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Making decisions, especially the important ones, can be challenge (it certainly is for me). Learning to make decisions with the Lord's help is a tremendous comfort, but how can we do it effectively. Is there a pattern? President Marion G. Romney shared his pattern for decision-making in the Lord's way in this manner"

1. From my youth I have searched the scriptures.
2. I have tried to honestly face the challenge or question presented with a sincere desire to solve it as Jesus would solve it.
3. I have, through diligent study and prayer, sought to weigh alternatives in light of what I knew about gospel principles.
4. I have made a decision in my own mind.
5. I have then taken the matter to the Lord, told him the problem, told him that I wanted to do what was right in his view, and asked him to give me peace of mind if I have made the right decision”1

What happens though, when we diligently study it out, beseech the Lord's guidance through prayer, and yet feel no firm answer come into our heart and mind?

President Benson said, "Usually the Lord gives us the overall objective to be accomplished and some guidelines to follow, but He expects us to work out most of the details and methods. The methods and procedures are usually developed through study and prayer and by living so that we can obtain and follow the promptings of the Spirit. Less spiritually advanced people, such as those in the days of Moses, had to be commanded in many things. Today those spiritually alert look at the objectives, check the guidelines laid down by the Lord and His prophets, and then prayerfully act—without having to be commanded 'in all things.' This attitude prepares men for godhood."3

President Brigham Young counseled, "I will now refer you to the scripture, where it reads that we shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. If I do not know the will of my Father, and what He requires of me in a certain transaction, if I ask Him to give me wisdom concerning any requirement in life, or in regard to my own course, or that of my friends, family, my children, or those that I preside over, and get no answer from Him, and then do the very best that my judgment will teach me, He is bound to own and honor that transaction, and He will do so to all intents and purposes."4

I know that the Lord gives us an opportunity to make "tough" decisions for our own growth and benefit and yet he will be there to guide and strengthen us in His own way. As we study it out, live the gospel, and seek his counsel diligently we can make decisions that will bless our lives.

In addition to the sources footnoted below, I've found the following talks to be instructive in regards to decision-making and prayer, please feel free to add additional references you have found helpful in the comments below.

• Lant, Cheryl,Prayer, Primary General President, at CES Fireside for Young Adults on Sept 9, 2007.
• Christensen, Clayton M., Decisions for Which I've Been Grateful at BYU-I Devotional on June 8, 2004.
• Walch, David, Joseph Smith Lecture - Devotional Address on March 21, 2002.
• Packer, Boyd K., Prayers and Answers, Ensign, Nov 1979, 19.
• Marsh, W. Jeffrey, Exercising Faith, retrieved on Feb 14, 2009.

1. 1. “What Would Jesus Do?” New Era, Sept. 1972, pp. 4–6.
2. 2. D&C 58:26.
3. 3. Conference Report , April 1965, p. 121 and online.
4. 4. Journal of Discourses 3:205 and online.

There are protect marriage amendments up for vote in at least two states that I'm aware of, California and Arizona. Opponents of these efforts often criticize the LDS church for supporting these measures. Unfortunately, in today's political and moral climate, standing up for one's beliefs is often mistaken for intolerance by those who do not share that belief. This post is not about whether or not the protect marriage amendments should pass, but rather addresses why a church (like the Mormon church) has a right to be involved in the process. The protect marriage amendments are not fundamentally about discriminating against people who are gay. Their primary purpose is to seek to recognize the institution of marriage as between one man and one woman in law such that a judiciary cannot arbitrarily redefine what marriage is. The amendments as they currently stand do not seek to restrict any of the civil rights already granted to gay couples (things such as hospital visitation rights and others). So why then even need a marriage amendment? Why not let gay individuals marry just as a man and a women can?

If marriage is redefined (as it currently has been in California) to be between two individuals (regardless of gender) then a gay couple has essentially the same legal standing as a traditional couple to adopt children. Setting aside religious beliefs about children and being raised with a mother and a father, this new legal definition of marriage has the potential to affect the ability of adoption services to define who could adopt children through their agency. As far as the LDS church is concerned, this could bring concern over the effect a redefinition of marriage might have on the LDS Family Services adoption program.

Another potential implication is the use of LDS temples as a place where a man and women can be married for time and all eternity and that is also recognized by the civil authorities. If marriage is redefined to include any individual marrying another regardless of gender, could there be implications about a government recognizing a marriage performed in and by a religious authority that "restricts" the people who can be married there to a man and a woman?

These are just some of the possible policy ramifications that this issue raises. Is it certain they will occur, of course not. But for a church who holds marriage between a man and a woman as a basic tenant of its belief, is it something they can just ignore and wish for the best. Regardless of whether you agree with this definition of marriage or not, hopefully this helps you understand the implications a church could see in recent judicial actions to redefine marriage and why they deserve to have a voice about the issue.

For more information on the issue you can see YES for marriage.

Cross posted to http://blog.hintonweb.com

I'm member of many different social networks (Classroom 2.0 on Ning, LinkedIN, Twitter, Facebook, and other communities like Drupal.org and Moodle.org among others). Social networks, like other mediums of media, are successful that more people view or participate in them. In large part they are judged successful by how capable they are of connecting you with people or things that you are interested in. Likewise, they tend to fail when they are unable to help you make those connections. One of the powerful new "technologies" is that ability of these social networks to suggest people, events, or other resources based on what it knows about you. I think this is a tremendously useful tool in helping us connect with things or people very easily. So why am I leaving Facebook - especially when I would maintain that it does or has helped me connect with people and things that I have an interest in (family, friends, people who share my interests, etc)?

The ultimate reason is that Facebook, in connecting me with my friends, family members, and other events and subjects I was interested in, also presented me with things that are horribly offensive to me. So offensive that those things completely outweigh the other things it was doing well leading me to the decision that the only choice I had was to choose to not participate. So I'll be closing my Facebook account (which I hear is not that easy to do actually). In the final judgement, Facebook failed me, it connected me to things that I didn't want exposure to often enough that it wasn't worth continuing my participation. My only question (which I'm going to Twitter and email to friends shortly) is how they put up with the exposure to pornographic images as they use Facebook - do they encounter them frequently? I would be doing unrelated things and then BAM! an add with a slew of pornographic images would appear on a sidebar. Once a event that was advertised in the Phoenix, AZ network had a very objectionable picture. I couldn't get it off my page until I changed networks, completely leaving the Phoenix, AZ network, even then the Phoenix, AZ network info (including the picture) didn't immediately disappear.

I'm not a novice to the Internet or social networks here. I realize that occasionally, no matter how skilled or wise an Internet user you are, that you may run into an image or two, in those cases you ignore it and just move away from the pages. I tried those things with Facebook, I even used Firefox's ability to block images from certain URLs and still ran into things that were objectionable. I wanted to use it, I really did. I think Facebook has value - but it simply wasn't worth it for the content I kept running into.

Allowing users to contribute content is a powerful new tool provided by the Internet today. Social networks success will depend on their how well they let users (and the social networks) select content that users want to see and avoid people and content that they don't. I have some ideas on how Facebook could get me back, which I think would hold true for many others as well. That post will have to wait until after work however...

Until then, for now, goodbye Facebook......

For Family Home Evening (FHE) last week we had a lesson on prayer with the kids. My wife Amber always comes up with creative ways to engage the kids in the lesson (with 3 kids 5 and under it makes FHE lessons a little exciting at times), but this time I was in charge of the lesson portion. As I thought how to help teach the kids about praying for more than just the same things and to reinforce the four parts of a typical prayer, the idea of using "Making PB&Js" came to mind as a potential object lesson for the four parts of prayer.

Now my kids love PB&Js (which kids don't) and, with the promise of a PB&J to eat, they stayed pretty focused, especially for one of my lessons. The two pieces of bread were the opening and closing of the prayer and the peanut butter and jelly were the asking and thanking parts of the prayer. I spread just a little of each and asked them if the PB&J would taste good (you can imagine their response!). So we talked about asking and thanking Heavenly Father for more things (as I spread more of the peanut butter and jelly on the pieces of bread).

It may sound hokey (and it probably is), but it turned out to be a lesson that we can refer back to as a reminder for our kids about meaningful prayer. Of course, all three of them enjoyed the sandwich as a closing "treat" to the lesson.