Moral Discipline

My thoughts on Elder Christofferson's talk "Moral Discipline"

Elder Faust story in front of a military board, "I do not believe there is a double standard of morality."
"This was one of the critical crossroads of my life."

Elder Christofferson says, "He also understood and demonstrated that, for positive outcomes, moral agency must be accompanied by moral discipline."
and continues with:
"By “moral discipline,” I mean self-discipline based on moral standards. Moral discipline is the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right because it is right, even when it is hard. It rejects the self-absorbed life in favor of developing character worthy of respect and true greatness through Christlike service (see Mark 10:42–45). The root of the word discipline is shared by the word disciple, suggesting to the mind the fact that conformity to the example and teachings of Jesus Christ is the ideal discipline that, coupled with His grace, forms a virtuous and morally excellent person."

He then talks about how self-discipline has "eroded and societies are left to try to maintain order and civility by compulsion." Satan is winning the battle and we are giving more and more of our agency away. We are being governed to death because we as a society can not self-govern. How sad. I think of the verse that says, "men's hearts will wax cold."

"...major causes was widespread dishonest and unethical conduct..."
"...but other will simply get more creative in their circumvention."

I was reading an opinion piece in a national magazine that echoed the same lament that society must have everything they can't do written down or they will do it even if it isn't a good thing. I remember the title to be something like "Ten wasn't good enough so now we have 10 (raised to the 10) commandments".

"We would not accept the yoke of Christ, so now we must tremble at the yoke of Caesar."

"In the end, it is only an internal moral compass in each individual that can effectively deal with the root causes as well as the symptoms of societal decay. Societies will struggle in vain to establish the common good until sin is denounced as sin and moral discipline takes its place in the pantheon of civic virtues."

I often long for the Second Coming. I long for a time when men will do good because it is the right thing to do not because there is a reward at the end. I long for the time when I don't have to explain how we need to be honest when the example around them is of all those who dishonestly came into to wealth. I long for a day when love is the guiding force behind the few laws that govern man-kind.

"Moral discipline is learned at home."
Society is NOT learning it at school or at work. In fact those two institutions are teaching just the opposite and until we wake up and see that we will have to continue to battle the outside world.

A long time ago our family chose the name "Helaman's Academy" for our school because "“Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47).
"Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually” (Alma 57:27)."

Elder Christofferon says:
"Here we find a standard for what should happen in our homes and in the Church. Our teaching should draw upon our own faith and focus first and foremost on instilling faith in God in the rising generation. We must declare the essential need to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before Him in soberness, or in other words, with reverence. Each must be persuaded that service and sacrifice for the well-being and happiness of others are far superior to making one’s own comfort and possessions the highest priority.
"This requires more than an occasional reference to one or another gospel principle. There must be constant teaching, mostly by example."

We can not let our children make up their own minds about what they will believe without letting them first know and learn. We must remember that it is the "intelligent use of agency requires knowledge of the truth, of things as they really are." How can they make up their minds about things so important without fully understanding them.

It is our duty to instill in our children a will and a desire to do good because it is what is right and good. We will have to comfort them when doing so gets them ridicules and laughed at. We will have to bare that burden ourselves as we become less and less. We will have to stand as witnesses of goodness and right, of moral and decency until He comes again to reign. It is a hard thing, but it must be worth it or he wouldn't have asked it of us.