“My Burden Is Light”

1. “My Burden Is Light”

2. Slides Will Be Available Between9/22-9/29 athttp://johnhiltoniii.com/slides

3. Recommended Reading (or listening – http://audible.com)

4. I’m not very handy

5. Building a Swing Set

6. Ether 12:27 Notice how Ether 12:23-25 give us some really important context for Ether 12:27.

7. Comparison tends to look whatis or isn’t and wish that it were something else. Peace through perspective looks at what is or isn’t, and is grateful for both what it is and is not. Choosing perspective over comparing is a secret to peace.

8. Comparison or Peace through Perspective?

9. Comparison or Peace through Perspective?

10. Comparison tends to look whatis or isn’t and wish that it were something else. Peace through perspective looks at what is or isn’t, and is grateful for both what it is and is not. Choosing perspective over comparing is a secret to peace.

11. “Whatever we get soon seems our natural right, not a gift. And we forget the giver. Then our gaze shifts from what we have been given to what we don’t have yet.” Ensign, November 1989 President Henry B. Eyring

12. If we’re not careful, yesterday’s hopes become today’s blessings, and then turn into tomorrow’s entitlements. In other words, we soon come to expect things for which we were once incredibly grateful.

13. I was on an airplane and there was internet – high speed internet on the airplane! I'm sitting on the plane and…I'm watching YouTube clips – it's amazing. Then it breaks down and they apologize the internet is not working and the guy next to me [got angry.] How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago....

14. Flying is the worst… because people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it's like a horror story. They're like it was the worst day of my life. First of all we didn't board for 20 minutes and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air incredibly like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight?

15. Wow, you're flying! It's amazing! Everybody on every plane should just constantly be [overjoyed], wow you're flying, you're, you're sitting in a chair in the sky… Here's the thing. People like to say there's delays on flights – really? New York to California in 5 hours. That used to take 30 years to do that! And a bunch of you would die on the way there, and have babies... you'd be a whole different group of people by the time you got there. - Louis C.K.

16. According to noted Harvard psychologist Shawn Achor, it only takes two minutes each day for to “rewire your brain, allowing your brain to actually work more optimistically and more successfully.” https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en.

17. The secret is to, for 21 days in a row, write down three things you’re grateful for at the end of each day – three new things each day. If you do this, Achor says, your “brain starts to retain a pattern of scanning the world not for the negative, but for the positive first.” https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work?language=en.

18. What stage are you at when it comes to shifting from comparing to perspective? Unconsciously Unable Consciously Unable Consciously Able Unconsciously Able  

19. A hole (Dangerous!)

20. A Fence (To Protect From the Hole) A Hole (Dangerous!)

21. A Fence Around the Law In addition to the written laws given to Moses, Moses received “The [oral] Law from Sinai and committed it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders…They said…make a fence around the Law.” The Law From the Mishnah (collection of Jewish writings, circa 200 AD)

22. “The Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses.” I just made out with cass lol Josephus, Antiquities 13.10.6 (§297) “Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?” Josephus Jewish Historian 37-100 A.D. Matthew 15:1-2 “Tradition of the elders / fathers” = Oral Law Pharisees believed in both the Written Law of Moses and an Oral Law of Moses

23. A Fence Around the Law Honor the Sabbath Day Don’t spit on dirt, Don’t start or put out fires, etc.

24. A Fence Around the Law Live the Law of Chastity Before marriage: Don’t kiss for more than 3 seconds, don’t go in the bedroom of a member of the opposite sex, After marriage: don’t be alone with members of the opposite sex

25. The Pharisees: Oral Law and Ancestral Tradition Challenges Start focusing on/teaching the fence instead of the law. Become burdened with too many laws. Start judging others based on the fence laws. Benefit Protected from sliding into sin. Written Law of Moses Revealed at Sinai (Genesis–Deuteronomy) Written Law of Moses Revealed at Sinai (Genesis–Deuteronomy) Fence around the Law

26. Six Keys With Fence Laws • Have Spirit-driven fence laws • Lighten your heavy yoke. • Focus on the mark, not the fence • Focus on the core, not the fence when teaching others • Don’t judge others on fence laws • Follow the prophet

27. A Fence Around the Law What fence laws do you have? Sin Inspired fence laws can come from the Holy Ghost, from prophets and from our observations of others.

28. Six Keys With Fence Laws • Have Spirit-driven fence laws • Lighten your heavy yoke. • Focus on the mark, not the fence • Focus on the core, not the fence when teaching others • Don’t judge others on fence laws • Follow the prophet

30. President Dieter F. UchtdorfEnsign, November 2009. Keeping the commandments “may present a problem for some because there are so many ‘shoulds’ and ‘should nots’ that merely keeping track of them can be a challenge. Sometimes, well-meaning amplifications of divine principles—many coming from uninspired sources—complicate matters further, diluting the purity of divine truth with man-made addenda. One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation.”

31. One woman said, “If I follow everything that has ever been suggested as something I should do, I’m going to break!” For her (and for many others), trying to live to the letter of every fence law that has ever been suggested is overwhelming. In some cases these fence laws could be good ideas of things to do to invite the Spirit into our lives, but when collectively considered become demoralizing because of the feeling that we cannot do it all.

32. “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat…they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matthew 23:2,4) “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30) ** Collectively, the Pharisees’ fence laws were anciently known as the “yoke of the law.”

33. “The apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them…Why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Acts 15:6-7, 10

34. A Tough Question: Do we as local leaders / teachers ever create a “yoke” for those we serve? • “I’ve been in meetings where we were strongly cautioned against overusing the word ‘awesome.’ In a different meeting we were counseled not to chew gum in church.” • Scripture study goals • Ward goals • Increasing temple attendance

35. President Dieter F. UchtdorfEnsign, November 2009. “One person’s good idea—something that may work for him or her—takes root and becomes an expectation.”

36. Six Keys With Fence Laws • Have Spirit-driven fence laws • Lighten your heavy yoke. • Focus on the mark, not the fence • Focus on the core, not the fence when teaching others • Don’t judge others on fence laws • Follow the prophet

37. Pharisees: “Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands?” (Mark 7:5). Christ: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother…But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is…a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” Mark 7:9–13

38. Am I focused on the mark or the fence?

39. The Savior seemed to look for opportunities to violate Pharisaical fence laws around Sabbath worship. For example, when he healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, he specifically told the man to “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:8), an action prohibited by a fence law. Rather than praise God for this miraculous healing, the Pharisees criticized the man, saying, “It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed” (John 5:10).

40. On another occasion, Christ encountered a man who had been blind from birth. To heal the man, Christ, “spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay” (John 9:6). Making clay out of spit and dirt on the sabbath, was of course, strictly prohibited under one of the Pharisaical fence laws (Note that Christ clearly possessed the power to heal a blind man without kneading dirt and spit together). When the Pharisees heard of the healing, some of them said, “This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day” (John 9:16). Think of it! In the face of an absolute miracle, they were preoccupied by a technical violation of a fence law.

41. What are the weightier matters? • “Master, thou hast said the truth…To love [God] with all the heart…and to love his neighbouras himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32-33). • “When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34).

42. Six Keys With Fence Laws • Have Spirit-driven fence laws • Lighten your heavy yoke. • Focus on the mark, not the fence • Focus on the core, not the fence when teaching others • Don’t judge others on fence laws • Follow the prophet

44. A Fence Around the Law Receive the Holy Ghost No PG-13 Movies

46. Elder David A. BednarIncrease in Learning “Applications, such as…items on the lengthy "to do" lists of many members, tend to receive disproportionate and excessive attention. I…am not suggesting that applications should never be studied, learned, or taught. Appropriate applications are necessary but can never stand alone. What is needed is a balance among doctrines, principles, and applications. And for many conscientious and diligent members, a serious imbalance exists.”

47. Six Keys With Fence Laws • Have Spirit-driven fence laws • Lighten your heavy yoke. • Focus on the mark, not the fence • Focus on the core, not the fence when teaching others • Don’t judge others on fence laws • Follow the prophet

49. Denise’s daughter Jennifer was asked to prom – the problem was that Jennifer turned sixteen four days after Prom. Denise told Jennifer that she could decide for herself if she went. After some deliberation, Jennifer decided to go to Prom. A few days later, the boy who had invited Jennifer to Prom asked her, “How old are you?” Jennifer explained that she was fifteen but that she would be turning sixteen four days after prom. The young man promptly uninvited her from the dance.

50. Matthew 7:3-5New Living Translation Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own?How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.