We received a Christmas letter from a woman who reported on the doings of her family.  One son and his wife had only one child.  There would be no more because “one is all the children they can handle.”  The other son is “not married and will never have children but does have girlfriends, lives rather a rogue life in that he prefers living out of his van, but is happy that way.”  Her former husband has left his wife of 20 years.

It struck us that each of these people, and most of the people around us—probably even us, too—are striving to be care free.  We’re all seeking that elusive nirvana of no stress, no strain, and no problems.  We want to be carefree.

Being carefree certainly sounds desirable, but runs counter to the purpose of life.  We’re here to be tested, to be tried, to be refined and purified in the furnace of adversity, to have the dross burned away, and to prove to the Lord and to ourselves that we’ll be faithful through every trial and circumstance.  If we’re faithful, Alma tells us that the day will come when we’ll be “received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where (we) shall rest from all (our) troubles and from all care, and sorrow.”  (Alma 40:12).  We would hurry that day along, but until then we’re to “bear with patience (our) afflictions.”  (Alma 26:27).

I’d like to contrast two men.  James Covill is the subject of two sections in the Doctrine and Covenants (sections 39 and 40).  James Covill was a Baptist minister for 40 years; but before the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was even a year old, he heard the gospel, believed, and covenanted with the Lord that he would “obey any command that the Lord would give him through Joseph the Prophet.”  (Heading, D&C 39).  One hundred eighty one years ago, almost to the day (January 5, 1831), the Lord told James that “thine heart is now right before me at this time; and, behold, I have bestowed great blessings upon thy head…Behold, the days of thy deliverance are come…Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on my name, and you shall receive my Spirit, and a blessing so great as you have never known.”  (D&C 39:8, 10).

James was called on a mission “to the Ohio.”  (V. 14).  This was before the Church had even left New York.  James was to prepare the way, to be given the priesthood, to preach the gospel, to lay his hands upon those he’d baptize and to give them the gift of the Holy Ghost.  He was called to labor in the vineyard (v. 13), and was told that “power shall rest upon thee.”  (v. 12).  James was poised to do a great work in the kingdom.  His name might have been one with which we’d all be very familiar today; but sadly, the record says that “he received the word with gladness, but straightway Satan tempted him; and the fear of persecution and the cares of the world caused him to reject the word, wherefore he broke (the) covenant.”  (D&C 40:2, 3).

Contrast James Covill with Shiblon, the middle son of Alma the younger.  Shiblon was called on a mission, too.  He served among the Zoramites where he was put in bonds and was stoned for the word’s sake.  (Alma 39:4).  Talk about persecution!  He bore all these things with patience, the record says, and was later held up by Alma as a good example to his errant, younger brother, Corianton.  Alma might have held his son Helaman up as the good example, but he didn’t.  Helaman became the prophet.  Instead he held up Shiblon as the example saying, “have ye not observed the steadiness of thy brother, his faithfulness, and his diligence in keeping the commandments of God?  Behold, has he not set a good example for thee?”  (Alma 39:1).

Shiblon is one of my heroes.  He was a good example for all of us.  He quietly served all his life in the shadow of his prophet-brother, Helaman.  He was very much like Hyrum Smith, and Moses’ brother, Aaron.  Shiblon served faithfully.  When Helaman died, Shiblon “took possession” (Alma 63:1) of the sacred records.  In perhaps every other instance when the records were passed to another, the record states that the prophet who had possession of them passed the records to another before his death.  It’s inferred that the Lord prepared the prophets beforehand, warned them that their deaths were imminent, and told them to pass the records on.  In this single case it would appear that perhaps the prophet’s death was sudden, and that Shiblon, being a responsible person, stepped forward and “took possession of those sacred things which had been delivered unto Helaman by Alma.”  (Alma 39:1).

“And he was a just man,” the record says, “and he did walk uprightly before God; and he did observe to do good continually, to keep the commandments of the Lord his God.”  (v. 2).

That’s really all that the record says about Shiblon.  If that’s all the record eventually says about me, I’ll be very happy, indeed.

Shiblon had possession of the precious records for three years.  There is no evidence that he ever wrote in them; but he probably did, or Mormon might not have known to report that Shiblon ever had the record.  Shiblon conferred the records, before his death, upon the son of Helaman, his nephew.  (v. 11).  He didn’t confer the records upon his own son (if he had any), but followed the will of the Lord and gave them to the next man the Lord had selected to be the prophet.

The next verse might be significant.  Alma 63:12 states that “all those engravings…were written and sent forth among the children of men throughout all the land.”  Was that Shiblon’s doing?  Perhaps, perhaps not, but it was said in the context of Shiblon’s possession of, and passing on of, the sacred records.  I have a picture in my mind of this righteous man directing a roomful of scribes to produce scores of copies of the scriptures so that the people could have access to them.

The point, however, is that Shiblon dealt with the cares of the world, was patient in affliction and persecution, remained faithful, and grew and was refined by his experiences.  James Covill quit before he started, was fearful, shirked responsibility, listened to the whisperings of Satan, and retreated back into what he hoped would be a carefree existence.

A carefree existence is a lie.  A life without responsibility is a lie.  It’s a lie perpetrated by the devil.  With some, “he rage(s) in the hearts of the children of men, and stir(s) them up to anger against that which is good.”  (2 Nephi 28:20).

But others “he pacif(ies), and lull(s) them away into carnal security (apathy, the footnote says), that they will say:  All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell.”  (2 Ne. 28:21).

The next verse says, “and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains.”  (v. 22).

That’s a chilling thought that should send shudders down all our spines.  Imagine the devil whispering in your ear!  Make no mistake about it:  it happens to me and you.  We actually have a sixth sense, I believe, that the Holy Ghost and the adversary access in attempts to direct our thoughts and actions.  We have the power to discern the source of these whisperings, and we have the agency to either act upon them or not.  The great challenge and lesson of life is to become attuned to these whisperings, and to resist the carnal pull to be carefree, complacent and comfortable.

The couple who had but one child, because that was all they could handle, listened to the wrong whisperings.  All they could see was the responsibilities, the hard work and the worries that children bring.  Such people strive all their lives toward the false goal of being carefree, complacent and comfortable.

Adam and Eve, had they not partaken of the forbidden fruit, would have “remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever, and had no end.

“And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery.”  (2 Ne. 2:22, 23).

Astute parents will notice a connection here between children and misery; but those who are even more astute will recognize the other connection between children and joy.

Those who listen to the whisperings that childlessness is a blessed state, or that more than two is irresponsible and is overpopulating the world, are not keeping their temple covenants (if they ever made them), and are selling themselves short and cutting themselves off from a fullness of joy.

The adversary does whisper in our ears.  Consider the implications of the visit that Marriner Wood Merrill, president of the Logan Temple in the early 1890s, had with the adversary.  Satan told him, “I don’t like what is being done in the Logan Temple and have come to stop it.”

“No, we will not stop it,” President Merrill replied.  “This is the work of the Lord and must go on.  You know that you or anyone else can not stop the work of the Lord.”

“If you refuse to stop it, I will tell you what I propose to do,” the adversary said.  “I will scatter (my) people throughout these valleys, and we will keep people from coming to the temple.  We will whisper in their ears and discourage them from attending the temple.  This will stop your temple work.”

For the next 10 or 12 years the temple might as well have been closed.  In one full year only 20,110 ordinances were done.  In later years, by comparison, the Logan Temple would do over 1.8 million ordinances in a year.

How shocked would the good members of that temple district have been to know that the devil was whispering in their ears?  How shocked would the good members of the Boise Temple district be to realize that the devil is whispering in their ears and keeping them from attending the temple as often as they should?

Does this story ring any familiar bells:

“Christian L. Olsen lived only a half mile from the (Logan) temple, and he said any time he said out loud that he was going to the temple, something happened to keep him away.  One evening he said to the boys: ‘Tomorrow we will finish grinding our molasses, and then I’d like to spend a week in the temple.’  The mill was operating perfectly that evening, but the next morning the main wheel was broken.  The more they repaired the machine, the more things broke and went wrong with it.  He finally spent the full week making repairs so one day’s grind of molasses could be completed.  He did not get to spend the week in the temple.

“Another time when he planned a day in the temple, he got up to milk his cows and the corral gate was open.  He spent the day hunting the cows in the west fields.  Still another time, the corral gate was open again and the horses were gone.  It took two days to find them in Logan Canyon.  He said, ‘Anytime I wanted to go to the temple, I soon learned that I could not say it out loud.  I got up, milked my cows, set the bucket down and ran.  And then I could get there without any trouble.’”  (Logan Temple, the First 100 Years, by Nolan P. Olsen, pp. 165-167).

One should not feel carefree if one has devils whispering in his ear and breaking the main wheels of his machinery.  As chilling as that picture is, the scriptural record contains one that is even more chilling.  It was shown to Enoch as part of his panoramic vision of the earth and its inhabitants.  He saw “generation upon generation…and he heard a loud voice saying:  Wo, wo be unto the inhabitants of the earth.

“And he beheld Satan; and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole face of the earth with darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced.”  (Moses 7:24, 25).

Can anyone feel carefree, complacent and comfortable with that picture in his head?  In truth, I think the only people in the world who don’t feel carefree, complacent and comfortable are those who daily have to deal with hunger or war.  It’s becoming hard for our missionaries to find converts among the nations of the gentiles.  The people in the advanced countries of the western world are wealthy and at ease.  They’re comfortable and complacent, and it’s difficult to convince them that anything is wrong, or that any changes in their lifestyles are needed.

The lord has dealt with such attitudes before.  The people of the Book of Mormon went through the comfort and complacent stages of their cycle many times.  To break them out of their reverie it was necessary for the Lord to stir them up through famines and wars before they’d remember Him.  The problem was best summed up in the book of Revelation when the Lord told the church at Laodicea, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:  I would that thou wert cold or hot.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”  (Rev. 3:15, 16).

The Lord can work with a person who is excited and on fire about the gospel.  He can speak to him through his Spirit and guide him into all sorts of good works.

The Lord can even work with a person who is cold.  He can show that individual the contrast between his cold, dark, dreary world and the warm, light, and happy conditions that a follower of Christ can enjoy.

But what on earth can you do with a lukewarm person?  He thinks he’s just fine where he is.  He has everything he needs, he’s comfortable, and he doesn’t want a thing to change.  Therefore, the Lord says descriptively, “because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

Unfortunately, there are many even in the Church who are complacent and overly comfortable.  The Lord says unto such, “Wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!”  (2 Ne. 28:24).

“Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people…then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity.”  (Helaman 12:2).

I’m grateful for my comforts.  I’m grateful for my testimony.  I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to repent and to make changes in my life.  I’m grateful for my prosperity.  I’m not wealthy, but I’m not wanting anything, either.  I have more comforts, gadgets, foods, technology, mobility and opportunities than any king of any age ever had.  I know that these blessings come from Christ.  His expectation is that I’ll use these blessings to bless the lives of others.  His expectation is that I’ll use the extra time that these conveniences give me to open the prison doors that have closed upon the carefree, complacent, and comfortable people around me.

I hope that I’m not too much at ease.  I hope that I can constantly show my gratitude for the light that is in my life by sharing that light with others.  I’m under covenant to do so.