The Most Important Things

Although I am not a parent, I've recently thought about the responsibility of raising children. In my personal scripture study, I've taken to thinking about the ways in which I could teach what I'm reading to my future children. What would I want them to know? How could I explain it to them? So today, I just wanted to ask that question: What do you think are the most important (religious) concepts/principles to instill in a family?

I'm still thinking about it, but the beginnings of my list are as follows: 

1. The love, mercy and grace of God 

2. The Atonement (which is certainly related to 1)

3. The story of the life of Christ

4. The story of the fall of Adam

5. Divine revelation (personal, prophetic, scriptural, etc.)

What do you think?

God's immediate and eventual goodness

This week, I was struck by a phrase in the Book of Mormon: "the immediate goodness of God" (Mosiah 25:10). For whatever reason, that really jumped out to me and I've thought a lot about what it means.

I like the idea of God's immediate goodness--His miracles and grace can have immediate efficacy, as witnessed by each of the Evangelists:

Matthew 20:32-34 "And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him."

Mark 2:11-12 "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all."

Luke 5:12-13, "And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him."

John 6:19-21, "So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid. But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and immediately the ship was at the land whither they went."

However, we are also told that sometimes He waits until "the fourth watch." Some Mormon authors have even called Him a "fourth watch God"--a God who waits until "the right moment" to deliver us, a God who allows us to struggle, question and endure. This seems to emphasize what we could call "the eventual goodness of God." Sometimes answers are not immediate, and sometimes God's goodness seems indiscernible and distant.

These two concepts (the immediate vs. the eventual goodness of God) are not necessarily contradictory, but they do seem to be somewhat in tension. The way I resolve that tension is by defining "immediate" as a locational adjective, not a chronological one--referring to proximity rather than temporality. Thus, even when the chronology is confusing, God is immediately near to us. Even when deliverance is delayed until the fourth watch, God is always beside us. He is "immediate" even when He seems only "eventual."