Pony rides and family

As my daughter led her pony into the arena she stopped, gave him a big hug, then turned to me and asked “can we take red to the temple so he can be part of our family forever? Cause I love him!”  The tender expression from my little angle brought a tear to the eye and warmth to my heart.  As I watched her ride I could not help but fill overwhelming gratitude for my family and the blessing it is to know that through the grace of Jesus Christ we are an eternal family.  There is a power in family that we can find nowhere else on earth.  It is the building block for success in life and society.  For a long time it has been under attack.  The burden is now upon us to stop those who would destroy it.  If our country and civilization are to progress it must have traditional family as a cornerstone.

Life for the past few years has been challenging, especialy on the economic front.  Changes in the economy have affected all of us, and horse trainers have certainly not been exempt.  Several months ago we were in the process of a short sale on our home in town, almost all of our steady clients had not paid their bills and the month was coming to a close.  Just after coming in the house for the day and seeing an empty inbox, my sweet wife handed me a letter from the IRS saying we had underpaid in taxes two years ago and now owed them an additional 10,000.  As I walked to our bedroom I was done.  I had no more hope, was all prayed up, I was finished. Having forgotten something in my truck I walked to the edge of the stairs and looked back at my family.  Then running with her smile my little girl begged to walk with dad to his truck.  She crawled on my back and away we went.  She talked the whole way and although I don’t remember anything she said that little parasite on my back made all the difference in the world that day. I kept going.  Our house has sold, clients have caught up on past due amounts and the IRS issue was over a mix up on my social security number and my dad’s and neither one of us owed them anything. (I am grateful for a good CPA).  My family and our love is stronger than anything the world can throw at us. No matter how dark the day may seem there is a power in a loving family that shines bright when all other lights go out.  A power found nowhere else on earth.

In his studies and writing the evolutionist Darwin observed something interesting.  Family has been the basic building block from the time the Neanderthals picked up a club and drug around a woman.  Interesting the creationist see it the same way, the Lord just started with a couple named Adam and Eve.  From the dawn of man it’s been a man and a woman coming together to create life and make things like civilization grow.  There is a great story of a man who was told of a priceless treasure and given a key to unlock it.  Excited he hurried to the cave it was in and found a chest.  When he put his key in the chest unlocked but would not open.  As he sat in his sorrow a women came to the cave.  She had also been told of a great treasure.  When she put her key in the chest unlocked but would not open.  As she sat down next to the man they realized the chest had two key holes so they went together and at the same time put in their keys and unlocked the chest.  When it opened the gift of creating life was given to them.  It takes a man and a woman to come together to create life.  Two men or two women can love each other all they want but will never make a child.  Do we realize the sacred nature of this priceless gift?  Without man and women coming together creating life and providing a positive safe environment for children to grow in we cannot progress as a society.  Don’t listen to the “progressive people” on this one.  Marriage is ordained of God and nature, on this Jesus and Darwin agree.  Family is the foundation.

Shortly after mans mortal experience started on earth Evil came to one of Adam and Eves children.  That sly old serpent, who started the fall, would unleash his first attack on family when he convinced Cain to kill his brother.  He has not stopped his relentless efforts to destroy family ever since.  The methods have changed and remained the same.  Rotted in selfishness family is torn apart by abuse, adultery, envy, jealousy and so on.  Now those who fight against nature would also have it torn apart and the definition changed.  We must never sleep in our defense of its divine role in our lives and its effect on our world.  We are armed with a great weapon of love, with the virtues of patience, kindness, charity, longsuffering, meekness, humility, and most of all grace serving as arrows in our shaft.  Anything that attacks and destroys the sacred balance of family created by a man and woman, endowed from God, is Evil.  This must not be tolerated and we must use the good in the entire world to protect this sacred unit.  If we want to survive and have something immortal we must have family.  No matter what the end of our life brings if we leave a strong posterity we have immortality and eternal life in them just as our ancestors continue to live on in us.

Progress is an interesting thing; we look at it in phones that are hardly phones.  We drive it a hundred miles an hour in climate controlled leather seats.  Certain basic things make it all possible.  Without electricity we would have no phone you would not be reading this blog and your fridge would be some ice blocks down by the river.  Without family, without a man and a woman having come together you would not be.  It really is that plain. If we want to continue as a species, to have progress in society, we must have family. It takes a man and woman rearing offspring to the best of their ability complementing each other in divinely appointed roles.  If we allow the evil ideas of gender neutrality, homosexuality, and a myriad of other lies the outcome is guaranteed, we don’t live forever, there is no more us.  Just like there is no more computer if there is no more electricity.  I took my wife to a sacred place in Salt Lake to be married for time and all eternity because I know family is forever.  My little girl who is three understands that we take the things we love, that we want to have forever and we treat them special. We do this because they are special.  Nothing is more important than the work we do within the walls of our home, it echoes in eternity.  Family is power, family is the fundamental framework of our existence, and family is under attack.  We will progress only to the extent we embrace and continue traditional family. You can ride the pony to the Temple on that one.



**Temples for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints a.k.a. Mormons are holy buildings.  Here members participate in sacred ceremonies like marriages, which bind or seal a husband and wife for time and all eternity.  This practice is based on the biblical teaching that God has given authority to man to seal on earth and that sealing is valid in heaven. Along with the idea that what God has joined together man should not separate. ( see Matthew 16:19 and Mark 10:9 ) For more information on temples and the teaching of eternal families visit www.mormon.com