outward manifestation can look different. Sometimes forgiveness looks like welcoming someone back into your life, and sometimes forgiveness looks like stepping away from someone for the rest of your life. Look at Nephi. He was commanded by the Lord to leave his brothers behind, and they did not reconnect in this life. Forgiveness does not always look the same on the outside, and it doesn’t mean that you have to invite a dangerous person back into your life.
But let’s examine forgiveness in the heart for a moment.
Doctrine and Covenants 64:11 And ye ought to say in your hearts–let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.
God will judge, and He will judge perfectly.
Forgiving doesn’t mean the other person gets off easily. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re enabling them to go on hurting others. That’s not what forgiveness is about. God sees all, and He will judge accordingly. He’s not going to let someone come into heaven and destroy it with manipulation or harm. I think sometimes we’re afraid to forgive because we’re afraid of getting hurt. Fortunately, we have a loving Heavenly Father who separates people according to the goodness they offer those around them. If He has forgiven someone, it’s because they’re prepared to be different.
Going back to our previous example, I’m going to postulate again. In this specific imaginary scenario, I believe that the girl (the one who Heavenly Father judged was safe and worthy) will be so grateful for her healed mind. I believe that despite what she went through, she will also feel horrified by how her actions harmed another person. I believe that so much of what we experience in the next life is coming to terms with what happened to us and what we did to others in our mortal life.
You can let go and trust God to handle it perfectly. You can trust that you’re safe and will be healed. That is a process, and you don’t need to harangue yourself if it takes a while, but working towards it will free you. Forgiveness has everything to do with you and finding peace again. If you want to heal from damage caused by another person, you have to dig down deep and find love for that person. You have to sincerely want them to heal and make better choices and stop harming others. That is where you’re going to find the freedom and peace the Lord means for you to have.
I testify of a loving Savior who will protect and heal the innocent. I testify of a Father in Heaven who is a perfect judge. I testify that He teaches us principles that are meant to bless us, and I testify that forgiveness is one of those principles.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Classic FAIR – DNA and The Book of Mormon – Ryan Parr, 2005
Jun 11, 2025
“DNA and The Book of Mormon” by Ryan Parr at the 2005 FAIR Conference
I would like to thank the organizers of the conference for being invited to talk about two really great subjects and that is the Book of Mormon and DNA which, when you look at its structure and its design, is no less of a divine inspired molecule!
We live in a very exciting age. Now, by the time you finish watching CNN you may not think that, but there is a lot of good that is going on in the world today and actually we call- so this is sort of a public service announcement on DNA—you’ll often hear the word “genome” and genome refers to the entire complement of genes that each one of us has and for humans that’s between 30-80,000 genes and this is really going to be the basis of an economic revolution in countries that will take note. In fact Bill Gates has said that if he had the opportunity to do it over again he would be in biotechnology because with the early days of this type of research, it was pre-1995 (they call the ancient days), and now since we’ve actually looked at and deciphered the entire human genome there are many things that we think we can now do. We can use DNA as a biosensor to detect what we’re thinking; all types of diseases; cancers that now we treat after their clinical manifestations; long before there are clinical manifestations; so we really stand on a cusp and a threshold of a revolution much like the antibiotic revolution of the last century.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 63–69 – Mike Parker
Jun 05, 2025
The Church in Ohio, August–November 1831 (D&C sections 63–69)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Kirtland, City of Revelation: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is an eight-part documentary miniseries that explores the way men and women flocked to Kirtland in the 1830s to hear the voice of God through the prophet Joseph Smith. The episodes consider Kirtland as a site of abundant revelation and the place where church leaders organized much of the church. The episodes also illuminate how Joseph Smith was intent on teaching church members in Kirtland how to hear the voice of God themselves. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
How do we help our young people avoid deception, or keep them from “stumb[ling] exceedingly”? We keep the “plain and precious” parts of the gospel front and center in their lives.
Brent Andrewsen practices at a regional law firm with offices throughout the Intermountain West. He is the chairman of Sutherland Institute Board of Directors, an independent research and educational institution and think tank, whose mission is to advance civility, sound ideas, and principled public policy supporting faith, family and free enterprise. Brent serves as the chairman of Skyline Research Institute and is the former chairman of the Board of Directors at Kirton McConkie. He has an AV Preeminent peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is recognized as one of Utah’s Legal Elite for estate planning, a Mountain States Super Lawyer for estate planning and non-profits, and a Best Lawyer for trusts/estates and non-profits/charities. He was also honored by Utah Business magazine as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star. Brent earned his B.A. in political science from BYU and a J.D. cum laude from the Washington & Lee University Law School.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 60–63 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 03, 2025
Faith and Signs
by Autumn Dickson
Ezra Booth was a Methodist preacher who joined the church after witnessing Joseph Smith heal Alice Johnson’s arm. He later left the church and published material that was particularly antagonistic. Despite witnessing a miracle, Ezra didn’t hold on to his faith.
We see this time and time and time again throughout the scriptures. Signs are insufficient conversion tools. I’ve spoken about signs before, but I want to talk about it on a more individual level today. Let’s cover the basics and then bring it into our personal lives. Here is some of what the Lord has to say about seeking signs.
Doctrine and Covenants 63:7, 9
7 And he that seeketh signs shall see signs, but not unto salvation.
9 But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.
Let’s break these down just a bit.
Verse 7. He that looks for signs will receive them, but it won’t bring salvation. In my mind, the Lord is saying, “The signs are already there, and I’ll send you signs, but it won’t do you any good because you don’t believe.” The same people will look at the complexity of the earth and see completely different origins. There are signs, but they’re not going to change you or bring you the full extent of happiness if you don’t believe there is a Creator behind it.
Verse 9. You don’t receive faith from signs. You see the signs when you have faith. Faith is a conscious choice that you make of your own accord, and then you start to see. Here is a quote from one of my all-time favorite BYU speeches given by Lawrence E. Corbridge.
“I don’t know if pigs will ever sprout wings and fly, but if they do, flying pigs will never be nearly as amazing as the ordinary pig in the first place.”
If you have faith, the pig is the miracle. Everything the Lord has already given us is a miracle and a “sign.”
Faith comes first.
Now, many of us have already made the conscious choice to believe in the restored gospel. We go to church every week and we attend the temple and pray and follow the commandments. We profess that we believe, so what do these verses mean for us? Let’s look at a few different ways that they could apply to someone who already believes in God.
Revelation
Interestingly enough, there’s another verse from this week that can get tied into the message I’m trying to cover today.
A revelation was given on the banks of the Missouri river. The Lord said a few things in this revelation, but one of the things that He taught these elders was that they could choose to travel how they wanted.
Doctrine and Covenants 62:8 These things remain with you to do according to judgment and the directions of the Spirit.
Revelation can feel tricky, but it’s an enormously powerful tool that is life-changing. I had the fortunate experience of being raised in a home where I was taught to seek revelation, but unfortunately, I occasionally took it to the extreme. I had such a hard time moving forward unless the Lord had told me to do so. I did seek signs for everything, and you can imagine that might cause problems.
Sometimes I would “find” signs that I believed He had sent when it was actually in my own mind. I had a hard time accepting the idea that He was choosing to be silent so that I could make decisions for myself. Other times, I would come to the conclusion that He was mad at me or that I wasn’t being good enough to receive revelation. Other times, I would just panic and stay confused rather than making a decision that sounded good to me.
I often found signs, but they were not unto salvation.
The Lord wants you to make decisions because you’re training to be like Him. He’s not trying to keep you from making mistakes; He is trying to help you gain the wisdom you’ll need to do what He does. There is no other way to do that except for making your own decisions sometimes.
Sometimes we’re worried about jumping in. We’re either scared that we’ll make a mistake, take a route He doesn’t want us to follow, or we’ll somehow shoot ourselves in the foot. In reality, the Lord wants us to have faith. He wants us to trust Him to speak as necessary, course-correct when it matters, and rescue us when we paint ourselves into a corner.
As we move forward with faith in His ability to save, the signs follow! If we take the time to look back prayerfully, we’ll find that He was leading us along the whole time.
Maybe we’re not asking for signs before we’re willing to believe in God, but I do believe that sometimes we ask for signs before we’re willing to believe in Him enough that we can move forward with rejoicing. If we choose to have faith, the signs will follow after.
Feeling love or forgiveness
Here is another potential example of seeking signs because we don’t quite believe in the Savior enough.
I know far too many people who don’t quite feel the love of their Savior. Logically, they can kinda get behind it because it comes along with having a testimony of the restoration. Unfortunately, despite this general testimony of the gospel, it’s still hard for them to dive in and bask in that love and acceptance towards their own person.
This extends to other feelings such as forgiveness. When we’ve made a mistake or when we’re falling prey to a particular flaw, it can be difficult to accept that the Lord has moved on. We want a sign that we really are forgiven. We want some indisputable evidence that we’re okay, and He’s not mad anymore.
Interestingly enough, even when He does give little signs of His forgiveness, we often don’t accept the signs and we cling to those mistakes and flaws.
Trusting that the Savior loves you and forgives you is a conscious act of faith, and the faith comes first! When you have truly chosen that faith, then you have finally reached the point where you’re able to accept the signs.
This circumstance doesn’t translate perfectly, but I want to utilize it anyway because I feel like it makes it more concrete.
Conner and I have been married for eight years. That’s not long, relatively speaking, but I have learned a few lessons along the way. One of those lessons is to trust Conner and his love for me. When we argue, I have learned to find peace in the fact that I know things are going to be just fine. Arguing doesn’t mean we’re going to get divorced. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be stuck in an unhappy marriage forever. Conner has showed up for me time and time again, and it has taught me that we’re going to come back from whatever we’ve fallen into. I don’t spiral anymore when things aren’t perfect in our marriage.
Conner’s love for me was there anyway. There are plenty of ways that he shows up for me and gives me signs of his love. However, I don’t find peace and “salvation” in that love if I don’t have faith and consequently find all the signs of his love.
Like I said, it doesn’t translate perfectly, but you get the idea. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love you even more than Conner loves me. The love is there. All the signs are there, but you can’t see them (or in the very least, you can’t trust them) without faith. Faith has to come first. You have to choose to look at your situation and believe that He loves you. You have to believe that He loves you enough to send challenges but also a Savior to pull you through it. As you choose to look at each situation as a manifestation of His love, I promise that the signs follow. You’ll see them everywhere once you start to choose faith in His love and willingness to forgive.
I testify of a Savior who loves. I testify that He is constantly showing His love. I testify that He is constantly reaching out with that love, but you have to turn on your end of the receiver. Believe and the signs will follow. That extends towards revelation as well. As you trust in Him, you’ll be able to move forward and make decisions. As you keep moving forward, you’ll be able to look back and see the signs that He’s been guiding you all along.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Classic FAIR – The Fallacy of Fundamentalist Assumptions – Blake Ostler, 2005
May 28, 2025
“The Fallacy of Fundamentalist Assumptions” by Blake T. Ostler at the 2005 FAIR Conference
I’d like to begin my presentation (there should have been an outline that was handed out that you have in front of you). But I want to begin a bit off outline. I was amused- I was reading this morning that we have (and Chris Buttars is a good friend of mine) and he’s wondering whether he should introduce intelligent design into Utah schools. And I was thinking intelligent design? Chris is a Mormon and he probably doesn’t even realize what he would be teaching isn’t Mormon cosmology.
And I was reading another article—as a matter of fact just last night—about how the Big Bang proved this story of Genesis and I was thinking, apparently the people who read- who know all about the Big Bang have never read Genesis. (Laughter)
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 58–59 – Autumn Dickson
May 27, 2025
Align With Him
by Autumn Dickson
Trials. There is always something more to say about trials, and that’s what I want to talk about this week. I specifically want to talk about one aspect of trials and how we can sometimes make things harder on ourselves.
Some of the Saints have made it to Missouri this week, and they are disappointed about what they arrived to find. They were looking for Zion and were surprised to find that it had not been built yet. They had just travelled hundreds of miles away from their comfortable homes in New York. Their original destination had been changed when they were kicked off of what was supposed to be their home. As they arrived in Missouri, they didn’t find homes. They found that their journey was just beginning.
The Lord gave Section 58 as a response, and here is one of the things the Lord says.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
As the Saints originally looked around at the undeveloped land, they were probably met with some aches and pains as they remembered what they had back in New York. All they likely saw was a bunch of work they had yet to do. I imagine them receiving these words from the Lord, and I imagine them trying to look at the land with new eyes. They probably tried picturing an industrious, protective community where they could raise their families and build the church. Though they missed their homes, they likely found great comfort in the hope that the Lord had significant plans.
Interestingly enough, they would not live to see the end result of the Lord’s plans for Missouri. We have not yet lived to His plans for Missouri, and so this might seem a bit confusing. They went to build Zion, but it kinda seems like Zion never happened for them. Let’s explore that idea and then apply it to our own lives.
What was the Lord talking about?
I want to bring your attention to the first verse of Section 58 so we can get a better feel for what the Lord is truly talking about.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:1 Hearken, O ye elders of my church, and give ear to my word, and learn of me what I will concerning you, and also concerning this land unto which I have sent you.
The people had the land sitting in front of them, and that was in the forefront of their minds. They had just travelled and travelled and travelled in order to arrive at this specific land, so that’s what they were listening for. They were asking themselves, “What would the Lord have us do with the land?” However, look at what the Lord said first. He said, “Listen to what I want concerning YOU, and then we can talk about the land I sent you to.”
Zion is so much more than some land in Missouri. While the Saints were preoccupied with the land, the Lord was preoccupied with His people. It’s always about His people. The Lord designated the physical place of Zion to be in Missouri but acquiring a “Zion people” is the much harder and far more important work of the Lord. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Missouri if you can’t be kind and compassionate and loving to your neighbor. If you are not a Zion-like person, Zion will never exist even if you’re in the right location.
Yes, the Lord speaks about the physical land of Missouri, but try to look at the section with new eyes. Read the section from the Lord’s perspective of trying to build Zion within His people first rather than trying to build cabins, farms, and shops. Utilize this perspective as we look at this next verse in which the Lord describes His purpose for sending His Saints to Missouri specifically.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand;
There is a lot we can talk about, but I want to draw attention to one particular phrase, “…that you might be honored in laying the foundation…”
He sent them to Missouri so that they could be honored in laying the foundation of Zion. Maybe they weren’t able to lay the foundation of the temple while they were in Missouri, but they laid a much greater foundation for the rest of us; they did some of the hardest groundwork to prepare for Zion. I don’t think any of us can fully comprehend just how blessed we are to build upon the moral and social foundations that were set down by those who came before us. They did start to build Zion, and they did it in a much more important way than tilling the land and building cabins and infrastructure.
Building you
So how does that translate to us?
My first thought is that we can learn about the differences between the Lord’s focus and what human minds tend to gravitate towards. I suppose I could be wrong, but I would imagine that when the Saints received this revelation, they were gung-ho about physically building up Independence, Missouri. In actuality, the Lord was looking to build His people. And when I say build, I mean that He was going to let them go through really hard things.
We all have to go through trials. They were an absolutely necessary, completely irreplaceable portion of the Plan of Salvation. But interestingly enough, we make those trials much harder when our goals are different from the Lord’s goals.
When you have it in your mind that the Lord wants you to build a cabin, you’re going to get very confused, disheartened, and disillusioned when the cabin doesn’t turn out (or turn up) at all. The Lord doesn’t care about the cabin; He wants to build you. The Lord can rearrange the elements, soften hearts, and add zeros to a bank account. What He refuses to do is take away your agency. Because of this personally imposed stipulation, it is much more difficult for Him to build you. And if He just lets you build the cabin with no obstacles, then it becomes impossible for your character to get built.
So when you run into issues and trials, He isn’t trying to impede your service. He hasn’t abandoned you. He isn’t hiding or uninvolved. It’s not a sign that this isn’t His work or that you’re destined to be a failure. He is doing exactly what He set out to do; He is building you. When you realize that you are His priority, the seeming obstacles pushing back against your goals become stepping stones towards your exaltation.
Because of the trials
Recap thus far. The Lord wanted to build Zion. The people thought He meant that they needed to build infrastructure in Independence, Missouri. That is an eventual goal of His, but more importantly, He wanted to build a Zion-people. You can’t actually build Zion when the people aren’t ready. Any disappointment on the part of the Saints likely stemmed from their inaccurate assumptions about the Lord’s purposes.
As I was reading through this, I thought of my husband. And since he doesn’t read or listen to my stuff, I’m going to talk about him.
My husband is an entrepreneur. Being an entrepreneur can come with a lot of awesome perks, but there are also plenty of downsides. He has met plenty of people who have told him that he couldn’t do what he wanted to do. He has gotten plenty of negative reviews on what he’s trying to accomplish. He has hit obstacle after obstacle after obstacle.
And after a while, those things add up and start to affect him. He has expressed the sentiment that he feels like a failure, and he has expressed it hundreds of times.
We’ve always had what we needed even when things got rocky, but the combined weight of negative opinions tends to pull his focus away from the ways he’s been absolutely successful.
When he says, “I’m a failure,” it’s because he is looking in the mirror and saying, “I haven’t reached the goals I had for this point in my life. I’m not providing the kind of life that I wanted for my family, etc., etc.”
When I look at our life together, I’ve seen anything but failure. However, let’s imagine for a second that he has failed as an entrepreneur. It sucks. It’s not fun. It hurts when you have goals that don’t come together in the way that you want them to, and that disappointment can come back to bite you frequently.
Do you know what helps that specific kind of trial? Realigning your goals with the goals of the Lord. He’s not specifically looking for successful businessmen, perfect homemakers, or anything else you could possibly have a goal about. He’s looking to build you into someone who can build heaven.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.
All of those obstacles that my husband has faced combined with all of the times that he has stood back up counts for something. And it counts for something incredibly important. Even if we were to lose everything, the effort he has put into his goals aren’t wasted. Rather, if he can switch his mindset to align with the Lord’s, my husband will find plenty of successful moments.
And interestingly enough, if Conner had never met some of those business “failures” he would have never been able to find those spiritual successes.
I testify that you can’t lose when you’re aligned with the Lord. Every mistake, failure, flaw, and obstacle can transform into the desperately needed stepping stones towards exaltation when you take advantage of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean there won’t be disappointment, but even disappointment turns into glory when you stay close to the Lord. I testify that we do not yet have eyes to see everything that the Lord wants to create within us, but I do know that it’s better than we can imagine.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
There has been much said about chiasmus in the Book of Mormon. However, there are 27 other types of Hebrew poetry, which make a much stronger argument for it’s ancient authenticity. These poetic forms appear in specific genres (sermons and narratives) and are absent in others (proclamations and letters). This is exactly the pattern we would expect and shows an intentionality to the poetry that hasn’t been discussed elsewhere.
Carl J. Cranney received a PhD in systematic theology at the Catholic University of America, where he specialized in theological anthropology and moral theology. He earned his MAR in philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School and his BA in philosophy from Brigham Young University. His academic interests include interfaith dialogue, comparative theology, and the varied Christian approaches to the theology of marriage and family. As a stay-at-home dad, he tries to squeeze in co-hosting duties for the “Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree” podcast and teaching for BYU Pathway in his limited spare time. He lives in Springville, UT, with his wife Susan and their four children.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Classic FAIR – Faith and Cognitive Dissonance – Wendy Ulrich, 2005
May 21, 2025
“‘Believest thou…?’: Faith, Cognitive Dissonance, and the Psychology of Religious Experience” by Wendy Ulrich at the 2005 FAIR Conference
It’s an old and frequent spiritual question, and it shows up in many forms. It is the question Jesus asks the disciples who hear his troubling and offending discourse on being someone whose flesh must be eaten and whose blood drunk by those who would have eternal life. The discourse confuses many, who turn back and follow him no more, and then, to those who remain Jesus asks the question, “Will ye also go away?” To the man who seeks out Jesus to heal his deeply troubled son, the question is implied, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” To Nephi, approached by an angel after he is carried away to the top of a high mountain, the question is more direct: “Believest thou that thy father saw the tree of which he hath spoken?” And to the brother of Jared, who asks to see the premortal Jesus after hearing his voice and seeing his hand, the question is perhaps most clearly stated, “Believest thou the words which I shall speak?”
Believest thou? I am increasingly impressed by the implications of this simple question, and by how often it is at the heart of my mortal dilemmas. Do I believe God’s commandments and teachings, or do I find other explanations of reality more credible for getting what I want or keeping me safe? Do I trust him to tell me the truth, even when it includes improbable and invisible things? Do I trust him to have the love, the will, and the power to save me despite the ways I am not worthy? Do I trust him to keep his promises? Do I believe?
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 57–62 – Mike Parker
May 20, 2025
Joseph Smith’s first visit to Missouri; Zion & the temple (D&C sections 57–62)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Aaron L. West, “Questions and Answers about the Temple Lot in Independence, Missouri,” Church History, 14 March 2019. West answers common questions about the temple lot dedicated by Joseph Smith, including who the present owners are of various portions of that parcel of land.
Examine the two City of Zion plats prepared by early Church leaders on the Joseph Smith Papers website:
Plat of the City of Zion (June 1833). The first plat, drawn by Frederick G. Williams (with north pointing to the left) has marginal notes surrounding the diagram on all four sides.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 51–57 – Autumn Dickson
May 20, 2025
It’s About You
by Autumn Dickson
I have found an interesting parenting dilemma lately. And though this is a personal situation, I believe it teaches an important principle that we find in the scriptures for this week.
Evelyn and Warner (my two oldest children) could not be more different. Evelyn has literally described herself as an “inside girl” on more than one occasion, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t see Warner all summer as he lived outside. Evelyn will read and draw and organize her room for fun. It has taken all the patience I currently possess to teach Warner how to keep his room in working order. Evelyn is intense and detail-oriented. Warner goes with the flow, and I’m not sure he knows what a detail is.
It comes as no surprise that they play differently. Evelyn wants to draw and color with her friends. Even when she plays pretend, she creates labels and tapes them to my walls so that everyone knows what each location is for. Warner just wants to wrestle and fight bad guys.
Now when Warner is with his little buddy who lives a couple houses down, he will “pick a fight” and they’ll roll all over the ground, and that’s their definition of fun. When Warner’s little buddy is not available to play, Warner will often try to play with Evelyn. You can imagine the consequences when Warner tries to pick a fight with Evelyn. It doesn’t often result in rolling around on the ground; it usually just results in screaming.
It’s hard to know how to balance this sometimes because I know that Warner needs to learn to read a room and not push boundaries, but I also know that he’s little and he’s not trying to hurt anyone. He’s trying to play. I don’t want him to think he’s bad or that he needs to change what he likes to do. So I talk to Warner about how things are only playing if everyone is having fun and how he needs to stop when someone is unhappy. I think that’s an important lesson for him to learn so that he can be a functional, well-adjusted adult.
But I also usually talk to Evelyn too even though she’s not “in trouble” for not wanting to play a certain way. I try to take the opportunity to teach her how to be happy.
Namely, I try to teach her how to judge the situation for what it truly is and how to make a wise decision that can make her happy despite what’s occurring around her. I explain to her that she doesn’t have to participate in that kind of play if she doesn’t want to, but I also explain to her that Warner isn’t trying to bug her. He is simply trying to have fun, and that’s how he does it with his friends.
She hates it when I talk to her after they fight in these particular situations. She feels like she’s being punished when Warner is the antagonist. She wants me to come in and fix everything and then leave her be. Logically, this makes sense at first glance. She wasn’t going after Warner or breaking his carefully crafted pillow forts; Warner was the one causing the “problem.” I definitely don’t want her to feel like she’s in trouble.
But I do want her to be as happy as humanly possible. Which means I’m going to give her the opportunity to rise above a “Law of Moses” attitude. It may take years to grasp this because she’s so young, but we’re going to start teaching it now anyway.
Now let’s look at the Saints this week before bringing it back.
Disappointment and heartache of the Saints
The Saints ran into a difficult situation this week. Leman Copely was a convert to the church. He had a huge farm and offered to allow other Saints to move onto his land as they left New York to move to Ohio. These Saints made a HUGE sacrifice in leaving their prosperous farms to follow the prophet to Ohio. When they arrive, Leman Copely changes his mind and kicks them all out.
When Joseph inquires of the Lord about the situation, he receives this counsel.
Doctrine and Covenants 54:8 And thus you shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.
So the Saints travelled over 250 miles to get to Ohio only to find out there wasn’t anything there for them. They were then asked to travel an additional 800 miles to get to Missouri. I don’t know the exact mileage for either relocation because I looked up the driving miles on Google maps, but you get the basic idea.
There are a lot of lessons that can be pulled from this story. The Saints could have easily wondered whether Joseph was truly a prophet for an all-knowing God and why he couldn’t have seen this coming. Why weren’t they counseled to move to Missouri in the first place? If this is really what the Lord wanted them to do, why wasn’t He facilitating it? Had the Lord been wrong? Was Joseph mistaken? Was Joseph actually a prophet?
There are a lot of good answers for that question, and I could spend an entire post just on the answer to those questions. However, I actually want to take this in a different direction. We are going to operate off the assumption that the Lord knew what He was doing, and that He had been guiding Joseph and His Saints all along despite the hiccups and reroutes.
So why? What gives? Why would the Lord choose this path over circumventing the entire issue and sending them to Missouri in the first place?
I’m sure there are a lot of reasons. Perhaps Ohio was easier to swallow than Missouri, and it got some of His reluctant children out the door to head west. Perhaps the Lord needed to give Leman a chance to choose for himself; you can’t truly choose when you were never really given an option.
But one of His reasons, and arguably one of the most important reasons, was because the Lord loved His Saints. Let’s talk about His decision to deal with the Saints after this manner is PROOF of His love, rather than a disregard for their well-being or a penchant for unfairness.
The trial of betrayal
We could talk about this from the perspective of trials in general, but I want to talk about it specifically within the context of being betrayed and then still “getting the short end of the stick.”
Leman betrayed the Saints, but the Lord still loves Leman. The Lord worked with (and is likely still working with) Leman to push him the direction where he is going to be happiest.
And though it doesn’t necessarily look like it, I believe the Lord is doing the same with His Saints. He is pushing them in the direction that provides ample opportunity for them to learn to be as joyful as possible.
It would be easy for the Saints to ask, “Why Lord? We didn’t do anything wrong. Why do we have to move? Leman is the one who should get punished.” And honestly, maybe they’re not totally wrong. But this isn’t about Leman. The Lord is looking at them completely separately from Leman and asking Himself, “What is going to be best for them?”
Can I just pull out the poignant detail that the Lord asked His Saints to move to Zion? Very shortly after this verse, we read about how the Lord revealed the location of Zion to be in Missouri.
What is Zion? It’s a place of unity, love, and good will towards each other. It’s a place where everyone takes care of each other and all things are common. I picture the Lord saying, “I need you to rise above this situation and find love and forgiveness and good will. I need you to learn from this situation about how it feels to have someone turn their back on you when you’re in need.”
What’s more? The Lord wasn’t asking them to find forgiveness and good will for Leman’s sake. I said it once, and I’ll say it again. This isn’t about Leman. This is about the Saints. Finding forgiveness and good will and compassion and love are all things that are going to contribute to the happiness of the Saints.
And even more than finding joy and peace in the midst of what had occurred, it’s also going to prepare them for their futures living with (and like) their Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father gets betrayed millions of times every day; you don’t see it ruining His eternity. If we want to live like Him and enjoy what He enjoys, we have to be like Him. We have to be prepared to act like Him until we become like Him. Part of the process includes being filled with so much love and compassion that having someone turn their back on you doesn’t affect you the same way. You’re so focused on others and what they need, the betrayals don’t land the same way. That’s not to say it doesn’t hurt. I believe that the Lord does hurt when we betray Him, but more importantly, He just chooses to live His life on a whole other level.
And He gives us opportunities to choose to do the same.
When the Lord asks you to forgive someone who has betrayed you, it has nothing to do with the betrayer and everything to do with His love for you. When He asks you to “go to Zion” and find that love and compassion and forgiveness, it’s because He wants more for you than you can currently imagine. He wants you to live as He does because He knows how great it is to live life in that manner.
Let’s bring it back to Evelyn for just a moment. Warner is the antagonist in this example, and I will handle Warner with love and I will handle Warner in the way that he needs. I will also choose to try and get Evelyn to rise above, be compassionate, and free herself from that kind of disappointment and pain. I don’t do it so that Warner can get a free pass. I do it because I love Evelyn.
So yes, the Lord could have prevented the whole problem with Leman, but He would have robbed His Saints of the opportunity to be happier. Isn’t that ironic and beautiful? Opposition truly is necessary to joy.
I testify of a Lord who is going to make His decisions completely based on the individual He is working with. Every decision He makes that affects your life is FOR you, not in spite of you. Even when the Lord chooses to bring trials or even just allows trials, He doesn’t necessarily see punishment. It is completely derived from His desire to give you an opportunity to rise above and find deeper joy.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 49–50 – Autumn Dickson
May 12, 2025
Avoiding Confusion
by Autumn Dickson
Leman Copely was a convert to the church who wanted the gospel preached to his former congregants – the Shakers. The Shakers held some beliefs that were different from our’s. Here is some of what the Lord said regarding that:
Doctrine and Covenants 49:1-4
1 Hearken unto my word, my servants Sidney, and Parley, and Leman; for behold, verily I say unto you, that I give unto you a commandment that you shall go and preach my gospel which ye have received, even as ye have received it, unto the Shakers.
2 Behold, I say unto you, that they desire to know the truth in part, but not all, for they are not right before me and must needs repent.
3 Wherefore, I send you, my servants Sidney and Parley, to preach the gospel unto them.
4 And my servant Leman shall be ordained unto this work, that he may reason with them, not according to that which he has received of them, but according to that which shall be taught him by you my servants; and by so doing I will bless him, otherwise he shall not prosper.
The Lord calls Sidney, Parley, and Leman to go preach the gospel as they have received it. The Shakers want the truth in part, but they don’t want the whole truth. Sidney and Parley have been called, and so has Leman. However, it’s important to note that Leman has been called to teach the Shakers according to what he has received from the restored gospel and not what he has received from the Shakers.
I’m not 100% sure what the Lord was saying when He told Leman to teach the Shakers from the perspective of a believer of the restored gospel, but it definitely stuck out to me. When I write these posts, sometimes I get immensely wrapped up in defending the gospel to those who have left. Those are the people that I’m thinking of, and I try to approach the gospel by looking through their lens. I think there is merit to this. It’s definitely helped me to examine my beliefs more closely, but I believe that there are some topics that simply can’t operate from that direction. Some topics have to be taught unapologetically and while it may not reach the audience that I believe needs it most, there is no other way to truly teach it. Sometimes, you have to teach the truth and people are simply going to have to choose whether they believe it.
Part of the truth
From my perspective this week, this is one of those topics. The Shakers only wanted part of the truth. There are two perspectives I want to cover specifically about this idea of “part of the truth.”
First perspective. I once came across a post on social media. It was either posted right before General Conference or right after. The lady recommended listening to conference and taking the parts that spoke to you. If there was something that hurt you or caused problems in your mind, she recommended leaving those parts and simply holding to the parts you could connect to.
As you can imagine, there were wildly different reactions to this post. Some were thanking her profusely for making them feel heard. Others were condemning her and quoting General Authorities about not cherry-picking the gospel.
I found myself somewhere in the middle. I believe in the entirety of the gospel. The more I study it, the more I find myself saying, “Dang…God knew what He was doing. This is so perfect, and I’m so grateful that He continues to work with us. All of this makes so much sense.” I believe that eventually, we will have to accept the entirety of the gospel in order to receive the entirety of happiness that is available.
On the same note, I rather have people accept as much of the truth (since from my perspective, this IS the truth) as possible. Perhaps they can’t bring themselves to hold to everything taught over the pulpit. Though I believe that accepting the entirety of the gospel is eventually going to be required of all of us in order to be prepared for exaltation, I also believe that it’s better to listen to conference and take as much as you can in comparison to not listening at all.
So that’s my first perspective. The gospel is true. The Savior leads this church and eventually, all of His choices are going to make sense. In order for us to find our way and become the kind of people He wants us to become, we will eventually need to accept every portion of the gospel.
But in the meantime, I rather you accept at least part of the truth if you’re not ready to accept all of it.
Accepting all of the gospel
But here’s my unapologetic part and the second perspective I want to teach today.
When Christ declares that these people only wanted part of the truth, I don’t picture Him condemning them. I don’t believe the Lord was trying to tell the Saints that the Shakers were bad people. I believe that the Lord was trying to tell them that accepting only part of the truth brings only part of the blessings.
When we’re operating on false beliefs, we’re going to make more mistakes, get hurt, or miss out.
This is an absolutely ridiculous example, but it teaches the gist of what I’m trying to say.
If you are super convinced that gravity isn’t real, then you might make some poor choices. You’re not a morally bad person for not believing in gravity, and having a good heart and righteous intent can go a long way. But you can still get hurt if you decide to try and live your life as if there is no gravity.
Let’s look at it from a religious perspective.
The Shakers believed in celibacy over marriage. I believe that marriage, intimacy, and having children have brought me closer to God than anything else. I have learned more about the character of God. I have learned more about joy. I have experienced small glimpses of heaven as I sit in bed with my five kids and hold an extremely chaotic Come Follow Me lesson before church on Sundays.
The Shakers were missing out. In fact, I believe they were missing out on some of the most beautiful parts of life. I’m sure they were very good people, but operating as if there is no gravity can cause problems. It can prevent you from receiving blessings that might otherwise be yours.
Modern-day equivalents
I think there are a couple of different ways that this can manifest in our day, and I want to talk about two.
This wasn’t the modern-day equivalent I was thinking of when I first began this post, but the Spirit had other ideas. The modern-day equivalent that I feel led to talk about is when we try to downplay eternal truths in the name of sensitivity.
I originally shied away from using the particular belief of marriage and celibacy as an example because I know there are a lot of members who ache for what I have. I have family and friends who have yearned for happy marriages and children and so hearing that they’re missing out on these blessings can be painful. I don’t believe it’s immoral to step back for a minute and focus on other parts of the gospel when the disappointment of unfulfilled blessings feels too great. I believe there are times when the rest of us can be more sensitive; there are ways that we can make sure that we’re that everyone feels included even if they’re not married.
But I also believe that we wouldn’t be doing anyone any favors by ignoring or downplaying this powerful, eternal truth. Marriage and parenthood are incredible blessings, and everyone who is righteous will receive that crowning blessing eventually. It may feel painful sometimes to hear about it too much, but it would be even more painful to reject those beliefs because you have yet to see their fulfillment. It would bring even more pain and sorrow to not teach this eternal truth: marriage and parenthood are divine. The Shakers were missing out.
Embrace your God-given desires for companionship and children, and simultaneously embrace the promises of the Savior to fulfill those desires. There is so much goodness coming.
The second modern-day equivalent actually seems like the opposite of what I just taught, but it’s actually just an extension of what I just taught.
If you’re watching Come Follow Me videos, chances are, you believe in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. So how does this apply to you?
What truths are you not accepting? What partial truths or traditions are you clinging to? This can manifest in a million different ways.
Sometimes we’re taught the truth but still cling to our original interpretations of the truth. For example, I used to cling desperately to the idea that God was mad at me whenever I made a mistake. I’m not sure if this was self-sabotage or a weird motivational factor I tried to cling to, but either way, it was holding me back from some of the most incredible blessings I’ve ever experienced, namely the grace of Jesus Christ.
What partial truths do you refuse to give up and what do these partial truths take away from you?
I testify of a Savior who disperses truth as many places as He can. If you’re not ready to accept Him as a Savior, He is going to try and teach you about the character of God as much as possible. If you’re not ready to accept the reality of God, He is going to try and teach you Christlike principles about loving your neighbor and choosing gratitude as much as you allow Him. I testify of a Savior who is actively pushing truth in any form that we are willing to accept because He wants us to experience as much heaven as is available in our day. I also testify that clinging to and operating on partial truths, whether inside the church or out, can lead to more pain than is necessary and less happiness than is available.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Jonathan A. Stapley and Kristine Wright, “Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism,” Journal of Mormon History 37, no. 1 (Winter 2011): 1–85. Stapley and Wright examine the history of anointing and laying on of hands of the sick by early Latter-day Saint women.
On the sanctity of animal life:
On 26 May 1834, Joseph Smith taught about the sanctity of animal life during the Zion’s Camp march: “[After] we crossed the Embarros River…in pitching my tent we found three Massasaugers or Prairie Rattle Snakes which the brethren were about to kill, but I said [‘]let them alone, don’t hurt them, how will the serpent ever lose its venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition, and continue to make war upon them[;] men must become harmless before the brute creation, and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child play with the serpent with safety.[’] … I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or any animal of any kind, during our journey unless it— were necessary to preserve ourselves from hunger.“ (Manuscript History, vol. A‑1, 8 [addenda].)
President Joseph F. Smith, “The Destruction of Animal Life,” Juvenile Instructor 48, no. 5 (May 1913): 308–09. President Smith warned the Saints against being “athirst for the shedding of animal blood” simply for sport or pleasure.
President Spencer W. Kimball repeated Joseph F. Smith’s counsel in his October 1978 General Conference address, “Fundamental Principles To Ponder And Live.” He expressed his view that “it is not only wicked to destroy [innocent birds and wildlife], it is a shame.”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 46–48 – Autumn Dickson
May 05, 2025
Avoiding Confusion
by Autumn Dickson
The Lord continues to clarify and restore His church. This week, He helps to clarify what their meetings should look like and who gets to come. There were some Saints who started acting strangely during these meetings because they believed they were being acted upon by the Holy Ghost. The Lord taught what it truly looks like when the Spirit is working through you.
Here is part of His clarification:
Doctrine and Covenants 46:7 But ye are commanded in all things to ask of God, who giveth liberally; and that which the Spirit testifies unto you even so I would that ye should do in all holiness of heart, walking uprightly before me, considering the end of your salvation, doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving, that ye may not be seduced by evil spirits, or doctrines of devils, or the commandments of men; for some are of men, and others of devils.
I want to rearrange the order of this verse a little bit to clarify what I want to teach. The Lord wants us to avoid being seduced by evil spirits, doctrines of devils, and commandments of men. That is His goal when He is speaking to His people in this verse. What is His advice (or more accurately commandments) for how to avoid these unfortunate ends? He gives us a few pieces of wisdom.
Follow Him in holiness of heart, walking uprightly before Him, considering the end of your salvation, and doing all things with prayer and thanksgiving. These are some of the ways that we can avoid confusion in the latter days.
Confusion
Before I jump into each phrase, I want to expand the idea of “confusion” that I’m talking about today.
When I first think of the concept of “confusion” in regards to the gospel, I usually have a knee jerk reaction to believe that we’re referring to who has the truth surrounding God and His characteristics and gospel. This is definitely a portion of confusion, but Satan extends it far beyond that.
Yes, he wants to confuse us as to who has the truth, but he also wants to confuse us in any way that he possibly can. He loves to confuse us by twisting gospel principles.
For example, it is so easy to get caught up in being right and others being wrong. Satan loves to cause discord and turn people against each other. Perhaps conflict isn’t your first thought when we’re talking about confusion, but it’s a very powerful tactic of Satan and the rest of the world. Confusing us to the extent that we see enemies all around can also be very effective for Satan.
Feeling connected to one another is a powerful part of salvation. Needing each other, taking care of each other, assuming the best of each other, and melding our different experiences into powerful progress are all necessary pieces to the salvation puzzle. Satan loves to confuse us and pull us away from those specific types of salvation.
He loves to make us believe that we’re correct and everyone else is wrong. He loves to make us believe that others have evil intentions, and we have to step up and be heroes. He loves making us believe that we need to fight against others when in actuality, a grand majority of us are trying to push mankind forward even if we have different ways of going about it. He wants us to see other people as the enemy.
By making us believe we’re enemies, Satan is taking away opportunities for us to feel the pieces of heaven that are available to us here on earth.
So that’s my expanded definition of confusion. It’s not just about who has the truth. It’s about all the ways that Satan can confuse us. What advice do we receive from the Lord about how to avoid confusion? Let’s jump into those phrases now.
Holiness of heart
The first phrase is “holiness of heart.”
Holiness is to be set apart. If I’m going to make something holy, I take it apart from its environment that is likely corrupt or even just mundane. I do this so that it can be more readily utilized by the Lord. For example, the temple is holy. It’s made from similar materials as other buildings on the earth, but it’s not like other places on earth. It was set aside from corrupt and mundane things, and we make it holy by reserving it for the Lord’s use.
Another example. The sacrament is holy. It’s just regular bread and water, but it’s not regular bread and water in the sense that we have set it apart for a higher purpose. It’s not about filling out stomachs and rehydrating. It’s more important. We separated it from other food so that it can help us to think of Christ.
How do we make our hearts holy? How do we set our hearts apart from the world? I have just a few thoughts. Our hearts are physically like other hearts in the world, but our hearts cannot look like the hearts of the rest of the world. They have to be different. Our hearts have to be separated from earthly influences so that we are in a space where the Lord can more readily speak to us and utilize us. This means purposefully drowning out the noise that comes in from any other source and tuning ourselves to just speak with Him.
Much of the process of making something holy occurs within our mind and focus. We don’t use a special type of bread for the sacrament. We make it special by giving it a different purpose within our minds. We consciously make a decision to set something apart for the Lord’s use, and we wait to see what the Lord wants to do with it. It is no different with our hearts. If we want our hearts to be holy, we consciously separate our love from corrupt and mundane influences and wait to see what the Lord wants to do with it.
Walking uprightly before Him
When I first looked at this phrase, all I could think of was keeping the commandments. I think that’s definitely part of it, and the commandments are absolutely placed there to help us avoid confusion. I want to take it a step further though.
When you do something “uprightly,” you do it in an “honest, responsible, and moral way.” Believe it or not, you can keep the commandments in a way that is not upright and oftentimes, doing it with a wrong heart can cause more problems and more confusion.
You can serve your spouse, and it can bring more resentment. You can wear your garments and be angry about it the whole time. You can pay your tithing and be annoyed.
This isn’t meant to shame anyone because shame brings its own share of problems, and heaven knows I have been guilty of following the commandments with a bitter heart. I don’t bring this up so that we can harangue ourselves. Rather, I bring it up because if we can consciously change how we approach the commandments (i.e. following the commandments in an uprightly manner), we can find very specific blessings.
One of those blessings is what we’ve been talking about: avoiding being seduced by evil spirits and the commandments of men.
Let’s look at that first example more closely. Before I share this example, I think it’s really important to note that Conner is a good husband who works really hard to take care of our family. He’s loyal and playful and responsible, and his deepest happiness comes from being with us.
And yet, despite being married to a very good man, sometimes I get resentful towards Conner. When I want him to do something I think he should be doing or when I want him to stop doing something, I can take it personally and turn it into a bigger problem. And then, when I continue to serve him in the ways that I normally do, it can make the resentment build and build.
During one of my resentful moments, I came across a very Christlike piece of advice on instagram. A lady shared her experience of learning to love her husband even when she didn’t feel loved. Her example reminded me that I wasn’t serving my husband in an upright manner. I was serving him but not in the way that the Lord would have me serve, and so it wasn’t bringing any joy into my life. In fact, it was doing the opposite.
I had been so caught up in my resentment (despite following the commandment to serve) that I felt justified. I was convinced that I couldn’t be vulnerable or forgive or allow myself to be happy until my perceived wrongs were made up. I had gotten confused.
Unsurprisingly, I was also miserable.
As I came across this advice to love more freely (and as I chose to do my best to act on that advice), I felt that confusion melt away. Satan had been lying to me. The world was wrong in its assumption that there is power in bitterness.
That is just one example, but I’ve found it to be true over and over and over. When I give my heart right alongside my service (when I walk uprightly before the Lord), Satan and the commandments of men have less power over me and I find more joy.
Considering the end of your salvation
There are two ways I’m interpreting this phrase in my head. When we consider the “end” of our salvation, it could be referring to the means by which we receive salvation (Christ) or what the “end” of salvation looks like. Both are really great ways to help us avoid confusion and hold on, but I want to focus on the first interpretation I mentioned. If we want to avoid confusion, we should take time to consciously consider how Christ brought about that salvation.
I want to bring up another form of confusion that causes a lot of problems. Perhaps this is just my personal experience, but I feel like people (myself included) have gotten so incredibly caught up in wanting to be seen and heard. We want our sacrifices to be noted. We want to be recognized and validated. We are desperate to make sure that we’ve gotten as much as the next person.
But that’s not how Christ lived His life. He didn’t seek recognition and validation. He gave up everything, and He did it alone. He wasn’t angry when the disciples fell asleep during that ultimate sacrifice. He didn’t resent them.
Even now, when He commands us to remember Him, it’s not about Him. He wants us to remember Him and worship Him because He knows what it will do for us, not because He has some ego that needs to be fed.
Satan likes to confuse us. He loves to whisper that we deserve better, and honestly, maybe we do. But if we turn our minds towards Christ and how He lived His life, we can find a better way.
When we choose to focus outward in the same way that He performed His sacrifice, we will find joy regardless of whether the world is fair or unfair. And then, when we get to the other side, it will all be as it should be. Satan would love for you to focus on what you don’t have and what you think the others are doing wrong rather than adopting the focus that Christ had.
All things with prayer and thanksgiving
One of my daughters is particularly stubborn. Being stubborn comes with its own gifts and trials that she’s going to have to learn how to balance.
There have been many times that she has approached me, already mad and ready to pick a fight, over something she feels was mishandled. This can range anywhere from my choice of disciplining her brother to enforcing a rule that she’s unimpressed with. Picking a fight is putting it kindly. There are times when she feels quite fiercely about what she’s approaching me with.
When she approaches me, opinions set in stone and frustration mounting, it can be very difficult to explain myself to her. I don’t always mind explaining my parenting choices, but it’s very hard for her to understand my explanations when she has preconceived notions and anger. That anger often arises out of her opinion that I’m shortchanging her rather than her remembrance of how I’ve centered my life around her in so many ways.
It becomes nearly impossible for her to hear me, and when I don’t have the opportunity to get my point across, she stays confused about why I chose my specific route.
The phrase we’re talking about right now is to do all things with prayer and thanksgiving. This may be one phrase, but prayer and thanksgiving function slightly differently in their ability to help us avoid confusion.
First, there is prayer. True prayer means that we’re communing with the Lord. We are seeking to align our will with His. We are open to His responses. I don’t think I have to delve too far into this in order to highlight why this might be helpful when we’re trying to avoid confusion.
Second, there is thanksgiving. Having your eyes opened to all the ways that the Lord has already shown up for you enables you to trust His answer. When you approach Him in thanksgiving for everything He has done for you, oftentimes, you will find the answer you’re looking for in the midst of what He’s already given. As my daughter grows and comes to trust my intentions more and more, it will become easier and easier for her to understand my parenting choices. She will see that I’m giving her opportunities to become her best self rather than trying to undermine her or unfairly push back against her. Having a thankful heart for all the Lord has done for us helps us approach Him in a manner where we’re ready to see the truth and shed our confusion.
The Lord wants to help us understand. He wants to guide us along His path. He wants us to avoid confusion. It can be very easy to get caught up in Satan’s lies or the commandments of men when we’re trying to take the infinite decisions of God and fit them into tiny boxes where they don’t belong. Fortunately, the Lord has also given us specific ways of how to avoid this confusion.
I testify of a Lord who is worth listening to. His words aren’t arbitrary or minced. His wisdom far surpasses Satan or those on the earth who are limited in their understanding. He cares, and He wants to teach us so that we can rise above what anyone else can offer.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 45 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 30, 2025
Our Advocate
by Autumn Dickson
I feel like there are many ways to illustrate the atonement of Jesus Christ in order to add layers to our understanding. I don’t think one verse, one way of explaining it, one parable can do it justice. It’s so universal and so individual at the same time. Applying it and having it change us can be so nuanced. Studying layer upon layer can give us a more full picture of the Savior’s powerful sacrifice.
This section holds one of my favorite verses, and it teaches us another layer about His atonement. I’ve actually shared this verse before in a different Easter message in a different year, but I taught it from a completely different angle so I’m going to use it again.
A sacred learning experience
I just want to note that this is the gospel according to Autumn. I don’t know that my description is how things are going to go, but I do believe there are principles here that are most definitely true. My description is merely meant to teach those principles, not to try and preach exactly what Judgment Day looks like.
I want you to picture that it’s your turn to go in and be judged by your Heavenly Father and Savior. You’re nervous. You don’t really feel like reliving some of the worst decisions of your life, but there’s no turning back now. You did what you did, and now you get to watch it.
As you enter the room, you’re blown away by the warmth there. You take your seat waiting for the video montage to start so that They can start weighing your good deeds against your sins, your opportunities against your disadvantages.
You watch your video-montage-life, and then the Savior stands to be your advocate. You are blown away when the Savior doesn’t actually say much about what your life looked like. Instead, He says this…
Doctrine and Covenants 45:4-5
4 …Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
5 Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.
The Savior was speaking to His church in this verse. He literally tells His Saints, “Listen to me, your Advocate before the Father. This is what I’m going to tell your Heavenly Father. I’m going to ask Him to look at My perfection and My sacrifice so that you can be saved.” I believe that we are all going to be judged on who we’ve become, truly I do. I also think we are going to experience something very powerful on Judgment Day.
The Lord loves to teach us and because progression will still exist on the other side, I believe that Judgment Day is going to double as a learning opportunity. I believe that we’re going to feel humbled as we listen to the Savior asking the Father to spare us because of what the Savior did for us, not because we worked really hard to keep the commandments and change. In that day, we are going to learn that we truly are saved by grace.
I imagine us walking out in tears, completely surprised that Judgment Day wasn’t painful. It will be beautiful and sacred and humbling to realize that our choices and personal change do matter, but that they would be rendered useless had our older Brother chosen against sacrificing Himself on our behalf. I imagine being filled with a reverent, deep-seated awe that renders us speechless.
Souls not saved
That is not the only thing the Savior teaches in this section though. Right before He describes His role as the advocate, He also teaches this particular principle:
Doctrine and Covenants 45:2 And again I say, hearken unto my voice, lest death shall overtake you; in an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.
The Savior pleads with us to listen to His voice in case Judgment Day comes at an unexpected time, and we find our souls not saved. This begs the question, “What does it mean to be saved?”
In my personal interpretation of the gospel, we are experiencing varying levels of salvation and damnation at any given time in our lives. We are inviting heaven or hell. We are feeling close to the Savior, full of love for others, free from the constraints of men, and safety in vulnerability before the Lord. Or, we are feeling far away from our loving Brother, clinging to a selfish focus and desperate need to make ourselves happy, carrying the weight of the fickleness of mankind, and fearing that the floor is going to fall out from beneath us.
Being saved is gradually inviting more and more heaven into your life by taking advantage of tools given to us by the Savior. For example, being saved is not about taking the sacrament and dying before you have an opportunity to sin again. Being saved is about taking the sacrament and allowing yourself a moment of peace to remember the Savior and His great love in sacrificing Himself for you. Continually reflecting on that love and building a relationship and confidence in Him invites salvation because loving Him is salvation. It also pushes you to look outward and love others, another aspect of salvation.
That’s why we’re taught that you can’t just repent right before you die. We’re taught that you’ll be the same person on the other side that you are on this side. Salvation doesn’t just come when you say sorry. Salvation is something you grow into.
The Savior also reminded His people about the parable of the ten virgins in Section 45. You can’t borrow oil, and oil doesn’t magically appear when you need it. The “oil” is something you have to gather ahead of time so that you’re ready to be a part of the Celestial Kingdom when the Savior utilizes His atonement to bring you there for good.
In short…
In short, we gradually become more like our Savior, experiencing life as He does, experiencing “salvation” as He does. The atonement of Jesus Christ is there, all throughout our life. It is a power that helps us change and grow. The love behind the sacrifice inspires us to want to do better. It gives us the hope we need to keep trying. And then, when it’s our time to be judged, the Savior’s atonement facilitates us walking into the Celestial Kingdom where we can enjoy that salvation forever. The Savior’s atonement means that our change and effort matter.
If the Savior had been unsuccessful in His sacrifice, I wonder if there would have still been some merit in following the laws of Christ. I think it’s worth reflecting on because it can help us understand what we would have faced without His triumph, and I believe that can bring a lot of gratitude. Would forgiveness still help a person to rise above pain? Would turning outwards towards others still bring happiness? Would gratitude, humility, and seeking knowledge still bring some level of worth? The Savior enjoys salvation because He follows these laws perfectly so even if the Savior had failed, I wonder if following them (to whatever extent we’re capable of) would still bring some portion of happiness.
I don’t know how things would have turned out if the Savior had failed. I don’t know how much happiness would have still been available to us or if we would have all eventually given up and dissolved into dissolution and despair. We wouldn’t get our bodies back which, according to the scriptures, is described as a sort of prison. I don’t remember how it feels to be a spirit, but I believe that there was a legitimate reason we were excited to get a body and a legitimate reason that the Savior went through what He did in order to guarantee a resurrection.
We wouldn’t get to return to Them. Anyone who has missed anyone can understand this to a degree. Someday, that veil won’t be over our eyes anymore. We will remember where we came from and Who sent us, and the ache of never returning to Them will stick with us.
People may never heal from the mistakes we’ve made. We may never heal from the wrongs committed against us.
We would be relegated to a place that’s probably a lot like earth. It’s filled with some good, but it’s also filled with people who turn against each other. There are always people who want to hurt each other and hate each other. When things on earth feel heavy, I cling to the idea that the Savior is going to make up for it all. How would I change without that hope?
I don’t know exactly how the world would look without the triumph of the Savior over sin and death. I do know what the Spirit feels like, and I know that the feelings of the Spirit are meant to give us a tiny glimpse into what it feels like on the other side. I know that forgiveness has freed me. I know that one day, misunderstandings will clear, minds and hearts will heal, and we will be placed in an existence that is full of everything we could possibly ask for. I know that because of the Savior, we will have the opportunity to enjoy that existence in its fullness; I am grateful that the Savior chose to perform the atonement so that we could return to Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 29, 43, 45, 116, 133 – Mike Parker
Apr 26, 2025
The second coming of Jesus Christ (D&C sections 29, 43, 45, 116, 133)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
In his October 1992 General Conference address, “To Be Learned Is Good If…,” Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve warned against those within the Church who preach of an impending gathering of the saints due to some catastrophe. Such people persist in the Church today, and many recent, popular books continue to teach these types of false messages.
“There are some among us now who have not been regularly ordained by the heads of the Church and who tell of impending political and economic chaos, the end of the world—something of the ‘sky is falling, chicken licken’ of the fables. They are misleading members to gather to colonies or cults.
“Those deceivers say that the Brethren do not know what is going on in the world or that the Brethren approve of their teaching but do not wish to speak of it over the pulpit. Neither is true. The Brethren, by virtue of traveling constantly everywhere on earth, certainly know what is going on, and by virtue of prophetic insight are able to read the signs of the times.
“Do not be deceived by them—those deceivers. If there is to be any gathering, it will be announced by those who have been regularly ordained and who are known to the Church to have authority.”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 41–42, 44, 48, 51, 70, 72, 79 – Mike Parker
Apr 24, 2025
The law of consecration; the office of bishop (D&C sections 41–42, 44, 48, 51, 70, 72, 79)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
In October 1962 General Conference, then-Elder Spencer W. Kimball spoke out against marital infidelity, using portions of section 42 to explain the importance of “total allegiance and total fidelity” that husbands and wives should have for each other. Read his remarks in Conference Report (October 1962): 55–60.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 41–44 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 22, 2025
As Seemeth Him Good
by Autumn Dickson
Sidney Rigdon has become an increasingly significant character in the formation of the young church, and this week we get to read a revelation that was directed towards him. Sidney was originally trained as a tanner, but he left that profession to preach because he dearly loved the word of God. He worked with the Baptists for some time before splitting with them over disagreements. He moved to Ohio with his family and was elected preacher over a congregation there. Sidney Rigdon dearly wanted a restoration of Christ’s church; he recognized that the church he was looking for wasn’t on the earth at the time, but he faithfully tried to pattern his congregation after what he learned about in the New Testament.
Oliver Cowdery, on his way to preach to the Native Americans, stopped for a short period in Ohio and preached to Sidney and his congregation. Many, including Sidney, were converted.
As I read about Sidney, I can see how he really wanted to do exactly what the Lord wanted him to do. He wanted to know what the Lord would have him do spiritually. When Oliver found him, he had been trying to live with all things common between his congregation just as the New Testament Saints had done. Now that he found the restored church, he likely wanted to know how he should fully embrace it.
Sidney was also facing some uncertainties as a result of his conversion to the restored gospel; he had been all set up to live in a home that was being built for him as the preacher over the congregation in Mentor, Ohio. After converting to the church, that home was no longer available to him. His baptism had quite literally left his family homeless.
Both of these circumstances, a desire to follow spiritual truth and facing uncertainty, are great reasons to seek revelation. There is a verse in Section 41 directed towards Sidney that seems to suggest that Sidney sought out the will of the Lord. Perhaps he sought it out directly through Joseph, or perhaps he had been seeking it out himself and the Lord answered through Joseph because the Lord knew Sidney’s heart.
Either way, this is what the Lord had to say:
Doctrine and Covenants 41:8 And again, it is meet that my servant Sidney Rigdon should live as seemeth him good, inasmuch as he keepeth my commandments.
I’m not sure how Sidney felt upon receiving this small tidbit, but let’s try to liken it to ourselves.
Facing uncertainty
I want to cover the second portion of his reasoning first. Sidney was facing homelessness and uncertainty.
These are often the times that inspire a desire for revelation. When the world is scary and we’re feeling powerless, it incites a need for a higher power. Sometimes, we just need a message from the Lord that we’re going to be okay. Sometimes, we’re looking for more. Perhaps we’re asking the Lord to give us a more substantial answer about what we’re supposed to be doing. We want actionable items to follow that we know will lead us towards a better and safer situation.
When Sidney came seeking revelation, his family was in a precarious situation and the Lord answered, “Live how you want as long as you follow my commandments.”
I don’t know how Sidney reacted to this tidbit. Maybe he was so excited to simply be in a church that was receiving revelation through a prophet. Maybe he was excited to be trusted by the Lord. Maybe he was excited to get started building the kind of life he wanted rather than being given a specific path.
I’m not totally sure. However, I do know that many of us (or at least those who are vocal at church on Sundays) often want the Lord to give us a clear path. We just want to be told what to do. I’ve learned that the Lord likes us to move forward and make decisions of our own accord and build the kind of life we really want, and He will open the right doors and course-correct as necessary. And yet, if I had received that answer, I think I would have been bummed.
I would have reacted differently at different time periods in my life. At one point, I would have wondered if He was mad at me or if I was too sinful to receive a real answer. At other points, I might have been like, “Hey! I followed You and now I’m going to be homeless and this is all You have for me?!”
Even now, I know that the Lord purposefully chooses to have me build my own life BECAUSE He loves me and trusts me and believes in me. And yet, I still get a bit disappointed that He doesn’t want to give me more than that. I get disappointed because it means that there is work to do on my part; it would be tremendously easier if He would just tell us what to do.
But (I guess) thank goodness He’s not willing to do that. We’re looking at a specific home on the east coast right now, and it’s so scary and we don’t know if it’s right. However, I get to look back on this multi-year process and remember the lessons He’s taught me. I get to decide right now whether I trust Him to lead me along, to bail us out when we’re trying to follow Him and things don’t pan out how we thought, and to manipulate the opening and closing of doors. It’s easy to say that I trust Him to do this. I say that all the time in these posts, and I believe it too. And yet, when we’re in a big decision like this, I get to find out whether I really do trust Him. I get to make continuous, tiny decisions to trust when I feel anxiety or discouragement. It can be an agitating process, but it’s given me opportunities to strengthen those spiritual muscles.
I really am grateful for it even if I tease. It changes me to have these experiences where I stand on the edge of obscurity and find out whether I’m willing to step into trusting the Lord. I don’t necessarily like it, but I love the result. It feels good to trust the Lord.
And I suppose that’s one of my main points here. Every Christlike attribute has to be balanced. It would have been easy for Sidney to want more,but we need to trust what the Lord chooses to give. I believe the way to balance a desire for revelation is to trust the Lord and whatever He chooses to give at any specific time. We do what we can to prepare ourselves to receive. We keep our hearts open. Then we are grateful that He chooses to follow His own will in regards to what He chooses to share. We trust that He is doing so in wisdom, and we trust that He won’t let us truly fail.
A desire to follow the path
The first portion of Sidney’s reasoning to seek revelation was because he wanted to be spiritually led.
A desire to be spiritually led is obviously a trait we should be seeking to develop, but it also has to be balanced and the answer is the same for when we’re seeking revelation about our temporal circumstances. Seeking revelation is balanced with trust.
For a long time, I struggled at the temple. I remember a quote (that for some reason I can’t currently find) given by a General Authority who said that they learn something new every time they go to the temple. I struggled because I didn’t feel that way. I was trying really, really hard to be prepared and open myself up to learn something. I did my best to stay awake and focus. I tried staying in the Celestial Room longer. I tried pondering. I did everything I mentally could to try and learn something new, and I simply wasn’t getting anything.
I often left the temple feeling discouraged and wondering what I had done wrong that I hadn’t learned anything new.
When this General Authority gave this quote, I don’t believe they were necessarily trying to tell us that we should learn something new every time we go. They were simply bearing testimony that going to the temple helped them learn. However, I took it to the extreme, and it left me discouraged.
Christlike attributes have to be balanced, and luckily, I have a wise sister who told me to relax. She said she didn’t usually go to the temple to receive revelation; she simply went to serve. As I looked at my own life, I realized how I had turned my own bedroom into a bit of a temple as I sought out very reverent time to seek revelation on a daily basis. The Lord is given plenty of opportunities to talk to me, and He often does.
Going to the temple became a relief. I was able to think about the person I was serving instead, and I now feel excitement for them and gratitude that I can go without all of the pressure. I could go to the temple and trust the Lord to speak to me as needed.
Don’t get me wrong; I believe the temple is a great place to learn especially when the rest of the world is chaotic and ugly. Stepping into a beautiful and reverent place can help us mentally go into a place where we can receive revelation. There is a reason the Lord gives us temples to seek Him out. What I am trying to teach is that we don’t need to put any added pressure on ourselves to try and hear Him when He’s not talking. Balance your desire for revelation with a trust that He will speak and be heard when He’s good and ready.
Do we need to try and hear Him? Absolutely. We just need to be doing it without the pressure. Seeking revelation can be balanced with trusting the Lord and what He chooses to give us at any given time and where He chooses to give it.
The Lord did not give Sidney much to go off of, but it’s not because He had more important things to do. It’s not because Sidney had earned His cold shoulder or because Sidney necessarily needed to work harder in that given moment (though that is sometimes the case). The Lord chose to give Sidney what He gave because the Lord loved Sidney and knew what was best for Sidney.
I testify that every decision the Lord makes in our lives is in our favor. I testify that we can joyfully seek after the Christlike attributes and spiritual skills because the Lord stands ready to help us in the right amount at the right times. We can seek revelation and be grateful for His voice, and we can be grateful for when He’s silent. They can both be signs of His love.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 37–40 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 15, 2025
An Act of Faith
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we run into a big announcement for the Saints.
Doctrine and Covenants 37:3-4
3 And again, a commandment I give unto the church, that it is expedient in me that they should assemble together at the Ohio, against the time that my servant Oliver Cowdery shall return unto them.
4 Behold, here is wisdom, and let every man choose for himself until I come. Even so. Amen.
The Lord asks His Saints, many of whom are gathered in New York, to pack up and move to Ohio.
I think it’s hard to fathom what a big deal this is. Joseph is a very young man, and he’s imperfect. Even if you believe he’s the prophet, it can be difficult to wonder whether this is truly a commandment from the Lord. In fact, John Whitmer recorded that some people believed Joseph had made it up in order to take advantage of them. Imagine packing up as much as you can, potentially not being able to sell your home, and moving to a place where you’re going to have to build a house and hopefully be able to grow food for your family (because there certainly wasn’t any welfare yet).
This was a really big deal. It was an immense test of faith. These people were being asked to dive headfirst into a body of water that they hadn’t been given many opportunities to test out. The church was so new that there had been relatively few opportunities to exercise your faith up to this point, and going to Ohio was going to take a herculean amount of faith.
Faith experiences
There are different kinds of experiences associated with faith in mortality. I want to look at the experiences of David from the Old Testament in order to differentiate between two specific directions through which we experience faith. By exploring the different ways we can choose to exercise faith, I believe that we can more consciously grow our faith.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites are facing a very scary army. Goliath steps forward as an individual on behalf of this very scary army, and he wants to battle an Israelite. Unfortunately, none of the Israelites want to challenge him. David, a teenage shepherd who came to bring lunch to his brothers, has come forward to King Saul, and he wants to go against Goliath. Saul responds to David with, “You’re really young, and this guy has been a soldier for a really long time.” This is how David responds.
1 Samuel 17:34-35
34 And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
35 And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
In lay terms, David tells Saul that he’s a shepherd who protected his father’s sheep against a lion and a bear. David has fought great battles and been protected by the Lord, and he believes it would be no different in this situation.
In reality, facing the bear and facing Goliath require different approaches to faith.
A low-risk faith
In verse 34, we learn that the lion and bear came to David, and he fought them. I think it’s really key to understand that in this situation, the trouble came to David. He didn’t go out asking for it. He fell into a situation and pleaded with the Lord to save him.
Has difficulty ever come upon you and your need for the Lord was made very apparent and you pleaded for deliverance? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where all of a sudden you were paying really close attention to your prayers and the Lord? The foremost modern day equivalent that I can think of is getting some sickness like cancer.
When I describe this as a “low-risk” faith, I’m not trying to say that bears, lions, and cancers aren’t serious. What I’m trying to say is that in situations like this, it never hurts to try and reach out to a higher power. Having a deep, steady faith can bring you an immense amount of peace in a situation like this. However, there’s not a lot on the line if whatever higher power you believe in doesn’t answer. You’re not going to be any worse off than you were before.
I call this a low-risk faith. Surely you’re showing faith by turning to the Lord, but it’s not requiring much of you because you have nothing to lose in turning to Him. David didn’t ask for the lion and bear to come, but he pleaded with the Lord when they did show up.
A high-risk faith
The situation with Goliath was totally different. David could have gone home and some other Israelite would have been sent in his place to fight Goliath. Stepping up to fight a seasoned soldier of your own accord is different from being forced into a scary situation with wild animals. If Goliath had shown up at David’s doorstep spoiling for a fight with David (and David only) then showing faith and pleading for help would have been low-risk. It wouldn’t have left David worse off to look to a higher power. The level of faith it required to step forward of his own accord was far more immense. People can go their whole lives, pleading with the Lord when it’s low-risk, but never actually stepping forward in an act of higher faith that brings higher rewards.
When David stepped forward to fight Goliath, without anything compelling him to do so, his faith was speaking volumes. His faith was saying, “I know that it was the Lord who delivered me from the lion and bear and not just dumb luck or my immense skill with a slingshot. I know that the Israelites are the Lord’s people and that the Lord wants to protect them. I know that the Lord wants me to step forward to fight him, or at the very least, I know that the Lord will protect me if I choose to do so when no one else will.”
Joseph Smith taught that true faith requires a knowledge of God’s character, and I believe that teaching is so evident here.
It would have been easy for David to wonder if the Lord really wanted to protect His people or whether David was going to end up as collateral damage in a war that the Israelites were meant to lose. It would have been easy to wonder if the Lord was busy doing something else. It would have been easy to wonder if the Lord truly wanted David to do this thing or if David was doing something stupid by stepping up.
But David knew the character of the Lord, and he stepped forward in faith of his own accord.
Let’s pull it back into the situation of the Saints. The difference would be equivalent to one of the Saints losing their home and trusting the Lord to help them find something new in comparison to voluntarily leaving behind a good thing for the unknown because the prophet told you to. The potential for doubts is staggering. Is Joseph really a prophet? Did Joseph get the revelation wrong and only Joseph is supposed to go to Ohio or do they really all need to go? Does God really care about them and will He truly take care of them?
There are going to be situations in your life where darkness comes upon you and you reach out to the Lord for help. These kinds of faith-situations are really important. These kinds of situations help you build your faith as you choose to see the Lord’s hand stepping in to help. These kinds of situations also call upon you to believe that the Lord still loves you and is going to make things okay, even if it’s not in the direction that you want it to be.
On the flip side, there will be situations where the Lord is going to ask you to step into the dark. Maybe others have had different experiences, but for me, these can feel scarier. Even when I truly believe that the Lord loves me, I wonder whether I’m hearing Him correctly or whether I’m just putting myself into a bad situation for funsies.
When I chose to get married, I wasn’t sure the path was going to bring me happiness and I felt like the Lord was rather quiet on the subject when I wanted undeniable confirmation that I was making a choice that would bring me joy. When we moved to Virginia, it was easy to wonder whether we had left something really good behind in favor of living in a hotel for three months with three kids. Had the Lord asked us to do it or was it all made up in my mind? When I chose to do this blog because I thought He was asking me to, it was easy to wonder whether this is really what He wanted or whether I was simply investing immense amounts of time into something that the Lord hadn’t actually asked for.
We have different lessons to learn here on earth that call for different kinds of faith. Sometimes the Lord quietly presents us with opportunities to step forward into the dark, trusting that He will be there, and when we choose to jump, the rewards are immense. David defeated a mighty soldier, saved the Israelites, and set himself up to become king. That’s no small thing.
They say that higher risks can reap greater rewards. There have been plenty of times in my life where I felt like I was taking great risks in trusting the Lord, but I have learned that with the Lord, it’s not really a high risk. I’ve learned that even when I’m mistaken in my understanding of what He wants me to do, He’s not going to respond with, “Whoops. That sucks for you. That wasn’t what I was asking.” He loves me. I may find myself in greater difficulty, but I will never truly lose if I’m actively trying to follow Him. He knows my heart. He knows I want to do what He wants me to do, and that’s enough for Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Easter – Autumn Dickson
Apr 13, 2025
They Fell Back
by Autumn Dickson
This week is all about Christ and His atonement. The Come Follow Me manual recommends studying Luke 22 to reflect on the sacrifice that the Savior made in the Garden of Gethsemane. Instead, I want to read the same experience except I want to share it from the book of John.
The soldiers approach the Christ and His group following the experience in the Garden of Gethsemane.
John 18:4-6
4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?
5 They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.
6 As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
I could have this wrong because it doesn’t explicitly state the reasoning, but here is what I’m picturing.
These soldiers come forward looking for Christ and spoiling for a fight. They’ve got their weapons and torches since it’s late, and they come upon the group of disciples and ask for Jesus of Nazareth. Christ steps into the light of the torches and replies, “I am He.” The soldiers fall back.
I know there are different interpretations of how this scene played out, but this is how I’ve always imagined it: I picture the soldiers falling back because of what they saw when Christ stepped into the light. Christ had just spent a portion of time bleeding from every pore as He suffered the sins and pains of the world. In all honesty, it’s likely a ghastly sight, and it catches them off guard.
Even if I’m wrong about how I imagine it, I believe there are some parallels that can teach us something significant here. Regardless of how the details went down, the principles I want to talk about are absolutely true.
Spoiling for a fight
I can remember a time in my life where I overheard someone talking quite negatively about my husband in my home. I was upstairs folding laundry when I realized I needed something from downstairs. I started walking down the hallway and paused when I heard them talking. One person was complaining about Conner, and the other one was trying to placate them and simultaneously shush them since the situation could prove to be awkward were I to come around the corner.
Needless to say, I didn’t quite make it around the corner, but I did overhear.
I was seeing red for a couple of reasons. This person had consistently been critical of Conner, and this person had also put Conner into the situation that they were currently complaining about. I’m not normally a confrontational person (mostly because I’m a wuss if we’re being honest), but I had already had plenty of scathing mental conversations with this person over the way Conner had been treated. I was so over it. I was about to let them have it, along with all the other baggage I had accumulated regarding the relationship we had with this person.
But I took a step back, breathed deeply, and furiously (but quietly) stomped back to my room.
I angrily paced back and forth for a while. I debated whether I was going to go down and call them out on it. I tried going back to work in my room but found myself pacing again. How dare they? I had kept my mouth shut for a long time, and I felt that they needed to hear just how toxic they were being.
Don’t get me wrong; I 100% believe there are appropriate times to call someone out and correct them. Sometimes correction is one of the highest forms of love. However, I wasn’t being particularly Christlike in how I wanted to approach that correction. If you’re going to correct someone, I believe it needs to come from a place of concern for their well-being rather than your own. I wanted this person to feel bad, and not because I wanted them to repent and live life in a more happy manner.
Luckily, I dropped to my knees and said a prayer. To this day, I don’t know what pushed me to pray at this moment, but I’m glad it happened.
I told the Lord how angry I was, at the current situation as well as all the previous situations where I felt Conner had been treated and perceived unfairly. I asked the Lord to help me see reality and to feel the truth of the situation I was looking at.
Boy, did He deliver.
The Lord responded with two things. I got a mini-montage before my mind’s eye of all the ways I had acted precisely like this person who had so offended me, and I got a whopping spiritual smackdown as I realized how similar I was to this person I was so mad at.
More importantly, I also saw how the Lord had taken care of it. The Lord loved this person. They were generally a good person; there was just a lot of bad blood built up. The Lord paid for it all, and when we get to the other side, we would all be able to see each other clearly. We would all clearly be able to see how the Lord had sent us down here to learn (sometimes the hard way) and then paid with a check signed in His blood.
Needless to say, the wind got drop-kicked out of my sails.
There are lots of details there, but let’s focus on three very important details.
I had approached spoiling for a fight. I had seen the results of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I was forcefully taken aback by the reality of Christ’s sacrifice.
The soldiers had approached spoiling for a fight. They saw the physical manifestation of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane. They were quite literally taken aback by what they saw.
How can the atonement of Christ change you?
I read a book (Price of Privilege by Jessica Dota) that was an allegory for the Savior. In the book, the main character finds herself in a terrifying, deadly marriage in the Regency Era. This was partially because of her own foolish choices, but it was also because she was a powerless victim in a world where women had no power. One of the main characters, Isaac, fights to free her from the marriage, and when it fails, he offers a poisonous drink to her murderous husband. Unfortunately, the only way to make him confident enough to drink the poison was if Isaac drinks with him. The poison kills her husband, but it also kills Isaac.
In one of the key moments at the end, we find her being kind to her cruel and cold father, not because he deserves it but because she loves Isaac for freeing her and Isaac had always encouraged her to be kind to her father. Isaac had quite literally saved her life; he gave her an opportunity to be happy in her life. How could she say no to his small requests in return?
Like the soldiers at the end of the account of the Garden of Gethsemane, I have a feeling that seeing (or even simply experiencing) the atonement of Jesus Christ would change how we feel about the betrayals we’ve experienced. Hyperfocusing on the damage you have received often disables your ability to recognize the goodness that is still available to you, perpetuating the consequences you have suffered innocently.
Looking to the Savior, seeing what He is offering and experiencing what He sacrificed (at least to an extent) is enough to take the fight right out of you.
Forgiveness is a process. I fully realize that healing from some betrayals takes immense amounts of time. This isn’t meant to rush that process or summon guilt for the innocent party. It’s meant to point you in the direction of ultimate healing, the Savior. If you keep your focus on the Savior and if you allow yourself to experience His grace, you’ll be taken aback at how your need for revenge or even personal justice dissipates. When you know the Savior, you trust Him and you feel safe enough to pass the circumstances to Him.
I testify that the Savior is mighty to save. I testify that He can offer everything that is owed to you. I testify that if you could remember Him and the experiences you’ve shared, you would naturally feel safe enough to let Him free you, bless you, and handle the justice of the perpetrator. That is the effect of experiencing His atonement.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 35–40, 47 – Mike Parker
Apr 07, 2025
Sidney Rigdon; the gathering; the office of Church Historian (D&C sections 35–40, 47)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
David W. Grua, “Joseph Smith and the 1834 D. P. Hurlbut Case,” BYU Studies 44, no. 1 (2005): 33–54. Grua examines the notorious ex-Mormon apostate Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, his attempt to destroy the early Church, and the legal case brought against him for threatening to kill Joseph Smith.
Matthew Roper, “The Mythical ‘Manuscript Found’,” FARMS Review 17, no. 2 (2005): 7–140. Roper reviews (and decimates) modern attempts to tie the origins of the Book of Mormon to Sidney Rigdon.
Church leaders and scholars are so confident that there is no connection between Solomon Spaulding’s “Manuscript Found” and the Book of Mormon that they’ve reprinted the Spaulding manuscript numerous times. In the 1990s, Brigham Young University printed Spaulding’s book in its entirety: Kent P. Jackson, ed., Manuscript Found: The Complete Original “Spaulding Manuscript” (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1996).
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 30-36 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 04, 2025
Left to Inquire
by Autumn Dickson
David Whitmer, one of the three witnesses of The Book of Mormon, is chastened in one of the sections that we read for this week. He had listened to Hiram Page who had been receiving false revelations, and the Lord spoke with him regarding this. His response can be helpful because we have all been in David’s shoes to one extent or another.
Doctrine and Covenants 30:2-3
2 But your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of me, your Maker, and the ministry whereunto you have been called; and you have not given heed unto my Spirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded.
3 Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received.
Though many of us aren’t currently tempted to fall prey to the false revelations given by Hiram Page, we do often find ourselves in situations that are similar enough to David. I want to go through some experiences that I’ve had that are similar to David, and I want to tell you about this experience by exploring phrases taught in these verses. Though I’m giving a specific, personal example, the principles are what matter and they can be widely applied to many different circumstances.
One modern equivalent
Lehi’s dream has been on my mind recently. There are many interpretations of the great and spacious building, the foremost being pride. I’ve been pondering an additional interpretation. Let’s look at details surrounding Lehi’s dream so that we can explore parallels. The building resided above the earth, in the air, suggesting that it’s not a physical place on the earth. There were a ton of people in the building, and they were well-dressed and mocking and pointing their fingers at those who were partaking of the love of God. Those who paid attention to the mocking became ashamed and fell away, and those who “heeded them not” continued partaking of the love of God.
I’ve been thinking about what a great metaphor the great and spacious building is for social media. Social media is not a physical place. Though the social media culture has partially changed, we still find a majority of people dressed in their best, showcasing the most glamorous parts of their lives. We obviously find plenty of mocking and pointing of fingers. I’ve also noticed that social media can sometimes bring my mind down to an earthly level as well as persuading me to listen to those who aren’t called by the Lord.
And therein lies my experience that can leave me in a similar position to David. Because I post LDS content, the algorithm for my instagram often sends me into LDS accounts as well as anti-LDS accounts. Sometimes I don’t even have to be exploring instagram to find the anti-material. It finds me as people comment on the posts that I make. There were two phrases the Lord used to describe David that also apply to me when I find myself paying heed to the negative on social media.
Whenever I find myself paying too much attention to social media (specifically the negative), I find myself relating quite closely to David.
your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of me
you have not given heed unto my Spirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded
Heaven knows social media can be a terrible influence on me. It pushes me to focus on things of little consequence, and I have very consciously observed my overall life-satisfaction dipping. Social media also takes eternal realities and tries forcing them into earthly perspectives where they don’t belong. I also find plenty of people who haven’t been commanded by the Lord, and it gets confusing.
So what do we do when we have found ourselves in a similar situation to David? Let’s look at the rest of the Lord’s response.
Left to inquire
The Lord warns David of some of the patterns that David has fallen into, and then the Lord responds to it.
Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received.
When viewed from an earthly perspective, this response can seem dismissive or potentially even angry. After becoming a parent, I have learned that it’s anything but.
This is an extremely simplistic example, but I’m going to share it anyway. My son hates wearing shoes. This doesn’t tend to be a problem in the summer as his feet grow accustomed to burning hot concrete, but he can’t seem to get his bare feet accustomed to snow *insert sarcastic surprise.* He has a little friend who lives one house down from us, and we usually let the kids run wild between the two houses. I’ve told him to put shoes on, but I don’t force him to. He usually does okay running back and forth in the winter because it doesn’t snow often. However, one day he decided to run to his friend’s house with no shoes on even though the ground was covered in snow. I was upstairs tending to some other kids when I heard screaming outside. I ran downstairs, opened the door, and he was painfully walking back to our house (friend wasn’t home) through the snow with bare feet. I threw on my own shoes, picked him up, and brought him inside.
I have told Warner to put shoes on, and he has had a lot of experiences where he’s ignored me and regretted it and listened and found favorable outcomes. He’s also had experience with snow. He has received information. I could try to force his hand by getting a deadbolt on the front door, but that would take away from other conscious parenting choices I’ve made to let the kid play outside when he wants to.
So I leave him with the information I’ve given him, and he can think about it and come and ask me if he has questions. Sometimes that means a tough lesson, but that lesson is pretty powerful.
It’s not a perfectly parallel analogy, but I do think enough of the details line up.
Heavenly Father has told us to not pay heed to the mocking and finger-pointing. In this particular section, He admonishes David for getting caught up in the world and listening to those He hasn’t called.
Unfortunately, social media is less simplistic than snow. Social media and snow both have their pros, cons, and wise utilization, but unfortunately, social media also has a confusion factor. When we get caught up in social media, we often find ourselves asking, well who has really been commanded by the Lord? Who has the truth?
I’ve had experiences with social media. Not all of them are bad, but there have been times when doubt and confusion have felt overwhelming. And so as the Lord suggests, I ponder. As I ponder and try to include the Lord, my mind is lifted above the earthly things and I remember that my experiences with the Lord have been every bit as real as the fear I’ve experienced coming across things that don’t make sense. As I keep pondering, sometimes the Lord lifts my vision and shifts my perspective to where things make sense. Other times, He doesn’t. But that doesn’t make any of the other experiences I’ve had with Him unreal. Having a limited understanding or coming across accounts of history that can’t be unequivocally resolved does not invalidate the experiences you’ve had with the Lord.
And if you don’t know whether you’ve had an experience with the Lord, then there’s no reason you can’t seek out that relationship now.
I testify that the Lord works through His prophets. I testify that this is a system He has utilized to work with His children throughout the history of the earth. I believe this because I have been able to speak with my Heavenly Father and receive answers from Him through the words of modern day prophets. Those experiences are tremendously real and valid; those experiences are the reason I stay.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Me, My Shelf, & I – How Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals understand the Bible differently
Apr 03, 2025
In this special episode, Sarah Allen, Jennifer Roach Lees, and Zachary Wright host a panel discussion on the topic “How Latter-day Saints and Evangelicals understand the Bible differently.”
Panel participants:
Stephen Smoot: https://www.plonialmonimormon.com/
Dr. Ben Spackman: https://benspackman.com/
Travis Anderson: @missionarydiscussions1286
References in this episode:
JSH 1:12–13
Dr. Christian Smith, “pervasive interpretive pluralism”. (The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture by Dr. Christian Smith)
Dr. James Kugel: https://www.jameskugel.com/ (The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History by Dr. James Kugel)
Deutero-Isaiah in the Book of Mormon: Latter-day Saint Approaches by Joshua M. Sears (chapter from They Shall Grow Together: The Bible in the Book of Mormon by Dr. Charles Swift and Dr. Nicholas J. Frederick, Editors)
Relational Grace: The Reciprocal and Binding Covenant of Charis by Dr. Brent J. Schmidt https://brentschmidt.org
Relational Faith: The Transformation and Restoration of Pistis as Knowledge, Trust, Confidence, and Covenantal Faithfulness by Dr. Brent J. Schmidt https://brentschmidt.org
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 29-34 – Mike Parker
Mar 31, 2025
The doctrine of agency; the Lamanite Mission (D&C sections 29–34)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt (Chicago: Law, King & Law, 1888). Read Parley’s account of his early life, conversion to the restored gospel, and service as a missionary and apostle.
Native Americans and the Lamanites Latter-day Saint leaders have expressed a variety of opinions regarding whether or not all Amerindians are literal descendants of Lehi. Population genetics indicate that Lehi can likely be counted among the ancestors of all native Americans—a position that the Church has reinforced by changing the 1981 Book of Mormon introduction from “principal ancestors” to “among the ancestors.”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 29 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 30, 2025
I Am In Your Midst
by Autumn Dickson
There is a lot of doctrine covered in Doctrine and Covenants 29. I absolutely love it. It ranges from the Millennium to agency and all over the board. There are so many things that caught my attention that are meaningful to me but alas, let’s talk about just one of the principles. Before I jump into the verse, I want to give some background to explain why it caught my attention.
I remember going to this HUGE regional youth conference as a senior in high school. It included a big cultural celebration, and we rented out a big stadium to perform in. There was dancing and singing. It was all a ton of fun.
I also remember a little rumor going around about the prophet coming because it was such a huge conference, and I remember lots of people whispering excitedly about it. I’m not sure if the prophet had ever planned on coming or if someone had just gotten a little ahead of themselves and it got spread around as a rumor. If I am remembering correctly, I feel like it was a real possibility; I feel like we were waiting to get word on whether he would actually be able to make it, but I could be wrong. It’s been over a decade since that time and I’ve had five kids so pardon my memory. I do remember that people started praying for him to show up, and I remember whispering excitedly about how cool it would be if he did.
I also remember the moment we learned that he wasn’t going to be coming and the general feeling of disappointment that followed.
Now, I had the unique opportunity of welcoming the youth to the conference and giving the opening prayer for the conference, and I was told about this unique opportunity right before actually doing the welcoming. I didn’t know what to say, but I did know that everyone was feeling pretty disappointed that President Monson wasn’t going to make it. Luckily, the Spirit stepped in and helped me know what to say; I also learned something pretty significant from this little experience.
I acknowledged the disappointment that we all felt over the prophet not being able to come, and then the Spirit helped me testify that even though he couldn’t make it, the Savior would be there to watch us perform and be with us. The following verse reminded me of this experience.
Doctrine and Covenants 29:5 Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom.
Doctrine and Covenants 29 was given in the company of six other elders. It wasn’t some huge conference, but the Savior told these men that He was in their midst. The Savior claims to be with His saints frequently throughout the Doctrine and Covenants. Do we believe that or do we mentally skip over phrases like that because they feel trite? When He claims to be in our midst, what does that mean to us?
Excitement over the prophet
I want to momentarily jump back to the excitement that all of us felt over the prospect of the prophet visiting our gigantic youth conference.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to meet the prophet and wanting to be around him. There is a reason we love our prophet. In so many ways, it’s not really about President Hinckley or Monson or Nelson. It’s about what they represent. They represent the fact that the heavens are opened again, the priesthood power to perform binding ordinances are on the earth, and the Lord is directing His church. We love our prophet because of the symbol that he is to our faith.
We get excited about General Conference and the revelation we’re going to receive. When my companion and I walked out of the MTC cafeteria, we saw Elder Holland and literally froze in our tracks. He shook our hands before rushing on to get to his next appointment, and we were so excited about it. If I saw President Nelson tomorrow, I would be super excited even as an adult.
And yet, when the Savior claims to be in the presence of His Saints, what does that mean to us?
I think the main reason it’s easier to get excited about shaking the hand of a prophet vs. picturing the Savior near us is the difficulty level. It requires far more effort to get to the point where you truly believe He is with you. And once you reach that point, it still takes effort to feel Him and hear Him and engage yourself in speaking to Him.
But oh my goodness…it’s so worth it.
The primary answers
So how do we bring Him into our midst? How do we trust Him when He says that He is already there? How do we start to take advantage of the fact that the Savior really is here with us?
Honestly, I think the most powerful tools we have are the basic tools He gave us. We do the primary answers of praying, reading your scriptures, and going to church.
We often talk about how it can be hard to make sure you’re reading your scriptures and praying. We talk about how it’s hard to develop those habits, and I’ve heard it expressed that we should stop putting so much pressure on people who are already feeling a ton of pressure to accomplish everything. I agree that pressure is often unhelpful, but I don’t think I agree with the sentiment that we should stop striving for daily habits. They are simply too valuable.
Sometimes I shy away from pushing those habits because I know that those kinds of things are easy for me. I’m good at habits. I love reading and writing. I grew up in a family where those habits were emphasized. One of my biggest time consumers other than my kids (i.e. blog, podcast, YouTube) is literally pushing me to seek Him out on a daily basis. It occasionally feels insensitive for me to advocate for it when it’s not as easy for other people.
But I can’t not testify of these things. They hold too much power. I know exactly what you get when you invite the Savior into your midst regularly with scripture study and prayer.
Because it’s not going to be enough to just do them. Eventually, we have to get to the point where we’re doing it in a manner that effectively fulfills our purpose – being with the Savior. It’s not about reading for long enough or praying for long enough; it’s about whether you truly communed with Him.
Communing with Him can be even harder than crossing these small things off of a checklist. It’s harder to spiritually strive for those things. It’s harder to constantly re-engage when it feels like the whole world is trying to distract you from it. It’s harder to keep spiritually engaging when you feel like you’re not getting much in return, but if you do the primary answers while neglecting their purpose, then you’re much less likely to find the rewards and you will most definitely find yourself prioritizing them less and less.
He can tell us that He’s in our midst all He wants. He can sit with us while we take the sacrament. He can place His hand on our shoulder in our darkest moments. He can enjoy the simple moments in life right alongside us, but it won’t matter if we don’t believe it.
Utilizing the primary answers to practice communing with Him enables us to believe Him when He says He’s in our midst. And when you believe that you have the Savior with you, it changes everything.
I remember a time on my mission when things felt incredibly heavy. My companion was in the shower so I had some very rare alone time. I sat in the dark living room of our apartment, prayed, and I felt Him with me. He didn’t try to “fix” things. I didn’t get any answers. He wasn’t telling me to have more faith. He mourned with me.
I think about getting caught up in the daily stresses of my life. I wonder about where my family is going to end up, how to protect my kids from the scary influences in the world, the list goes on and on and on. But (almost) every day, I sit down and I type out a prayer and when I do it right, I remember how the Savior and His promises touch everything I write down. I’m worried about where we’re going to end up? When I picture Him with me, it’s much easier to remember that it doesn’t really matter. I have a beautiful, perfect, eternal home where I can stay forever. I’m worried about my kids? He can guide me to protect them and heal them. He can remind me to be grateful when they’re challenged because it’s so healthy to be challenged. He knows where they’re at and how to help them.
Investing in primary answers, to the extent that you open your eyes to how the Savior is in your midst, will remove so many mental obstacles from your path. It will lift you. It will help you feel legitimately grateful for where you’re at in life. It will help you feel secure when the world is scary. It will empower you to accomplish so much more. Truly investing in primary answers with purpose brings the Savior into your midst, and that changes everything.
I testify of a Savior who wants to be with you. He wants to lift you. He wants you to feel powerful enough to overcome obstacles. He wants to help you believe in yourself when the obstacle feels too big. I testify of a Savior who gave us very simple tools to open our eyes so that we can see Him with us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 25, 27–28 – Mike Parker
Mar 21, 2025
Emma Hale Smith; the sacrament; authority in the Church (D&C sections 25, 27–28)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
In early 1879, Emma was interviewed by her son, Joseph Smith III, who asked her questions about the Prophet Joseph, the translation of the Book of Mormon, and other events in the restoration of the gospel. Her responses were published as “Last Testimony of Sister Emma,” The Saints’ Herald 26, no. 19 (1 October 1879): 289–90. Although Emma denied that the Prophet Joseph ever practiced plural marriage (which he, in fact, did), her eyewitness testimony is otherwise invaluable and inspiring.
Background on Emma’s second husband, Lewis Bidamon, may be found in Valeen Tippetts Avery and Linda King Newell, “Lewis C. Bidamon, Stepchild of Mormondom,” BYU Studies 19, no. 3 (Spring 1979): 375–88.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 27–28 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 19, 2025
God Chose a Prophet
by Autumn Dickson
We are currently still in the very early days of the church where the Lord is revealing line upon line. Satan is actively working against God’s plan, and he often tries to mimic God to lead people astray. He loves to tell half-truths that seem logical upon first examination.
One of the historical accounts we can read about this week includes supposed revelations that were being received by Hiram Page. Hiram claimed to be receiving revelation for the church on various topics, and many saints believed him.
This was not the first time that priesthood organization needed to be clarified. Oliver Cowdery had once commanded Joseph to change some wording in a revelation because he believed it was in error. I find it especially interesting that when Joseph was seeking revelation on how to handle the issues with Hiram Page, the Lord responded by sending Oliver to Hiram to work it out.
Here is how the Lord clarified His priesthood organization in regards to Hiram Page.
Doctrine and Covenants 28:2 But, behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall be appointed to receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., for he receiveth them even as Moses.
In other words, the Lord very purposefully works through His prophet to guide His church. Only one man can receive revelation for the entire church at any given time. A bishop can receive revelation for the entire ward. A stake president can receive revelation for the entire stake. A Relief Society president can receive revelation for the women in her ward. Youth leaders, temple presidents, mission presidents, fathers, and mothers all have spiritual jurisdictions.
A lot of people struggle with the idea of one prophet receiving revelation for the entire church, and I’m sure the reasons for this struggle are numerous. However, I believe there are a couple of main ones we can talk about. And though we are covering specific reasons, I believe the principles can be applied to various circumstances and struggles.
Power and manipulation
I think one of the reasons that people struggle with this idea of a prophet is because they’ve seen positions of authority get abused throughout history. It happens politically. It happens in the home. It happens in religious organizations. It even happens in our own church often enough. I’m not specifically talking about the prophet, just leadership in general. We are imperfect people, and we’ve all abused our power to one extent or another.
Viewing it from a perspective of someone who is struggling to believe in a prophet adds additional insight. They see a man who has the power to make any decisions he wants with few consequences. This isn’t a democracy or republic. There is little room for redress when there are perceived wrongs because we believe that the prophet is receiving revelation from the Lord, and so disagreeing with the prophet feels complicated.
I think it’s important to view it from the standpoint of someone who believes differently than you, but I also believe it’s vital to view it from the standpoint of belief as well. There are a couple of principles that can be supremely comforting when you really, truly, deeply believe that the Savior chose to work through a prophet.
Principle One: The Lord had to choose a system of governance
Principle one. The Lord has to work within the framework of an imperfect world. If the world was perfect, systems of governance wouldn’t matter as much. In fact, if the world was perfect and we were all perfect, we wouldn’t need leaders at all. But alas, the Lord just has us and so He has to make decisions about how He’s going to handle that.
The Lord’s purpose was to create a system that would allow His gospel to more fully thrive. He needed the doctrine to stay pure because an accurate knowledge of the character of God and a framework for how to get back to Him is crucial. He needed to be able to send the gospel to all corners of the earth and make sure that the same truth was being taught everywhere.
He chose a prophet and a church with which to do it. Once again, some people struggle with it because there is ample opportunity for spiritual abuse. But let’s explore His alternative option.
Imagine, just for a moment, what things would look like if anyone could receive revelation for the entire church at any time. Imagine what it would look like if anyone could come up to you and tell you that they received revelation that you should do something specific. That sounds infinitely more terrifying in my mind. There may be opportunities for spiritual abuse with one leader, but there are far more opportunities for abuse when anyone can come along and hurt anyone by claiming divine revelation. One mean-spirited person could cause far more heartache in countless lives in comparison to imperfect but well-meaning men. There would be infinitely more opportunities for manipulation and religious abuse.
The Lord was wise in His choice of a prophet as a system of governance, but it doesn’t stop there! The Lord didn’t just say, “Well, all we have is imperfection so good luck!” There are more principles.
Principle Two: Promises
The Lord has given promises regarding His prophet. The foremost promise is that He won’t allow the prophet to lead the church astray. This can be minimally comforting when you think about the fact that this promise came from one of the men who had the power to lead the church astray, but once again, let’s put this in a lens of belief.
You can receive revelation. You can’t receive revelation for anyone; you have a spiritual jurisdiction as well. But you can receive revelation!
Pray about it! Pray and ask the Lord if He called a prophet, and then actually give Him a chance to answer by showing a little faith. Tell the Lord to help you find the answer, to change you so that you’re prepared to receive it. Once you have the assurance that He has called a prophet, it changes how you look at everything else.
When we receive a testimony of that promise (He won’t let the prophet lead the church astray), we can look at things through a lens of faith and that is incredibly powerful. It won’t make sense to the rest of the world that doesn’t hold that same testimony, but that doesn’t really matter. You’ll know the truth, and you’ll know you can trust the Lord, His choices, and His timing.
When things come along that don’t make sense, you don’t have to question everything you believe. You can ask the Lord. You can say to yourself, “I know God is good. I know He loves me. I know – insert testimony here-. I don’t know how it all fits together, but I trust that He does.”
Principle three: The Atonement of Jesus Christ
Now, prophets are imperfect men. That means there has been hurt. That means they don’t do everything perfectly.
How does that make sense? If they make mistakes, how can they not lead the church astray? How can both things be true?
Honestly, I think people take that promise too intensely. That promise doesn’t mean that a prophet will never make a mistake. It means that the Lord can course-correct. He can teach and lead and guide. This is a living church, and the restoration is ongoing. It means we’re headed in the right direction even if we don’t have it all figured out yet.
If that doesn’t sound good enough, then look at your own life.
You’re imperfect, but there is a lot of power in walking towards the right direction. The Lord isn’t trying to make you perfect yet. If His main purpose was to have you perfectly avoid sin, then He wouldn’t send trials or anything that could derail you. Rather, His purpose is your growth which means He’s not as concerned about errors and missteps as some of us are. He just wants to push us in the right direction and gain the growth and wisdom we need. If we keep heading in the right direction, eventually the missteps and errors stop anyway.
I believe it’s the same idea but on a grand scale in the church and the prophet.
Unfortunately, some missteps can cause pain and confusion. The Lord needed to allow us to be imperfect for so many good reasons, but He didn’t say, “Sorry. They’re imperfect. Tough luck.” That’s why God sent more than a prophet. He sent His Son.
Every injustice you suffer will be made up. Every injustice you watch someone else suffer will be made up. It will be more than made up because a Savior chose to come to earth and suffer and die for us. He’s got this. It’s going to work out.
But none of this really matters unless you believe it. It can be the truth, but it won’t bless you unless you know it’s the truth. So ask the Lord.
I’m grateful for a Savior who chooses to be involved in our affairs on the earth. I’m grateful for a Savior who has shown me time and again that I matter to Him, who has shown me that I can trust Him until I reach the point where I’m ready to receive all truth.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 23–26 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 14, 2025
Require Not Miracles
by Autumn Dickson
The Doctrine and Covenants differs from other books of scripture in the sense that the Lord is often responding to individual people. This can lead to some of the sections seeming disjointed as the Lord covers multiple feelings and circumstances that any given individual may be experiencing. In other books of scriptures, we get stories or sermons that were all meant to go together. In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord is simply talking to the people receiving the revelation (most often through the prophet Joseph Smith), and it’s like a letter. He’s going to respond to many different circumstances.
In Doctrine and Covenants 24, the Lord is talking to various men about earthly responsibilities and testifying of the gospel. Here is one of the things the Lord decides to include as He is talking to His children.
Doctrine and Covenants 24:13-14
13 Require not miracles, except I shall command you, except casting out devils, healing the sick, and against poisonous serpents, and against deadly poisons;
14 And these things ye shall not do, except it be required of you by them who desire it, that the scriptures might be fulfilled; for ye shall do according to that which is written.
I want to tie a couple phrases together in order to more directly teach what I want to talk about today.
“Require not miracles except I shall command you….except it be required of you by them who desire it…”
So if the Lord is directly speaking to His children, what can we imply from what He chose to say in these particular verses? I can’t know for sure, but I imagine that some of these new members had wanted to perform miracles like the ones they read about in the bible. They believed that they had just found the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Wouldn’t that mean the same miracles should follow? Perhaps some attempted these miracles, or perhaps it was just something that had been pondered. Either way, the Lord teaches them that they shouldn’t just go around trying to perform miracles. They can perform those miracles if they’ve been commanded by the Lord or if it has been sought by those who need the miracle.
This is an interesting concept when you combine it with the fact that the Lord didn’t go about broadcasting His miraculous abilities. He often solicited the healed to stay quiet about what had occurred. Perhaps there were appropriate times in which He offered to intervene, but if I’m not mistaken, all the very direct miracles that we read about in the New Testament were brought about because someone came to the Lord to ask Him for the miracle.
Why does the Lord work after this manner and why does He ask His disciples to work this way? They are commanded to perform miracles when commanded by God or when asked by the people who need it. Performing a miracle because God asked you to do it is fairly straightforward, and so I want to focus on the fact that the Lord asked them to only perform miracles when they’ve been asked.
Though I’m sure there are many reasons, there is one main reason that I’d like to cover today.
Alma and preaching the gospel
This idea of running around and advertising miracles reminds me of another passage of scripture in The Book of Mormon. I want to talk about this passage, and then I want to bring it back around to the idea of advertising and performing miracles everywhere.
In Alma 29, Alma is wishing that he could preach the gospel to every corner of the earth. He wishes he could be an angel and shake the earth with his testimony regarding the Savior. His desire was to preach across the world in a way that enabled everyone to hear it. I remember thinking that this was a pretty good wish. To me, it seems like a good reflection on his heart.
But, later on in the chapter, Alma says he is sinning in his wish. Why?
Sin is anything that’s going to bring us further from eternal life. Even when we have good intentions and pure hearts, there are certain things that can take eternal life away from us. Alma is correct in trusting the Lord with the calling the Lord chooses to give him in life. Even with good hearts and intentions, obedience and trust in the Lord is essential. There are appropriate times to solicit the Lord for more responsibilities, blessings, or other things, but it’s important to trust what He chooses to give.
Now let’s take that a step further and explore Alma’s desire to preach the gospel. Why might this take people farther away from eternal life rather than closer? When we really ponder Alma’s desire a little further, we can see the wisdom of the Lord in not expanding Alma’s calling to earth-shattering, angelic missionary that reaches across the earth.
Simply put, eternal life doesn’t really work like that.
If Alma were to receive his wish, it would have foiled the Plan of Salvation. The gospel may have been preached to every creature, and many might have even accepted it. But WHY would they have chosen to accept it? Because the WHY is key. Choosing to follow the tenants of the gospel is not the same as reaping the rewards of the gospel. I would know. I chose to follow the gospel for a long time before actually reaping the rewards.
The true reward of living the gospel is eternal life, and what is eternal life? What is it really? Eternal life is living like God. It’s choosing to be good because you have changed to be innately good. God doesn’t choose to be righteous and perfect because He wants to avoid some eternal punishment. He chooses to be righteous and perfect because He is love.
If the gospel was suddenly preached on a miraculous, earth-shattering loudspeaker, it would very quickly transfer a large portion of people into the category of, “I’m following the gospel because I want to avoid hell.” It would rob them of the opportunity to work through belief, to work on drawing closer to the Lord continually, on turning to Him when you’re worried about being deceived. As we take advantage of questions and worries by turning to the Lord, we reap the benefits of a divine relationship with Him. Those benefits (change, love, trust) are what eternal life feel like.
Avoiding hell is not eternal life. Avoiding hell can only bring so much happiness. If we want to experience the happiness and joy that God has in store, we have to go beyond just trying to avoid hell.
So we’ve explored it. The Lord is incredibly wise when He doesn’t throw away the belief stage, and Alma was wise when he trusted that the Lord knew what He was doing.
Taking it back to miracles
Let’s bring it back to the original command to perform miracles when asked by the person who needs the miracle.
Wanting to go around and perform miracles everywhere likely sprang from a good place. That desire to heal and prevent disaster came from a good heart, but what did we learn from Alma’s example? Even with good hearts and good intentions, there are things that can still take us away from eternal life. It’s important to trust the Lord.
The Lord is wise, and He knows that it’s often important for someone to ask for a miracle before receiving it. Why is it wise to require this?
Simply put, eternal life doesn’t really work like that.
The Lord’s purpose is to help us grow to be like Him. He wants us to change so that we can reap the rewards that He reaps. He wants us to feel what He feels.
If His disciples were to go around performing miracles right and left, what would be the result?
One result is the same result that we explored with Alma wanting to preach the gospel over a loudspeaker. It removes that aspect of faith and belief that drive us towards developing that relationship with Christ and finding the rewards therein. It removes the growth that comes with having to repeatedly turn towards Him.
Another result is that sometimes the Lord chooses not to remove obstacles. Removing every obstacle would completely foil the Plan of Salvation. We came down here to grow. How would that be possible without obstacles?
And the last reason I’d like to cover here is the fact that there is something so powerful in having to ask first. When we look at it from an earthly perspective, requiring someone to ask for what they need before you’re willing to give it seems petty and ridiculous. However, we know the Lord isn’t petty and ridiculous. We know that everything He does is for us, so why does He choose to do it that way?
I think it’s important to note that He doesn’t always do it this way. He often provides miracles and takes care of us without our knowledge. Someday, when we get to the other side, we’re going to realize just how much He interfered on our behalf.
However, sometimes He does require us to ask. So why? Why does He do that?
Part of His goal of helping us reach eternal life is to nurture a relationship with us. When He requires us to ask, He is more fully guaranteeing our ability to recognize His hand in our life. Recognizing Him is pretty crucial to developing a relationship with Him. If our needs were simply just getting fulfilled right and left before we even consciously recognized the need, we would likely never even realize He was behind it.
On an earthly level with my own children, I find it extremely important to teach my children that their clean laundry doesn’t miraculously show up. The food doesn’t just find itself cooked. The money doesn’t just show up in the bank account. They don’t drive themselves to their various activities. I want them to recognize that my husband and I show up for them. And yes, because we’re imperfect people with issues, part of that is because we want validation. But the other part (the part that reflects our Heavenly Parents) is because we know that recognition and gratitude on their part will actually be a blessing in and of itself.
Recognizing that they have parents who show up, feeling gratitude for those parents, and developing that relationship with parents is going to enrich their lives tremendously.
God can’t show up and teach us that directly because once again, it would rob us of that faith and belief factor that’s so crucial to the Plan of Salvation. So rather, He often requires us to ask first so that we can start to recognize that He’s the one answering. There is wisdom in His commandment to wait for someone to ask before giving a miracle.
I believe in a wise and powerful Savior. I believe that everything He does is for us. All of His motivation boils down to His love for us. I believe that it is important to explore things we don’t understand in the gospel through the lens of that love if we want to understand why He does what He does. He is trying to give us so much more than we can comprehend.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 20–24, 26 – Mike Parker
Mar 09, 2025
The establishment of the Church of Christ (D&C sections 20–24, 26)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 20–22 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 07, 2025
Nuances of Baptism
by Autumn Dickson
Let’s talk about historical context again quickly so that we can have a reference for what we read this week. Chronologically, Section 21 came before Section 20. Section 21 came on the day the church was organized, and it talks a lot about how Joseph was called as a prophet and the importance of listening to the prophets. Section 20 came in between the day that the church was organized and its first conference held in June. Section 20 had a lot of administrative tasks explained as well as core doctrines that are found in The Book of Mormon. Section 22 came last as people were wondering whether they needed to get rebaptized.
There is actually quite a bit given to us on the subject of baptism this week. One section describes the mode and manner of baptism, and another section describes the need to be baptized with proper authority. Let’s talk about some of the things we can learn about baptism from the revelations we’re covering this week.
He follows us
The first detail I want to talk about comes as the Lord describes how we are to be baptized.
Doctrine and Covenants 20:72-74
72 Baptism is to be administered in the following manner unto all those who repent—
73 The person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person who has presented himself or herself for baptism, and shall say, calling him or her by name: Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
74 Then shall he immerse him or her in the water, and come forth again out of the water.
We know that baptism holds a lot of symbolism. We’re dressed in white. We go down into the water and come back out, symbolizing the death of our old life and becoming new again. It also symbolizes Christ dying and being resurrected. There was one piece of symbolism that I did not previously recognize that was pointed out quite clearly in the previous verses.
The person who is called of God and has authority from Jesus Christ to baptize, shall go down into the water with the person who has presented himself or herself for baptism…
In order to understand the symbolism, we have to understand the “characters” participating in the baptism. We are representing ourselves (or those who have passed on and cannot do the work themselves), but we are not the only one present in our baptism. There is also a priesthood holder that follows us in.
This priesthood holder is authorized by Jesus Christ to use His authority to bind us to the Savior so that the Savior can legally (in an eternal sense) bind us to Him in a manner that produces salvation. One might even argue that the priesthood holder is a representation of Christ, Himself.
Christ follows us into the water as we choose to make a covenant with Him, as we walk towards the death of our old life. If we were to picture the Savior, with the wounds of His sacrifice still on His resurrected body, walking into the water with us, how would our baptism feel different? It may be a priesthood holder actually standing in the water, but the only reason the priesthood holder is there is because he is holding Christ’s authority to baptize. It’s really Christ who is utilizing power to bind us to Him in a covenant that saves us. The priesthood holder is nothing more than a vessel.
There are a couple of ways this might change how we feel about our baptism.
The first one that comes to my mind is that He is teaching us what the rest of our lives are going to look like because we chose to enter into a covenant relationship with Him. Following us into the water and binding us to Him according to our willingness is a foreshadowing of what our lives can look like. If we keep our willingness to follow Him and allow Him near us, we don’t have to do anything alone anymore.
Christ’s approach to our growth and development is two-pronged. It is wise in the sense that He allows us to suffer, struggle, and figure it out. This is really difficult for many people to swallow, especially when you consider the depths of injustice and despair in the world. But that’s why the second prong of His approach is so important.
The Savior is not asking us to do anything that He has not done Himself. He was already perfect, and so He didn’t need these experiences to figure out how to live happily in an eternal setting. With His sacrifice, He chose to step into that water to feel it firsthand. And then He chooses to be with us as we struggle through those same experiences in our own life.
I am quite adamant in my parenting approach to let my kids struggle through things. I think it’s so critical to their growth. It’s absolutely essential to their becoming a well-adjusted adult. Sometimes this makes my kids feel unsupported and unloved, but that’s far from the case. I do it because I love them.
This is the same with the Savior. He sent us here because He loves us. Our struggle is evidence of His love, not the other way around. But He takes it beyond wisdom. His approach is not, “Go get in those baptismal waters and put yourself under and come back up.” His approach is, “I will follow you where you have to go to get where you need to be.” He follows us into the water and brings us closer to Him. He is willing to follow us the rest of our lives through every “water” we have to walk through.
We have to believe that He’s walking with us and mourning with us, or His sacrifice won’t have much effect. Even though He follows us, it won’t bring much comfort unless we believe it and allow that belief to fill us with the relief He is offering.
Dead works
The next detail about baptism that I want to talk about is found in Section 22. The Saints had not yet grasped the idea of proper authority and so the idea of getting rebaptized confused them. This is how the Lord explained it.
Doctrine and Covenants 22:2 Wherefore, although a man should be baptized an hundred times it availeth him nothing, for you cannot enter in at the strait gate by the law of Moses, neither by your dead works.
I understand the need for proper authority, but this verse originally confused me. In my mind, the Lord was telling His people to not trust in dead works. The Israelites used to believe that following the Law of Moses would save them. They didn’t realize that the Law of Moses was supposed to bring them closer to the Savior who would save them. This also makes sense to me.
The part that confused me was the fact that baptism can be considered one of our “works.” He commanded the Israelites to keep the Law of Moses, and He commanded us to be baptized by proper authority. The difference (and the detail I want to expound on) is that one work is “dead” and one work is not.
Performing the work of baptism is different from other commandments (not all commandments, but some of them). It is an essential ordinance. The Savior is the one who saves us, but it is baptism that pulls us into a covenant relationship with Him so that He can save us. This is also why the Lord commands us to perform vicarious ordinances for those who weren’t baptized. Everybody needs to have the work done.
We don’t go out and mow a neighbor’s lawn vicariously for someone else. We don’t follow the Word of Wisdom or pay tithing on behalf of those who didn’t do it in their own lives. There are commandments that are given to us to bring us closer to the Savior so He can save us. Going out and mowing a lawn can help us understand sacrifice and charity. Following the Word of Wisdom can help us have healthy bodies and keep our minds clear and free. Paying tithing allows us to learn how to trust in the Lord. All of these things help us get closer to Christ who will save us, but they are dead in and of themselves.
Baptism obviously brings us closer to the Lord and helps us understand Him, but baptism does more than that. It binds us to Him using His own power and authority. Regular men on earth do not have the power to seal in heaven. They can baptize you with their religious degree or their certifications from their churches, but power given from regular old human to regular old human is not sufficient to bind in heaven. Only the Savior can give that kind of power.
In this manner, when we die, that baptism has the ability to follow us into heaven where the Savior still holds power. It keeps us bound to Him on both sides of the veil because the Savior holds enough power to accomplish that, and He lends that power to us. It’s still His power.
Baptism (and other covenant-entering ordinances) are essential. They are literally binding us to the Savior. That’s why the Lord treats that commandment differently than other dead, Law-of-Moses type commandments.
This also enlightens us as to why we should never tear down baptisms that are done without proper authority. I once heard a missionary describe someone’s baptism into another church as an abomination. It went over well (*sarcasm*).
The Lord did describe these works as dead because they were done without proper authority. However, He also described the Law of Moses (the one that He specifically gave to His people) as dead. He’s not saying that it’s worthless. He gave the Law of Moses so that the Israelites could draw closer to Him and become ready to receive Him. Baptism into other Christian churches holds that same ability. They can (and often do) bring people closer to Christ and help them become ready to receive Him more fully. There’s no reason to ever tear down someone’s decision to try and draw closer to Christ.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who set up a perfect Plan of Salvation. I testify that His words are so consistent. I have often run into ideas, stories, and words that I did not originally understand. There have been times when I have found myself confused about details or things that didn’t seem congruent with what I understood of a loving Heavenly Father. I have also learned that as I choose to be patient, new understanding comes to my mind and clarifies what I didn’t yet know. The more I study the gospel, in all of its rich details, the more I understand the character of my Heavenly Father and Savior.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 19 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 02, 2025
Truths About Eternal Punishment
by Autumn Dickson
My message this week is given through a couple of verses in Section 19, but it’s also given through a couple of quotes that are found in the institute manual. These quotes expand our understanding of the verses found in this week’s section.
The Savior has said a lot of things throughout the scriptures and to His prophets. Only when we take them all in holistically do we find the true nature of His character and gospel. Here is one instance in which He chooses to clarify some of His other words that were given to imperfect vessels for different purposes. He is describing hell and damnation.
Doctrine and Covenants 19:6-7, 10-12
6 Nevertheless, it is not written that there shall be no end to this torment, but it is written endless torment.
7 Again, it is written eternal damnation; wherefore it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men, altogether for my name’s glory.
10 For, behold, the mystery of godliness, how great is it! For, behold, I am endless, and the punishment which is given from my hand is endless punishment, for Endless is my name. Wherefore—
11 Eternal punishment is God’s punishment.
12 Endless punishment is God’s punishment.
It seems to indicate here that God isn’t planning on banishing anyone to hell forever. When He says eternal or endless, He is merely naming Himself as the deliverer of these punishments. In verse seven, it sounds like He’s explaining His use of passionate language; He wants it to work in our hearts. In this same section, He warns Martin that the pain of not repenting will be exquisite. He wants us to avoid that and so He uses inflammatory language to work in our hearts. However, this is an instance where He is clarifying what He means. “Endless” might not mean exactly what we think.
Here is the related quote in the institute manual; it’s long but worthwhile.
Elder James E. Talmage taught, “To hell there is an exit as well as an entrance. Hell is no place to which a vindictive judge sends prisoners to suffer and to be punished principally for his glory; but it is a place prepared for the teaching, the disciplining of those who failed to learn here upon the earth what they should have learned. True, we read of everlasting punishment, unending suffering, eternal damnation. That is a direful expression; but in his mercy the Lord has made plain what those words mean. ‘Eternal punishment,’ he says, is God’s punishment, for he is eternal; and that condition or state or possibility will ever exist for the sinner who deserves and really needs such condemnation; but this does not mean that the individual sufferer or sinner is to be eternally and everlastingly made to endure and suffer. No man will be kept in hell longer than is necessary to bring him to a fitness for something better.”
I love this quote. It makes perfect sense to me, and it fits in perfectly with the character of the God that I know and worship. Punishment that never ends (even after it has changed the sinner) seems incongruent to me. I feel like everything God uses is to help us progress and hell is no different. It’s not really about punishing us because we disobeyed Him and He’s offended. He is trying to teach us, and sometimes we’re stubborn and will only learn the hard way.
I would be remiss if I didn’t pause here and say that there are definitely quotes given by general authorities out there that would negate this idea, the idea that there is progression after Judgment Day. The truth about progression after this life isn’t entirely clear because the Lord hasn’t chosen to make it completely clear. However, I want to talk about the gospel for a while under this kind of context, vague as it may be. I’m not perfect. I won’t express my thoughts perfectly, and heaven knows I’ve probably got some of my understanding wrong. Luckily, the Spirit is there to help us discern truth and learn. I believe that exploring these principles, even before we have a perfect knowledge, can be useful as long as we remember we haven’t been given definitives.
Let’s talk about progression
I think sometimes we picture progression towards salvation as this linear path. We start at the baptismal gate, and then the path includes ordinances, covenants, and keeping the commandments. Then, at the end of it all, Heavenly Father pats us on the head and bestows salvation. There is merit to this rendering of the path of salvation.
I have recently started to look at it a little differently. Rather than picturing a linear path, I have begun picturing all the aspects of salvation in a circle. Here is the picture in my mind:
A couple things to note. All of the sections represent an aspect of salvation; this is obviously not a comprehensive list. It’s more just to give you an idea of what I’m picturing. The sections are colored to different degrees because at different points in our lives, we are building these kinds of salvation in our lives. At any given point, we are experiencing varying degrees of salvation and damnation, heaven and hell. Note that some of the sections aren’t colored at all because there are some aspects of salvation that we will only experience on the other side. If you look at the sections, you’ll note that these are all characteristics of the Savior. He is obviously experiencing full salvation.
In my mind, repentance has expanded beyond paying for what you did wrong. Anytime we progress within any of these sections, we are repenting. Repenting is about overcoming sin, not just saying sorry but also about reaching a sense of peace within yourself. It’s about healing so that we can feel okay in difficult circumstances like the Savior feels. It’s about learning to be happy in the realities that exist around you. If you think about it, the realities that exist around our Savior and Heavenly Father are not completely different from our’s. They know what it is to be mocked, ignored, and hated. They know what it means to be patient when someone doesn’t deserve it. They know what it is to find joy in fulfilling relationships. They have mastered this whole reality thing, and They know how to glean every possible ounce of joy from it. They’re not trying to teach us that someday all of those circumstances are going to disappear. They’re trying to change us so that we can be happy in the midst of these realities.
This model makes sense for different reasons than the linear path makes sense. For one, it has helped me understand why some people feel happier after they leave the church. You can be in the church and not find freedom from sin or fulfilling relationships; we see this happen all the time. Satan loves to skew the gospel so that we’re working hard but not reaping the benefits. When someone leaves the church, maybe they shed the weight of the guilt they weren’t supposed to be carrying anyway. In this specific aspect (namely freedom from sin), they have become more like the Savior and so they’re going to experience that particular benefit. Yes, I believe we have a responsibility to keep to our covenants, and I believe that covenants are crucial to our eternal lives. Please don’t misunderstand me. What I’m trying to express is that it’s very possible to live our covenants wrong, to live them in a manner where we’re denying ourselves salvation.
So let’s talk about true progress and finding true salvation.
Finding true salvation (finding the true blessings of the gospel) comes from our hearts changing. That’s why the Lord judges us by our hearts. It is only as our hearts change that we can find these feelings that are available in eternity. As we live honestly, we find peace. As we trust and accept the Savior, we taste freedom. The list goes on and on when you explore these different aspects of salvation.
Elder Oaks taught it this way, “Many Bible and modern scriptures speak of a final judgment at which all persons will be rewarded according to their deeds or works or the desires of their hearts. But other scriptures enlarge upon this by referring to our being judged by the condition we have achieved… The Final Judgment is not just an evaluation of a sum total of good and evil acts––what we have done. It is an acknowledgment of the final effect of our acts and thoughts––what we have become. It is not enough for anyone just to go through the motions. The commandments, ordinances, and covenants of the gospel are not a list of deposits required to be made in some heavenly account. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a plan that shows us how to become what our Heavenly Father desires us to become.”
The commandments
So if the final test is who we’ve become, where do the commandments truly fit?
The commandments are the vehicles by which we grow in these sections. For example, we’re commanded to forgive. There are a lot of people who think that they feel better if they hold a grudge and that they have a right to hold a grudge. Maybe they do have a right. However, the grudge is only hurting them. Coddling that hurt and nourishing that anger only takes away from their own peace and salvation. The Savior doesn’t even have to “punish” us when we refuse to forgive. We’re punishing ourselves. It is the same for each of the commandments. They are tools that we utilize to grow in the feeling of salvation. Hopefully, we eventually realize that we’re experiencing crappy consequences from nursing grudges and we wake up and change. The commandments are vehicles for change. If they’re not allowing you to change and find salvation in greater measure, then you’re living them the way that Satan would have you live them.
We can also utilize the tools incorrectly. For example, you can hold the commandments over your head and beat yourself up with them. This greatly diminishes your feelings of freedom from sin, and it therefore diminishes the level of heaven that you’re experiencing.
Don’t use your tools incorrectly; don’t use them as Satan would have you use them. You’ll build the wrong project entirely, and you won’t find salvation. Rather, focus on developing your relationship with Christ (that was an important section I should have included) and use the commandments to pull you into the peace that He experiences. One of the commandments includes trusting Him and His ability to save. Make sure you’re utilizing that tool as well.
Back into the context of eternal punishment
Let’s talk about this perspective of progression in the context of what we were discussing from Section 19.
Have you ever met someone who didn’t know how to be happy? Maybe they kept getting married and divorced over and over again because they didn’t know that real love looks like choosing the same person through difficulty and boredom. They oftentimes found themselves confused as to why they couldn’t find real love and why it always seems to fizzle out. As another example, maybe it’s a person that just kept pushing others in damaging ways because they believed that eventually everyone abandons them; maybe they didn’t realize that it was their damaging choices that led to these abandonments.
These are varying hells. These are all aspects of hell that people have to work through in order to find heaven within themselves. These are big examples of hell, but there are smaller examples too.
Heavenly Father allows the consequences, the eternal punishment, His punishment, so that we stop acting in ways that bring hell into our lives. When we shed some of those damaging behaviors, we naturally find a little more salvation in our lives.
Let’s explore a different example, this time in the context of the next life. You know that doctrine about ministering angels? If you don’t choose to be sealed, then you’re going to end up being a ministering angel to someone who did choose to get sealed. At first glance, this sounds like some bizarre form of unending slavery. This is incongruent with the God that I know.
Rather, I believe it looks a little more like this: If you choose not to be sealed (and vehemently stand by that choice) then you get assigned a family. You’re not a slave. You don’t have to help. However, as “time” moves on throughout eternity, you realize you’re completely without purpose. There is no reason to live forever. It’s monotonous and downright awful. Slowly, you take advantage of the opportunity to serve a family. You start to learn that happiness in eternity requires losing yourself in the service of other spirits who are starting their journey of progression.
Some would describe this role of ministering servant as a form of damnation. I would agree with this assessment. You’re damned (stopped up) from experiencing a full measure of joy because you chose against a sealing that offered purpose in an endless existence. You’re trying to hold onto this false view that happiness means focusing on yourself and not adding extra “burdens” like posterity. Hopefully, you wake up one morning in the midst of your eternity and realize, “Hey, I feel a lot happier and more fulfilled when I go and help take care of others.” Hopefully, you shed the sinful notion and step more fully into salvation.
It could be easy to view this title of ministering servant as a punishment in the form of slavery. It could be easy to believe that God was mad that you didn’t choose what He wanted so He made you a servant. In truth, He offered you an opportunity to learn salvation.
And if we take those verses in Section 19 and that Talmage quote at face value, then maybe you get to progress beyond this as soon as you figure it out. Maybe there is an exit to this damnation, to this hell.
There are so many ways that this principle can be expressed. Heavenly Father utilizes the consequences we impose on ourselves to teach us. Hopefully (and I believe there is), there is an exit to these damnations and eternal consequences as soon as our eyes open to reality and we adjust our lives accordingly.
I’m not 100% sure what eternity looks like. I do know a couple of things though. I know that the God that I worship is fair and continually turned towards saving His children. I know that we are already in the midst of eternity. You don’t die, get to the other side, and all of a sudden, Voila! Eternity! You’re already living in eternity. You’re already choosing varying degrees of damnation and salvation. I testify of a Heavenly Father who teaches us what eternity looks like, and I testify that He knows what He’s doing. It’s wise to follow Him. And then, of course, I testify of a Savior who paid for the whole experience.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 18 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 24, 2025
Christ Will Lead You
by Autumn Dickson
As we prepare for this week, understanding the context for what we’re reading can help us understand what the Lord is saying and why He is saying it. It becomes a conversation with God rather than commandments and doctrines loosely tied together without much rhyme or reason. It also helps us connect to those who were receiving these revelations so that we can receive those same messages more effectively.
One of the background pieces for this week is the fact that Joseph and his associates are looking to officially create the church. A prophet has been called, and the Lord has revealed more of His word, but there is no organization to help keep doctrines correct and believers supported. A church creates a home to carry the gospel, and Joseph and Oliver wanted to do it correctly. The Lord encouraged them to study The Book of Mormon and what it taught about having a church.
The portion of this section that I want to focus on today revolves more closely around a few specific verses that have helped me in my relationship with Jesus Christ. It starts with some of the words He shared with Oliver specifically.
Doctrine and Covenants 18:2-3
2 Behold, I have manifested unto you, by my Spirit in many instances, that the things which you have written are true; wherefore you know that they are true.
3 And if you know that they are true, behold, I give unto you a commandment, that you rely upon the things which are written;
Here, the Lord is tenderly reminding Oliver that he has been given knowledge of the truth through the Spirit. He is encouraging Oliver to trust that.
As I’ve been pondering some of these early supporters, specifically Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, I’ve been thinking about just how difficult it would have been to lean into the restoration. Joseph’s story was quite miraculous, and it already had plenty of opposition. I don’t know if I would have been brave enough to place my weight on it or to even give it a chance to be true. I likely would have scoffed if someone told me they had plates but couldn’t show them to anyone.
Apparently, that was the case for many of the early believers as well. There are many times where the Lord encourages Oliver and specifically tells him that he has received revelation. As I read these sentiments from the Lord, I see that Oliver was exercising faith and getting involved, but that it was also likely difficult for him when he wondered if he was being deceived. I’m sure these moments of extra encouragement from the Lord were helpful.
I think of Martin. I feel like there were a couple of times in Martin’s history where he seems to be saying, “Okay. This is it. I know now. I know it’s true.” For example, I think of how Martin was given the privilege of seeing the plates. He cried out, “Tis enough! Tis enough! Mine eyes have beheld! Mine eyes have beheld!” This is completely my own opinion, but I feel like Martin was looking for this ultimate moment where he would no longer have to fight off doubts. He wanted to have this experience that he couldn’t question, almost as if he didn’t want to have to exercise faith anymore. I don’t blame him. I don’t think he was necessarily opposed to faith; he just wanted to feel secure that he’s moving in the right direction (especially since it was so new and small and different).
I think each of us know how these men feel.
I don’t know that I would have called Oliver and Martin faithless for needing encouragement or wanting security in their belief. Rather, I would describe them as people who wanted to avoid being deceived. This is actually a wonderful trait to have. We should all seek to avoid deception, but it’s a fine line to walk. We’re trying to allow enough room for faith that the Lord can help it grow, but we’re trying to avoid being led down paths that will take us away from Him. But the very basis of faith means we don’t know if we’re on the right path. We don’t want to open ourselves up if we’re on the wrong path, but we also don’t want to close ourselves off if we did happen to pick the right one. As you can see, it can feel messy.
The Lord is in a tricky position here. He has to require faith. Faith is the only avenue by which He is able to help us grow into exaltation. Acting by faith was necessary, but the Lord knew that the other side of this coin meant that there would be some fear and missteps. Sure, perhaps your path feels good, but is it truly the only true and right path?
Tricky, tricky.
Context of the church
This paradox is even more interesting in the context of the church where we’re taught that we have the correct path. In many other denominations, it’s much more acceptable to sway between preachers and differing interpretations of the bible. If you decide to be Methodist after growing up in a non-denominational home, you likely won’t get as much kickback from home. You also probably won’t feel a ton of fear that you’re moving in the wrong direction because a portion of your beliefs rests in the fact that you’re saved so long as you believe in Christ.
The stakes rise in a church that claims to be Christ’s true church on the earth. This can create more fear which is hugely counterproductive to faith, and that fear often gets multiplied when outside pressure argues that you’re no longer following the true Christ.
So how do we cope?
How do we face the mounting pressure with faith? How do we reconcile unknowns when the church is teaching us that we need to follow the correct truth but we have to coexist with the fact that faith is required? How do we seek to follow the correct truth and be content with faith at the same time?
I’ll give you my favorite answer. Develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Let’s go back to what we were talking about in the beginning. Oliver and Joseph were trying to form a church. They had already been given a lot of doctrine, and a prophet had been called, but the Lord wanted to organize a church. Why? The church was always meant to support the gospel; it’s not the gospel. Don’t get me wrong; the church is very important. However, it is the gospel and proper authority that are necessary for salvation.
Perhaps separating the two may seem nuanced and silly, but Satan loves to distract us from the gospel by using the church. He wants us so caught up in the commandments that we forget the commandments were meant to bring us to Christ and his gospel. Christ gets cut from the equation, and we end up dissatisfied and fearful.
We wonder if we’re in the right church. We wonder if all of the extra stuff we follow is necessary or superfluous. We wonder if we’re on the right path. This is actually just another manifestation of hyperfocusing on the church rather than allowing the church to bring us to Christ.
Let’s step away from the church aspect of it and look specifically at Christ. Let’s temporarily step away from the question of whether we’re in the right church and on the right path.
Who is Christ? He is the source of our salvation. That doesn’t just mean He lets us into heaven. It means that drawing closer to Christ naturally brings us into a state of salvation. We experience aspects of salvation regardless of whether we’ve been freed from mortal constraints yet. Perhaps our church is His church on the earth, but let’s not explore that specific concept too closely as of yet.
What else do we know of Christ? We know He is perfectly fair and loving. We know that He seeks our salvation. We know He is immensely powerful, that He knows us so well, and that wants to help us come home.
If we truly believe these things about Christ, the fear dissipates. If you get to know Christ as He is, you know that He can lead you along. You feel that He won’t abandon you for missteps. You can feel that He is not the type of Being to cast you off in impatience. He stands ready to walk you through nuanced lessons that clarify truths about Him. As you draw closer to Him, you feel salvation more and more in your life.
Now let’s bring in this portion about church.
Everything we find in church was simply meant to facilitate that relationship. The Word of Wisdom keeps us free from potential addictions that make it really, really hard to hear Him. Going to the temple, taking the sacrament, all of these things were meant to point us to Christ where we find freedom from hell and its associated aspects of fear.
We wonder and worry whether we’re in the right place. We stress about our salvation. These feelings often come from focusing on church as our salvation rather than as a facilitator of a relationship with Jesus Christ who is the true author of salvation.
You find heaven with Jesus Christ because He is heavenly to be around. If He was truly the type of Being to cast off spirits into eternal fiery pits because they were born into circumstances that kept them from the truth, then I’m not so sure I would feel heaven around Him. I’d probably just be afraid of Him. Which is ironic. Because fear is associated with hell.
Back to our previous context…
Let’s put it back into the context of Oliver and Martin. They were afraid of being deceived. Awesome. We don’t want to be deceived. But place that fear in the context of Christ. If those men had understood and trusted in the Lord as He is, they would have known that God doesn’t just say He is loving. He doesn’t just profess to be fair and to seek our salvation. He actually does so. They didn’t have to be scared if their hearts were truly seeking Him without guile; He has the power and desire to lead us.
If they had truly misstepped by following Joseph, they merely needed to cling to Him and He would have led them along where they were supposed to go.
I believe in a Savior who actually saves. I believe that He seeks us out and leads us along. I believe that as we seek Him back, He can usher us in the right direction and we don’t have to live in fear of missteps.
I also believe that as we cling to Christ, we are drawn towards this church. If we are utilizing the church to get closer to Christ and to feel Him, we will find Him.
The Book of Mormon has brought me closer to Christ. My temple covenants have brought me closer to Christ. Priesthood blessings, listening to prophets, and all sorts of church-specific things have brought me closer to Christ. And it is in Christ that I have found Someone who knows me perfectly. He knows how I want to do the right thing and follow Him. He knows my desire to be obedient to what He wants, and I know He doesn’t want to cast me off when I don’t have everything right. Rather, I trust Him to keep leading me. If He is as perfect and fair and loving as He says He is, He’s not going to abandon me. I seek Him, and He will lead me. Thus far, I have felt that I’m headed in the right path and I trust Him to help me continue on towards Him.
I personally testify that this is Christ’s church. As I have leaned closer to Christ, I have felt drawn closer to the covenants I’ve made here. I have come to deeply appreciate all the support systems He has given me to remain close to Him. I have found answers that make sense, and I have found assurance when I don’t understand. I have found so many aspects of salvation today; I don’t have to wait to experience that goodness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 4, 11–12, 14–16, 18–19 – Mike Parker
Feb 18, 2025
Joseph Smith’s early revelations to family & friends; restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood
(D&C sections 4, 11–12, 14–16, 18–19)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
There has much scholarly debate on the date of the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood. The traditional view is that it took place in late May or early June 1829, within a few weeks after the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. A handful of scholars argue for a later date, however—some time in the summer of 1830.
For an examination of the historical evidence, see Brian Q. Cannon and BYU Studies Staff, “Priesthood Restoration Documents,” BYU Studies 35, no. 4 (1995): 166–73.
In support of the later view, see Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism (Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 162–63. Ben Park sums up the argument for the later date in “Dating the Melchizedek Priesthood Restoration,” The Juvenile Instructor, 4 August 2008.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 12–17; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 17, 2025
An Uncomfortable Offering
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we learn about some of the men and women who supported Joseph in the early days of the restoration. He was supported through friendship as well as monetarily as he worked to complete the translation of The Book of Mormon. We also learn about the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. John the Baptist came to Joseph and Oliver and conferred that authority upon them.
Plenty could be written about the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood, but there was actually another part of this event that I wanted to speak about. Though I am far from qualified in historical perspectives and details (especially pertaining to ancient Israel), I do believe that there is insight that I can give.
Here is the one verse that describes the restoration of this preparatory priesthood.
Doctrine and Covenants 13:1 Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
The portion that I would like to try and give insight on is the last phrase, “until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” This verse, accompanied by many quotes in the Doctrine and Covenants institute manual, teach that there will be a literal animal sacrifice at some point in our dispensation. It will be performed when the sons of Levi can do so in righteousness. The sons of Levi were priesthood holders in ancient Israel, and so we can understand that this is talking about modern day priesthood holders. Will they be specifically from the tribe of Levi? Maybe. The manual simply states that they will be priesthood holders.
There will be some who cry that the Law of Moses was done away, and they are absolutely correct. It was done away. However, animal sacrifice existed before the Law of Moses and so there’s no reason to assume that it was permanently done away with the rest of the rights and rituals included in the Law of Moses. One quote from President Joseph Fielding Smith stated that this sacrifice would be done in the beginning of the Millennium when Christ is already on the earth.
Even when we take into consideration the logical arguments for the restoration of all things, this is simply not one of our friendlier doctrines. It’s not necessarily one of the things that we like to expound upon and focus on. It’s uncomfortable.
And therein lies my exact insight. Let’s explore.
Uncomfortable
As I was reading about this sacrifice from the sons of Levi, I remember trying to think of how I would explain something like that to a friend or even to my children. I don’t know how to describe the necessity of animal sacrifice when I’m not even sure why it’s totally necessary.
I tried picturing what that sacrifice might look like, and once again, all I could feel was extreme discomfort. Society has definitely evolved away from this kind of death. People used to raise their own meat and personally slaughter their dinners. If they didn’t personally raise the meat, they hunted wild game and still personally slaughtered their dinners.
We have begun to feel that we’re more sophisticated because we get to eat the meat without watching the animal die. It offends our more sensitive natures because we’re just not used to it anymore. I’m not saying this is necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think there is anything wrong with sensitivity towards death. However, I wonder what we have lost when we’re so far separated from the process that we don’t appreciate what occurred to put that meat on our table.
I promise this isn’t a discourse on being vegetarian, and I do have a point. This is an uncomfortable doctrine for us, in a different way than it was uncomfortable to ancient Israelites.
The point of animal sacrifice was to teach the Israelites about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But why does an innocent animal need to suffer so we can learn a lesson?
And then it hit me. How much more poignant could we get?
An innocent, perfect Man sacrificed Himself so that we could come to earth to learn the lessons we needed to learn in order to live an eternal life. We rejoice in this doctrine. We’re grateful for it. It is our central doctrine that the Savior offered Himself up so that we could be saved.
It’s easy to reflect on the gratitude; it’s much more difficult to grasp the sacrifice.
The ancient Israelites were probably not as sensitized to animal death as we are, and so the lessons probably felt a little different. They understood that meat on their table meant death. We’re far removed and so we don’t often think about it, but perhaps that just drives the lesson home even more.
Animal sacrifice feels uncomfortable, even wrong. Isn’t there some other way we can learn about the atonement of Jesus Christ? Now take these direct feelings and apply them to the sacrifice of the Savior. Expand this poignant lesson to exactly where it’s supposed to be: our Redeemer. I wonder what kind of emotions would be evoked if we could see a vision of the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross before our eyes. It would certainly be uncomfortable since most of our modern societies have moved away from brutal torture methods. I wonder if it would also evoke emotions such as, “This is wrong. He is good. Why are we letting this happen? Surely there is another way!”
It is not enough to logically understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. If we want to feel the depth of the love He holds for us, if we want to experience gratitude to the level it deserves, if we want His sacrifice to change us, we have to experience the atonement emotionally. I’m not saying we go out and sacrifice an animal to let the lesson hit home. I’m just going to leave those particulars to the Lord when He gets here.
But as much as we love the atonement of Jesus Christ and all that it brought us, do we also understand the depth of darkness that accompanied it? Do we feel gratitude because we understand on some kind of level, just what He had to innocently go through in order to save us and give us an opportunity to come here and learn? In some ways, you might argue that the atonement of Jesus Christ isn’t even one of our friendlier doctrines. There was so much love associated with it, and I believe it is absolutely right to celebrate that love and the victory. I believe it’s also important to recognize what that victory cost.
Abraham and Isaac
It makes me think of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham was commanded by the Lord to offer up Isaac, his only son, as a sacrifice. I always hated this story in the Old Testament. What kind of God would command His child to sacrifice their posterity? It seemed so jarring and so incongruous with who I believed God to be.
It wasn’t until I studied this story during Come Follow Me that I noted something I had never seen before. Abraham was commanded by the Lord to offer up his son as a sacrifice, but the Lord never intended on actually accepting the sacrifice. It was never part of the plan for Isaac to actually be sacrificed.
Some would argue that it was cruel of God to put Abraham through such an ordeal. I can’t imagine the agony. I think about one of my kids dying, and I can’t breathe. I don’t know if I would have had the strength to follow that commandment even if it did directly come from God (and that’s just plain honesty on my part). I would probably assume I had gone completely mental and checked myself into a hospital.
But once again, Isaac wasn’t ever actually going to be sacrificed. I wonder if Abraham just kept repeating to himself that Isaac would be resurrected one day, and they would be reunited. I wonder if that brought him any comfort because I don’t think it would have brought me any comfort. Though it was harrowing, absolutely excruciating to have experienced the trek up that mountain, understanding what was at the end of it, I wonder if anyone understands the atonement on the level that Abraham understands.
When the angel came and stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, I picture Abraham falling over himself to hug Isaac, sobbing into his neck. I picture the tears of joy that his son was mercifully spared. And later, when things got quieter and Abraham had some time to ponder, I picture more tears as Abraham finally understood just what it meant that Heavenly Father had sent His innocent Son to be sacrificed for the sins of the world. I picture the depth of gratitude Abraham must have felt that while he didn’t have to sacrifice his own son, Heavenly Father had chosen to send Jesus for our sake.
Maybe Heavenly Father kept reminding Himself that Jesus would be resurrected and returned to Him. I wonder if that helped, or I wonder if the nature of a parental relationship denies the ability to skip the pain in favor of the ending. Heavenly Father didn’t turn away from the brutality that was necessary in order to save us. The least we can do is appreciate that on some level.
I testify that rejoicing and gratitude and worship are all wonderful things that the Lord encourages. I testify that our salvation was worth it to the Savior. I also testify of uncomfortable doctrines that were necessary. I testify that saving us required a sacrifice, a sacrifice that we are hard-pressed to comprehend because of the elevated and sanitized societies in which we now live. That’s not to knock the progress we’ve made as humanity away from public executions by crosses, but it is to help us understand that the atonement of Jesus Christ carries a depth of pain that matches the depth of joy that has been offered to us. Appreciating that on some level (because heaven knows we can’t yet fully understand and appreciate it) goes a long way in pushing us towards the Savior for what He did, and that is a worthwhile endeavor to find that appreciation.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
The Cause for Christ Episode 3: Faith, Psychology, and the Power of Worldviews with Jeffrey Thayne
Feb 15, 2025
In this episode, Ryan welcomes Jeffrey Thayne for an insightful discussion on worldviews and their profound influence on discipleship and beliefs. They explore the role of psychology in both conversion and deconversion, the powerful impact of media on our perspectives and psychological intuitions, and the fascinating dynamics of fast vs. slow thinking. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation on the intersection of cognitive psychology and the gospel.
Dr. Jeffrey Thayne graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology. He completed his doctorate in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. He spends time mentoring students at Brigham Young University-Idaho and writing about the intersection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and culture.
Ryan Sorensen is a native of Cache Valley, Utah. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at BYU-Idaho and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Abilene Christian University, with plans to become a chaplain after graduation. Ryan previously hosted a podcast called The Whom Shall We Go? Podcast. In his spare time, he enjoys being involved in interfaith work, reading about Latter-day Saint theology and history, training for triathlons, and spending time with friends and family.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 10–11 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 10, 2025
Hyrum’s Influence
by Autumn Dickson
When I was younger, I wanted to be a famous singer. This desire followed me into college where I temporarily dropped out of school to pursue a music career. I wanted it so badly. I remember wanting it so much that it would hurt to listen to music on the radio.
I ended up getting really sick, and I left Provo behind. I lived with my parents for about a week before moving in with my sister and her family for six months. Most of my connections were back in Utah, but I kept clinging to that desire. I was doing everything I could to keep my dream going from far away.
I remember sitting on my sister’s bed and talking to her about it. She was trying to talk me out of remaining in the music industry because she knew the dangers that existed there. It wasn’t until later that my eyes finally opened to everything I was being exposed to during that period of my life, and so I didn’t see anything wrong with my pursuing a music career. I didn’t feel like there was anything innately wrong with my desires, and I didn’t plan on letting go of my testimony either. I felt that I could be an example to a lot more people with a microphone in my hand.
My sister responded with a very valid point that Jesus had gone about his gospel very differently. He preached to crowds, but He didn’t seek huge crowds and stadiums. He often ministered one by one.
This principle has expanded in a great many directions for me, but let’s take a quick look at Hyrum before diving further into this principle.
Hyrum
Hyrum sought out Joseph so that he could learn the will of the Lord concerning himself. There were a few things that the Lord counseled him on, but here is one such thing the Lord told him.
Doctrine and Covenants 11:8 Verily, verily, I say unto you, even as you desire of me so it shall be done unto you; and, if you desire, you shall be the means of doing much good in this generation.
Hyrum did desire to do good, and Hyrum did do good.
Now a grand majority of us know who Hyrum Smith was. We know he was the brother to the prophet and that he was a martyr right alongside his brother in Carthage Jail. However, how much do we really know about Hyrum? What “important” callings did he hold? Where did he serve missions and how many people did he baptize? Who was he married to and how many children did he have? How many stories do we have of times when Hyrum supported his brother in the very heavy mantle of dispensation head? In what ways did Hyrum directly contribute to the restoration of the gospel?
I’m sure there are plenty of people who could answer these questions and give us very clear pictures of how Hyrum contributed to the restoration of the gospel in our dispensation. However, I would argue that there are also plenty of people who don’t know much about his specific contribution, myself included. When you extend that beyond members of the church, I would venture to guess that a huge majority of people on the earth know nothing about Hyrum Smith. Many people have likely heard of Joseph Smith, but no one knows about Hyrum despite the role that he played in restoring Christ’s church on the earth.
We logically know that we can do “much good” without getting any recognition, and yet, has that knowledge sunk into our hearts? Do we believe that we can have a profound influence in God’s kingdom in these latter days? What does a profound influence look like in your mind? At what point would you look in the mirror and think, “There it is. I have made a difference”? Do you only picture general authorities, temple presidents, mission presidents, and social media influencers?
There are two truths I want to share. One, you are capable of doing much good, just like Hyrum. And two, it is highly likely that your indelible mark will be obscure, but no less important for it.
You are capable
When someone tries to tell you that you can change the world, perhaps you laugh and think, “I could never speak to huge crowds, and I’ll never hold a ‘big’ calling.”
If we want to step up and step into the roles that God has prepared for us, we need to redefine the characteristics of having a profound influence and we need that new definition to sink into our hearts to the extent that it changes how we act on a daily basis. When we understand what “profound influence” looks like, we feel differently about ourselves and it changes the actions we prioritize.
When we shed erroneous ideas that our influence has to look a certain way in order to be “world-changing,” we open the door for Heavenly Father to utilize us in His powerful way. When we have faith in Him to the extent that we believe He can magnify our abilities, we step out of our own way. We allow Him to be powerful through us.
Heavenly Father’s plan was meant to be built on the shoulders of millions; He set it up that way on purpose. The biggest successes in Heavenly Father’s plan are souls that want to go home to Him, and the biggest influence in that specific kind of success happens on a very individual basis.
I’m not looking to make this political, but I believe it illustrates a very physical aspect of my point. I recently learned about how one of the American presidents tried to make college more affordable by utilizing government funds to help students go to school so that they could become successful. The colleges simply responded by raising their rates. I remember thinking and thinking and thinking. When it comes to big systems, I feel like there is always some unintended reaction that nullifies the good that could have come from the original action. I was sincerely trying to figure out a way to empower those who needed a leg up without bringing these unintended consequences. It occurred to me that the Lord never meant for everyone to simply be taken care of by some huge system. He wanted us involved on personal levels, not only giving financial assistance where needed but also providing the immensely necessary support to empower themselves.
This is not a commentary on what we should do on a government level because there are plenty of nuances to consider. It is a commentary on the fact that I believe Heavenly Father meant for all of us to be involved in the lifting on a personal level. He wanted each and every individual to make a difference. This was the most powerful way to actually make a difference, and it would change us.
He wants you to be involved. He wants you to believe that you can make a difference no matter what you look like, how good you are at speaking, and how talented you are at proclaiming your testimony. He wants you to believe that you can utilize you as you are, to utilize the unique gifts that He gave to you to make an enduring mark on the world.
It comes quietly…
Because He wants everyone to be involved on an individual basis, it makes sense that most of the marks that we leave will not likely be recorded in history books. This has a couple implications. If you find yourself questioning your ability to really change anything for good, then you can take comfort in the fact that your quiet, daily discipleship is likely already making the difference the Lord wants you to make. If you find yourself wanting to make a “big” difference, then you probably need to redefine “big.”
Think about it. Even if you have been foreordained to hold some of the “louder” roles, a lot of the actions that led these famous characters to those historic roles came quietly.
Paul wrote letters in a prison. Abinadi died without knowing how his words would hold any effect or that his story would be recorded and passed on through generations, and I would be willing to bet that some of Hyrum’s most influential contributions to the restored gospel came in the form of his quiet and simple belief in his brother’s calling. The weight that Joseph carried was heavy, and Hyrum’s support helped to carry it. It enabled Joseph to carry it. It enabled the gospel to be restored.
And let’s not forget that the single most important event in the history of the earth happened with one Man in a garden. His friends fell asleep, and He was alone.
Even if you can trace your testimony back to one incredible insight given by a speaker in General Conference, a study of neuroscience teaches us that our brain is built slowly through repeated experiences. Even if it took one conscious comment in Conference, your brain was being prepared far before that. The gospel spreads person to person, and it is retained as we interact and have positive individual experiences with good friends, family, and especially the Savior.
More than likely, the incredibly important influence you will have on the world will come in the form of a link in a chain. It may not sound like the most romantic way to change the world, but it is no less significant. My great, great grandmother taught her children the gospel. I don’t know all of my great, great grandmothers’ names, but I know that because they chose to teach the gospel to their children, I have the gospel in my life. Because they chose to teach their children and not break that link, it made its way to me. The testimony and lessons from my great, great grandmother’s life have found their legacy within my own life. Her influence (though I do not know it directly) has done more to help my conversion to the gospel than any “famous” gospel influences. Because she loved and taught her children, my grandmother did the same. Then my mother. And now me.
What you give gets passed on, even if your name isn’t passed along with it.
I testify that Heavenly Father wanted each of us to take a role in His work. He wanted us to experience the happiness that He experiences as He works with us. He wanted us to feel the joy of working individual by individual, and He wanted us to observe the effectiveness of His plan for everyone to be involved with helping everyone. None of us need to feel more or less important. The only one keeping you from completing a work that is incalculable in nature is you. I testify that He can help you accomplish your great work in surprisingly small and quiet ways. Perhaps we are not aware of the influence that Hyrum had in this vital gospel dispensation, but the Lord is and that is the measure that matters.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
The Cause for Christ Episode 2: Scrupulosity (moral and religious OCD) with Dr. Debra McClendon
Feb 07, 2025
In this episode, Ryan sits down with Debra McClendon to discuss religious OCD, also known as Scrupulosity. Debra shares valuable advice for those navigating Scrupulosity while striving to stay faithful within the church. They explore what approaches tend to be effective, what often falls short, and dive into topics like consecration, burnout, and finding balance. If you or someone you know struggles with Scrupulosity, anxiety, or toxic perfectionism, we hope this conversation offers insight and support.
Debra Theobald McClendon, PhD is a licensed psychologist in the state of Utah and has interjurisdictional authorization to work with clients in most U.S. states. She specializes in treating those with scrupulosity, a religious and moral subtype of OCD. She is the owner of The OCD & Scrupulosity Clinic (ocdscrupulosityclinic.com) and is a member of the International OCD Foundation. She has been interviewed on podcasts, published articles, and published the book: “Freedom from Scrupulosity: Reclaiming Your Religious Experience from Anxiety and OCD.”
Ryan Sorensen is a native of Cache Valley, Utah. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at BYU-Idaho and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Abilene Christian University, with plans to become a chaplain after graduation. Ryan previously hosted a podcast called The Whom Shall We Go? Podcast. In his spare time, he enjoys being involved in interfaith work, reading about Latter-day Saint theology and history, training for triathlons, and spending time with friends and family.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 6–9, 13 – Mike Parker
Feb 04, 2025
Oliver Cowdery became Joseph Smith’s scribe; restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood
(D&C sections 6–9, 13)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Elder Boyd K. Packer, “The Candle of the Lord,” Ensign, January 1983, 51–56. Elder Packer shared his insights into how the Holy Spirit communicates with us.
Jeffrey G. Cannon, “Oliver Cowdery’s Gift,” Church History: Revelations in Context. Cannon, a member of the Joseph Smith Papers team, examines the meaning of the “gift” the Lord spoke of in the earliest revelations to Oliver Cowdery (section 6, section 8).
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 6–9 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 04, 2025
In Every Thought
by Autumn Dickson
The Lord is speaking to Joseph and Oliver in the sections that we read for this week. There is a lot of fantastic material about how the Lord sets us up to try something new, knowing we’ll fail, but also knowing that we have to begin in order to learn. There are principles of revelation and how the Lord utilizes our desires to build up His kingdom.
One of the principles that the Lord speaks about is pretty straightforward.
Doctrine and Covenants 6:36
36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.
Let’s talk about these phrases.
Look unto me in every thought
“Look unto me in every thought,” is a rather lofty goal. I can hardly keep my focus when I’m praying, let alone when I’m trying to do anything else in my life. Perhaps there will come a day when the Savior takes up a grand majority of my thoughts, but I want to propose another interpretation of this phrase.
Perhaps the Lord did mean that He wanted us to have Him at the forefront of our minds constantly, but perhaps He also meant it more along the lines of, “View your thoughts within the reality that I’ve created.” Every thought isn’t necessarily going to be directly about the Savior, but we can take any thought and put it in the context of the Savior. Let’s look at just one example.
Lately, my family has been trying to find somewhere to live back on the east coast. There are a million moving parts, and we’ve found some places that we love. However, every time we start to move forward in a specific direction, the door gets closed. There was one house that we loved. It had been on the market for over a year. The second we started to take action to put in an offer, it was snatched up. This has happened repeatedly.
It’s gotten discouraging, and I have found myself inadvertently disengaging from the process. We’ve been in limbo, between houses and apartments for over three years now. I think what I crave most is some kind of plan. Luckily, I write my prayers every day and I figured it would probably be good to talk to Him directly about it rather than trying to squash any rising hopes or trying to talk myself out of discouragement. Instead of trying to force myself into faith, I decided to turn to Him so He could give me a different perspective. I wanted to be able to see the situation more clearly, and I knew He could talk me through the discouragement and get me to that point.
And He did. As I prayed and told Him about my discouragement, I felt the whispered perspective, “Do you really want Me to ignore My plan and just give you something now?” It almost felt as if He was telling me that He was willing to grant my desires even though they were contrary to His own. It completely flipped over everything in my mind. I don’t want my plan. I want what’s best for my family which is why I want His plan. I want Him to close the wrong doors and choose His timing. I don’t need to be discouraged because He’s setting things up for us. Why on earth would I choose anything else? Why am I discouraged when He has helped me know that He’s leading us right to where we’re supposed to be?
I took my original thoughts (discouragement, desire for permanency) and I looked at them through the lens of Christ; this made my thoughts feel very different. Gratitude replaced discouragement. Excitement replaced weariness. The Lord is guiding us. Instead of hurting over some of the places we had really wanted, I felt so grateful that He took it away from us because I was reminded that He has a plan. I want His plan.
This is not just true of situations that feel discouraging. If there is a thought that won’t leave you alone, that drags you down and holds you in place, put that thought in the context of Christ. If it’s difficult to see a clear picture, then pray about it. You don’t even have to figure out the Christlike perspective on your own; He did it for me! All I did was turn to Him, tell Him how I felt, and listened so that I could hear His response. He rearranged my perspective. He helped me look to Him in the thoughts that were pressing in on my mind.
And this goes for any thought. Thoughts of weaknesses and failures. Thoughts of blessings that were taken away. Thoughts of being treated unfairly. We can take our very real feelings and thoughts to the Lord, and He can help us see it through Him and His promises. As we see things the way He sees them, we change because we start operating off of clearer perspectives.
Let’s review that process again
I want to take the experience I had with framing my thoughts through the Savior, and I want to take the general principles so we can apply it in our own individual situations.
Looking unto Him in every thought and having it change you is not something you do on your own. Or, at the very least, it doesn’t have to be something you do on your own. When I went to Heavenly Father with my concerns over moving, I told Him everything I was worried about. HE reframed my thoughts in His image.
Concrete example time!
Sometimes my four year old gets into tiffs with his little four year old best friend. They usually do pretty dang good for four year olds, but every once in a while, they get worked up about something and it devolves pretty quickly. It’s funny because they often both go home (we live a house apart), they last no longer than an hour, and then they’re back to being buddies.
This is not my expectation in the slightest for my four year old, but imagine for a second that he had the maturity to pause before the tiff escalated. Imagine that he was able to reign in his exhaustion from playing in the sun all day and he was able to take a step back from all of his big feelings, and he suggested to his buddy, “Hey let’s go talk to my mom about this. She can help us.” That’s not going to happen, but imagine how much easier it would be for him.
I like to think I’m more mature than a four year old, but if we’re going to scale this, then I’m probably still spiritually around four years old when we’re comparing me to our Heavenly Father (why yes, that’s a completely arbitrary age that I threw out). My situations have often felt far more dire than the arguments I observe between my son and his best friend, but then again, my son seems to feel that their arguments are pretty dire. I can only imagine that my Heavenly Father sees the things that are troubling me and views them with more wisdom and more compassion when compared to how I view my son’s best friend issues.
My son is not capable of this yet, but I would imagine that he would feel a lot better about his arguments if he remembered how often I told him that I loved him. I would imagine that he would feel a lot happier and safer if he could remember to take a step back and ask me for help navigating the situation. I believe that things would run pretty smoothly if he trusted my love and wisdom enough that he turned to me in those precarious moments. Unfortunately, he’s young and often just reacts to what’s in front of him. That’s okay. That’s often how we learn, but let’s take this to what we were speaking about before.
Our situations may feel dire. They may feel like the end of the world. They may feel like it’s going to last forever. We may just simply react to whatever is put in front of us. But imagine how different things might feel if we turned to the Lord and let Him help us navigate things instead.
If Warner took a step back and thought, “How would my mom handle this situation?” I would be flabbergasted to say the least. If he actually successfully imagined how I would handle the situation, I would be even more blown away. But here’s the cool thing in our scenario. We don’t have to guess how our Heavenly Father would react! We can ask Him, and He can reframe our thoughts for us with His wisdom!
Sometimes we think faith says, “I can get over this. This isn’t a big deal. I just have to get it together and trust Him.” Maybe faith does look like that sometimes. But often enough, I have found that my more effective faith says, “I can turn to Him, and He can help me reframe my worries.” I don’t just tell myself He’s going to handle it; I allow myself to trust Him enough to handle it (or at least to walk me through it).
The next phrases in that same verse say, “Doubt not, fear not.” Perhaps those were two new commandments, and perhaps they were simply extensions of the first commandment. When we look to Him in our thoughts, when we remember His love and His promises and when we remember that He wants to support us, our doubts and fears naturally go away. It’s not something we force. We invest our energy into developing the relationship with Him so that we can trust and believe in Him, and then the negative takes care of itself.
I testify of a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us. I testify that Christ wants us to remember Him. He wants us to remember Him, not because He gets a kick out of being worshiped, but because He knows that our trust in Him has the power to change our perspectives on everything. He knows that remembering Him and all He sacrificed for us will bring us peace and joy, and that brings Him peace and joy.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 3, 5, 10, 17 – Mike Parker
Jan 28, 2025
Translation of the Book of Mormon; the Three Witnesses
(D&C sections 3, 5, 10, 17)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
A complete list of all the witnesses who saw or handled the gold plates or saw or participated in the translation process is available in Royal Skousen, “The Witnesses of the Book of Mormon,” The History of the Text of the Book of Mormon, Part Seven: The Transmission of the Text, Vol. 3 of The Critical Text of the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2021).
Robert F. Smith, Gordon C. Thomasson, and John W. Welch, “What Did Charles Anthon Really Say?”, in Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book / Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 73–75.
“Book of Mormon Translation,” Gospel Topics Essays. This article published by the Church explores how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and what physical instruments he used in the translation process.
Richard E. Turley Jr., Robin S. Jensen, and Mark Ashurst-McGee, “Joseph the Seer,” Ensign (October 2015): 45–55. Turley (who was Assistant Church Historian and Recorder) and Church historians Jensen and Ashurst-McGee examine what the historical record reveals about how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 3–5 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 27, 2025
Joseph’s Repentance
by Autumn Dickson
This week we find Joseph in an early difficult lesson. Martin Harris had faced mounting pressure from his family to abandon Joseph, and Martin wanted to show the early manuscript to his family to gain support. Joseph asked the Lord multiple times despite receiving no’s, and the Lord finally told him to do what he wanted. Martin took the manuscript and lost it. Joseph was devastated and experienced a season of repentance.
There are some very poignant details that can teach us very direct lessons about the atonement of Jesus Christ and how it works in our lives. It also includes details that teach us about repentance and progression.
Nothing need be lost
First detail. It teaches us about the atonement.
I want to draw your attention to the fact that nothing was really lost.
Doctrine and Covenants 3:1 The works, and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught.
In this verse, the Lord was teaching Joseph that nothing was truly in danger. A long time ago, the Lord had prepared the way so that nothing truly needed was lost. Nephi had repeated some of Lehi’s information because the Lord knew that Lehi’s information would be the portion of manuscript that was lost.
What’s the implication here?
In my mind, I believe the Lord is trying to tell us that if we utilize His atonement, nothing really needs to be lost. In one example, if you’re excommunicated and rebaptized, your record shows your original baptism date and not the date of the second time you were baptized. This is exactly what the atonement of Jesus Christ is about.
When you make a mistake (even a mistake big enough to require excommunication) and combine it with true repentance, Christ’s atonement does something really special. It doesn’t just cleanse you. It takes the sin and turns it on its head. Look at Joseph’s story.
He lost the manuscript. What was the end result after true repentance? He was still the prophet that restored the gospel. We still have The Book of Mormon with all of the crucial details we needed previously. Joseph was cleansed and left with only the lesson he needed in order to be prepared to live with Heavenly Father again. The only lingering “consequence” was that Joseph learned better, grew stronger and wiser, and was protected from bigger consequences in the future.
This is the essence of the atonement of Jesus Christ. It cleanses us, but it also leaves us with the best of the best. That was the entire point of the Plan of Salvation. We could come down here and learn all the necessary lessons, gain all the necessary strength, develop all of the Christlike attributes, and Christ’s atonement would ultimately take care of all of the negative consequences.
No negative consequence will follow us permanently. Sometimes we may still have to fight lingering guilt. Maybe sometimes we’ve developed an addiction or formed a weakness that we’ll fight for the rest of our lives. However, none of it will follow us permanently. If we continually use the atonement of Jesus Christ, then it will actually just help us accumulate further strength.
Nothing need be lost. No opportunity, no blessing, no period of time is truly lost to us when we connect our lives with Christ’s atonement. Even the worst of sins can be flipped on their heads and turned into valuable lessons and strengthening experiences. The atonement leaves us with the good.
The definition of sin
The concept of repentance and what it truly is has expanded since I’ve started preparing these messages. I suppose the same has happened with the definition of sin. The concept of sin hasn’t exactly “expanded,” but it’s been made clearer in my mind.
Let’s look at Joseph’s heart again. We can’t judge exactly where his heart was, but we do know a couple of things. We know that Joseph loved the Lord. We knew that he wanted to do what was right by the Lord. We also know that he was deeply grateful to Martin and recognized what Martin had done for him. Joseph’s recognition of Martin’s support and his desire to please Martin wasn’t evil; in fact, it was the opposite. Those are usually marks of a good person.
And yet, the Lord allowed Joseph to believe he had lost his soul for a while. Why? Perhaps Joseph took his own guilt too far, but I have a different theory.
The “type” of sin I’ve most often pondered on over the past couple years is the sin of the heart. When we’re being ungrateful, using people, being selfish, and seeking our own ends at a high expense. I have learned just how significant it is that the Lord wants us to simply be good people who contribute to the atmosphere of heaven. I think this was a perspective I needed to focus on in my life so that I could let go of perfectionism and focus on the most important types of growth.
However, perhaps it’s time for me to shift my own focus just a bit.
Sin does include times when we disobey God even when our hearts are still primarily good.
Joseph would walk a fine line throughout his life. There would be no ceasing on the part of the devil to claim his soul. When it came to this particular sin of Joseph’s, it was not a horrible reflection on his heart. Yes, he was putting Martin above God and that’s an important lesson, but I don’t think I would classify Joseph’s heart as evil. And for me, this has been important to understand.
We know that progression continues after we die. We know that we will still have to work towards perfection as we reach the other side. Perhaps our hearts are good and we will know how to live in harmony with others around us, and this is an extremely important portion of being prepared to live in the Celestial Kingdom.
But I have a sneaking suspicion that preparation for the Celestial Kingdom extends beyond that. Perhaps there are paths of progression that we don’t fully understand yet, and it will require us to walk a line as fine as Joseph’s. When it comes to this type of sin, perhaps we don’t need to be crying out, “Oh I’m this terrible, horrible person!” but we do need to understand the gravity of obedience and its ability to keep us safe.
Plain and simple obedience protected Joseph. His heart was good, and this was crucial to the Celestial Kingdom but so was plain and simple obedience. He needed that obedience to survive the process of exaltation, and so do we!
Your heart can be good and pure, but if you’re not prepared to try and be obedient to all of His commandments, then you’re not going to be fully prepared for the Celestial Kingdom. There are aspects of the kingdom that we don’t understand; only God does. If we’re not ready to follow His words very closely, we’re never going to achieve the progression we need to reach our full potential.
That kind of obedience includes adherence to the words of the prophets even when we feel like their advice isn’t a big deal. It means following our temple covenants, including the covenant we made to wear our garments. There are lots of commandments that don’t necessarily pertain directly to having an evil heart, but they are still extremely significant to our safety.
Let me give you a physical example of this.
The Lord told the Saints that Zion would be built in Missouri. He then told the Saints to not move there all in a rush. He said that He would lead who moves and who stays, and He would direct the timing of them heading down there. The Saints ignored this, rushed to Missouri, and there was a major conflict.
The Saints had good hearts. They wanted to live in Zion. They wanted to build Zion. There is nothing evil about this desire in their hearts, but the truth of the matter remains. They didn’t follow the Lord closely enough to be obedient, and it cost them their ability to stay safely in Zion (the earthly equivalent of the Celestial Kingdom) and build it. There is a spiritual lesson here. If we can’t follow the Lord in obedience, we will not be prepared to receive all that He has even if our hearts are in a good place. The Lord knew something they didn’t about their journey, but they ignored Him. Their hearts were good, but it wasn’t enough.
I am not preaching perfectionism. Don’t turn it into perfectionism. The Lord took me on this whole learning journey where I learned the significance of the heart of the matter so that I could personally step away from perfectionism.
Now that I’m really thinking about it, this is still about the heart. Your heart needs to be good and turned outwards towards others, but it also needs to be so firmly planted in the Lord that obedience to His simplest commands comes naturally. You trust that He knows what He’s talking about, and you follow it.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who forgives. I testify that Christ suffered so that we could come here to gain everything we need and walk away with all the good things if we choose to follow Him. I testify that there is a purpose to obedience, that it protects us and allows us to walk that fine line all the way towards our exaltation. I testify that Christ’s standards are high because He loves us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
The Cause for Christ Episode 1: “Uncovering the Truth About Grace” by Ryan Sorensen ft. Brent Schmidt
Jan 24, 2025
We are pleased to introduce a new podcast series that will be hosted by Ryan Sorensen. In this first episode, he talks with Brent Schmidt about “Uncovering the Truth About Grace.”
Brent J. Schmidt earned degrees in history and classics from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He teaches in the religion and humanities departments at BYU-Idaho. He specialized in Greek and Latin moralistic literature and he wrote and later published his dissertation on ancient utopian communities. He has published works on Biblical subjects including word studies about grace and faith. He is an author and editor of the BYU New Testament Commentary series. He enjoys reading, especially the Book of Mormon and Bible, gardening, collecting ancient coins, world travel, skiing and learning ancient and modern languages. For fifteen years now he has read at least one academic book a day. He and his wife, Judith, are the parents of one son.
Ryan Sorensen is a native of Cache Valley, Utah. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at BYU-Idaho and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Abilene Christian University, with plans to become a chaplain after graduation. Ryan previously hosted a podcast called The Whom Shall We Go? Podcast. In his spare time, he enjoys being involved in interfaith work, reading about Latter-day Saint theology and history, training for triathlons, and spending time with friends and family.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 2; Joseph Smith—History 1:27–65 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 20, 2025
What is Required of Us
by Autumn Dickson
Like last week, I’d like to dive into Joseph’s story and find parallels to our own stories. We were not given the responsibility to restore the church in the last days, but we do have responsibilities given to us by the Lord. Every single one of us will hold callings, but even beyond that, every single one of us has more to give. When I speak of responsibilities given by the Lord, I am expanding that definition beyond formal church service. There are other labors you have been given to perform in this life. Some of those labors may include things like career choices and hobbies. We all have gifts to give.
As we read Joseph’s history, we get to watch as he learned difficult lessons. Hopefully, we’re wise enough to learn through him rather than through our own mistakes. We will always make mistakes, but hopefully Joseph’s openness about his own can help us avoid a few of them.
The principle in Joseph’s story that I want to talk about for this post is found in the following verse.
Joseph Smith History 1:59 At length the time arrived for obtaining the plates, the Urim and Thummim, and the breastplate. On the twenty-second day of September, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, having gone as usual at the end of another year to the place where they were deposited, the same heavenly messenger delivered them up to me with this charge: that I should be responsible for them; that if I should let them go carelessly, or through any neglect of mine, I should be cut off; but that if I would use all my endeavors to preserve them, until he, the messenger, should call for them, they should be protected.
This is such a great microstudy on what Heavenly Father expects from us in our responsibilities. Honestly, it even extends beyond our formal callings and promises we made before we came here; this verse can teach us about what the Lord expects from us in this mortal life when it comes to being worthy to return to Him.
It’s actually on Him
I want to draw your attention to the very last phrase in the verse. Moroni tells Joseph that if he will use all of his endeavors to preserve the plates, “…they should be protected…” Note that this verse didn’t say, “If you use all your endeavors to protect them, you will be able to keep them safe.” It’s a small thing, but it holds a large key to our understanding.
The success of the Plan of Salvation rests on the head of the Lord. Making sure we’re clean enough to stand in the presence of God, temple work, missionary work, any and all worthwhile work is going to be done by the Lord. He frequently describes it as His own work throughout the scriptures. Even if Joseph had not been diligent and the plates fell into the wrong hands, do we really believe that would be the end? Do we really believe that it’s just too bad? The plates are gone. There is no Book of Mormon. The Restoration falls apart, and with it, the salvation of us all.
Obviously not. What kind of Lord would He be if He let the failings of one man doom the rest of us? It’s utterly ridiculous if you actually believe in the perfect fairness of the Lord.
The angel Moroni warns Joseph that if he doesn’t work diligently and responsibly, he will be cut off and he will lose the plates. But the plates were never actually in danger, not in the least bit. Even if Joseph had failed, the Lord had everything completely under control.
Which can be extremely comforting. It can also help us know what we need to be focused on.
But He still requires the work
Despite the fact that the Lord has everything well in hand, He requires the work of us. Even though the plates were never in any real danger, He required Joseph to work really hard to protect them. Why? For Joseph.
Here is an imperfect concrete example.
I have a daughter in gymnastics who learns stunts that I certainly can’t do. For a long time, the coaches will be right underneath her guiding her movements and keeping her from falling on her head. As time moves on, they remove the supports appropriately so that she can learn to do it on her own. They’re not afraid of her making mistakes along the way. They want her to be a gymnast which means she has to slowly learn to do it on her own. She has to put in work, but if they’re really good coaches, then she’s not really in any danger.
This imperfect example doesn’t translate completely, but it can help our understanding along. The Lord already has that gold medal coming in that competition regardless of whether you decide to participate. The work will get done. It’s His performance that ultimately matters when it comes to end results. However, He didn’t just want a gold medal. The gold medal is important, but so are His developed gymnasts. We aren’t working hard in the gym so that we can win the gold medal. It’s already won. We’re working hard so we can simply develop into gymnasts because being a gymnast is worthwhile in and of itself.
This is similar to our responsibilities as well as the whole of our salvation and exaltation. If our responsibilities are crucial to His plan, then the end results are already guaranteed. What is not guaranteed is our development and preparation. The ends for which the Plan of Salvation was created have already been won; it is not in any danger. However, if we’re not given the opportunity to work and develop, then we can’t reap the beautiful rewards of being a developed Being, and the Plan of Salvation ends up being a bust anyway (at least in our personal lives). Our team may have won the gold medal, but we won’t feel all the rewards of that gold medal because we didn’t grow.
This is true of our responsibilities. It is also true of our salvation. The Lord could easily continuously cleanse us and keep us in the presence of our Father in Heaven without burning up. However, we wouldn’t actually be feeling the Celestial Kingdom if we didn’t put in the work to become developed Beings.
Implications of this
There are some implications that come with this understanding.
When we view it from the outside without this perspective, here is what we see.
Joseph worked really hard to protect the plates, following promptings and trying to be creative in how he kept them safe from people who would try to take them. Nothing happened to plates. Therefore, Joseph protected the plates.
It would be easy to believe that Joseph had protected the plates, but not so. The Lord protected the plates, and Joseph grew. Yes, it could be argued that Joseph did contribute to protecting them, but that’s like saying my son keeps our house clean because he picks up his toys when I ask him to. My house was going to be cleaned either way; he was just able to accumulate growth and go outside because I didn’t ground him in order to teach him.
So what are the implications here? There are a few.
The first implication is that we let go of the pressure. Don’t let go of the striving, but let go of the pressure. The Lord already won. Successfully implementing the Plan of Salvation (or any plan, responsibility, etc.) is not on our heads. He will open the right doors, close the wrong ones, and give us the power to overcome obstacles when He deems necessary. If we are trying and taking advantage of the growth opportunities we’ve been given, we have nothing to fear.
The second implication is the fact that trying hard does matter but not for the reason we so often believe. We often believe that we have to try hard so we don’t fail. We’re supposed to be trying hard so we grow. Think of the gymnast coaches. They’re not trying to get my daughter to try hard on her own so that she can avoid mistakes; they’re trying to make her a skilled gymnast. The mistakes are inevitable but they’re so unimportant in the scheme of growth.
The gospel according to Autumn teaches this (and yes, that’s a disclaimer): a grand majority of the peace and joy we feel in the Celestial Kingdom comes internally. It’s not an externally granted blessing. We’re not going to be in heaven, receiving some divine equivalent of drugs that keep our bodies in a continuous state of euphoria. Celestial feelings come from becoming a celestial Being. And you have to try really hard to become a celestial Being, not because you’re capable of doing it but because that’s the only way you grow into one.
This is true of our salvation. It is true of any responsibility we’ve been given. Let’s pretend you were given the responsibility of finding the right plot of land for the building of the temple. I’ve heard of stories where Satan does all he can to stop the building. Angry neighbors, zoning issues, all sorts of legal hoops and prejudice can rise up in a huge wave against the responsibility that was given to a mere human. But if the Lord announced the temple, it’s getting built. Rather than putting the pressure on yourself to make sure it happens (because guess what..it’s gonna happen), view the obstacles you face with the right lens. The Lord isn’t hedging up your way because He is displeased with you. It’s not that you’re not faithful enough to bring miracles. The temple is only a portion of what’s important to the Lord, and He already has that on lockdown. The other portion (the one that is not so locked down) is your very real need for growth so that you can become like Him. The obstacles are not evidence of your failures in your responsibilities; the obstacles are chances given to you to be faithful and grow. You cannot lose if you try so proceed.
I testify that He won. All that’s left is our growth. So put in effort and put your heart into it for your growth. Try hard and hold all the gratitude and faith in the world because the ending is sure. You will be successful in all the ways that the Lord deems successful if you are truly trying.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Joseph Smith—History – Mike Parker
Jan 14, 2025
Joseph Smith’s childhood; the First Vision; Moroni, & the gold plates
(Joseph Smith—History)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
“First Vision Accounts,” Gospel Topics Essays, November 2013. An excellent summary on the Church’s website of Joseph Smith’s various accounts of the First Vision, along with a response to criticisms that he misremembered or embellished his accounts over time.
Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” BYU Studies 9, no. 3 (Spring 1969): 275–94. (The entire issue is devoted to the historical setting of the First Vision.) This article was updated and expanded as the opening chapter of John W. Welch and Erick b. Carlson, eds., Opening the Heavens: Accounts of Divine Manifestations, 1820–1844 (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press and Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 1–33.
Dean C. Jessee, “The Reliability of Joseph Smith’s History,” Journal of Mormon History 3, no. 1 (1976): 23–46. Jessee explores how the official history of the Church was compiled between 1838 and 1856, the historiographical methods the clerks used, and the limitations of the record.
Steven C. Harper, “Was Joseph Smith a Money Digger?,” BYU Studies 62, no. 4 (2023): 37–55. Harper evaluates the historical claims that Joseph Smith used his spiritual gifts to seek for buried treasure and find lost items.
The First Vision: A Joseph Smith Papers Podcast is a six-part documentary miniseries that explores the history and legacy of Joseph Smith’s first vision. The podcast recreates the world in which Joseph Smith was seeking answers to the pressing questions of his soul. Series host Spencer W. McBride interviewed historians and Church leaders for this podcast.
[The below is additional content not included in Mike Parker’s original lesson]
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Joseph Smith—History 1:1–26 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 13, 2025
Turn to God
by Autumn Dickson
For this week, we read the account of the First Vision of Joseph Smith. It is nearly impossible to overestimate the gravity of this event in the backdrop of the history of mankind, and we have it readily available to read and learn about it. When we read about what Joseph learned through this experience, we can learn a lot of direct truths that had been lost over time. There were doctrines that were explicitly laid out.
There are also a lot of gospel principles to be found indirectly as we read Joseph’s account. As we liken his story to our own story, we can find direction for where we’re supposed to go when we face similar experiences. Here is just one portion of the experience that Joseph recorded. Joseph had watched as religious fervor had overtaken the area and people were branching off into various Christian sects. It was all extremely passionate and intense.
Joseph Smith History 1:6 For, notwithstanding the great love which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more pretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions.
Joseph found himself entrenched in religious hypocrisy. There are fewer hypocrisies that can be more damaging than the religious type.
We testify that we have the restored gospel on the earth. We testify that Christ is leading our church. I believe this to be true. In the same breath, this true church is being guided and utilized and lived by imperfect people. Within our wards and stakes, we find cliques, strife, pride, self-righteousness, Pharisaical zeal, and greed. We find abusers of power and secrets behind closed doors. I’m not trying to disparage the church. I believe we have the truth and authority. I also know that there are problems in numerous circumstances caused by imperfect people, sometimes done innocently and others done with nefarious intentions. Pretending this isn’t true just leads to disillusionment and a lack of progress.
Joseph’s parents stressed personal religion but disagreed on some religious aspects. While Joseph’s mother affiliated with the Methodists, Joseph’s father resisted organized religion. He eventually joined a Universalist society that argued religious sects weren’t important.
It would have been easy for Joseph to feel rather lost in regards to religion, and in many ways, he did feel lost. He observed his parents moving in different religious directions, and he observed plenty of issues within the church organizations available to him. It would have been easy for Joseph to just turn away from it altogether. It would have been easy to view it as a useless endeavor.
Luckily, Joseph’s parents did stress that personal religion, and this is precisely the principle I want to teach today.
When in doubt, we turn directly to God. Anything else will be insufficient in the face of confusion and disillusionment.
This is precisely what Joseph did, and it was a blessing in his own life as well as millions of others. When we run into issues in the church and feel, “This isn’t right,” we don’t have to turn our back on the entire institution in order to feel peace again. If you turned away from any imperfect system on earth, you would be turning your back on every system on earth. They are all run with imperfect people; there is no getting around that.
The only thing that has truly brought me peace as I’ve faced issues in the church is my relationship with Jesus Christ. I have tried various methods throughout the years, and some were sufficient for a time, and some led me in good directions. But ultimately, everything was inadequate without the Lord. I have tried ignoring, explaining away, finding scapegoats, and a myriad of other choices. It is only in the times that I’ve turned to the Lord and remembered my relationship with Him and who He is that I have found the peace that I was looking for. I find that the issues are so much smaller than all that I’ve been given. The hiccups are nothing compared to the goodness I find in the relationship I have with Jesus Christ.
A disclaimer…
Joseph turned to the Lord and found his very clear answer. He received what he had asked for. This is what many of us are searching for when we find ourselves faced with the same issues of confusion and disillusionment, but I have a disclaimer. Joseph’s story didn’t end there. It wasn’t a happy ending yet; it was the beginning of an arduous journey that would require everything of him.
I’m here telling you to turn to the Lord in order to find peace, but I feel that I should also make this disclaimer. Immediately as Joseph turned to the Lord, he found himself plunged into more darkness than he was before. Logically, we would think that the Lord would answer immediately when we have found ourselves in confusion and turn to Him. If He wants us to remain in the church so badly, wouldn’t He make that a bit clearer?
But for whatever reason (because there are likely various reasons all tailored to individual circumstances), the Lord doesn’t choose this path. When Joseph turned to Him, Joseph found himself in greater darkness than he had ever yet experienced.
It’s laughable to think that Satan would be trying to fight off God to prevent the First Vision. As I originally read this passage this week, I remember thinking, “That’s cute Satan; has that ever worked for you before?” But then I realized that Satan wasn’t trying to fight God and His light; Satan was trying to fight Joseph. Satan can’t beat God, and he knows that. But Satan also knows that he has won against us before, and that is what he seeks to do. If he can sever the connection between us and our Heavenly Father, he wins.
But that is only my first disclaimer. When we run into issues with the church and we make the valiant decision to turn to the Lord and rely on Him, we may find ourselves in more darkness than we previously found. This doesn’t need to scare us. We can recognize Satan and thwart him and hold on. Satan has no power over God, and he has no power over us unless we give it to him. There is a reason God allows the existence of darkness; it is not a sign that it’s time to turn your back on knowledge you’ve been given. It is an opportunity to hold out for more light.
The second disclaimer is that Joseph’s story still didn’t end there. Joseph received this miraculous vision, and then the heavens went silent. FOR THREE YEARS.
For three years, Joseph got nothing. And then even more years passed before the real work of restoring the gospel began.
When we choose to turn to the Lord, it doesn’t mean immediate deliverance from confusion. It doesn’t mean immediate answers or even peace. Sometimes it means more darkness. Sometimes there are long pauses and silence. We may find ourselves asking, “Why? I’m trying to follow You! Why are You making it so hard to do so?”
I cannot tell you why the Lord allows for periods of darkness, doubt, and confusion, and I can only testify that He does and I testify that He does it for a wise purpose in Him. Facing darkness and doubt and confusion do not have to be the end. We get to choose! We get to choose to remember the moments when He did answer, and we get to choose whether we’re going to remain loyal to those moments that we have received.
In the end, we may not get a bigger answer because we held on for longer. It is more likely that in the end, we will be better and stronger and more exalted because we held on for longer. Sometimes, the changes we find in ourselves can be some of the biggest testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I testify of a wise and loving Savior. I testify that only turning to Him will save us. I testify that having a relationship with Jesus Christ brings more joy and peace than any other avenue. I testify that He and His Father answer our prayers, and I also testify that they allow for periods of time for us to be tested. They know that periods of testing means that we will make mistakes and that some of us will choose to walk away, but there was no other way. They had to provide opportunities for us to choose our relationship with Them to the extent that They choose Their relationship with us. They don’t bail when They run into hiccups with us; the least we can do is hold on and trust. I testify that moments of confusion and darkness and periods of silence eventually give way to two things: greater light and a more exalted us. I testify that we can find these results if we choose to hold on to that relationship with our Savior.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 1 – Mike Parker
Jan 07, 2025
Introduction; reception, editing & publication of Joseph Smith’s revelations
(D&C Section 1)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
James B. Allen, “Line Upon Line,” Ensign, July 1979, 32–39. Church history reveals how the Lord has continually added to his people’s knowledge and understanding.
Melvin J. Petersen, “Preparing Early Revelations for Publication,” Ensign, February 1985, 14–20. Petersen explores how Joseph edited his early revelations into the form we have in our current Doctrine and Covenants.
“Mystery Solved: Who Wrote the Lectures on Faith?,” LDS Perspectives Podcast #44 (12 July 2017). In this illuminating podcast, Noel Reynolds, BYU professor emeritus and a long-time Book of Mormon scholar, discusses who wrote the Lectures and what Joseph Smith thought about them. (You can listen to the interview or read the transcript.)
Uncanonized Revelations From the Time of Joseph Smith
The Doctrine and Covenants contains revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith that were “carefully selected” from all the revelations that he had received. At least forty-three uncanonized revelations and inspired statements made by Joseph and other Church leaders were written down during Joseph’s lifetime.
The following is a list of known revelations that were received during the Prophet’s lifetime but not published as scripture:
Ca. early 1830: “23 Commandment AD 1830.” A revelation given to Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, Hiram Page, Josiah Stowell, and Joseph Knight Sr. commanding them to go to Canada to secure a copyright there for the Book of Mormon.
15 May 1831: “53 Commandment, May 15th 1831.” A revelation given to Frederick G. Williams, Ezra Thayer, and Joseph Smith Sr. regarding the disposition of land in Kirtland, Ohio, that had been consecrated by Williams.
17 July 1831: A revelation to Joseph Smith and other brethren on the preaching of the gospel to the Lamanites who lived in Indian Territory west of Jackson County, Missouri. (A contemporary transcript of this revelation is not extant; the only known version was written from memory by William W. Phelps in a letter to Brigham Young, 12 August 1861. Because the transcript was prepared thirty years after the fact, its accuracy should be treated with skepticism.)
Ca. 2 November 1831: “Testimony, circa 2 November 1831.” A document signed by eighteen brethren who testified that the revelations that were to be published in the Book of Commandments were “given by inspiration of God & are profitable for all men & are verily true.” (A similar statement by the Twelve Apostles was published as part of the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants.)
20 March 1832: A revelation commanding Joseph Smith to suspend work on his revision of the Bible and take paper to Missouri for the printing of the Book of Commandments, given in response to two questions asked of the Lord by Joseph.
5 January 1833: A revelation to Frederick G. Williams, calling him as a counselor and scribe to Joseph Smith and instructing him to consecrate his farm.
18 October 1835: A prophecy of Joseph Smith, received “by the Spirit of Revelation” in the Kirtland Temple, “that the distress, and sickness that has heretofore prevailed among” the Saints in Missouri would “be mitigated from this time forth.”
27 October 1835: The word of the Lord, received by Joseph Smith in answer to prayer, that Frederick G. Williams would arrive soon and successfully assist Mary Bailey Smith in giving birth to her first child.
1 November 1835: A revelation chastising Reynolds Cahoon for “his iniquities[,] his covetous and dishonest principles in himself and family” and for failing to “set his house in order.”
2 November 1835: A revelation to Frederick G. Williams, directing him to not go to New York to take care of Church business, but instead authorizing him to travel to preach the gospel to his relatives.
3 November 1835: A revelation directed to the members of the Quorum of the Twelve, reproving them for covetousness, inequality, lack of humility, and counseling them to repent and “prepare their hearts for the solem[n] assembly and for the great day which is to come.”
14 November 1835: A revelation praising Warren Parrish “because of his desires to do the works of righteousness” and promising him great blessings for his efforts as a scribe for Joseph Smith.
12 January 1836: A record of visions received by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple, the first half of which was canonized in 1976 and is now D&C Section 137. The uncanonized portion contains a vision of the Twelve Apostles in foreign lands, fatigued and discouraged, with Jesus standing in their midst; Apostle William McLellin preaching and healing in the South; Brigham Young in the desert of the far southwest, preaching to “about a dozen men of colour” in their own language while protected by an angel; the Twelve in the celestial kingdom, the redemption of Zion, and “many things which the toung[e] of man, cannot discribe in full.”
November 1837: A prophecy of the Lord that “peace shall soon be taken from the earth,” for “behold saith the Lord, very fierce and very terrible war is near at hand, even at your doors.” (This prophecy was published in the November 1837 issue of Elders’ Journal as part of a message from Joseph Smith to “the Saints scattered abroad.” Cf. D&C Section 87.)
7 January 1838: A letter and revelation to Missouri bishop Edward Partridge, blessing him for his faithfulness and warning the Saints in Far West about “dissensions among them lest the enemy have power over them.” (A contemporary transcript of this letter is not extant; the only known version is in the handwriting of Edward Partridge Jr., in a book of family history given to the Church Historian’s Office in 1925.)
12 January 1838 (A): Revealed answers to questions about the procedure for holding a disciplinary council to try the members of the First Presidency for transgression. (This revelation clarified the instructions in D&C 107:82–84.)
2 December 1841: A revelation to to Ebenezer and Angelina Robinson, directing them to provide shelter and care for Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde and her children while her husband, Apostle Orson Hyde, served a mission abroad.
22 December 1841 (B): A revelation instructing John Snider to serve a mission to the eastern states and collect donations for the construction of the Nauvoo Temple and the Nauvoo House.
27 July 1842: A revelation for Newel K. Whitney that provided instructions for him to use in performing the sealing of his daughter, Sarah Ann Whitney, to Joseph Smith that same day. (A contemporary transcript of this revelation is not extant; see the historical introduction on the Joseph Smith Papers website.)
25 April 1844: A revelation to the Council of Fifty, declaring to its members, “Ye are my constitution, and I am your God, and ye are my spokesmen.”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Doctrine and Covenants 1 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 06, 2025
He Cannot Allow Sin
by Autumn Dickson
By the time Doctrine and Covenants 1 was written, Joseph had already written 60 revelations. In my mind, I imagine Joseph receiving communication from the Lord and writing it down so that he could try and follow and teach it. As time went on and more and more were received, it became clear that the Lord had plenty to say and that these sacred revelations should be made available to others. It hadn’t been originally considered that these words could be considered scripture; it wasn’t until later that the revelations were recognized for what they were. Joseph Smith and other church leaders decided to put them together in a book; this was obviously an inspired decision because the Lord stood ready to write the preface to His own book. This preface is Doctrine and Covenants 1.
The Lord shares a lot of goodness within this chapter. One of the things He chooses to include has been stated often enough before, but for some reason, it hit me a little harder this week.
Doctrine and Covenants 1:31 For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance;
The word that really hit me as I read this verse was “cannot.” The Lord didn’t say that He refused to look at sin with any allowance. He didn’t say He didn’t want to. He said He couldn’t, and I believe this is significant. I’m sure there are aspects of “refusing” and “not wanting to,” but He chose the word “cannot” for a reason.
I believe the word “cannot” (as opposed to the words “will not”) can help us to understand Him a bit better.
In verse 24, the Lord talks about how He gives His words to His servants in their weakness. It can be hard to capture His true attitude and meaning; if we’re being completely honest, it’s pretty much impossible to express it completely accurately. But I want to try and help clarify it a bit more, and He can continue to help me know when I’ve erred, instruct me when I’ve sought wisdom, and chasten me when I get it wrong. I already know that I’m not going to get this perfect, but I’m grateful Joseph published the revelations he published despite his own weakness. So let’s explore and add layers to our understanding of the Lord together.
Cannot rather than will not
Why can’t the Lord look at sin with any degree of allowance? Note that I’m asking, “Why can’t He?” not, “Why won’t He?”
Well there’s the obvious. If He is to remain perfect so that He can continue to be our Savior, He can’t let go of the prerogative. He has to remain wholly clean. An allowance of sin would probably forfeit the characteristic of perfection.
But I believe it extends beyond that. He can’t afford to look upon sin with any degree of allowance for our sake. It’s important to recognize and feel that because it helps us utilize this doctrine for our benefit rather than to our detriment. When we understand that He refuses to be accepting of sin for us (in comparison to picturing Him scowling down at us in our weaknesses), we understand that He is trying to lift us, not condemning us.
In parenting, boundaries are essential to raise healthy, happy kids. Oftentimes, from the perspective of the child, these boundaries can be perceived as a parent being angry or expecting too much (and sometimes that’s not inaccurate because we’re imperfect). However, it is possible to love and accept the child while maintaining the same boundary. I can look at my child and say, “I understand you’re tired, and I understand that you still need a lot of practice with your emotions. I understand that’s why you hit. I love you and will keep you with me. But hitting is not okay, no matter how tired you are.” I’m not expressing that the child is suddenly unacceptable. I’m not telling my child that they are a failure. I simply can’t afford to communicate the idea that it was okay for them to hit someone else. If I communicate, “It’s okay. You’re tired,” then what will my child choose to do next time they get tired? They’ll never seek to control themselves when they’re tired because I taught them hitting is okay when you’re tired.
When I approach my child with love and a strong, important boundary, I hope they will receive the right message. I hope they will receive the message that I accept them and love them even though I have to push them to be better and can’t look at sin with allowance. I can’t afford to. I have to (for their sake!) hold that boundary.
Sin rather than sinner
It is the same with our Savior. He loves us, but He can’t teach us that He’s okay with sin. It would be detrimental to our spiritual health and progression.
The word, “cannot” is significant, but so is the word, “sin.” He can’t look at sin with any degree of allowance. His atonement was literally performed so that He can look at the sinner with allowance. The entire reason He sacrificed Himself was so that He could allow repentant sinners into heaven. He looks at us and loves us and forgives us and recognizes our circumstances and weaknesses, but He holds that proper and fast boundary. He holds it because He loves us.
Sometimes, like a child, we look at verses like this and think, “He won’t ever accept me. He won’t forgive my sins.” We have to mature to the extent that we realize He can accept us and forgive our repentant hearts while maintaining his refusal of sin. We have to choose to see this verse for the act of love that it is.
There are few things more satisfying than when my kids recognize the love I put into my responses. It is so fulfilling when my kids feel grateful that I push them to do chores, to forgive each other, and to learn to control their tempers. I often teach this sentiment directly rather than hoping the message is inherently understood. When my kids are complaining that I’m requiring something of them (and when they specifically complain that I must not love them), I quite passionately explain that I choose to do these things because I love them. It has somewhat sunk in because when my oldest daughter is well-rested and in a good mood, she has expressed a sentiment along the lines of, “Mom, I don’t want to do this, but I know you’re making me do it because you love me.”
We are the child in this scenario! We can look to the Lord and say, “I see what You are expressing. I’m grateful that You want me to be more.” Like a child, we can choose to read that verse and see condemnation or we can see the wisdom and love of an Eternal Parent. We can refuse to allow Satan to make us believe that the Lord is turning His back on us because nothing would please Satan more. He wants us to get confused and misunderstand what the Lord is trying to say.
He that repents and does the commandments
There is a verse that comes right after the verse we read in the beginning.
Doctrine and Covenants 1:32 Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven;
This verse can be confusing. The Lord forgives those who repent and follow the commandments, but usually forgiveness and repenting imply the fact that we didn’t keep the commandments. Satan likes to whisper that we have to stop sinning before the Lord forgives past transgressions, but that’s not true either.
Let’s look at a parent and child again.
There are times in the lives of my children when they need to hear that I love them deeply. A lot of times, this need appears as misbehavior. They’ve done something wrong and if I want them to do better, a huge portion of my message needs to be the idea that I love them and they’re going to be okay.
I try to express this, and I try to express it in this extremely specific manner (even if not in so many words).
I don’t say, “I love you, but we have to do better.” I say, “I love you, AND we have to do better.” A very small word but a very significant difference. The conjunction “but” implies the phrase, “on the contrary.” However, the phrases “I love you” and “We have to do better” are not contrary; they’re complimentary.
I get it. This is such a nuanced little principle, but it’s so significant. If we can teach our loved ones and if we can learn this principle for ourselves, it will change the nature of our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
We will hear phrases like, “Keep the commandments,” or phrases that imply, “We have to do better,” and we will begin to simultaneously hear the message, “I love you.” Because that’s exactly what those phrases are. They are messages, pleadings, and expressions of love. If we can connect those phrases, our children will better recognize the love of their Heavenly Father and Savior, and it will change their entire experience with this high-demand gospel. The high-demand will translate to high-love.
I testify of a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us. I testify that whenever They speak to us, there is an implied message of love. They feel that love constantly, and all of Their responses are drawn out of that love. It’s hard to understand and believe that because the responses that we sometimes give to others around us can be rooted in selfishness, but it is never so with Them. We can read any of their words and find the implied, “I love you,” because They perfectly love us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Dec 30, 2024
Joseph Trusted
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we are studying the bicentennial proclamation called, “The Restoration.” It has been approximately 200 years since the beginning of what we call the Restoration in which the Lord once again actively taught His gospel to a prophet on the earth. With the clarified doctrine came the priesthood authority to bind us to the Savior in a way that He could save us.
Proclamations are interesting things. They are official statements given by our leaders. They reaffirm and clearly teach exactly what we believe. Oftentimes, proclamations are given for specific audiences whether for the church as a whole or even to the world outside church membership. It can be extremely informative to those who know nothing about what we believe.
As for the rest of us, it can seem like a summary of things that we have been taught repeatedly throughout the course of our lives. I can find summarized accounts regarding the Restoration in a million places. Why did we need to send out yet another message with the same information?
Then again, why do we have stories in the scriptures that teach the same principles over and over? Why do we have monthly testimony meetings in which we hear the same basic idea that the Savior supports us? Why do we continue to go over the same material in general for years and years?
There are a lot of answers to this, but one pretty thorough answer is that we need to apply the gospel to our lives. Because our lives are constantly changing, the need to process and apply the gospel in different ways is necessary.
This may be called a proclamation rather than scripture, but in so many ways, they are incredibly similar. They are inspired words written by holy men. So in many ways, we can apply our same scripture study tactics when we read these words.
What do we learn from the Restoration Proclamation this week? How do we apply it in our own lives? Surely there are many different ways to liken these words to our lives as there are many different lives being led right now; let’s just talk about one.
The Restoration Proclamation testifies of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in which he went out into the woods to pray. He was confused about what he needed to do, and so he decided to turn to the Lord about it. In the words of our proclamation, “He had questions regarding the salvation of his soul and trusted that God would direct him.”
The salvation of his soul
At first glance, it may feel as though we don’t often turn to the Lord with the specific concerns that Joseph did. Perhaps we are seeking to follow the Lord and protect the state of our souls, but how often do we directly approach Him about the salvation of our souls?
And yet, how often do we approach Him with variations of that same question? If we really think about it, aren’t most of our questions regarding the state of our soul in one way or another? Whether we’re seeking answers to questions or pleading for help because we’re worried about something going on in our lives, it can often be drawn back to the fact that we’re looking to be safe and happy in our futures.
In this manner, we all can relate to Joseph. We all want to know that we’re on a path that’s going to lead us towards an eternal future that is going to be content and okay and happy. Even those living without religion in the world are seeking that same end; they just want to know that their future is going to be okay (no matter how long or short they may believe it to be).
It’s the next part of that sentence that not everyone relates to, and it’s that part of the sentence that can actually change our lives.
Trusted that God would direct Him
Joseph believed in a God who wanted to answer his prayer. He trusted that God would lead him in the right direction.
Joseph did not have a lot of knowledge by the world’s standards. His education was short-lived, and even the short-lived formal schooling was spotty at best. There were a lot of things that Joseph didn’t know, even religiously. I think of one experience Joseph had while translating The Book of Mormon. Emma described Joseph as becoming pale and asking her if Jerusalem had a wall around it. When Emma replied that it did (because it was described in the bible), Joseph was relieved because he was worried he had been deceived.
Joseph definitely learned the gospel throughout his mortal life and by the end of it, I would guess that he knew a lot about a lot, specifically in regards to spiritual matters. However, he didn’t start out that way. He started out very unlearned, but he knew the most important things. Potentially one of the most essential pieces of knowledge that Joseph had was that he knew God would answer His prayer and lead him along.
A knowledge of truth, any truth, is commendable and good. However, some truths are far more valuable than others. I grew up learning the gospel in my home and at church. I could recite any number of doctrines that we believed, not to mention different things I had learned at school. However, it took me a while to trust and feel and know that God wanted to lead me along in my life. Since I have become confident in that fact, my life has changed and become hopeful.
Do you know that God wants to lead you along? When you kneel down to pray, when you are faced with uncertainty, when you don’t necessarily hear any direct answers from Him, do you have a confident knowledge that He is there guiding the details? Do you feel safe in His ability to save you, in any aspect of the word “save?”
Confidence in every aspect of the word
Faith in a specific principle changes how you live your life.
When you have faith that you’re going to be alive tomorrow, you do your laundry and eat food and set things up to be prepared for the next day. When you have faith or knowledge (or if you find yourself at any point on the scale between those two) that Christ is actively involved, loves you, and has the power to deliver His promises, you look at everything differently.
Moments of limbo aren’t necessarily fun, but they don’t induce panic. When He is quiet, you aren’t scared that He’s mad at you; you trust that He will respond in a way that you can hear Him if He needs to respond. When you repent, you rejoice in the fact that your place with Him is secure because of His immense power. When you have a major certification test that will largely determine your career or when you are jumping into the unknown with your entire family, there may still be some hesitation and anxiety, but it doesn’t produce despair. Things may not turn out how you like, and it’s okay to feel disappointed about that. However, when you ultimately know that the Lord will guide you in the salvation of your soul, it ultimately trumps all the other emotions. You look forward to the future, when the Lord is going to fulfill all His promises, and it affects how you look at today.
This is true of any question we’re bringing to the Lord. It is true from the smallest details to the catastrophic times in our lives. The Lord will guide you in your salvation, and salvation includes the very mortal aspects of life that you’re experiencing now. He will guide you, but until you trust that He’s guiding you, you’re going to continue to struggle in ways that are unnecessary. So work on building that trust and knowledge.
Enabling power
When you know the Lord is going to guide you in the salvation of your soul, it changes how you feel about your day and your future. Beyond that, trusting in the Lord’s ability to guide your salvation makes you powerful.
I am convinced that it was Joseph’s trust in God that prepared him to open up the restoration and change the world. It was that specific knowledge that enabled him to survive his chaotic, traumatizing life, and it was also that specific knowledge that enabled him to move mountains. He knew that God, the Omnipotent and loving Being, was on his side. How could he fail?
When we experience God, both in our temporal lives and in the worshiping tools we’ve been given, we collect moments of trust. When we come to trust Him as Joseph trusted Him, not only will we feel more hope, but we will be the powerful tools He wants us to become.
I am a powerful mother who changes the lives of her children because I believe (and therefore, allow) God to guide me in how I choose to respond to the agency of my children. I am a powerful wife because I believe (and therefore, allow) God to guide me regarding how to be happy in my marriage. I am a powerful person because I believe (and therefore, allow) God to guide me in any aspect He chooses to do so. And when He feels quiet, I allow my confidence in His ability to reach me bring the peace I need to move forward of my own accord.
I testify of a Heavenly Father and Savior who are actively involved. I have seen it again and again and again and again, and thus far, it hasn’t gotten old. I have much more confidence in Him than I used to, but I still often find myself surprised by how prepared He is to pull me in the right direction. I testify that He is powerful enough to deliver, and I testify that He wants to deliver. If you do not feel at peace, then the only missing ingredient is your trust in Him. You don’t need to beat yourself up about that; it takes time to build trust. Don’t beat yourself up; rather, take the opportunity to get to know Him and allow Him to prove Himself to you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Christmas – Autumn Dickson
Dec 21, 2024
As He Is
by Autumn Dickson
The message I want to share about Christ today is a message I have taught indirectly through other topics for some time. It is a message that has changed my relationship with Him, and therefore, it is a message that has changed my life into a joyful and hopeful one. I am so immensely grateful for it.
This year in Come Follow Me, we have read The Book of Mormon. It is called The Book of Mormon because of the prophet, Mormon, who compiled all of the records together so that they might one day be turned into a book. There is a book subtitle that is extremely important; book subtitles are meant to give context and help a reader prepare to look for the message that was meant to be received. The subtitle of The Book of Mormon is, “Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” The entire book was written with that purpose in mind. Every chapter was crafted to help us understand Him and how He works among the children of men.
There have been a great many times in my life where I have misinterpreted this book, and there will likely be many more times in the future where I likewise continue to misinterpret it. Because of these misinterpretations, I have often assigned characteristics to my Savior that simply don’t fit Him. I have seen anger and wrath, rather than desperate attempts to wake His children up. I have seen condemning warnings, rather than loving advice that was meant to challenge me and push me to live my life at a higher plane.
I testify that The Book of Mormon testifies of the true Christ, and I testify that the Spirit can help us to know Him as He is.
An extreme level
I want to teach what I mean on an extreme level. I teach it this way for two reasons: one, because I believe that seeing it in an extreme case can help us decipher it in more subtle cases and two, because I have observed a common phenomenon that I think could use a direct approach.
I have a dear friend that I grew up with; she was abused by her father. For a long time, she stayed close to the church and tried to follow its teachings. She went to church with her family as she watched her abusive father get called as a priesthood leader in the ward, and she would go home and listen to him scream at her family as they ate Sunday dinner together. In fact, she talks about how she can still smell the pot roast and hear her father yelling. He was manipulative and sneaky. He was narcissistic and controlling. When he praised his kids, it was because it made him look like a good father. When he spoke of his love for his wife, it was in his own defense of how he always treated her right. He was extremely insecure, and those closest to him suffered because of it.
And yet, despite the turmoil at home, many people at church adored him.
Our brains are funny things. The Lord created our brains in a very specific manner. Your experiences, especially those very early experiences at home, often form the framework with how you view the rest of your life. Your brain does this on a literal scale. It’s physically forming connections that push your thoughts in certain directions.
The Lord built our brains like this on purpose. When you put your hand on a hot stove, you learn very quickly that you don’t want to do it again. He did this because in many ways, it protects us. Babies, in their first few years of life, form millions of neural connections every single second. This pruning and building in the brain is happening at a much faster rate than any other point in our lives. Everything a baby experiences forms one of these connections, and this is how they learn so quickly.
Let me put that in the context of my friend.
Because of her early experiences at home, her brain taught her to mistrust certain characteristics. This is what we know as “triggers.” She has an extreme mistrust of the prophets and apostles because those men have similar characteristics (white, male, priesthood leader) to someone who was harmful towards her, and her brain sends flashing warning signals in her mind whenever she hears them speak. She finds them creepy; she assumes their dishonesty. She believes they’re simply seeking their own benefit.
Our blueprint for everything gets originally created at home when we are young children (hmmm I wonder why families were so important to the Lord…). This blueprint can change, but it is very difficult to physically alter some of those connections that were so thoroughly put in place when we were simply babies, especially connections that were formed, repeated, and cemented over and over and over and over and over again.
After everything she experienced at the hands of her father, after all the harm it caused her, is it any wonder that her brain would send neon flashing signals that she needs to be wary of these other men who reflect her father? Is it any wonder that she imagines those men, preaching at the pulpit, going home to be unkind to their families? Is it any wonder that she doesn’t want to hear about a Savior who preached about Himself? No matter how many good actions we can read about the Savior in the scriptures, she will see the facade that her father created.
Needless to say, she’s not a member anymore.
The more subtle connections
Now, like I said, this was an extreme example, but the principle remains and it has plentiful implications. What you experience at home is the blueprint through which you view everything, including religion, leadership, and God. What you know about Christ often starts with how your parents loved you.
So when I read The Book of Mormon, or any words about Christ, I am going to interpret how Christ is acting according to what I learned at home.
Implication number one. We take the name of Jesus Christ upon us when we are baptized. One of the ten commandments is to not take His name in vain. Surely, we don’t need to be saying unholy variations of “Oh my gosh,” but more importantly, we need to act in a way that reflects Christ if we’re going to try and call ourselves members of His church. The damage that can be caused by people who call themselves Christian but act decidedly un-Christian is immense.
This doesn’t mean we have to act perfect because that’s impossible. No one will be able to perfectly reflect the Savior even when they’re the prophet, His literal mouthpiece on the earth. There is a responsibility on the part of the giver to try and reflect the Savior, but there is also a responsibility on the part of the receiver to be compassionate to weakness, to decipher honest but imperfect attempts to resemble Him, and to separate the imperfections of their daily interactions with the perfection of the Savior.
Which leads me to my second implication.
To know Him
Home is the blueprint in which we view the Savior. This doesn’t mean we go and blame our parents if we don’t feel close to the Savior. As I have become a parent, my eyes have been opened to just how hard it is to do the right thing. My parents did a fantastic job, and because of that, I know that my brain was literally set up to have healthy relationships as well as a good foundation to build upon. My parents were not perfect, but they gave me a pretty dang good starting place with which to know my Savior.
There are other reasons we don’t blame our parents for the gaps in understanding about our Savior. There have been times when I have tried to communicate to my children, “I love you so I’m setting this boundary, and I’m pushing you to be independent even though it’s uncomfortable for you.” I fully, whole-heartedly (mostly because they tell me in plain terms) that the message that was received is, “You don’t care that I’m uncomfortable; you must not love me.”
The blueprint we form at home comes from direct instruction and actions from our parents, but it’s also formed on erroneous interpretations that came about because we were tired toddlers or angsty teenagers.
All of this is important to understand because it empowers us to change our blueprint on purpose. It empowers us to change the lens in which we view the Savior. It allows us to disengage with the characteristics we projected onto the Savior that simply aren’t there.
If you often feel like you’re annoying, this is going to affect your relationship with Christ. If you feel like you’re a constant burden, you’re not going to turn to Him for help. If you think nobody cares what you do or how you act, this is going to be reflected in how you choose to follow God.
The Savior is perfect. He perfectly loves you, and He is perfectly capable of saving and supporting you. He wants to be around you. He wants to be reunited with you.
Is that what you see when you think of Him? Or do you see the imperfections of this world and project them on to Him? When you read The Book of Mormon (or any account of the Savior), are you interpreting His actions as they are? Or are you looking at Him through a distorted, damaged lens?
The best thing I ever did was try and embrace my Savior as He truly is, to embrace His love, to view His actions as extensions of that love. If you are one of those who find themselves with a truly broken blueprint (or even just someone with the normal errors), then my message is the same. The Savior is perfectly able to heal, uplift, and bless you, but you have to believe. You have to choose to see Him in the proper light. He can’t force you to believe that He is who He says He is. No matter how often He has professed His love or chosen His actions according to that love, it will not matter if you refuse to believe His intentions were love. It won’t matter if you stubbornly hold to the blueprint that was handed to you rather than allowing Him to heal you and change your life.
I testify that He is all who He says He is. I testify that everything we read about in The Book of Mormon this year teaches us about Him, but we have to interpret those words with the help of the Spirit. I testify that He can heal and change lives.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moroni 10 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 16, 2024
Belief to Knowledge
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we are left with the final testimony given in The Book of Mormon. Moroni testifies of The Book of Mormon, spiritual gifts, and Christ’s ability to perfect us. Moroni also speaks about revelation. He talks about how to know whether The Book of Mormon is true (as well as the truth of all things), and he also speaks about the role of the Holy Ghost in this process.
Moroni 10:7 And ye may know that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.
The word “know” can be a heavy one in our religion. What does it mean to truly know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? What does it mean to truly know that He sacrificed Himself for us? What does it mean to truly know Him?
We often use this word, “know.” I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using it; I don’t think that needs to be changed. On the flip side, I’m also grateful for the conversations that have opened up about the importance of belief. Distinguishing between belief and true knowledge has been a nuance that has both comforted and enlightened me. It has comforted me in the sense that belief feels more sufficient than it previously did. It has enlightened me in the sense that I recognize the eventual goal of “true knowledge,” and the Lord has been able to teach me the process of attaining it by utilizing belief.
Today I want to talk a little bit about the importance of belief, and I want to talk about the process of true knowledge.
The place of belief
When we talk about true knowledge, I’m talking about the point where you don’t have belief any longer. It has completely given way to knowledge and you don’t have to believe in something you can’t see because you know. When we talk about knowledge in this manner, it can often feel like belief is “lesser.” Our goal is to reach the point where we don’t need faith any longer, almost like the stage of belief was always meant to be overcome.
The belief stage (in comparison to the knowledge stage) is not something to be overcome. Yes, we are working towards a true knowledge of Christ. However, the goal of the belief stage is not simply to overcome. There are lessons and strengthening exercises that can only be acquired when we are still in that belief stage.
There is a reason Heavenly Father sent us down to earth with a veil placed over our eyes. He was wise enough to know that there were characteristics we could only develop in this manner. If I truly saw the Lord, would I be following and trusting Him or would I be seeking out a selfish, personal reward? Would I be developing that relationship with Christ or would I just be doing the logical thing so that I wouldn’t be miserable for eternity? Requiring a belief stage enables us to dig deeper within ourselves and grow to be like Christ, rather than simply trying to gain a reward. It forces us to go through the process of experimenting, and as we experiment, we change and become like Him and develop the innate desire to actually be like Him.
Let me try explaining it in this manner.
Let’s pretend that Heavenly Father sent me to earth without the veil. I get here, I know what’s on the other side, so I do what I’m told because it would be ridiculous to do anything else. I’m just trying to make sure I’m not miserable for eternity. There isn’t anything really required of me. It doesn’t force me to actually go through the process of figuring things out. I can “succeed” by going through the motions.
But He did send me with a veil. And because He did, the process looks different. If I want to learn whether the truth is here and whether there is a Heavenly Father who loves me, I have to experiment. As I experiment, I still don’t fully know whether I’m on the right path. However, I do start to learn that I innately want to live my life in this manner. I learn that focusing on others frees me. I learn that being honest helps me avoid a lot of cringey feelings. I learn that relationships should be prioritized because they bring happiness. I change according to what I’m learning during my experiment.
Part of Heavenly Father’s character is knowledge of the reality of eternity. He follows these laws of His own accord, not because He wants to gain a reward, but because He knows that it’s the true path to eternal happiness. He asks us to follow Jesus Christ, not as the goal in and of itself. He asks us to follow Jesus Christ so that we can learn for ourselves. He wants us to innately know and feel the nature of good and evil. Experimenting allows us to focus on whether the path is truly making us happy beings. It allows us to learn for ourselves.
The belief stage is critical to exaltation.
We don’t need to be ashamed of being in the stage where we have faith, where we believe rather than know. It’s an important stage. Do not simply seek to get through this part to the knowledge part. Appreciate the belief stage because it is a necessary step in your progression.
How we actually achieve knowledge
Now that was a bit of a tangent off of the verse that I wanted to talk about for today, but I felt it was an important tangent. Appreciating the belief stage sufficiently and understanding Heavenly Father’s tools accurately can help us on the path to knowledge. Let’s look at that verse from Moroni again.
“Ye may know that He is.” We can know. The veil doesn’t need to last our entire lives. And yes, I am talking about being redeemed from the fall and being brought back into His presence. It’s an exciting notion, and it’s a notion I’ve been fascinated with since before my mission. That being said, there are some powerful and humbling lessons that I’ve received on this journey of learning about the process of knowing.
The first lesson is found in the very next phrase in Moroni’s verse. “By the power of the Holy Ghost.” A true knowledge does not stem from seeing the Lord. Laman and Lemuel saw an angel, and it didn’t do anything for them! They were physically shaken by the Lord and the effects on their hearts were minimal. There were plenty of people who saw the Lord and still didn’t know.
True knowledge of the Savior can only be acquired through the Holy Ghost.
And this is precisely why it’s so important to appreciate the belief stage. A desire to overcome the belief stage is often a sign of misunderstandings about how true knowledge of the Savior is acquired.
Sometimes we think the process goes like this: I build up my faith sufficiently over time until I’m finally good enough that the Lord lets me see Him and then I know He is real. My belief stage is over and replaced with knowledge.
The process actually goes like this: We build up faith and utilize faith to grow sufficiently; we go through that process of learning about the nature of good and evil for ourselves. We appreciate faith, and it helps us appreciate the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is the messenger by which we acquire true knowledge. Seeing the Savior is a beautiful experience (at least I assume it is), but it’s not necessarily part of the process of acquiring a true knowledge of Him.
You CAN know the Lord; you can also have an absolute knowledge of Him without seeing Him. True knowledge of the Savior comes from the Holy Ghost. Being brought back into His presence is a separate experience. I’m sure they can happen at the same time, but they are distinct experiences. Knowledge of spiritual things is transmitted through the Holy Ghost.
When I say that a desire to “overcome” the belief stage implies a misunderstanding of the process of acquiring true knowledge, it’s because a desire to overcome often disallows the process of embracing faith. Embracing faith is necessary to appreciating the Holy Ghost, and it is the Holy Ghost that helps us acquire knowledge.
Let me explain it concretely. If I’m trying to overcome the stage where my kids are little, I’m often focused on surviving and getting through it. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes surviving is necessary. What I’m trying to illustrate is the fact that if I’m surviving, I’m usually not embracing or appreciating.
If I’m thinking, “Man, I just want to know. I don’t want to have to wait and believe,” then I’m going to miss out on internalizing messages from the Holy Ghost that will actually bring the knowledge. If you’re constantly trying to have big, crazy experiences that you erroneously assume will give you knowledge, then you’re not actually going to be able to acquire that knowledge. It only comes through the Holy Ghost!
When you understand that true knowledge comes from the Holy Ghost, you cherish the small whisperings. You collect them. You embrace the strengthening exercises when you have to follow the Lord without knowing. You experiment and go through the process of learning the nature of good and evil for yourself.
And as you work through these strengthening exercises and as you innately understand the nature of good and evil, you finally become ready for true knowledge. You don’t need faith anymore because you have gleaned all that you can glean from faith.
In summary
Elder Hales taught, “Our faith prepares us to be in the presence of the Lord.” In summary faith enables us to be prepared because of two reasons.
1) It pushes us through the process of experimenting and innately learning the nature of good and evil, a characteristic that is necessary to develop if we want to be like Heavenly Father.
2) It pushes us to lay hold of our experiences with the Holy Ghost. Because the Holy Ghost is the true avenue of acquiring knowledge, we need to appreciate those small experiences and collect them.
Moroni talks about truth often throughout this chapter. He talks about how we can know the truthfulness of The Book of Mormon through the Holy Ghost, and he also teaches us that we can know the truth about all things by embracing the Holy Ghost.
I am grateful that Heavenly Father was wise enough to require a belief stage. I’m grateful that the experiences He pulls me through are so nuanced and perfect for me to learn from. I’m grateful that He knows how to bring about the immortality and eternal life of me, and I’m grateful He sent His Son to pay for my learning experience.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moroni 7–10 – Mike Parker
Dec 10, 2024
Additional teachings of Mormon; Moroni’s final witness
(Moroni 7–10)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Mormon₂ wrote of “the light of Christ” (Moroni 7:15–19) and Joseph Smith revealed more about the light of Christ in D&C 88:5–13. C. Kent Dunford explains what we know about this power that emanates from God: “Light of Christ,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 2:835.
Moroni chapter 8 is Mormon₂’s epistle on the salvation of little children. For more on this doctrine, see Robert L. Millet, “Alive in Christ: the Salvation of Little Children,” in Fourth Nephi, From Zion to Destruction, eds. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1995), 1–17.
Latter-day Saint scholar Royal Skousen believes, based on internal evidence, that the term “pleasing bar” in Moroni 10:34 and Jacob 6:13 should read “pleading bar,” a legal term referring to the bar in a court of law before which a defendant pleads his or her case. See Skousen, “The Pleading Bar of God,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 42 (2021): 21–36.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moroni 7–9 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 10, 2024
May Christ Lift Thee
by Autumn Dickson
I had an experience right before I went on my mission. An article had come out about Texas making abortion more legal and accessible. I want to be very clear here in the beginning that this post is not about abortion itself. This is the story I’m choosing to tell in order to teach my principle, but the principle isn’t actually regarding abortion.
Anyway, the article that I read actually went into detail about abortion. It outlined different ways in which babies are aborted. In fact, it actually went into graphic detail about how some abortions are performed. There was one method in particular that was especially brutal, and it included pictures and diagrams.
There is a lot of scientific debate regarding when fetuses develop the ability to feel pain. Regardless, this article haunted me for quite some time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it whenever I had a moment to myself.
I remember seeing those pictures and diagrams every time I closed my eyes. I remember thinking about how confused and hurt these tiny babies must have felt when their warm little world was suddenly interrupted. I remember wondering if a spirit was already inhabiting the body and whether they went straight back to Heavenly Father, disappointed that their opportunity had been cut short.
I know abortion is a messy subject. I know that there are girls out there who had to make decisions alone, and those decisions were based on fear. I know that there is a lot of pain surrounding the topic, and I don’t want to further inflict pain.
But I share this experience because I feel like it highlights a true principle.
As this article stuck to me, I remember I couldn’t sleep very well. I just kept seeing all those babies. I remember I finally got out of bed and knelt down to pray about it. I hadn’t prayed about it before because I figured there wasn’t anything Heavenly Father could do. He had allowed for agency. Abortion was likely to stick around until Christ came again. I figured the only way I was going to find comfort again was when the issue finally stopped, and that wouldn’t be for some time.
But it got to the point where I wasn’t coping or sleeping so I prayed about it. It shocked me the comfort that was immediately granted to me. I had a picture of Christ welcoming those spirits back. Their pain was comparatively short lived, and Christ wouldn’t allow them to truly miss out on any opportunities. I remember them feeling comforted and being healed. This was probably one of my first experiences with Christ’s atonement where it was specifically utilized to make up for tragedy that couldn’t be explained on earth. I could feel that those spirits were okay.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve also come to appreciate His ability to heal the mothers. He can heal any pain that we have caused to others, and that can bring immense relief.
This is the experience that I thought of when I read Mormon’s words to his son.
Moroni 9:25 My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever.
There is so much tragedy in the world. I am so grateful that I’ve had experiences with Christ’s atonement that have left me feeling hope. I am so grateful for the experiences I’ve had of Christ that taught me innocents are ultimately healed and blessed beyond measure.
For those we love
Christ’s atonement applies to the innocent, but it also applies to those we love.
I had a good friend whose father went off the deep end. After living a “normal” life, he quickly turned to vices that led to his death. He abandoned his family, got into drugs, racked up immense amounts of debt in the form of money and pain, and then he ended his own life.
My friend loved his father and was trying to serve a mission despite the fact that all of this had happened within the previous year. I applaud him for trying. I also applaud the fact that he had wise leaders who sent him home to heal from the overwhelming tragedy.
As he was attempting to serve, he started asking questions about where his father was. Despite the pain that had been caused by his father towards the end of his father’s life, my friend had mostly grown up with a stable home life. He loved his father. He had many good associations with his father. He didn’t want his father to suffer. He didn’t want to serve and testify of the eternal nature of families when he was so deeply hurting over the pain within his own family.
I don’t know where his father is. I can’t testify that the atonement has saved him because I don’t know if he accepted it. I have hope. Though I don’t condone or encourage suicide, suicide can be an indication of remorse which is a step towards the atonement. I hope that remorse stayed and propelled him in the right direction.
That likely would not have been comforting to my friend who just wanted to hear that his father was being taken care of.
Luckily, I can testify of this. Every choice the Lord is making in regards to my friend’s father is the wisest form of care. Sometimes we want to just take away all the pain and make it go away, but this is not always the best care we can provide. The Lord knows that, and He provides what is truly needed.
That’s the power of the atonement. Every single portion of it is merciful and just. The part where Christ withholds the power of His atonement from those who refuse to repent is easily seen as just, but it is also merciful. It is an attempt to bring that soul back because if that soul doesn’t repent, then they will continue harming others and themselves. The pain continues. There would be no reason to even apply Christ’s atonement because the harm would continue on without changing. Why even put on a bandaid if you’re just going to take a knife to it again anyway?
I often picture the experience in the spirit world being akin to the story from “A Christmas Carol.” The spirits who chose wrong on earth find themselves in a “prison” of sorts, but I don’t picture an actual, physical jail. I picture these spirits becoming vastly aware of their choices in their previous life. They can see us more than we can see them. They are forced to acknowledge the pain they caused without being able to fix it since they have already passed on. This definitely feels like a prison; it can feel so painful; it is a life without the atonement. But it can also provide the bridge towards true healing. Scrooge was offered an opportunity to go fix his life. The spirits who have moved on from this stage of existence can’t go back and fix things, but they can embrace Christ’s atonement, and it can free them in the same way. Which leads me to my last point.
For the guilty
The atonement of Jesus Christ is surely good news to the innocent. It is good news to those who have loved ones who have chosen wrong. Eternal life will be made trulyavailable to all, including those who were born into circumstances where they never even really had a chance to rise above. It is available to those who wouldn’t even know how to accept it in this life. This is all extremely comforting.
The atonement can also bring a lot of peace to the guilty, and I’m not just talking about the fact that you had your sins paid for. I’m talking about the aspect that Christ heals others from the pains you brought.
The repentance process can be uncomfortable for many reasons. One of the reasons is that you recognize the harm you caused others. In many cases, it may feel better to continue on in your path rather than turn around and acknowledge that you may have caused irreparable pain. However, if we can accept Christ’s atonement and if we allow that painful recognition to change our future choices, we find freedom from the knowledge that we hurt others.
And this is the true difference between those who inhabit spirit paradise or prison.
Everyone who comes to earth hurts others. We have all caused pain. I was literally thinking about some of my worst moments last night when I was trying to go to bed. We all wince when we remember times that we really hurt someone.
The difference between those who find paradise and those who find prison (in this life or the next life) is a knowledge of the atonement of Jesus Christ. I have often found myself cringing when I think of how I’ve hurt others throughout my life. The only thing that has ever brought me relief (i.e. paradise) is my trust that the atonement can heal those I’ve hurt. Because I’ve felt Him heal me, I know He can heal others. It doesn’t have to kill me forever. He can fix the mistakes I made and bring relief and happiness to everyone. We can all be okay again.
I’m grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ. In so many ways, I know that I’m oblivious to the true depths of the atonement because I know that I have not suffered as some have suffered. But I have had experiences with His atonement, and I do know that it’s real. Those experiences are real enough that I have cause to believe that they extend even deeper and further than I understand. Christ heals. He heals the innocent. He heals those we love. He heals the guilty. The hope of His glory and eternal life can rest in our minds and free us from spiritual prisons.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Moroni 1–6 – Autumn Dickson
Dec 02, 2024
Moroni and Loneliness
by Autumn Dickson
Moroni understood the concept of loneliness. Even before all of his people were wiped out, Moroni practiced his beliefs on his own except for his father. He likely found himself surrounded by his peers, unable to connect with them because of gaping differences in beliefs, desires, and values. People probably didn’t understand him, and though he loved his people, he probably still felt awfully alone.
And then came the genocide.
Moroni was the last Nephite prophet to live upon the land. He had the authority to lead the church on the earth, and yet, he was the last one in the church to lead. According to the institute manual, Moroni lived for 36 years after that last battle between the Nephites and Lamanites in which all of his loved ones were destroyed. He lived alone in the land except for the Lamanites who were trying to kill him because he wouldn’t deny the Christ.
Like I said before, Moroni knew the concept of loneliness. Let’s talk about a couple of things that might have been adjacent to this loneliness.
He thought he was done with the work
Moroni wrote a couple of things in his father’s book after his father died. He then abridged a record of the Jaredites. After completing this specific work, he thought he was done.
Moroni 1:4 Wherefore, I write a few more things, contrary to that which I had supposed; for I had supposed not to have written any more; but I write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites, in some future day, according to the will of the Lord.
From previous writings, we know that Moroni didn’t feel like a very strong writer. It wasn’t his forte. Perhaps he was a great soldier, considering the fact that he outlived everyone else who was destroyed. He was a survivalist as he spent decades alone. Honestly, I’m the exact opposite. I can write, but I’m pretty sure I would have died within the first couple of weeks of being on my own trying to avoid getting killed. Moroni had his talents, and perhaps writing really wasn’t one of them.
It didn’t matter though. He was the last Nephite prophet, and because of that, the Lord had some work for him to do.
I wonder if Moroni wished he didn’t have to do it. I wonder if he looked at the records and knew that there was plenty of doctrine. Moroni saw our day, and he likely saw the restoration of the gospel. He chose to include some of the ordinance wording and instructions despite the fact that he knew these things could easily be restored through Joseph Smith. There were a great many ways that the teachings of Moroni could have reached us without him having to deal with it on top of everything else he was dealing with.
It wasn’t like he could just hide the plates in a compartment in his car and run off with them at the first sign of trouble. Moroni had to protect the plates, find time to “write” in them, and he did all of this on top of his grief. He fulfilled his prophetic role while simultaneously doing everything that was needed to simply survive.
The Lord doesn’t choose to give work according to what’s convenient. It’s simple enough for him to enable us throughout our circumstances. Rather, He gives us work that we need.
Though Moroni did not feel like a strong writer, and though he had plenty of other things weighing on his mind, I can only imagine how these extra responsibilities turned into a blessing rather than a hindrance. It might not have felt that way at first, but I imagine that this process made his 36 lonely years bearable.
Consider what Moroni had to abridge within the record of the Jaredites. The people completely destroy each other at the end, but there is one prophet left: Ether. Ether was left behind by the rest of the people so that he could witness what had happened and record it. Moroni recorded the last words of Ether:
Ether 15:34 Now the last words which are written by Ether are these: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved in the kingdom of God. Amen.
Ether may not have been standing directly in front of him, but here was a deep connection between the two men. Both men knew what it was to watch their people destroy each other unnecessarily. They had watched their people drown in violence rather than heed simple warnings. They had both been left to observe it and record it for future generations.
Obviously, I’m pulling in details that may or may not have happened, but imagine Moroni for a moment. Imagine him trying to be strong, even as he is alone and drowning in grief. I imagine him asking the Lord, “So how do I die then? How long do I remain here and then what is the end? Why am I still here?” And then imagine him finding those last words in the records. “It mattereth not, if it so be that I am saved.”
Moroni knew what it meant to be saved. He knew the Savior. He was a strong and good man. But most of us know what it means to be saved. Most of us know the Savior and are strong and good people. However, how many times have we still needed those reminders in the midst of grief? How many times have we needed those tender mercies regardless of the knowledge that the Lord had already given?
Moroni didn’t want to write. He didn’t think it would necessarily help anyone because he didn’t believe he was a good writer anyway. He had other things on his mind, and yet, I can’t help but wonder if the writing saved him time and again as he was given opportunities to reflect on the Lord. I wonder if the responsibility to write and abridge records is what gave him the strength he needed to finish his work on the earth.
The sacrament
As I mentioned already, Moroni was a prophet to himself. He didn’t have a church to lead, but he still had the authority to perform ordinances even if they were just for himself. If he followed the pattern of weekly sacrament meetings, then Moroni took the sacrament alone approximately 1,872 times. Perhaps it wasn’t weekly, but we know that the church was the same in ancient times as it is now. Moroni took the sacrament often enough to renew his covenants.
The responsibility to write and abridge blessed him, but I also wonder if these regular ordinances strengthened him.
Every week, he was reminded of the Lord’s atonement. The Lord’s atonement is so broad and infinite, and yet, it was also individual and specific. The Lord knew Moroni’s loneliness. He knew Moroni’s fear. He knew what it was to lose a father, to lose your entire people to violence. Each week, or at least regularly, Moroni was given an opportunity to remember that he wasn’t truly alone. Regularly, Moroni was given an opportunity to remember that the deepest tragedies can be healed by the Savior. He was given opportunities to remember that he would be reunited with his father as well as other believing Saints. He would be given an opportunity to connect with Ether the prophet who so poignantly understood his pain.
The same goes for us.
Oftentimes, I believe that Satan likes to compound our mortal miseries with making the church feel like a burden. He likes to whisper in our ears that we’re too depressed, weary, lonely, and anxious to go and partake in regular worshiping activities. I know he’s whispered those things in my ear. Satan has most definitely tricked me into believing that life was too heavy, and he has definitely whispered that I didn’t need to participate every single time.
And to an extent, he’s right. He does love to give partial truths. Missing the sacrament one week doesn’t have to knock your entire eternal life off balance.
However, the real problem with his whisperings is the idea that these worship activities are burdens. The times in my life where worshiping has felt like a burden almost always point back to the fact that I’m “worshiping” wrong. I’m going through the motions. I’m fulfilling church duties. I’m doing it because I’m supposed to.
In other words, I’m not even truly worshiping; I didn’t make it about the Savior at all! The times that I have felt like “worshiping” is a burden are the times that I have taken the Savior out of the entire equation. When I actually keep the Savior in the ordinance or worship activity, they are always a blessing. When I actually remember Him, I remember all He has given and all He continues to give. I remember what He sacrificed and felt on my behalf. I remember the opportunities He has provided me with to become like Him. I remember that I’m not alone in my grief, and I remember that He has the capacity to provide happy endings.
So go to church. Take the sacrament. Go to the temple. Wear your garments. Read your scriptures. Speak to Him and listen for Him. And more importantly than anything else, include Him. If you truly include Him in those activities, you will find the same blessings Moroni felt in the midst of his grief, uncertainty, and loneliness.
I know these things to be true.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ether 12–15 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 25, 2024
Valuable Weakness
by Autumn Dickson
For the chapters this week, we go back and forth a bit between Moroni speaking directly and his abridgment of the Jaredite record. Whenever Moroni is directly speaking (and this is true of the chapters that we read in Mormon as well), we find that Moroni is really concerned about his weakness in writing. He talks about it plenty in Mormon, and he brings it up again during these chapters in Ether. He did not believe himself to be a strong writer, and this was probably exacerbated by the fact that he was simultaneously dealing with a myriad of personal problems.
But it’s beautiful that Moroni was meek and open about his weakness. Because he chose to be vulnerable and talk to the Lord about it, the Lord was able to teach all of us specific principles about weaknesses and their place in the Plan of Salvation.
Ether 12:27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I 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.
The Lord taught us that He gave weakness to us, and then the Lord taught us that He can make weak things strong.
He gave us weakness
There is a phrase in verse 27 that’s super important. The Lord proclaims that He gave weakness to us. It’s important to understand that weakness can stem from a lot of places. For example, when we fall into temptation and sin, we carve out a weakness that can last for a long time afterwards. Not all weakness is given directly by the Lord, but He does clearly teach us that giving weakness is something He does.
This is significant. Not only does the Lord allow for weakness and take care of weakness through His atoning sacrifice, but He also gave weakness. We often look down on weakness, especially in ourselves. We resent our own weaknesses for inhibiting us from truly being able to serve the Lord.
But here this verse is teaching us that the Lord gave it to us. Like a gift. How does this change how you view your weakness?
This didn’t necessarily make sense to me as a teenager. If the Lord is trying to make us like Him, wouldn’t He give us strengths when we ask for them? I feel like I’m still trying to fully wrap my head around the concept, but I believe that the only way for us to truly develop specific Christlike characteristics is to have to earn them the hard way. Let me give an example.
If I were looking to develop more compassion, I could pray for it. It would be easy for the Lord to just “give” me extra compassion, and I believe that sometimes He does that. Perhaps I need compassion for someone in my ward that I don’t get along with. Let’s say the Lord chooses to bless me with that temporary compassion, my eyes are opened to the reality of this ward member, and I’m changed because of the experience and feel a desire to show more compassion in the future. Sometimes, the Lord gives us strengths.
But sometimes, when we pray for something like compassion, He answers us by giving weaknesses. The Lord loves to support us and teach us and give us what we need to develop into a Being like Him. Part of developing into what He is will require us gaining the experiences we need to be compassionate without His constant, direct interference. To stick with our same example, He wants us to learn to be innately compassionate and not just lean on His compassion. When the Lord opens our eyes and gives us some of His compassion, it can be very powerful. It can be just as powerful when He answers that plea with weakness.
Sometimes I get depressed, and there have definitely been a million times in my life when I’ve resented it for being a stumbling block when I’ve been trying to do what the Lord wants. It makes it harder to feel connected to my husband, and I get testy with him. It makes it harder for me to engage with my kids when I want to hide in a closet. It makes it harder to find messages in the scriptures and teach because my own mind is my stumbling block.
I can’t say for sure whether this is one of those weaknesses that Heavenly Father gave me, but whether or not He directly gave it to me, He definitely allowed for it.
It is very easy to see how it’s a weakness. I can name a million times that it interfered with who I wanted to be. On the flip side, it’s taught me things that I couldn’t have learned in any other way. It’s given me opportunities to develop characteristics that will serve me well as I engage in the same work that He is engaged in.
I have had moments where He has given me something beyond myself, and it has blessed and taught me something. I’ve also had plenty of significant moments where He answered my pleas with weaknesses that pushed me to develop in ways I could not have developed in any other way. Because of those weaknesses, I have benefited in ways I couldn’t have benefited otherwise.
Weak things strong
The Lord gave us weakness, but He also promised to make weak things become strong unto us. I think there are a million different ways He can answer this promise. Let’s talk about three specific ones.
I used to believe it only meant that He would give me strength beyond my own to overcome the obstacle. To put it in more concrete terms, I believed that it meant He would take the difficulty out of it. I would be given a moment of time in which I operated off His goodness, rather than my own. As we’ve discussed previously, He does this sometimes depending on what we need.
I was depressed last year as I headed off to FSY to teach. I remember sitting in some of the meetings and wondering how on earth I was going to get through it all because I felt so numb. How was I supposed to bring the Spirit when I couldn’t feel it? How was I supposed to help these kids feel valued when I was so dissociated that nothing felt valuable to me? However, with each class I taught, I watched as He lifted me out of those numb feelings, helped me engage while I needed to, and then removed that extra support as my classes would end. Sometimes, the Lord fulfills our promise to strengthen our weaknesses in the most obvious way.
But other times, He makes our weaknesses strong in more subtle ways. We can turn to Moroni to find a solid example of another way that the Lord fulfills His promise to make weak things strong. Moroni is praying to the Lord about his weakness in writing.
Ether 12:25-26
25 Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words.
26 And when I had said this, the Lord spake unto me, saying: Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness;
Moroni was worried that us Gentiles would mock and twist his words. This obviously happens plenty in our day. We see it all the time. People love taking phrases or verses out of The Book of Mormon and twisting those words into something they’re not.
I don’t write canonized scripture, but I do write messages about Jesus Christ. I write messages, and I put them on the internet where they are permanently available. I’ve looked over past messages I’ve written, and I’ve realized that there was so much that I didn’t understand yet. I’ve looked over past messages and found everything from silly errors about timelines to messages that could be interpreted too far in one direction and be considered completely false doctrine.
I have been weak. I am weak, and I will continue to be weak.
And while that weakness is embarrassing and painful sometimes, I have also been strengthened by it. Having my personal messages out there permanently in the ether have made me overwhelmingly aware of those weaknesses, but they have also made me far more meek than I used to be. These specific weaknesses have helped me understand and love the prophets. It has helped me understand that their words hold truth but can also be widely applied depending on circumstances. It has helped me understand that they’re trying to reach many different kinds of audiences with different needs. It has helped me understand that making an error doesn’t mean they don’t know Christ. And because I am more meek than I used to be, I gain so much more from their words.
In this way, the Lord didn’t directly strengthen my weakness in writing. He utilized my weakness to develop my meekness. He gave me weakness, I became more meek, and this is a strength.
Yet another way He turns our weaknesses into strengths is also more subtle. My husband, Conner, has a unique and strong personality. He’s gifted, like incredibly gifted. He’s the most brilliant man I know; we’re talking autism-genius scale. It’s a good thing he doesn’t listen to these, or he would kill me for saying so.
Anyway, I have watched people look at Conner and misunderstand him. They have wondered why he won’t just let go of things or why he can’t let things lie or why he can’t be silent about things that bother him. They see him grip tightly to things that complicate his life, and they think he’s crazy for it. Because I have a front row seat, I see it a little differently.
Some of his stronger characteristics have definitely caused him problems in his life. They have made certain aspects of his life more difficult than they needed to be. But in the same breath, I have seen those same strong characteristics be the making of him. I have seen very specific examples where his strong characteristics have enabled him to complete the unique work that he was given to do while he’s here on earth. He would not have been able to fulfill his promises otherwise.
The Lord knew that some of these characteristics would bring weakness into his life, but the Lord was also wise enough to know that these characteristics were necessary to make him strong enough to fulfill his mission. That doesn’t mean we can’t work on the weaknesses portion of our characteristics, but sometimes it helps to recognize that some of our supposed weaknesses are also the very strengths we desperately need.
In a simpler example, I once had a friend who complained about how she hated being so sensitive. Being sensitive had definitely caused her problems in her interactions with others; it caused her plenty of heartache that she might not have otherwise experienced. However, she was also one of my most trusted friends during a time of dark confusion. She was able to be that trusted friend because she was sensitive enough to recognize the situation more clearly, and she was delicate enough in how she approached me about it.
Weakness can be painful, but it can also be ironically powerful. The Lord is wise enough and loving enough to give it to us. He is also powerful enough and loving enough to not allow any weakness permanently interfere with our ability to become like Him in time. Rather, He is powerful enough and loving enough to utilize those very weaknesses to exponentially increase our progress towards becoming like Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ether 6–11 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 18, 2024
A Tiny Hinge
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters of Ether this week, we watch kingdoms rise and fall with few details. There were plenty of general patterns of righteousness and wickedness, and we likely missed a great many details in the abridged version. On the flip side, there were certain stories that Moroni chose to include. Recognizing which stories and details he prioritized can help us understand the gravity of certain principles.
In one of the stories that included more of the detail, we read about a girl who wanted her father to be happy again. Of all the stories that Moroni likely could have chosen from, he wanted our day to read about a critical juncture in the history of the Jaredites where secret combinations were reintroduced among the people. Considering the ability of these secret combinations to destroy entire nations, it’s no wonder that Moroni would want to include this story.
When we zoom out from some of the included details, we can find parallels in our day of which we can choose to be wary and cautious.
Details surrounding the daughter of Jared
Let’s cover the story of the daughter of Jared (not to be confused with the brother of Jared we covered in the last video) in a manner that can allow us to draw out these parallels. It all begins with the daughter noticing the unhappiness of her father.
Ether 8:7-8
7 And now Jared became exceedingly sorrowful because of the loss of the kingdom, for he had set his heart upon the kingdom and upon the glory of the world.
8 Now the daughter of Jared being exceedingly expert, and seeing the sorrows of her father, thought to devise a plan whereby she could redeem the kingdom unto her father.
Her plan included reintroducing secret combinations through a man named Akish. She would marry him in exchange for Akish killing her grandfather, Omer, and putting Jared back on the throne.
For all the tragedy that occurs in this specific story as well as its repercussions, it seems like a small enough beginning. We don’t know everything about this daughter. We don’t know how much she was motivated because she wanted to be the daughter of a king again. We don’t know the exact manner in which she was raised. Was she truly just trying to make her father happy or did she value the same things he did because that was the environment she had been given? Did she understand the consequences of what she was bringing into the world she lived in? Maybe she didn’t care about certain consequences, but if she had been allowed to observe that last battle of her people, would she have reconsidered putting it into the heart of her father?
It starts in the heart
Great wickedness doesn’t start out as great wickedness. It starts out as problems in the heart. These grow and develop. They can lead to actions that can tip the scales of tragedy in an entire nation or even just in our own lives.
I believe in the power of righteous disciples of Christ, but I also recognize the fact that our individual decisions to reject the idea of secret combinations (or any other tempting crossroads) may or may not have an effect on whether they take hold in the countries where we live. So let’s take a second and simply look at the daughter of Jared and what these secret combinations brought about in her own life.
Her father desired power, and she wanted to give that to him. She danced before Akish and achieved her wishes. Akish brought about secret combinations and delivered the kingdom to her father. Akish then swiftly turned on his father-in-law by the same means he had utilized to uphold his father-in-law. It’s ironic, but this daughter lost her father because of what she brought into his life to make him happy.
And the story doesn’t get better from there. Her father was killed by the husband she had sought out to kill her grandfather. Then her husband starved her son to death, before the rest of her sons went to war against their father. This war killed everyone except 30 souls who fled to Omer. Omer was once again placed on the throne. More patterns of wickedness and secret combinations follow after this specific timeline, but even when we isolate this specific story, we find the patterns of eternity.
The daughter of Jared swung the door of destruction on a very tiny hinge. It wreaked havoc in her own life, among her people, and for generations afterwards.
A crossroads
Recently I came to a bit of a crossroads myself. I made some mistakes this past week that I won’t go into detail about. I’ll simply teach what I learned from the experience.
After these mistakes, I recognized that I wasn’t really experiencing consequences. It wasn’t hurting my life. It wasn’t hurting anyone around me. I knew what I had done was wrong, and yet, it’s difficult to flip around and do what’s right when the negative consequences haven’t sunk in. Luckily, I’m old enough now to recognize the tiny hinge. I was at a crossroads. I was not hurting myself yet, at least not to any truly visible degree. But I also fully recognized that continuing on could lead to long-lasting problems that would dramatically affect me and my family.
I knew that I never wanted to get to the point where I was experiencing those consequences. I didn’t want to have to live the rest of my life with consequences. I wanted to make the right choice now before any real harm was done.
So I prayed for help. I prayed for help recognizing what my life could turn into if I gave in and continued down this path because I figured it would motivate me to get it together. I also just prayed for help in general in moving forward. I ended up having one of the most spiritual Sundays I’ve had in a very long time, and I believe it came as a result of how hard I was trying to repent proactively. There were frequent moments throughout the day that I would be surprised by the forcefulness of how strongly I was feeling His love for me.
Great wickedness doesn’t start out as great wickedness. It starts out very small in the heart. In the case of the Jaredite secret combinations, it started out as a man who couldn’t appreciate the fact that he had been given so much after causing so many problems within his own family; I mean consider his context. Jared had put his father into captivity so he could rule. His brothers got mad at him, beat his armies back, spared his life, and even allowed him to get his own house. It also started in the heart of a daughter who wanted to help her father gain his power back rather than recognizing what that road held in store for her.
Recognizing the hinge
I have observed that the hinges we usually start out with happen in relation to the words of the prophets.
Oftentimes, we sacrifice obedience to the words of the prophets because we do what we want and find that we aren’t experiencing any consequences. It’s natural for humans to act and observe what the actions bring them before adjusting their next actions accordingly. We do this as children, and oftentimes, we do it as adults. We think, “Hey I did this even though the prophet said not to, and I still feel really good. I still feel close to God, and I still feel my testimony. I still believe in the church so Heavenly Father must be fine with me doing this. I can handle it.”
In some cases, this may be true. The nature of prophetic warnings is to provide a fence between you and a cliff. Climbing over the fence and taking a couple steps towards a cliff doesn’t mean you’re going to immediately free fall over the side. You may climb that fence and still feel your testimony. You may live your whole life playing on the land between the fence and the cliff and never fall off. You may entertain your pride, just as the daughter of Jared did with her father, and you may never bring about the destruction of a nation or the destruction of your family.
But one of the things I have learned from delving deeply into Come Follow Me each week is that you are missing out when you ignore the words of the prophets, no matter how small or silly or unnecessary or outdated you may believe they are. You are missing out on privileges that were meant to be your’s.
Life is not just about avoiding hell; it’s about experiencing heaven.
There are aspects of heaven that you miss out on when you ignore the prophets. These small hinges may not bring about devastating destruction, but they can still close doors to blessings that you didn’t even know were available to you.
I testify that these small hinges wield great power. Not only do they protect you from the possibility of specific tragedies you would not otherwise have to experience, but they catapult you further towards privileges. You have a Lord who is willing to reveal all things to you, just as He has to His prophets. He is simply waiting for you to be ready, and whether we like it or not, a huge portion of that readiness is developed by being mature enough to recognize the hinges and act before experiencing consequences. A huge portion of that readiness to receive is developed when you have the faith to utilize those hinges instead of doing what you want with them because they are not destroying your life as they did with the daughter of Jared.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who has far more to offer than the cliff, or even just that little spot of land where you can look at the cliff. I testify of a Heavenly Father who works through His prophets, who promised us to work through prophets. I testify of a Heavenly Father who rewards faith in the smallest principles by bringing huge miracles. He wants us to trust Him in everything, and He offers so much in return.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ether 1–3, 6–11, 13–15 – Mike Parker
Nov 12, 2024
The rise & fall of the Jaredites
(Ether 1–3, 6–11, 13–15)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
[The below is additional content not included in Mike Parker’s original lesson] This video by Charles Dike from FAIR’s 2023 Defending the Book of Mormon Virtual Conference offers additional insights on the Jaredite voyage:
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Ether 1–5 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 11, 2024
Faith-Building Experiences
by Autumn Dickson
We have now moved into the book of Ether. Though the people described in the book of Ether occurred before the rest of The Book of Mormon, this record was inserted towards the end of The Book of Mormon. Moroni was the one who worked to add these plates to the records that had been kept by the Nephites. Though the book of Ether ends in tragedy, there are also recorded stories of extremely righteous people.
The brother of Jared was one such righteous person. After a series of experiences led by the hand of the Lord, the brother of Jared had the veil removed from his eyes and he was able to behold the Lord.
Ether 3:13 And when he had said these words, behold, the Lord showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence; therefore I show myself unto you.
The brother of Jared achieved the end that we should seek. He was redeemed from the fall and brought back into the presence of God. I often speak about how heaven can be experienced on earth. I’m convinced that this is yet another aspect of heaven that we can receive before we cross over to the other side. The Lord isn’t waiting for us to die before He redeems us from the fall and pulls us back into His presence; He is merely waiting for us to be prepared.
The book of Ether is one of my favorite books of scripture because on a minute, digestible scale, the Lord teaches us the kind of experiences we need to have in order to be prepared for what He wants to give us as soon as we are ready. There are many events and principles experienced by the brother of Jared in preparation to receive the Lord. I won’t be able to cover all of them. However, let’s cover a couple of the experiences that build enough faith for the Savior to take full effect in the life of an individual.
Observing, listening, and asking
As Jared and his brother watched the people around them building the Tower of Babel, they grew concerned. They were in the midst of wickedness. Jared asked his brother to pray to the Lord for deliverance from the confounding of languages. The Lord did so. This is something that is often natural. Something frightening is happening around us, and we want to be protected from it. As the Lord shows up repeatedly, our faith builds in His abilities and desire to take care of us.
But there’s another part of this story that I think comes less naturally. It’s no less important; it just tends to require a bit of extra conscious effort. Not only does Jared ask his brother to pray to the Lord to avoid the language problem, but he specifically asks the following.
Ether 1:38 And it came to pass that Jared spake again unto his brother, saying: Go and inquire of the Lord whether he will drive us out of the land, and if he will drive us out of the land, cry unto him whither we shall go. And who knoweth but the Lord will carry us forth into a land which is choice above all the earth? And if it so be, let us be faithful unto the Lord, that we may receive it for our inheritance.
This request from Jared is a little bit different than the other one. It’s different from the time that Lehi and his family were warned by the Lord to flee Jerusalem. This extremely specific question indicates a spiritual maturity in Jared. When I read that verse, I see how the Holy Ghost has been whispering to Jared, hinting at future events and actions that need to take place. Not only does Jared ask, “Should we leave?” Jared sensed that there was something prepared for his family, and proactively worked to achieve that end.
I think it’s important to understand that each of us has somewhere we need to be. Maybe it’s not a specific location or job or ward. Maybe it’s not a specific park at a specific time to meet a specific person who needs our specific help. However, we all made promises before we came here. Understanding that can help us to proactively seek out any steps we might be missing. It helps us work to be anxiously engaged.
A few years ago, I watched my husband’s assumed and hoped-for future taken away from him. And though I knew it was important to let him deeply grieve what he had lost, the Spirit was whispering to me that there was somewhere else he needed to be to fulfill the promises he had made before coming here. I could feel it so clearly. It took years, but we’re starting to see the path he’s been led to.
We are not the Lord’s prophet. We do not have jurisdiction over the church, to guide it and receive revelation about where to take it. But we do each have a jurisdiction, even if it’s just in our families. I believe there are sacred times in our lives where the Lord will whisper to us about future events; He will whisper to us that we should make proactive changes that will take us places we would otherwise miss. Being prepared to receive those small-scale prophesies on behalf of our families increases faith. And it is faith that prepares us to be redeemed from the fall.
We see the opposite side of this, when Jared and his family were not being proactive. The families went as far as the seashore, pitched their tents, and they simply stopped. They stayed there for four years. Maybe they completely forgot the Lord and didn’t call on Him at all. Maybe they simply got distracted in the midst of trying to survive, and they stopped listening for the next steps they needed to take. They didn’t go anywhere. They weren’t moving forward. They were living, but they weren’t moving.
It’s important to note that following the path the Lord would have you take isn’t always super clear. There have been plenty of times in my life where I felt really insecure about where I was supposed to be. There have been plenty of times that things have felt blank, and He hasn’t been telling me anything. I have learned that sometimes we’re already on the right path, and He doesn’t need to change anything so He doesn’t say anything. Just because you’re not directly feeling those whisperings doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. I’m not telling you that you’re messing up if you haven’t felt those whisperings. I’m trying to encourage you to develop that open stance towards the Lord. I’m trying to encourage you to direct your eyes toward Him, make decisions about what you want in life, and keep an ear open in case He has something to add. Sometimes He is leading us quietly towards those promises we made without whispering ahead of time. The key is to be the kind of person who’s listening so He can easily speak.
Obeying and planning
After building the barges and coming across two new obstacles, the brother of Jared once again turns to the Lord. He asks how they’ll be able to get air and how they’ll be able to get light. The Lord teaches the brother of Jared what to do in order to get air, and the brother of Jared obeys. He then asks the Lord once again about the light.
This time the Lord responds differently. He asks the brother of Jared what he wants the Lord to do for him. The brother of Jared decides to prepare stones for the Lord to touch and light up. The Lord acquiesces.
These are two principles that I paired together hoping that the contrast between the two would help us better see them as separate experiences. It’s important to have both kinds of experiences to build our faith. The first is simple obedience. Obedience builds faith because we follow the Lord according to His foreknowledge and later on, when we see the blessings of that obedience, we realize the Lord really does know what He’s talking about. Obedience is taught often. Most of us have an understanding of the principle of obedience.
The second experience is slightly different. It’s not just obedience. The Lord is pushing the brother of Jared to choose for himself. The Lord wants him to solve the problem, and He will provide the support. If you’ve studied child development or parenting styles, you learn just how cool the Lord is.
We have learned that doing everything for our kids can actually cause a lot of problems. When we step in again and again to solve things for them, we’re teaching them that they can’t do it. We’re teaching them that they’re inherently too small or unskilled to handle problems and come up with solutions. The Lord wants us to feel a power within ourselves, a power that is inherently there because we are His children.
I had a friend once express to me that she thought it was pretty sacrilegious to believe that the Lord was trying to exalt us, to push us to grow and develop. She believed we were sent here to simply worship and praise and let Him carry us. I don’t mock this belief; sometimes I think we need more of the belief that He’s willing to carry us more than we allow. However, I want you to imagine these two different parenting styles in a home.
One parent is allowing their kids to struggle and come up with solutions. They’re providing grounds for creativity and offering support as needed. They want this child to grow to be independent, to love themselves and feel capable and confident. They want their child to experience all of the joy that comes with consciously building a full life. They want their child to have everything they have, if not more.
The second parent handles everything. The overarching theme in the home is that the child is simply unworthy and can’t do anything, and mom and dad are just these fantastic people who are going to swoop in and take care of absolutely everything. The idea that the child should grow up independent and capable is actually kind of offensive. The parents should handle everything, and they should be utterly admired for it for the rest of their lives.
I ask you. Which home produces the child who “worships” their parents more? Which child is going to grow up believing that their parents really did give them everything? Which child feels like the parent is focused on them rather than on their own personal, high status?
Being obedient absolutely builds our faith. I will also tell you that the opportunities I’ve had to make decisions and be supported by a loving Father in Heaven has built my faith just as much, if not more, than the simple decisions of obedience. I feel an immense amount of hero-worship and gratitude towards the Lord when He has allowed me to build and create and learn something for myself. I have felt my faith develop as I’ve recognized how my obedience to His word has uplifted, blessed, and protected. I have also felt a tremendous amount of faith develop when I’ve felt Him building me, investing in me. He’s not looking to keep me down and feeling unworthy on some level far below Him. I know I’m unworthy. I know I didn’t earn these gifts He’s giving me. I also know He loves me enough to build me beyond that unworthiness, and I love Him all the more for it.
There are many sacred mini-stories and principles here in the first few chapters of Ether. We have heard of prophetic experiences and visions of the Lord. This is one of those times that we get to watch the brother of Jared move through his life, learning the lessons and building the faith that will prepare him to welcome the Lord into His life.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who loves us. I testify that He wants to lead us through specific life experiences that will build our faith sufficiently that we can be prepared to enter His presence again. I testify that Christ paid for us to come down here and have those specific experiences.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mormon 8–9, Ether 4–5 & 12, Moroni 1–6 – Mike Parker
Nov 05, 2024
Moroni’s commentary on the Jaredites & the Nephites
(Mormon 8–9, Ether 4–5 & 12, Moroni 1–6)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Moroni₂ informed us that the script he and other Nephite writers used was called, by them, “the reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32). There are numerous examples of Egyptian writing being modified and used by other cultures; see William J. Hamblin, “Reformed Egyptian,” FARMS Review 19, no. 1 (2007): 31–35.
Both Moroni 4:2 and D&C 20:76 instruct the entire congregation to kneel when the sacrament prayers are offered. This practice was observed in the restored Church during the nineteenth century, but slowly fell into disuse in the early twentieth century. In 1902 Church President Joseph F. Smith wrote an editorial instructing that this practice “may be regulated by the presiding authority, according to local surroundings, circumstances, and conditions.” Joseph F. Smith, “Questions and Answers: On Administering the Sacrament,” Improvement Era 5, no. 6 (April 1902): 473–74.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mormon 7–9 – Autumn Dickson
Nov 04, 2024
Trusting the True God
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, Mormon writes his last testimony before Moroni takes the record and begins some of his first writings. Moroni is alone. His people have been wiped out. His father was killed. He has no friends. Even before everyone was wiped out, he was surrounded by people who were bitter and bloodthirsty. Moroni knows what it means to be lonely.
As he is wandering the wilderness, grieving and listening carefully for the Lamanites who are hunting down all the Nephites, he chooses to engrave upon the plates left by his father. In the midst of everything that must have been pressing in on him, Moroni chose to share messages that would point us to Christ.
Here is one such message. I share only the beginning of the verse.
Mormon 8:10 And there are none that do know the true God save it be the disciples of Jesus…
The true God was unknown to these people. Moroni goes on to testify of a time when the knowledge of this true God would be restored to the people, but it would be a long time before that occurred. The Book of Mormon would be brought forth for the express purpose of helping restore true knowledge about God, but for now, these people lived without that knowledge.
What do our lives look like when we know Him? How do we feel? How do we change and act when we know the true God?
The next step in faith
When we know the true God, with all of His loving and wise characteristics, we change how we interact with Him. Knowing Him, in the way you know any kind of trustworthy and uplifting person, changes how you approach Him and how you follow Him. I’ve talked a lot about faith in the form of obedience as well as faith in the form of trust. Both are absolutely essential, but I want to talk about faith in another light today. It goes along with the same idea of trust, but I’d like to delve deeper into that specific avenue.
There comes a point in your faith where you really believe He is there. You start to feel a quiet confidence that He is present and has blessed your life. This makes you feel safe about your future. It’s a good feeling to believe that there is a wise, loving, and powerful Being on your side.
But Heavenly Father likes to take our faith beyond that step. He wants to turn our transactional faith into a transformational faith. Heavenly Father wants to bring our faith to the point where we trust Him and not just the positive outcomes in our lives. It’s no longer about following Him because we get a reward when we do what is right. Learning to trust in this manner is a process that occurs in your mind and heart and can feel somewhat nebulous. Let’s look at it in a more concrete example so that we can more readily apply it internally.
I’m imagining a child. This child has good parents who have shown up repeatedly to help them have the resources and support they need. These good parents have also helped the child to grow independent in appropriate ways. The child sees the good outcomes, and they choose to follow their parents because they see that it’s bringing what they need.
Now I imagine the house of this child is on fire one night. The child wakes up and finds it difficult to breathe. They’re old enough to understand that there’s danger, and they want to get out of the house. They climb off their bed and open their door to find their dad on his hands and knees in front of the door. The child trusts dad so they follow his example and get lower.
But here comes the difference between trusting God and trusting positive outcomes.
The child is primed to start crawling down the stairs after dad to get out of the house as quickly as possible, but dad does something unanticipated. He does not start crawling towards the stairs, but instead, he starts crawling the opposite direction back towards his room. The child logically knows that the wise move would be to get out of the house. Why is dad taking them away from safety? Doesn’t dad love them and want to protect them? Doesn’t dad know better?
There is a crossroads here that would likely occur in a split second in the situation of a house fire, but in real life it might take a lot of time and a myriad of decisions. We all come to a crossroads in our life where we have to decide whether we’re going to follow our Heavenly Father in a direction we don’t understand or even like. We all are going to arrive at a critical juncture where we decide whether we’re going to try and convince Heavenly Father to follow our knowledge or whether we’re going to trust what we’ve experienced of Him. We’re going to reach a point where we say, “Why are things going this way? Can’t you change this?”
This is the moment where we decide whether we trust God as Himself or whether we trust the positive outcomes He’s given us so far in our lives.
In regards to our fire example, the child doesn’t understand why dad is headed away from the front door. The child knows that getting to the front door and out of the house is the right choice. But the child also inherently feels this trust in their father that has been built from a lifetime of choices. The child chooses to follow dad back to his room. Once they’re in the room, the child feels dad putting his hands on their waist before being hoisted up and out of a window into mom’s arms to climb down a ladder that is hanging over the side of the window.
Do we trust outcomes or do we trust God? There is a difference. Trusting God means following Him when you feel like He’s headed in the wrong direction (or even not moving fast enough in what you perceive as the right direction), whether that’s in your personal life and circumstances or things you don’t understand in the church.
Allowing the struggle instead of explaining Himself
It would be so much easier if God would just explain that He was leading us to the window, but if He did, it wouldn’t give us the opportunity to trust Him as He is. And trusting Him on a deeper level is crucial to our development. He has to give us opportunities for imperfect circumstances so we can choose to trust Him and not just rely on the positive outcomes. Allowing us to struggle in our understanding of His decisions takes our relationship with Him beyond the transactional into the transformational.
The world will tell you to trust yourself and demand better. I’m telling you that God sees things you don’t and will lead you towards the right path according to everything He sees. You’re going to have to make the decision about which path you’re going to take. You’re going to have to reflect on your own experiences and make decisions about whether you believe God is involved and whether He is worthy of your trust.
Withholding your heart prevents the process
If you’re going to make the decision to follow God, you have to do it with your heart. Simply doing it with your actions will simply leave you feeling conflicted. When you choose to act without your heart, all you receive is a feeling of cognitive dissonance. Merely acting is insufficient; it will only leave you with discontent.
Let’s make it concrete again. Following the Lord and doing what He says but withholding your heart looks like the child who decided to follow their father but is following him while crawling backwards and constantly looking at the stairs. The child isn’t going to feel peace while staring at the stairs and wondering if they really made the right decision to follow dad. They’re going to be constantly worrying. In our imaginary scenario, the child will likely make it to the bedroom and out the window before they decide to bolt for the stairs. But in real life, that hallway can get really, really long. It can stretch out for a long time before you get to the window. There are answers and perspectives that can bless you just as the window blesses the child, but you won’t stick around long enough to find those blessings if you withhold your heart from the Lord in the process of following Him. You’ll leave for the stairs before He can lead you to the window.
On the plus side, that hallway can stretch on forever, but it doesn’t have to be a painful experience. If you choose to turn around with your heart and trust the Lord (not just follow, but trust), He can give you the assurance you need to make it to the window. If you’re going to try the experiment of following Him, it won’t do you any good unless you surrender your heart. You have to say, “Okay God, I don’t understand but I’m going to trust you. Please don’t let me down.” You may not get to the window immediately, but you’ll feel enough peace to believe that the window exists. You’ll feel enough peace to keep moving down the hallway after Him.
This process will likely need to get repeated over time, whether with new circumstances or the same issue over and over and over.
Moroni trusted the true God
Moroni trusted his Heavenly Father. After talking about the destruction of his people as well as his immense loneliness, he testifies that the hand of the Lord “hath done it.” Moroni’s life was tragic. From what we know of his life, I don’t see much respite. I don’t see the positive outcomes.
But I know what Moroni saw. No matter how cruel life can get, it feels different when you have a loyal, wise, good friend to stand by you. Moroni experienced the Lord as Himself. He experienced the true God. He was probably given tender mercies along the way, but the real experience that Moroni had was getting to know Christ as He was.
I can be going through something terrible and still be able to recognize the goodness emanating from one of my friends. My children build their trust on the positive experiences they have with me. They are learning to continue trusting when I choose things for them that they don’t like. Moroni had moved beyond this elementary understanding of, “I do this good thing and get this good outcome.”
Moroni trusted God and not just his immediate outcomes. Moroni experienced the true God, and it enabled him to stick around in the midst of tragedy.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who is worth trusting. I testify that He is leading us exactly where we are supposed to be. I testify that He can lead us individually, to enlighten and teach us, and I also testify that He guides the church through His prophets. We can trust the prophets. I testify that He can bring peace when we choose to surrender our hearts so that we don’t have to wander in complete darkness. He can help us understand we’re on the right path even if we don’t see the window yet.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mormon 1–6 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 26, 2024
Irreplaceable to Him
by Autumn Dickson
When I read Mormon, I feel as though I’m reading his journal. He had been commanded by Ammaron to find the records that had been hidden and add his own observations. These sacred writings were always meant to come to us, the House of Israel in the latter days, and yet, Mormon also seemed to simply write about his own experiences and life.
Here is one of the things he expresses.
Mormon 2:18 And upon the plates of Nephi I did make a full account of all the wickedness and abominations; but upon these plates I did forbear to make a full account of their wickedness and abominations, for behold, a continual scene of wickedness and abominations has been before mine eyes ever since I have been sufficient to behold the ways of man.
Throughout his life, Mormon saw the worst of the worst. He saw plenty of bloodshed on the battlefield, and he saw the utterly wasteful destruction of women and children to idols. He spoke about being forbidden to preach the gospel to his people. He talked about refusing to join them, about being an idle witness to all of the darkness.
Mormon watched these things and yet, he continued to love them. Because he loved them, he suffered long. In this manner, Mormon is a type of Christ.
Mormon as a type of Christ
There are many ways in which Mormon is a type of Christ. He was quick to observe. He was obedient. He was prepared and sober. These are all incredible qualities that can teach us about Christ. However, there is one specific characteristic that I want to talk about that helps us really learn about our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Mormon’s love and long-suffering towards his people depict exactly how Christ feels about us.
Think about each of the following actions, feelings, and thoughts from Mormon. How do we see Christ represented in each individual aspect?
Mormon tried to preach to his people until he was forbidden to do so. He led his people and fortified their cities to the extent that he could. He got excited when they started to mourn because he hoped it would lead to their repentance, and he felt immense sorrow that they continued to harm themselves and others. He tried to encourage his people with great energy when they were facing off in battle. He stood with them against terrifying odds. He continued on fighting for them even though he knew the end. He refused to help them when they wanted to go to battle for the wrong reasons. He couldn’t help himself from praying for them, even though it was without faith because he knew they were choosing their own destruction. He delivered them from their enemies multiple times. He went back and helped them again in battle after observing them being swept off in a wave of destruction. He fought for them and sacrificed even though he knew that they wouldn’t choose to be saved. His soul was rent with anguish.
Those are many of the experiences that Mormon had throughout the six chapters of this week. I can’t imagine the kind of man that was required to be deeply aware of their impending destruction and simultaneously continue to fight for them. That was the man that Mormon was, and that is the man that Christ is.
Christ’s motivation is love, not perfection
Christ didn’t cut corners and only pay for the sins of those He knew would repent. He didn’t just suffer the agonies of those who were going to come home. He took care of all of it. He sacrificed and fought for those despite being deeply aware that there would be many who would refuse to be cleansed and healed by Him.
I think that oftentimes we pictured Christ doing all of these things because He was perfect and fulfilling God’s plan. These facts are true, but when we look at Mormon as a type of Christ, we see that Christ didn’t do these things because He was perfect, and that’s an important distinction. He did them because He loved us. He couldn’t help Himself from trying even though He knew the end.
I think of righteous parents who can’t stop hoping for their wayward children. They can’t stop the hope that rises each time they repent. They can’t help but feel agony when it doesn’t play out. They can’t help but feel misery when they know deep down that their children are not yet ready to change. Despite everything that the child has done, all they want is for their child to come back around, make amends, and move forward. They would be willing to let go of the past if the child would simply turn around.
Within each of us, He has planted glimpses of what He experiences so that we can understand Him. Like Mormon, we all know what it is to watch someone you love hurt themselves. We know what it is to fight for someone who doesn’t want to be fought for. We know those experiences and those feelings. They are Christlike feelings. Christ has those feelings.
Christ feels. He doesn’t do these things as a perfect robot. He doesn’t do these things because He had to as the perfect, oldest Child of Heavenly Father. He is driven by a deep love. This deep love has caused Him a lot of pain, both as part of His atoning sacrifice that would be left on the shelf by many as well as the sorrow He feels watching them hurt and reject it.
Replaceable
In Doctrine and Covenants 35, the Lord tells us that He gave the keys of the kingdom to Joseph Smith. If Joseph chose to abide in the Lord, he would keep those keys. If he didn’t, another would be placed in his stead. This makes a lot of sense. Heavenly Father wouldn’t throw His entire plan off kilter because Joseph couldn’t get it together. He would have enabled someone else to come and restore the kingdom.
It makes sense, but I personally took this principle beyond its proper bounds as I was growing up. I thought that this sentiment meant I was easily replaceable to the Lord, and He was perfectly willing to leave me behind. As I have reflected on my own, God-given feelings as mother, I have been able to better place myself in His shoes.
If one of my children ever decided to totally destroy their own lives, I would keep moving forward for the sake of the rest of my children. You don’t sacrifice all of them because you lost one. But despite the fact that I would keep moving forward, despite the fact that I would delegate their family responsibilities to my other kids, despite the fact that I would “replace” them, I would never forget them or stop hurting over them.
When Mormon continued to pray and fight for his people, he was without hope because he knew they were choosing their own destruction. He knew that the Lord would stop protecting them. I think sometimes we subconsciously equate that lack of protection and moving forward with Him being angry and not loving us anymore. This is absolutely false.
If one of my kids got deeply into drugs, continually stole from me, and perpetually hurt their siblings, I wouldn’t house them any longer. I would cease protecting them and move forward. Depending on age, that might mean sending them to a rehabilitation center or simply kicking them out if I didn’t have the legal power to take them to rehab. But I wouldn’t house them any longer. At least, my completely inexperienced and naive self believes this is how I would react.
I can understand the sentiment of parents who are in this situation and feel things such as, “I love them. How can I abandon them when they need me the most?” I get that. I really do. True love brings out the desire to forget about yourself and protect the one you love. This isn’t an evil or morally wrong sentiment. I’m also not telling anyone they need to be kicking their kids out because everything is so situational and only the Lord can help you know the right course to take. I’m not telling anyone they are wrong for how they’re choosing to handle difficult situations like this. What I am trying to do is help us understand how Heavenly Father feels.
When it comes to Heavenly Father, He ceases the protection at a certain point. This is not because He abandons them when they need Him most. It’s not because He loves His other children more. Heavenly Father ceases the protection because He loves the wayward child. He is wise enough to understand that people often have to hit rock bottom if they’re ever going to turn around. He loves that individual child too much to enable them. He loves them too much and knows that He can’t teach them, “You can still have everything you want and need. I will protect you no matter what you do. You can keep hurting yourself and your siblings.” Instead, through His actions, He teaches, “It is more important for you to learn the hard way. I’m giving you a gift by teaching you to live better. I love you too much to do anything else. I will still be waiting when you’re ready.”
That was a long tangent that was meant to help us understand the mind of God as He handles His children here on earth. It is meant to help us understand the love He feels as He wisely chooses His reactions. I share this tangent for two reasons.
One. We need to comprehend that Heavenly Father isn’t some nebulous Being that administers mercy and justice in perfection. Rather, He is a loving, feeling Being. He perfectly loves, and that perfect love helps Him perfectly know how to administer mercy and justice according to our needs.
Two. It is essential to understand that even though Heavenly Father may have to move forward without us, even though He may choose to cease protecting us, we are irreplaceable to Him.
Even if I had to make the decision to let my child hit their rock bottom, I would never forget them. I would miss them for as long as they chose to remain separated, even if it meant that I would miss them forever. I would be long-suffering. In other words, I would suffer long because I would love long.
It is the same with our Heavenly Father. Just because He chooses certain reactions in response to our rebellion does not remove His love, it is evidence of His love. Just because He has to administer justice and have a Judgment Day and move forward with those who want to move forward doesn’t mean He will ever stop feeling the ache of the child He lost.
You are irreplaceable to Him. You will never be forgotten if you choose to remove yourself.
I testify of a Heavenly Father and a Savior who act out of love. I testify that we have been given a glimpse of how They feel as we work to react to those we love around us. We were given these feelings so that we could understand Them. I testify that They will wisely do the right thing, but I also testify that you will leave a hole if you choose to not follow. You are essential and important to Them. They will suffer long without you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 4 Nephi, Mormon 1–7 – Mike Parker
Oct 22, 2024
Mormon led his people; the end of Nephite civilization
(4 Nephi, Mormon 1–7)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
The archaeological record of western New York is persuasive evidence that Book of Mormon peoples did not live in that region. The Cumorah of the Nephites (Mormon₂’s hill) and the Cumorah where Joseph Smith unearthed the gold plates (Moroni₂’s hill) are not the same hill. Dr. John E. Clark, professor of anthropology at BYU, explores this in his article “Archaeology and Cumorah Questions,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 13, no. 1–2 (2004): 144–51, 174.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, a legend about a cave in New York’s hill Cumorah began to appear in the writings and sermons of several Church leaders. This legend claimed that the hill contains a cave in which there were hundreds of different records written on plates; however, all of the accounts of this story are late and secondhand. See Cameron J. Packer’s article, “Cumorah’s Cave,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 13, no. 1–2 (2004): 50–57, 170–71.
Is the hill near Manchester, New York, where Joseph Smith received the plates of Mormon the same hill where the final battles between the Nephites and Lamanites took place? Book of Mormon Central examines the evidence in KnoWhy #489.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi – Autumn Dickson
Oct 21, 2024
A Utopian Society
by Autumn Dickson
Fourth Nephi describes a people who were all converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ together. It talks about what their lives looked like and how they felt. Fourth Nephi also describes how everyone was wicked again within three hundred years.
Fourth Nephi describes exactly why the Lord has a Judgment Day. It can also help us see what’s going to be necessary before the Saints are allowed to go and build up Zion again.
Judgment Day
Fourth Nephi can help us better understand Judgment Day and the Lord’s purposes.
Heaven is bestowed, but it is also created by those who live there. Heaven is bestowed in the manner that Christ paid for our sins so we could be cleansed to return to Heavenly Father. He also died so that we could be resurrected and receive perfectly whole bodies; this is another important aspect of heaven. Heaven is also bestowed in the manner that Heavenly Father has created a beautiful, glory-filled place for all of us to live after we die.
But even though there are certainly aspects of heaven that are given to us as gifts, there are also aspects of heaven that the people create. Listen to the heaven that was created by the people who lived after Jesus Christ visited the Americas.
4 Nephi 1:3, 15-17
3 And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.
15 And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.
16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner of lasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.
17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.
What is heaven? What does it mean to live in heaven? Heaven is living with our Heavenly Parents and Jesus Christ again. It is living with everything we need and never worrying about having enough. It is having perfectly whole bodies that don’t decay or have infirmities.
Heaven is also being surrounded by people you can trust. You can look around you and be completely selfless. You can completely let go of what you need because you know that your neighbor is likewise looking out for you. You never have to be wary of people who might hurt you because everyone you’re surrounded by loves you, and you love them. That’s not something Heavenly Father forces. That’s something that we have to be.
Look at what happens later in the chapter after some time passes from when Christ visited.
4 Nephi 1:24-25
24 And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world.
25 And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them.
Their little heaven had burst. I picture myself living during that time. Perhaps you’re willing to be selfless and have all things in common among everyone, but because there are selfish people who want to have more, you actually have to be careful. There will be people who will take and not support back. The entire utopian society collapses if you can’t trust those around you to also be giving and work hard to help support everyone.
In Doctrine and Covenants 90, the Lord counsels Joseph Smith Sr. to keep his family small as pertaining to those who didn’t belong to his family. The Lord counseled Joseph Smith Sr. to be wise in how much he opened his home to those in need. We want to help everyone we can, but if everything is gone, there will be nothing left with which to help. Because we do not yet live in heaven, we have to be wise in how we distribute. You don’t leave your own family destitute by giving away everything to everyone else.
And this is precisely why the Lord has to have a Judgment Day. This is why He has to judge and separate us. Otherwise we would just keep living the way we’re living here except with resurrected bodies. There has to be a Judgment Day so there can be a heaven to live in. This isn’t just applicable in regards to temporal wealth; it’s applicable in every aspect of how the Lord asks us to treat one another.
Zion
Zion is a fascinating concept to me. I’ve always pictured what it would be like for the prophet to tell us it was time to head to Zion. I think a lot of us have imagined what that day would be like. Like heaven, I think sometimes we believe that Zion will just be handed to us on a silver platter.
Nope. Zion is something that we create. We don’t get to go build up Zion until we’re ready to be a part of it. When we have created Zion within our homes, wards, and stakes, then the Lord will know we’re ready to create it altogether in one place. Zion doesn’t just happen. It’s not given to us. We make Zion if we want to enjoy Zion.
Now we still live in a mortal, fallen world. The Lord doesn’t expect us to start living in a utopian society where everything is common among everyone. We can’t survive a completely utopian life in a world that doesn’t reciprocate. It’ll just ruin us. The Lord is wise about this.
So we don’t necessarily start living that utopian lifestyle in that manner yet. However, Zion starts in an individual heart. It is built heart by heart, person by person. Zion means you stand ready to forgive and let go of old grievances so that there can be peace. Zion means you stand ready to let go of your possessions and trust that the Lord has surrounded you with people who are like-minded. Zion means that you stand ready to give people the benefit of the doubt in any interaction. Once again, we don’t live in a utopian Zion yet. There are people who want to cause harm and hurt others, so we should be wise in how we interact with others.
But we can prepare ourselves and others will prepare themselves. The wheat and chaff will be separated, and we will be able to enter into that Zion society with the purest hope that we can experience as much heaven as is available here on earth.
As a child, I remember learning that Satan would be bound in the Millennium for a thousand years. I remember asking my dad why they let him go at the end of the thousand years. Was it prophesied that he would “escape” somehow? Obviously, my literal and limited understanding as a child has grown to understand that Satan didn’t have his hands tied behind his back. The world was simply choosing to be righteous enough that Satan had no effect.
We choose Zion, and the Millennium, and heaven. We create it.
In the last April General Conference, Elder Holland posed the philosophical question, “…it has always been intriguing to me that Jesus felt the need to pray at all. Wasn’t He perfect? About what did He need to pray?” Elder Holland gave his beautiful answer, and I add my own philosophical opinions to it.
Asking the question, “Why did Jesus have to pray if He was perfect?” carries the implication that we have the wrong definition of perfection. In our world, we think that being perfect means you can do everything and not need anyone. You can be happy completely on your own. You are a self-sustaining, blooming little island. This is utter garbage.
Real perfection is connection, the kind of connection we observe in 4 Nephi. Heaven is connection. It’s connecting with people who want to genuinely, peacefully, good-naturedly connect with you. This doesn’t mean that every introvert suddenly needs to become an extrovert. It doesn’t mean that you have to be connected to every single person at any given moment. I believe it means you truly treasure the most important and long-lasting sources of happiness, your family and close friends. It means that you can have a boundary without worrying about anyone purposefully crossing it. It means you won’t have to worry that others will assume the worst of you when you have a boundary because they will also be the kind of people who give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Zion, the Millennium, heaven are going to be rather pleasant.
The people in the beginning of Fourth Nephi were experiencing a heaven on earth, and it eventually fell apart because the people destroyed it themselves. Someday we won’t have to worry about that anymore. Someday we will be given the opportunity to go live with our Heavenly Parents and Jesus Christ. Christ will make sure we’re cleansed, and He will help us don our resurrected bodies. If we choose to follow Christ, to trust His judgment of others, and stand ready to freely give to those who freely give back, we will be prepared to go there.
I’m grateful that I have Heavenly Parents who were wise enough to create this plan. I am grateful for a Savior who enabled this plan. I am grateful that They were wise and kind and selfless enough to teach us how to be like Them.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 20–26 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 14, 2024
Keeping a Sacred Record
by Autumn Dickson
Christ continues His teaching and prophesying amongst this portion of the House of Israel. He teaches about the sacrament, keeping records, and the last days. He teaches them to study and appreciate the words of Isaiah. There is a lot of content here.
At one point in time, He asks Nephi to bring forth the Nephite records that had been kept. After looking through them, He notices that the account of Samuel the Lamanite is missing. Samuel had been commanded to go and warn the Nephites that Christ was coming; Samuel did so. There is a faith-inspiring event that occurs because of Samuel’s prophecies in which the believers are about to be put to death by the unbelievers if Samuel’s prophecies don’t come true. The details had been prepared beforehand by the Lord, and the believers are saved by His timing. It’s wonderful and there are a myriad of principles we can draw from that story.
When Christ notices that this account is missing, He turns to Nephi.
3 Nephi 23:12-13
12 And it came to pass that Nephi remembered that this thing had not been written.
13 And it came to pass that Jesus commanded that it should be written; therefore it was written according as he commanded.
Keeping adequate records was obviously important to Christ. He’s a busy Man, and He knows how to fill His time with the most important priorities. Why does Christ ask us to keep records?
How to keep a sacred record
Before we delve into the reasons why, I’d actually like to talk a little bit about what I believe Christ means when He talks about keeping records.
Nephi may have been commanded to write on gold plates, but things are different now. On a surface level, I think that keeping a record can be far more broad than we once assumed. It’s so easy to take pictures nowadays; take pictures of the things that matter to you. You can write in a journal. You can type a journal. I type my journal on Google Docs so that I can access it from my phone wherever I am. You can even just open up the notes app on your phone and record something quickly. Start a gratitude journal; it was actually this specific habit that started my regular journal writing. Make a video or photo book with captions about things that are important. You can even use voice recordings that you transfer to your computer once a month and sort into files according to date. So much of the scripture that we read was given orally and recorded afterwards. There are likely even free programs out there that will dictate your recordings into typed pieces that you can put in a safe place on your computer. Record your testimony twice a year at Easter and Christmas. What I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to be a good writer to record important things. What will it look like in your life?
The second principle (and probably more important principle) stems from the Lord’s commandments in general. When the Lord gives us a commandment, He is usually trying to change us somehow. If your record isn’t changing you, then you’re not getting the best return on your investment and you’re going to discontinue the practice. Record a hard lesson you learned. Record how the Lord helped different details come together. Record a dream that felt different than your other dreams. Record your feelings and not just events. Record the feelings that don’t necessarily feel perfect or worthy. Record yourself as you are and simply allow the Lord to be a part of it.
When the Lord gave the Law of Moses to the Israelites, He wanted them to draw closer to Him. He didn’t really care about sacrificing animals; He wanted them to understand Him and draw near to Him in ways that they could comprehend. It is the same with any commandment that we receive today. It’s not about the recording. It’s about utilizing a powerful way to draw closer to the Lord. When you’re recording, include the Lord in the process. Even if you’re recording silly details, include Him. Maybe even record them to Him. He likes to hear about all of it.
Ultimately, keeping a record can be much broader than it used to be. We don’t have to engrave upon plates. We don’t even have to write on paper. The most important principle is that the process changes you. What are you going to record that’s meaningful? How are you going to record it? If you’re going to make a goal about keeping records, make a goal with those questions in mind.
My sacred record
There are likely a myriad of reasons I haven’t discovered yet, but I’d like to cover a few of the ways that keeping a sacred record has changed my life in powerful ways. The most overarching change it has created in my life has been increased faith in Jesus Christ. It sounds super simple, but the effects are potent. There are two specific ways records have helped increase my faith.
Keeping a record has increased my faith because it allows me to process my life with God. There were so many times in my life when difficult things would come up, whether from my own flaws or from the nature of mortality. Sometimes, I’d put my head down and muscle through on my own because I was stubborn or self-destructive. However, other times I did it on my own because I’d simply forget to include God. Sometimes difficulties would come along, and it wouldn’t even occur to me that I should turn to Him because there was no habit to do so. I didn’t have a strong enough relationship with Him that it was natural to turn to Him.
Keeping a record has been instrumental in changing that. I’ve kept a regular journal since I was 14 because I love writing, but it wasn’t until the mission that I really started to include the Lord as I recorded. And because it became a habit to include Him, it didn’t change when I talked about difficulties that came up. As I learned to include the Lord and as I would write about something difficult, I could be inspired by how He would respond. I would be thinking about the difficult thing, and I would remember to include Him. This would naturally lead to me praying for help.
Here’s a real life example to illustrate that process. When we were living in that hotel in Virginia, I would start writing about all of my fears so that I could release them. Because I had learned the habit of including the Lord, I would naturally start to view these fears in a new light. I would be afraid of making a mistake and missing out on the path that the Lord wanted us to take, but when I wrote it down and put it into the ether, it made it easier to examine my thoughts and find which ones were based on faulty understandings of the Lord. It made it easier to look at the thoughts and change them according to what I had been taught about the Lord.
Or if I was angry at someone, I would write about it. Putting my thoughts outside of my brain where I could look at it enabled me to observe my thoughts in a more objective way. When I also chose to include the Lord, it made it that much easier to change those thoughts to be closer to the reality of eternal things. Observing them so consciously allowed me to change my thought patterns with the Lord, and it allowed me to change.
Keeping a record has helped me “watch” the Lord influence, support, and stretch me; it has increased my faith.
The second way keeping a record has increased my faith is by allowing me to see more than I saw before. I debated whether to tell this story, but if President Monson can share a story about almost starting a forest fire, I can tell this one.
In family home evenings lately, we’ve been talking about fire safety. I taught my kids to not open the door if smoke was filling their room. I taught them to open their windows and scream for help if they could, and we review this quite regularly. I was so proud of myself for being so prepared and teaching my kids.
But unfortunately and fortunately, my four year old is particularly adventurous. He’s capable and smart and brave, and this comes with pros and cons from the viewpoint of a parent. One evening, my son opened his window, pushed the screen out, and climbed onto the roof. Luckily, our neighbor across the street saw him, yelled at him to get back inside, and texted us. Needless to say, he’s learned his lesson, but here’s the part that is particularly relevant to this post.
I type my prayers at least once a day. The next day, I opened up my computer to delete the old prayer and start typing a new one. As I went to delete the old one, my eyes locked on one of the things I had been inspired to pray for the day before. I prayed that the right adults would be in the lives of my children at the right time to protect them. I hadn’t thought of it in this specific context, but the Lord had. The Lord likely would have protected my son anyway because apparently it’s not his time to die despite his frequent escapades. However, because I recorded something sacred, I saw the Lord’s hand where I wouldn’t have recognized it previously. The Lord inspired me to pray for the right adults to be there (because I knew I wouldn’t be there all of the time), and then I was able to see how He manipulated the details and protected Warner.
This has happened over and over and over. I record things, and my eyes are spiritually opened and all of a sudden I see that the Lord was directly involved. He would have been involved anyway in some cases, but it was much more powerful because I knew that He was involved. I watched Him easily sway the currents that were moving in my life. I watched Him show up and prepare me. I saw it happen repeatedly in the past, and it has helped me trust that He will show up in the future.
Conclusion
As I’ve written down my experiences, observed them with the Lord, and changed accordingly, I’ve learned to see how He’s supporting and stretching me in all of the best ways. I’ve been able to observe my thoughts more objectively and more accurately apply what I knew about the Lord rather. As I’ve written down prayers, things I’m worried about, things I need help with, or things I’m grateful for, the Lord is given consecrated time to work with me and open my eyes to how He is handling all the details that come my way.
The more I record, the more I see the Lord. The more I see the Lord, the more I trust Him. The more I trust the Lord, the happier my life has been. It’s as simple (and as powerful) as that.
I know from personal experience why the Lord asks us to keep records. My records aren’t always about traditionally spiritual things. Oftentimes, they’re about very temporal things. And yet, they have become sacred to me because keeping a record has taught me that the Lord is involved in all aspects of my life.
He is involved in your life. He is manipulating the details in your favor, whether that is in the form of a trial or a tender mercy. He will continue to be wholly involved in your life regardless of whether you recognize Him because that’s simply how much He loves you. But until you’re able to recognize Him, you’re going to continue to fret and worry about what’s coming next. The most powerful blessing I’ve received from keeping a record is that I recognize the Lord, and it has enabled me to live my life with a peaceful faith and trust.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 19–30 – Mike Parker
Oct 10, 2024
Jesus Christ’s ministry among the people of Nephi, part 2
(3 Nephi 19–30)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
When Christ was with the Nephites, he felt it was important to bless each of the children one by one and pray to the Father for them. Those children were to become the second generation of the Zion people that Christ was forming; as such, their preparation was vital. See M. Gawain Wells, “The Savior and the Children in 3 Nephi,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 62–73, 129.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 17–19 – Autumn Dickson
Oct 09, 2024
Experiencing Christ
by Autumn Dickson
I want to highlight the timeline of events in chapter 17.
Jesus has just spent a ton of time with these people. He has come to them in glory, not as the mighty but humble mortal who lived in Jerusalem. He has taught them and blessed them, and He recognizes that their capacity to receive more is already bursting at the seams. Receiving spiritual knowledge and spiritual things extends far beyond sitting in front of the risen Christ. It requires a built up tolerance for spiritual things. It requires a strength we can’t observe, an endurance that can’t be measured in mortality, and these people had maxed out. The Lord invites them to go home and pray and ponder.
The people didn’t ask Him to stay, but they wanted Him to. He felt this, and He decided to put aside His to-do list for a short time and show compassion. He healed many of them. They worshiped Him. He blessed their children.
Then something rather interesting happens.
Christ commands everyone to kneel, and He joins them. I want to share three verses.
3 Nephi 17:14 And it came to pass that when they had knelt upon the ground, Jesus groaned within himself, and said: Father, I am troubled because of the wickedness of the people of the house of Israel.
Christ is troubled by the wickedness He views on earth. He begins an incredible prayer that couldn’t be written.
3 Nephi 17:18 And it came to pass that when Jesus had made an end of praying unto the Father, he arose; but so great was the joy of the multitude that they were overcome.
The people were overwhelmingly happy after hearing Him pray.
3 Nephi 17:20 And they arose from the earth, and he said unto them: Blessed are ye because of your faith. And now behold, my joy is full.
There are characteristics of Christ that we can pull from this happening. There are principles we can learn from Christ and how He felt during what was occurring around Him.
Where His feelings came from
Before we delve into His specific feelings, I want you to reflect on your own life. During this reflection, I’m trying to conjure up memories of when you were overwhelmed at all the problems in humanity. There might have been a myriad of things that evoked these emotions, but it’s the memory of the emotions I want to bring about.
Perhaps you read a horrible news article. Perhaps you heard some incredibly startling and troubling statistics. Perhaps you observed patterns of poverty or abuse. Maybe it was a documentary or a dramatization of true events. There are a million different events across the world that can evoke these emotions. Personally, I get these emotions whenever I think about the mothers and kids who are affected by wars. Those are always the stories that get me.
And then I want you to try and conjure up feelings of when you were surrounded by people you loved and people who loved you back. Maybe it was family; maybe it was a group of really good friends. Maybe it was a parent, a sibling, or a single friend.
For this particular “feeling” memory, I recall quite a few different times. I remember how it felt as a kid when all of my seven siblings would come home to visit for holidays. I remember a specific group date with two other couples where we literally laughed so hard we were crying.
By recalling these memories of times when we have felt certain things, we can find ourselves relating to Christ. I think it’s important to be able to relate to Him. If we ever want to have a personal relationship with Him, relatability is crucial to that connection.
I believe that sometimes we create Christ as this “other.” Obviously, there are things about Christ that we can’t comprehend yet. There are aspects of Him that we worship even though we can’t process exactly what it means. This is good. It’s important to recognize these things.
But I still hold to the idea that it’s important to humanize Him in order to connect with Him.
Christ was looking at these people around Him. He was experiencing really beautiful things, and He was surrounded by children who loved Him and He was able to bless them. Somewhere in the midst of that experience, His mind caught hold of unpleasant circumstances that were happening around the world. Maybe as He looked at the faces of the children, He remembered other children who weren’t finding themselves in such beautiful circumstances. It affected Him, just as it affects us.
And then soon afterwards, He was brought back into the present moment as He looked at all the people around Him. He loved them, and He felt their love returned. It made Him happy.
I’m not trying to bring Christ “down” to our level where we can understand Him better. Rather, I’m trying to highlight the very real pieces of Him within us.
The entire spectrum of feelings we experience in mortality are divine. From the heartbreak and compassion we experience over tragedy to the deep joy and contentment we experience amongst someone who accepts and loves us, all of these feelings are Christlike. They are all essential parts of eternal life. These feelings are part of what makes us like Christ. Those emotions we describe as so very human are actually like God.
Living forever would be empty with the full spectrum of experience and feeling. We came to mortality to feel all of these things so that we could better understand God because until you’ve felt it, you simply can’t understand.
It was the people
The other principle I want to draw from observing Christ’s feelings is the fact that His joy was made full from simply being around these people.
I remember thinking about what it meant to worship Christ when I was younger. I used to try and determine what it meant to worship Him in very black and white terms. I wanted to know what specific acts of worship there were. It’s interesting because I think I used to imagine experiences based off of what I knew from idols. It was about abasing yourself and putting God up on the pedestal. That’s what I believed of worship.
I have now come to believe that the central aspect of worship is connection with God. The acts are less significant; it is about the feeling. There are acts of worship that more readily evoke this connection that is essential to worship, but the act itself isn’t necessarily relevant.
The moments I have held God in the highest esteem have been the moments that I have felt close to Him, not the moments where I separated myself from Him because of my unworthiness. Even now, as I picture King Benjamin’s sermon about us being less than the dust of the earth, I don’t picture a scowling king telling his people to bow down and pray to a Being that towered over them and loved to rule over them. Surely King Benjamin was right when he said we were less than the dust of the earth, but this knowledge doesn’t have to mean any level of hatred towards ourselves. I know that’s how King Benjamin felt because I’ve felt it. I know what it means to have my eyes opened to how the Lord has been patient with me and to have that accompanying feeling of, “Thank you. I can’t believe You did that for me.” If we do it right, the knowledge of our nothingness should be accompanied by a deep reverence and gratitude and connection with the Lord for loving us anyway.
Which brings me back to this account of the Lord being filled with joy as He was surrounded by people who believed in Him, utilized His gifts, and loved Him. Perhaps other apostate gods that we read about in literature desire different kinds of worship. They want to be admired and placed up higher than everyone else. However, the true God, the God that we worship just wants to be close to us. If we want to worship Him, we have to draw near to Him. If we truly want to please Him, we need to allow Him to stand near us through everything. He won’t force Himself on us, but we have to learn that He wants to be with us. That’s what pleases Him. That’s what fills Him with joy. That’s what makes His sacrifice worth it. He just wants to be near us, love us, and feel our love in return.
We feel a desire for unity. We desire acceptance. We desire to sustain and support those we love. We desire closeness and understanding. These are not weak, human emotions. They are Godlike emotions. This is what Christ desires; He doesn’t need it, but He sure wants it.
I’m grateful for a Savior who loves me. I’m grateful that I was sent here to mortality so that my eyes could be opened to this human and divine spectrum of emotions. I’m grateful He created the earth so that I had a place to come down and feel what He feels. I’m grateful that He has opened my eyes and helped me to understand that so many of the feelings I experience here are reflections of His life. I’m grateful that He has helped me see that there is so much of Him within me.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 12–16 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 28, 2024
Be Perfect
by Autumn Dickson
The Savior appears and starts teaching the people immediately. He elaborates on fulfilling the Law of Moses and lays out His higher law for the future. He teaches them about a million different things from prayer to judging to His personal characteristics. There is so much.
In the very first section of the Come Follow Me manual, we find one of the most intimidating exhortations.
3 Nephi 12:48 Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.
The Lord commands us to be perfect. I think logically we all understand that the Lord doesn’t expect us to be perfect just yet. We understand that the entire reason He suffered the atonement was because He knew that we wouldn’t be perfect. So why command it? Why give us what we can’t live up to?
There are two critical understandings we need in order to understand how and why the Lord gave us the commandment to be perfect.
Waiting until we were “ready”
Understanding why the Lord would give us such a commandment can be better understood when we observe the context of the rest of His teachings in this chapter. Christ is teaching about his fulfillment of the Law of Moses all leading up to that last verse in chapter 12 where He asks us to be perfect like Him and His Father. The sequence of this is significant, and it can teach us a lot about what He is asking and why He is asking. Context and purpose are everything if we hope to fulfill what He desires of us.
Let’s look at the context of what the Savior is teaching so that we can understand His purpose.
The Lord gave the Law of Moses back in the time where the Israelites had just been freed from slavery. He didn’t do this because He has lesser standards for different groups of people. In the end, we will receive all that the Lord has by living as the Lord lives. There is no other way to find those blessings. And yet, the Lord gave the Law of Moses because He understood that they had just come out of slavery. Their understanding of morality was childlike at best. They likely believed that life was one big test of whether you get caught when you do something wrong rather than doing right when no one is looking.
The Lord understood this, and He didn’t punish them for it. He never lowered the standards for the Israelites; He merely gave them a stepping stone. One day, if we wish to live the kind of life that He lives, every single one of us will have to live according to this higher law and we will have to live it perfectly. But the Israelites needed a stepping stone before they were prepared as a whole society for a higher law, and the Lord is wise enough and loving enough to give that stepping stone.
As the people spent more and more time away from slavery, and as generations passed and trauma slowly healed, the people became more prepared for this higher law. However, it’s significant to understand that even though they were becoming more prepared, they weren’t “ready” for this higher law in the sense that they would be able to keep it immediately. They had grown in their capacity to do what’s right after having the Law of Moses for so long, but they still weren’t capable of living the higher law perfectly yet. The Lord didn’t give them the higher law because they could live it perfectly; He gave it to them so that they could become capable of living it perfectly.
And that is critical understanding number one: The Lord gave us the commandment to be perfect because if He had waited until we were ready to be perfect immediately, we would have never become perfect because we wouldn’t have strived for it. The only way for us to fulfill that commandment was to begin striving for it.
Think of it in this manner. I teach my kids to control their tempers and not hit each other. My six year old isn’t even ready to live this law perfectly. When Warner comes after Evelyn, torturing her over and over, she eventually gives in and chases him around the house until she catches him and can tackle him.
Emotionally, she is unprepared to live my law of loving her brother enough to control her temper. Logically, she’s not capable of sinning yet because she’s not eight. One could make the argument that I’m cruel for expecting something of her she can’t do, something that she’s not even guilty for yet. But I feel like most of us can understand that that’s a stupid argument.
I give her the law. I don’t do it because I believe she’s capable yet. I don’t have expectations for her to fulfill it perfectly. I give her the law because I want her to start practicing. She will never learn to not hit if I wait until she’s ready to live it perfectly before I give it as a law.
The same goes for the exhortation to be perfect. He didn’t give us this commandment because we were ready to live it right now. He didn’t give it to us so He could hold it against us. He gave it to us so we would have a standard to look to, something to work towards, something to strive towards. The perfecting process would have been held off indefinitely if it wasn’t given as the standard.
The Lord already won
When I think about the Lord commanding us to be perfect, I think of Nephi.
Nephi was commanded to go and get the brass plates in Jerusalem. He hadn’t even left for Jerusalem when he testified that the Lord never gives a commandment unless He opens the way to fulfill that commandment. Nephi “failed” more than once in his attempts. He didn’t agonize over his failed attempts. He didn’t worry that the Lord had disowned him. He kept believing that the Lord would provide a way, and the Lord did. Each misstep and obstacle that Nephi experienced weren’t true failures; they were steps he had to live through in order to be ready to be led by the Lord. Because of his simple belief that the Lord would provide the way, Nephi had already won the battle. He had basically already received the plates before even leaving for Jerusalem because of that simple faith that the Lord would provide the way. You can’t fail with the Lord on your team.
Our second critical understanding in relation to the commandment to be perfect is this: The Lord already provided the way. He already won. Our destiny to be perfect is set and coming if we simply continue trying.
The Lord has provided the way for us to become perfect. He believes in us. He stands ready to teach us everything we need to learn, to guide us through each experience and failure we desperately need in order to actually fulfill that commandment to become perfect. Like Nephi, we have nothing to fear. If we love the Lord and keep trying, then we are 100% safe. The Lord paid for our sins and already won the battle. That means that all of the missteps and failures and obstacles are not evidence that we have failed His commandment; they are opportunities to step towards that commandment. They are precisely what we need to become perfect.
The commandment to be perfect is a gift, not a measuring stick with which to beat ourselves. If we look at it in the manner in which the Lord gave it to us, we will see it for what it is. We will see it as a glimpse of what He has in store for us. We will see it as our ultimate end, our literal destiny, if we simply continue trying. The commandment to be perfect is the ultimate testament to His love, a sign that He literally wants everything for us.
Being perfect was always your destiny. It is your birthright as a literal son or daughter of God. It is something you will grow into. It was given to you now so that you could work towards it, not so you get it right the first time.
In summary, there are two critical understandings when we think about the Lord’s commandment to be perfect.
If the Lord had waited to give the commandment, we never would have made it because we never would have strived for it. He had to give it to us before we were ready so we could grow.
The second critical understanding is that the Lord will provide the way. Work towards that perfection without all of the pressure. The pressure adds nothing to your journey except discouragement and extra exhaustion. The pressure was on the Lord to live perfectly and fulfill the atonement, and He already won. Now we just keep practicing, and we’ll get there.
I believe in a Lord who does everything for our benefit. I believe that every tender mercy comes from Him, and I believe that all of the obstacles and failures we’re experiencing on earth can be turned into gifts when combined with the power of His atonement. They can become contributions towards that ultimate goal of perfection because they can be powerful learning tools. We have every reason to rejoice in the Lord and trust Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 8–18 – Mike Parker
Sep 23, 2024
Jesus Christ’s ministry among the people of Nephi, part 1
(3 Nephi 8–18)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks, plus part of the following week.)
John W. Welch explains that everything in 3 Nephi, especially the ministry of the Savior, echoes themes related to the temple and the presence of the Lord in the Holy of Holies. Welch, “Seeing Third Nephi as the Holy of Holies of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 1 (2010): 36–55.
The great destructions and thick darkness in the Book of Mormon lands described in 3 Nephi 8 have all the indications of intense volcanic activity. Several Latter-day Saint scientists have written about this; their conclusions are summarized in these brief articles from Book of Mormon Central:
Immediately before Jesus’s appearance at the temple in Bountiful, the people there “were showing one to another the great and marvelous change which had taken place great” (3 Nephi 11:1). What was this “great and marvelous change”? Clifford Jones argues that it refers to “the essential, infinite change wrought by the Atonement.” (Jones, “The Great and Marvelous Change: An Alternate Interpretation,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 19, no. 2 (2010): 50–63.)
When Jesus appeared at Bountiful, “the whole multitude” of the people there “fell to the earth.” (3 Nephi 11:12) This description echoes Lehi₁’s dream of the tree of life, in which he saw “multitudes” of people who “did press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.” (1 Nephi 8:30) For more on the connections between these two passages, see Matthew L. Bowen, “‘They Came Forth and Fell Down and Partook of the Fruit of the Tree’: Proskynesis in 3 Nephi 11:12–19 and 17:9–10 and Its Significance,” Studies in the Bible and Antiquity 5 (2013): 63–89.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 8–11 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 22, 2024
Giving Your Broken Heart
by Autumn Dickson
We have reached the crowning jewel of The Book of Mormon. We have reached the climax, the epitome, the purpose of The Book of Mormon. Christ has arrived to reach out to His people in other parts of the world.
When Christ’s voice pierces the darkness that the Nephites and Lamanites had found themselves in, He started to teach them immediately. He proclaims the destruction, but He also invites them to come and be healed. Before He even directly appears before them, His voice teaches them that the Law of Moses has been fulfilled. Of all the things the Lord could have chosen to express with His voice through the darkness, one of the things He chose to tell them was that the Law of Moses was no longer in effect. While this may seem like a slightly less significant happening when compared to all the destruction and His literal presence amongst these people, it heralded the incoming of a higher law. It brought about the new way to draw closer to Christ, and this new way would become the standard for all the generations afterwards (including our’s). It was a big deal that the Law of Moses had been fulfilled. It is a big deal that we have been given new ways to approach Christ and learn of Him.
Christ visited the Nephites and Lamanites. Living according to His new law is how we invite Him to visit us, to make Him a part of our lives.
Here is how Christ told them about the fulfilled Law of Moses.
3 Nephi 9:19-20
19 And ye shall offer up unto me no more the shedding of blood; yea, your sacrifices and your burnt offerings shall be done away, for I will accept none of your sacrifices and your burnt offerings.
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.
Christ will no longer accept sacrifices according to the Law of Moses. He doesn’t want burnt offerings or the shedding of blood. He wants a different kind of sacrifice. He wants us to offer the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
The way this is worded is fascinating to me. When we think of sacrifice, we often picture giving up something we really love and adore. We believe that we’re going to receive something back which is the whole reason we agree to it. However, we are still giving up something that holds worth for us.
Which is why I find this new law so interesting. I can understand why Christ would ask for a broken heart and contrite spirit. It makes sense when you understand that the Lord is trying to change us, and a willingness to change often helps that process. However, Christ specifically asked for these things as a sacrifice. What can we learn from the way He worded this?
Broken hearts hold value
If Christ is asking us to offer up broken hearts and contrite spirits as a sacrifice, it implies the idea that these things are valuable to us. If you were to list things that were valuable to you, a “broken heart” might not be at the top of the list. And yet, sometimes our actions and underlying feelings can give us greater hints about what we value than our logical minds.
For example, I can talk all day long about how much I love my kids. However, I remember an experience one day where I was praying for them. I wasn’t at my best at that particular point in my life and so I started praying that they would feel my love even though I wasn’t showing it very well at the time. I think there are appropriate times to pray for that. However, in that particular moment, the Spirit whispered to me that I had prayed for the wrong thing. I loved my kids, but I wasn’t valuing them sufficiently at that time. How could I expect the Lord to just help them feel prioritized when I wasn’t actually prioritizing them? I could talk about how much I loved them all day, but until it changed how I was acting and feeling, then I was really just loving myself. I could tell you that I loved my kids more than myself, but my actions and underlying feelings during that time period were hinting at something different.
The same goes for a broken heart. We may not consciously value our broken hearts, but why do we sometimes withhold our broken hearts? Why do we hide our vulnerability? Why do we often continue to kick against the pricks rather than allowing our spirits to feel contrite? We’re not doing it for funsies, so there must be some reason we want to hold onto these things rather than handing them over to the Lord.
I had an experience some time last year; I believe it illustrates a time when I was withholding my broken heart and when I finally released it to the Lord and the resulting experience. I want to try very hard to maintain the point of me sharing this and not get distracted by the actual subject matter. It’s important to me that we take the principle I’m trying to teach so that we can apply it to all of our different situations rather than trying to hyperfocus on what my broken heart was about.
Last year, I had a quiet moment where I started thinking about Heavenly Mother. It had never bothered me before that She was relatively unknown or that we didn’t talk about her. I hadn’t put much thought towards it up until the time I became a mother and learned what it meant to be a mother. Her role is likely far more significant than we realize, and I started to wonder if She ever felt unappreciated because everyone was so quiet about Her. She likely has much more perspective than I do, but it affected me. I held onto those feelings for a while, not willing to give up how I felt about it. It suddenly felt all wrong, and I felt very right. I held tight to that feeling of my being right.
But then I started to reflect on the relationship I had with my Heavenly Father. I thought about the Savior and how He had sacrificed so much for me. I thought about how He had shown up for me multiple times, and I reflected on how I had sincerely felt His love.
I didn’t understand why Heavenly Mother wasn’t more openly appreciated, but I decided that I’d had enough experiences with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that I still trusted Them. Instead of holding onto my rightness, I held onto the relationship I had with Them. I turned to pray, and I remember asking, “Why?” but how I asked that question had suddenly changed dramatically.
Rather than asking, “Why?” in my determined rightness, I asked, “Why?” but I also mentally said, “Okay.” I let my heart feel sad over the issue, and I turned to Him for comfort regarding the issue. I gave Him my broken heart.
I’m not going to go into detail regarding the answer I received. It was very personal to me, and I believe that my answer was for me. He spoke to me in a way that I understood, and it changed everything. I don’t want to talk about how He answered me. I want to highlight the fact that giving my broken heart to Him changed things for me. I had held onto my broken heart believing that I was right in doing so, but the experience of giving it up had been beautiful, and I’m so grateful I did.
Different circumstances require giving up your broken heart
I believe that with certain issues throughout our lives, it’s going to be an elaborate dance as we work towards having that kind of experience. Handing your broken heart to the Lord has to be done in your heart; it’s not something you can fake or force. It requires examining where you’re at and accepting where you’re at so that the Lord can work with where you’re at.
I have very little advice on how to go about this elaborate dance of handing your broken heart over to the Lord because that process has been so different for different circumstances in my life. The Lord has had to patiently walk me through that process because half of the time, I didn’t even realize I was withholding a broken heart. He would have to guide me in how to experience my feelings before handing them over to be worked through with Him. I guess my only true advice is to turn to Him. You can even ask Him to walk you through the process because you don’t know how to do it on your own. You don’t have to know how to hand it over to Him; He can teach you how if you ask.
I believe that handing over your broken heart can be related to issues you don’t understand in the church. I believe that it can relate to personal circumstances when you don’t understand why He allowed you to enter into certain trials. I believe that anything that can break our hearts can be taken to the Lord.
I also believe that handing over your broken heart or finding your way towards a contrite spirit can often feel like a sacrifice. You have to sacrifice your pride and question whether you see the whole picture. You have to sacrifice your desire for Him to just fix things instead of allowing mortality to take its course. You have to sacrifice your desire to keep yourself safe and allow Him to step in.
I testify that it’s worth handing over. I’ve never been disappointed when I’ve handed my heart over to the Lord. I’ve also learned that the process of truly handing my broken heart over can take years of trying and failing and patience. As I’ve accepted the need to work through things and not just come to simple, clean answers, I’ve learned that this process of submitting your heart to the Lord has been a worthwhile experience. I trust Him. When He opens my eyes to the details He has adjusted in my life, I see that He has never let me down. Just like with any sacrifice, the Lord offers more than He asks for.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 3 Nephi 1–7 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 14, 2024
Nephi Waited All Day
by Autumn Dickson
The chapters this week are full of some intense events that all occurred within a very short span of history. Within approximately 30 years, we find the almost-genocide of a religion, a major war in which an entire nation comes together to live in the same place, and a governmental collapse. I mean…how long did people even live during this time period? That’s quite the life to have.
Though there were many tragedies and anxiety, there were also great miracles. One such miracle was the birth of Christ in Bethlehem with its accompanying signs in the western world. Before this grand event, we find that almost-genocide. Non-believers were convinced that the prophesied signs of Christ’s birth had past, and they were prepared to put the believers to death.
Nephi, an immensely righteous prophet of the Lord, found himself in charge of a people who were condemned to death. Here is where we find Nephi at this particular point.
3 Nephi 1:12-13
12 And it came to pass that he cried mightily unto the Lord all that day; and behold, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
13 Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets.
Nephi prayed all day, and the Lord’s voice came to him, comforting him and telling him that the sign was coming soon enough to spare his people.
We love the Lord who delivers us. We love the stories of miracles when He comes in and saves the day, and we testify boldly of His sacrifice that made Him the ultimate hero.
However, do we also love the Lord who waited all day before responding to Nephi? Do we trust Him when we’re in the middle of a crisis and receiving nothing? Do we have faith in the last-second Lord and the Lord who allows for tragedy?
Nephi was a good man
In the first chapter of 3 Nephi, we find Nephi who is the son of Nephi who is the son of Helaman. Just to give you a quick recap, Nephi Sr. (the son of Helaman) was the guy who preached to the people on his garden tower about the death of the chief judge. He was also given the sealing power from the Lord in which he called down famines and wars. He was a great man. This Nephi, the son of Helaman, “departs” within the first few verses of 3 Nephi. We don’t know much about his departing, but we know that’s the last we hear of him.
Nephi Sr., son of Helaman, also named his son Nephi. So Nephi Jr. is who we’re working with right now for this post. He is the leader of a people who is about to be put to death for believing in a coming Messiah; he has also just apparently lost his father. The combination of his father’s departure and the new mantle of leader over a threatened people likely weighed on him. Think of all the new leaders we hear from. How many times have you heard them describe their feared inadequacy? How many times have we heard about new leaders feeling overwhelmed and scared of the mantle they were being given?
Nephi (I’m dropping Jr. now since we know who we’re talking about) had this mantle placed upon him at a particularly tumultuous time, both in terms of the church and his personal life. The Lord didn’t pull any punches.
If my child came to me in these particular circumstances, praying about whether they were going to be okay, I feel like I would have responded immediately. That would have my natural inclination, to immediately ease their worry and suffering on top of so much they were already feeling. I would have worked quickly to remove any burden they felt as they were trying to lead my people to be faithful.
But not so with the Lord. A day might not seem like very long to wait relatively speaking. However, the Lord was really cutting it close to crunch time. Nephi was counting down the time to the impending death of himself and his fellow congregants, awaiting the Lord’s response. I’m sure Nephi was pleading with the Lord for comfort, but I also imagine that Nephi was pleading with the Lord for direction. Should the people depart? Should they arm themselves? I’ve gotten answers to “wait” before, but Nephi was getting nothing for a while despite his seemingly pressing need.
An effectual struggle
A few months ago, we talked about Limhi and his people and their effectual struggle. As a reminder, “effectual” means to bring the intended result. We discussed how Limhi’s effectual struggle taught the people what they needed to learn. They were repenting of sin, and being released immediately from any effects of their sin would have likely just taught them, “I can do whatever I want and not experience consequences. Look! I sinned a ton, and I didn’t have any problems. I can definitely go back to sinning.” The effectual struggle did not pay for their salvation, and it wasn’t a result of the Lord exacting vengeance. The effectual struggle was a merciful, beautiful lesson given to the people of Limhi to drive them to be better and avoid their bonds.
Since that lesson, I have been taught that every struggle in mortality can become an effectual struggle with the Lord. Even when we are righteous and seeking the Lord like Nephi, the Lord still has lessons for us to learn. Effectual struggles are essential for those lessons; we couldn’t learn what we needed to learn without them. More importantly we couldn’t become what we need to become without them.
For instance, patience is a highly underrated characteristic of the Lord. We hate learning and practicing patience, but patience is one of the most beautiful characteristics the Lord has. Can you imagine where we would be if the Lord grew impatient with humanity? Someday, we will hopefully step into the shoes of the Lord and do as He does. However, that is going to require a patient being. Patience isn’t something that comes with a perfect life. You don’t learn patience as you receive enough rest, get enough alone time, or have everything sufficient for your needs. Those are beautiful gifts of eternity, but those gifts will not help you develop the patience you need to do what the Lord does, namely being patient when everything seems to be going wrong.
Only an effectual struggle can help you develop that resilience.
Sometimes we experience trials for “no” reason. We get to the end, and it didn’t feel like there was an overarching lesson or purpose. It feels random and tragic and unnecessary. However, as we turn to the Lord, perhaps we’ll recognize that sometimes the purpose is to stretch and practice our patience. You can’t become patient unless you’re given an opportunity to practice it, and we have to become patient to be exalted.
The lesson for Nephi and his people
I don’t know what lesson Nephi specifically needed to learn as the Lord remained quiet during a crucial time. Perhaps there were many lessons. Perhaps all of the followers had different lessons they needed to learn as they waited on the Lord to let them know it was going to be okay. I know that the Lord wasn’t ignoring Nephi because He was too busy, because He wanted Nephi to squirm and struggle, because He was insensitive to the things that Nephi was experiencing. No, the Lord was providing an effectual struggle.
I can guess at one potential lesson. Just like with patience, we need an opportunity to practice faith in order to increase our faith. There comes a point in your testimony where you start to feel pretty sure that God is there and aware of you. You have learned that lesson. God has shown up enough in your life that you know He’s got you. You have developed that faith.
But the Lord calls on us to stretch and grow our faith beyond that. After you know He’s there, He wants to push us to trust that He’s going to show up at the right time with everything you need. You’re not going to have to practice faith with nothing to lose. Imagine if the story we were reading was different. There was no antagonism towards the believers. There were people who didn’t believe in Christ, people who believed that the time for the sign had passed. However, these non-believers didn’t give a rip about whether others believed a sign was still coming.
The believers might have still looked forward with faith or the sign to come, but they had nothing to lose. If it never came, they didn’t really lose out on much. There was no test. There was no stretch. There was no effectual struggle. There was no opportunity to really decide whether you were going to hold on because it didn’t actually matter if you held on. The Lord gave them an opportunity to stretch when He remained silent for a time. It was an opportunity, not a punishment or a sign that He didn’t love them. It was the only way for them to become like Him.
Surely these trials can take different forms. There will be times in our lives where we receive respite and care, and we’re immensely grateful for those times and we enjoy them. However, those effectual struggles are actually the tender mercies that we came to earth for. Utilize them. You don’t have to love them. Christ didn’t love the idea of suffering in Gethsemane so don’t put pressure on yourself to grin and bear it. But utilize the opportunities you’ve been given to stretch your faith and patience and whatever other gifts come from being tested. Recognize what they are for. Don’t use them as “evidence” that you’re being punished. Use them as evidence that the Lord is preparing you. Understand that there was no other way to give us what we had asked for: a chance to be like Him.
I testify that you’re safe. I testify that the Lord is going to show up at the right time. I testify that you’re not going to be abandoned. I testify that the Lord’s overwhelming love is what drives Him to push us beyond what’s comfortable. I testify that appreciating the purpose of the effectual struggle of mortality can make our lives a fulfilling and less bitter process. If you wait on the Lord and trust Him, you are in no danger. Not really. Not when we’re talking about the eternities. We have already won so take your turn being stretched and recognize the struggle for what it is.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Helaman 13–3 Nephi 7 – Mike Parker
Sep 09, 2024
Samuel prophesied; the Gadianton War & collapse of Nephite society
(Helaman 13–3 Nephi 7)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
Daniel C. Peterson compared the style of warfare used by the Gadaniton robbers to historical tactics employed by irregular and insurgent forces, a type of warfare that Joseph Smith was unlikely to have been familiar with: “The Gadianton Robbers as Guerrilla Warriors,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book/Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990), 162–63.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Helaman 13-16 – Autumn Dickson
Sep 08, 2024
Foretold Promises
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, we find Samuel the Lamanite. His title, “the Lamanite,” is actually very telling for this particular passage in The Book of Mormon. All throughout the history of The Book of Mormon, the Lamanites were traditionally the ones who rejected the gospel. And yet, we’ve reached a point in the timeline where the Nephites had grown extremely wicked. The Lord sent a Lamanite to go to the Nephites and preach the gospel to them.
Samuel listened and did so. He warned them of all sorts of scary things that could happen if they didn’t repent, and he was miraculously preserved as he delivered his message.
He also testified that Christ was coming.
Helaman 14:2 And behold, he said unto them: Behold, I give unto you a sign; for five years more cometh, and behold, then cometh the Son of God to redeem all those who shall believe on his name.
Samuel told the Nephites that Christ would be born back in Jerusalem in five years. Even though Christ would be born an ocean away, there were going to be all sorts of signs that would precede His birth. The night before His birth, there wouldn’t be darkness in the night. A new star would appear. There would be many signs and wonders, and many would fall to the earth in amazement and wonder.
Even though many of Samuel’s prophecies can be considered frightening, it didn’t need to scare anyone who chose to repent. Samuel even teaches that Zarahemla was currently being preserved because of the righteous people who were still in the city.
Prophets prophesy of things to come. They foretell of signs to look for. They encourage us to change our lives according to the events on Heavenly Father’s timeline. Let’s talk about it in a modern context so that this can be a more relatable principle.
In our day
I want you to imagine that President Nelson told us all that Christ was returning in five years. This will likely not happen since we’ve been taught that no one, not even the angels, know when Christ is coming. However, for the sake of applying the scriptures, let’s pretend that he did.
I’m sure there would be plenty of mockery in the world, just as there was with Samuel the Lamanite. I wonder how many people who are not of our faith would become curious over this miraculous and bold announcement. It would be an interesting day on social media to say the least.
But how would you respond? What would you change? If Christ was really coming within the next five years, what kind of feelings would you experience with this announcement?
President Nelson did not come forward last General Conference and announce the coming of the Savior, but he is a prophet and he has made pronouncements. He has admonished us in specific ways but because there is no deadline, sometimes we underestimate the importance of such guidance.
I can think of two specific ways that President Nelson’s (along with other prophets) pronouncements should change us. I want to cover the first, but I want to focus on the second.
Behavior
The first way it should change us is in our behavior.
If I knew Christ was coming, I’d probably get a bunch more food storage. I’d spend more time with my family and at the temple. I would probably cut out a lot of extra things that once felt so important to me. I would probably spend more conscious time considering how I spent my free time, reading books with tons of value in comparison to these cheap filler novels I can find on Stuff Your Kindle day. I’d spend my money differently knowing that things would change after He came.
To an extent, it’s wise to consider how we would change. It can help us refocus our priorities and remember what has true value.
However, I want to highlight the phrase, “To an extent…” It’s also important to remember that we might live another hundred years before He comes. There’s a balance there. For example, I mentioned how I would change the way I spent my time and money. We just spent the last two months trying to fix up our yard. Would I have bothered to fix it up if I knew Christ was coming? Maybe. I definitely would have reconsidered if I knew that the world was going to look different in five years.
We can’t drop everything and live our lives as though Christ is coming in five years because we don’t know whether He is, but we can consider how we would change. Pondering this idea may not dramatically change our current actions, but they might realign what we’re focusing on and worrying about.
Which leads me to my second point that I truly want to hone in on.
How we feel would change
I hope that an announcement regarding the coming of the Savior would make you feel hope over despair. I hope that the idea of facing Him would fill you with all the best kinds of anticipation. I hope that your life would feel lighter.
When we have something really exciting to look forward to, all of the days leading up to that event can often feel more exciting even though the event isn’t there yet. When you’re looking forward to a cruise or the last day of school, the anticipation can be just as fun as the event itself. I remember I used to love Fridays at school because it meant the weekend was coming. Friday was technically the same as any other day at school, but Friday felt different because I was looking forward to something.
During a district meeting on my mission, we all made lists of the blessings that we were most excited for. It was actually a really fun exercise and made me feel lighter and better even though nothing had really changed. It simply brought the anticipation of the promised blessings of the Savior to the forefront of my mind where I could enjoy them even though they weren’t here yet.
We listed blessings from the ridiculous to the deep. We were excited to hold our children, to be happy and safe in a marital relationship. We were excited to be able to fly (I don’t know if that was ever directly promised, but one could argue it’s implied). We were excited to see a beautiful world that was even prettier than what we already have. We were excited to not get the flu anymore, to see loved ones who had passed on, and to pet lions.
Like Samuel, we have modern day prophets who have warned us. However, also like Samuel, we have prophets who have taught us about the Lord’s promises, and we have every reason to rejoice in those blessings today. If we are repenting, remaining close to the Lord, and trying to be a good person, we have every reason to believe that He will bestow all that the Father has on us. That means whole and healed family relationships, healthy bodies that can move and act in tremendous and free ways, and a gorgeous setting to enjoy all of it in.
What is hurting you? What has the Lord promised you that’s adjacent to that hurt? Can you visualize it? Can you visualize the fulfillment of His merciful promises? We don’t have to be afraid of getting our hopes up. Christ has the capacity to fill our hopes beyond what we could have dreamed of. Sit in that visualization of that fulfilled promise, and let it fill you with faith. Let it fill you with a sweet and healing gratitude for your Savior.
The Savior has promised tremendous blessings. Make a conscious list of them and allow yourself to hope for them. It’s okay to still feel hurt and disappointment and sacrifice in this life as we ache to have those blessings fulfilled now. The Savior does not begrudge us feeling misery when He built the world for the very purpose of experiencing the full spectrum of life. However, when you’re ready to step out of the misery and you’ve allowed yourself to feel it sufficiently, let His promises be a balm to you. Let your anticipation of the fulfillment of these promises be as exciting as the event itself.
I testify of a Savior who is coming again even if we’re not sure when. I testify that He has the capacity to fulfill His promises; He already won! He already secured the right to give us everything our hearts desire. I testify of a Savior who also has the capacity to help you strive and reach and repent so that you’re ready to experience those blessings. If you’re worried about being able to receive those blessings because you’re worried about your ability to follow Him, then visualize the promise that there is no darkness too far where He can’t reach you and save you. And beyond pulling you from that darkness, He wants to give you more than you can imagine. He can give you more than you can imagine. Hold those promises in your heart, and let them fill you now.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Helaman 7–12 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 31, 2024
Healed by the Savior
by Autumn Dickson
The theme of remembrance is abundant in the chapters we’ve been reading lately, and that does not cease for this week. Nephi is preaching to the people from the tower in his garden, and he starts to bring up stories that they should remember. One such story is succinctly taught in these verses.
Helaman 8:14-15
14 Yea, did he not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come.
15 And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal.
Nephi teaches the people of a story found in our Old Testament. The Israelites had been bitten by serpents and were dying. Moses lifted up a brazen serpent, and if the Israelites looked at it, they would be healed. Many looked and were saved; many did not and perished.
Such a simple concept. The Israelites were members of the church who had made covenants with God. They still found themselves in trouble throughout their lives, and in this particular instance, the solution to their problems was to simply look at a brazen serpent.
We are likewise members of the church who find ourselves in trouble throughout our lives. Is it really as simple as looking to the Savior? Is this just another way to teach the theme of remembrance? If we can simply remember to look towards the Savior, will we really find the solution to our problems?
I wholeheartedly argue yes.
Interaction with the Savior
Let’s look at the woman with the issue of blood as an example. This woman in the New Testament had been sick for years and years. She had a blood disorder of some kind that made her continually unclean. When you dive into the Law of Moses, you learn that women who were bleeding were not to be touched. They were unclean, and if you touched them, you became unclean. Though this sounds awful, I believe the Lord was actually protecting the health of His daughters during vulnerable times. After a woman was done bleeding, she needed to go and do specific washings to become clean again. Then she was allowed to be touched again.
This woman wasn’t supposed to be touched. No matter how many washings she went through for the Law of Moses, she couldn’t be healed. No matter how obedient she was to the Law of Moses, it was insufficient. Doctors during this time period couldn’t help her either.
It likely didn’t help that the Jews during this time period were all about the Law of Moses. There were all sorts of extra rules that made sure you were following the Law of Moses. It was a badge of honor to be following the Law of Moses “perfectly.” The outward ceremonies and acts of worship had become dramatic, and the people had forgotten that all of these ceremonies were meant to be pointing them towards a Savior that was coming. Obedience to the Law of Moses was inherently worthless without the coming of the Savior.
And we see the physical manifestation of this truth in this story. The woman could not wash herself clean or heal herself with obedience. She could not return to her relationships because she was untouchable. The only thing that healed her was approaching the Savior and touching the hem of his garment.
It was not obedience that healed the woman; it was approaching the Savior in faith.
That’s an important concept to master. I’m not trying to teach that obedience is unimportant. Obedience is vastly important, but it’s important for different reasons than we’re often seeking. We’re looking for obedience to save us, to heal us from our maladies, to make us happy, but obedience cannot provide that. Only a relationship with the Savior can do that.
Obedience offers many blessings. The Law of Moses was important because it was meant to open the eyes of the people so that they could recognize their Savior. It was meant to help them understand their Savior on a deeper level. It protected them. It pushed them to rise above earthly circumstances. It prepared them.
But it could not save them.
We don’t go to the temple to be healed. We go to the temple so we can more easily feel the Savior who can heal us. We don’t read our scriptures to make us happy. We read our scriptures so we can feel the Spirit and catch a glimpse of the presence of the Savior to make us happy. We don’t pray to get what we need; we commune with our Heavenly Father and Savior so we can find solace, adjust our lives according to their foreknowledge, and learn to trust in Their abilities and promises.
All of the acts of obedience and worship are inherently worthless without the aspect of the Savior. We obey and perform and show up and follow the primary answers because they more readily facilitate a relationship with the Savior. If you’re focused on completing the obedience and tasks, you’ll miss the blessings.
Let that knowledge change your worship. Let it change how you attend the temple, church meetings, and service. Let it change how you pray and read your scriptures. We don’t necessarily need to give more; sometimes we just need to adjust our focus to our purpose – the Savior.
A more specific example
This is an example that is more specific in nature, but I feel prompted to share it so here ya go.
I have found that I cannot feel the Savior in the same ways when I’m depressed. This makes perfect sense because I often feel disconnected from people in general when I’m depressed. No matter how I engage or invite, I feel oddly alone and cut off. This problem is exacerbated when we remember that I can’t even physically see the Savior show up like I can with my other relationships.
So when I’m in a dark place, I try to apply the same principles to the Savior that I do to my friends and family. Even when I feel depressed and disconnected from my friends, I talk myself through it. I feel dark, but they don’t hate me. They don’t think I’m annoying. They’re still here, and they’ll still be here when I come back out of it. I can’t feel the connection with them right now, but I know that’s just something in my brain. That connection was and is real.
The same goes for the Savior. He doesn’t hate me. He’s not disappointed in me. He hasn’t fled from me because I’m doing something wrong. He’s not annoyed with me. He’s still there, and He will still be there when I come back out of it. It’s just something in my brain that was given to me for a wise purpose in Him. That connection was and is real, even if I can’t currently feel it.
I take what I’ve been taught about a perfect Savior, and I apply it to my situation. His promises are still real. His concern and desire to push me farther are still real.
This is not always practiced perfectly. Sometimes I forget or stumble and stay on the ground. But practicing has been worthwhile anyways.
Looking to the Savior
Nephi asked his people to remember how looking towards a representation of the Savior had saved their ancestors because he wanted his people to look to the Savior so they could be saved.
In any aspect where you find yourself troubled, you can look to the Savior and include Him. I promise for any problem you find yourself facing in life, there is a corresponding miracle, story, principle, or promise adjacent to the Savior that can either solve your problem, help you understand the purpose of your problem, or lift your sights, and strengthen your faith that deliverance is coming. Every single aspect.
Include Him. And when I say include Him, I mean actually include Him. Don’t include some skewed version of Him that is inaccurate. I used to do that. I pictured the Savior, but I never pictured Him helping me, offering mercy, lifting me up, and encouraging me on. For some bizarre reason, I pictured Him angry with me.
The Savior is a perfectly loving Being who is constantly pursuing us. If He’s disciplining His people, it’s being done out of love to bring them back. All of His acts are acts of love. His no’s, His silences, and His deliberate choices to allow your struggles are all proof of His love. That’s the Savior you need to bring into your life on purpose. That’s the Savior you need to turn to with each obstacle you face. That’s the Savior who won’t let you down.
It takes a lot of mental strength and patience to develop a relationship with a Being you can’t see. It takes a lot of energy to develop and maintain a relationship with anyone, let alone a Being you can’t see. However, I testify that it is infinitely worth it. I testify that on the days I remember to include the Savior in every aspect of my life, I am changed and happy. Life is worth living. All the wilderness we’re asked to endure and walk through is worth it. I testify that He, and He alone, heals and saves. Worship and obedience are beautiful principles, but they were only ever meant to point us to Him because He is the only path to salvation with all of its accompanying goodness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Helaman 1–12 – Mike Parker
Aug 26, 2024
The ministries of Nephi & Lehi; Nephite spiritual decline
(Helaman 1–12)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
What does the mention of concrete in Helaman 3:7 tell us about where the Book of Mormon could have taken place? See Matthew G. Wells and John W. Welch, “Concrete Evidence for the Book of Mormon,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 212–14.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Helaman 1–6 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 24, 2024
Treasure in Heaven
by Autumn Dickson
Helaman had two sons whom he named Nephi and Lehi after their forefathers. He named them this so they could remember the good works of their ancestors and try to follow their examples. Helaman wanted his sons to have constant reminders to do good.
Helaman also taught his sons this:
Helaman 5:8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.
Helaman wanted his sons to do good, but he wanted his sons to do it for the right reasons. When it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the right reasons are indispensable. It is the right reasons that change us and prepare us to actually receive eternal life because it is only through becoming like our Eternal Father that we can experience the kind of life He lives.
Helaman knew this and so he didn’t want his sons to do the right things so that they could boast and be proud of their good works. He wanted them to lay up a treasure in heaven for themselves, namely eternal life. This was an interesting way of phrasing this because some might argue that Helaman was teaching them to do good works so that they could receive a personal reward. Let’s talk about this personal reward so we can discuss what Helaman was truly teaching when he phrased it in this manner.
What is this treasure in heaven?
When we’re discussing the concept of “treasure” in heaven, we have to understand that this is symbolic. Treasure on earth is valuable, but the traditional treasure that we think of will not be valuable in heaven. It’s too plentiful to be valuable. Everyone will receive a healthy, resurrected body. Everyone (except for those few sons of perdition) will be living in a world that’s better than the one we have. Everyone will have what they need to be sustained forever.
So what’s valuable in heaven?
When you do good works, you’re not earning a mansion and an unending supply of gold and jewels and other nonsense. I have a sneaking suspicion that those things will be rather worthless on the other side because of their inability to provide anything for us. Money has its place here and can provide some measure of security, peace, and happiness. However, on the other side, where the Lord has already promised each of us a place in a kingdom that is above anything we’ve experienced here, I’m going to guess that your money is going to be laughable.
No. This treasure is not a reward in that manner.
In fact, I believe that the true treasure is nothing more than a deep realization of how to actually be happy in the context of eternity. That is what’s going to be valuable on the other side. The implications that follow this deep realization are all a part of this treasure in heaven, and when we understand this treasure in heaven, we will understand that Helaman was not encouraging his sons to seek a reward in the traditional, selfish sense.
Valuable treasure in the context of eternity
So let’s cover some of the realities of the context of eternity. We find ourselves in a world more beautiful than the one we’re living in now. Everyone has everything they need as well as perfectly healthy bodies. There is no such thing as having more than another person because every person pretty much gets whatever they want.
The only thing I want to alter about these realities (in order to drive home my point) is the fact that in my scenario, everyone remains exactly who they are.
How would you spend your time if this were your reality? Where would you invest your energy? Obviously, we’re going to spend our energy in a way that makes us happy. How long will your investment bring a return? How long will it take before your investment grows unbearably dull and miserable as you view your unending life?
Real and lasting happiness requires drama and hardship. Nobody wants to watch a movie where the main character goes through nothing, learns nothing, and is just fine for two hours. In real life, having moments of reprieve where nothing is going wrong is absolutely appreciated. But it’s only appreciated because we know what it feels like when things are going wrong. Otherwise, it’s literally just boring. And in the context of eternity, I would imagine it can actually become unbearable.
I’ve watched my sister experience this on a smaller scale recently. She has ten kids. Needless to say, her life has been chaotic and constant movement for years on end. She has finally reached the point where her kids are growing up. They’re all in school. One is married. Another is off at college, and another is on a mission. She found herself in a period of time where she could finally catch up on reading and watching TV, and she definitely took advantage of it. She had solidly earned that reprieve.
But after some time passed, she got bored. She needed a challenge. She needed more than constant downtime. So she enrolled in school again.
Such is the case with eternity but on an even more extreme level. We will have nothing but constant “downtime.” We will need something to challenge us, or things are going to get dreadfully monotonous to the point where we have nothing to live for.
So here comes our Plan of Salvation in which the Lord allows us to have eternal posterity. Here comes our challenge to love and help someone who needs us, someone we can love more than ourselves. Here comes happiness and an appreciation of it.
But in order to take advantage of that potential happiness that is being offered to us, we have to be willing to look outside ourselves and our own needs. In order to be happy in the context of eternity, you have to let go of yourself and be turned outward like our Heavenly Father. That’s the big secret to happiness. That’s the key. That’s the treasure in heaven.
When Helaman teaches his sons to pursue this treasure in heaven, he wants them to learn the value of turning beyond yourself and the best way to learn this principle is to live it. You can read about serving others all day long, but you don’t change into an others-oriented kind of person until you practice what you’ve been taught. We have to act in order to change. Helaman’s sons were being given opportunities to practice turning outward so they could change and be prepared for the reality that was heaven. That was the treasure that was being offered to them.
Eternal life and its true treasure is being surrounded by loved ones and helping others progress. All of that other stuff (healthy bodies, homes, all of our needs met) is going to be wonderful and a necessary part of our eternal happiness, but those things are insufficient for happiness. Look at real-world examples. There are plenty of rich people who are unhappy and plenty of poor people who are happy so it’s not truly about having resources. The valuable treasure available in heaven is the knowledge that forgetting about yourself is where happiness lies, because it is only in forgetting about yourself that you find something worth living for: eternal posterity who can grow and progress.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who lives and loves His eternal life. I testify that He loves us enough to offer it to us. I testify that He has a complete understanding of eternity and that He’s trying to give it to us. I testify that He set up this entire plan, made possible by Jesus Christ, so that we could come down and gain the necessary knowledge and change to be prepared to live like He does. I testify that performing good works presents that specific opportunity to morph into the kind of person who can appreciate eternity.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 53–63 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 17, 2024
To Support and Suffer
by Autumn Dickson
One of the most well-known stories in The Book of Mormon is that of the stripling warriors. Though their story is replete with inspiring stories and principles, I want to actually discuss their fathers, namely the Lamanites converts who changed their name to the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. These Anti-Nephi-Lehies came to dwell with the Nephites, and the Nephites offered them protection as they had taken oaths of pacifism because of their past dealings with violence. When Lamanites came to battle against the Nephites, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies did not participate in the war despite the fact that they were beneficiaries of the bravery of the Nephites.
Consider the whole of the story. These Nephites, who had once been mortal enemies with the Anti-Nephi-Lehies they were now protecting, were going out to war to protect all the people. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies helped support the war effort by helping to provide for the armies; however, before the stripling warriors, they offered up no warriors. The fathers had made an oath not to fight.
Though I would have whole-heartedly supported these Anti-Nephi-Lehies in keeping their covenant of pacifism, I acknowledge that this might have been difficult for some to swallow (maybe it wasn’t hard for anyone, I obviously don’t know because it doesn’t say specifically). I wonder if any Nephite mothers felt unwanted resentment as they sent out their husbands and sons, knowing that the Anti-Nephi-Lehies were not contributing in the same manner. Perhaps, in the minds of some, they felt that it was actually morally wrong that the Anti-Nephi-Lehies wouldn’t contribute similarly in the middle of a war. It wasn’t just about their own deaths; it was about helping to protect Nephite lives as well. We know this wasn’t a completely absent opinion because before the stripling warriors stepped forward, their fathers (who had taken the oath of pacifism) wanted to break their oaths and help fight alongside the Nephites.
I don’t point out this side of the story to cause discontent or even to play devil’s advocate. I point it out so that we can better understand the principle I want to teach today. That principle is found in the following verse. Helaman is writing to Captain Moroni and explaining that he didn’t want the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to break the covenant they had made with God.
Alma 56:8 But I would not suffer them that they should break this covenant which they had made, supposing that God would strengthen us, insomuch that we should not suffer more because of the fulfilling the oath which they had taken.
Because this was a war and because we live in a fallen world, there was going to be suffering and sorrow and loss. However, Helaman testifies of a benevolent God who would not allow the Nephites to suffer more because they had made the decision to protect the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. The Nephites were making a sacrifice, a potentially heavy sacrifice, in order to support someone else following the Lord. And yet, they were not truly going to lose.
There are a lot of modern day applications to this principle. There were sacrifices made by the saints in the early period of this dispensation as they buried family members, lost limbs, and suffered extreme depravities to provide a safe place for the church to grow for the countless people in generations to follow. There are also modern day implications that are likely more relatable because they aren’t a life or death situation. Serving missions, serving in time-heavy callings, and serving in general can take time away from other important priorities. All of the people who choose to answer the call and volunteer when called upon by the Spirit are sacrificing something potentially important, and yet, no one has to truly lose. Not really.
There are two points I’d like to cover.
A supposed sacrifice
Even if we were to end up sacrificing more than we would have otherwise, the Lord has every right to call upon us. I want to look at the idea of sacrifice as if we were truly sacrificing on behalf of others to better highlight the rightness of sacrifice.
I was called to serve in a primary presidency a week before I gave birth to my second child. Our ward had an enormous primary, and each half could hardly fit into the primary room for singing time. Needless to say, there was some time involved in the calling. It wasn’t even necessarily an extreme amount of time. However, as it came at the inopportune moment of delivering my second child, I was feeling a bit bitter. It didn’t help that my postpartum depression raged harder after my second child than with any other child. I felt stretched to the limit in many capacities. Conner’s schedule was absolutely chaotic, and Sunday was the only real day that I could have him home with the family with any kind of regularity. I wanted that time as a family, and I also wanted my nap time that I felt I desperately needed. But alas, Sunday was the only day that worked for the presidency to come together.
I fulfilled my responsibilities, and I believe I did so with a brave face (though it’s hard for me to tell…when I’m depressed, I have a hard time adequately gauging the success of my social endeavors). However, despite the brave face, I was angry and resentful of having this time taken away from me. I didn’t want to leave my house to take care of other kids. I wanted to stay home with my new baby.
I wasn’t even offering up my life like the Nephites, and yet, I felt cheated.
I’m not sure how long it took for my heart to soften enough that the Spirit could chastise me. But I remember walking around, delivering little packages to the primary families in the surrounding neighborhoods, when the Spirit helped me to see the kids who didn’t have what my kids had at home. I was missing out on a couple hours max with my little baby who was safely tucked away at home napping or with dad, but some of the kids that were on my list needed the gospel and they weren’t getting it at home. The Lord needed someone else to bring it to them.
My bitterness dried up quickly as my mind cleared to see the situation accurately. With everything beautiful that had been given to me, how was I to turn my back on the Lord and say He was asking too much? How could I deny these tiny sacrifices that had the potential to bless kids who needed it so badly because of the circumstances they were born into?
Perhaps the Nephites were wiser than me and recognized this. Perhaps they saw that these former Lamanites had been born into circumstances that were harmful. Perhaps the Nephites had their eyes opened, and they were completely taken aback as they recognized the strong spirits who had turned away from their previous traditions because of their immense faith. Perhaps the Nephites saw the situation for what it really was, and because of what they clearly saw, it was easy to make the decision to protect them even when it might have been perceived as “unfair.”
Which leads to my next point.
The Savior didn’t have the same promise but sacrificed anyway
No one has sacrificed more than the Savior. No one has given up what He gave up to save us. If He had been born into our circumstances, He still would have chosen to be perfect. And yet, despite the fact that He didn’t need to operate with the humble understanding that Heavenly Father would have tried to save Him in our circumstances, He still sacrificed. From our viewpoint, we can have the humble realization that we are no better than those we sacrifice for. For His viewpoint, He is better, but that’s not what mattered. What matters is that He loved everyone enough to want them to come home and so He sacrificed accordingly.
He sacrificed for each of us individually. He asks us to be like Him, to let go of what we believe we deserve, to sacrifice on behalf of those who can’t do it for themselves. There was no one to promise the Savior that He wouldn’t have to suffer more for choosing to step up for those who couldn’t step up for themselves. And yet, He did it. And because He did it, He offers us the promise that Helaman testified of, namely that He will not have us truly sacrifice anything that matters when we’re stepping up to sacrifice for another.
I also know this to be true. There have been a million moments in time where I have asked the Lord why He has asked me to do this blog when all I ever wanted to do was be a mother. There have been moments where I have failed my kids because I’ve been sacrificing to try and share these messages. There have been plenty of moments of bitterness where I have felt like He’s asked me to set aside my family in order to fulfill this responsibility He’s asked me to do. When looking at those individual moments, it would be easy to become confused and believe that it’s wrong to make these sacrifices when my priority should be my family. And yet, when you step back and look at the scales that include all of the blessings and sacrifices that have been made, I cannot testify enough that no one has been blessed more than me and my family. So much of what I love about myself has come because of these “sacrifices” I’ve been asked to make, and I know that these powerful beliefs about my Savior and myself will be passed on to my children. Though there are moments of sacrifice, my children will ultimately receive far more than they would have gotten otherwise.
Be willing to make the sacrifice with a willing heart, and you will also find the overwhelming blessings I have found on behalf of yourself and those you love.
The Nephites did not suffer more for being willing to uphold the Anti-Nephi-Lehies as they kept their covenants with God. I know it because I have had the same experience in my small way. The Lord is overwhelmingly good, and when He has asked us to step up and serve on behalf of others, He will turn again and bless us. If we follow Him with all of our hearts, we will never be able to repay Him for what He offers in return.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 43-63 – Mike Parker
Aug 12, 2024
The Zoramite, Amalickiahite & Lamanite Wars
(Alma 43–63)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
This important book examines Book of Mormon warfare from many different aspects, including Mormon₂’s reasons for including these accounts in the text: Warfare in the Book of Mormon, eds. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book / Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990).
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 43–52 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 11, 2024
What You Choose to See
by Autumn Dickson
We have arrived at the war chapters. Within these chapters are plenty of principles that we can still spiritually engage with despite the fact that the events are taking place on a battlefield. During one such battle, Captain Moroni bears his testimony to Zerahemnah (one of the antagonizing military leaders) regarding the protection of the Lord.
He testifies that they have the true faith and that the Lord strengthened and protected them because of their belief and worship. After bearing testimony, he commands Zerahemnah to make an oath that he and his men will never come against the Nephites again. Otherwise they will commence the battle and wipe out the remainder of the men.
Zerahemnah delivers his weapon to Captain Moroni but refuses the oath. Zerahemnah gives this as his reasoning:
Alma 44:9 Behold, we are not of your faith; we do not believe that it is God that has delivered us into your hands; but we believe that it is your cunning that has preserved you from our swords. Behold, it is your breastplates and your shields that have preserved you.
Captain Moroni believes that they won because of their faith. Zerahemnah believes it was because they were good at war. Note that both sentences contain the word “belief.” People can find evidence of whatever they choose to look for. Captain Moroni found evidence of the Lord’s protection, and Zerahemnah did not.
What we choose to see
I taught a man on my mission who had lost his faith. He had grown up a devout Catholic. He attended mass regularly, and after marrying his wife who was a member, he also started attending church meetings with us. He met with us regularly, read The Book of Mormon, and participated in other faith-promoting activities.
And yet, if you were to ask him, he would have maintained that he didn’t feel any faith in God. He had watched a movie that had asked a question, “What if it’s not true?” or something along those lines. That question had stuck with him, and he had not been able to feel faith since.
My companion and I worked over and over and over to teach him to look for those good feelings from God. We wanted so badly for him to find that faith he had lost. There was one evening where the Spirit was so powerful. We had randomly chosen to sing a hymn or primary song (can’t remember which one). He, his wife, my companion, and I found ourselves in tears. It was “thick” in the room.
But still, our friend could not bring himself to attribute it beyond good hormones that were conjured up with beautiful music. He still could not bring himself to see God in it.
I’ve learned since then that faith is a choice, both when it comes to obedience and when it comes to seeing God in our lives.
My friend participated in faith-promoting activities but wasn’t choosing faith; he wanted faith to descend upon him. Where we felt the presence of God, he felt good feelings that didn’t necessarily come from Him. People can look at the same event and draw completely different conclusions.
When I pray about finding my lost keys, I can choose to believe that God helped me find them or that it was a coincidence. When I feel good emotions associated with church, I can believe that the Lord is making His presence known or that I simply have positive pathways built in my brain when it comes to church. When we look at mistakes leaders in the past and present, we can choose to see fallible humans who are still generally led by God or we can see evidence that they can’t really be prophets if they had flaws. When Alma faced off with Korihor, he testified that all of creation was a witness of God. Obviously, there are millions of people throughout history who have come to a completely different conclusion.
The truth remains that you can find “evidence” to support your beliefs no matter which beliefs you ascribe to. I feel that almost most everyone goes through moments in their lives when they ask, “What if it’s not true?” Though these moments can be a little scary, both for ourselves and those we love, these moments can be defining. They can be the threshold in our lives where we really decide where we are going to invest our belief, and that’s incredibly powerful.
We may be tempted to desperately avoid questions such as, “What if it’s not true?” However, rather than avoiding them, we can examine them closely and try to include the Lord we’ve been taught about. We can use it as a testing ground rather than unraveling because we’re afraid of it.
Why should I choose to invest in faith?
So let’s say we’ve reached that threshold. We’ve asked ourselves, “What if we were wrong about everything? What if I was just seeing what I wanted to see?” If you can find “evidence” of whatever you believe in, why should you choose faith?
Unfortunately, this is an extremely personal question that gets handled by the Lord according to each individual. I can only share my experiences.
For a long time, I’m not even sure I had a good reason for choosing to invest in faith because I’m not sure I was consciously choosing it. I was afraid to consider the alternative of leaving the church, and I had found enough goodness and evidence that I felt okay moving forward. I invested in faith because I had been taught to invest in faith. I believed that my good feelings were coming from God because I had been taught to believe. I’m so grateful for that gift.
I’m also grateful that I reached the point where I’ve made my own, conscious choice to continue investing in faith. It was scary facing some of those questions at first, but walking through those low points created an opportunity for me to invest on my faith on purpose, and that has been far more rewarding.
I still receive all those good feelings and quiet moments and associate them with God, but those are not the reasons I choose to keep investing. Those are rewards I receive from investing, but they are not the reasons I continue investing.
I think my most definitive reason for investing right now is how I’ve felt guided. Over the past couple years, I have been watching the Lord guide my prayers before something happened and then watching them be fulfilled before my eyes.
I’ve told the story before, but as we were moving to Virginia, I opened my journal and prayed for absolutely everything I wanted. I left nothing out, no matter how silly or artificial it seemed. At a time when my husband was under immense stress trying to find something we could afford that wasn’t a box in an alley, I was feeling pretty good about everything and asking for whatever I wanted. Sure enough, seven months later, we were led to a temporary home that had every single thing I had asked for. Not to mention, it was given to us at a price that was unheard of, and we did absolutely no work to get it. It quite literally fell into our laps.
I would have been fine if the Lord had given us a tiny apartment without all the extras and I told Him that too, but it was one of those moments where one of the most important lessons He taught me was, “I heard you.” Maybe in and of itself, this can be considered coincidence, but this has been repeated over and over and over.
I pray. I am guided as I pray. Things come together, and I recognize the Lord’s hand because He told me to pray for it. He would likely still bless my family, but because I prayed for it, I was given the tremendous gift of recognizing that He was speaking to me.
Maybe this is how Captain Moroni felt. Maybe Zerahemnah was impressed with their shields, breastplates, and cunning, but maybe Captain Moroni had felt something nagging at him ahead of time to prepare his men in precisely this manner. Then, when he saw everything come together, he quietly thanked the Lord for preparing him ahead of time. Or, maybe Captain Moroni had enough experiences of that manner that he knew the Lord had been guiding them, even if he hadn’t felt any specifics in that particular moment.
Right now, prayer and its results are the reasons I keep investing in faith. I have had other experiences where my prayers have been much shorter and involved far less of my silly, little wants, and I have seen how those prayers were also guided because He led me towards something that I wasn’t expecting. I have had even more experiences where I did pray for everything I wanted, but I felt this little nagging feeling that I wasn’t going to get it. And sure enough, I was led elsewhere.
The Lord could lead me for my entire life without me knowing it. But because He has commanded me to pray, He has been able to guide my feelings ahead of time so that I can recognize Him later. And isn’t that just a beautiful reason to pray? Prayer isn’t about getting what we want. It’s about helping us find our Heavenly Father, and it has surely done that for me.
I testify of Heavenly Father who hears and answers prayers. I testify that He can guide our prayers and feelings if we practice that skill. I testify that He can make Himself known to you should you choose to invest in faith and ask for help in recognizing Him. The experiment surely won’t hurt you. You have nothing to lose by asking Him to help you see Him if He’s really there. The rewards I have personally experienced have gone far beyond what I could have imagined, and I know it all comes from a loving Heavenly Father who loved me because He made me.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 39–42 – Autumn Dickson
Aug 05, 2024
Perspectives on Corianton
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters we’ve been reading lately, Alma is counseling with his sons. We read so many incredible sermons of missionaries and prophets to their people, but these are incredible messages given from father to sons. One of these messages is especially relevant today as Alma talks to his son Corianton. Corianton had been guilty of sexual sin. As the Come Follow Me manual so eloquently puts, it can be hard to know how to help our loved ones when they’ve made a big mistake.
I believe there are a couple of perspectives that can help us when we’re trying to know what to say or how to support. People can feel how you feel about them, even if it’s just subconsciously. If we have the right perspective going into the situation, they will be able to feel how we feel about them, and it will make all the difference in how they perceive whatever words come out of our mouths. There is no perfect way to respond, but if we have a correct knowledge of the Plan of Salvation and an accurate perspective of what we’re really looking at, it can be easier to set aside our own personal feelings and be there for those who need it.
The gravity of certain sins
Here is one of the things that Alma said to Corianton.
Alma 39:5-6
5 Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost?
6 For behold, if ye deny the Holy Ghost when it once has had place in you, and ye know that ye deny it, behold, this is a sin which is unpardonable; yea, and whosoever murdereth against the light and knowledge of God, it is not easy for him to obtain forgiveness; yea, I say unto you, my son, that it is not easy for him to obtain a forgiveness.
So sexual sin is pretty high up there on the list of sins. If we were to weigh the gravity of sins, the most serious would be denying the Holy Ghost (this is a specific sin that most of us aren’t capable of). The second highest is shedding innocent blood, and the third is sexual sin.
A couple of weeks ago, I actually found myself pondering this idea of the gravity of sins (I suppose the Lord was preparing me for this week), and I remember distinctly thinking that it was interesting to find sexual sin right next to murder. Heavenly Father judges us by our hearts, and I want you to consider for a moment the state of the heart of those who murder vs. those who commit sexual sin.
I would wager that those who shed innocent blood have pretty dark hearts. Now compare the hard heart it would require to murder someone vs. the heart that commits sexual sin. I fully recognize that there are plenty of people out there who commit sexual sin with the intent to hurt, and I believe that there will be reckoning for that.
However, consider the hearts of those who made a mistake. Consider the hearts of the young teenagers who found themselves with too much freedom and undeveloped brains. Consider the hearts of two people who are about to get married. Please do not mistake me. I’m not seeking to excuse sin. I’m merely pointing out the difference in the hearts of those who murder and the hearts of those who commit sexual sin in a moment of weakness because there is a difference. Heavenly Father knows this.
So if Heavenly Father is judging us by our hearts, why is sexual sin right up there next to murder?
This is the perspective I wish to share that may help you know how you should approach your loved one. Namely, sometimes the gravity of sin is not weighed by our hearts but by the potential of consequences and the required healing.
A lot of the hearts that commit sexual sin are nowhere near as dark as those that commit murder. And yet, the fact remains. Even if your heart wasn’t dark, the potential for consequences and the need for healing remains. Even if it was a moment of weakness in the midst of a million successful evenings, the consequences can be painful.
The world doesn’t like us teaching the consequences of sin because they believe that we’re trying to scare people into doing what’s right. There are many positive reasons to keep the law of chastity, but it’s not wrong to teach my kids about how sexual sin can hurt them just like there’s nothing wrong with teaching my kid that they can get hit by a car for running out into the road. Having all the information, good and bad, can help our children make the right decisions.
I don’t want to hyperfocus on the consequences because this post isn’t about not committing sexual sin; it’s about having the right perspective to approach those we love. I believe that most adults can easily imagine all the potential consequences of sex, from a baby (and all of the options in that scenario) to how it changes a young brain. So instead let’s focus on how this perspective of hearts can change how we approach our loved ones.
The other side of repentance
Much of repentance is a true recognition of how sin affects us and others. It’s a realization that we don’t want to bring those kinds of results into the world, and it’s about rising above and choosing to live our life on a higher plane.
But the other side of the coin of repentance is healing. It is essential that we don’t neglect this portion of repentance if we truly want our loved ones to live at a higher plane. We don’t want them limping around the rest of their lives, carrying shame in a desperate attempt to not make mistakes anymore. No. We want them to fully heal. If you really want someone to choose the right, one of the most essential ingredients is that they need to feel good about themselves. Punishing myself and hating myself never led me to goodness, just perfectionism and there is a difference. When I learned to love myself, I wanted to treat myself better and take care of myself. Hating myself made it harder to do what was right because I didn’t care what happened to me.
The other positive aspect of healing is that it can nurture a deep appreciation for the Savior. If we can help our loved ones approach the Savior, they’re going to find something way more powerful than anything they can find in this world. At the end (and all throughout!) the repentance process, we want them to be feeling the effects of the Savior and His ability to wash away the darkest of sins. If you want your loved one to do what’s right, you introduce them to the Savior. Introducing them to the Savior means personally recognizing the state of their hearts, their need for healing, and then helping to deliver those things. Their deep gratitude for the Savior offers a deep propulsion to turn around and live happier lives.
The moment we offer love is important
Alma the Younger is the one delivering the message to his son, and this is so perfect. Alma the Younger came to a deep awareness of his sins. When did he start to feel better? The second he reached for Christ. His sins were washed away, and he praised the Lord. The Lord didn’t wait to deliver His love and healing and acceptance until after Alma went out and started trying to make up for his sins. No. The Lord flooded Alma with His love the second Alma’s heart was prepared to receive it, and because Alma was flooded with that love, Alma wanted to go out and do what was right.
The order of that is important. I feel like sometimes we want to withhold our love because we want them to feel the consequences of what they’ve done to discourage them from making those mistakes again. Ironically, it often comes from a place of love because we want them to be better. Unfortunately, it’s also coming from a place of fear which isn’t as helpful. Consequences can be a great way to not repeat mistakes, but only to an extent.
Think about how the Savior does it (because He obviously does it perfectly). He wields consequences, but He usually does so in response to hard hearts as He tries to soften them. He often responds to soft hearts with love, and that love changes them and turns their lives around. And let’s review what we know about the hearts of those who commit sexual sin. Yes, there are those who have hard hearts, but there are many who have made mistakes and need love instead if we want them to heal and come back from those mistakes.
Love immediately. Put yourself on their team immediately. Recognize that they’re going to experience consequences regardless of whether you deliver them yourself, and recognize where their hearts are sitting. You can help them understand the gravity if necessary, but in most scenarios, they’re already going to know and feel it.
What they don’t know is whether you still love them and whether you’ll still accept them. Helping them feel loved and accepted will be a precursor to their ability to let the Savior in to love, accept, and heal them to the extent that they are changed and want to be better.
I believe in a Savior who understands the consequences of sin. I believe that sexual sin can cause a great amount of heartache which is why the Lord seeks to protect us from it. I also believe that the Lord wants to heal and love, especially when we’re seeking, and I believe that allowing that love and healing throughout the entire process is more effective than sharp disapproval, cold shoulders, and fear. Love them so much that they love themselves and want better for themselves. Love them so much that they catch a glimpse of the Savior’s love and are able to accept His atonement on their behalf.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 36–42 – Mike Parker
Jul 29, 2024
Alma’s counsel to his sons Helaman, Shiblon, & Corianton
(Alma 36–42)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
Alma₂’s testimony in Alma 36 is one of the longest and most complex examples of chiasmus in the Book of Mormon; it is a poetic and literary masterpiece. See See John W. Welch, “A Masterpiece: Alma 36,” in Rediscovering the Book of Mormon, eds. John L. Sorenson and Melvin J. Thorne (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 114–31.
Michael R. Ash, “The Sin ‘Next to Murder’: An Alternative Interpretation,” Sunstone 143 (November 2006): 34–43. Mike Ash argues that the serious offense for which Alma₂ chastised his son Corianton was not sexual sin (although that, in itself, is serious), but rather destroying their testimonies of the Zoramites₂ through his bad example. In effect, Corianton committed “spiritual murder.” See also “KnoWhy #147: Why Was Corianton’s Sin So Serious?,” Book of Mormon Central, last modified 20 July 2016. For the doctrinal reasons behind the seriousness of sexual sin, see Jeffrey R. Holland’s 12 January 1988 BYU address, “Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments.”
In 1856 Brigham Young delivered an address in Salt Lake City in which he discussed, at length, the location of the post-mortal spirit world. See Journal of Discourses 3:367–73.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 36–38 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 27, 2024
Diligence is Underrated
by Autumn Dickson
There was a period in my life where my stress levels grew to problematic levels that were consuming me. I was experiencing some postpartum depression, and that was combined with responsibilities that threatened to drown me. I was tired all of the time. I was waking up at the crack of dawn with a toddler (after waking up with the baby throughout the night), and I would move from task to task to task to task until as late as 10:00 pm. This was compounded by health problems that I started experiencing. For weeks on end (maybe even a few months), it felt like there wasn’t a reprieve. There wasn’t any time to pull my head above water for a breath. Conner was swamped with his own work, and so we were both just surviving.
My sweet mother kept telling me to simplify my life, and I truly tried to do so. I looked at what tasks were filling my day and genuinely considered which of those tasks could be dropped. I wanted to simplify my life, but there really wasn’t anything that I could let go of. I was taking care of small children and all the endless tasks that required. I was making sure my house was a sanitary enough place even if it wasn’t always tidy. My health problems grew better when I started cutting out certain ingredients, but that meant I had to cook a lot of things from scratch which was also time consuming. I couldn’t give up my kids or all the tasks associated with them. I couldn’t give up the extra cooking unless I wanted to have chronic pain again. We didn’t have the resources at the time to take on some of my tasks. The only thing I could really give up was the blog.
But alas, the Lord said no. Quite forcefully actually. I even asked one too many times, and He essentially answered with, “Stop asking or you’re crossing over into disobeying Me.” So I stopped asking, but I remained frustrated. I felt like He didn’t care that I was destroying myself. Every once in a while, I would feel a whisper that I didn’t have to destroy myself; He would enable me to do what I needed to do without carrying the weight of the world.
For some bizarre reason that I don’t understand, I didn’t listen. I suppose I didn’t trust Him sufficiently yet. I felt like I had to carry myself because no one else would pick up the slack.
It would have been easy for Him to remove my stress and let things flow easily. He could have minimized other tasks quite easily for me or brought in resources that would have enabled me to delegate tasks. Some might even believe it was cruel that He simply watched me struggle for so long; there were definitely times that I subconsciously thought so.
But the Lord wasn’t there to make my life easy. Honestly, I see now that He was wise enough to let me push myself until I broke. He knew that there was no other way to soften my heart and help me learn those lessons the easy way. So He let me suffer in my bullheadedness, and He waited to teach me a lesson that would change how I lived the rest of my life.
I know that comparatively, I was blessed. However, I also know that I’m not the only one who feels like they’re being run ragged while trying to do everything they’re supposed to be doing. I know I’m not the only one who has been afraid of failing if I didn’t martyr myself. I know that each of us will have to go through periods in our life where we have to learn to trust the Lord with what needs to be accomplished.
Helaman is given a responsibility
Alma has a son named Helaman, and this week, we read the chapter where he passes the sacred responsibility of the plates down to his son. He admonishes his son to treat them with gravity, to be steadfast in his obedience to the Lord so that he could fulfill the responsibility which he was given.
Over and over and over in Alma 37, we learn about a small principle that can make a big difference in our life. Let’s start with this verse.
Alma 37:20 Therefore I command you, my son Helaman, that ye be diligent in fulfilling all my words, and that ye be diligent in keeping the commandments of God as they are written.
Diligence is a remarkably underrated Christlike attribute. It’s definitely not one of the first qualities I think of when it comes to Christ, but it has made a surprisingly large difference.
According to Preach My Gospel, “Diligence is steady, consistent, earnest, and energetic effort in doing the Lord’s work.” I have learned that the Lord doesn’t ask for some all-consuming, overwhelming effort that completely takes over our lives; He asks for diligence. Diligence is an act of faith where we show up with willingness, and the Lord helps us do what we need to do.
When I finally hit my breaking point in my stress, I turned to the Lord. I told Him I would do what He wanted me to do, and I told Him that if everything totally failed and died, I couldn’t be blamed. I had given everything I felt I could give, and if it wasn’t good enough, well…then that was just too bad. I didn’t have anything else.
The Lord taught me that I wasn’t giving everything; I was withholding my trust. Accurately practicing diligence also requires a faith that He can quicken our abilities, magnify our efforts, and bring miracles where we fall short.
Another phrase found in this chapter is, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings…” So that’s what I did. Every morning, I would wake up, look at my to-do list, smirk at the fact that there was not enough time in the day, and then I would tell the Lord to tell me what He wanted.
For a while, I had the training wheels on. For a short period of time, I felt guided in every section of my day. I knew when I needed to fold laundry, when it would be wisest to work on the blog, and when I needed to let go of responsibilities and focus on my kids. I even felt very deliberate pushes to rest, nap, or read a book. He gave me way more breaks than I had given myself.
And you know what happened? It all got done. When I needed to work on the blog, the kids would miraculously play well together, and I wasn’t a constant referee. Somehow dinner made it onto the table, and my kids got an occasional bath. I had the same tasks, and sometimes the tasks still lasted into the night, but the weight was gone. I had hit my breaking point and so I finally handed the weight over to the Lord; I physically couldn’t carry that anymore so I handed Him my trust.
I still have lots to do, but the weight is gone. The stress is gone. I guess I should be careful saying that because I’m still imperfect and get tired and fall back into old neurotic habits, but it’s not killing me anymore.
A couple lessons
I have seen this principle of diligence take on many forms. I have learned that diligence looks different at different times in my life.
For a while, when I was really overwhelmed, it looked like the Lord guiding my day to know which activities to perform. Sometimes it looked like me closing my laptop because I was beating my head against a wall, and I knew that the Lord would give me what I needed when He was good and ready. There was no need to force it.
Right now, it looks like a goal and a prayer. When I found out I was pregnant again and needed to be preparing extra videos for when the baby came, I made a goal with God about how much I would work on it. I do my best to hit that goal, and I pray hard that my diligence will be sufficient and that He will help me finish what I need to do in the time I’ve been given. Under normal circumstances, I’m not sure I would be investing enough time. Under my current, miraculous circumstances, I feel like the Lord is going to bring a miracle I need. So even when I worry about deadlines, I remind myself that He has the power to accomplish whatever needs to happen in the time He has given me. I don’t have to carry that weight because He does.
Another way I saw it manifested is when I recently got called to teach Youth Sunday School. I was pumped, but that also meant more gospel study on top of the other messages I was already trying to prepare. When our bishop came to ask me, he spoke about how he had found himself immersed in the scriptures for way longer than he had ever been. He talked about how he felt a deep need to prepare and do his best for these kids. I smiled as I thought about the very individual lesson that the Lord was teaching him.
And rather than putting pressure on myself to spend multiple hours a week preparing lessons for the youth, I had a testimony that the Lord could work with the time I had. I spend about an hour a week preparing the lessons for the kids, but I’m constantly immersing myself in the scriptures and trying to be worthy of the Spirit. Even if I can’t dedicate seven hours to their specific lesson, my spiritual diligence in general counts towards preparation for them.
The principle of diligence evolves and looks different at different times in our lives. Sometimes, He’s telling me to stop being idle. Other times, He’s telling me to stop trying to carry the weight by myself. I can do the tasks without carrying the immense pressure. When I work in this manner, I find that I can still get everything done that I need to and the tasks are much more fulfilling because they don’t feel like they’re killing me.
It’s on Him
The task that was given to Helaman was not an easy one. He was asked to engrave the records of the people on the plates. I’m sure this was not the only responsibility Helaman had, and I highly doubt he was getting paid for it. Think about all the tasks Helaman must have had to just survive in a pre-electricity world, not to mention his other extra religious duties. This was an extra responsibility that was given to him by his father. Despite the extra task he had been given, his father also gave him this promise:
Alma 37:16 But if ye keep the commandments of God, and do with these things which are sacred according to that which the Lord doth command you…behold, no power of earth or hell can take them from you, for God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words.
There are a couple of keys here. If you do what the Lord commands (not what you command or society commands or outward pressures command), then no power of earth or hell can stand against you. God will help you do the task He has given to you. Whether it’s acquiring the brass plates or finding time to invest in extra responsibilities, He will provide a way for you to accomplish the thing He commands. You will have what you need if you diligently show up with willingness.
So be diligent. Show up regularly and allow Him to work with you. Give the pressure to Him because He’s the one truly doing the work anyway, and small means will show you marvelous works.
I know that the Lord can move mountains through me. I know that He can help me find out ways to carve time into my schedule. I know that He can help me know how much time is sufficient. I know that He can help me accomplish the tasks He’s given to me, and that it doesn’t have to be at the detriment of my health or the happiness of my family. I know that I can trust Him to bring the miracle if I’m simply willing to diligently show up and be utilized.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 32–35 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 22, 2024
Nourish Belief
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we find the well-known sermon taught by Alma about planting a seed of faith and nourishing the tree. Alma is approached by the poorer class of people who have been cast out of the synagogues because of their coarse clothing. Alma then begins to preach unto them, teaching them about worship and belief. Here is the beginning of the analogy he teaches to the people.
Alma 32:28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.
When you nurture a seed of belief, it grows within you, whatever it is that you choose to nurture. I believe that many of us read this sermon and apply it to our own faith, but I’m not sure how many of us have recognized the implications for belief in general. A sentiment I often hear is that it’s arrogant to believe you have the real truth when so many others believe the same thing about their own faith.
One of the principles I pull from this verse is that what you nurture grows. My husband often talks about how most people don’t know whether what they believe is true. They believe, but they don’t know. He talks about how any time you take time to nourish belief, that’s where you’ll continue to build and find evidence of your beliefs. You find what you look for. If you invest and nurture belief in pretty much any positive belief system, you’re going to find “evidence” for what you believe.
This has a million implications.
All truth will find a tree
One of the implications is the fact that all truth produces good fruit, not just truth that is directly taught by those within the restored gospel.
We believe we have found the truth in Jesus Christ. However, people who belong to the Islamic faith also believe they have found the truth. They have nurtured their belief and found good-tasting fruit in those beliefs.
When we look at it from the perspective of the seed analogy, it makes complete sense. Whatever bit of truth you’ve found, you’re going to find good-tasting fruit. There was a time on my mission where we knocked on the door of a Muslim family. They invited us in, fed us, and they even took The Book of Mormon. They weren’t interested in the gospel, but they were so kind. They asked if we had any rules about the book, whether it should be kept off the ground or anything like that because they wanted to respect something that was sacred to us.
If they treated most of the things in their lives the way they treated us, of course they were going to find good-tasting fruit. If you’re respectful to others, you find fulfilling relationships and that feels good. That’s just how things work. And as these people practiced these good principles, they were going to find the same blessings. In my mind, they were practicing Christlike principles even if they didn’t yet know Christ, and He still rewarded them and blessed them for that.
Because they were living their lives in a good manner, they were going to find good fruit. They were going to find “evidence” that their beliefs were producing something, and so they were going to continue to invest in those beliefs.
This may feel extremely confusing for some. How are we supposed to find the truth, if any bit of truth that gets nurtured grows into good-tasting fruit? If everyone is tasting good fruit within their own religions, how are we supposed to differentiate who has the truth? This is a legitimate concern. It would make things a bit more confusing if you’re trying to look for the truth. However, look at the Lord’s alternative.
What if He only helped the tree grow when it was a perfect seed? What if He only sent good fruit when we had every bit of truth rather than just a portion of it?
This would be disastrous for a million reasons. I grew up in the church, and my seed (my understanding of the truth) still isn’t perfect. What if He had never let any of the tree grow because my seed wasn’t perfect? What if I had never tasted anything good because my seed wasn’t perfect? The consequences would be disastrous because nobody would ever take the time to nourish anything. If I had never had good experiences with the gospel, I wouldn’t have nurtured anything. I would only have a dormant seed.
In another less-extreme, alternative plan from the Lord…what if He only let your tree grow within the restored gospel?
Surely, this would help people recognize the truth when they found it more easily. No one would get confused about other religions if their religions weren’t producing fruit. However, would anyone seek religion at all? Can you imagine if no one got good fruit unless they had been taught the restored gospel? Once again, the results would be disastrous. The world would be a terrible place filled with people who had never tasted good fruit and probably wouldn’t be willing to try it even if it was offered to them because life would suck.
No, the Lord chose to send good fruit to anyone who was nurturing any bit of truth. It was the only legitimate way to bring as much good into the world as possible. It gave His restored church the best chance to flourish, and it would give people the best chance to find it in comparison to never receiving good fruit at all. Sure, it sometimes makes things confusing as people find good fruit and “evidence” in all sorts of different churches, but the alternative option for the Lord was worse.
And that’s actually another reason I love our beliefs so much. The Lord picked the best option for this fallen world (namely sending good fruit to anyone who nurtured any goodness). This had some tricky consequences because of our fallen world; namely, it made it a little more confusing to find the truth when everyone found evidence within their own good beliefs. However, we believe in the Plan of Salvation. We believe in a perfect God who allows all of His children to truly hear and accept the gospel. Everyone will get a real chance. We don’t have to be scared of the tricky consequences because we believe in a perfectly fair God who sent His Son to perform the atonement and make sure we all really had a chance to go home.
Planting weeds
There is another implication to the idea that whatever we nurture, grows. This isn’t just true for good truth and good fruit. Nourishing the negative will bring in bad fruit. If you nurture weeds, they grow. Eventually, you don’t even have to nurture them anymore, they stick around all on their own. And weeds are tricky, tricky little things.
What have you been nurturing lately? What resources have you been bringing into your life and do you feel more faith or discontent when you’re done utilizing those resources?
Whatever you feed, grows.
There was a time in my life where I was consuming far more social media than spending time in the actual scriptures. This doesn’t have to necessarily be a bad thing; social media doesn’t have to be evil. However, I found that I was listening to lots of voices. Some of those voices even came in the form of members of the church, but they were sowing discontent.
I took a step back from some of the accounts I was following and made a goal to spend more time simply reading The Book of Mormon with no outside commentary. The faith crisis I had been feeding went away rather quickly, and I found that despite my questions and concerns, I felt different. I felt more compassion towards the imperfections. I felt more faith towards a more perfect future. I fed my hope.
What you feed, grows.
Some may argue with me that I was unwise to turn a blind eye towards issues, and that’s fine. I don’t feel blind; I just feel more faith. There are some who believe we have a duty to churn up the issues and make our voices known about it. That’s fine too. You can choose to feed that.
But my personal experience is this. I wasn’t happy listening to the discontent. It wasn’t right for me. There are times when I listen and explore and turn to the Lord with concerns (and that’s important and can lead us to more truth), but there are also times when that discontent grows out of balance. I’m happier seeking out faith over bitterness and discontent. I’m happier when I feed my faith sufficiently. I feel close to God, and my testimony that He’s there seems to grow stronger. I know we find evidence of what we’re nurturing, but I like what I’ve built and worked towards. I like what I’ve nurtured, and I like the fruit I’ve found. I believe it’s a happy way to live.
So picture your future. What do you want your life to look like? What fruit do you want to be experiencing? Do you want to feel closer to God? Are the resources you’re using nurturing that belief in Him?
By their fruits, ye shall know them.
I believe in my Heavenly Father. I believe there’s a reason we’re counseled to seek out voices of faith, and I have found more faith and more happiness as I’ve listened to that counsel. I have found that I want to nurture what I’ve been finding even more. I believe in a loving Lord who provides fruit to help us understand what we want to nurture, and I’m grateful He’s chosen to give good fruit for any goodness we choose to follow. It isn’t a perfect system, but it’s the best plan He could have chosen for our fallen world, and I believe that He sent His Son to make up for the gaps in that imperfect system. I’m grateful for Them and the peace I’ve received investing in Them.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 30-35 – Mike Parker
Jul 15, 2024
Alma contended with Korihor & led a mission to reclaim the Zoramites
(Alma 30–35)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
Who were the separatist Zoramites₂ and where did they come from? Sherrie Mills Johnson suggests some answers to those questions in “The Zoramite Separation: A Sociological Perspective,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 74–85, 129–30.
Matthew L. Bowen, assistant professor in religious education at Brigham Young University–Hawaii, has argued that the syllable ram—found in both the names Zoram and Rameumptom—could come from the Hebrew for “the one who is high/exalted,” which fits both the Zoramites₂’ pride and the high tower upon which they prayed. See his article, “‘See That Ye Are Not Lifted Up’: The Name Zoram and Its Paronomastic Pejoration,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 19 (2016): 109–43.
Which spirit is the “spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life”? (Alma 34:34) See John A. Tvedtnes and Matthew Roper, “Do Not Procrastinate the Day of Your Repentance,” Insights 20, no. 10 (October 2000): 4.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 30–31 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 14, 2024
Hearts of the Zoramites
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, we read an interesting account about some Nephite dissenters known as Zoramites. These Zoramites had stopped following the Law of Moses and taken to a new form of worship that astonished Alma and the other missionaries. Once a week, on the “day of the Lord,” the Zoramites would gather at the synagogues they had erected. Then, they would all take turns standing up and reciting the same prayer. After this worship experience, they would head home, never speaking of their worship again until the next time they gathered in the synagogues. Here is some of the prayer they would recite:
Alma 31:16-17
16 Holy God, we believe that thou hast separated us from our brethren; and we do not believe in the tradition of our brethren, which was handed down to them by the childishness of their fathers; but we believe that thou hast elected us to be thy holy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that there shall be no Christ.
17 But thou art the same yesterday, today, and forever; and thou hast elected us that we shall be saved, whilst all around us are elected to be cast by thy wrath down to hell; for the which holiness, O God, we thank thee; and we also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God.
Many of us scoff at the idea of the Rameumpton, this great standing place where each of the Zoramites would offer the same prayers. And yet, are we really so different? Observe some of the actual problems these Zoramites were dealing with. The concept of rote prayers was not actually the problem; we have plenty of ordinances and ceremonies that are to be performed with the same words over and over.
No, the actual problems of the Zoramites were found within their hearts. For example, they only thought about God once a week. Their hearts were set on money. They didn’t believe in Christ. They believed they were special, better than others because they believed they had the truth.
All of us are guilty of these issues to one extent or another, and if you think you’re not, then you should probably pray for the Lord to open your eyes. Do we keep Heavenly Father in our minds, allowing Him to participate with us throughout the week? Do we set our hearts too heavily on things that can’t fulfill us? Do we believe in Christ to the fullest extent in which it influences all of our actions, uplifts all of our worries, and turns our hearts towards others?
And then, of course, there’s the last one. The Zoramites believed they were better because they believed they had the truth. Hmmm. This is the one we’re going to talk about today. We believe we have the truth. Our doctrine is pretty straightforward and frequently taught. We believe that the Lord restored the true gospel and true authority through Joseph Smith. We believe we belong to Christ’s church.
Do we also believe we’re better because of it? Our jerk reaction may be to say no! Logically, we may understand that we’re not better, but has that understanding penetrated our hearts to the extent that we see others clearly?
There are many ways that this particular attitude can manifest. It can manifest in how we treat others who belong to other systems of belief, in how we approach missionary work. It can manifest in our attitudes regarding whether we can learn from other belief systems and whether we recognize the Christlike attributes of those who do not yet know Christ.
Interestingly enough, it can also manifest within our own system of belief. Sometimes we believe we have more truth, more understanding, and more obedience than those who share our same faith. “More” is a relative term that can cause lots of problems. It can be difficult to measure “more,” not to mention, there are millions of different experiences that offer new perspectives and require varying levels of strength. Let’s talk about it.
Inside the church
Sometimes, we think we’re better because we see ourselves as living the gospel more accurately than others. Even if this is true in regards to observing the outward performances and standards of the church, our hearts are going to be what’s judged at the last day. And if we’re harboring and inadvertently nurturing thoughts that we’re better (rather than actively fighting against and rooting out those beliefs), then we’re going to be the ones with a problem.
There was a point in my mission where some of my mission leaders weren’t being exactly obedient. None of us are perfectly obedient; I understand that concept. However, I had noticed the issues and I also saw that some of the other non-leader missionaries had noticed the issues. I remember it being difficult. Some of these missionaries were trying to be really obedient and were meeting minimal “success.” They watched their leaders baptizing often enough and training them in our frequent meetings, but they also watched their leaders doing things we had been asked not to do.
I remember taking this problem to the Lord. I was angry. These non-leader missionaries were righteous missionaries who felt like they were being swept aside even though they were trying hard to do what’s right. These were righteous missionaries who had started asking, “Why bother?” when their leaders weren’t even following the rules and seemed to be met with success.
This was actually a huge turning point in my life. I was filled with what I believed to be righteous indignation towards these leaders who were being bad examples. As I opened the scriptures for my personal study, I found that I was about to read the story of the stripling warriors. I was a little excited because I felt justified in my anger as I thought about the exact obedience of these young soldiers.
But boy was I in for a different lesson than I was expecting.
As I read the story about these young men, the Spirit rather forcefully whispered to me that if these missionary leaders had been in the position of the stripling warriors, we would be reading the same story. They would have been exactly obedient. My eyes filled with tears as the Spirit also whispered that I had no idea what some of these missionaries had sacrificed to go on a mission. I was floored.
Who was I to think I was better? I had happily married parents (which actually makes all the difference in the world). I had been actively taught the gospel and protected from nefarious influences as I was growing up. I didn’t have much trauma. I wasn’t worried about my family back home and whether they were okay. I had never struggled to overcome serious sin because I hadn’t even really had an opportunity to commit serious sin. The gospel was handed to me on a silver platter. I was given a lovely environment to learn about it and love it. A huge majority of my experiences with the gospel were positive.
What these missionary leaders had chosen to do of their own accord with minimal support was awe-inspiring. They had pushed much harder and farther than I had ever had to push. They had to build up a strength that had never been required of me.
And this happens all the time. When a youth has a difficult time being reverent, when an adult is rough around the edges, we can be guilty of this. We think they should know better. We scoff that they can’t get it together. And yet, we never stop to consider how we would be acting if we had grown up in their shoes with their perspectives and experiences.
This doesn’t mean we treat them kindly and then feel proud of ourselves for being charitable to people who we’re actually viewing as lesser. No. This means we pray for eyes to see them clearly and step back as the Lord shows us what we couldn’t see on our own.
The tricky part
Now this is all a little bit tricky. We’re taught to share our light, to love those who need support, and to share the message of repentance. All of these messages can intrinsically hold some measure of, “I’m better than you and need to share all of my righteousness with you.” This is exactly the attitude that turns so many people off.
So how do we accurately apply these principles of sharing our own light while simultaneously sloughing off attitudes that we’re so great?
I have 1000% been guilty of this sin. I have worked to reach out to those who weren’t as “strong” and been proud of myself for being compassionate and giving them all of this fantastic advice about being more righteous. There has been one understanding that has really helped me work towards casting out this inaccurate attitude.
This understanding can easily be defined as, “I don’t really know. Maybe I think I know, but I don’t really know.”
In a more concrete analogy, this would be like looking at someone next to me at the gym and assuming I’m stronger because I’ve done more reps. It would be me arrogantly walking over to encourage them that they can do more reps, faster reps, and still have plenty of energy like me. Awakening to a proper understanding of the world around me would look like the realization that this person I was trying to bless is actually lifting five times the weight that I’ve been lifting.
There are times when it’s appropriate to correct. Even when someone is lifting ten times your body weight, it can still be helpful to tell them that locking their knees isn’t going to help. However, the delivery feels so different when you simultaneously have the realization and respect that’s due for what they’re carrying. I think it’s also helpful to recognize that sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is realize and respect what they’re carrying.
I had another mission leader who used to do exchanges with us. At the end of exchanges, you’re supposed to tell the missionary what they’re doing wrong and then also encourage them a ton in what they’re doing right. This sister missionary was likely very wise when she taught me that she rarely told people what they were doing wrong. In her words, “People already know what they’re doing wrong. You don’t usually have to tell them.”
I have found this to be true. There will be times when you’re encouraged by the Spirit to correct. However, I believe that a grand majority of the time, you’re going to find you’re more effective at helping someone when you genuinely seek out their friendship with a deep and abiding knowledge that they’re children of God, regardless of whether they’re different from you. Not only are you more effectively helping them, but you’ll find that your life is much more blessed and full for having known them and learning from their example too. I have found that if I’m applying this principle correctly, I feel like I’m the one who’s blessed for knowing them and not the other way around.
I believe in a Savior who loves us. I believe in a Savior who judges perfectly according to our experiences and gifts. I believe that if we can recognize and cast out our own attitudes that reflect the Zoramites, we’re going to find a much fuller life because we’re going to be blessed by people we didn’t know we could be blessed by.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 23–29 – Autumn Dickson
Jul 06, 2024
He Relentlessly Pursues Us
by Autumn Dickson
In chapters 24 and 25 of Alma, we read about the details of a war between the Lamanites, Nephites, and the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi. Let’s cover the timeline of this story so we can pull out details of how the Lord works with His people.
In chapter 24 of Alma, we see the Lamanites originally coming upon the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi. These converts of Anti-Nephi-Lehi had buried their weapons and as they were being slain, they raised their hands and praised the Lord. Over a thousand of these converts were slain before the Lamanites pulled back and couldn’t do it anymore. All of them stopped killing the converts, but there were still two different reactions among these aggressors.
More than a thousand of the Lamanites were so affected that they joined the church that day. First of all, that experience in and of itself is mind boggling, both on the part of the killed and those doing the killing. Let’s say you’re in the group that was attacked; you’re watching a thousand of your family members and friends being killed. The second the killing stops, you jump in to help comfort, teach, convert, and welcome those who had been killing. Wild. I also think it’s wild that so many of those who were doing the killing were able to jump so quickly into redemption. It’s hard to forgive yourself, but these guys did it and it’s remarkable.
But there was also a second group of Lamanites. These guys couldn’t stomach the idea of killing the defenseless people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi any longer, but their hearts were still hard. In verse 1 of chapter 25, we learn that they decided to direct their anger towards the Nephites instead. I want you to try and comprehend the switch. These Lamanite hearts are soft enough that they can’t handle killing someone stretched out on the ground before them, but their hearts are still hard enough that they can’t let go of their anger. I would imagine this is partially because they can’t bring themselves to accept the reality of what just happened. The Lamanites were raised as a wild and bloodthirsty people, but sin always affects the sinner. These experiences stayed with the Lamanites and facing the reality of what they had done to the converts was probably harder than redirecting their anger towards a different group of people who would fight back.
So that’s what they did. They turned their anger to the Nephites and were like, “Yeah. This was definitely all the fault of the Nephites. Let’s get vengeance on them instead.” Their hearts were still too hard to break unto the Lord; their hearts were hard enough that they still felt that killing was the answer.
As the Lamanites turned to the Nephites, they killed all the wicked people in Ammonihah before being driven back again and again. They could not overpower the Nephites, and so we find this experience next.
Alma 25:6 For many of them, after having suffered much loss and so many afflictions, began to be stirred up in remembrance of the words which Aaron and his brethren had preached to them in their land; therefore they began to disbelieve the traditions of their fathers, and to believe in the Lord, and that he gave great power unto the Nephites; and thus there were many of them converted in the wilderness.
Many of the leftover Lamanites converted as well.
There are only a bajillion principles in this timeline ranging from forgiveness and charity to the merits of defending yourself vs. pacifism according to the will of the Lord. I can’t cover them all so the one I want to cover today is summed up nicely in the words of Elder Patrick Kearon in his conference address from this last April.
God is in relentless pursuit of you.
How many chances qualify as sufficient?
There were three chances (that we know of) that this last group of Lamanites received to accept the gospel.
The first chance came in the land of Nephi. Ammon, Aaron, and their brethren came to the Lamanite lands to preach the gospel. Many converted, and it would have likely been impossible to miss the surge of religious fervor in the area. These Lamanites had been given a chance to hear the gospel and accept it. We know that they heard some of the message because in the verse we read (Alma 25:6), it talks about how they remembered the words of Aaron. Though many joined the church, there were still plenty who rejected it.
The second chance came after they literally went to war with the converts who had come to be known as Anti-Nephi-Lehies. Not only did they reject the gospel, but many Lamanites actively sought against it. Think about the state of their hearts. They killed one thousand and five converts who were laid out on the ground in front of them. The people they killed were praising God as they were slaughtered. Think about what you understand of war and what it requires to actually kill someone. Then think about how much more it would require of a man to stab a defenseless person with a sword because you were mad that they had joined a church. So much of war these days is impersonal, bombs dropped where you can’t see the people you’re affecting. Even shooting a gun is less personal than having to use a sword.
I don’t bring up these facts to be gruesome. I bring them up because I want to highlight the state of the hearts of these Lamanites; understanding how far “gone” they were can help us understand just how much the Lord pursues us. I mean, we get discouraged when our friends don’t accept a copy of The Book of Mormon or an invitation to church. These Lamanites were killing, and yet, the Lord didn’t abandon or give up on them. The Lord relentlessly pursued their souls despite everything they had done, despite the state of their hearts and their willingness to kill.
There came a point where even the most hardened Lamanites couldn’t kill any more defenseless people. It was too much. A large number of these Lamanite hearts broke as they acknowledged that the killing they had participated in was wrong, and the Lord was standing there, ready to forgive and heal them from the trauma they had brought on their own heads.
The Lord brought them in and worked with them as soon as they were ready for it. As soon as they were ready to join hands with those who had been their “enemies,” as soon as they were ready to look into the faces of the family members of the people they killed, the Lord was ready to gather them in. I also find it beautiful that the family members of the murdered were standing ready to be the hands of the Lord and welcome them in, to show these broken Lamanites just how far the Lord was willing to go for them.
But the story doesn’t even end there! Though many of the Lamanite hearts broke unto the Lord, there were still many who refused to acknowledge that maybe they were on the wrong side here. There were many who refused to consider that maybe they were only hurting themselves by continuing to kick against the pricks.
Their hearts were still hard! They could no longer stomach the idea of killing defenseless, happy people, but they refused to let go of their anger and hard hearts. Instead, they just decided to go and kill the Nephites because apparently that made loads of sense to them. They couldn’t kill the converts anymore, so they decided that all this apparently revolting (in their eyes) religious conversion was definitely the fault of the Nephites so they decided to go and kill some more.
The combination of Aaron’s warnings and being beaten down by Nephites finally did it for them. Their hearts finally softened and broke, and they finally considered that maybe they had been looking at the entire situation wrong. And there was the Lord, ready to accept them into the folds through the medium of baptism.
If you were in the Lord’s shoes (exactly as you are, not perfect like Him but as you are now), when would you have given up on these Lamanites? When would you have said, “Okay. Enough is enough. I’m done trying to save you; you refuse to be saved.”
In the midst of all this overwhelming tragedy, this one principle screams through. The Lord’s love for us runs deeper than we can truly fathom, and He absolutely, unendingly, relentlessly pursues us. We may give up, but He does not.
Even when it seems like the end, His actions are still demonstrative of His relentless pursuit. As the Lamanites suited up for war against the converts, many of us would have believed, “They’re placing the last nail in their own coffins.” As the killing began, our hearts would have broken for those who were being killed and maybe even for the Lamanites who were hurting themselves. We would have thought, “Surely, they can’t come back from this.” We would have been floored with surprise as many of them threw down their own weapons in their first act of conversion, and hopefully would have cried surprised tears of joy as they entered the waters of baptism.
As we watched the rest of the Lamanites angrily march off to go and kill Nephites instead, we would have thought, “Okay if that experience didn’t change them, they’re never going to change.”
We would have given up, but the Lord never does. Where we saw acts of rebellion that surely announced the bull-headed desire to be damned, the Lord saw opportunities for the Lamanites to finally figure it out. When Satan started to rejoice over the powerful hold he had over the Lamanites, the Lord was just warming up and utilized all of Satan’s chains to wake them up.
We are not the Lord, but let’s not forget the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies, more than any other group, held a balm for these broken-hearted Lamanites that sealed their budding conversion. These converts, who had been changed themselves, believed that the Lamanites could change and welcomed them into their homes and families. The Lord loved and relentlessly pursued, and He utilized the Anti-Nephi-Lehies as one of the extensions of that love. He can likewise utilize us.
I testify of a Lord who never gives up, and I testify that if we choose to offer the same grace, compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance towards our enemies, we will find greater peace than we ever thought possible.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 17-29 – Mike Parker
Jul 01, 2024
The Lamanite mission of the sons of Mosiah
(Alma 17-29)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the content for the next two weeks.)
Cutting off the arms of one’s enemies (as seen in Alma 17:37–39) is an ancient practice around the world; see:
John M. Lundquist and John W. Welch, “Ammon and Cutting Off the Arms of Enemies,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 180–82.
The presence of horses in the promised land is mentioned eight times in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 18:25; Enos 1:21; Alma 18:9–12; 20:6; 3 Nephi 3:22; 4:4; 6:1; Ether 9:19). Archaeological evidence for the presence of the horse in the pre-Columbian Americas is scant and inconclusive. The following articles explore the possibilities that horses survived to Book of Mormon times or that the Lehites called a similar animal by a familiar name:
Duane Boyce explored the views of the people of Ammon toward war in “Were the Ammonites Pacifists?”, Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 18, no. 1 (2009): 32–47.
At end of Alma chapter 22, Mormon₂ left a detailed explanation of the geographical layout of the lands where the Nephites and Lamanites lived (see Alma 22:27–34). Why did he do this? And how can understanding the internal geography of the Book of Mormon help us understand the text better? Book of Mormon Central examines this topic in KnoWhy #130.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 17–22 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 29, 2024
The Power of Women
by Autumn Dickson
Just as a heads up, I will be speaking about Ammon this week, but it takes a bit for me to segue into it so stay with me.
In the March 2024 Relief Society Broadcast, J. Anette Dennis, the first counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency taught, “There is no other religious organization in the world, that I know of, that has so broadly given power and authority to women.” This has caused quite a backlash on social media. I’ve read a lot of the comments regarding it, and though there are too many to cover, I’d like to talk about one common argument.
There are many women who feel silenced in the church. They may receive priesthood authority to perform their callings, but there are still male leaders who hold authority over their authority. This can lead to feelings of being stepped on, passed over, and ignored. I don’t disbelieve that this occurs. I know many faithful women who have had experiences where their voices didn’t matter; their perspectives were invalidated, and their opportunities to make a difference felt cut off. On top of that, because of our belief in organized priesthood authority, it can feel like there’s little room for redress.
I believe in priesthood authority. I believe it’s given to men and women to perform various callings on the earth to help build the kingdom. I believe that the Lord leads His church, and I believe that His church policies change according to His will. I believe the general authorities in the church are good people who seek out the Lord’s will to the best of their abilities and that they do a really great job of it. I believe that despite the issues caused by the fact that we are all imperfect people, the system given to us by the Lord is generally effective and gives us opportunities to grow.
I also believe that any of the imperfections we experience in this priesthood system given to us by the Lord cannot truly take away our power nor does it need to impede our personal growth.
Let’s talk just a little bit about this structure, and then we’re going to talk about Ammon.
The priesthood system of management
There are a couple of facts we need to be aware of that can help us recognize what’s really happening around us. Understanding these facts can help us understand what issues we may run into, and it can also help us solve any problems that come as a result of imperfect people.
Our first fact is that a majority of the callings with higher authority in the church are held by men. This is difficult for a lot of faithful women who feel that whatever authority they’re supposed to receive can be usurped and passed over. There are two perspectives we need to take into consideration here. I don’t believe it’s a problem rooted in sexism. In other words, I don’t believe that’s the cause. I have seen my husband have his authority usurped by other men who hold authority over his authority. I’ve had male friends asked to be released because they felt that their opinions never mattered, and they were always being passed over. This is not to diminish the problems a lot of women face, but I think it’s important to recognize what’s really happening in order to fix the problem. I don’t believe this is a sexism problem. I believe it’s a bad management problem.
The second perspective is to recognize that it happens disproportionately to women because of the nature of the structure. Men often hold more authority which means they have more opportunities to usurp power. Women often hold less authority which means more plentiful opportunities to have power usurped.
I don’t know if things are going to change. I don’t see everything that the Lord sees. I don’t know why women have priesthood power and authority but do not hold priesthood offices. I don’t know why the Lord has organized his church in the way that He has. There are plenty of theories out there, but we have to be careful with theories. We should not try to definitively explain the Lord’s mind when He has not chosen to do so Himself.
So we believe in the Lord. We believe that He guides His living church. We also believe that He loves His daughters as much as He loves His sons. Sometimes this can cause some cognitive dissonance. How do we reconcile the imperfections of the priesthood structure with the fact that He (at least for now) has chosen this structure? How do we reconcile that with our belief that He loves all of His children equally?
There are two perspectives I’d like to share. The first perspective is that there are no perfect systems of governance in an imperfect world. There will be pros and cons to each system of governance. There will always be chances for corruption. I don’t know what the Lord sees, but I know that He set things up this way for some reason. I don’t know if He plans on changing the priesthood structure during this mortal period of the earth or if He’s laying the groundwork for change, and it just takes a while. I don’t know. I do know He sees more than I do.
For the second perspective, I’d like to take a look at Ammon. It is Ammon that inspired the message for me this week.
Ammon’s “illogical” decision
This week we read about Ammon going to the Lamanites to try and teach the gospel. As he enters into the land, he is taken and bound and brought before King Lamoni. King Lamoni speaks with him and ends up liking him so much that he offers his daughter to Ammon.
Alma 17:25 But Ammon said unto him: Nay, but I will be thy servant. Therefore Ammon became a servant to king Lamoni. And it came to pass that he was set among other servants to watch the flocks of Lamoni, according to the custom of the Lamanites.
Though we don’t find much detail about this daughter that was offered up to Ammon, it was this daughter that drew my attention to this issue I’ve been pondering so much. Here we find a woman who is a commodity, and we find Ammon turning down the offer. Ammon could have gotten married and exercised his newfound authority to try and spread the gospel far and wide. But he didn’t. Ammon chose to be a servant. Some would have found this approach illogical. How much good could Ammon do as a servant in comparison to being a son-in-law to the king? Despite any arguments about the illogical nature of his choice, this is the route Ammon chose to take.
And this is precisely where we find a key to our problem. Ammon turned down authority to become a servant, and it was this exact process that made him the powerful missionary that he was.
Authority does not equate to power
I have a feeling that if I were to ask some of these women why they wanted more authority, many of them would answer things like, “Because I want to help” or “Because I want to build the kingdom and I feel like I’m not allowed.” Many of these women have likely been in situations where they felt like they had received revelation about how to make a difference, and someone had prevented them from acting on some of that revelation.
It can be extremely frustrating when you’re trying to help, and you’re feeling rebuffed over and over.
Interestingly enough, if we can take on the same perspective as Ammon, we will find far more power to do good than we previously dreamed of.
Ammon chose to be a servant. Perhaps Ammon knew that authority doesn’t always equate to power. Or, in the very least, Ammon chose to follow God and God knows that authority doesn’t always equate to power.
God doesn’t care if you’re a bishop. I repeat; God doesn’t care about whether you’re a bishop. But Satan does. If Satan can convince you that you’re being held back because you’re not allowed to have more authority, then he can distract you from rising to your true power. You can be a nursery leader for the rest of your life, male or female, and make as big of a difference as any bishop, stake president, or prophet.
We see this with Ammon. He was watching over sheep, and it was this very position of servitude that opened the path for him to change the lives of thousands upon thousands of people.
You do not need authority to have immense priesthood power. I know some may argue that this is a copout for a structure that naturally puts women at a disadvantage, but I truly believe it.
I am a daughter of God. I am immensely powerful, with or without a specific priesthood jurisdiction. If we’re diminishing our power to only our formally held callings, then we are holding everyone back, not just women.
You are important. God believes you’re important, but until you believe that you have power within yourself (regardless of what calling or authority you’ve been given) then the only real limiting factor here is you because God is ready to take you above and beyond.
Even if people with more authority than you can override specific revelations you have received for your calling, you have not lost your power. Let’s say you find yourself in this specific situation. You’re a Relief Society President and feel really strongly about changing something in your realm of priesthood authority. Let’s say your bishop tells you no. What is the reality of this situation?
Perhaps your bishop has an ego problem, and it’s affecting his management. This does happen sometimes. Perhaps he’s a good man who the Lord is molding and pulling along; it’s just taking a bit (because hello…we’re all stubborn and often need to get pulled along). Either way, we’re feeling like our power has been limited, but is that really the truth?
I don’t believe so. I believe that if something truly needs to happen, the Lord can move heaven and earth to make it happen. The Lord will handle the bishop, whether he needs to be humbled or have his eyes opened. But you still have everything you need to make the difference that the Lord wants you to make. You have all the power you need to bring His children home to Him, because that’s really our goal in the end, isn’t it? It’s to bring everyone home.
Sometimes we equate power with authority and the ability to make decisions without anyone stopping you, but that is a slim definition of power. True power is a recognition of who you are, who the Lord is, and how He wants to propel you further in life than you could have ever imagined.
Sometimes we equate power with a microphone in a large auditorium. But if you’re looking for true power, do you know what you’ll find?
You’ll find that wrapping your arm around a friend holds more power than the lesson that was chosen to be taught in Relief Society. You’ll find that your broken hearts and compassion will far outweigh the influence found within decisions that are far removed from personal, individual relationships. Your prayers will have eternal consequences that can’t be touched by who gets to teach at the stake fireside. You will find creative solutions that allow you to stretch your wings and bless many despite any authority “over” you.
Think about your own life. What has held more influence over your actions, life perspectives, and testimonies? A talk given by a prophet or the involvement of a parent? Surely a talk given by a prophet can do much good, but a talk by a prophet means nothing without a foundation laid by an individual, personal interaction with a disciple of Christ.
We have all of the power AND opportunity we need to influence the world in incredible ways. None of our systems are perfect because none of our people are perfect, but isn’t that the point of the gospel? There are “problems” with each of the decisions that Heavenly Father has made in regards to our salvation (agency, priesthood authority structure, etc.), but we have the atonement of Jesus Christ. And the atonement of Jesus Christ means there’s always a loophole, there is always a way for things to turn out for our good.
I believe in a Heavenly Father and Mother who made decisions together for the benefit of Their children. I believe They lead, guide, and love. I believe we have everything we could ever need and want to make the specific differences They want us to make, and I believe that Their specific paths for our lives are the most powerful paths we can take.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 13–16 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 24, 2024
Foreordained
by Autumn Dickson
As we begin the chapters for this week, we find Alma preaching to the people regarding a variety of topics. One of these topics is how high priests are foreordained and sent to the earth to fulfill special callings.
Alma 13:3-4
3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
4 And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.
According to these verses, people are foreordained according to their faith and good works before they came here. Men and women were chosen and prepared to do specific things in their lives as dictated by their actions in the premortal existence. I think of all the men and women who are leading the church and building the kingdom in significant ways.
And I also thought about the fact that there are many of us who aren’t chosen as general church leaders. I think about those of us who have quieter callings. What does that say about us? I used to think it meant that I simply wasn’t good enough, that I hadn’t been strong enough to choose or that I didn’t have it within me to be one of these foreordained.
Interestingly enough, the second verse teaches us exactly what keeps someone from having the same great privileges as their brethren, namely a hard heart and blind mind. Let’s talk about those two things in the context of being foreordained.
A blind mind
What does a blind mind look like in the context of foreordination? When I think of blind, I obviously think of someone who can’t see. So we’re talking about not seeing this concept of foreordination clearly. I’m sure there are a million ways this can manifest, but there is one that I’m thinking of specifically and would like to talk about.
My husband, Conner, is the one who helped me see in relation to foreordination. I don’t think he ever meant to. I don’t think we’ve ever had a conversation about the doctrine of foreordination. However, observing him has brought about a dramatic shift in how I view callings in life.
Conner is not what I thought I would marry. I knew that I wanted to marry someone spiritual, but my view on what it meant to be “spiritual” was very narrow. I was naive, and I thought that being spiritual included long patterns of praying, reading scriptures, and pondering. Interestingly enough, these are all things I’m relatively good at. My sometimes-neurotic personality means that my family reads the scriptures, prays, and goes to church very regularly. Conner and I go to the temple. We have family home evening with all the prayers and songs, and all of the lists get checked off. In my young and limited world view, I believed that this list checking signaled spirituality, and I believed that these were habits that could be easy to anyone who simply chose to prioritize them.
Then I got to know Conner. He was chaotic and impulsive. If he’s holding still during a church meeting, it’s because I’m tickling his back or hand. He hardly remembers to eat, let alone daily worshiping tasks.
But the more I got to know Conner, the more I heard the Spirit whispering to me that there was something more to him that I couldn’t quite grasp. The Spirit would give me these moments where I could see him as the Lord saw him. I couldn’t describe it but I could feel that Lord was molding Conner into something specific, something very different than what I had pictured. And though I couldn’t reconcile it with my view of what spirituality was supposed to look like, I continued the relationship.
Now please don’t get me wrong. I obviously whole-heartedly believe in regular worshiping activities. I do believe we need to do everything to prioritize them because the Lord asked us to. But I also know now that all of these daily tasks don’t always completely equate with goodness and spirituality, and I know there are far more measures of spirituality to take into consideration. I also know that just because these tasks come easily to my personality, they aren’t easy for everyone. I have also learned that the Lord needed different personalities with different strengths and weaknesses in order to build His kingdom to the fullest extent.
And that is precisely what I mean by blindness of mind. For so long, I would read those verses and picture somber people who fit into this very specific archetype, and this extremely narrow view (this blindness of mind, if you will) limited me.
There are people who were foreordained to be temple presidents and general authorities, but the Lord didn’t just want temple presidents and general authorities. Can you imagine how limited our world would be if we only had temple presidents and general authorities? We need so much more. God is an extremely multidimensional Being, and all of us reflect something of Him.
I used to think I needed to try to tame the chaos that is my husband, but I have since learned that his chaos and all of the unique things about Conner were given specifically to Conner so Conner could fulfill his specific mission in life. There are things that Conner can accomplish that I will never be able to do, and I have a testimony that he can do those things because he is built differently than a temple president.
When it comes to foreordination, sometimes blindness of mind means that we have this idea in our heads of what foreordination is supposed to look like and only some people qualify for it. Only some people fit into the mold, and all of a sudden, we’re leaving out remarkable people who had specific jobs too. Yes, men were foreordained to be high priests, but there were so many more callings to give out.
It’s easy to see how my work (my blog, Youtube channel, and podcast) require revelation from the Lord. It requires me to regularly seek Him out, but I have learned that Conner is just as inspired and attuned to revelation in his work. I have watched him sink into these trance-like states as he ponders specific engineering problems, and I have watched him come out on the other end after he has been inspired with solutions. I am convinced that he receives revelation as regularly as I do; it just looks different than what I receive.
We need to broaden our perspective on what foreordination can look like. You were foreordained to build the kingdom, but there are a million ways to build that kingdom. What principles did the Lord use to create the world? Physics, engineering, biology. These are spiritual principles to Him. Your calling to build the kingdom may very well look like something that is traditionally viewed as secular. But we have to expand that view. We have to cast away that blindness and realize that the Lord wants to utilize each individual in beautiful, specific ways.
There are so many kinds of work, and just about every single one of them can be turned into spiritual work if we’re simply willing to include the Lord. And when we broaden our view of foreordination and realize that our “secular” work can include the Lord, He vastly expands our capacities and influence for good.
Believing that our work is lesser because it isn’t “spiritual” keeps us from stepping into that foreordination we were given and doing all the good we’re capable of doing.
A hard heart
And this is where the “hard heart” principle comes in. Are our hearts soft enough to believe that He can work with us? Have we softened towards Him enough to believe that He loves us, made us as we are, and gave us specific gifts to fulfill specific roles that look different than the roles of others? Can we allow ourselves to believe that He can utilize us to influence the world in powerful ways?
Can we trust Him to take us where we can make a difference? Can we trust Him to help us understand what “powerful influence” means? When we think of changing the world, we often think of people with microphones and stadiums, but Jesus Christ worked with individuals, small groups, and His voice could only carry as loud as He could speak.
Let go of your own predilections for what you’re supposed to look like and what it looks like to influence the world for good. Soften your heart, and let the Lord mold you and give you specific experiences so He can utilize you in all of the best ways, the ways that may not make sense to the world but make perfect sense in the context of everything He knows.
I testify that no one is special. That would imply that the Lord holds favorites, but the Lord is absolutely willing to work with anyone who wants to be worked with. We are unique, and there are unique callings but there are no secret, special ingredients you have to innately possess in order to qualify as “foreordained.” The only thing holding someone back from their “great privilege” is their own unwillingness to see themselves as the Lord sees them or a hardness of heart that disables them from connecting with the Lord to become all they were meant to become. If you’re worried that you weren’t good enough in the pre-existence, it’s never to start turning to the Lord and allowing Him to work with you.
The Lord is willing and capable to turn you into so much more than you have in mind for yourself.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 8–12 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 15, 2024
Revelation for Alma
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, we read about Alma and Amulek attempting to convert the hard-hearted people of Ammonihah. In the beginning, we observe Alma as he originally goes into the city to preach to the people. They spit on him and revile him, and he leaves the city with much sorrow. As he is journeying, an angel comes and uplifts him and shares this message.
Alma 8:16 And behold, I am sent to command thee that thou return to the city of Ammonihah, and preach again unto the people of the city; yea, preach unto them. Yea, say unto them, except they repent the Lord God will destroy them.
Alma takes this message and hurries right back to the city to try again.
Now why was this the order of things? Why did Alma leave and come back? The angel could have easily delivered his message before Alma left, comforting him and encouraging him to continue on his work. Is there a reason for it or is it simply a detail of how the story unfolded that doesn’t matter?
Maybe it didn’t really matter, and that’s totally fine. Maybe Amulek needed an extra day of heart-preparation before he was ready for the angel to come and talk to him and prepare him to receive Alma. Maybe Alma needed some time to grieve before the angel came in and encouraged him. And once again, maybe it didn’t really matter.
There isn’t really an answer, so why is it important? I believe it’s important because despite whether there’s a reason for this turn of events or not, it can teach us about the process of revelation in our own lives. It can help us have the faith we need to do two things: grow in the way the Lord would have us grow and trust that revelation will come as needed.
Understanding the purposes of the Lord
I believe that in order to understand why and how revelation comes to us, we have to understand the reasoning of the Lord. What is He truly trying to accomplish with us? I think sometimes it’s easy to believe that the Lord is just trying to keep us on a perfect path with as little interference as possible, and even if we don’t believe that consciously, we often act like that’s His entire purpose. Surely, He wants us to follow Him, but His true purpose isn’t avoiding missteps; His true purpose is our growth, and that is essential to understand (even in the context of revelation).
For example, we often become paralyzed as we’re trying to make decisions about what to do in our lives because we don’t want to misstep. We really, really, really want to do what the Lord would have us do and so we wait and wait and wait for an answer that may never come rather than acting. I don’t believe the desire to do what the Lord wants us to do is bad (obviously), but I do believe that the fear that sometimes accompanies missteps stems from incomplete understanding about the purposes of revelation.
So what is the Lord’s true purpose for us? To put it in incredibly simple terms, He wants us to be like Him. He wants us to make purposeful decisions based on wisdom like He does. He wants us to create the kind of life we desire. He wants us to create goodness without someone pulling us along to do so.
What does this mean for revelation? Everything. It explains why the Lord answers in specific ways.
For example, let’s look at a college student who is trying to choose a major. If you were in the Lord’s shoes, and you wanted this student to become brave and bold in their decisions, how would you respond to them? Would you simply give them the answer whenever they asked for it? Surely, they could potentially avoid some mistakes and anxiety, but what are you truly wanting for them?
There are appropriate times that the Lord gives us an answer directly and quickly. Sometimes He allows us to sink deeper into our faith so we’re prepared to receive more important answers. Sometimes, He is totally silent. Sometimes, He answers and turns us around after we’ve started acting. All of these responses are crafted carefully so that we can be given the tailor-made opportunities to step into His shoes and become like Him.
In the context of Alma
Let’s look at it in the context of Alma. Now one of the difficulties in the scriptures is the fact that they were abridged. We don’t necessarily have the entire story. We might be missing some details about how Alma decided to leave Ammonihah, but let’s just take the story at face value.
Alma was doing the Lord’s work, but we don’t see Alma on his knees for any length of time praying for an answer about whether he should leave Ammonihah and move on to another city that would be more prepared for the work. All we see is that Alma recognized that the people had hard hearts, and he made an extremely logical decision to go find someone who was prepared for the word of God. In missionary work, this is actually tremendously important. Dropping unprepared people in faith is critical because it shows the Lord that we believe in His ability to lead us to people who are prepared. Alma used the faculties of mind he had been blessed with and started to move on.
However, the Lord had more information than Alma. He knew that there were a couple people in the city who needed the missionaries, and He also knew that the people were preparing to destroy the liberty of the Nephites. Was the Lord angry that Alma had moved on without asking? No! He sent an angel to course correct. The Lord wasn’t angry at all. Observe Alma’s heart. Alma had enough love in his heart for these people that he was sad for them and their inability to accept the gospel. Alma also quickly course corrected and trusted the Lord immediately upon receiving an answer. Why would the Lord be angry?
But are we sometimes worried that the Lord will be angry with us if we choose wrong? Do we sometimes inadvertently believe that the Lord will abandon us to decisions made upon limited information? Do we subconsciously think that if we make the “wrong” decision that the Lord will wash His hands of us and we’re going to ruin our own lives? There are wrong decisions morally speaking, where you’re choosing to cause problems. And then there are wrong decisions where you didn’t choose the path the Lord had in mind, and He course-corrects. He doesn’t get mad over the second kind of “wrong.” He just fixes it. So if your heart is set on following Him, you’re going to be fine.
Perhaps we profess faith in the Lord, but do we feel enough faith that we make our own decisions with enthusiasm, believing that the Lord sees the whole picture and will course correct as necessary? Do we feel immense relief over the fact that we know He loves us and isn’t going to abandon us to our limited knowledge? Do we experience gratitude when we think about the fact that He’s given us the opportunity to create what we want our lives to look like while simultaneously promising to guide us along should it be needed? Do we have enough faith in Him to trust that He can give us answers in a way that we will understand?
When our desperate desire to avoid missteps overpowers our faith in Him, His purposes, and His abilities to guide us, we will find ourselves at a standstill. We dramatically limit ourselves from accomplishing so much good. We cripple our ability to grow to become like Him.
Look at this verse in Doctrine and Covenants.
Doctrine and Covenants 58:29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.
We’re damned if we don’t make decisions. We’re not damned because He’s cursing us. We are literally damned in our progression. We aren’t able to grow to become like Him because that’s exactly who He is. He does good of His own accord with His unlimited knowledge. When we stop ourselves from gaining this kind of growth and experience, we’re hurting our progression and damning ourselves.
A word of advice on revelation
If you really want to seize the opportunities you’ve been given here on earth, there are a couple of attitudes you can adopt to help you along. The test we’ve been given on earth is less of a multiple choice test and more of a final project where you are the product that’s turned in. So rather than focusing on trying to get an answer for every decision and following it perfectly, try focusing on cultivating certain attitudes that will allow the Lord to utilize you in tremendous ways.
Honestly, there is one overarching posture that you can cultivate that will enable you to receive everything you need to be successful. Seek a closeness with the Lord. Being close with the Lord will allow you to understand two things: His love and concern for you, and His wisdom.
Knowing that He loves you and wants the best for you will allow you to breathe freely. It will help you trust that He wants to watch you soar of your own free will and that your future happiness is very safe with Him. You have nothing to worry about. He will reach you as necessary so go create goodness as much as you can in the ways that you love.
Understanding His wisdom will cultivate a natural desire to turn Him and check in. Alma may not have been praying about whether he should leave Ammonihah, but he was turned to the Lord. This made it very easy for the Lord to speak to him, and it also made it very easy for Alma to course correct. When we know who God is, it becomes more difficult to ignore Him and very natural to seek Him out regularly as you would a loving, all-knowing Parent.
We have every reason to believe that the best is coming. Even when we know that we’ll be stepping into difficulty and peril throughout our lives, we can know that our ending is perfectly safe. There is no circumstance that can permanently destroy our happiness or take away our eternal reward. Your job is to love the Lord and trust Him, and that love will lead you towards Him and towards perfection.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 8 – Seer Stones w/ Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat (Full Interview)
Jun 11, 2024
Gerrit Dirkmaat was featured in episode 5. This is the full interview. Check out Dr. Dirkmaat’s podcast with Prof. Richard LeDuc: https://standardoftruth.com/
Gerrit Dirkmaat is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado in 2010, where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He is the coauthor, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the award-winning book From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by the BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book in 2015. In 2023, they published another book on the topic: Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon. In addition to books, Gerrit is also the author of dozens of academic articles. He currently serves as the editor of the academic journal Latter-day Saint Historical Studies published by the Ensign Peak Foundation. Since 2021 he has hosted and produced a weekly Church history podcast: Standard of Truth. It examines Church history questions and sources. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 5–7; Alma 8–12; Alma 13–16 – Mike Parker
Jun 10, 2024
The ministry of Alma & Amulek
(Alma 5–16)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the remaining weeks of June.)
Robert A. Rees, “Alma the Younger’s Seminal Sermon at Zarahemla,” in Bountiful Harvest: Essays in Honor of S. Kent Brown, ed. Andrew C. Skinner, D. Morgan Davis, and Carl Griffin (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 329–43.
Why does Alma 7:10 say Jesus was born “at Jerusalem” when the Bible says he was born in Bethlehem? Robert F. Smith answers this question in “The Land of Jerusalem: The Place of Jesus’ Birth,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book / Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1992), 170–72.
Thomas A. Wayment, “The Hebrew Text of Alma 7:11,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 98–103. Wayment argues that the translation of Isaiah 53:4 in Alma 7:11 is closer to the Hebrew text than the English translation in the King James Bible is.
Alma₂ forbade Amulek from using the power of God to save the believers in Ammonihah from being killed (Alma 14:11). Why does God permit evil to take place in the world? Elder Spencer W. Kimball gave some ideas in his article “Tragedy or Destiny,” Improvement Era 69, no. 3 (March 1966): 178–80, 210–12, 214, 216–17.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Alma 5–7 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 09, 2024
The Change of Heart
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, we find various sermons and experiences from Alma as he is traveling from city to city to try and build up the church. In one of the areas, Zarahemla, he found some issues within the church that were plaguing the Saints and taking them away from the Lord.
This is another one of those chapters growing up that troubled me and made me worry about my salvation. As I read verses about being stripped of pride and envy (particularly difficult as an insecure teenager), or when I read verses about walking blameless before God, I was convinced I didn’t stand a chance.
I never think it’s a bad idea to consider the state of your soul and talk to the Lord about it, but it has to be done right. There have been plenty of times that I’ve examined the apparently black state of my soul growing up and thinking that there was no way I’d ever be good enough to live with God again. This wasn’t uplifting or helpful. It didn’t make me a better person. It just made me focus more on myself. I was doing plenty of good things, but those good things weren’t changing me. Which is rather unfortunate and ironic when you think about the fact that change is literally the entire point of this earthly exercise.
A mighty change of heart absolutely includes a desire to do what’s right, to follow the Lord, and serve those around us. However, a mighty change of heart includes much more than that. There is a process to follow that I believe often gets pushed out of order to our own detriment.
Let’s observe exactly what Alma is teaching here, and I think we’ll find how to have our hearts changed in a way that is uplifting and joyful. Understanding exactly what Alma is teaching about being prepared to meet God can help us to accomplish more good works than we otherwise would be able to, and it can also help us go about this process in a way that fills our souls rather than leaving us empty.
How does the change of heart occur?
Alma is addressing the Saints in Zarahemla when he starts talking about remembering the captivity of their fathers. He talks about them being encircled by the bands of death and chains of hell. An everlasting destruction awaited them. Were they destroyed? No. Their restraints were loosed. Alma then asks:
Alma 5:10 And now I ask of you on what conditions are they saved? Yea, what grounds had they to hope for salvation? What is the cause of their being loosed from the bands of death, yea, and also the chains of hell?
That’s what we’re trying to find out here, right? We’ve all found ourselves encircled with bands that we can’t break ourselves. We’ve all sinned. So how did our fathers escape? Because if we can figure out how they escaped, we can know how to escape ourselves. Luckily, Alma describes it clearly.
And if I had been able to observe the answer as a teenager, it would have surprised me.
Alma 5:12 And according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.
What saved them? It wasn’t an incessant, bullheaded attempt to do everything right. It was faith! It’s so funny because I was absolutely surrounded by Texas Christians growing up who were of the opinion that “works” were completely unnecessary. You were only saved by believing in Christ. We believe in works, and there is a place for works, and we will talk about works. But maybe they were onto something. I feel like we have a culture in the church that talks about our belief in grace and faith as they are related to salvation, but we also inwardly scoff a little. We’re afraid to lean on grace and faith to the extent that we relinquish responsibility for our actions to our detriment. I feel like we profess the idea of grace and faith, and yet oftentimes, our beliefs about our own worthiness and the extent to which we beat ourselves up does not reflect this belief in the Savior’s ability to redeem.
And yet, here we have Alma, teaching that it was faith that freed them from their bonds.
So let’s cover grace and works again. Where does faith come in and what’s the point of works? How do the two relate together? I’ve only talked about it a million times, but that’s because the relationship between the two is complex. There are a lot of ways to teach it and better understand it. There are layers to it, so we’re going to add another layer here that can hopefully add to what we’ve already studied about grace and works.
Works-first method
Perhaps we don’t mean to, but I believe we often follow a “works first” method and we believe that the faith (and all the feelings associated with salvation) just kinda descends later. I tried that for a long time, and it never descended. I think sometimes we believe that if we’re following the commandments and standards, those good feelings of freedom and peace and salvation are simply going to show up. Not so.
Here is a disclaimer before I start elaborating. Someday perfection will come. Someday, you’ll never have to fall down again. That day is not today, not in this environment on earth. Heavenly Father set you up to fail, not because He doesn’t love you but because we had to fail. We needed to fail in order to become like Him. It had to happen. He wants us to be like Him, and He knew the only way to achieve that all-important goal was if we were placed in an environment with enough opposition to fall down repeatedly. He set us up to fail for a good reason, and He provided His Son to pay for those failures.
So stop trying to stop failing. Don’t make that your goal. When we follow a works-first based method, we place all of our hopes on the idea that we’re going to stop falling down. We believe that we have to stop falling down in order to go home. Perhaps we don’t phrase it like that out loud, but that’s what we internally believe. That’s why we beat ourselves up every time we mess up or when we can’t overcome our flaws as fast as we want. That’s why we get discouraged and wonder if we’re good enough. It’s because we subconsciously believe we have to stop falling, and as we covered before, there is purpose in our weaknesses and fallen environment.
In a works-first method, we’re placing our faith in ourselves, not in Christ. We claim to believe in Christ. We claim that He pays for our sins and will forgive as often as we repent. However, if we truly believed that, if we truly let His grace seep into our hearts, we would feel joyful about His ability to save us and bring us home. When I say we’re placing our faith in ourselves, I mean that we’re trying to use our own abilities to stop falling down. It won’t work. It will only leave you battered and discouraged until you eventually want to stop trying. Have you ever felt that way? “I can’t do everything. I’m so tired. I want to just give up.” It’s because subconsciously we believe that we have to do everything, and it’s simply not true.
Faith-first method
Like I mentioned previously, sometimes we internally scoff at people who tell us to stop striving, that belief is all you need. I’m not telling you to stop striving. I’m telling you to change your goal. I’m telling you to switch to a much more effective method of striving.
The works-based method and the faith-based method both have the same eventual goal: perfection. However, they approach it in dramatically different ways. Only one is effective: faith-based.
When you are following the faith-based method, you know that trusting Christ is the only way to salvation. You stop trying to stop falling down. Instead, you collect strength every time you fall down and get back up. You have faith in a Savior who paid the price so you could be sent here to fail and gain the experience you so desperately needed.
And as we choose to focus on collecting strength and developing a deep gratitude for the Savior’s ability to redeem, something absolutely incredible happens.
Our hearts change.
I have experienced it, and it feels so good. The gospel feels good. Salvation feels good.
I do fail. I’m not a perfect mother or wife. I get angry when I feel wronged. I murmur. I can be vain. I can be selfish, and I can hold a grudge. But because I believe in my Savior, I turn to Him. I believe that He adores me, that He thinks I’m wonderful, that He believes in me, so I turn to Him. And as I repeatedly turn to Him with trust, I feel those wonderful feelings of salvation, and I change. It’s difficult to be angry and vain and selfish when faced with the reality of the love of your Savior. My heart changes. I want to do good, and it becomes easier to do good and become good.
Faith comes in two forms, or at least that’s how I’m going to describe it so I can make sure I’m really hitting this point home. There is faith in the form of obedience, and there is faith in the form of trusting your relationship with the Savior. Both types of faith are action words. I had to choose to trust my Savior as much as I’ve ever had to choose to be obedient. Trying to choose faith in the form of obedience without faith in the form of trust is the worst. Don’t do it. It’s a miserable way to live the gospel, and it’s completely ineffective.
I think sometimes we’re afraid to let go of our own constant nagging towards ourselves because we’re afraid we’ll let go, become comfortable in our sin, and then we’ll actually find ourselves in a ton of trouble. I know I was afraid of that.
But it’s not what happens. When we let go of the nagging and embrace the Savior and His ability to save, you find a much deeper motivation to do good and be good. You want to be stripped of envy and pride? Experience the love of your Savior, and you won’t feel a need to compare yourself to anyone. It melts away.
Embrace the Savior. Embrace faith and trust in Him. It’s the only happy and effective way to live the gospel.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 29–Alma 4 – Autumn Dickson
Jun 01, 2024
Mosiah and Amlici
by Autumn Dickson
Within the chapters this week, we see two contrasted examples of men who are types of the Savior and Satan. It’s remarkable that these two examples were so closely put together within these chapters, and it’s very easy to observe the Plan of Salvation on a minute scale because of it.
King Mosiah
First, we have King Mosiah. He is obviously the representation of the Savior. He had all of this power bestowed on him, true power that was valid and recognized among the people. Here are two verses that very clearly put forth the Savior’s stance during the war in heaven as we were trying to decide how to proceed with the rest of our very long lives.
Mosiah was king over the Nephites and decided to form a new government. The people would elect judges and acknowledge laws and all live according to those laws. This is what King Mosiah had to say about it.
Mosiah 29:31-32
31 For behold I say unto you, the sins of many people have been caused by the iniquities of their kings; therefore their iniquities are answered upon the heads of their kings.
32 And now I desire that this inequality should be no more in this land, especially among this my people; but I desire that this land be a land of liberty, and every man may enjoy his rights and privileges alike, so long as the Lord sees fit that we may live and inherit the land, yea, even as long as any of our posterity remains upon the face of the land.
The second verse is very easy to find the parallel. Our Savior wanted us to have our freedom to choose. He wanted us to have the right to design our own eternal lives, to build what we wanted our eternal futures to look like. He was wise enough to understand that this was the only way we could truly be happy, to have the freedom to choose happiness. You can’t force someone into happiness even if you can force them to make choices that were meant to bring happiness.
The first verse that I included was also important because it describes the other side of the coin of freedom. King Mosiah teaches his people that sin can be caused by kings which equates to that sin falling upon the heads of the kings rather than on the heads of the people. Responsibility is as crucial to our happiness as freedom. We need the opportunity to take control of our own futures because it is only in the building of those futures that we find true happiness.
Let me give an example. I dated Conner for a year and a half before we got married, and I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed for an answer about whether to marry him. I know that some people do receive answers when they pray about that kind of thing which is awesome, but I had a slightly different experience. Heavenly Father never truly answered me, and as I’ve made my way through marriage, I learned why.
I chose Conner on my own. I had known him for a very long time. We had seen the worst of each other if I’m being perfectly honest, but we had also seen plenty of good. After we got married, I don’t feel like I was completely caught off guard by choices he made because I knew what I had married.
There was beauty in this. I had desperately craved that validation from Heavenly Father, and I think Heavenly Father is wise in whether He chooses to bestow that validation or not because we’re all learning different lessons at different times in our lives. But for me, at this time in my life, He knew that I needed to make my own choice.
I needed to make my own choice so that when hard things came up in my marriage (which they inevitably always do), I couldn’t shake my fists at the heavens and ask why Heavenly Father had put me here. I had to look at myself, take responsibility for the choice I had made, and decide what I was going to do with those hard things. That doesn’t mean I leave Heavenly Father out of the equation, to the contrary. I ask Heavenly Father for help all the time. The difference is that I decide to make my marriage what I want my marriage to be. When something difficult comes along, I don’t throw up my hands and say, “Well this is where Heavenly Father put me so I guess I just have to deal.” I decide how I’m going to change, how I’m going to approach Conner, and a million other little choices. I’m very blessed to have a husband who makes these same choices.
The Lord let me own my marriage, and because He let me own it, I’ve been able to create something beautiful with my own choices and His help. It’s been an exhilarating and fulfilling process that has brought me far more happiness than I thought possible. It has brought me far more happiness in comparison to hoping that happiness would just fall on me; happiness simply doesn’t happen that way. We need freedom and responsibility to own our lives and build what we want.
Sometimes Heavnely Father gives us an answer, and that’s comforting and wonderful and definitely has its purposes in our life that can teach us important lessons. Sometimes He’s silent, not because He doesn’t care or doesn’t love us, but because He’s trying to push us into our big kid shoes. He’s trying to make us like Him, where we get to create what we want. We get to make choices, tell Him what we want, and then He helps us build that kind of future. He does this because He knows it’s an incredible process. King Mosiah also wanted this for his people.
Amlici
On the other end of the spectrum, we find Amlici. Amlici wanted to get rid of this new system of government five years after Mosiah put it into place; he wanted there to be kings again and he wanted to be king. So everyone got together and put in their votes, and the voice of the people came back. Amlici was not to be king. Not enough people wanted it. When Amlici was not chosen as king, this happens:
Alma 2:9-10
9 And it came to pass that they gathered themselves together, and did consecrate Amlici to be their king.
10 Now when Amlici was made king over them he commanded them that they should take up arms against their brethren; and this he did that he might subject them to him.
Can we not see the parallels between Amlici and Satan?
When Satan lost the war in heaven, he threw a hissy fit and dubbed himself powerful over the world. He enlisted those who had followed him to try and bring as many people under his control as possible.
And that is where we observe the true Satan. That is where we get a glimpse of Satan as he truly is, not as he is promoting himself to the people. Amlici wasn’t going around telling people that he wanted to be powerful and rule over everyone. He was arguing the merits of having a king to protect them. He was whispering and promising power to those who would be loyal to him. Amlici’s arguments were attractive.
But the second he didn’t get what he wanted, he tried to force them.
This is Satan. Satan had an “attractive” plan. Everyone would come home after going down to earth because Satan was going to make sure of it. Anyone who has had a loved one leave the gospel and felt fear or whether that loved one would be coming home can feel the attraction of Satan’s plan. You don’t have to look around you and wonder who is going to be missing. You don’t have to look internally and wonder whether you’re going to be missing. Satan told you he loved you, that he wanted to bring you home, that he would never risk your soul by sending you down to make mistakes. You have a “king” who will protect you and bring you home no matter the cost.
And that was precisely the problem. No matter the cost. What was the cost of Satan’s plan? Everything.
The point of the Plan of Salvation was to come down here, make mistakes and struggle and grow, and go home prepared to live like our Heavenly Father. It is only in this manner that we can find eternal happiness.
Satan’s “Plan of Salvation” would have brought all of us home. But the cost was the entire purpose of the plan. We would have returned unchanged. We would not have been prepared to live like God which means we would have been damned in our capacity to experience happiness forever. We would have been stuck right where we were, forced to do what’s right forever but never tasting the goodness of those right choices because they weren’t really our choices.
Amilici didn’t want to protect the people as king. He wanted to own the people as king. He was willing to risk the lives of his followers and those who voted against him because no one mattered to Amlici except Amlici. He didn’t care about those who died in battle. He cared about whether he won.
Satan didn’t love us enough to want to bring us all home. He loved himself enough to be willing to sacrifice the happiness of all of his brothers and sisters because he believed that power over us would make him happy. The ultimate narcissist. When he lost, he just went on a rampage working to destroy any shred of happiness on the earth. If he had truly loved us, he would have still worked for our happiness under any conditions he was given. But he doesn’t love us. He loves himself, and he’s willing to sacrifice us.
These are powerful stories and characters that can teach us so much about Heavenly Father’s choices for our lives here on earth. We hear people cry about the trauma and devastation on earth, and those are valid cries. But the opposite, a removal of agency, was a fate worse than death literally. It was an eternity stuck in the same state. It was an eternity of boredom and unhappiness and damnation in our progression.
Agency was necessary and beautiful. There were some immensely tragic consequences to agency, but we can look to two facts for comfort. One. The alternative was worse. Two. We have a Savior who suffered and promised to take care of everything. No hurt will stay hurt with the Savior. No wound is too deep. No consequence of agency is too far for the Savior to reach.
Our Heavenly Parents and Savior love us. They chose this plan for us, and then They took care of absolutely everything. They know how to be happy, and they have provided us with the perfect plan to find that happiness and to build it in our lives forever. And then the Savior paid for it. We are so loved; we have every reason to trust Them.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 7 – Seer Stones w/ Allen Hansen (Full Interview)
May 28, 2024
Allen Hansen was featured in episode 2. This is the full interview.
Check out Allen’s other work: https://independent.academia.edu/HansenAllen
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator of the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 25–28; Mosiah 29–Alma 4 – Mike Parker
May 27, 2024
Conversion of Alma & the sons of Mosiah; commencement of the reign of the judges; Nehor & the Amlicites
(Mosiah 26–Alma 4)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the weeks of May 27–June 2 and June 3–9.)
J. Christopher Conkling, “Alma’s Enemies: The Case of the Lamanites, Amlicites, and Mysterious Amalekites,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 14, no. 1 (2005): 108–17. Conkling argues that the Amlicites of Alma 2–3 were the same group as the Amalekites who appeared suddenly, without explanation, in Alma 21, and that Oliver Cowdery simply used a different spelling of the same word dictated by Joseph Smith.
Benjamin McMurtry, “The Amlicites and Amalekites: Are They the Same People?,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 25 (2017): 269–81. McMurtry disagrees with Conkling and argues that that the Amlicites and Amalekites were, indeed, two separate groups.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 25–28 – Autumn Dickson
May 25, 2024
Belief Comes First
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters this week in Mosiah, we learn about the rising generation who did not believe in the word of God. They had not been around in the time of King Benjamin, and so they didn’t have the same experiences as their parents. There is one verse in there that really has me pondering some of the ways I have framed the gospel in my mind.
Mosiah 26:3 And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.
They couldn’t understand the word of God because they didn’t believe, not the other way around. As I’ve tried to engage with some of my loved ones and strangers over the church, I have held onto the belief that if I could simply help them understand, they would believe. Apparently this is a fallacy. If you want to understand God and His plan and His choices amongst the children of men, belief actually comes first.
As I look back on my own life, I realize that this is exactly how things work. When I have reached any new understanding of gospel doctrine, belief preceded it.
Being aware of the fact that belief precedes understanding can help us know how to approach the gospel personally and with others.
Reasoning has a place
We live in a world of sophistry, both in temporal and spiritual matters. In temporal matters, it can make sense to engage. I actually read an entire book once about the fact that America was built on argumentation and that effective argumentation can actually bring us closer to our goals. If we can avoid turning those who disagree with us into enemies, disagreement is beautiful because it gives us opportunities to engage, listen, and evolve.
When it comes to spiritual matters, reasoning, disagreements, and discussion absolutely have their place. I work with FAIR, and a huge basis for their work is apologetics. For a long time, their entire purpose was to respectfully argue against critics and help people see a wider perspective. They’ve helped so many people better understand issues and history. We absolutely should discuss, explore, and question. The more I engage with doctrine, the more it has made sense to me and strengthened my testimony.
But in the end, belief has to come first. Understanding will come. But belief is a precursor to that understanding.
Belief first
I know that the idea of “believing first” is ridiculous to some, but let’s talk about what I actually mean when I say that belief needs to come first. I don’t mean, “Ignore the things you don’t understand and may even feel harmful. Just believe because I’m telling you that it’s good for you.” This is not what I mean by belief. In order to understand what I mean when I say “belief first,” you have to understand the transition I went through in my own faith.
When I have run into things that don’t make sense or when I run into things in the church that even seem hurtful, I have approached those uncomfortable feelings in a myriad of ways. If I’m being totally honest, when I was growing up, I simply didn’t approach them at all. I just pushed them to the back of my mind and forced myself to “have faith.” In case you were wondering, this wasn’t exactly effective. Sure, I held on for a while, but looking back, I can see that this approach couldn’t have lasted.
After my period of ignoring things I didn’t understand, I tried to hold onto testimony moments. This meant that I held onto moments where I had felt something beyond myself. These were good stepping stones that pushed me in the right direction, but they were ultimately insufficient in the long term. There were too many questions about whether I was feeling good old-fashioned nostalgia or truly feeling something that was given to me by my Heavenly Father.
And though holding onto testimony moments would have been ultimately insufficient for my personal testimony, this process allowed me to build the foundation for what has really helped me develop a resilience against Satan fighting me with things that I don’t understand or don’t have answers to.
Just over four years ago, I started the blog, and that’s when things really changed. I consistently speak with my Heavenly Father, and He responds. Now when I run into things I don’t understand, they can still bother me. However, I simultaneously can’t deny what’s right in front of me. I speak with God, and He answers back. That is as real to me as the things I don’t understand. Why place the reality of my concerns over the reality of my relationship with God? He has helped me find peace, helped me to understand, and proved His trustworthiness to me a million times over. I trust Him. I believe Him. Utilizing testimony moments to help build the foundation for this relationship was a big step, but I ultimately had to bring my relationship into the present. I had to talk to Him consistently in order to achieve this feeling of belief.
A concrete example
I have been married for seven years. Though this isn’t really that long, it has been long enough to solidify my trust in my husband. My relationship with Conner has consisted of moment after moment after moment after moment of evidence of Conner’s trustworthiness. A few years ago, Conner had some major decisions to make in regards to our family. I didn’t understand the choices he was making when the information I had was pointing us in a different direction. I kept bringing this up to him until one day he confided in me that I didn’t have all the information. There were things going on that were beyond our family that he couldn’t share with me, even though they affected my life as well as that of my family.
It didn’t even phase me. I told Conner I trusted him, and I did. He had consistently proved to me that our family was his first priority. He had proven to me that he could make wise decisions and that he would make decisions based on our happiness. I had no qualms letting him utilize the information he had to guide our path.
I didn’t understand, but I believed in Conner because of the evidence I had observed consistently in our relationship.
This is what I mean in terms of belief.
When I talk about belief coming first, I mean cultivating a relationship with God. Don’t take my word for it. Get to know Him, cast off imperfect qualities that you’ve given Him in your mind, and you’ll find that He consistently shows up in powerful ways. You’ll find that belief in Him is easy because of who He is.
When I talk about belief coming first, I’m talking about real trust based on a real relationship of invested time. I’m not talking about ignoring discomfort or having a death grip on “faith” because you’re supposed to. That’s not what belief is supposed to feel like. It’s not what it has to feel like.
Get to know Him. You will believe in Him, and eventually the truth comes.
When I hit snags
Developing this relationship has changed how I process things when I hit snags. When something comes along that I don’t understand, when I run into information on the news or social media that I can’t disprove, when I hear accounts of history that may or may not have validity, I believe in the very real relationship I’ve developed.
Believing in that relationship looks like a lot of things. Sometimes it means that I push the snag away without a second thought because I’m having a really good day, and I’m feeling really close to Him. Other times, it means that I take that snag to the Lord and talk to Him about it. I know He won’t be angry with me for asking because I know how He responds in the relationship I have with Him. I tell Him exactly why it bothers me, why it logically doesn’t make sense to me, or why I feel hurt.
Then I usually take some concentrated, conscious time for belief. I reaffirm what I know about Him, His power, His belief in me, His love for me, and my indispensability to His happiness. I think about how wise He has proven Himself in the past. Oftentimes, I find the answer or peace I’m looking for as I reflect on my relationship with Him and as I reflect on who He is and has proven Himself to be. Other times, I find that it softens my heart to the extent that He whispers more words of wisdom or comfort. Either way, I usually find what I’m looking for when I believe in Him first. The understanding comes because I believe in Him.
When I read this verse about the rising generation not understanding because they didn’t believe, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it at first. But as I took the time to reflect on my own life, I’ve realized that is exactly true. When we believe in our Father in Heaven and develop a relationship of trust with Him, understanding will follow.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 18–24 – Mike Parker
May 20, 2024
Ammon’s expedition; Limhi & Alma’s escape to Zarahemla
(Mosiah 7–8, 18–25)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
BYU professor Daniel C. Peterson examines the baptism of Alma₁ in these two articles:
“Priesthood in Mosiah,” in The Book of Mormon: Mosiah, Salvation Only Through Christ, eds. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1991), 187–210.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 18–24 – Autumn Dickson
May 19, 2024
They Were Just Dancing
by Autumn Dickson
This post will probably not be a popular one, at least in terms of the world, but it’s definitely an important one.
One of the stories we read about this week is painful and tragic.
Mosiah 20:1 Now there was a place in Shemlon where the daughters of the Lamanites did gather themselves together to sing, and to dance, and to make themselves merry.
While these daughters were dancing and enjoying themselves, the wicked priests of King Noah abducted 24 of them and married them. This actually snowballs into a battle where a lot of people die because the Lamanites blame Limhi’s people for taking their daughters.
Now, we have no idea what the scriptures mean by singing, dancing, and making merry. I had dance parties with my girlfriends all the time when I was young. We know that when Laman and Lemuel were making merry, they were sinning, but we don’t know if that’s actually what they were trying to imply right here. I’m not going to assume that these girls were doing anything wrong, but I’m still going to use the story to teach a principle.
Perhaps some would argue with me that everything worked out because the daughters end up defending their abductor-husbands later on, but I just don’t buy it. I’ve seen my fair share of abused women defend their abuser. These priests couldn’t go back to their wives so they kidnap women and marry them instead. These priests had spent their time with other women while they were previously married, and they had also abandoned those poor wives! Something tells me they didn’t change just because they got married again. We also know they haven’t changed because when they’re given a bit of power, they use it to abuse other innocent people as well (cough cough Alma). I don’t think these girls were okay.
Which leads me to what I want to teach today.
The Lord gave us standards to protect us, not to blame victims, but to protect us. Read it again. I want to teach both of those principles today.
Not to blame victims
I feel like I should start with the “blame victims” portion of the principle so we can appreciate the second portion of the principle as well.
The standards weren’t given to punish the victims. The girls were out dancing and making merry, but even if the scriptures were purposefully implying that these girls were sinning, could we accurately blame them for what happened to them afterwards? No. Even if their actions enabled wicked men to take advantage of them, the blame lies with the wicked men.
I remember a time when I was growing up and getting ready for a youth conference dance. I was getting ready at my friend’s house, and we went all out for fun. Dance party, face masks, snacks, everything. Getting ready for the youth conference dance was going to be just as fun as the actual dance.
But we were also taking pictures. Even though we weren’t quite ready yet (i.e. not modest). There was nothing crazy, but they weren’t great either. They weren’t meant to be anything. If you’re judging us by intent, the pictures were 100% innocent. We were playing and getting ready and taking pictures. There was nothing else there.
My mom found the pictures and was understandably upset. She was worried that one of my friends wouldn’t think about it and post some of them online. I learned an intense lesson that day about protecting myself.
Here was the reality of the situation: We didn’t sin. I mean, taking the pictures was probably a mistake but we weren’t actively rebelling or sinning. We were young girls getting ready to go to a dance. Heavenly Father was proud of us for going to youth conference and loving it.
Here’s the other half of the reality. I could have had a friend post some of those pictures online without thinking about it. And those pictures could have been downloaded by someone gross. And as innocent as we were, it could have hurt us. As innocent as we were, it could have hurt us.
I was not a bad person. I was a good, innocent person who loved playing and dancing with her friends and going to youth conference. But the rest of the world is not so innocent or good. Heavenly Father is more aware of this than anyone, and that’s why He gave us standards.
I didn’t need to be blamed if those pictures had been used against me. And yet, despite the fact that I am not responsible for the wicked actions of another person, I am overwhelmingly grateful that my mother taught me a hard lesson about protecting myself that day.
Things as they are
I’m going to use a more extreme example, but I’m actually not going to apologize for it as I often do. The world can hem and haw and complain, but the reality is this: I had too many friends from high school for which this was a reality. I have too many friends who didn’t know what happened to them the night before. I have too many friends who wish they could take back actions or words that occurred because their inhibitions were dulled by alcohol. The world can attack us for using “fear” tactics to try and force our kids to do what’s right, but I call it a reality check. I’m teaching them the truth. As my kids grow older, I will try my best to simultaneously teach them to trust themselves and their instincts, but I’m not going to refrain from teaching them about the very real danger that shouldn’t (but does!) exist in the world. They don’t have to be afraid of the world, but they do need to be able to make their decisions with accurate information.
Let’s say my daughter grows up, goes to a party, drinks some of this alcohol, and gets attacked. What is the reality of this situation? What is she going to have to face?
Is my daughter guilty because the attack happened because she chose to go to a party? No. we already discussed this. The guilt that should lay on her shoulders should be equivalent to her growing up, going to a party, drinking alcohol, and coming home safely. There was still disobedience and broken promises, but the resulting attack isn’t on her.
Since we already talked about that a little more in depth, let’s move to the second part of the principle.
I once had a young woman come to me and argue that she should be able to wear whatever she wants, go wherever she wants, and get blackout drunk if she wants, and expect safety. We should be teaching people to protect others, not teaching girls to keep themselves “safe.” I agreed with her. We should live in a world where people are safe even when they’re extremely vulnerable. I will teach my children to protect vulnerable people. I will not stand for behavior that exploits vulnerable people.
But I am not the only person on the planet. And so despite the fact that we should be able to expect safety even when we’re vulnerable, that is not the reality around us.
So I will teach my children to protect the vulnerable, and I will teach my children to follow the standards given to us by the Lord in order to more effectively protect themselves. I don’t believe the Lord curses those who made themselves vulnerable, but I do believe He is trying to teach us commandments and standards to protect us from pain.
And you know what? Sometimes we do all the right things, and those bad things still happen to us. Sometimes we do what’s right, dress modestly, stand in holy places, avoid substances, and those bad things still happen. Sometimes you follow all the standards, and you still unknowingly marry one of those wicked people. That’s why I can accurately say that it’s not your fault if someone takes advantage of you. Because even when you’re doing everything right, it can still happen.
We teach that. We make sure our children know that if someone hurts them, they are innocent of the crime that happened to them.
But we also teach wisdom. Because even though you can do everything right and still find yourself in trouble, I can promise that the odds of protecting yourself are much higher when you follow the standards given by the Lord.
I compare it to locking your door. If you lock your door, someone could absolutely still break the lock, come in, and hurt your family. Is that your fault? No, it lies with the person who chose to do the wrong thing. But it’s stupid to leave your door unlocked because someone could break in anyway.
And unfortunately there’s another harsh reality, and I ask you to please not misunderstand me. I will do my best to express my thoughts accurately.
When you leave the door unlocked and someone comes in and harms the family, you will be asking yourself, “What if I had just locked the door? Could I have spared us all of this pain?” There is no reason to carry guilt around because someone else chose to do the wrong thing, but a lack of guilt does not equate to a lack of pain. It is difficult to experience those kinds of consequences regardless of whether you made yourself vulnerable. I would argue that it’s especially painful when you wonder if those consequences actually had to happen. I reiterate. It’s not your fault. You do not need to take on the guilt of a person who chose to do something very wrong to you.
But I also reiterate. It is painful to find yourself in those circumstances. And even though you can’t perfectly protect yourself, the Lord has given us commandments and standards that do provide a good measure of protection from that kind of pain.
I testify of a Savior who gave us commandments and standards because of how much He loves us and because of His overwhelming awareness of the realities of this fallen world. I testify of a Savior who has the ability to heal us, regardless of how difficult circumstances came about because I can testify of a Savior who has saved and healed me when I’ve been imperfect or unwise. I testify of a day when the Savior will judge perfectly and heal those who desire to be healed.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 6 – Seer Stones: Why Aren’t They Used Today?
May 14, 2024
In this episode, Jennifer, Zach, and Sarah discuss why seer stones are no longer used today. Throughout this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute claims about the seer stones head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 11–17 – Autumn Dickson
May 11, 2024
He is Justice
by Autumn Dickson
This week, we find Abinadi standing before King Noah and his wicked priests. They love to lounge around, preaching at people, and spending their strength in highly questionable ways. Abinadi teaches them a plethora of doctrine, the ten commandments, the Law of Moses and its true purpose in the plan, and the coming of Jesus Christ since the House of Israel seems to forget about the Messiah and hyperfocus on a law that was always meant to point to a Messiah.
Abinadi teaches them that those who listen to the prophets and hope for Christ will be taken care of. Then Abinadi warns them.
Mosiah 15:26-27
26 But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins; yea, even all those that have perished in their sins ever since the world began, that have wilfully rebelled against God, that have known the commandments of God, and would not keep them; these are they that have no part in the first resurrection.
27 Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the Lord redeem such; for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice when it has its claim.
Abinadi is warning these men that they’re going to miss out if they don’t repent. If you’re spending the time reading and listening to Come Follow Me posts, videos, and podcasts, I’m going to take a wild guess that you’re not out doing the things that these priests are doing, not the least of which is murder. I doubt Abinadi would be calling you to repentance in the same manner that he’s calling these priests to repentance.
But there are still principles here for us to learn. There is one phrase in particular that can help us better understand the perfect judgment of the Lord.
“…for he cannot deny himself…”
One of my favorite topics is the perfection judgment of the Lord because I spent so long calling His judgment perfect and attributing less than perfect judging skills to Him. Let’s talk about what I mean. We’re going to cycle around a bit, but we’re going to come back around to this specific phrase.
The definitions of perfection
One of the ways that we can understand Judgment Day and the atonement of Jesus Christ is to look at it through the lens of two different definitions of perfection. I say, “one of the ways,” because these concepts are complex ideas, and I have not yet found a way to completely encompass all of the perfect principles that make up these ideas. I have talked about many of them, but here is yet another way to understand them.
When we’re talking about perfection in reference to Judgment Day and the atonement of Jesus Christ, you could almost say that there are two different definitions of perfection, and they come into play at different points.
The first definition of perfection is the more traditional way we frame perfection. It is to be without sin or flaw. Without the atonement of Jesus Christ, we could not make it back to heaven. We all sin and come short of the glory of God. We messed up, and we don’t deserve it. We have corrupted ourselves, and no corruptible thing can coexist with God or it burns up in His glory. This is our first idea of perfection.
Interestingly enough, is this actually fair? Is this truly perfect judgment? Think of all of the remarkable people who overcame great odds and trials and became compassionate, selfless human beings. Do they truly deserve to find unhappiness for an eternity? Is that really perfect judgment? In my unqualified opinion, I think not. We weren’t capable of being perfect. We needed the opposition to grow into perfection so why punish us for something we were incapable of?
And yet, this is what had to be. Corruption simply cannot exist in the presence of God. It’s obliterated. We needed to come to earth to grow into perfection and happiness; this absolutely, unequivocally meant that we would corrupt ourselves to a degree. These were the very real facts of our circumstances. A catch-22. Stay in the presence of God and experience damnation in the sense that we were stopped from progressing for forever or leave God’s presence, grow, but be tainted and away from His loving presence forever.
But here is where our second definition of perfection comes in. Christ was perfect in the sense of our first definition. He was without sin. We don’t understand how, but He paid for those sins. And because He paid for them, we can be cleansed. Voila. Catch-22 solved. We can go to earth, become corrupted to a degree (because it was inevitable), but we can also gain the experience we need to move past our damnation, our stop in our progression. That corruption gets cleansed, and we can coexist with Heavenly Father without getting burned up in the all-consuming fire that is the glory of His presence.
The second definition of perfection includes aspects of justice and mercy. People who are really trying and growing and believing and learning still get to come home even though they’re made mistakes. What is a more “perfect” definition of perfection? The first or second? Which is a more perfect judgment? The one that called for absolute discipline for the imperfect or the one that included the very real aspects of mercy?
Once again in my extremely unqualified opinion, the second definition of “perfect” is nicer, but it’s also a more perfect definition of perfect.
He became justice
Let’s cycle back to the phrase from the beginning: “…he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice…”
We have all heard the phrases, “Christ is justice,” and “Christ is mercy.” In some sense, those are literal and accurate statements. Because of what He did for us, that first scenario of perfection is not applicable. There is no more catch-22. There is no more third party justice that disallows us from going back into the presence of our Heavenly Father to be consumed by His glory. Christ’s atonement can cleanse us so we can go back. These are our new and true circumstances. Christ gets to decide whether we come home because He took the place of justice when He paid justice. He is our debtor. He is justice.
Our original circumstances that existed with the first definition of perfection are no longer our circumstances, and yet, we keep acting like they are. We keep acting like justice overpowers mercy and not the other way around.
In my home, I am justice. I am also mercy. These are temporary roles that were given to me by a Father in Heaven who needed me to teach His children because He couldn’t do it Himself. My husband, Conner, also holds these roles though he practices them less often because he’s gone working.
Maybe it sounds silly to say I am justice and mercy, but in so many real aspects of the words, it’s true. The worlds of my children very much fall into what I create for them.
I believe that one of the reasons the Lord set up these circumstances in this manner was because He wanted me to understand His atonement. I am wildly imperfect, but I do have some sense of what perfect judgment looks like. I may lose my cool with my kids, but I have my King-Solomon-wisdom moments too. When I take a step back from the overstimulation and chaos, I often know where my kids’ hearts are at. I know if they’ve been stressed with specific circumstances, different triggers for their big emotions, and whether they went to bed on time. I know if Warner was literally trying to play with his sister or whether he was trying to get his kicks torturing her. I know whether Evie meant to push her brother off the couch or whether she’s still learning to control her growing body.
As of yet, none of my children have done anything worthy of getting kicked out. They have punched, bit, threw, pushed, and taunted. They have continuously provoked and purposefully broken things, but I’m not crazy enough to believe that merits getting kicked out of my home. I am not perfect, but I do have some immature understanding of perfect judgment. I have some inkling of what it means to wisely distribute mercy and justice according to the needs of my children so that they can grow into well-adjusted adults without banning them from the home.
Heaven forbid the day ever came that I would need to kick a teenager out to protect my other children, but I hope I would be wise enough to do that too if the situation called for it.
Now let’s take this little home scenario and zoom out to look at the world the Lord created for us. I am imperfect. I am also a good person. I want peace in our “home” here on earth even though I often make mistakes and hurt my siblings. I love my Father and Brother.
And in my imperfect sense of perfection, I know that I have not merited getting kicked out yet. He will distribute mercy and justice according to what I need to learn in order to become a well-adjusted Being like Him, but He’s not kicking me out of the house. I made covenants that bind me to Christ and allow Him to cleanse me so that I can coexist with my Heavenly Parents, and I am someone who wants to follow Them. They can work with that.
I am saved by the atonement of Jesus Christ. I experience salvation regularly in the forms of peace, hope, and joy in my home. It is a beautiful feeling, and it’s a feeling that my Savior wanted me to experience. He paid an excruciating price so that I could experience it and experience it now, not just in the next life. I am grateful to Him for bringing about the second definition of perfect, for banishing the catch-22, and enabling me to experience eternal happiness.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 7–10; Mosiah 11–17 – Mike Parker
May 06, 2024
Zeniff’s return to the land of Lehi‐Nephi; Abinadi’s confrontation with king Noah
(Mosiah 9–17)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the weeks of May 6–12 and May 13–19)
Robert L. Millet, “The Ministry of the Father and the Son,” in The Book of Mormon: The Keystone Scripture, ed. Paul R. Cheesman (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1988), 44–72.
How was Abinadi executed? One suggestion is that he was beaten to death with burning torches.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 7–10 – Autumn Dickson
May 06, 2024
Limhi and Repentance
by Autumn Dickson
One of the stories that starts to get introduced this week is that of Limhi and his people. The order of events over the next few (or ten) chapters can be a little confusing because you’re jumping around in the timeline, and you’re following different groups of people. This is also intermingled with sermons that break up the stories and can make it even harder to follow if you’re not really trying.
I want to talk about Limhi and his people today. I know that their story is spread out over multiple chapters and weeks, and so if I want to talk about them as a whole, I’m going to have to venture into their story a bit more even if I’m getting ahead of myself in the manual. Luckily, the principles that I want to share are all found within verses that are included for this week.
I want to give the full story so we can look at the principles in context. I know I’m omitting some details, but I want to focus on this specific timeline. So the Nephites are all in one big group of people. At one point in time, a man named Zeniff decides that he wants to inherit the land where the Lamanites are living because he feels as though that land was originally supposed to be the inheritance of the Nephites from the Lord. He takes a big group of people, and the Lamanite king lets them settle on some of that land. The Lamanites try attacking Zeniff’s people, the Lamanites lose, and Zeniff’s people are really happy. After Zeniff passes away and time moves on, Zeniff’s people become wicked. Zeniff’s people come into bondage under the Lamanite king and are forced to pay crazy amounts of taxes.
The original group of Nephites become curious about what happened to Zeniff’s people, and they send Ammon and a small group of people to go find them. Ammon finds them, and Limhi (the new king of Zeniff’s group) is ecstatic because he wants to free his people from the Lamanites.
The scope of today’s message
Limhi’s people differ from the other group of people that we read about over the next few weeks in the sense that their sin brought them into bondage. The other group of people (Alma’s people) were brought into bondage despite their righteousness, and they were likewise freed by the Lord. Both this group of people and Limhi’s people are reflective of our own lives. Sometimes affliction happens even when we’re striving to do what’s right; affliction was an essential ingredient to the Plan of Salvation if we really wanted to reach our full potential so even when we’re doing what’s right, the Lord may still allow us to wander into difficult circumstances.
On the flip side, sometimes our affliction is brought about by our own sin, as was the case for Limhi’s people. It is this specific circumstance that I want to talk about today. Despite the fact that repentance can be broadened to encompass the growth experienced by Alma’s people, I want to talk about repentance within the scope of overcoming sin specifically. In my opinion, repentance can be any step towards Christ whether that’s in the form of overcoming sin, learning something new about Christ, healing, developing a talent, or getting stronger. But for this particular message, I want to zoom in the lens and just talk about repentance in the form of overcoming sin.
It is in this context that we can study parallels between Limhi’s people and our own repentance process.
A posture of accountability
One of the things that impresses me most about the parallels between Limhi’s people and the general process of overcoming sin comes from Limhi, himself. In truth, we know very little about Limhi. We hadn’t heard of him before this moment even though he was King Noah’s son. We don’t know what his past was like, how often he participated in wickedness with his father, or how involved he was when Abinadi was killed. And yet, we read this from him:
Mosiah 7:25-26
25 For if this people had not fallen into transgression the Lord would not have suffered that this great evil should come upon them. But behold, they would not hearken unto his words; but there arose contentions among them, even so much that they did shed blood among themselves.
26 And a prophet of the Lord have they slain; yea, a chosen man of God, who told them of their wickedness and abominations, and prophesied of many things which are to come, yea, even the coming of Christ.
Limhi knew that his people had done wickedly, and he didn’t shy away from that fact. He knew that their bondage was a result of falling into transgression.
I want you to think about Limhi for a second. He was raised in a wicked society with an awful father. His experience with religion had been limited to wicked priests that his father had put in place. Not exactly fertile soil. It could have been easy for Limhi to be completely self-absorbed like his father. It could have been easy for him to be vain and surround himself with “religious” men who would stroke his ego. It could have also been easy to turn his back on religion completely considering the fact that his experience with it was full of hypocrisy, pride, and silencing anyone who dared disagree. If this was the God that Limhi was introduced to by wicked priests and his father, why did he want anything to do with it?
And yet, somehow, Limhi became an unbaptized convert waiting for the missionaries to show up. How he learned about the true character of God and the nature of sin is anyone’s guess, but somehow Limhi knew. Somehow he shed the example of doing whatever you wanted and calling it righteous. He stepped into the mantle of king over a people in bondage, and he was brave enough to tell them that their own wickedness had brought their destruction, even though Abinadi had been killed for doing the same thing.
If we’re looking at Limhi’s people as an example of repentance, we can look at Limhi as holding the primary state of mind. Limhi was ready to repent; he was ready to change. His was a posture of repentance that included several aspects: an ownership of the sins, a willingness to seek help in order to be freed, preparedness for penance (was willing to be slaves to the Nephites even though that idea was shot down fast), and a steadfast desire to avoid running right back into the sins that brought the problem in the first place. All of these attitudes provided a readiness for Limhi and his people to be saved.
An effectual struggle
When deliverance for Limhi’s people arrives in the form of Ammon, Limhi addresses his people. This is one of the things he says to them:
Mosiah 7:18 And it came to pass that when they had gathered themselves together that he spake unto them in this wise, saying: O ye, my people, lift up your heads and be comforted; for behold, the time is at hand, or is not far distant, when we shall no longer be in subjection to our enemies, notwithstanding our many strugglings, which have been in vain; yet I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.
Ammon found Limhi’s people, and Limhi is thrilled for good reason. He sees that freedom is possible. They don’t have to remain in bondage and pay forever. However, there is a little phrase at the end that is very telling.
“…I trust there remaineth an effectual struggle to be made.”
“Effectual” means to produce the desired result, and I believe that this struggle was meant to produce freedom in its truest sense.
I want you to imagine working super hard to free a people from bondage. You succeed, and it’s wonderful and celebratory and beautiful. But then, they run right back into their bonds that you freed them from. It’s silly, but it happens on a spiritual level quite often. We believe that Heavenly Father requires work and allows for guilt and struggle, but not because He wants to punish us or because we have to pay for our sins. Heavenly Father requires an effectual struggle that will free us from the bonds and keep us from going back to them. Having an effectual struggle doesn’t mean destroying ourselves for imperfection (that would not be effectual in the slightest). Rather, an effectual struggle enables us to appreciate the sacrifice that was made by the Savior. We receive enough of the consequences that we recognize we don’t want those bonds (if we were always bailed out with no struggle, why wouldn’t we keep going back?). And there is also a beautiful kind of growth that is experienced in that effectual struggle.
Do not fear the struggle. We want to be freed from past mistakes and the consequences that still seem to haunt us. We want to be freed from flaws that aren’t contributing to our happiness. But the Lord was wise in allowing us to struggle.
Limhi teaches one other principle in this chapter that can help us determine our relationship with this effectual struggle.
Mosiah 7:33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.
Our true requirement here is to continually turn to the Lord. When we sin, we turn to Him. When we struggle, we turn to Him. When we run into obstacles while trying to do what’s right, we turn to Him. We trust Him. If we do this, He WILL deliver us out of bondage. He will deliver us. It’s going to happen. He’s going to deliver us according to His own wisdom about what’s best for us, but we can lift up our heads and rejoice right now. An effectual struggle doesn’t mean we’re not forgiven. It means we are loved by a Lord who frees us from sin and is wise enough to know the struggle will put us where we need to be.
I’m grateful for a Savior who can teach me in whatever situation I need. I’m grateful that I have gained a testimony that He will deliver me, and I’m also grateful He lets me struggle. Or, to be more accurate, I’m grateful for what I get out of the struggle. Even as I face consequences and obstacles, I know that they could easily be removed. I’m not actually in any “danger.” I simply need them to become everything I can be, and I’m grateful the Savior gives that to me.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 5 – Seer Stones: Did the Church Lie?
Apr 30, 2024
In this episode, Sarah, Jennifer, and Zach discuss mentions of the seer stones throughout history. Throughout this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute claims about the seer stones head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (5:44) Richard Bushman Statement (6:11) Overview (8:16) Gerrit Dirkmaat Interview (35:39) Mark Ashurst-McGee Interview (01:12:34) Conclusion
Gerrit Dirkmaat is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado in 2010, where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He is the coauthor, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the award-winning book From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by the BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book in 2015. In 2023, they published another book on the topic: Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon. In addition to books, Gerrit is also the author of dozens of academic articles. He currently serves as the editor of the academic journal Latter-day Saint Historical Studies published by the Ensign Peak Foundation. Since 2021 he has hosted and produced a weekly Church history podcast: Standard of Truth. It examines Church history questions and sources. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.
Mark Ashurst-McGee is a senior historian in the Church History Department and the senior research and review editor for the Joseph Smith Papers, where he also serves as a specialist in document analysis and documentary editing methodology. He holds a PhD in history from Arizona State University and has trained at the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents. He has coedited several volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers and is also coeditor of Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources (Oxford University Press, 2018). He is also the author of several articles on Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint history published in scholarly journals and popular venues.
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 4–6 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 28, 2024
Watch Your Thoughts
by Autumn Dickson
King Benjamin doesn’t mess around with his sermon. He knows what he came to do, and he does it. He doesn’t mince words. He teaches some pretty essential doctrines with no apologies attached. Let’s talk about one of these no-nonsense doctrines.
Mosiah 4:29-30
29 And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them.
30 But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.
These are some of those verses that used to haunt me back before I knew how much I mattered to the Lord. There are so many ways to sin and if I can’t watch every little thing about myself, I’m going to perish. There is a reason I can sympathize with those who have left the church and felt a “great burden lifted off their shoulders.” It is because of misunderstanding verses like this. It’s not fun to carry that kind of fear and perfectionism around.
And though there is much I could say about sin and its consequences, I actually want to run in a different direction with this verse.
Interpreting a tone
When my daughter first joined gymnastics, her coach was a lady who had escaped the Soviet Union. She spoke in a thick Russian accent, and there was absolutely no coddling. In a society where gentle parenting has taken a really strong foothold, this was a very different approach. She corrected the girls immediately, loudly, and with no remorse. She also demanded respect from them.
Though some parents shied away from this gym for that reason (more power to them, plenty of right ways to parent a child), I chose this gym for that reason. I wanted my daughter to get used to personalities that could be considered abrasive in our culture because I knew there was value there. Evelyn’s coach loved her, and she showed Evelyn that she loved her. She just didn’t show it with smiles and pats on the back. I knew that if Evelyn could learn to internalize the good in an environment that might seem hostile to some, I would be doing her a huge favor.
It would have been easy to internalize this coach’s approach as criticsm and wither underneath it especially when you consider how different it is from other approaches found in America.
So let’s go back to this verse with King Benjamin. It was very easy for me as a child to read that verse and internalize fear as the motivation for living the gospel. If I didn’t watch myself, I was going to perish. I have seen the church (as well as lots of other churches) get torn apart for teaching this kind of doctrine. “We shouldn’t try to scare people into doing what’s right. It’s so damaging to teach a young child or teenager that they need to behave or they’re going to be destroyed.” In all honesty, I have found that this is true. I have watched friends talk about overcoming religious trauma, and I have had to work through unhealthy religious beliefs as well.
Scare tactics aren’t super effective or healthy; THAT is a true principle. In the same breath, I also feel that the critics are missing a couple key points to the story, and it is these very key points that can help us know how to teach the truth about sin while simultaneously helping our children absorb the gospel in the most effective manner.
The whole truth
So what’s the whole truth here? What parts of the story are missing? What are the critics missing?
As I worked through some of my own incorrect, harmful religious beliefs, I remember experiencing the scriptures and conference talks completely differently. As I learned about the atonement, the mercy of Christ, my own divine potential, the freedom afforded me by my Heavenly Father, and His coaching methods, I internalized completely different messages.
When I look back on my experience with King Benjamin’s sermon as a teenager, I remember fixating on my own nothingness and the need to desperately watch my thoughts, words, and actions so I wouldn’t perish. Now when I read his sermon, I find myself saying things like, “Yes! That’s how I feel! I have tasted of His love, and I want to remember it and follow Him.”
There is an aspect of internalization when it comes to the gospel, and that means there is also a subtle layer of personal accountability. I can only imagine how many times my parents and leaders taught me that I was beloved of my Heavenly Father, but it wasn’t until I was an adult that I truly internalized it. My parents did teach the good news of the gospel. I was just a depressed teenager that fixated on the negative.
King Benjamin warned us that sin hurts us, and he rightfully did so. It’s true, and it needs to be taught so we can be protected. But he also taught so, so, so much more than that. Read his sermon. Pay attention to the language about Christ, joy, and freedom. I cannot blame King Benjamin for teaching me to be a perfectionist because he didn’t teach that. Satan did, and I let him because I didn’t recognize him.
Please know that I’m not trying to pass blame around. Maybe we can do better at making sure every child has internalized what it means to a divine Parentage. But maybe there is something else we can teach in addition to this principle that will help our loved ones (and probably ourselves too) take control of what they’re internalizing in terms of the gospel.
Recognizing Satan
A powerful tool in combating the self-loathing and perfectionism that is often associated with religion is to recognize Satan at work.
I believe that one of Satan’s favorite tactics is making the gospel a painful experience. He loves getting into our heads and screaming half truths as we’re trying to learn the doctrine. He’s trying to brush over and numb the parts that teach us who we really are and Who is standing behind us. If he can turn the gospel into a negative thing, the Spirit cannot testify of it. The gospel suddenly seems like the problem because we’re not actually learning the gospel. We’re learning harmful, partial truths, and we feel extremely burdened by it. When we finally shed those harmful, partial truths, it’s no wonder we feel liberated.
I find it interesting that King Benjamin teaches us that we need to watch our thoughts as well as our actions. This could easily be processed as an extreme process to strive for perfection as defined by the world. In relation to what we’ve been talking about, I also believe it’s appropriate to observe our thoughts and try to determine the sources they’re coming from. We watch our thoughts. We look at them. Are they coming from the Spirit? Are they coming from Satan? Are they coming from our own perceived notions and habits? Are our thoughts actually reflecting the gospel or some twisted version of it?
If we don’t take the time to watch our thoughts, trying our best to align them with true gospel principles, we may find that Satan has led us to believe in a false gospel completely based on perfectionism and an incessant need to “do” all the things while neglecting the heart of the matter.
And what did King Benjamin warn would happen if we didn’t watch our thoughts? He warned that we would perish. Living the gospel in the way that Satan wants us to live the gospel is equivalent to perishing. It doesn’t feel like salvation; it feels like hell (which is Satan’s whole point). Satan wants us to perish and be miserable.
We cannot experience a fullness of salvation here on earth. Some of the aspects of salvation will only be unlocked on the other side. However, there is a good amount of salvation that we can experience right now. It includes feelings of peace, confidence in your Savior’s ability to heal and save, and a deep sense of worth. If you’re not experiencing these feelings, maybe ask yourself who you’ve been listening to. Go back and read passages of scriptures, and look at them objectively. What is the actual message being shared and what message have you been internalizing?
Are we teaching our loved ones to watch their thoughts and own what they’re holding onto within their own minds? It’s a powerful teaching to own your beliefs and thwart Satan.
I testify of a Savior who wants to offer salvation now. He never meant for us to carry around the burdens He paid for or the burden of perfectionism. When He teaches us (through King Benjamin) to watch our thoughts or perish, it’s not because He wants to rain down curses on our heads or give us the evil eye for making mistakes; it’s because He knows that Satan wants to subtly destroy us and make us miserable. He’s trying to prevent our unhappiness, not add to our worries.
I testify that He loves you. If you don’t know that, I also testify that He is already doing everything He can possibly do to show you that He loves you. There comes a point where you have to make a choice to trust Him. There comes a point when we will need to choose to internalize that doctrine. There is a measure of personal accountability when it comes to whether we place our faith in that principle. I testify that if you place your faith in Him and His love, you will be happy in the most important sense of the word.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 1–3; Mosiah 4–6 – Mike Parker
Apr 22, 2024
King Benjamin’s temple sermon
(Mosiah 2–6)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This post will cover the weeks of April 22-28 and April 29-May 5)
John A. Tvedtnes, “King Benjamin and the Feast of Tabernacles,” in By Study and Also by Faith: Essays in Honor of Hugh W. Nibley, volume 2, eds. John M. Lundquist and Stephen D. Ricks (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1990), 197–237.
Donald W. Parry, “Service & Temple in King Benjamin’s Speech,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 2 (2007): 42–47. Parry, a professor of Hebrew Bible at BYU, explores how King Benjamin’s speech focuses almost entirely on service, repeating four variations of the word—servants, serve, served, and service—fifteen times in only eighteen verses (Mosiah 2:10–27).
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Mosiah 1–3 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 20, 2024
The Lord Supports Me
by Autumn Dickson
Maybe this week’s message was meant for me. I definitely needed to hear it. I feel like every time I’ve sat down to write a message, I’ve been hitting my head against a wall. I had all these goals about getting ahead and being on top of things, and though I have attempted to completely set myself up for success, it feels as though I have found nothing but obstacles. Maybe, just maybe, that’s because I would need this message for this very week. I couldn’t get ahead because it wouldn’t have come at the right time.
Maybe, just maybe, it’s a message that you need too.
An unexpected turn of events
I’m pregnant again. At the time of writing this, I’m not very far along. By the time this message comes around, I will be near the middle of my pregnancy. I had a baby five months ago. No, we were not being irresponsible. It came about because of circumstances that were actually outside of our control.
I completely recognize that I am so blessed to be able to bear children. I know that there are women out there who would do anything to be in my position. I would not trade my problems for someone else’s.
But I have struggled with this news. My babies will be thirteen months apart. I already feel like I’m going from sunup to sundown with no time to pull my head above water. Add in the nausea and depression, and I’m basically a basket case. Every single time I sit down at my computer to try and share something about Christ, I feel like I’m swimming through mists of darkness. I feel like I’m trying to cut through a nebulous darkness to try and receive something to put on paper. And by the time I’ve been able to start writing and working through my process, I’m so drained.
I don’t do well when I’m pregnant. I’m not the mom or wife I want to be. Trying to share messages about Christ when I’m agitated, angry, or despairing feels like trying to climb a sheer cliff face.
It is in this state of mind that I read this verse:
Mosiah 2:30 For even at this time, my whole frame doth tremble exceedingly while attempting to speak unto you; but the Lord God doth support me, and hath suffered me that I should speak unto you, and hath commanded me that I should declare unto you this day, that my son Mosiah is a king and a ruler over you.
I am not here to declare my child as your king and ruler, but I do feel a kinship with King Benjamin in his other sentiments. I have a message to share, and I’m exhausted. Beyond the emotional toll, my body is worn down. I know that I’m not the only one who has felt too weak to accomplish the tasks at hand, to wonder if God has asked too much this time, to wonder if I don’t have what it takes to choose faith for another day.
So this message from King Benjamin is for us. The Lord God will support us, and He will help us accomplish what He sent us here to do. He has taught me how we’re going to get through this together by reminding me of a couple of principles that I easily and often forget. Maybe I can share them with you, and maybe you’ll have a better memory than me.
A day at a time
The first principle is that we’re going to take it a day at a time. There are appropriate times to plan and make ambitious goals and prepare for future crises. And then there are times when you reach crises, and it becomes appropriate to ration. The Lord can help you know what stage you’re at, but as for me and my house, we’re rationing for the next year.
Each day, I’m going to wake up, I’m going to devote whatever time I can to accomplish the work He’s given me (both motherhood and blogging), and then I’m just going to wake up and repeat it the next day. I’m going to push aside my fears that are whispering that there is too much work, that I need to sacrifice more, that I’ll never accomplish it. I’m going to trust that He will give me what I need to accomplish what He wants done.
And I’ll fail at that. Heaven knows half of my mental effort these days is solely focused on trying to trust Him and forget about tomorrow. However, in the quiet moments when the wind stops and the darkness dissipates just a little, I know that He will magnify what I can give. It may be measly, but it’s not my work anyway. It’s His, and He asked me to do it which means that He’s going to help me do it. I make a pretty poor partner, but He chose me so that’s on Him.
He will carry us
There are three little phrases I want to pull out of the verse we read earlier. The Lord commanded King Benjamin to speak to the people. King Benjamin’s frame was literally shaking while he was trying to do this. But the Lord was also supporting him through the process, suffering him to fulfill the work he had been given.
The Lord could have asked someone else. King Benjamin could have gotten up and said, “My son is your king now,” and turned the time over to Mosiah. Mosiah made a good king too. I’m sure he had been taught well by his father. He was young, but the Spirit could have just as easily testified of his words to his people as it did for King Benjamin’s words.
So why King Benjamin?
We don’t know.
Which is probably an unsatisfying answer, but it’s also the truth. Maybe the Lord needed a little extra sacrifice to consecrate the speech delivered by King Benjamin for the sake of his people. Maybe King Benjamin needed to feel that unending support, that lesson, again (even though he likely felt it a ton throughout his career as humble and serving king). Maybe Mosiah simply wasn’t ready, or maybe Mosiah needed to see his father supported by the Lord so that he would know the Lord could carry him through his service as king. We just don’t know.
So what am I trying to teach here? Because this is all rather unhelpful.
I guess what I’m trying to teach is that the Lord has His reasons, and I’ve never known Him to be unwise or cruel. Maybe I don’t know His specific reasons for why an old king needed to overly exert his body after a lifetime of service. However, I do know that the Lord had a very good reason, and I know that King Benjamin wouldn’t regret following Him.
I don’t know why I’m having a baby right now. Maybe I won’t know until the next life. I’ll probably have guesses, but it’s very probable that I simply won’t know.
But I do know this. I know He is wise. I know He sees way more than I do. I know that He manipulates the details of my life in my favor.
I also know this. I know that He is not doing it just to make my life harder. It is a good reason, even if I can’t see it now. I also know that I won’t regret following Him (at least not permanently).
I can give you a million reasons why I think this is a bad idea. I have this other work He’s given me, and this makes me vastly more inefficient. I have other children who need a loving mother, and being a loving mother while I’m pregnant and depressed is so hard. Oftentimes, they need far more than I am capable of giving. My cup is often empty when I wake up in the morning. I could accuse Him of making me sacrifice all of these other things, and I could even tell Him no.
But I would only be hurting myself. And truth be told, I would probably be hurting my family too.
He has His reasons. I don’t know them, but I know Him. I am so blessed to know Him.
And because I know Him, I also know this. He has good reasons for what He is doing, and He’s also not going to abandon me. He’s not sacrificing me for some greater good. He didn’t look at King Benjamin and say, “Sorry, but you’re out of luck. It’s either you or all of these other people who need these words.” Everything can be for our benefit. My kids may have a much shorter-tempered mother, but they will also have a mother who knows how to apologize, who knows how the Lord loves her and is cheering her on. They will know how to be compassionate. They will know that the Lord does not abandon His own even if He’s pushing them beyond what they believe are their limits.
He has asked me to do something hard, and I love Him for it because I know Him. I may not love my difficult task; luckily that doesn’t seem to be a requirement for celestial glory. But I love how He will carry me through it and bless me and my family for it.
If He asked you to do something hard, it’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay for it to feel impossible. It’s okay that you don’t know how you’re going to do it. It’s okay that you’re probably going to fail at it multiple times. Trust Him.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Enos–Words of Mormon – Mike Parker
Apr 16, 2024
Enos’s wrestle with God; Nephite spiritual decline; Mosiah led righteous Nephites to Zarahemla
(Enos, Jarom, Omni, Words of Mormon, Mosiah 1)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Clifford P. Jones, “The Prophets Who Wrote the Book of Omni,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 34 (2020): 221–44. The brief accounts written by Omni, Amaron, Chemish, Abinadom, and Amaleki, taken alone, don’t always inspire confidence in their righteousness. Jones argues that, when the specific words used by these men and all relevant context are taken into consideration, it’s reasonable to conclude that each of these authors of the book of Omni was a prophet of God.
The people of Zarahemla were the descendants of a group that came from Jerusalem who were led by Mulek, a son of King Zedekiah. (Omni 1:14–19; Mosiah 25:2; Helaman 8:21) There is no outside historical record of Zedekiah of Judah having a son named Mulek, and the Old Testament record claims that Zedekiah’s sons were killed by the Babylonians in front of him. (2 Kings 25:7; Jeremiah 39:6; 52:10). However, an ancient Judean stamp seal has been identified as bearing the Hebrew form of the name Malkiyahu, son of the king, which may refer to the Mulek of the Book of Mormon. See Jeffrey R. Chadwick, “Has the Seal of Mulek Been Found?”, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 2 (2003): 72–83.
Mosiah chapter 1 is identified as “Chapter Ⅲ” in the printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon. This evidence indicates that these two missing chapters from the book of Mosiah were part of the 116 manuscript pages lost by Martin Harris. Royal Skousen, editor of the Book of Mormon Critical Text project, discusses this with Michael De Groote in “Scholar’s Corner: The stolen chapters of Mosiah,” Deseret News (24 June 2010).
The Words of Mormon describes Mormon₂ finding the small plates of Nephi and placing them with his own record (the plates of Mormon). This diagram from Book of Mormon Central helps to visualize the source materials that went into compiling the final printed edition of the Book of Mormon.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Enos–Words of Mormon – Autumn Dickson
Apr 15, 2024
Enos is Changed by Prayer
by Autumn Dickson
When I was younger, I remember reading the exchange between Enos and the Lord and finding some of the comments kinda interesting. Enos prays for forgiveness and for his people, and it’s beautiful, but the prayer doesn’t end there. As part of his exchange with the Lord, Enos also prays for this:
Enos 1:13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation
Enos prays very specifically that if the Nephites fall into transgression, He wants the Lord to preserve the Nephite records and bring them forth unto the Lamanites. The Lord answers with, “I will do this at the right time,” and so Enos is like, “Cool. Great. Thanks.” Then the Lord adds on, “Actually, I already told your dad I was going to do this.” In some ways, this all could seem a bit odd. Let’s talk about Enos’ prayer in general and then cycle back around to this specific verse in the context of the whole prayer.
Following Enos’ process
I think it’s important to note that Enos prayed all day and night. What does this mean? It means that we have an extremely tiny portion of the conversation he actually had with the Lord. He didn’t record the entire prayer. This makes sense because it was apparently really difficult to engraven things upon the plates. So what do we learn from the portion that Enos engraved upon the plates? What do we learn from the fact that not all of it is there?
One of the reasons I love this chapter so much is because I write my prayers down too. My process for writing these prayers has given me potential insight into Enos and his prayer. At least once a day, I write my prayer. Usually my process entails opening up a note on the computer and typing everything. It helps me focus at a time in my life where interruptions are frequent. The next day, I erase the whole thing and type a new prayer. Otherwise, my computer would fill up fast. However, if I feel guided by the Lord to pray for something specific that I haven’t prayed before, then I move over to my journal and record it in my journal instead. I keep the significant parts in a place where they’re more permanent.
There have been times where I’ve been telling Him what I’m grateful for, and He will open my eyes to a very significant way that He stepped in and coordinated something perfectly for my family. I want to remember those moments so I record them in my journal where they can be kept. There have been times where I’ve been praying for something we need, and I feel guided to pray about something specific that seems to hint at what may be coming for my family. I likewise record that in my journal where I can refer back to it.
Enos prayed all day, and then he went and recorded the most significant parts. By observing Enos’ prayer, both the recorded AND unrecorded portions, we can explore what prayer was always meant to look like.
Most of us have had lessons on prayer and its true purposes: change, conversion, communion. We all know that prayer is supposed to be a process in which our visions are lifted higher and we change ourselves accordingly. And yet, despite this, we still persist in praying like our Father is a vending machine. Sometimes there isn’t much connection between what we’re putting in and what we’re receiving. Prayer was always meant to be more of a phone call, a communion, where we’re hearing Him and talking and discussing so we can better understand the realities around us and change accordingly.
Enos changed during his prayer. We can see it happen. Let’s point out pivotal moments that can help us watch what prayer is really supposed to look like.
Two influences
As we go through Enos’ prayer, I want to be focusing on the change that’s occurring in Enos. We’ll point out the actual changes that are recorded, and then we’ll delve a little deeper and try to observe some of the influences that led towards that change. Though there are likely many influences that change us while we pray, there are two that I observed regularly through Enos’ prayer as well as my own. The first influence is a given: namely, the direct revelation you’re receiving from Heavenly Father. As you hear from Him, it’s kinda easy to see why it would change you. The second influence is more subtle: it’s when Enos brings in knowledge that he has already received about his Heavenly Father. We’ll point out direct examples of this and why it’s significant.
So let’s just look at Enos’ prayer in order and specifically observe the changes he undergoes as these two influences play upon him.
In the first part of the prayer, Enos prays for forgiveness and receives it. This is the first time we can easily see Enos change. When he is forgiven, Enos responds with the fact that he knows that God cannot lie. Because of his communication with heaven as well as reflecting on what he already knew about God (specifically God’s unblemished honesty), Enos is changed. More specifically, his guilt is swept away and that is a mighty change.
Next, Enos prays for his brethren the Nephites. He describes his prayer as a pouring out of his soul and a struggling in the spirit. That seems like a lot to skip over. What are we potentially missing in all of this pouring and struggling? We can’t know for sure because he didn’t include it; I fully acknowledge that this is all conjecture. However, it still teaches the principle so I’m going to share my conjecture anyway.
Enos was praying for the Nephites to be saved. They were his posterity. They were his brethren. They were close to his heart. They were his children and grandchildren. He prayed for their hearts and righteousness. He wanted them to find the Lord and stay with Him, and that’s probably what he was praying about; that was the struggling and pouring. Maybe he didn’t record every detail about it, but he did record what he received from the Lord. The Lord answered him by essentially saying that He would bless the Nephites to possess the land as long as they were righteous.
We find two changes that come over Enos after this portion of prayer is over.
The first change is that his faith began to be unshaken. This is interesting to me because the Lord’s answer seems to imply that the Nephites will eventually succumb to temptation and be swept off the land (Enos actually does recognize this implication of destruction and we’ll talk about that in a second). You would think that the change that overcomes Enos would be depression. He has just been taught that the Lord will only be able to protect his people for so long, and yet, Enos feels his faith grow stronger.
How? How did Enos feel his faith grow stronger instead of just making him sad? I cannot tell you the mechanism. I can merely bear witness that this is a thing. I have had enough experiences where the Lord has seemed to imply that bad news was coming, and yet, I was filled with stronger faith and less fear than when I began praying. I remember one instance in particular. I was praying for deliverance from some people who were trying to hurt our family. The Lord stopped me from praying for this, and it was at that moment that I “knew” that these people would “win” to an extent. And yet, that experience stayed with me and strengthened me for years afterwards. Even as things got crazier and crazier, I knew that He knew where we were, that He needed to act according to His plan and allow for agency and judgment. I knew that He would support us and that we could never really lose. What should have been bad news somehow pushed me closer to the Lord.
The second way that Enos changes is what he prays for; this actually leads us to the next section of prayer, a portion that I mentioned in the beginning of the post. Enos prays that if the Nephites are destroyed, he wants the Nephite records to go to the posterity of the Lamanites. Enos had felt what the Lord had implied. He wasn’t sure. There didn’t seem to be any sort of vision of the Nephites being destroyed, but the implication of Nephite destruction affected him enough that his prayers altered.
Now here is where we see that interplay of the two influences again. Enos changed his prayer according to what he received from the Lord, namely the implication that the Lord would not always be able to protect the Nephites. But what about the second influence? The knowledge he had previously received?
Once again, this is all conjecture, and I know that. But it can still teach us righteous principles.
In the beginning of the chapter, we learn that Enos was taught in the language of his father. This could mean a couple of things, but some historians believe that Enos was saying that his father taught him how to write. This makes a lot of sense considering the fact that Jacob left the records to Enos. This would also likely imply that Jacob taught Enos the deep importance of the records. He taught Enos how important it was to record something on the plates so that the records would last a very long time. Here is the previous knowledge at play.
Enos didn’t just pray that if the Nephites were destroyed, the Lamanites would eventually find the gospel. No. Enos specifically prayed that The Book of Mormon would be brought forth to the Lamanites. I could be totally crazy, but I feel like there was a moment where Enos’ eyes were opened. There must have been a moment where he was like, “Oh. That’s why we’re doing this. That’s why I need to write on these difficult plates. It’s not for the Nephites. Maybe it’s for the Lamanites.” In verse 15, Enos acknowledges that the Lord can preserve the Nephite records (there is that previous knowledge coming again). He was also alerted to the idea that the Nephites might not be around forever; it changed what he prayed for.
What prayer should look like
We can’t pray every day all day like Enos did in this particular instance, at least not in this manner. And the revelation we receive will not always look like this either. I’ve had many prayers where I have reached out looking for something with all of the elements we’ve talked about, but the Lord has remained silent for His own purposes. It’s not because we’re doing anything wrong; The Lord has His reasons so trust Him.
Oh, but the times when we have these kinds of experiences are so powerful. The times when I’ve been praying and felt guided to pray for something new or my eyes have been opened to something I didn’t see before, when everything clicks into place and I see that He is controlling all the details so perfectly, it has changed me.
Interestingly enough, in some cases, I believe that the Lord would have still manipulated all of those details to make things come together. And yet, because I was praying about it, I was able to see His hand before it happened, and it changed me. I would not have changed nearly as much if I hadn’t been praying about it. The Lord would have brought forth The Book of Mormon without Enos’ prayer, but Enos was changed because he was praying about it.
Do not get discouraged if you feel like your prayers don’t look like Enos’ every time you pray. Go back to the purpose of prayer: change, conversion, communion.
The most intense, eye-opening experiences that I have often occur in the middle of the day during nap time when I have a few less interruptions. They don’t happen every day, or every week, or even every month. But if they’re going to happen, this is usually when they happen because this is when I’m capable of investing the spiritual energy that requires some of those big answers, and Heavenly Father knows this is when He is going to be able to reach me.
At night, my prayers are much smaller, but no less important. I have received a personal witness from my Heavenly Father that He doesn’t begrudge me my weak, tired, mortal body that has been looking after kids all day. He understands. So my prayers look a lot less like spiritual strugglings and much more like an acknowledgment of our relationship, some gratitude, and a mental goodnight hug. And even though these are far more simple prayers, they still change me. They still make me feel close to a Father who loves me.
If you’re worried about your prayers, reflect on the purpose of prayer. What is going to make you feel close to God as your Father so you can feel changed? What has He already taught you about Himself that you can acknowledge? There are a great many beautiful ways to pray. Enos gave us a really fantastic, drawn out version that can help us study, but his prayer is not the only right way to pray.
There are so many good ways to change which would imply the fact that there are so many good ways to pray.
I am grateful for a Father in Heaven who has enabled me to speak to Him whenever I need. I’m grateful that He has described Himself as a Father so that I can understand my relationship with Him, so I can understand how He expects to be approached. I’m grateful for a Savior who paid the price so I could have a communion with Him every day.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 7: Temple Themes in the Book of Mormon with Andrew Miller
Apr 11, 2024
The scriptures have much they can teach us about the meaning and importance of temples. A growing body of research is showing that the Book of Mormon contains temple themes. Andrew Miller, who has recently published a paper on this topic, joins us to discuss some of these themes and how they can make our temple worship more meaningful.
Andrew I. Miller is a FAIR volunteer from Crystal City, Missouri. He has served as a bishop and currently serves as the stake young men president. By profession he is a High School teacher.
Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Jacob 5–7 – Mike Parker
Apr 09, 2024
The Allegory of the Olive Tree; Jacob contended with Sherem
(Jacob 4–7)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Jacob 5–7 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 06, 2024
Servants in the Vineyard
by Autumn Dickson
There are a ton of resources out there regarding the Allegory of the Olive Tree found in Jacob 5. You can find information about olive trees and why they’re such a fantastic symbol. You can find timelines for the gathering and scattering of Israel that very closely follow the timeline of the gathering and scattering of branches throughout the vineyard. There is so much out there given by extremely qualified people who have researched horticulture and religious history.
I am not one of those people, but maybe I can be helpful in a different way. If you get nothing else out of the Allegory of the Olive Tree, get this: the Lord is currently performing His last work among His people. He has spent a lot of time gathering and scattering His people, and this is the last time He is going to gather them before He comes again. We were always meant to be a part of gathering those people.
Jacob 5:70 And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servant; and the servant went and did as the Lord had commanded him, and brought other servants; and they were few.
There are so many reasons that we were meant to be a part of the gathering. However, actually jumping in and being a part of it can feel tricky. So let’s talk about some really basic ways to participate in gathering the House of Israel since President Nelson taught that it is the most important work occurring on the earth today. While we talk about it, consider following the action suggested in the Come Follow Me manual and make a list of ways that you feel like the Lord wants you to help with.
President Nelson is quoted in the manual as saying, “Anytime you do anything that helps anyone—on either side of the veil—take a step toward making covenants with God and receiving their essential baptismal and temple ordinances, you are helping to gather Israel. It is as simple as that.” That leaves the door wide open for options on how to help. Anytime you do anything that helps people take a step towards making covenants, you’re doing your job.
It starts with you
We’ve heard it a million times, but it starts with you. And I’m not talking about just learning the doctrine so you can answer questions. Learning the doctrine is fantastic; I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, the doctrine does nothing if it’s not sinking into our hearts. The fact that the Lord sacrificed Himself so that you could experience salvation doesn’t mean nearly as much when you’re not experiencing salvation. Let me describe what I mean. Here is how it looks when the doctrine of Christ has sunk into your heart:
You turn to Him like the Parent that He is. When you run into obstacles or unknowns, you turn to Him. You’re grateful for His advice and reassurances, and you’re also excited when He encourages you to make the decision for yourself. You know that He can support you in every step as He coaches you through building a life for yourself.
When darkness comes, you know your happy ending is safe with him. Let’s say there is a homeless person living on the street. They know that in three days time, they are going to be given a mansion with all of their needs provided for the rest of their lives. Those three days might be brutal. They might be hungry, scared, cold or hot, but the experience feels different when they know what’s coming in just a short time.
When you fail, it’s still easy to turn to Him. Even when you’re failing repeatedly, have some kind of addiction you’re trying to overcome, or have some major character flaw that likes to jump out at you repeatedly, you see it for what it is: opportunities to grow. Remember. Your happy ending is safe with Him. You cannot fail if you’re trying. He will never not invite you back. The fact that “it” happened again doesn’t matter nearly so much as the fact that you keep coming back. That’s what really counts at the end; did you keep coming back?
When you live your life with the truth in your heart, you feel hope and it touches every part of your life. The good times are sweeter; the bad times are worth it. People have much more intuition than we tend to give ourselves credit for. People will sense your hope and desire it for themselves. This doesn’t mean hiding the bad and the difficult; people can also sense insincerity. What it truly means is placing all the bad and difficult in the context of eternity. You were meant to experience difficulty in all of its extremes, but you know what it’s about. And as people go through their own difficulties, they will want to feel as you do.
When I say that gathering the House of Israel begins with you, I mean that the hope of the gospel begins in you and other people see it and desire it. Move beyond the doctrine, and let it change your heart.
Giving love
Perhaps this seems like a copout for missionary work, but after seeing what I’ve seen in the world, I’m convinced there are few things more powerful than loving like He would. We always think missionary work is inviting to church, and it absolutely is. But conversion is more than coming to church which means that missionary work extends beyond invitations to church.
The times when I have felt most converted have been the times that I have felt most loved by my Father in Heaven. If you can teach them what it is to feel love and be accepted and encouraged, you are opening the path for them to experience it from their Heavenly Father. Many of us only begin to comprehend His love when we have felt some measure of love from another person.
Think about all the people in your life who are faithful members of the church with healthy families; think about how many of them have a difficult time feeling the love of their Heavenly Father. Then think about how much harder it would be to find His love when you’re from a broken family and have never been taught about the idea that someone could love you so powerfully. If you can teach them about love, they will be so much closer to believing that a Father in Heaven could love them. They will be so much closer to feeling motivated to live a powerful life, to feeling capable of living a powerful life. Honestly, in my very unqualified opinion, I believe that’s half the battle. Feeling loved is the primary feeling of salvation.
Give the rest to Him
It is the Lord’s vineyard, and it is His work. Which means that He’s going to take care of it.
A couple years ago when we were still in Virginia, we had a very special event occurring in our area, and we were all asked to invite someone to come. I had been so excited to move to Virginia so that I could be around missionaries more often and share the gospel more easily. I was pumped and ready to have the Lord send me anyone who was ready. I wanted to actively and consciously seek opportunities to do missionary work.
I failed miserably. I invited a few people to this special event, and it never worked out. I tried so hard to coordinate schedules and pray and find someone. I tried starting conversations with strangers when I took my kids out to play. No one. I could find no one who could go. I finally gave up and let it go.
A couple of days later, I was sitting with friends at a city event. One of them brought up this special church event that I had been trying so hard to invite someone to. They had heard about it and wanted to go and asked me to take them. I suddenly found myself surrounded by four women and their kids who all wanted to go. We scheduled a time right there, and I got to go with them.
The Lord very distinctly taught me to stop trying to make it my work. If anything was going to be happening, it was not going to be because of me. It was going to be the Lord. I felt very distinctly that He had waited until I let go before He stepped in. I needed to learn that it wasn’t about me or my skills or knowledge.
And though this was on the eager end of the spectrum, the principle remains true on the other side of the spectrum. If you’re scared or nervous or feeling inadequate, it’s not about you nor is it your work. You’re not trying to sell yourself. Heavenly Father is planning on doing His work.
So how do we actually step aside and let Him do His work? Like all great things in the church, it’s more about adopting a specific type of heart than it is about any specific action. I have found that the most effective way to change my heart is to pray about it in the way that prayer was meant to be utilized. The entire purpose of prayer is to change our will to His, and it makes complete sense. Having a conversation with Someone who is all-loving and omnipotent tends to have that effect on you. It becomes easier to adopt their way of thinking.
Talk to your Heavenly Father. If you make no other goal for gathering the House of Israel, make it a goal to speak to Him regularly about it. There are a couple of things you can include in those prayers that will make it more powerful than simply praying for a missionary opportunity. If you just add in, “Help us find missionary opportunities,” into your prayers very often, you’re not going to feel very changed by it. It is not likely that you’ll be able to adopt that attitude that allows for the Lord to utilize you as effectively. So how do we make our prayers more effective so that we can become more effective?
Acknowledge how you really feel about missionary work. Heavenly Father doesn’t mind if it scares you so be honest with Him. In fact, when you approach Him with where you’re at, He’s given an opportunity to talk you through it. When Moses told the Lord that he was slow of speech, the Lord was like, “Who made man’s mouth?” I don’t believe He was trying to be sarcastic with Moses’ I believe He was trying to assure Moses that He could help Moses do whatever He needed to do, and it obviously worked. Moses listened and went on to change the world. If you tell Him where you’re at, He will respond with what you need to hear. I know this is true. I remember telling Him that there was no way I could start a blog about religious things; I wasn’t a seminary or institute teacher. I liked the scriptures, but I wasn’t any kind of scriptorian. I told Him that I felt ridiculous trying to teach others about the scriptures. I told Him exactly where I was at. He told me that if He could work through Joseph Smith with no education, He could work with me. So be honest with Him and give Him an opportunity to respond to how you’re really feeling. He makes good arguments.
Another way to change yourself while praying to Him is to acknowledge what you know about Him. You can say things like, “I know that You know who is ready. I know that You know how to bring those people into my life. I know that You can soften hearts and send the Spirit so that people don’t hate me if I try to invite them to do something religious.” Acknowledge all of the fears and inadequacies you have regarding missionary work, and then acknowledge specific ways that He can work with you despite your fears. After repeating this process somewhat regularly, you’re going to feel different about it. You’re going to believe that He can work with you and you’re going to be willing to work with Him. It is this attitude that enables the Lord to send His children your way.
I know that Heavenly Father wants us to participate in this work because He wants all of His children to feel close to Him, including those performing the work. I know that this work of gathering can change your life because it’s changed my life. I know that He can work with any of us, exactly where we’re at if we are able to adopt a willingness to help. I know that we have reason to have faith in Him and His ability to make us so much more than we are.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Jacob 1–4 – Mike Parker
Apr 03, 2024
Jacob’s temple sermon
(Jacob 1–3)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This week’s lesson includes information that goes with the first 3 chapters of the Come, Follow Me reading scheduled for this week. Next week’s post will cover Jacob 4-7.)
John Hilton III explores how Nephi₁, King Benjamin, and Moroni₂ used Jacob’s words in “Jacob’s Textual Legacy,” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Restoration Scripture 22, no. 2 (2013): 52–65.
Chauncey C. Riddle, “Pride and Riches,” in The Book of Mormon: Jacob through Words of Mormon, To Learn with Joy, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center at Brigham Young University, 1990), 221–34.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 4 – Seer Stones: How did Joseph use the Seer Stone?
Apr 02, 2024
In this episode, Zach, Sarah, and Jennifer discuss the mechanics and methods of the translation process. Throughout this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute claims about the seer stones head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (2:58) The Mechanics of Translation (4:24) Curtains (8:12) Methods of Translation (13:59) Conclusion
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Jacob 1–4 – Autumn Dickson
Apr 01, 2024
Love and Great Anxiety
by Autumn Dickson
I think one of the defining characteristics of Jacob is his desire to do right by his people. When you go through his writings, it’s very clear that he thinks of them often and wants to steer them in the right way. It is this characteristic that I want to speak about today.
Jacob 1:5 For because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people, what things should happen unto them.
I think this verse originally caught my attention because of the seeming juxtaposition of the words “faith” and “great anxiety.” My second thought was that it’s possible to have both, and then my third thought was that it’s a fantastic way to parent, lead, and love.
So how do we have faith and great anxiety over our loved ones at the same time? What does that look like?
What does “great anxiety” look like?
There are many different definitions and levels of anxiety, but I would wager that not all of them are applicable in this particular instance since “great anxiety” has been paired with faith. When you feel faith, you know that Christ can help you accomplish anything you truly need to accomplish and you know that your happy ending is safe with Him.
So what is “great anxiety” in this specific circumstance? In my mind, it is a deep propulsion to seek out the best for your loved one. This is a fantastic quality to have. In fact, it’s one of the greatest commandments: to love others as you love yourself. Without charity, we are nothing. So when Jacob talks about having great anxiety for his people, he wants the best for his people.
Interestingly enough, despite this being a good quality to have, Satan is going to try and twist anything he can. If he can’t get you to only care about yourself, he’s going to try and twist your love for others into something detrimental. If we let him, he’s going to take that “great anxiety” and turn it into regular old anxiety that expends energy and makes you feel powerless. I believe a majority of us have felt this “great anxiety,” this propulsion to want the best for our loved ones. Unfortunately, when this great anxiety is not paired with faith, it can become damaging. When your need to protect your loved one overshadows your belief in the Savior, His abilities, and the plan that He set up, things get knocked off kilter.
Utilizing great anxiety and faith in the way you lead
Life can often throw us unexpected circumstances. Even though we’ve been given gospel principles and standards to guide our families, there is this little thing called agency which makes it infinitely more difficult to make decisions about those who are in our charge. If the true goal is to get our loved ones close to the Savior (not just going to church every week but a true relationship with Christ), then it’s going to require some maneuvering that is actually beyond our own abilities.
Do I let my kid decide whether they’re going to play their soccer game on Sunday? What if they choose wrong and don’t feel like it’s a big deal? Do I force my kid to go to Sunday school where the other kids are mean and bad examples? What if it’s actually pushing them farther away from the Spirit rather than closer? Do I let my kid date that person who doesn’t seem like the best influence even though they’re going to be 18 and moving out in a month? Will it actually teach them to have better standards or will it just isolate them from me while they’re in a dangerous situation?
It would be easy to sit and fret and worry and feel great anxiety in all the wrong ways. It’s easy to look at the options before and see only bad ones. But when we look at it through a lens of faith, we stop expending energy on superfluous worry and start investing our energy in worthwhile places, namely action as well as hope in the Savior and His ability to turn a bad option into the very purpose of the Plan of Salvation: growth. We listen to see if one option is going to steer them right, and if there’s nothing forthcoming, we move forward with faith that Christ is still paying attention and will intervene when necessary. If things end up going sideways, we still hold to the faith we had previously and trust that everything that can be done is being done.
The concept of combining faith and great anxiety is so powerful. Instead of fumbling around and trying to make the wisest decision about what to do for your loved ones in the face of uncertainty, take all of that desire to do what’s right for them and let it propel you towards inviting and following the Spirit. You can’t control your kids (or other loved ones) indefinitely so let go, and put your energy where it’s going to count. Let your great anxiety be the motivation, but invest your energy into your faith.
How do we invest our energy into our faith?
The best way to demonstrate the power of this concept is to give an example. Let’s just stick with the sports-on-Sunday example because it’s simple. Before I begin, I know that life doesn’t always play out like this. I know that what I’m teaching is one path in a million, but that doesn’t negate the fact that the principle is being taught so we can apply it effectively not matter what path appears.
So your kid comes to you, and they have a couple of games that are played on Sunday. The great anxiety that Jacob describes is naturally there. You naturally feel propelled to try and do what’s best for your loved one. It would be easy to let that great anxiety fall into regular old anxiety and worry about whether to give them an opportunity to choose for themselves, but we’re not going to do that. We’re going to invest our energy into faith. We’re going to trust in His foreknowledge and His ability to speak in a way we understand.
Let’s say He doesn’t say anything. It would be easy to worry that we’re not doing enough or whether we’re worthy enough to receive revelation. It would be easy to worry that we’re just plain missing the answer, but we’re not going to do that. We’re going to trust that He can speak to us in a way we understand, and He’s never going to let us permanently fail if we’re trying.
So let’s pretend we decide to let the kid choose whether they want to play on Sunday, and they throw us a curveball. They choose to go to their game. Once again, we have another opportunity to fret that we inadvertently taught them that we don’t care about their church attendance, but we’re not going to fret, are we? No. We’re going to have faith that if there was a better option, Christ would have led us to it. We’re going to have faith that He is doing everything that needs to be done on behalf of our loved one. We’re going to have faith that He can teach lessons in a way that our loved ones will best understand.
Now is our chance to pray fervently and specifically. We pray that we will be guided to speak when we need to, to ask the right questions, to let their choices play out, and to know when to intervene. We can pray that their hearts will be softened and prepared to feel the difference in skipping church. We can pray that the contrast of missing church will be an extremely powerful lesson. Maybe they needed to feel the absence of Sabbath Day blessings in order to appreciate the presence.
Have faith in the Savior. He is playing the long game. He is intensely motivated and ever-present even when you can’t see Him. He is doing everything that needs to be done to reach that end goal of exaltation for your child. Trust His process and invest your energy in Him.
Mimicking your faith
This is a powerful way to parent, lead, and love but not only because you’re putting your energy where it counts. It’s powerful because your children are going to mimic your actions far more than they ever listen to your words. Learning to have faith is the most powerful way to teach your loved ones to have faith.
When we have true faith, we feel the blessings of the gospel. Worrying and trying to force the gospel on someone can work sometimes (and there will always be appropriate boundaries while younger ones are growing up), but it is infinitely more powerful for them to see the blessings in your life and desire them. When Alma the Younger was struck dumb, his mind was drawn back to the words of his father and the joy of the saints.
This is also incredibly powerful when they make mistakes. They won’t sit around and fret that this is the end for them, that they’re too far gone. They will know that there is a Savior who loves them and will always welcome them back with open arms, and that is an extremely motivating feeling to turn around and choose better. It is far more motivating than worrying.
Jacob teaches that because of faith and great anxiety, it was revealed what should happen to their people. Maybe the Lord won’t tell you the specific future, but He will guide you with His knowledge of the future. He will help you know when to act, pause, or whatever it is that needs to be happening. And if He’s quiet, have faith that He’s leading you along anyway because He is.
I’m grateful for a Savior I can depend on. I’m grateful that He loves my loved ones more than I love them. I’m grateful that He can guide me according to His knowledge rather than trying to stumble my way through. I’m grateful that He doesn’t always interfere, but allows us to learn the lessons in the way that will be most powerful.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Easter – Autumn Dickson
Mar 23, 2024
How to Find Peace
by Autumn Dickson
There is a verse in the bible that is probably one of the most quoted and appreciated verses of all time. Christ shared it the night of the Passover amidst instituting the sacrament, teaching and prophesying, and washing the feet of His disciples. He spoke peace to His disciples just a little bit before He went to the garden and suffered.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Think of the context in which this saying was given to the disciples. Christ knew what was coming. He knew that the coming night would not be peaceful, nor the hours that followed it (at least not in the usual sense of the word). He knew that “peace” as defined by the world would very soon be snatched away from His disciples. But still, He promised to leave them with peace.
What kind of peace was He trying to give them? What does it look like and how do we receive it in our darkest moments?
To have faith
The kind of peace offered by our Savior is not a quiet morning. It is not perfect children or tons of money to do what we need and want. It is not a promise of health. It certainly wasn’t what He was offering His disciples in the moment He made the promise, and it’s not what He’s offering us either. A huge point of coming to earth was turmoil and opposition so offering an escape from that would diminish the ability of the Plan of Salvation to exalt us.
So how does He give peace?
Receiving peace requires faith in Him. Such a simple sentence, but I believe there’s a whole lot to unpack there. For Easter, we’re talking about the peace that comes with faith. But we’re going to have to talk a lot about faith to understand the kind of faith we need in order to receive peace.
We often talk about how faith is an action word, and it absolutely is. Faith in God drives us to keep the commandments which oftentimes leads us away from circumstances that may bring more turmoil, and that’s awesome. In the same breath, not all turmoil comes from choices we’ve made, and sometimes we’re also going to be making mistakes So what does faith look like in the circumstances that are beyond our control or in the situations where the mistake has been made?
Let’s first look at how the experiences of the disciples might have changed if they had felt faith.
The disciples during the time of crucifixion
Let it be known that this is not a critique of the disciples and how they responded with the events around Christ being taken and killed. For some reason, the Holy Ghost was not operating in the same way during Christ’s mortal ministry (see Bible Dictionary, “Holy Ghost”), and we know how the Holy Ghost plays a key role in many of these kinds of circumstances. This is not a critique, it’s a way to observe the past (since hindsight is 2020) and know how to apply it to our current and future circumstances.
So the disciples are sitting with Christ at the Passover dinner. He teaches many things that were likely hard to be understood without the Holy Ghost. He tells them to not let their hearts become troubled. He has told them more than once that He is going to die, but then again, Christ also spoke about being born again. How literal are we talking here?
Christ is taken, tortured, and crucified. As they lay Him in the tomb, what are they thinking? They lovingly care for His body, but are they also a little angry? Are they in shock? Do they feel abandoned? Are they frustrated that He took them away from their lives and then left them to fend for themselves? The disciples are left to mourn their beloved leader, and they are also left to mourn the hopes and dreams they had placed upon Him. They are left to fear the future, and fear they do. Christ rises again, and it takes a while, but eventually they all come to see and believe and feel peace.
Now imagine if they had been able to have faith in Christ’s words.
Jesus is taken, tortured, and crucified. As they watch this come to pass, they are agonized over watching it, but they know what this is for. Even if they don’t fully grasp the fact that Christ needs to experience this suffering to complete the atonement, they know that He promised it would all work out. They lovingly take care of His body. There are still tears and disbelief, but the source is an overwhelming awe at what He sacrificed for them. There are whispers of gratitude instead of whispers of, “Why?” They are still saying, “I can’t believe this happened,” but it’s only because they can’t believe that He suffered in that manner for them; it’s only because they can’t believe they are truly free from Satan’s grasp.
And then there is a waiting period of three days. They know He’s coming back; He promised He would. No matter what they do, their minds are always drawn back to pondering what happened. And they wait.
With faith, they experienced the same events, but the events felt completely different. There were still tears, still agony. There was a lot of waiting, but the waiting had anticipation over fear.
When Christ teaches Thomas that, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed,” He’s not talking about raining down arbitrary blessings upon those who choose to believe in something they can’t see. He’s talking about the fact that Thomas could have saved himself a whole lot of pain if he had been able to find faith. He would have been blessed to pass over all of the agony of the past few days by knowing that it was all part of the plan and Christ would return.
So this is all fine and dandy when you feel faith. Forcing faith doesn’t bring peace; it’s when you feel faith. So how do we “feel” faith so that we can find peace?
Faith is an action word
Faith is an action word. It is an action word in the sense that we prepare for tomorrow by keeping the commandments today, but it’s also an action word in the sense that we are in control of our own thoughts.
Alma 34:31 Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.
I have been struck by this verse a number of times because of the line, “immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.” Immediately. If we can soften our hearts and repent, we will immediately experience the great plan of redemption.
What does it mean to experience the great plan of redemption? It can mean a lot of things, but the one I want to focus on today is the aspect of peace. Experiencing the great plan of redemption means experiencing the kind of peace that Christ promised.
So if we can repent and soften our hearts, we will experience the peace associated with the great plan of redemption. Let’s talk about repentance and softening our hearts separately.
Of course we will experience peace when we repent. Repentance is so much more than saying sorry for breaking a commandment. In my mind, repentance is any step towards becoming like Christ. This means we change into people who are calm, steady, joyful, and authentic. It means allowing ourselves to be healed; Christ didn’t need healing in the same manner, but if we want to be like Him, we need it. So yeah, repentance is going to bring peace.
But repenting and living the commandments won’t bring peace unless it’s combined with that soft heart, and having a soft heart is a conscious choice that we have to make.
Don’t harden your heart any longer. Don’t disbelieve that He adores you. Don’t disbelieve that He will make everything up to you. When something comes in and breaks your peace, actively fight it with a mantra that He loves you and will take care of absolutely everything. Note that I said, “mantra.” Maybe the idea that He loves you is not yet a knowledge, but if you want to find that knowledge, you might have to start with a mantra. When Satan comes in, you repeat to yourself how Christ loves you and will take care of it. Eventually that mantra will give way to hope, then faith, then growth of faith, then knowledge. And then bam, you feel peace. It simply comes.
I can personally testify of this. I lived the gospel my whole life with small glimpses of salvation and redemption and peace. But when my heart finally softened and believed, I started experiencing the feeling of salvation immediately and consistently. I started experiencing peace immediately and consistently.
I still have my moments. I still know what it is to feel hopeless, discouraged, weary, explosive. But I have been finding my way back to that peace more quickly or through thicker darkness.
The eternities after this earth life will not be perfect in the sense that the world thinks of as “perfect.” God still experiences sorrow. He still has to watch difficult things and make difficult decisions. But that is precisely why Christ offers a different kind of peace. If He offered us peace as defined by the world, we would find ourselves unprepared for the next life. We need the kind of peace He offers in order to find a peace that lasts an eternity.
I’m grateful for a Savior who sacrificed, and I’m grateful for this time of year to ponder His sacrifice. I know that He loves us endlessly and has the power to support us endlessly. When you find that knowledge and experience it again and again and again, you will find the peace you’re looking for.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 3 – Seer Stones: Post-Biblical Folk Magic
Mar 19, 2024
In this episode, Jennifer, Sarah, and Zach take us through the history of folk magic through post-biblical times. Throughout this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute claims about the seer stones head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Timestamps:
(00:00) Introduction (03:40) The fall of Rome and why it changed culture (06:12) The Beginning of the Dark Ages–A totally different world (11:59) The Cunning Folk in Britain (22:49) The Crusades (26:47) The Inquisition (29:14) The Renaissance (24:05) WitchTrials (39:59) Enlightenment 1637-1815 and 1st Great Awakening (50:00) Joseph Smith’s time and culture (59:32) Conclusion
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 31–33 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 16, 2024
A Strait Path
by Autumn Dickson
The end of 2 Nephi is fantastic. As I read it, I pictured Nephi summarizing everything towards the end of his life. He had kept a record and taught many lessons and told stories from his life, but in 2 Nephi 31, Nephi wanted to make sure that the lessons were explicitly laid out.
There is one specific lesson I want to cover.
2 Nephi 31:9 And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them.
Maybe I’m a little slow on the pickup, but it wasn’t until later in life that I recognized the word “strait” as being different from the word “straiGHt.” Though both imply “narrowness,” they are not the same thing. “Strait” was the word that Nephi chose and Joseph translated, and it was a very purposeful word. Let’s explore it.
In the dictionary, “strait” has a couple of definitions. It doesn’t mean a line with no curves or bends. It means, “difficult, limited in resources, closely fitted.” It might not sound pleasant, but these words are actually so cool.
So, “difficult.” The path towards ultimate salvation (as well as the path where we can experience a form of salvation along the way) is hard; that was kind of the whole point. Though it sounds awful, our path towards exaltation included finding ourselves in really difficult circumstances that bring us down. That doesn’t sound very loving or doting of our Heavenly Father, but if we can keep our focus on Him, then it’s actually the most rewarding by far. Strait also means “limited in resources;” this one fascinated me. There will not be many places where we can find comfort outside of the Savior. Luckily, He is actually quite vast in terms of resources.
I could spend a post on each of those definitions, but the one I want to really explore is “closely fitted.” It completely changed the meaning of this verse in my mind when compared to the word “straiGHt.” StraiGHt means no turns or bends. Strait can turn and bend as much as necessary; it’s just closely fitted to the individual. The Lord has extremely individualized paths for each of us. Christ is the only One who walked a “straiGHt” path; the paths we take as imperfect people are much more accurately defined as strait.
There are many ways in which our paths can be described as strait. Obviously, the Lord takes us through specific trials, life experiences, and personalized messages from the Holy Ghost. But there is one other way that I’ve learned that I don’t believe is often talked about.
Strait and sin
So if we were to look at the word “straiGHt” as our example of a sinless path towards God, then it’ll be easier to observe our own paths.
Do we “need” sin in order to get back to our Heavenly Father? Obviously not. Seems like a very silly question, but the silly question helps me highlight the actual truth. We don’t need sin in order to get back to our Heavenly Father, but we do need the lessons that often accompany sin. Sometimes we really do need to learn the hard way in order to change into what God would have us become. God doesn’t want us to sin, but He did send us here to grow and learn. He sent us to taste the bitter so we could comprehend the sweet.
My personal strait path has included plenty of opportunities to fail. One of the first ones that come to mind is this blog to be honest. When Heavenly Father first started prompting me to start this journey of blogging and Youtube videos and podcasting, one of my main worries was my vanity. In college, I wanted to be a musician which takes a fair amount of promoting yourself. Which is awesome for other people. Not so awesome for me. I was painfully aware of rejection and perceived rejection everywhere. I craved validation from other people. I became self-centered in a lot of ways. I wanted to be on a pedestal. When it all came crashing down around me, it felt like one of the biggest blessings of my life (or at least it did later on). I was taken out of that dark place and away from putting myself out there. I became a much happier person, and I shunned temptation because I never wanted to feel that way about myself again.
So when Heavenly Father came knocking on my door, asking me to put myself out there again, I told Him I wasn’t interested. I told Him that I was trying to avoid my obvious weakness of vanity and pride and caring too much about what other people think about me. I know what happens at the end of that road (at least what happens for me). It wasn’t a place I wanted to go to.
As I talked with Heavenly Father about these concerns, He told me that He was giving me an opportunity to practice sharing my light while letting go of that vanity. I told Him that if I failed, that would be on Him haha.
And I have failed many many many many many times. There have been plenty of times where I have cared far too much about whether people like what I put out there. There have been plenty of times where I have felt sharp embarrassment over mistakes I’ve made or when I’m not particularly articulate. There have been plenty of times when I’ve gotten too excited about when I have done a good job. I still have all of these problems, but they have gotten significantly better. It doesn’t affect me as much as it used to.
But I’m so grateful that Heavenly Father wasn’t worried about keeping my path perfectly straiGHt. He was wise enough to take me on a strait path that would allow me to practice being like Him even if it meant some curves, bends, failings, and even sin. He knew that it was the only path that would help me become what He needed me to become. It was specifically tailored to me.
This is not me encouraging you to go seek paths of temptation and sin in order to learn a lesson. That would be dumb; excuse the word, but I used it because it’s accurate. So if I’m not encouraging you to go out and seek opportunities to sin, why am I bringing it up?
Why teach this?
Because it took a weight off my chest. I don’t look back in agony at past mistakes, and I don’t look forward in fear about making more mistakes (since…you know…it’s inevitable). I was never meant to be perfect during mortal life. Heavenly Father has specific lessons that we, as individuals, need to learn. Sometimes it means putting us in situations where we’re going to fail, fail often, and fail hard (hello mortality in general).
He sent us here to make mistakes so that we could become what He meant for us to become, and He sent His Son to pay for it. That was always the plan.
I don’t seek sin, but I’m also no longer afraid of failing. I get to move forward in my life, exerting my energy toward becoming like Him without carrying around the weight of my mistakes. I have a powerful Savior who paid for my sins. Rather than worrying about the fact that He didn’t deserve to take on all that pain, I trust Him and I have a testimony that He was the One who led me on this strait path. He brought me here to fail, He paid for my sins, He comforts me and has the ability to comfort those I’ve wounded, and all I’m left with is a powerful lesson.
As parents, family members, leaders, and friends
I also share this message because it makes us powerful disciples.
Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in a desperate desire to keep our loved ones from making mistakes, to keep them on the straiGHT path so that they never have to experience consequences, that we end up doing more damage. We were never meant to walk a straiGHt path, and neither were those we love. Of course we would like to spare our loved ones pain, but that goal is ultimately short-sighted.
I went through a rough patch my senior year in high school when I wasn’t making great choices. I remember seeing my mom crying, and I wondered if I’d disappointed her. At the time, I worried that her tears meant she’d lost hope for me, and if she didn’t feel hope for me, maybe there wasn’t a way back.
But my dad was more practiced at zooming out and taking the long view. He’d learned from experience that worry feels a lot like love, but it’s not the same. He used the eye of faith to see that everything would work out, and his hopeful approach changed me.
If we can tap into the doctrine that Christ always meant for us to walk a strait path, not a straiGHt path, we will become much more powerful in our ability to help those we love. If we can focus on developing their relationship with the Savior, helping them rely on Him, helping them learn from Him, helping them take powerful lessons from their mistakes, we will exponentially increase their progress in comparison to a desperate attempt to avoid pitfalls, curves, and bends. Our loved ones will no longer feel like it’s their responsibility to be perfect; rather, they will feel and know that mortal life was about progress and that a relationship with the Savior will give them everything they need to achieve that.
I’m grateful for a Savior who paid the price for me to have this experience. I’m grateful that He has taught me about His sacrifice. I’m grateful that He didn’t have impossible expectations for me, and I’m grateful that He has never lost sight of who I can become.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Cornerstone: A FAIR Temple Preparation Podcast – Episode 6: Temple Sealings with Brian Hales
Mar 13, 2024
On this episode, Brian Hales joins us to discuss the history and significance of the crowning ordinance of the temple.
Brian C. Hales is the author or co-author of several books dealing with Joseph Smith and plural marriage, and runs the website JosephSmithsPolygamy.org. He is also the author of several articles dealing with the origin of the Book of Mormon.
Jacob Crapo was born and now resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He served his mission in Upstate New York and was an ordinance worker in the Las Vegas Temple. One of Jacob’s dreams is to help build a temple. He is an electrician by trade but his real passion is helping others access the powers of heaven.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 28–33 – Mike Parker
Mar 11, 2024
Nephi’s prophecies of the Book of Mormon; “the doctrine of Christ”
(2 Nephi 28–33)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This week’s lesson includes information that goes with the Come, Follow Me reading schedule for the next two weeks. The previous post covers the first two chapters of this week’s reading.)
Michael B. Parker, “Nephi’s Later Reflections on the Tree of Life Vision,” Insights: A Window on the Ancient World 22, no. 5 (2002): 2–3. In this—my one and only published scholarly article!—I compare Nephi’s language in 2 Nephi 31:20 with his description of the tree of life in 1 Nephi 8:30. In his final testimony, Nephi appears to have purposely alluded to his father’s earlier vision.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 26–30 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 10, 2024
Mixing Doubt with Anger
by Autumn Dickson
One of the topics given as a suggestion in the Come Follow Me manual for this week is to study Satan’s tactics. This has actually already been a topic on my mind for a while. There is one tactic in particular that I’ve come to recognize over the past few months, and so I feel like the Lord has prepared me to learn about this before He even gave me the verse. Here it is.
2 Nephi 28:20 For behold, at that day shall he rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.
As I have read this verse in the past, I always pictured two specific ways of Satan raging in the hearts of men. One, I always pictured Satan tempting people to get angry with each other, and two, I pictured him tempting people to hate the church. Both are totally valid examples. However, as I read it this time, I was reminded of this observation that the Lord has been helping me ponder lately.
Namely, I’ve been pondering the observation that Satan likes to mix our doubts with anger. Doubts happen. Even Joseph Smith taught that in order to reach salvation, we have to be able to “contemplate the darkest abyss.” Faith is non-existent without its opposite: doubt. We can’t have faith in something unless there is reason to doubt it, and I believe Satan has a major victory when he can mix our doubts with anger and frustration.
The toxic combination of anger and doubt
One of my children is going through a bit of a phase recently. There have been quite a few stressors in our family life with frequent moves, a new baby, and dad going out of town frequently for work. She also recently started school every day, and all of this has thrown her a bit of a curve ball. She is a daughter after my own heart and loves routine and so all of this upheaval is an obstacle for her. There have been a couple of days in a row where she has absolutely lost her mind at me, screaming, crying, throwing, hitting, slamming doors, all of it.
There have been two sentiments that she has expressed to me in her anger. Namely, she has expressed that she believes I hate her or that I’m not treating her like she’s part of the family.
It’s extremely easy for me to see that my disciplining her has everything to do with how much I love her and how badly I want her to be part of a functional and healthy family, but to her, these are very real feelings. She doesn’t always understand my decisions, she doesn’t always see my perspective, and so she draws a conclusion that I must not love her.
Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to explain my love and reasoning to her when she’s angry. I’ve tried. When she’s throwing a fit and I’m trying to hold her and explain to her why I’m choosing to make certain decisions in her life, sometimes she simply can’t hear me above the big feelings.
Later on, after she’s had time to calm down, the conversation goes far more smoothly. She is able to see the big picture, to see that I have a responsibility to teach her even if consequences make her sad sometimes.
This is not a perfect similitude of the principle I’m trying to teach, but it can teach the principle that we can apply to broader circumstances. Let me give a better example.
I love the gospel, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had my personal struggles with different aspects related to the church. It’s especially difficult when those struggles are highlighted on social media or by a friend who has left the church. There have been times when I have felt very dark inside. I know there is a temptation to believe that the only way to escape that darkness is to leave, to stand up against a perceived (and possibly very real) injustice. I know the temptation to get angry and demand better in comparison to sitting in the darkness and allowing yourself to feel hurt, invalidated, and unimportant.
Interestingly enough, Satan is on both ends of that spectrum. He is the one in the dark, whispering that you’re nothing. Heavenly Father would never have you sit in the darkness believing that you’re lesser, and as soon as He starts to build you and help you believe that you matter, Satan is right there. Satan is whispering that you should be angry and demand better, that you should have never been made to feel the darkness in the first place.
Whether or not we should have been constantly protected from darkness is a conversation for another day. For now, let’s consider why Satan would like us to feel angry when we have doubts or don’t understand. Let’s consider what can happen when we’re able to let go of the anger.
Letting go of the anger and frustration
It’s easy to say that we should let go of the anger that accompanies doubt. It’s much harder to actually accomplish the task, especially when those doubts make you wonder if you’re insignificant, lesser, or weary. It’s harder when those doubts can easily lead to feelings that something is wrong.
If there is anything I wish for anyone to get out of my blog posts, YouTube videos, or podcasts, it is this truth: any gospel problem can be solved when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I would even go as far to say that any problem at all can be solved. We don’t have to force or contort or squash anything about ourselves or how we’re feeling. We simply need to approach Christ with an understanding of who He is.
Imagine how powerful it would be if my daughter could come to me and calmly ask why I made certain decisions in regards to her life. Let it be known that I don’t have expectations for this; she’s really young and that takes a lifetime of practice. But imagine for a moment, that she was able to. How would that change how she feels about herself? How would that change how she sees the circumstances around her?
Like I said, she’s young. Some of the principles I use to make decisions are beyond her ability to understand, and so there has to be a level of trust. But if I prove myself to be a loving mother and if I reassure her of her importance, it becomes much easier to feel okay even if she doesn’t fully understand.
If I can approach my Heavenly Father with faith that I’m important to Him, the doubts are resolved or become insignificant to me.
Maybe that sounds like voodoo. Maybe it sounds like I’m trying to placate people by telling them to “just have faith.” But it’s a reality, at least for me. More than once I have approached Him and told Him that I don’t understand something, that it feels wrong. As I approach Him, replacing my anger with faith that He loves me and is perfect and capable, I find that the doubts are bearable, miniscule even. Trust finds me. I don’t have to ignore doubts or push them down; they dissipate in the comforting knowledge that He really can fix everything and help me come out on top of it all, powerful and glorious and everything He meant for me to become.
It takes a relationship
The power to overcome these doubts does not often happen overnight. My daughter can come to me and be reassured of my love because she experiences it consistently. However, if a stranger did something that felt vastly unfair, it probably wouldn’t mean much if that stranger insisted they wanted what was best for her.
The same goes for trusting the Savior. Think of how often you have little testimony moments. If you were to apply that to a normal relationship, how much would you trust the other person? How much satisfaction and joy would you find in that relationship? The answer is probably not much. If I saw a random stranger do a couple of good things, that would probably give me a good opinion of them, but without a relationship, that good opinion of them would do very little to bless me.
If we want to be truly changed by the atonement of Jesus Christ, if we truly want to experience the blessings of the gospel, to experience salvation now, we need more than a testimony of Him. If we want to feel power over Satan and doubt, if we want to feel secure in this world, a testimony is insufficient. We need a relationship with Him. It is only in a relationship with Him that we gain enough exposure to Him that we start to trust in the promises that make life bearable, worth it, and wonderful. It is only in a relationship with Him that the doubt feels insignificant, laughable even. A relationship with a perfectly loving and powerful Being melts the anger that Satan tries to infuse in our lives. Satan is no competition when we have that relationship. Why do you think we’re encouraged to read The Book of Mormon every day? I believe it’s because it’s giving us a taste of that relationship even if we don’t fully recognize it.
It can be hard work to know your Father in Heaven. Spiritual effort is as difficult as physical effort, maybe even more so. There are no markers. It takes focus in a world that diminishes our ability to concentrate. It builds slowly over time in a world that can deliver gratification quickly.
But it’s worth it. My life has never been so happy and peaceful as it has been since I’ve come to know and experience His power regularly enough that I trust Him and what He says. Invest in that relationship. Above all else in relation to the gospel, invest in that relationship. Help your children develop that relationship so that when the storms come, they will feel that storms are either insignificant or contribute to their ability to be awesome.
I testify of perfectly loving Parents and a Savior. I testify that They have the ability to do all that They have promised to do. I testify that we can’t see the full picture, and I testify that when we do, we will laugh at ourselves for ever having been worried. That is not meant to diminish how difficult it may feel now; it is meant to give comfort. Someday, everything will make sense. I know it because I know my Savior.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
FAIR Conference Podcast #82 – Kerry Muhlestein, “Keys to Understanding Isaiah”
Mar 08, 2024
This podcast series features past FAIR Conference presentations. This presentation is from our 2022 conference.
Kerry Muhlestein, Keys to Understanding Isaiah
Kerry has several books available from the FAIR Bookstore.
Kerry received his B.S. from BYU in Psychology with a Hebrew minor. He received an M.A. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from BYU and his Ph.D. from UCLA in Egyptology, where in his final year he was named the UCLA Affiliates Graduate Student of the Year. His first full time appointment was a joint position in Religion and History at BYU-Hawaii. He is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. He has been teaching about Isaiah for almost three decades, and has been teaching classes specifically on Isaiah for several years, and has written a verse-by-verse commentary on Isaiah. He and his wife, Julianne, are the parents of six children, and together they have lived in Jerusalem while Kerry has taught there on multiple occasions.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 2 – Seer Stones: Ancient Use
Mar 05, 2024
In this episode, Sarah, Jennifer, and Zach go through ancient uses of seer stones and other objects seen as sacred. In this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute these claims head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (03:30) The questions (07:37) Examples from the Scriptures (15:24) Interview with Allen Hansen (36:48) Wrapping up (39:44) Conclusion
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 20–25 – Autumn Dickson
Mar 02, 2024
Keeping the Law of Moses
by Autumn Dickson
I have been waiting for the verses I want to talk about today. I have held them in my mind for a couple years, waiting for the opportunity to write this post. And as I have written it, I have found myself truly humbled as I realized this message extended beyond what I previously thought and hit me directly where I needed it.
Before I delve into these verses, I want to call to your attention the character and circumstances of Nephi. Nephi was a friend of Christ. Nephi knew Christ on a personal level that most of us will only realize on the other side. Such is the man who taught the following doctrine:
2 Nephi 25:24-25
24 And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled.
25 For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments.
Throughout this chapter, Nephi taught that we believe in Christ; he knew that salvation came through Jesus Christ. He knew that belief in Christ is what releases us from the power of Satan, faith that Christ can truly free us from sin and make us everything we hope to be. When we believe in Jesus Christ, we find the peace and freedom and happiness we seek because we know of His power and ability to take care of everything.
But Nephi’s teaching didn’t stop there; Nephi also taught his people to keep the Law of Moses.
When I think about the character and circumstances of Nephi, I would wager that Nephi didn’t actually “need” the Law of Moses. In order to have a fulfilling relationship with Jesus Christ, he didn’t need all of those laws and ordinances and constant rituals to keep him in line with his eyes on Christ. I believe that Nephi would have thrived in his relationship with Christ in our day, in a time when we are much more principle-based in our learning and worship.
And yet, Nephi still taught his people to keep the Law of Moses. In fact, Nephi didn’t just teach the Law of Moses, Nephi kept the Law of Moses. Despite the fact that he didn’t need it in order to remain close to Christ, Nephi probably kept the Law of Moses better than just about anyone in his day.
The Law of Moses in our Day
In our church, we have a personal line of revelation and a priesthood line of revelation. There are a million reasons for this, but one of the reasons is this: the Lord needs to guide us individually because we are all different and have different needs, but He also guides the church as a whole.
At the time of the Law of Moses, all of the extra rules and rituals were necessary. If you were to compare the Israelites to a person, they likely would have been a toddler. They needed very clear boundaries and teaching because they had just spent years and years and years in brutal captivity. Even beyond the fact that they had forgotten the Lord, their moral compass was questionable at best. Who can blame them? Think about where they had been in Egypt; growing up as a slave would have made it very difficult to form proper attachments and character. The more I think about the Israelites in the Old Testament, the less I see a vengeful God who was constantly frustrated with His people and the more I see a loving and wise God who knew what His people truly needed.
As time has moved on, the Israelites (as a whole church) have grown. Just as my older kids have outgrown their baby gates and training wheels, the Israelites outgrew the Law of Moses. It was fulfilled and no longer needed, and the church became more principle-based as Christ came in, fulfilled the Law of Moses, and left them with a higher law.
We again live in a time where the church is growing towards principle-based learning; just observe the changes in the For Strength of Youth. And yet, as much as we’ve grown as a whole church, there is a reason that some of our more “Law of Moses” rules stand. Things like coffee, dating standards, and garments are all examples of rules that fall more in line with the Law of Moses in comparison to a principle-based type of worship and learning. There is a difference between, “Keep your body healthy,” and, “Don’t drink alcohol.” There is a difference between, “Keep Christ in your thoughts,” and attending weekly sacrament meetings where we are given a very specific time period to think of Christ. There is a difference between principle-based learning and worship and Law-of-Moses-rules-and-rituals type of learning and worship.
Our need for the “Law of Moses”
As I said before, Nephi likely didn’t “need” the Law of Moses in order to remain close to Christ. When it comes to the modern day rituals and rules that are similar to the Law of Moses, there have definitely been days where I didn’t feel like I needed them. I think about the gospel a lot, and I feel close to my Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. Trying to create a post about the scriptures every week has forced me to think about the gospel and my covenants often. It puts me in a position where I need the Lord, and so I am constantly turned towards Him over and over and over.
And yet, as I was typing out this post, my similarity to the Israelites smacked me in the face. As I scoffed and face-palmed through the Old Testament, wondering on how on earth the Israelites could be missing the symbolism of the rituals they had been given, I realized that I am just as guilty. As I judged the Israelites for going through the motions of the rituals and completely missing the change of heart that was supposed to accompany it, I didn’t realize just how relatable they are.
As one example, I put on my garments every day. And yet, like the Israelites in their action-minus-the-heart worshiping, I find that I am thinking of how inconvenient they are more often than I think about the covenants and blessings they represent. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I were to think about what my garments truly represent, I would forget all about their inconveniences. In truth, if I could glimpse what my garments represent, I would likely be floored at the opportunity I’ve been given to wear them. Like Naaman who washed and was healed in the dirty Jordan River, I wonder if I will get to the other side, and whisper, “I didn’t know. I didn’t know what a blessing I was given.”
It is only in writing this post that I’ve realized how much I still need our little modern-day “Law of Moses” rituals because I obviously haven’t fully realized what a gift I’ve been given.
Christ definitely didn’t need it
As I mentioned previously, Nephi taught and lived the Law of Moses despite the fact that he had a very close relationship with Christ. And yet, as I picture Nephi going through the details of the Law of Moses, I picture him in a posture of humility. I don’t imagine that he stomped around, murmuring about the fact that he has to wash something or sacrifice something since he just spoke to Christ personally. No. I picture Nephi performing the Law of Moses rituals in deep awe because he knew the Savior personally. He knew what the Savior did for him. Those rituals meant everything to him.
To take that a step further, there was no single individual who ever lived on the earth that needed the Law of Moses less than Jesus Christ did. And yet, there was no single individual who ever lived on the earth who more perfectly lived the Law of Moses than Jesus Christ did. And just like the comfort and awe it inspired in Nephi, I actually believe the Law of Moses helped Christ too. It taught Him about Himself; it brought comfort and understanding as He realized what He would be required to do.
In our day, it’s not about whether we “need” the “Law of Moses” rules and rituals like temple attendance, the sacrament, and garments. Need is relative. Maybe there are some of us who don’t “need” it (though I’ve realized I’m not one of those people). But there is always room for more blessings and growth and awe and thundering humility when we view these Law of Moses-ish things as they truly are. Maybe it’s not about need; maybe it’s about the opportunity to find more faith in Jesus Christ.
No; garments aren’t perfect. Perhaps sacrificing to go to the temple can feel like a burden. Perhaps taking the sacrament every single week doesn’t feel necessary. But if you feel this way (and I say this with utter humility because I have been guilty of feeling a “burden”), consider the idea that perhaps you’re looking at it all wrong.
A sheep could NEVER truly symbolize Christ. And yet, if the Israelites had been able to grasp what the sheep represented, it wouldn’t have mattered that the sheep feel pitifully short. If the Israelites could have really seen that sheep symbolically, if they could have looked past what it would cost them to sacrifice it, their lives would have changed because they would have felt changed.
I suppose my overarching plea is this: if you have found yourself frustrated, flip the frustration on its head. Check your reverence as you participate in modern-day Law of Moses equivalents. Check where your focus is as you engage. Are you thinking of Christ? Are you thinking of what He sacrificed for you?
If we utilize the rituals and rules in the way they were meant to be utilized, the burden dissipates and we are left with awe and wonder. And, like Nephi, we will come to know our Savior on a deeply personal level. In fact, it is likely through our deep appreciation of these rituals and rules that we will find ourselves prepared to know our Savior on a personal level.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 11–27 – Mike Parker
Feb 26, 2024
Nephi’s quotations & commentary on the prophecies of Isaiah
(2 Nephi 11–27)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This week’s lesson includes information that goes with the Come, Follow Me reading schedule for the next three weeks.)
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 11–19 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 24, 2024
The Context of Eternity
by Autumn Dickson
One of the topics that gets covered this week is the Millennium. Life in the Millennium is going to be a little bit different than we are experiencing now. Nephi quotes the following verse about what life will be like:
2 Nephi 12:4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks—nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
This verse teaches us that war will cease. People won’t be fighting anymore. They will take their weapons that have been used to destroy, and they will be turned into tools that build and cultivate instead. This has often brought me an immense amount of comfort.
Interestingly enough, I actually found a warning when I read it this time.
The warning
When I read about this verse of weapons being turned into tools, I actually thought of The Book of Mormon war heroes, Captain Moroni being one example. Captain Moroni was good at war, really good at it. He spent a good portion of his life preparing for war and fighting in wars. However, the following verse teaches us something essential about Captain Moroni.
Alma 48:11 And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;
Captain Moroni didn’t enjoy war despite his talent with it; Captain Moroni enjoyed freedom and helping his people enjoy freedom. Why is this so important?
It’s important because when Captain Moroni arrives at the Celestial Kingdom (or if the Millennium were to have occurred in his time), he will have righteous desires that allow him to experience happiness in eternity. If he enjoyed war specifically, he would have found himself feeling rather useless and empty because a desire for war cannot be fulfilling in eternity. Maybe he could enjoy some competitive strategy board games, but that kind of joy is only going to last so long.
Captain Moroni had become the kind of man who could feel fulfilled throughout all of eternity. He lived according to his circumstances here on earth, but he changed himself according to the laws of eternity. He aligned himself with the nature that exists there rather than with the realities of mortal life that only exist for so long.
So here’s the warning. When there is no use left for our swords, will we be happy with our pruning hooks? When our “weapons” become obsolete in the Millennium or in the eternities beyond this mortal life, will we be left empty?
Understanding the nature of our swords
Maybe we are not professional soldiers in our day and age, but there are plenty of mortal desires that will not be compatible with eternal life. There will be plenty of desires that become obsolete.
What are your desires? What makes you happy? What fuels your choices? What makes your work feel worth it? The interesting thing about mortal desires (in comparison to eternal desires) is that mortal desires really can make us happy on earth; the doctrine that is essential to understand is that mortal desires expire.
I have concocted a practical process that can help us examine our desires to check ourselves; there are really only two steps.
Step 1: Make a list of things that fulfill us here in mortality
The first step in the process is to make an honest list of our desires. It is important to be as honest as possible because eventually we’re going to be faced with the truth, and it’s far more unpleasant to meet that truth on the other side. This process is also more effective when we can be kind with ourselves. Every single one of us holds desires that are not compatible with eternity. We don’t have to hate ourselves for it, and hating ourselves just makes it more difficult to be honest and progress. Heavenly Father gave us the opportunity to change ourselves so that we could learn to be strong like Him, and Christ paid for that opportunity. We have nothing to fear.
So what are your desires? It’s easy to write all of the “right” answers, but let’s look at some more leading questions. What occupies large portions of our thoughts? What is our first thought when we wake up and what do we think about before falling asleep? Where do we spend a majority of our free time? What sacrifices are we making and to what end? For example, are we sacrificing so we can provide for our family or are we sacrificing our family in the name of providing? That’s an intensely circumstantial question that may differ day to day, but it’s essential to go to the root of these desires so that we can truly examine how we’re going to feel in eternity.
Looking back over our list of desires, we can also ask questions like, “What makes me happy about this particular desire?” For example, we could write, “Making money,” but there are so many facets of money. Do we like having the freedom that often accompanies money or do we like the prestige of money? Those desires play out differently in eternity so we have to be specific.
Step 2: Place those desires in the context of eternity.
The next step is to take a look at each desire and place it into the reality of eternity.
This step is harder to ask general questions about so instead, I’m going to take one pretty common mortal desire and show what it’s like to observe it in eternity. In that way, we can apply this process to our own personal list of desires. Let’s talk about money again because it’s practical and easy to observe.
There is nothing wrong with making money, working for money, and enjoying money. Let me reiterate that Captain Moroni didn’t like war, but he understood the realities of mortal life. Money is essential, and money can provide a measure of security and happiness. Let’s not pretend that it’s not true.
But. We keep ourselves safe and happy when we keep money in perspective by recognizing the nature of eternity. What are some realities about eternity that correlate with money?
First, if we make it to the Celestial Kingdom, all that the Father has will be ours (that also means it will be everybody else’s too). And if we end up anywhere else, we’re going to still have our temporal needs filled. Our feelings about money should reflect this. Are we going to end up on the other side and wonder, “Well now what do I do?”
Second, there is no prestige over our brothers and sisters in the Celestial Kingdom. If you enjoy all the mortal prestige that stems from money, then understand that the prestige cistern will dry up quickly. You will feel empty.
Third, what did we sacrifice for it? Everyone will have to sacrifice some measure of family time to provide for family needs, but are we spending sufficient time with our families so that we are the kind of people that find deep fulfillment within our families? Because a good majority of the happiness that is available in eternity will be found in family. This is an extremely internal question. It’s not even really about how much time you’re spending; it’s about your desires once again. Some people work three jobs because they have to, but they wish they could come home to their families more. Some people just stay at work because they want money.
Placing all of our desires in the context of eternity can help us align our desires with everlasting realities. In this way, we can make sure we are capable of finding happiness in the eternities.
The key is to change
These questions and lists can seem practical, but people vary widely even within their individual circumstances on a day to day basis. You will likely find that your desires are eternally compatible one day and mortally compatible the next. The key is to nurture your eternal desires. We can enjoy our mortal situations without being left bereft in eternity, but we have to open our eyes to the true nature of things and align ourselves with the truth. As you open your eyes to the true value of things, it becomes easier to invest in the things that matter most.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 6–10 – Mike Parker
Feb 21, 2024
Jacob’s teachings about the Messiah & the gathering of Israel (2 Nephi 6–10)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class.)
John S. Thompson argues that Jacob₂’s sermon was given in connection with the Nephite observance of the Feast of the Tabernacles: “Isaiah 50–51, the Israelite Autumn Festivals, and the Covenant Speech of Jacob in 2 Nephi 6–10,” in Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. Donald W. Parry and John W. Welch (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1998), 123–50.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Me, My Shelf, & I – Episode 1 – Seer Stones: Questions & Criticisms
Feb 20, 2024
In this episode, Zach, Sarah, and Jennifer go through an overview of the most common criticisms of Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones from all sides. They introduce direct claims from faithful members who dispute the use of Seer Stones as well as critics who attempt to use the seer stones to explain away the Book of Mormon. In this 6 part series, Me, My Shelf, & I will tackle and refute these claims head-on using facts from the historical narrative.
Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction (02:23) Are Seer Stones Evil? (11:38) Folk Magic (17:42) Was Information Hidden? (23:08) Conclusion
Sarah Allen is a senior researcher with FAIR, and the 2022 recipient of the John Taylor: Defender of the Faith Award. By profession, she works in mortgage compliance and is a freelance copyeditor. An avid reader, she loves studying the Gospel and the history of the restored Church. After watching some of her friends lose their testimonies, she became interested in helping others through their faith crises. That’s when she began sharing what she’d learned through her studies. She is a co-moderator the LDS subreddit on Reddit and the author of a multi-part series rebutting the CES Letter. She’s grateful to those at FAIR who have given her the opportunity to share her testimony with a wider audience.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 6–10 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 17, 2024
Reproach and Revilings of Men
by Autumn Dickson
There are many things to fear in this world. Our own prophecies of the state of the world before the Second Coming are not for the faint of heart. Jacob knew this, and he chose to teach his people that they were of the house of Israel and would not be forsaken by the Lord. Those who trust in the Lord feel reason to rejoice. Jacob was pleading with them to trust their God so that they could feel this.
There is one very specific fear that Jacob addressed to his people, namely the fear of being hated by others, the fear of being reviled by them.
2 Nephi 8:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
Jacob was quoting Isaiah, and surely Isaiah wrote these words for our day. We believe in a fair amount of doctrine that is revolting to others. Hopefully we hold to these doctrines with courage as well as kindness; after all, Isaiah was speaking to those who “know righteousness” and part of being righteous is recognizing the divinity in everyone around us. Hopefully we are met with the same respect, but this is not always the case. It is highly likely that we will come across someone hostile to our beliefs, no matter how much kindness we throw their way.
However, this verse hit different this week. I believe it hit me differently this week because I realized how deeply and personally Jacob must have felt this. Jacob, as much as anyone, knew what it was like to be reviled by someone for your beliefs. Did the import of this verse hit him as he read it to his people who had been driven away from family who wanted to hurt them? Did he exchange a knowing look with Nephi as he taught this? Did he think of all those times the good people in his family were reviled by their own brothers?
Jacob and Nephi never reconciled with their brothers in this life. They died estranged from them.
How long did it take these brothers to heal from those familial rifts? We see all the best of Jacob and Nephi in The Book of Mormon, but I’m pretty convinced they had some trauma to work through. I have personally seen estrangement in my own extended family, and it’s ugly. I can only imagine how much uglier it gets when that estrangement is a result of one side trying to kill the other. Today, I want to talk about reviling on a traumatic level – on the level experienced by Nephi and Jacob. And even though I will be talking about reviling in a manner that is extreme, abusive, and traumatic, there are principles here that are applicable to everyone, no matter what level of reviling you have experienced.
Naturally achieving the peace of the gospel
I am a huge believer in the sentiment that we do not have to force our feelings in the gospel. When we are met with reviling and resentment, we don’t have to be afraid. But we also don’t have to fake our bravery or peace. We don’t have to try to force ourselves to forgive and feel okay when we find ourselves in broken relationships that refuse to heal on one end. We believe in forgiving, but trying to force forgiveness is counterproductive.
So if we shouldn’t try to force faith and forgiveness, how do we naturally reach those feelings? How do we get to the point where the faith and forgiveness pours out of us rather than us trying desperately to dam up the hurt and be polite anyway? How do we get to the point where we look at our enemies and find that we can’t help but love them anyway? I’m not talking about being polite and taking the high road and patting yourself on the back for being righteous and loving. I’m talking about truly loving those who revile us, where we want to defend them and miss them and we anxiously await the time that we can welcome them back?
Since we’re talking about reviling on a traumatic and abusive level, I want to make sure we understand that there are times in this life where boundaries need to be set and kept for a lifetime. Nephi and Jacob were commanded to flee and make those boundaries. However, we can arrive at a feeling of love for those who have hurt us even if we can’t ever trust them in our mortal lives again. Love does not mean enabling, but finding love within ourselves is important if we want to feel peace. I have also found that when we fill ourselves with real love, the fear of being reviled simultaneously dissipates.
The trauma reaction scale
I’m reiterating this because I think it’s important: When Christ asks us to forgive someone who has reviled us, He is not asking us to try and beat our hurt into submission. He is not asking us to allow someone to hurt us over and over. He is not asking us to “take the high road” and scorn others for being the “unloving ones.” When Christ asks us to forgive those that revile us, He is asking us to free ourselves.
It is critical to understand that this is a process.
It will take time to achieve this true forgiveness, and in my personal opinion, it will take plenty of anger and reasoning and pleading and wading and trying to heal before we make it there.
I want to talk a bit about trauma because trauma can be a natural result of being reviled severely by others. I know that not every experience we have with being reviled will be traumatic, but you can scale the principles I’m hoping to teach. I am not an expert on trauma, but I do love learning about it. Understanding the nature of trauma and being able to overcome our body’s biological processes of protecting us will help us achieve forgiveness and freedom from fear in regards to our enemies..
Our bodies have biological processes built in to keep us safe. When trauma occurs in the brain, our bodies skip over our thinking processes and immediately jump to fight or flight. Our brains do this without our consent. That is why the actions of traumatized people can be irrational; those actions often occur without the rational portions of their brains. When we are continuously introduced to trauma over and over and over again, and when we are not able to fight or flee, our brain goes into the next portion of survival mode – dissociation. When someone is stuck in a traumatizing situation with no chance for escape, their bodies will naturally escape within themselves. Their brains take them somewhere else. On the outside, this looks peaceful and accepting and even Christlike. But it’s not. It is survival mode. Here it is in a flow diagram:
Trauma (i.e. abused or severely reviled like Nephi) → Fight or Flight → Dissociation
So quick recap. Let’s say a person is tied to a ship by their brothers. They can’t flee or fight it off. Under normal circumstances, the person (even a person of faith) can find themselves dissociating in order to survive mentally. They detach from the physical circumstances and hide within their own brain. Let’s look at it in a modern circumstance.
Let’s say a person is being mentally abused by a family member. They do not feel the ability to fight or flight and so instead, they dissociate. They withdraw into themselves. THIS IS NOT FORGIVENESS. This is a reaction of trauma. It is quiet. It does not argue back. It looks more Christlike, but it does not feel heavenly. In fact, on the trauma reaction scale, it is worse than fighting back or fleeing the situation. I have seen dissociation praised as Christlike behavior, and I have seen people who are healing look very un-Christlike as they work back down the trauma reaction scale towards normalcy which requires working back through fighting or fleeing. There is anger. There are family members or friends who get cut off. It can look ugly.
But. When that anger and hurt and trauma gets truly worked through, there is a heavenly feeling on the other side. There is a moment on the other side when you become free from all of those trauma reactions and live your life happily despite the revilings of another. It ceases to affect you. You are healed. You feel forgiveness. You let go, and you find freedom. You’re no longer afraid of the revilings of man.
That is why Christ asks us to forgive, not so we can be pious or enable someone to hurt us further. He asks us to forgive because real forgiveness is real freedom from the revilings of others.
I once posted a status or something about forgiveness; I can’t quite remember the details to be honest. However, I had a friend reach out to me in anger. She was really upset that I had preached forgiveness. She had been brutally traumatized by an ex-spouse, and she was angry that I would suggest any kind of forgiveness despite the fact that it wasn’t specifically pointed towards her. She mockingly and angrily asked me if I would have her forgive him.
At that point in my life, I was too naive to understand what she had gone through and to truly understand what forgiveness meant. I can’t remember how I responded, but my reaction now would be, “I want you to heal so thoroughly that he no longer affects you, that you release yourself and him and feel peace and love.” Because that really is what I want for her.
If you go back and read Nephi’s Lament (2 Nephi 4), you will find that he had to work through this as well. One of my favorite lines in that entire chapter is, “Why am I angry because of mine enemy?” I love it because it makes Nephi human and relatable and real. He did get angry with his brothers. He did have to work through everything they did to him. Jacob had to work through watching it all happen as a young boy, and they were able to come out on the other side and preach the feeling of freedom from the reviling of others.
Perfect love casts out fear
Reading Nephi’s Lament can also give a glimpse in how we travel back towards forgiveness and healing and freedom. To put it in very short terms, we get to know our Savior on a personal level. I testify that this is true. I testify that the Savior’s love can be so all-consuming that it heals all the broken fragments left by others. He is real. He loves us. He is powerful. His love is powerful.
I testify that perfect love casts out fear. I testify that as we come to trust and be filled with His love, as we work through all the anger and trauma and finally heal, it will cast out the fear that is embedded in our lives. We will let go of the knee-jerk reactions that come with being reviled. We won’t have to force ourselves to feel more faithful, to “fear not the reproach of men,” it will naturally come.
I talked about this verse in the context of true trauma, but I also testify that this occurs on a much smaller scale. When we have that personal tie to the Savior, any reviling or reproach on any level will bounce off of us. We won’t have to fight off the discomfort and fear. It simply won’t reach us because of the security that we have found in Christ.
Approach Christ; you will find the negative feelings start to dissipate on their own. I know this is true.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 3–5 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 10, 2024
Nephi’s Psalm
by Autumn Dickson
Nephi’s psalm is a classic, and there are a great many things we can learn from it. Rather than focusing on any specific phrases or words, I want to look at the message as a whole. I believe there is something we can learn as we follow Nephi through his transitions.
All throughout the chapters we have read thus far, Nephi has given us examples of his righteousness. He turned to the Lord for his own testimony, faithfully followed his father out of his home, valiantly encouraged his brothers to let the Lord help them accomplish the impossible, and then frankly forgave them after being beaten with a rod. We appreciate these examples; we learn a lot about revelation, turning to the Lord, and following in faith. If we can read these examples with the right heart, we will learn many of the mysteries of the kingdom. However, oddly enough, there is also something very strengthening and reassuring about hearing someone be vulnerable and open about their flaws. It builds connections between people that are much harder to cross over otherwise.
During his psalm, I feel like I catch a glimpse into Nephi’s heart, and it’s one of my favorite Nephi moments. In this awful moment of sorrow after his father died, he bears his soul a bit. He writes down his feelings exactly as they’re coming along and being processed, and it’s a beautiful process to watch. It’s a process that we can mimic. And interestingly enough, when we mimic this vulnerable process out loud at appropriate times, we can often strengthen our relationships with others and strengthen them in general.
Following Nephi’s process
I want to break up Nephi’s psalm into four parts. I will share a verse from each of the four parts that summarizes his train of thought.
2 Nephi 4:17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.
So Nephi is experiencing what many of us have felt before. We’re frustrated with our own lack of progress. We’re frustrated that we continually hurt others with our weaknesses. Nephi then transitions into, “I’m a weak man, but I know the Mighty One I have trusted.”
2 Nephi 4:20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep.
After praising the Lord for all that He has done on Nephi’s behalf, Nephi is then like, “If He has blessed me so much, why am I so worried about my afflictions? Why do I let Satan come in and destroy my peace?”
2 Nephi 4:26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?
Nephi then transitions one last time to more of a plea. He asks the Lord to keep him spiritually safe essentially. He recognizes the reality of his mortal weaknesses and asks the Lord to essentially not let him get lost.
2 Nephi 4:33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way—but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.
Each of these transitions is important and has something to teach us about where to transition emotionally when we’re struggling. Honestly, I wonder if Nephi has actually given us the secret to his relentless optimism – namely consciously processing the yucky stuff with God. Let’s look closer.
Nephi speaks of feeling wretched; all of us know what it is to feel worthless and incapable and discouraged. Do we make the same transitions that Nephi makes? Do we stop to remember the doctrine surrounding our mortal lives and the power of Christ’s atonement? Do we stop to remember all of the encouragement that He has already given us? Nephi did; he looked back and remembered how he has been supported before.
After that original, “I trust the Lord,” it almost appears as if Nephi dips back down into despair again. He asks why do I get angry or yield to sin? It feels like Nephi might be getting discouraged again. Maybe he did. I have interpreted it that way many times, but there is also an alternate interpretation. When I read it this time, I saw an encouraged Nephi. I heard him saying something along the lines of, “Oh my gosh. How did I forget all the ways the Lord has taken care of everything? How did I forget that He always makes it okay in the end? I don’t have to be anxious or discouraged or angry. That’s just Satan trying to distract me from God.” When I read it this time, I didn’t see Nephi falling back into discouragement. I saw him standing up taller, recognizing Satan, and casting him off. And then of course, it ends with Nephi’s plea with the Lord to protect him.
We can follow Nephi’s transitions very easily. We can imitate them and find his same optimism. In the face of death, homelessness, and familial issues, we can literally choose to be like Nephi. It starts with acknowledging your discouragement very openly. It then proceeds with a conscious choice to trust the Lord again; this is much easier when we take the time to recall other times this trusting process has worked, and eventually our eyes are opened to the reality of the situation. We know that we have nothing to truly fear. We find ourselves asking, “Wait a minute; I have God. Why am I worried?”
Stepping away from worry
Worry is an interesting concept because of its close association to love. An oft-occurring reaction that follows love can be worry, and so I believe that sometimes we translate worry into a good thing, and we encourage it. If we’re worried about someone, it is “evidence” of our love. If we’re worried about our salvation, it means that we’re humble and don’t assume that we’re worthy. If we’re worried about accomplishing everything, then the Lord knows that we were anxiously engaged (the irony…). While I agree that worry can have appropriate bounds and doesn’t have to devolve into a dire problem in and of itself, I also believe that sometimes worry becomes this compulsion of righteousness. We feel like we’re supposed to worry because it makes us feel like we care.
Once again, I do not feel like we have to be ashamed of worry. There are appropriate times for worry because it can also help us act. However, Nephi is a fantastic example of the fact that we don’t need worry in order to be righteous or loving or engaged. He is also a fantastic example of how to overcome feelings like worry.
We consciously choose to trust, and one of the feelings that come along with trusting is rejoicing. It is casting off Satan and not giving him a place in our hearts to destroy our peace of mind.
Another reason I love the psalm
There is another reason I love Nephi’s psalm, and it connects to these transitions that we’ve been talking about.
I believe that Nephi’s immense examples of faith can make him feel different than us. Sometimes we can place him on a pedestal and because of this, we simply view it as unrealistic for most people and therefore are discouraged from trying. We commend him for his examples, we’re impressed by them, but we don’t always follow that faith because we turn Nephi into an “other.”
Nephi’s vulnerability in the beginning allows us to relate to him and then realize that we can follow him into that same faith. It’s a fairly simple transition to go from discouragement to faith; it’s a simple choice. Sometimes Satan can make us subconsciously feel like we don’t deserve to step into that faith and optimism, but the Lord literally commands us to trust Him. He wants us to experience the peace, faith, and miracles that Nephi did. He wants us to make the same kind of difference in the world that Nephi did, but it takes that simple choice of trust.
I’m grateful Nephi chose to be vulnerable. I’m grateful that he chose to record his feelings after the passing of his father so we could catch a glimpse of how Nephi is the way that he is. There is a small extension to this message that I mentioned in the beginning. There are appropriate times to be vulnerable. There are times when vulnerability and acknowledgement of weakness will take us much farther in our ability to reach others in comparison to advice or life lessons. Sometimes, simply realizing that you’re not the only one who gets discouraged does more to bolster you than any plea to be faithful. And when you choose to combine this vulnerability with an absence of shame, it gives others the permission to follow suit.
I’m grateful for a Savior that I can trust. I’m grateful for all of the powerful examples of faith given to us by Nephi, and I’m just as grateful for his example of mortal weakness. None of us are alone in our less-than-charitable thoughts, moments of despair, or times of anger. We are especially not alone when we consider the fact that the Savior is always ready to draw near. We can trust that outreached hand, cling to it, and find gratitude and joy in it.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 1–2 & 2 Nephi 3–5 – Mike Parker
Feb 05, 2024
Lehi’s farewell address; Nephites & Lamanites separate (2 Nephi 1–5)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This week’s lesson covers both this week’s and next week’s Come, Follow Me reading.)
Lehi₁’s teachings are an example of a biblical testament offered by a dying patriarch, which included the dying family head gathering together his relatives and close friends, exhorting them to avoid temptations, instructing them in the ways of righteousness, uttering blessings and cursings, and prophesying of the future. See “KnoWhy #29: Should 2 Nephi 1:1–4:12 Be Called the ‘Testament Of Lehi’?”, Book of Mormon Central, 9 February 2016.
Matthew Nickerson, “Nephi’s Psalm: 2 Nephi 4:16–35 in the Light of Form-Critical Analysis,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 6, no. 2 (1997): 26–42. Nickerson’s article outlines the Psalm of Nephi₁ and shows how it follows the same literary pattern found in the Old Testament Psalms.
Steven P. Sondrup, “The Psalm of Nephi: A Lyric Reading,” BYU Studies 21, no. 3 (Summer 1981): 357–72. Sondrup analyzes the poetic structure of Nephi₁’s Psalm.
After the death of Lehi₁, Nephi₁ recorded that “the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon” to those who followed Laman₁ (2 Nephi 5:21). Clifford P. Jones argues that Laman₁ and his followers marked their skins with “a permanent, self-imposed mark—an ancient tattoo—cut into the skin in defiance of the law of Moses” as a sign of rebellion against God. Jones, “Understanding the Lamanite Mark,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 56 (2023): 171–258. (Kyler Rasmussen has prepared this brief summary of Jones’s paper.)
Joseph’s September 1830 revelation to Oliver Cowdery commanded him to “go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them.” How did the Book of Mormon define a Lamanite ? And what does DNA evidence tell us about the descendants of Lehi₁ living in the Americas today? Book of Mormon Central examines this complex subject in “KnoWhy #486: Who Are the Lamanites?”
See Also:
“The apparent genetic discrepancy between Mormon’s narrative and the origin of Native Americans” by Michael R. Ash and Ugo Perego at the 2023 FAIR Conference
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 2 Nephi 1–2 – Autumn Dickson
Feb 04, 2024
Choosing Liberty and Eternal Life
by Autumn Dickson
In the chapters for this week, we find Lehi’s family in the promised land and Lehi is dying. He knows he is dying and decides to share some last messages with his family. He pleads with Laman and Lemuel to get it together, blesses his grandchildren to be protected from bad influences, encourages the others to do what’s right, and prophesies of future events. He also shares essential doctrines.
One of these doctrines is a huge focus in the Come Follow Me manual this week as well as the huge focus for my post.
2 Nephi 2:27 Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.
I have taught about grace and works and the atonement of Jesus Christ many times. And yet, I feel like Lehi has taught about these topics in a way that illuminates my understanding further. Not to mention, he did it in a single sentence.
They are free to choose liberty and eternal life through the great Mediator of all men.
This is a fantastic way to teach grace and the role of works in the Plan of Salvation.
A multiple choice test
I want you to imagine for a second that choosing the Celestial kingdom was occurring on a multiple choice test. There is only one question. This is how I imagine it would look like:
What do you want?
Liberty and eternal life
Captivity and death
It sounds simple to the point of silliness, but I want you to think about it in this manner. Without Jesus Christ, the test would look like this.
What do you want?
Captivity and death
And that is why salvation is a gift. No matter how often we would have chosen to do what’s right, no matter how much we would have changed, no matter how much we would have gotten glimpses of what eternity is supposed to be like in moments with our family and friends, it would have been out of reach. Without the Savior, Heavenly Father could not have given us eternal life without spurning justice and ceasing to be God and newsflash…that would mean there was no heaven to be had. The price had to be paid, and Christ was the only one who could pay it. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, the option for eternal life was now available to us. The option was unlocked for us. It was a gift to us.
That is why we, as Latter-day Saints, believe in grace. That is why we believe salvation was given to us freely. We didn’t pay for that option to show up. Christ gave the option of salvation to us; He didn’t have to give it and He dearly wants to give it.
And yet, it is still a choice.
The “works” portion
This week, I sat down and watched “Prince of Egypt” with my kids. Phenomenal movie. Please watch it. I feel the Spirit every time.
Anyway, as I’ve been pondering this specific principle this week (i.e. Christ providing the option for us to choose eternal life), the “Prince of Egypt” movie hit me differently. There is a part where the Egyptians come chasing after the Israelites, and the Israelites are trapped at the sea. Moses, as a type of Christ, parts the water thereby providing a way for escape for the Israelites. The option for liberty appeared because of the power of Christ.
And yet, the Israelites still needed to choose to take the option. Christ didn’t transport them onto the other side of the sea; He merely made liberty available. Can you imagine the silliness of the Israelites cheering on the shore, ecstatic that the waves had parted and then just sitting there? Can you imagine them praising the Lord for parting the sea and then choosing to camp on the shore until they were slaughtered by the Egyptians or brought back into captivity?
Christ provided the option, but He won’t force us to move forward. He won’t force us to live an eternal life (which, by the way, starts today if we want). He can’t force us to live in a manner that allows for us to feel the peace and happiness He offers.
Some may argue that belief is all that is required, but I believe that eternal life isn’t bestowed. It’s something you grow into. And yet, Latter-day Saints still believe it’s a free gift because Christ paid the price for that option to become available to us..
Walking through the sea
I simplified our choice of liberty and eternal life earlier with my test question, but I did that in order to highlight grace and the principle of Christ providing an option that was not there beforehand. It’s easy to circle “Liberty and eternal life” on a test, but choosing it in real life is a little more involved than that.
I’ve talked often about growing into an eternal life, about progressing to become like our Heavenly Father rather than believing that heaven is something that simply descends upon us. Integrity, charity, and humility aren’t just arbitrary traits that Heavenly Father chose because He thought it would make us better worshippers. In actuality, these are traits that make us feel the happiness and peace that He feels. They are traits that make us feel happy with ourselves and enable us to have heavenly relationships. I could talk a lot about the importance of pushing ourselves to grow into eternal life. I could wax long about the blessings of feeling these qualities within yourself, but I believe there is another part of choosing liberty and eternal life that is equally important to our peace and happiness and ability to grow into eternal life.
Eternal life is not just about becoming like our Heavenly Parents; it’s about being with Him and our Heavenly Mother again. We may not fully comprehend the import of that concept, but there was a time when we loved and felt loved by Them. If we could taste of that mutual love again, we would understand why living with Them would equate to an eternal life.
Consciously choosing to live a life like our Eternal Parents enables us to feel happiness and begin our eternal lives now. Consciously choosing eternal life today also means inviting our loving Parents and Savior into our lives and developing a relationship with Them now. This can be accomplished through a little phrase found in the same verse we read earlier, namely, “…through the great Mediator of all men.” To be a Mediator means to reconcile two parties. The Savior provides the opportunity for us to be reconciled and united with our Heavenly Parents. But just like with any other part of eternal life, He simply provided the opportunity. We are the ones who have to walk through the sea.
There are many things that can keep us from feeling that relationship with our Heavenly Parents. We are very aware that conscious rebellion and laziness can keep us from feeling this precious relationship, but there are also more subtle tactics from Satan that keep us from Them. A belief that we are unworthy, holding onto guilt longer than is needful, and perfectionism are all subtle tactics BUT THEY ARE STILL FROM SATAN. For some reason, it may feel oddly righteous to believe we are too unworthy to approach our Heavenly Father, but nothing could be farther from our Heavenly Father’s desires. He misses us. He feels cheated when we keep ourselves from Him.
Satan would do anything to keep you from believing that you have Parents who are perfectly supportive, perfectly coaching, perfectly pushing us to become as They are because Satan knows the absolute power of that belief.
Satan knows that if we learn how much our Heavenly Parents love us, we will find the happiness and peace that is available in eternity. And if we find that happiness and peace and love, we will find the motivation and power necessary to become like them. Following the gospel will no longer feel punishing; it will be freeing and powerful, and we will crave it.
Christ provided the opportunity for us to develop that relationship by paying the price that kept us from Them. However, it will never be enough to camp on the shore. We will constantly be plagued by fears of the enemy and there will not be any growth. If we camp on that shore and keep ourselves from Them, we will likely be taken over by the adversary just like the Israelites would have been if they hadn’t walked through the Red Sea.
We have to throw off Satan. We have to choose to mentally shun him and send him away. We have to walk through the sea, not only by living the commandments, but by actively choosing to trust in Their love for us.
Trusting Their love is an act of faith; we may not see it ahead of time. Maybe you don’t feel Their love for you yet. We may have to act before we can feel it. However, if we choose to act as though they love us, if we choose to change our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves according to the love we’ve been taught about, that act of faith will start to grow and grow and grow until it fills us and we know it is true.
That is what it means to choose liberty and eternal life, and it is all made possible by a loving Savior.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 16–22 – Mike Parker
Jan 29, 2024
The journeys to Bountiful & the promised land (1 Nephi 16–22)
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Calvin D. Tolman, “Liahona: ‘Prepared of the Lord, a Compass,’” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 51 (2022): 211–52. Tolman reviews the various English interpretations of the term Liahona. He proposes that the translation of Liahona is “a vessel prepared of the Lord” and the interpretation is “a compass prepared of the Lord” (Alma 37:38).
“Book of Mormon Evidence: Nahom,” Evidence Central, 9 March 2021. This page summarizes the current state of research regarding “the place which was called Nahom” (1 Nephi 16:34), where Ishmael₁ died. The location of this place in the Arabian desert is a “bullseye” for Latter-day Saint claims that the Book of Mormon is a historical work.
Portions of this lesson include segments from Journey of Faith, a 2005 documentary by the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies at Brigham Young University. This documentary provides insights from Latter-day Saint and non-Latter-day Saint scholars into the route of Lehi₁’s journey through Arabia, including likely locations for Nahom, where Ishmael₁ died, and Bountiful₁, where Nephi₁ built the ship that took his family to the promised land.
In this follow-up to Journey of Faith, Latter-day Saint scholars delve into Mormon₂’s description of the Nephites’ land of promise and the religious history, culture, and traditions of its people.
How difficult would it be to make a functional bow and arrow using only primitive tools and materials on hand, as described in 1 Nephi 16:23? This Australian blogger did it with only a stone hatchet, a stone chisel, and stone blades and fire sticks. How much better would Nephi₁’s bow and arrow have been, considering that he almost certainly had more advanced tools?
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 16–22 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 27, 2024
The Second Spindle
by Autumn Dickson
I learned something this week about the Liahona that kinda blew my mind. I want to share what I learned, and then let’s take some principles from it.
In a Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, Robert L. Bunker describes an engineering phenomenon that I was completely unaware of. He talks about a concept that was invented by man in the 1940’s known as fault tolerant systems. Essentially, you build a computer that does the same processing twice (or more sometimes). If the processing comes back the same, then the computer can continue on because it is “correct.” If the processing comes back different, then something failed and the computer can know about it. Thus, it is fault tolerant. The computer can detect if it’s having its own issues.
Maybe I’m way behind on figuring this out, but the Lord built a fault tolerant system in the Liahona. It didn’t even register in my mind that the Liahona had two spindles until I was an adult. Even then, I couldn’t figure out why it had two spindles until I googled it and found this article from Robert L. Bunker. This verse is not in this week’s reading, but it does give us insight into the Liahona which we’re studying this week.
Alma 37:40 And it did work for them according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that God could cause that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold, it was done; therefore they had this miracle, and also many other miracles wrought by the power of God, day by day.
Spindles. Plural. Both were pointing. If the Liahona only had one spindle, how was Lehi’s family supposed to know whether it was “working?” They could have waned in their faith and diligence, but the one arrow was still going to be pointing somewhere. There was no way they could have known that it was pointing “wrong.” Maybe this is completely obvious to anyone with any kind of predilection for engineering, but this totally blew my mind.
First of all, the idea that Joseph Smith, with all three years of his formal schooling, could have come up with that would have been impressive to say the least. This kind of fault finding system wasn’t formally invented until the 1940’s, but Joseph kinda just threw it out there while interpreting The Book of Mormon in three months. If it hadn’t been in there, I’m sure I could have found the faith to just assume the Lord had a way of letting the family know, but I still think it’s super cool that it was included.
Anyway, I obviously do not claim to have figured this out on my own, as made apparent by surprise. However, I do want to try and take this a step further. It makes sense that the Lord would provide a way for the family to know if their Liahona was in working order; He was planning on using it as a tool to teach them about faith, diligence, and being led along. He didn’t just give it to them, and they were done. The Lord is purposeful and wanted them to practice living the gospel principles in a continuous manner.
Though the second arrow has very obvious implications for Lehi’s family, I believe there are spiritual implications for us. After all, The Book of Mormon was written for our day so that we could learn about the Lord’s dealings with His children. So what do we learn from this fault tolerant, second spindle?
The words of the prophets
One of the fail-safe systems the Lord has provided are dual pathways for revelation. Like much of the world, we believe that the Lord can speak to us directly. This pathway of revelation is critical to our exaltation. It requires us to stretch and reach and dig for ourselves. When we have to seek out personal revelation, we are able to gain that personal relationship with Christ which is ultimately what saves and exalts us. It also allows us to be guided in our personal lives so that the prophet doesn’t have to tell me whether studying elementary education in college is a good idea. Personal revelation is crucial.
The world is also a great example of what happens when you don’t have that second pathway; President Oaks has coined this pathway the “priesthood line.” The priesthood line is how we received the scriptures in the past, and it’s how we receive His guidance today. As a missionary, I remember coming across a group of Christians who had a table up on campus. They were of all different Christian faiths, working together to spread the word. It was admirable. We tried talking to them, but they quickly denounced us as non-Christians. When I pointed out that they weren’t completely similar in their own beliefs of Christ, they quickly responded that they were similar in all of the important things. I found this extremely fascinating since some of them believed that baptism was essential to salvation and some of them did not believe this. You would think that this particular aspect would be classified as “important” since it was determining credentials for salvation, but I digress. Even within the same denomination, you can wander from congregation to congregation and find different beliefs.
This second spindle, this priesthood line, helps us know what the doctrine is. Yes, we do have random quotes from random priesthood leaders that are questionable, but true, canonized doctrine is repeated again and again and again and again. It is not hidden; we know what we believe. These two lines of communication help with the concept of fault tolerance.
Personal revelation
Now the fail safe of a priesthood line can be very helpful in finding out the doctrine of the kingdom. The personal line is still necessary; there are some revelations that only come from the Lord, and we all still have to receive our witness. However, the priesthood line can take us pretty far in establishing the stage.
But what about the personal decisions for which there is no doctrine? There is no “right” answer for what people should choose as careers. There isn’t any kind of doctrine about where we should live or how many kids we should have or who we should marry. There are guiding principles, but guiding principles aren’t always enough. I can be righteous as an accountant or as a fashion designer, but is there a specific direction I need to take? Maybe there isn’t a specific direction, but if there is, I definitely want to know about it.
So what are the fail safes for personal decisions? The priesthood line and personal line can help us with doctrine, but is there a fault tolerant system for our personal decisions? How do we know we’re on the right path if there is a “right” path for us to take? There are plenty of times when there isn’t necessarily a “right” option and we’ll be fine either way, but I’ve also lived long enough and been guided often enough to know He has specific instructions sometimes. What is my second spindle?
I kinda have two answers for this.
First, the Lord helped me understand a simple way to practice receiving revelation. I practiced it with the FSY kids I taught last summer. At FSY, we were given this incredible opportunity where the Lord wanted to speak to us and guide us and teach us. Not to mention, they were all given a journal to carry around anyway. That week, I challenged the kids to write down everything that even barely registered as a potential prompting. I told them that if a thought popped into their heads, they should write it down. They didn’t necessarily need to question whether it was a prompting. They should simply write it down. Was everything they wrote down going to be revelation? No. Would writing everything down help them establish the pattern? Absolutely. If you want to understand whether the Lord is speaking to you, you need a second spindle with which to compare it. Writing down everything could help you start to puzzle out those feelings very consciously and start to recognize the pattern of the Lord’s voice in your own life.
Second answer.
I can’t tell you what your second spindle looks like; it may take time to determine that. However, I can testify of a second spindle. If we learn nothing else from this fault tolerant system of the Lord, learn this: the Lord is capable of helping you know so have faith. When you have a big decision to make and you’re worried out of your mind about whether you’re doing the right thing in your life or whether you’re doing the right thing for your family, set your worry aside and trust the Lord’s ability to speak to you in a way that you can understand. If you don’t feel His voice, don’t fret. If you are regularly turning to Him, He will make His will clear to you if there is a will. Perhaps He will simply close a door that you were planning on taking, or He will open a different one. Perhaps He will guide your desires without you even knowing it, or perhaps you will get a big “warning” feeling that only goes away when you turn around. No matter how He chooses to answer you in any given circumstance, have faith and rejoice that the Lord has a second spindle that works very well. You can trust it.
And if all else absolutely fails, I testify of a third spindle. It’s called the atonement of Jesus Christ, and it makes up for mistakes. It turns all bad into good for those who are trying their hardest to follow the Lord. When I was getting ready to marry Conner and I desperately wanted an answer, I finally gave up and said, “If everything goes wrong and we get divorced and things go totally crazy, the Lord can’t be mad at me because I couldn’t have possibly tried harder to follow Him.” I don’t recommend getting married that way, and I have also learned a lot about marriage since then, but the key is this: you cannot truly fail when you remain close to the Lord. In the end, He can turn everything into a triumph. That third spindle is not fault safe; it is fault proof. It does not fail when we turn it on.
I testify of a Savior who revealed The Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith. I testify that He included the coolest, smallest details that can give us so much insight. I testify that He saw all ahead of time and created systems with which to protect us (but not at the expense of our growth), and I testify that He did that because He loves us.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 11–15 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 20, 2024
Hell was Prepared
by Autumn Dickson
When I was younger, I remember being a bit troubled by the judgment and justice of God towards those who choose to do what’s wrong. If He really loved us, I couldn’t imagine Him wanting to be separated from any of us for eternity. It didn’t make sense to my young mind.
As I’ve grown older and observed the world a bit more, it has come to make more sense. Though I know that I can’t make any final judgments of people and I know that I don’t fully understand the circumstances of others, I can still see enough of the world to understand that people choose their outcomes. And despite all efforts to help people make choices that lead to good outcomes, some people still want to choose things that don’t bring anything worthwhile into their lives.
Why would He send His children away from Himself?
I had an experience with a friend a few summers ago where she expressed some of the same sentiments that I had felt when I was growing up. She was a mother of two, a boy and a girl. She told me she didn’t understand how we could believe in a God who was willing to send some of His children to a place like hell. We all make mistakes, we’re all imperfect. She couldn’t possibly grasp the idea of sending one of her children to hell because they weren’t perfect.
I had this entire response built up in my mind, but luckily the Spirit caught my attention before I could give her that response. I simply asked her, “If your son assaulted your daughter and didn’t change and continued to belittle her, would you force her to spend eternity with him? That wouldn’t be heaven for her.” She didn’t have much of a response, but the Spirit will do that to you.
The Spirit did it to me too in that same moment; I had never looked at it in some real terms because I had never been forced to. I have never yet had to question how I would respond if one of my children was making destructive choices that severely influenced the happiness of my other children. It was at that moment that I understood Heavenly Father just a little bit better. As much as it would make my heart ache forever, I would hope to be wise enough to not sacrifice the happiness of all my other children. If that child changed and chose better, then I would rejoice and cry and throw my arms around them and welcome them home. But if they continued to choose what they wanted at the expense of others, they would have to leave my home.
An understanding of hell
The simple fact of the matter is, there are those who will continue to choose to harm others despite any attempt we might make to help them be happier. We see this so clearly with Laman and Lemuel! Once again, I can’t make any final judgments; I hope they finally figured it out, but they were given every advantage, but they did not want it. Their father taught them how to reach the Lord, but they would not inquire of Him. They saw an angel rebuke them, but that didn’t stop them from hurting Nephi again and again and again. Happiness and salvation were handed to them over and over and over, but they did not want it.
I don’t know why, but some people choose what they want to choose despite all evidence to the contrary. The Lord understood this, and He taught it to Nephi.
1 Nephi 15:33-35:
33 Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the kingdom of God; if so, the kingdom of God must be filthy also.
34 But behold, I say unto you, the kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.
35 And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the preparator of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.
There is a place prepared for those who would continue to harm others and rob them of the heaven that our Father wants for them. Much of the world believes that this place is scary; we have a different theory.
One of the keys to understanding God is to understand hell. Hell is a word that can mean a couple of different things to us, but let’s discuss it in this context.
One version of hell includes a place called “outer darkness.” There is not much known about this place other than the idea that most of us aren’t even capable of going there. You have to know Christ perfectly and then reject Him. That’s one version, but it’s not super applicable so let’s move on.
Another concept of hell is associated with the three different kingdoms of glory. The concept of hell can expand to mean any place where we are not directly living with God (basically anything lower than the Celestial kingdom). Hell is like a lake of fire and brimstone, not a literal lake of fire and brimstone. The pain of being separated from Heavenly Father is the fire, the brimstone, the hell.
Interestingly enough, sometimes salvation is even expanded to represent anyone found in the three kingdoms. We know that even the lesser two kingdoms are more glorious than what we have on earth. They are beautiful places and Heavenly Father’s children who go there will receive resurrected bodies. In this sense, everyone in one of the three kingdoms of glory experiences salvation to an extent.
In a sense, the lesser kingdoms are places of heaven and hell, and that completely matches up with what I understand of a loving Father. Even as an imperfect parent, I can understand the logic behind this plan of Heavenly Father. I may not be able to have all of my children with me, but I still love them. I still want them to be as comfortable as I can make them for eternity so I will prepare a place for them. It will be a wonderful place, but unfortunately, because of their choices, they will still experience aspects of hell. There is nothing I can do about that except rob them of their ability to choose, and even then, they will still not experience happiness; they will still not feel the full extent of heaven because it will be forced upon them. So I leave them to experience hell to the extent they choose. They will be separated from a loving parent, their siblings, and they will be surrounded by others who make the same kind of choices. I would grieve knowing that some of my children are continuing to hurt each other and that they are separated from me, but I would find peace in the fact that I had done everything I could for them. Everything that could have possibly been done to help them was done.
I love the Plan of Salvation because it makes perfect sense to me. Nothing is arbitrary. I look at the plan, and I see the love of Heavenly Father. If no one had ever told me that God loved me, but they showed me this plan, I wouldn’t have to be told of His love. You can see it in the decisions He has made regarding His children.
I testify of a Heavenly Father who truly loves His children. I testify that He gave us children so that we could better comprehend His choices surrounding us. I testify that He did everything He possibly could to give them everything He has. He sacrificed His perfect Son, gave them the ability to choose happiness, and made up for all of the bad that would occur. I testify of the Savior’s atonement that can make up for all the wrong that happens to us. I testify that what will truly matter at Judgment Day is whether we will be a harmful influence in the Celestial Kingdom because the Savior paid for the mistakes we would make while figuring it all out.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best. This week’s lesson covers both this week’s and next week’s Come, Follow Me reading.)
Daniel C. Peterson, “Nephi and His Asherah,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 9, no. 2 (2000): 16–25, 80–81. Nephi₁’s vision of “a virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” who was “the mother of God, after the manner of the flesh” (1 Nephi 11:15, 18; 1830 edition) is connected to Lehi₁’s vision of a “a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy” (1 Nephi 8:10). Dr. Peterson’s article shows how they’re both connected to ancient Israelite belief in the female divinity Asherah, whose representation was a tree.
Stephen E. Robinson, “Nephi’s ‘Great and Abominable Church’,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 7, no. 1 (1998): 32–39, 70. In this article, Professor Robinson draws a clear distinction between a specific “great and abominable church” described in 1 Nephi 13, and a general “great and abominable church,” representing any and all wicked organizations, in 1 Nephi 14. (A shortened version of Robinson’s article was published in the January 1988 Ensign, 34–39.)
What is apocalyptic literature, and how does Nephi’s vision in 1 Nephi 11–14 fit into apocalyptic writings of the Ancient Near East? Book of Mormon Central explains in KnoWhy #471, “Why Can Nephi’s Vision Be Called an Apocalypse?”
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 6–10 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 16, 2024
What does it mean to be worthy?
by Autumn Dickson
As I was reading through Lehi’s vision this week, I was struck by a verse that I have thought about plenty before. For context, we see large groups of people moving towards the fruit of the tree which represents the love of God. There are lots of things occurring, but here’s just one:
1 Nephi 8:25 And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed.
As we continue on reading, we learn that there was a great and spacious building representing the pride of the world, and it was filled with people. Some of the people who came and partook of the love of God looked around, saw the building, and they became ashamed as they were moved by those who were in this building.
But I saw something new in that verse this time. I know that Nephi explains the reason that these people felt ashamed. However, the Spirit whispered another possible interpretation to me.
I have found that there are many of us in the church who partake regularly of the love of God. However, despite this regular partaking, we still feel ashamed of ourselves for past transgressions. I don’t think this is a completely abnormal feeling; in fact, I think it’s actually quite natural. When you find yourself partaking of something that pure, it can be hard to look back at your less-than-pure actions and intentions in comparison. It makes it doubly difficult if those less-than-pure actions and intentions still haunt you in the form of feelings and memories.
Though I believe that this can be a “natural” response, I don’t think it’s a feeling we should entertain. The Lord utilizes guilt to help us come back, but He does not utilize shame. Shame is an unhelpful feeling that draws us away from God in every instance. Whether we’re ashamed because we’re being mocked by others or if we’re ashamed because of our past sins, shame will never bring us closer to Him. It will only cause us to withdraw and hide. Shame comes from Satan.
I think that shame, at least in this particular context, stems from a misunderstanding about what it means to be worthy.
What does it mean to be worthy?
What does it mean to be worthy? We know the atonement paid for our sins, but we also know that the Lord still has expectations for us. We have learned our entire lives that there is a Judgment Day, and it will be determined whether we have been worthy.
The Lord has taught me about this a lot over the past few years. He has taught me about His atonement, and He has taught me about His perfect judgment.
My understanding of Judgment Day used to look something like this: I believed I would stand before the Lord and He would tally up all the good and bad I had done. The Lord paid for the bad, but it still had to be determined whether I had done enough. The “good” and the “bad” also included desires and thoughts rather than just actions. He would then place these things in the context of my life, the opportunities I was given as well as the weaknesses and struggles I received.
I have learned that Judgment Day (all of the mini judgments in between) are not really determined like this. Understanding the atonement and what it means is key to understanding what Judgment Day will look like. The atonement of Jesus Christ paid for all sin so that it would no longer count against us. The sin you committed yesterday, the one you will commit today, and the one you will commit tomorrow are gone. They were paid off. When you stand before the Lord on the other side, you’re not going to find any “tally marks” on the bad side because they’re not there anymore. Judgment Day isn’t about the sum total of your good and bad actions (thoughts and desires included).
Judgment Day really is about who you are. The Lord judges us by our hearts. When you stand before the Lord, He is going to determine something very simple: will you contribute to the feeling of the Celestial Kingdom? When people are around you, will they know that you mean well even if you’re not perfect yet? Do you contribute to a happy, spiritual home? Do you love Him and do you love others? Do you understand the importance of wielding power responsibly? Do you already experience the peace that comes with living with integrity?
This has completely changed how I approach the gospel. It has changed from perfectionism (minimizing bad and maximizing good) to simply attempting to utilize the commandments to get closer to Christ. I no longer hold onto my sins, but I allow the Savior to take them away because they’re not really there anymore. I actually get to experience the blessings that come with the gospel: redemption and closeness to Christ.
Perhaps this view of Judgment Day still has you feeling worried…you have flaws that will certainly take away from the heavenly feeling in the Celestial Kingdom. I’m obviously not a perfect judge, but let’s discuss those flaws too. Sometimes I yell at my kids (especially when I’m pregnant), and sometimes I still have a hard time forgiving and assuming the best of others. BUT. I have a desire that runs much, much deeper than those flaws. I want to be free of those flaws. I want to follow the Savior perfectly and willingly; it’s just difficult sometimes. When I get to the other side, and Satan can no longer tempt me and all secrets are out, I will be free of those flaws. The only time flaws are going to follow you to Judgment Day is if you are clinging to them all on your own. For example, if you need to forgive someone but you refuse to, then when you get to the other side you’re going to continue to hold onto that flaw regardless of the fact that Satan is no longer tempting you. If you have a deep and abiding desire to follow the Savior and love others (even if you’re not perfect yet), then you’re going to be just fine. Trust that the atonement took care of it so that you can start enjoying the blessings of the gospel now.
And let’s not forget this is all placed in the context of our lives as well. Not everyone has been taught or given the advantages that come with growing up in a healthy home. The Lord knows that. However, I teach this doctrine because there are a lot of people out there who do understand the importance of worthiness and are given advantages, and a lot of these people are worried about their personal worthiness. Make the switch from desperately trying to be good enough to simply trying to draw closer to Christ. Interestingly enough, it actually helps you develop the kind of character that belongs in the Celestial Kingdom. Following the gospel in this manner allows you to experience the blessings of the gospel rather than experiencing the negative side effects of perfectionism. It allows you to partake of the fruit of the tree and experience gladness and joy and relief without any of the shame.
All we have to do is remain at the tree
Satan uses shame because it logically makes sense. He knows that we know that we don’t deserve the atonement, and he uses that logic against us. Because it’s logical, we don’t really question it. But we need to! It’s dangerous and incomplete. Shame is uncomfortable enough that it would cause us to shy away from the Lord so we don’t have to feel that shame anymore.
But Satan is also just distracting us from the good feeling that is meant to come with partaking of the fruit. God put that tree there, not so He could stand around and make us feel bad for eating it. He wants us to take it so we can be close to Him. You don’t deserve it, you have hurt Him, you have caused Him pain, but don’t make it worse by retreating from Him. Don’t deprive Him of your company because whether it makes logical sense or not, He wants your company.
If you also want to consider logic, consider this: Christ experienced all of the bad feelings we experience so stop holding yourself hostage with sin that was already paid for. If you have repented and been deemed forgiven, then lift up your head and rejoice. Turn shame into a deep gratitude. If you really want to be a better person, if you really want the ability to become everything He wants you to become, then cling to His love and let it fill you until the shame isn’t there anymore. That is what will fill you with light. That is what people will notice when they see you. That will be the reason for the joy in your eyes: His love has changed you and turns all the bad in your life into goodness.
I know some of us are still haunted by past sins. Even if we’ve repented, you can’t always get rid of the memories, and Satan will use them against you for as long as he can. If you find yourself in this situation, take heart in two gospel principles:
1) If you continue on the road you’re on, staying near to the tree, then one day Satan will be bound and there will be no more temptation. You will be freed from those past aspects of your life – another reason to find ultimate gratitude!
2) Turn those “bad” things upside down. Christ’s atonement gives you the power to do that. Every time those memories pop up, rewrite the story with the Savior. Instead of saying to yourself, “There it is again, a memory of my past that will forever remind me I don’t deserve this,” say, “Here is an opportunity to become even better. Here is a thought that has been placed in my mind that I have the power to replace with something more powerful. Satan has presented me with a stepping stone to become stronger.” And if you falter and those memories linger longer than you would have liked, repeat the process anyway! Repentance is about becoming perfect, but the “becoming” process is going to take way longer than you think. In terms of this mortal life, it’s not about never failing again, it’s about being able to cast off Satan enough that you remain close to the tree, to His love. Remaining close to the tree is what is going to actually bring the perfection we so desire.
I testify of a Savior who never wanted us to carry shame. I testify that He utilizes guilt to the extent that it changes us because He loves us enough to push us. I also testified that He paid for sin so that it can’t hurt us anymore. We only hurt ourselves by depriving ourselves of His company on purpose – whether we do it by willingly rebelling or holding ourselves down under the weight of shame. We also hurt Him when we do that because I testify of a Savior who wants to be around you.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 1–5 – Mike Parker
Jan 09, 2024
by Mike Parker
(Mike Parker is a long-time FAIR member who has graciously allowed us to use materials he originally prepared for the Hurricane Utah Adult Religion Class. The scripture passages covered in his lessons don’t conform exactly to the Come, Follow Me reading schedule, so they will be shared here where they fit best.)
Neal Rappleye, “Learning Nephi’s Language: Creating a Context for 1 Nephi 1:2,” Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 16 (2015): 151–59. Rappleye explains how Nephi₁’s record could have been written in Hebrew language using Egyptian script, and he gives examples of ancient Israelite documents that did exactly that.
Book of Mormon Central team, “When Did Lehi Leave Jerusalem? (KnoWhy #475),” Book of Mormon Central, last modified 11 October 2018. Lehi₁’s ministry began “in the commencement of the first year of the reign of Zedekiah.” (1 Nephi 1:4) Scholars have variously dated his departure from Jerusalem between 605 and 588 ʙ.ᴄ. Read about the arguments for early, middle, and late dates.
Research and Perspectives, “Nephi and the Exodus,” Ensign, April 1987, 64–65. Latter-day Saint scholars have identified numerous parallels and motifs that show how Nephi₁ used the story of Moses and the Exodus as a type for his family’s own journey into the wilderness.
S. Kent Brown, “The Hunt for the Valley of Lemuel,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 16, no. 1 (2007): 64–73. Professor Brown explains how Wadi Tayyib al-Ism, the best candidate for Lehi’s valley of Lemuel, was discovered.
David Rolph Seely, “Lehi’s Altar and Sacrifice in the Wilderness,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 10, no. 1 (2001): 62–69, 80. Professor Seely explores why it was important for Lehi₁ to travel “three days in the wilderness” before making an offering to the Lord (1 Nephi 2:6–7), and how Lehi₁ could have made such a sacrifice, even though he wasn’t a Temple priest or Levite.
John W. Welch, “Legal Perspectives on the Slaying of Laban,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 1, no. 1 (1992): 119–41. Welch argues that Nephi₁ was legally within his rights to slay Laban, according to the moral and legal code at the time.
When Lehi₁ and his family left Jerusalem, they came to the Red Sea and then traveled south for three days until they reached a river valley, which Lehi named after his sons Laman₁ and Lemuel. An excellent candidate for this valley has been discovered in Saudi Arabia; Book of Mormon Central discusses this in KnoWhy #286.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an adult religion class in southern Utah. Mike and his wife, Denise, have three children.
Come, Follow Me with FAIR – 1 Nephi 1–5 – Autumn Dickson
Jan 08, 2024
Goodly Parents
by Autumn Dickson
When we read the first seven chapters of The Book of Mormon, we find a great many patterns for how the Lord works with His children. We find patterns of revelation, agency, perfect timing, and the nature of personal progression and testimony. One of the patterns we also find is that of righteous parenting. One of the first things declared in The Book of Mormon is:
1 Nephi 1:1 I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father…
Over and over and over again we see how Lehi and Sariah followed patterns of righteous parenting. Before you non-parents wonder if this message has relevance to you, I promise you that it does. Studying the patterns of Lehi and Sariah can teach us about how to become better parents, but it can also teach us a couple of other things such as how the Lord deals with His children so we can recognize why He is making specific decisions when we wonder what the heck He must be thinking. It can also teach us about the dual, and sometimes conflicting, principles of loving another person but simultaneously appreciating agency and feeling peace despite worries over their destructive choices. I will be referencing “parenting,” but this is not just about parenting. It’s about how the Lord works with us and how we work with others.
Personally seeking the Lord
One of the first things discussed in the righteous pattern of Lehi’s parenting is the way that Lehi personally sought out the Lord on His own. In verse 5, we see that Lehi went and prayed with all of his heart to the Lord. In return, Lehi receives a vision; this vision discusses a lot of things, but one of the things it talks about includes the abominations and impending destruction of Jerusalem at the time. These could not have been easy things to watch. The destruction of Jerusalem at the time of Zedekiah was ugly and brutal, and yet, Lehi came out of that vision in this manner:
1 Nephi 1:15 …his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled, because of the things which he had seen, yea, which the Lord had shown unto him.
There are a couple of things we can learn from Lehi’s experience.
First, Lehi was led because he was actively praying. Interestingly enough, Lehi wasn’t even praying about anything specific in regards to his family. He was praying to the Lord with his whole heart on behalf of his people. My key concept here is this: Turn regularly to the Lord, and He will lead along in the specifics on how to protect your family. You may not even originally recognize how the Lord is leading you along. After Lehi finds out Jerusalem is going to get destroyed, the Lord doesn’t say anything about leaving. It isn’t until Lehi is about to be killed before he receives the life-saving, miraculous gift of being driven from the lands of their fathers. From the outside, it might not look like Lehi was being led along, but we have hindsight which means we see the miracle in all of it. I attribute this incredible miracle to the fact that Lehi was turning regularly to the Lord.
And there is an implied principle that comes with this previous principle. If we’re turning to the Lord, we will be guided. This means we don’t have to live in fear. In the world we live in, it would be incredibly easy to let our desire to protect our children overwhelm us to the extent that we actually harm them. I want to protect my children from danger, but I can’t really…not unless I want to take them away from everything, and that’s not healthy for them either. We do the best we can to provide gospel principles, healthy homes, and reasonable boundaries, but we have to turn to the Lord and ask Him to guide us and our feelings when it comes to specific events that could hurt them. Only He can really protect them and lead them along the path that will protect them but still allow for growth.
There is a third principle for parents here. No matter how much we follow the Lord, our children still have agency. We want them to choose the right, but we can’t force them to. It’s not possible. Not even the Lord does that. It can be extremely difficult to watch loved ones make destructive choices. Lehi knows this firsthand. My children are young yet, but I’ve had other loved ones go down paths that would hurt them. Lehi prayed on behalf of his people with his whole heart. He loved the people who were going to try and kill him, or at least he loved the other people who were indulging in choices that would lead to their destruction and exile.
Where did Lehi find comfort? When Lehi turned to the Lord, he saw what would happen to his beloved people. I can’t imagine that was the source of his comfort. Lehi rejoices in His Redeemer. When all else is failing, there is comfort in the Redeemer. When there is no happy ending currently in sight because loved ones are choosing unhappiness, there is still a source of peace that we can cling to.
Sending his sons into difficult circumstances
Lehi sent his sons to go back to the volatile Jerusalem twice, and Sariah was not happy about it. Honestly, I can’t imagine that I would have been happy about it. If there was a time that I was going to doubt the visions of my husband, this would probably be that moment. I probably would have sought the Lord and asked if I could go instead. I was a mother, a parent. It was my responsibility to protect them, not send them to get slaughtered which is precisely what almost happened. By parenting standards today, this is terrible”parenting. I mean…some of the stuff I get side eye for nowadays is nothing compared to what Lehi was doing.
And yet, Lehi was doing exactly the right thing by following the Lord. As far as we know, he didn’t even question it. The Lord wanted the sons to go, not Lehi, and that was good enough for Lehi. And look what it brought to his sons! Laman and Lemuel were going to use their agency how they wanted to, but I can’t get over the experiences that Nephi had. This was an early, soul-stretching, pivotal experience in his testimony. I think about all the things I learn while reading about his experience. Just think about what he learned living them, and it was all because Lehi was brave enough to follow the Lord and let it happen. This doesn’t even cover the fact that Nephi brought Zoram back with him.
When we send our kids out into the world, it may feel like we’re sending them straight into Babylon, the place we often feel a desperate need to avoid at all costs. There will be appropriate times to leave Babylon, and there will be appropriate times to be in the world but not of it. Trust and follow the Lord to lead you and your family along about which path you’re supposed to be taking at any given time. Have enough faith, like Lehi, to follow that path.
And also, don’t feel like you failed if some of your children still utilized their agency in a way that you wish they hadn’t. Heavenly Father is a perfect parent, and He lost a third part of His children before we even made it to earth. Just do your best to follow Him, and the Lord won’t let you fail. Your children may still choose wrong, but it won’t be because you failed them.
He loved their mother
One of the most critical things that can occur in a family is for a father to love the mother; it’s not the only critical thing, but it is what I’m going to talk about in this section. And though I’m talking about Lehi loving Sariah, these are still principles that apply to anyone who has the opportunity to love someone else.
Let’s consider the circumstances of Lehi for a second. Lehi is a visionary man. Because of these gifts and because he loved others enough to try and serve them with those gifts, Lehi was almost killed. He abandoned his home, led his family to the wilderness, and was constantly receiving criticism from his sons. After receiving another vision and sending his sons out to Jerusalem, he got criticism from his wife. And honestly, I wonder if this was one of the hardest ones for Lehi to face. It can be particularly stinging when a spouse isn’t supporting you, especially when you have devoted your life and sacrificed everything to try and uplift your family. Sariah mocked him as a visionary man and mourned the loss of their sons. This could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Lehi could have easily felt justified in calling her out. He could have responded with the same scorn. He could have yelled at her and told her that he had lost everything too. He could have told her that he was trying to do what was best for their family by following the Lord, and he could have iterated that he didn’t appreciate her undermining him in this.
Rather, he loved her. He bore testimony to her. He took her biting words and sent them back in a loving manner. He didn’t have to do this. He could have felt as though he was in the right, and he could have gloated when their sons returned. But I wonder how his compassion affected her testimony in ways that the miraculous return of her sons could not.
Lehi was an incredible example of the Lord. He loved her at her worst. And because of his example, Sariah was one step closer to understanding the Lord. When difficult things came along in the future, she could trust that the Lord was making His choices because of His love for her not in spite of it. When Sariah faltered again (just like we all do), she could trust that He would lead her along through the rough patches despite the fact that she might not have deserved it.
I am so excited to be in The Book of Mormon this year. I testify of a Savior who loved people everywhere and led along one of the tribes of Israel to the Americas. I testify of a Savior who prepared the way perfectly for all of us, but also for each of us. Everything I’ve studied over the past few years and everything we get to study this year shows example after example after example of His awareness, power, and love.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives.
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Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.
Ben Spackman is a historian and scholar whose work spans Semitic languages, biblical studies, the history of science, and the history of Christianity—particularly the Reformation and modern American religion. He completed doctoral coursework in Comparative Semitics at the University of Chicago before earning his Ph.D. in American Religious History from Claremont Graduate University.
Jennifer Roach Lees holds a Master in Divinity as well as a Masters in Counseling Psychology. She is a licensed mental health therapist and lives in Utah.
Mike Parker is a business and marketing analyst with over twenty years’ experience in the financial services and cellular telephone industries. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management Information Systems from Dixie State University (now Utah Tech University) of St George, Utah. He also has eight years’ experience in corporate training and currently teaches an 
Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in April 2023. A former mission president, public affairs director, and trial attorney, he holds a law degree from Rutgers. Currently, he serves the Church with extensive experience in leadership, communication, and global outreach.
Daniel C. Peterson is the president of the Interpreter Foundation, which publishes the online periodical Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, produces books, convenes conferences, and sponsors a weekly radio program:
Junior Banza was born and raised in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. In October 1979, his parents joined the Church in Geneva, Switzerland, but they returned to the DR Congo soon afterward. Junior was baptized in June 1986 right after the Church was officially recognized there. As a young man, he began his full-time mission in the DR Congo Kinshasa mission and finished in Johannesburg, South Africa. Junior and his family live in West Jordan, Utah, where he works in the financial industry. He and his wife Annie are the parents of two daughters and a son. Department in efforts to encourage outreach and historical engagement.
Jeff Bradshaw is a vice president of the Interpreter Foundation and a Church service missionary for the Church History Department. See www.TempleThemes.net for his Church-related publications. Jeff and his wife, Kathleen, began to research and recount the stories of Church history in Africa during their first mission to the DR Congo in 2016. They have four children and sixteen grandchildren. Professionally, Jeff is a senior research scientist for the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (www.ihmc.us/groups/jbradshaw).
Brent Andrewsen practices at a regional law firm with offices throughout the Intermountain West. He is the chairman of Sutherland Institute Board of Directors, an independent research and educational institution and think tank, whose mission is to advance civility, sound ideas, and principled public policy supporting faith, family and free enterprise. Brent serves as the chairman of Skyline Research Institute and is the former chairman of the Board of Directors at Kirton McConkie. He has an AV Preeminent peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is recognized as one of Utah’s Legal Elite for estate planning, a Mountain States Super Lawyer for estate planning and non-profits, and a Best Lawyer for trusts/estates and non-profits/charities. He was also honored by Utah Business magazine as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star. Brent earned his B.A. in political science from BYU and a J.D. cum laude from the Washington & Lee University Law School.
Carl J. Cranney received a PhD in systematic theology at the Catholic University of America, where he specialized in theological anthropology and moral theology. He earned his MAR in philosophical theology and the philosophy of religion at Yale Divinity School and his BA in philosophy from Brigham Young University. His academic interests include interfaith dialogue, comparative theology, and the varied Christian approaches to the theology of marriage and family. As a stay-at-home dad, he tries to squeeze in co-hosting duties for the “Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree” podcast and teaching for BYU Pathway in his limited spare time. He lives in Springville, UT, with his wife Susan and their four children.
Zachary Wright was born in American Fork, UT. He served his mission speaking Spanish in North Carolina and the Dominican Republic. He currently attends BYU studying psychology, but loves writing, and studying LDS theology and history. His biggest desire is to help other people bring them closer to each other, and ultimately bring people closer to God.
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Dr. Jeffrey Thayne graduated from BYU with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in psychology. He completed his doctorate in Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. He spends time mentoring students at Brigham Young University-Idaho and writing about the intersection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and culture.
Ryan Sorensen is a native of Cache Valley, Utah. He earned his Bachelor’s degree at BYU-Idaho and is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity at Abilene Christian University, with plans to become a chaplain after graduation. Ryan previously hosted a podcast called The Whom Shall We Go? Podcast. In his spare time, he enjoys being involved in interfaith work, reading about Latter-day Saint theology and history, training for triathlons, and spending time with friends and family.
Debra Theobald McClendon, PhD is a licensed psychologist in the state of Utah and has interjurisdictional authorization to work with clients in most U.S. states. She specializes in treating those with scrupulosity, a religious and moral subtype of OCD. She is the owner of The OCD & Scrupulosity Clinic (ocdscrupulosityclinic.com) and is a member of the International OCD Foundation. She has been interviewed on podcasts, published articles, and published the book: “Freedom from Scrupulosity: Reclaiming Your Religious Experience from Anxiety and OCD.”
Brent J. Schmidt earned degrees in history and classics from the University of Utah and a Ph.D. in classics from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He teaches in the religion and humanities departments at BYU-Idaho. He specialized in Greek and Latin moralistic literature and he wrote and later published his dissertation on ancient utopian communities. He has published works on Biblical subjects including word studies about grace and faith. He is an author and editor of the BYU New Testament Commentary series. He enjoys reading, especially the Book of Mormon and Bible, gardening, collecting ancient coins, world travel, skiing and learning ancient and modern languages. For fifteen years now he has read at least one academic book a day. He and his wife, Judith, are the parents of one son.
Gerrit Dirkmaat is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD from the University of Colorado in 2010, where he studied nineteenth-century American expansionism and foreign relations. He worked as a historian and writer for the Church History Department from 2010 to 2014 with the Joseph Smith Papers Project. He is the coauthor, along with Michael Hubbard MacKay, of the award-winning book From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon, published by the BYU Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book in 2015. In 2023, they published another book on the topic: Let’s Talk About the Translation of the Book of Mormon. In addition to books, Gerrit is also the author of dozens of academic articles. He currently serves as the editor of the academic journal Latter-day Saint Historical Studies published by the Ensign Peak Foundation. Since 2021 he has hosted and produced a weekly Church history podcast: Standard of Truth. It examines Church history questions and sources. He and his wife, Angela, have four children.
Jennifer Roach earned a Master of Divinity from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and a Master of Counseling from Argosy University. Before her conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints she was an ordained minister in the Anglican church. Her own experience of sexual abuse from a pastor during her teen years led her to care deeply about issues of abuse in faith communities.
Mark Ashurst-McGee is a senior historian in the Church History Department and the senior research and review editor for the Joseph Smith Papers, where he also serves as a specialist in document analysis and documentary editing methodology. He holds a PhD in history from Arizona State University and has trained at the Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents. He has coedited several volumes of The Joseph Smith Papers and is also coeditor of Foundational Texts of Mormonism: Examining Major Early Sources (Oxford University Press, 2018). He is also the author of several articles on Joseph Smith and early Latter-day Saint history published in scholarly journals and popular venues.
Kerry received his B.S. from BYU in Psychology with a Hebrew minor. He received an M.A. in Ancient Near Eastern Studies from BYU and his Ph.D. from UCLA in Egyptology, where in his final year he was named the UCLA Affiliates Graduate Student of the Year. His first full time appointment was a joint position in Religion and History at BYU-Hawaii. He is the director of the BYU Egypt Excavation Project. He has been teaching about Isaiah for almost three decades, and has been teaching classes specifically on Isaiah for several years, and has written a verse-by-verse commentary on Isaiah. He and his wife, Julianne, are the parents of six children, and together they have lived in Jerusalem while Kerry has taught there on multiple occasions.
