You Need to Watch This Excellent Talk on Families & Roles

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Category : Becoming, Divine Potential, Family, Temple, Video

I previously posted audio of an excellent talk by my Grandfather, J Ballard Washburn. I don’t recommend this talk just because he’s my Grandfather. I do it because he teaches excellent principles that I’m trying to implement and use in my marriage. And, to the extent that I have been able to do so, I can say “it works!”

Thanks to YouTube allowing longer videos, it’s now far easier for me to post videos like this. So now you can watch and see my cousin Jolene, her husband Jace, and their cute boy Jefferson (Grandpa calls him “Jefferey” for some reason, maybe he wrote it wrong in his notes).

Our (You & Your Sweetheart’s) Mission in Life

J Ballard Washburn – BYU-Idaho Devotional 9 Feb. 2010

Becoming Like God: Will, Conversion, & A Heart at Peace

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Category : Becoming, Divine Potential, Heart @ Peace, Jesus Christ, Leadership, Video

This is something I’ve wanted to write about for some time. I hope I can properly convey the power and importance of this, and somebody will find it helpful.

An Offering of Will

Previously, I wrote about how the “tithes and offerings” mentioned in Malachi have more to do with offering ourselves as an offering on the altars of the temple, than paying money to the Church. In Oct. Conference, 1995, Elder Neal A. Maxwell gave a watershed talk entitled Swallowed Up in the Will of the Father, wherein he thoroughly explained the concepts of personal sacrifice, consecration, and agency.

The basic teaching of the talk is that the only way we can truly become like Jesus and gain entry in the Celestial Kingdom, is to give our will to our Heavenly Father. When we pay tithing, there’s not much true sacrifice involved—at least not in the money itself—because we’re only giving the Lord something that is already His. However, His will (what he wants) is for us to give the 1/10th that he has asked. Thus, if we desire to pay tithing, because we know God wants us to, and we then pay it, we have exercised our agency to do His will. Because of agency our will is truly ours to give to the Lord, or to Satan. When we pay tithing—or do anything that the Lord want’s us to—because He wants us to, we are exercising our agency by choosing to do His will. Each of us individually must choose to follow Christ by submitting our will to the Father, by learning His will and acting according to it, or else we give our will to Satan by default.

Leading LDS Blog, Conversation with E. Bednar, & Updates

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Category : Leadership, Media & Internet, Mormon Life, Video

Leading LDS

There’s a new blog called Leading LDS that you can find at LeadingLDS.com. It’s similar to this blog in that the purpose is to help inspire, motivate, and correct wrong attitudes. Where this blog takes the approach of teaching correct doctrine and looking beyond the sunday-school answers, Leading LDS focuses on teaching correct leadership and moving beyond the easy “coasting through this calling” level of leadership in the church.

Conversation with Elder Bednar

One of the most recent posts is a video from the church’s HR department entitled “A Conversation on Leadership With Elder David A. Bednar.” Kurt, the author of the blog states that this video “is exactly what [his] site is about.” I’ve got to say, everyone should watch this video. So click one of the links, check out this awesome blog, and make sure you watch/listen to this fireside with Elder Bednar. I just can’t tell you how powerful and helpful it is for anyone who is, or ever will be in a leadership position, in—or outside—the church.

Mormon Life Hacker – Coming Soon

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Category : Misc, Mormon Life

I’m a fan of Tim Ferriss and websites like lifehacker. In fact, my wife will tell you “he’ll do anything that Tim Ferriss tells him to.” I counter that it’s not true because Tim’s main flaw is a fairly selfish bent and basis for a lot of what and why he does things. Besides, to do everything he recommends is impossible, since you’d spend way too much time on it, and not adhere to the fundamental premise behind his book: simplify life (including income flow) so that you can enjoy life your way, not the way somebody else dictates. The same goes for lifehacker.

However, I feel that this underlying message resonates with those of us who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We’ve been repeatedly told to simplify our lives and focus on the things that really matter. Thus for me, shortcuts, tips, tricks, and “lifehacks” that help me cut down on the garbage and focus on what’s most important, are a key part of becoming a better husband, father, ward member, home teacher, and the man Heavenly Father wants me to be.

I thought it would be great if somebody did a “Lifehacker for Mormons.” Part of the idea came from things like my information on how to pay your tithing online (which I posted as a page, instead of an article, because it didn’t seem to fit the purpose of this blog), or Travis’ great scripture study hack he called “spiritual cross-training” which helps keep daily study interesting and powerful. Since there are many very unique aspects of the way we live our lives, it would be great to have a place where people share their hacks for Mormon life.

A Saturday’s Journey to Gilgal

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Category : Ancient, Ceremony/Ordinances, Images, Joseph Smith, Old Testament, Sacred Places

img_0716 Just over a 2 weeks ago, we visited a site in downtown Salt Lake that I’ve been wanting to see ever since I first stumbled across some information on it, on the internet.

Its called the Gilgal Garden, and is located at 749 E 500 S, Salt Lake City, UT. The gardens were built by Thomas Child, who worked on it throughout his life. He named the place after the location where Joshua had the Israelites take 12 stones and place them together as part of a covenant and memorial, after crossing the Jordan river on dry land. Bro. Child was sculptor and put his own interpretations of scriptures, into stone. The piece for which he named the garden, features 12 stones in a circle, with an etching of “The Captain of the Lord’s Host” standing at the head. Because it was basically his backyard, the garden is somewhat secluded and hidden. You can read more about the garden at Wikipedia, or I have uploaded a scan of the walk-through self-tour guide.

Our Mission in Life – J Ballard Washburn (updated)

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Category : Audio, Ceremony/Ordinances, Family, Jesus Christ, Temple, Video

My Grandfather, J Ballard Washburn, gave the devotional at BYU-Idaho this past Tues., the 9th of Feb. 2010. He entitled his talk “Our Mission In Life” with the “Our” referring to each of us, as a married couple, or individuals when we find our eternal companion, or “You and Your Sweetheart” as he parenthetically put it in the title.

Personally I really enjoyed the talk. He made some powerful points about putting one’s wife above himself, and the Lord above everything. He used two examples from his own life that he said he was ashamed to share, because they were bad examples, but that we can learn from them.

1st Anniversary Report

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Category : Christmas, Website Updates

1st-anniversary-reportJust over a year ago, I posted my second post on Sacred Symbolic. Anyone can post once, so I consider the 2nd post the proof that I was serious about my new project of trying to write up various restored gospel truths, as I studied them, found them, etc.

Its been a great year, and I’ve seen tons of changes in my own life. This blog has meant a lot to me, as you–those who read–give comments and feedback. It has kept me thinking, studying, and praying about doctrines of the gospel, in times when I might otherwise have given little time to such matters, because of the press of less spiritual–but often more loudly demanding–challenges of everyday life. For that I thank all who read.

Elder Oaks says religious freedom is under fire & other news

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Category : Media & Internet, Politics, Uncategorized, Video

Many of you may have heard about Elder Oak’s recent BYU-Idaho devotional address. I just wanted to collect some of the information here for you to read/listen to/watch. Its an important message at an important time.

First, read the full text of the talk at LDS.org, or download the MP3 at BYU-I’s devotionals archive.

Second, here’s an article the Church posted about it, along with the following Q&A video with Elder Oaks, about the talk:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Old Testament Video Resources

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Category : Images, Media & Internet, Misc, Old Testament, Video

Some of you probably know because you know me, or have noticed by my video and other media posts: I am kinda an amateur dabbler in video production and film making.

So I was excited when I noticed that the church announced a new DVD set as a resource for teaching Old Testament in the upcoming year. There are 56 videos in the set, many of which are new, or have never been available for purchase previously. There are also many, many other visual resources. From the preview video, they look like great quality reenactments of Old Testament stories. The reenactments either include, or other resources have, life-like renderings of the Tabernacle, Temple at Jerusalem and other stuff that can seem very distant until you see video that looks very real, as if peaking into the past. I’m excited to see all this new stuff, and see if it aides teachers in real Sunday School teaching situations.

You can watch the preview video they made here:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

If you’re interested in how technology like this can help advance the purposes of the church, Bryce Haymond at TempleStudy.com posted, and started a Google Wave, about about using Google Wave to advance the purposes of the church.

Updates, Fixes, More

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Category : Misc, Video, Website Updates

I just wanted to give a quick update on some things.

First, this is still the right place. I changed the skin/theme to one that I felt was more professional and less busy. The old one had that cool “ancient scrolls and scripture” feel, but I just didn’t like it as much as I wanted to. This new theme is much better on the eyes and more functional. Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Elder J Ballard WashburnSecond, I fixed the video in the Political Iconography post. Seems it wasn’t working, and that’s probably why nobody commented on that post. Still, an interesting video, and it should be working now. There’s a link below it to Youtube, in case its not.

Third, I have begun updating the J Ballard Washburn page, under resources (at the top). The first major update is a talk that he told me was “the best talk [he'd] ever given,” though he couldn’t remember giving it. I’ve posted the video on that page, and you can download an MP3 of it there as well. I’ll add more soon.