Sunday’s meeting was quite awesome. Our bishop tackled the sensitive subject of following the counsel of the prophet. He started off sharing one incident in Church history in which the saints were being persecuted and how the division that exists today was alive back then. I notice that during my studies how often our own lives parallel with the saints. In a way we are “marching” to our own “Zion’s Camp” (here) as we struggle to do the right thing and shed our pride or judgment.
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| https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/3- little-known-details-about-zions-camp?lang=eng |
We have our free agency to follow the prophet or follow the crowd. But I often feel that the “free agency” abused by others infringes on my own. I remember airlines, restaurants, hospitals and other places who offered smoking sections – as if the smoke is seriously going to linger only in those sections. Come on! I happen to be allergic to cigarette smoke. Lighting up from two to ten feet away from my nose is the same as blowing it directly into my nostrils.
Eventually workers who came in contact
with the second hand smoke started to experience health problems that were
similar to the smokers. So the smokers
had their “freedoms” for a time, but eventually they were
taken away. Some places offer smoking
sections but it seems like the majority of buildings (at least in the western
states)have a no-smoking-anywhere-in-the-building policy. Not only does the smoker have to go outdoors
but are required to remain a certain distance from the building and only on a
certain side.
I can’t speak for everybody, but I enjoy the
quality of non-polluted air. I can
breathe a lot freer in a building that doesn’t have that stench lingering. I can’t even smell it when I am around it, but
my body still reacts negatively when it does happen to linger in my
presence. So yesterday we were
infringing on the rights of the smoker vs. the non-smoker. Today’s issues are mask and no mask and the
vaccination. It’s a trial that each of us is dealing
with. Are you going to stand up to
President Nelson or Joseph Smith or God?
Are you going to say they got it wrong and you know better?
I’m certain that it was not an easy talk to
give. I hope all those who were present
(even those who attended virtually) were able to feel the same spirit that I
did.
