Higher Ground

Dear Family

   This week's message is about placing ourselves in a better position to execute the many challenges in our lives. In one of the Star Wars movies young Anakin Skywalker had been dupped into believing that moving to the dark side was good for him. In a scean Anakin was battling Ben Kenobi in a lava flow. Ben and Annican, a one point ended on stable soil with Ben higher ground. Ben warned Anakin that he had a better position and pleaded with him to stop fighting. Ben won this confrontation. In our recent trip to France at the beaches of Normandy the German Army had high ground and had fortified their position on the beach front. I am sure that German army believed they had high ground. What the German armies did not have that Ben Kenobi did have, was fighting for the greater good. 

  Standing on solid ground and the positive influence of the Holy Ghost gives you the greatest advantages and opportunities in every situation your seeking betterment in. God will champion you as seek to know and understand Christ and his Atonement. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to find the fullness of these blessings. 

I Love you all and I pray for you. 

DaD

Run to Higher Ground

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord.

—D&C 87:8

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, creating a deadly tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people. It was a terrible tragedy. In one day, millions of lives were forever changed.

But there was one group of people who, although their village was destroyed, did not suffer a single casualty.

The reason?

They knew a tsunami was coming.

The Moken people live in villages on islands off the coast of Thailand and Burma (Myanmar). A society of fishermen, their lives depend on the sea. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, their ancestors have studied the ocean, and they have passed their knowledge down from father to son.

One thing in particular they were careful to teach was what to do when the ocean receded. According to their traditions, when that happened, the “Laboon”—a wave that eats people—would arrive soon after.

When the elders of the village saw the dreaded signs, they shouted to everyone to run to high ground.

Not everyone listened.

One elderly fisherman said, “None of the kids believed me.” In fact, his own daughter called him a liar. But the old fisherman would not relent until all had left the village and climbed to higher ground.

The Moken people were fortunate in that they had someone with conviction who warned them of what would follow. The villagers were fortunate because they listened. Had they not, they may have perished.

The prophet Nephi wrote about the great disaster of his day, the destruction of Jerusalem. “As one generation hath been destroyed among the Jews because of iniquity,” he said, “even so have they been destroyed from generation to generation according to their iniquities; and never hath any of them been destroyed save it were foretold them by the prophets of the Lord” (2 Nephi 25:9).

Since the days of Adam, the Lord has spoken to His prophets, and while His message differs according to the specific needs of the time, there is one consistent, never-changing theme: Depart from iniquity and journey to higher ground.

It is better to look up - Life experiences shared from the pulpit