Anatomy of Life Happenings

September 30, 2012

I seem to recall a book titled “What I learned in Kindergarten.” The book shared a list sharing the important basics of life like saying your prayers, being nice to each other, taking care of your little brother, etc. Much like the list we received from God in the Ten Commandments. We each go through experiences on a minute-by-minute basis. Jean and I have been to three funerals in recent days. Yesterday we celebrated the life of Shirley Nay, our dear friend and back-door neighbor. Shirley and Gardello have been married 57 years. Our wonderful friends and relatives, Uncle Bill and Aunt Grace were the others.  They have been married for seventy years and died within one month of each other. The family’s solid conviction is that Uncle Bill passed through the veil and then came back to bring Aunt Grace through to be with him for eternity.

 I believe they are absolutely correct. We love these folks for the way they lived their lives. We love them because they gave us great examples of Christ like lives which we have chosen to attempt to emulate. We love them because they were mortal, weak in the flesh, and had all the failings of other mortals and yet, they endured to the end and passed through the veil into the presence of our Father in Heaven. The moral of this story is that we can overcome the flesh and all its inadequacies and faults and wend ourselves into the eternities through the atonement and sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

My father told mother about a billion times that he wanted to die with his boots on and that he did not want to be “canonized” at his funeral. He shared many of the things he was not proud of doing in his life with me and my brother, Glenn and I assure you that his desire to avoid any pretense of being perfect was well justified. What makes us mortal?  What crafts our lives to be what they are? Why do some people, as my great friend Gardello shares, “never have an argument or fight with their spouse? Why do others find their anger and temper to be the ruling forces in their lives? Why do some take to excessive drinking, drugs, and fabrication of truths; while others find peace in serving others and building a legacy in which their posterity can see wisdom and joy? Most importantly, why do some change midstream in life and go from one side of the iron rod to the other making midlife changes that forever cast the mold of their lives?

It would be utter folly for me to pretend to understand what makes others make eternal changes in their lives. Instead I have attempt to create an anatomy of my life showing where spiritual and temporal changes have occurred as I have written these weekly notes to family and friends. Summary is simple! When we live according to the Ten Commandments, operate under the lessons shared in the advice provided in “What I learned in Kindergarten” and in the Teachings of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we find peace and joy in life and in the certainty of reunion with loved ones and with God in the eternities.

When we deviate from those admonitions and use secular humanism, satanic worship, priest craft, the philosophies of men, or denials of God and eternity we lose our way. When we begin to think that we are much too sophisticated; much too “savey” to ask for forgiveness, to share the spiritual guidance from God the Father,  from Jesus Christ, from the Holy Ghost, and from ministering angels who bless us daily, we find ourselves being carefully drawn down to the bowels of hell.

God bless each of you as you continue to craft the ultimate autopsy of your life.

Duane Jacobs, friend, brother, uncle, cousin, and grandfather