Here is my latest blog post for Come Follow Me

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2019/09/come-follow-me-galatians.html

Read there/comment here

Robert O’Brien was Catholic and joined the Church in his 20s. The Deseret News calls him the “highest ranking” member of the Church in the U.S. government.

As many readers know, Ezra Taft Benson was the Sect. of Agriculture in the 1950s. And there have been many Latter-day Saints in a myriad of other federal government positions.

O’Brien is close to Mitt Romney but unlike Romney is unique in praising Trump’s presidency. Some people call him a foreign policy “realist,” and other say he will be a hawk just like John Bolton, whom he replaced.

You can read more about O’Brien here.

Here is an analysis of O’Brien’s hawkish foreign policy philosophy.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have two thoughts battling in my brain at the same time. Thought one: traditional morality is in decline, and society is suffering because of it. The Proclamation has warned that attacks on the family will cause problems in society, and we are seeing this.

But then there is thought two, which is that many things in society are the best ever. Fewer people dying in wars. Desperate poverty is in decline worldwide. Most people live quite well, especially compared to past generations.

Readers may find this video interesting regarding thought two:

My blog post on Come Follow Me – 2 Corinthians 8-13

https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2019/09/come-follow-me-2-corinthians-8-13.html

Includes portion of the ancient text of Apocalypse of Paul

Read there, comment here

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “…God loveth a cheerful giver.”[ref]2 Cor. 9:7[/ref]

God loves all of us all the time. Yet when we don’t give or give grudgingly, God may not delight in us, though we be loved.

When it comes to giving cheerfully, I typically think of the person for whom I was named, St. Margaret. Margaret was Queen of Scotland, mother to eight children, and my ancestor[ref]According to the genealogies others have researched,[/ref]. Though St. Margaret lived nearly 1000 years ago, the deeds of her life were preserved by means of her daughter, who insisted that Margaret’s confessor create a written record by which the daughter could remember the mother she had not known well.

The life the confessor captured is an epitome of the giving Christian. Margaret would feed hundreds of orphans each day of the two Lenten periods she observed each year (before Easter and before Christmas). As Margaret visited the inhabitants of her country, she would give away all that she had. And she encouraged those around her to give similarly.

In Church today, one friend described how those actions we may see as sacrifices can later be seen as investments. By cheerfully giving and serving, we create a better world, both for ourselves and for those around us.

As King David wrote, The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof….[ref]Psalm 24:1[/ref] Everything we have is God’s, by that view. The only thing we have of ourselves is our free will. If we willingly, gladly, give to God and His children, then we have given the only gift we have to give.

Who are your examples, when you think of Paul’s admonition to give cheerfully?