My appeal in this message is that we control our tongues, and by speaking kind words to each other emulate in our relationships with each other the loving kindness the Lord has for his people

It’s interesting because, in this day of civility there seems to be anything but. So I thought it might be a great opportunity to talk about love and kindness.

With the mass devastation that has happened in Japan, and in other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, there are so many who are in need of love and kindness. But there is more than that. I am of the opinion that it is much easier to spread our love to foreign people when we are not directly involved, and this isn’t a rub on anyone – just an opinion. But it seems harder when it’s within arms length.  In the Bible, Luke says:

“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:35–36.)

Which are great words to try and live by – I know I struggle through the day to day grind of dealing with people who seem to have no idea how to operate through simple instructions with a myriad of questions (for the unknowing I’m a web developer, and build lots of corporate applications) , then I get home and I’m bombarded with the daily issues of life; busted wash machine, busted tooth, busted cat, reading current events, etc. So I’m pretty frazzled by the end.

Again referring back to the article above, Marion G. Romney points out when Paul was speaking to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4):

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Gives me pause, and gives me new found energy to try and do better. I know, we’re taught from the get go to love one another – but sometimes you forget. My wife, is always striving to better herself ran across some information about an interesting experiment.

If I said Emoto Masaru, would you know where I’m going, or would you already be google-ing it to try and figure out what it is? It’s okay, when my wife first said his name I had no idea who he was either.

The quick explanation if you haven’t already hit up Wikipedia is this:

Masaru Emoto (?? ? Emoto Masaru^?, born July 22, 1943) is a Japanese author and entrepreneur known for his claim that if human speech or thoughts are directed at water droplets before they are frozen, images of the resulting water crystals will be “beautiful” or “ugly” depending upon whether the words or thoughts were positive or negative. Emoto claims this can be achieved through prayer, music or by attaching written words to a container of water.

Since we don’t have access to all his equipment, we thought we’d try it with rice. Basically we’ve put cooked rice into two glass containers – one we speak kind words to and the other we speak harsh words to. The results are interesting to say the least.

We love one jar of rice, not the other...

I don’t know if you can see the difference here, but one jar is different – can you tell which jar of rice we spoke harsh words to? Alright, if you can see it’s the right side. The left side still looks edible (it’s brown rice to begin with). You can try this at home too.

But, and this is the question you can apply to yourself and the people around you,  if rice looks like this after a week – how do the people you speak unkind words to feel inside? How does it effect them in the long run? The Lord has some words concerning that, and it’s something you might want to consider. I know I need to work on it…

26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. (James 1:24)

It’s my testimony, that if we can internalize the love that the Lord has for us then it will become part of our countenance. I know it can work, I know people that are so loving and forgiving that they epitomize the Lords love. As a parent this is where I learn how to be like God. I’ve always maintained that I love my kids no matter what they do. While it can be hard sometimes, and I sometimes get caught up in things I see that remind me what I don’t like about myself in my children – the words I choose to use can have a lasting effect on them.

So to wrap this all up I think Marion G. Romney says it best:

Let us, therefore, resolve to control our tongues and by speaking kind words to each other emulate the loving kindness of our Lord.

Respect Others

I was cooking dinner the other night, and I decided to listen to the Mormon Channel to try and recoup the spirit in our house. At the time, it was a talk portion called “Standing Up” and this episode was on “civility”. As the show progressed, I thought it might make for a good Topical Guide installment. While I didn’t find “civility” in the topical guide, I did fine the next best thing, “respect”.

I didn’t get to catch the entire show, but it started out by talking about what things have gone missing [in some] in our daily lives. Specifically speaking about what “reality tv” shows are presenting to those watching. They spoke about the anger and backbiting, and other awful behavior they present as everyday life.

Recently, we’ve had to move to the Salt Lake valley – in that move we picked up a broader cable package because there was a deal – but it’s been less then a blessing. There’s too many channels and a lot of them are just garbage, at any rate it’s left me with a lot of flipping around and no shortage of reality shows on. The promotion of disrespect is painfully oblivious, and makes me sick. They group people who will have issues, and then pray on these issues to create the conflict. I’m not actually sure why people need to watch others conflict when I’m sure they have their own, or is there something deeper that needs to be quenched by all the fighting and disrespect? Alright, enough of that diatribe – let’s move on…

I am in love with using an online edition of a very specific dictionary, it puts things in better perspective when it comes to the scriptures, and this countries greatest document the Constitution. It is the 1828 Noah Websters dictionary. But I wanted to look up both words, civility and respect to see what they mean at that time period.

CIVILITY, n.

1. The state of being civilized; refinement of manners; applied to nations; as distinguished from the rudeness of barbarous nations.

2. Good breeding; politeness; complaisance; courtesy; decorum of behavior in the treatment of others, accompanied with kind offices, and attention to their wants and desires. Civility respects manners or external deportment, and in the plural, civilities denote acts of politeness.

RESPECT’, v.t. [L. respecto, or respectus, from respicio; re and specio, to view.]

1. To regard; to have regard to in design or purpose.

In orchards and gardens, we do not so much respect beauty, as variety of ground for fruits, trees and herbs.

2. To have regard to, in relation or connection; to relate to. The treaty particularly respects our commerce.

3. To view or consider with some degree of reverence; to esteem as possessed of real worth.

I always loved and respected Sir William.

4. To look towards.

Palladius adviseth the front of his house should so respect the south. [Not in use.]

To respect the person, to suffer the opinion or judgment to be influenced or biased by a regard to the outward circumstances of a person, to the prejudice of right and equity.

Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor. Lev. 19.

Neither doth God respect any person. 2Sam. 14.

I also want to mention another aspect of respect, this is personal respect. The trend, and this goes beyond my meager  life – but it seems progressionary. People have been loosing respect for themselves and it’s getting worse every year.

I have to say, my kids are pretty neat – at their ages they already understand modesty. So it’s rather annoying when we go out shopping all the filth they are witness too. The half naked women, the swearing, etc that people are so proudly displaying as if a badge of honor. We try to teach our kids that going outside the house we are to look respectable and that we use proper language. Now I don’t know everyone’s circumstances but in my mind it’s merely a choice, nothing else on how they behave, or dress. Skimpy clothes do not cost less then modest clothes and choosing what to say is free.

I guess my question, or better yet my reasoning behind talking about respect and civility is that I’ve noticed a big lack of it, and yes Im guilty of it too – but I want to be better then that. I believe to some degree, some of our current social ailments are attributable to the definite lack of respect and civility.

So let’s see what kind of difference we can make by adding some extra respect and civility to our lives.