Thursday, July 14, 2011

Opening the Aperture a Little More





[Journal entry dated July 14, 2011]


I had a wonderful talk with [my brother] Ben last night into the early hours of the morning.  We discussed much of the character of God and how we can more fully exercise faith in Him.  We talked about the ability that we are given to view people in a "more-than-now" type of sense.  There is this spiritual and mental capacity that is gifted from God to see people in an eternal context.  The mind opens up and lets the past as well as the future start to paint our view of others.  It paints a clearer picture.

We also talked about how the desire for sin decreases as our spiritual aperture opens up and our lens widens.  When we can see ourselves and life in a greater plain and more eternally, the thought of sin seems ridiculous, for we realize our divine destiny and potential--who we really ARE.  The path to get there becomes much more clear.  When we act out of emotion or because of the present circumstance only, we are viewing life, ourselves, and others out of focus, with less light and perspective.

Mosiah 1:5-7 helps to show us how we can remember that eternal perspective, widen our lens, and let in more light.  If we keep the His words constantly before our eyes, we are reminded of our divine potential.  So, not only physically before us, but also figuratively before us.  Our thoughts should begin to assume the role of scripture.  In other words, we should begin to view life through the words of Christ.  As we do, we will understand what we are to do everyday.

I'm grateful for the Truth that has been restored through Joseph Smith.  The fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ that he primitively established on earth has been restored once again and allows us all to see life through the lens of God, of our loving Father in Heaven.  We can learn to see as He and our Savior sees, which is the only true, clear, and correct vision.


[As pointed out by a reader, there are some technical inaccuracies in my analogy that I'll fix later when I have the chance.  So, don't use this analogy as a source of accurate information regarding photography fundamentals.  I'm definitely new to this field.]