Coming Back

A wonderful part of the Good News! is that change is possible, coming back to the gospel is possible, being gathered in the arms of the Good Shepherd and carried back to the fold is possible. But more than possible, it is wonderful.

Those who have tasted of this mercy know of its joy and are eager to help others find their way back. With this in mind, the Savior gave three parables to help us know not only how to help others come back but when to do it. In Luke 15 Jesus first tells us of the shepherd of a hundred sheep who loses one. When the 99 are safely in the fold, the shepherd goes out to seek the lost one. We don’t know how the sheep was lost. Perhaps he wandered off intentionally or perhaps he just got distracted and before he realized it, everyone else was gone and he didn’t know where they were. Despite how it happened the shepherd, knowing he had stewardship for the flock, found the sheep and brought him back.

The second parable is about a woman who lost a coin. Now a coin has no volition and so in this case it is the caretaker’s fault that the coin is lost. So the woman, knowing she is at fault, works hard to reclaim the lost coin.

When we compare these parables to our own lives we see that sometimes a sheep in our flock is lost not for anything we have done but we have a responsibility to go out and bring them back. In the case of the coin sometimes we drive someone away by offending or perhaps a misunderstanding has taken place and again we have a responsibility to do all we can to mend the breach that has caused the person to be lost.

But in the last parable of the prodigal son, the father does not go after the son. In this case it is willful disobedience on the part of the lost son, and the father knows he can do nothing but wait and pray and hope for a change of heart that will bring his son home. But notice that instead of going into depression, or thinking himself deplorable, or becoming defensive by blaming others for the loss of his son, he waits hopefully and is watching for the return of the son so that when the son does return the father sees him a long way off and welcomes him. In other words, sometimes there is nothing we can do but pray and wait.

I Am A Creator of Good

In the beginning of the Bible we are told that we are created in the image of God. We are also told that God created us as well as this whole earth and everything in it. From this it is apparent that God is a creator, but there is a “hidden” message here.  If we are created in God’s image and God is a creator, we are creators. It is in our nature to be creators.

On the other hand the adversary is a destroyer. Everything he does is meant to tear down, destroy, abolish, and obliterate. 

Understanding this difference becomes very helpful when assessing our own lives and progress. At any point in a day we can determine who we are following by simply asking, “Am I creating or destroying?” If I find myself gossiping, I’m obliterating good thoughts others may have toward the person I'm gossiping about. If I find myself being critical, I’m tearing down. If I find myself getting angry, I’m destroying.

But if I find myself loving, or serving, or giving the benefit of the doubt, or finding the good in whatever is happening, I’m creating. I’m creating good. As children of God, it is intended that we be creators of good just as our Father in Heaven is.  The power to be creators has been given to us through the Atonement. We just have to choose to do it.

Knowing I have the power, right now I’m going to create a good day. How about you?

Stewards of Good

From our premortal home, you and I were sent to earth to promote all that is God’s. We are His children and like any child we are charged with protecting, promoting, and caring for all that belongs to the parents. This is only common sense. After all, what belongs to the parents will eventually become the child’s inheritance.

So what is God’s? All that is good. As the Genesis account of the creation reports, everything that God created He pronounced as good. And as Moroni tells us, “Every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God” (Moroni  7:13). 

In the gospel we call caring for what is God’s a “stewardship.” The word stewardship is an Old English word that literally means “keeper of the hall” and a steward is someone who maintains, cares for, and protects the hall or in other words the property that belongs to his master.

The exciting thing about this is that there is so much good for you and I to choose to promote. That means we all have the opportunity to choose which good delights us most. There is no way we can promote all good that there is. Instead it is our stewardship to choose any good things that we like or enjoy or delight in and then do all we can to promote and care for and use those things to promote more good.

As we keep a house clean, tend to the needs of God’s children, make music, paint beautiful pictures, bear testimony, plant a garden, lift someone with kind words, smile, care for animals, or do hundreds of other good things we are acting as God’s stewards by promoting good.

So as you go through your day today, take note of the many things you do that create more good, or promote what good already exists and while you are doing it think, “I’m God’s steward. I helping Him create good in the world!”