I love science. In fact, it was my hunger
to understand the science and math in the scriptures that brought me to this
place. I attended a class in 1992 where the instructor told us that we could
teach our children every subject using the scriptures. It took me a few
years to digest the gravity of the statement, but when I got my bearings and
believed it to be true. I went about to prove this statement.
My journey was amazing. In the beginning I decided the best thing to
do was teach my children to read. I knew how to read and I believed that with
the help of the Lord I could achieve this goal. I read an article written by
Grant Von Harrison in the Oct 1994 Church news where he explained that there
were numerous studies done on the Book of Mormon showing that it was indeed the
best book to teach your children to read from. I put it to the
test. I taught both of my children to read using the Book of
Mormon. I didn't even have the tutorial by Brother Von Harrison.
The Lord held my hand as I went through this learning process with my
children. I have never regretted it. Why am I telling you this while this blog is about fasting? It was because I learned something about adhering to law through this process. Joseph Smith said The Book of Mormon was the most correct book on the earth and man would grow closer to God by abiding by it precepts than by any other book. I wanted to teach my children not only how to correctly identify letters, sounds, words, and to connect them together to a sentence, paragraph, and finally a chapter. I wanted to have my children learn the stories and then live the higher laws of the invitations given by the Lord himself to come unto Him. Beginning that journey to teach my children to read was a sacrifice for me every day. There were days my children were not interested in sitting by my side and going over the tedium of sounding out the letters and vowels, but it paid of big time later on. When my son was in the 4th grade, we had him tested for his learning abilities. He was really struggling with his writing skills. However, he tested at a reading level of a 16 year old. It was the difference of nearly a decade of learning. But that was what the findings said about using the Book of Mormon to read as a primer; the children would be 3 to 7 grades above their peers. Evidently following a law that was directly connected to seeking for greater light and knowledge had paid off with bigger dividends than I could have ever imagined.
Fasting is spoken about often in the Book of Mormon. People observed this practice and participated in it often. Nephi, Lehi, Jacob, Enos, Moroni and Mormon, as well as the brother of Jared were active participants in the practice. You can see it even if it isn’t said outright. You can tell that these people abided by this law. You might ask the question, “How can I tell they have been fasting?”
You can tell they have been fasting by the fruits of their lives.
God’s laws are the framework of the Universe. All physical laws are put into place to teach us of higher spiritual and heavenly laws. Lower laws are laws that people of the general populace participate in every day. We all participate in the law of gravity every day. We never skip a beat and acknowledge it as a law every day of our lives.
Did you know that the law of aerodynamics trumps the law of gravity? There are certain things that you can do once you are airborne that are not possible while still tied to the earth’s gravitational pull. And so it is with the law of the fast. You can receive higher blessings once you draw into your life more light.
The
law of the Fast is a law as real as the law of gravity. Ordinances are ways in
which the Lord teaches us how a law works.
The hands-on experience is the way in which humans learn most
comprehensively. The laws of God are
somewhat invisible to us because they are spiritual. The Lord provides ways to
teach us the operation of these laws. Every
one of God’s laws is just like gravity. They
are absolute. They are all functioning all the time, even when we do not
understand or even acknowledge them. All
laws have outward ordinances to participate in so that we can qualify for even
greater blessings. We read in D&C
130 20-21:
There is a law,
irrevocably decreed in heaven
before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings
are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing
from God, it is by obedience
to that law upon which it is predicated.
Observing ordinances is the vehicle that we can learn about the laws and adherence
to that law and the blessings involved in that law. All laws are in their specific order and progressive in nature. You recognize this in the pathway through the temple. Order is the key to the progression. No step is bypassed. The altar in Solomon’s temple is always before the Holy of Holies. The invitation is to become more Christlike with every step.
We learn something so significant about sacrifice through the fast when we realize that coming into the presence of Christ does not happen until we put all that is not holy on that altar. We sacrifice all that we are bound to on this earth, every single passion that is unholy, and every single possession we are drawn to. Anything that stands between us and God will go on that altar. We know that no unclean thing can enter into the presence of God. We also know that the Spirit does not dwell in unholy temples.
Evidently this practice and ordinance is integrally tied into the fast. Our desire to have Christ enter into our temples in a complete and whole way requires that we must relinquish our love of anything of this world. We come to realize that we have wickedness that is a part of our lives that we might not be able to identify. We have the burdens of the world; we are oppressed by the cares and foolish traditions of the world. No wonder the act of fasting brings the light of Christ into our lives in such a way that it can liberate us, it can show us our false beliefs, free us from addictions, and lift our heavy burdens.
If we want to adhere to higher laws, we must keep the lower laws first. We must, at every level, demonstrate the desire to have Christ in our lives be made manifest.
