Fear Not

Is it going to destroy your life if you drink a cup of coffee?  What if you have sex outside of marriage?  How about if you don’t eat meat sparingly and fruits and vegetables in the season thereof?

We think the more that we oppose something, talk about how bad something is, create and perpetuate fear around it, the more we will be able to keep people, including ourselves, from doing it. 

So, we often tell stories of designed to highlight the absolute worst thing that could happen to a person should they engage in a particular behavior that is contrary to the gospel.  

When it comes to things like pornography, modesty, alcohol, or really anything we are striving to keep our kids and family members away from.  

We tell the stories of the one person we know who did, you name the sin, and lost everything.  

So to help us stop doing that we are going to tap into 2 timothy ch1 v 7 to talk about how we can stop stigmatizing what we find morally wrong and start living more fully within the gospel that heavenly Father has given us. 

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of ^afear; but of ^bpower, and of ^clove, and of a sound mind.

Let’s start with power. 

I personally interpret this as agency.  We have the power to chose what it is that we feel is right.  Oftentimes, the fear side of things tells us that we are addicted, trapped, stuck.  When we talk about our struggles this way we disempower ourselves and others.  

To take back power, we must accept our agency.  Take responsibility for our choices.  Stop saying “can’t” should, shouldn’t.  

Let’s move to love

Charity and love go hand in hand, but they also are complimented by empathy and understanding. 

I’ve yet to meet anyone who didn’t prefer love to a story of doom and gloom about their behavior. 

Just because we don’t agree with a behavior, doesn’t mean that telling horror stories is going to keep people from doing it. 

Last – sound mind. 

This is probably one of my favorite things within the gospel and often it gets short changed because we like hearing dramatic stories of revelations and hero stories of great triumph. 

But a sound mind, to me means that we just need to use our brains and the logic and gospel principles that God has given us.  

We can figure things out.  we are pretty smart.  

The brother of jared comes to mind. He was sent back to come up with a solution.  Only the parts we aren’t able to do, like lighting the stones, are where the lord wants to intervene because he wants us to grow. 

Shame cannot survive being spoken, it cannot survive empathy,  brene brown.