Righteousness and Blessings

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by Tex

No, I don't feel baited.

We're dealing with two questions:

1. Do 100% of blessings come 100% from obedience? Though I recognize how it reads, I'm not sure it's intended to be interpreted as a quid pro quo. We are taught by Benjamin that if anything, we are overpaid for our righteous acts.

Now this gets a little dicey, because some folks have the El Paso Coug experience, where no matter how hard they try, they feel God has it in for them. I know many older singles who have tried to live righteous lives, have righteous desires to be married and a family, and cannot obtain that blessing. And it's a serious trial of faith.

Others have financial difficulties. Others have health problems. I have a friend of the family who was in a small plane crash recently and survived, but is still in the hospital and very much injured. Are these blessings in disguise? Maybe. Hardly.

I think we have to recognize that obedience to the gospel has it's own rewards, despite the type II and type III trials (see below) we experience. Happiness can be found in the most dire of circumstances by holding fast to its principles. Wickedness (type I, see below) has it's own "reward."

And for those who are "blessed" with good health, happy family life, and temporal wealth, it is further incumbent upon them to redouble their effort toward the gospel, to "bless" the lives of those who don't.

2. Does it therefore follow that trials are a result of disobedience? No. Elder Maxwell taught there were at least 3 forms of suffering: (1) trials brought on by own our disobedience, (2) trials existing as a part of mortal probation, and (3) specific trials deliberately perpetrated/permitted by a loving God with the intent to tutor us.

Take the man blind from birth. "Who did sin, this man or his parents?" Neither, right? What about Job? The realm of trials and their sources is in my opinion an entirely separate question from the realm of blessings.

Well, that's a reasonable approach and I can't see anything in there with which I would disagree. But I don't think it is logically consistent with a literal reading of the D&C scripture.

Oh well. Chalk it up as a mystery I suppose.