Obedience VS the World

I recently have been called to serve as the Gospel Principles teacher in my singles ward. My very first lesson I taught was on obedience. I loved this topic and I enjoyed studying it throughout the week. I grew to know that through obedience we will be blessed in this life and in the one to come. I thought a lot about this lesson throughout the week and really enjoyed teaching it. When the lesson came I felt like the class contributed a lot to it and it went really well.

The Monday following my lesson I was in a Family and Consumer Science class at California State University, Sacramento. I was not paying much attention to the class because I felt like the topic of conversation was irrelevant to the course subject and work. I found myself doodling countless galexies of stars along the columns of my sparatic notes. My ears perked when I heard the word "obedience" said aloud by Dr. MaryKay Boylan. She was describing the front page of the "Scene" section in the Sunday newspaper. The top half of the page was an article about a LDS Sunday school class full of boys and girls. The topic of the lesson they were learning was Obedience. The bottom half of the paper was an article about a single woman. From the description my professor gave of the women I imagined a radical hippy. This woman has been involved in many movements that question all aspects of the government and authority. Feeling proud that the Sunday school class and the lesson they learned made it on the front page, I slowly became astonished at the reaction of the class.

I learned that day in that class that obedience to the world is a negative trait. To quote Dr. Boylan "the last thing I would ever want my child to be is obedient." I can not ever imagine thinking you would want your child to question everything and have absolutely no faith in anything. Afterall, isn't the act of obedience a result of faith? So the world would rather their children have no direction, no faith, and live in confusion and uncertainty. Do they think that those of us that live by standards and follow teachings and strive to be obedient, do they thing we are all recluses? Do they think we are imbiciles that are brainwashed to "keep retention in a newly organized institution"?

My testimony on this subject was strengthened as I saw this opposition.

I also thought of a story that Uncle Mike told Mom and I to watch on the news. It was a story about a woman who gave birth to four babies. Aparently she was an unfit mother because years later all four babies were found buried in her yard. The babies were all full term babies. The babies would have thrived had their mother not have burried them either alive, or after strangling them. The state that she lives in is not going to prosecute her because they don't feel they have grounds for prosecution. They are treating it as though she had four abortions.

I think of these people in both situations and I feel so sad that they have no knowlege of the plan that our Father in Heaven has for us. They have no knowledge of truth. I can't imagine living that way. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the atonement and the truthfulness of the gospel.