Read the instructions

Today is Christmas Day. Those of you with families know that the true meaning of Christmas is assembling, programming, and/or operating. :-) This morning my daughter was trying to figure out her new cell phone. She called out to me asking me how to activate a specific function. When I replied "Read the instructions", I was met, but not surprised, by a chorus of laughter from all my kids at the thought doing such a thing. I bet you're thinking the same thing right now.
It seems to be extremely common to want to bypass reading the instructions and just figure things out on our own. How much more wise would it be to read the instructions written by the creator of the item? How much more useful and fulfilling would the item be if thoroughly understood?
Deciding to go it on our own is always a risk. We know that instinctively. But the stakes vary. Putting together a $10 toy with 6 parts is low stakes. Assembling a $1000 workout machine, with lots of moving parts, is more likely to inspire one to read the instructions first.
We are all here trying to build ourselves into something that will more closely resemble our Heavenly Parents. There are lots of moving parts and sometimes it's hard to distinguish the right ones from the wrong ones. Failure brings an awful price. Father has provided us assembly instructions, if we'll take time to study them.
What will you do?

D.A.D.T still exists, but with a twist.

This week Congress repealed the 17 year old policy, Don't Ask Don't Tell. I have several concerns about this.
*I don't understand the necessity. Gays were already legally permitted to serve in the military. They were only prevented from making an issue of their sexuality. It seems to me that what Congress and Pres. Obama have really done, perhaps unwittingly, is to open the door for activist, in-your-face gays to begin stirring up strife from within. Does anyone believe that this tactic, or any other, would be beneath the anti-military left?
*At one time it was illegal for gays to serve at all. Any homosexual serving in the military, if discovered, could be discharged. Don't Ask Don't Tell seemed a good compromise, permitting gays that truly only wanted to serve to do so provided they didn't make a spectacle of their sexuality. But as is usually the case with liberal activists and movements, it still wasn't enough. They want the force of government to force people to accept their lifestyles. Anyone believing the movement will stop here is naive to say the least.
*Through this action our federal government has made the transition from tolerating the homosexual lifestyle, to endorsing it. For those of us that believe scripture, the biggest threat posed by homosexuality to our nation, particularly as it gains mainstream acceptance, is the potential it represents for bringing God's condemnation.
*Now that homosexuals have basically become a specifically protected class in the military, those that do believe in scripture and traditional values now become the ones that must remain silent about who they are.
I guess you could say that Don't Ask Don't tell is still the policy, but with a twist. It will now be illegal for military to be openly Christian.

What's in a name?

Last week, while driving on the freeway, I passed a billboard advertising The Nutcracker. Apparently there were only 7 performances left.
A few thoughts hit me.
The Nutcracker is a ballet.
It is a Christmas tradition.
It is often the only ballet that many people ever see.
Having never seen it (nor any other ballet) I began wondering how a performance, apparently about Christmas, came to have the name The Nutcracker.
I came to the conclusion that it got the name "The Nutcracker" because that is what has just happened at home to any husband/boyfriend that is attending his first ballet.