Enchanted pt 1 (&2) (05/01/2014)

So with my badly sprained ankle (which happened mid-April 2014), I've been watching more movies in the evening with Daryl. Last night we watched Enchanted.

I was really struck with a few contrasting points.

The Prince and Giselle falling in love:
The Prince and Giselle meet, fall in love instantly, and wait for Love's True Kiss, and expect to live happily ever after. If she hadn't been pushed in the wishing well, they would have lived happily ever after.

The Divorce Attorney:
He was married, thought he was happy, and then she left. He is hurt. He doesn't believe any relationship can last for ever, and especially for it to be happy if it does last. His view of a good relationship is based off of an intellectual compatibility.

How Deep?
At first glance, the Prince seems shallow. At first glance, Giselle seems shallow. Perhaps they are. As I watched the Prince compliment Giselle at the dance, and Nancy be amazed at it, I could see Nancy was right. There was no irony, sarcasm, nor hidden agenda in his statement about Giselle. "This beautiful lady is Giselle, the love of my life, my heart's true desire." He was totally sincere. Yet, he is not an incomplete person looking for someone else to make him complete, demonstrated by his response when asked, "Sire, do you like yourself?" He responds, "What's not to like?" Giselle is the person on whom he can shower his love and adoration. That doesn't seem so shallow after all.

Can it be done?
How does one make that ideal, fairy-tale, 'happily ever after' relationship?

One of Two Choices:
The couple getting divorced demonstrated very well the two contrasting sides: "What's in it for me?" and "I'm looking after my own needs," vs "I appreciate you and how can I make you feel happy and loved?"

Looking after our own needs?
At first the couple getting divorced were in very selfish and retaliating modes. They operated on hurt, resentment for being hurt, and then wanting to get revenge for being hurt. The queen also operated on this mode. Everything was about her ability to keep her throne. She would destroy others without a second thought in order to keep her power she loved. She manipulated, used and abused her devoted royal helper, not appreciating that he was operating in the mode of "I'll do anything for you."

I appreciate you and how can I make you feel happy and loved?
The Prince is the epitome of loving. Even though he seems shallow, and perhaps is for real life, he has enough and appropriate depth for being a fairy-tale guy. His whole desire was to make his true love happy. His every word and action was to tell her how wonderful she was and to do things that she wanted. Simply put, he is not selfish.

Even when the human-unacceptable event happens that he discovers his betrothed is awoken from a deadly sleep by true-love's kiss from another man, he is delighted and happy for her. He loves her enough that her being happy is his first priority. He loves enough that he can love anyone. He can see the Princess in any woman, as he demonstrated by placing the shoe on Nancy (a romantic woman at heart) and seeing it is a 'perfect fit,' and whisking her off to marry her in his Kingdom.

Before we think he is just a shallow, selfless, loving kind of guy, we must see also his strong pack-leader stance, no-bones-about-it attitude of exposing the wicked Queen for her evil deeds, and the unalterable decree that he will remove her from the throne. He was in no way whimpey or wishy-washy about punishing the wicked and defending the innocent and helpless. He knows his authority and had no fear nor hesitance to use it. He has a very well developed and confident "backbone." He was a great protector.

What About Us in Real Life?
So we don't live in fairy-tale books. We live in real life. We are prone to getting hurt and subject to ill feelings afterwards. But there is hope for us. If we return to the couple getting divorced, we see the alteration of their attitude. We see them applying the Princely qualities of loving more than applying the qualities of selfishness. That made all the difference. The wife states, "Everybody has problems. Everybody has bad times. Do we sacrifice all the good times because of them? No." They left the emotional position and vision perspective of being hurt, and went back to the emotional position and vision perspective of appreciating the good of each other and unselfishly wanting to do things to make the other happy.

That is the Key!
So the key to a happily-ever-after is to be Princely. Have our life focused on the other person's happiness and welfare. It is difficult as a human who gets hurt. It is even more difficult when one member of a couple acts like the Queen and the other like the Prince. That leads to another discourse of relying on Christ, cleansing our own non-divine feelings, etc. That is where the simple, direct, black and white principles have to be applied to complicated, convoluted, shades of gray situations. That will be saved for The Enchanted Ideal part 2 (which as of 2022 has never been writte).

Though the application may be more complicated in our non-fairy-tale-book lives, the answer is still the same. We live happily ever after by having our focus on the other person's well-being and happiness. 

The essence of the non-written Pt. 2 is when that doesn't work, we live happily ever after by anchoring our selves and souls in Jesus Christ. He is the Prince we can depend on. 

We live happily ever after by being Princely.

His Whole Soul (02/2014)

I'm reading Mosiah 26.

Those who have committed sin are brought to Alma so he can determine what to do. He takes them to the King. The King says, I'm not going to decide what to do. You're in charge of the Church--you decide.

Now Alma is perplexed. He goes to the Lord and prays. He is not sure how to handle the situation, and he doesn't want to do it "wrong in the sight of God."

Here is the part that struck me very profoundly just now. Verse 4 says, "And it came to pass that after he had poured out his whole soul to God, the voice of the Lord came to him saying:"

Did you catch that?

His whole soul.

It doesn't say that he just prayed. It doesn't say he prayed mightily, or sincerely, or even fervently. It doesn't even say he poured out his soul to God.

It says he poured out his whole soul.

Alma's whole soul. What would that look like?

Alma is expected to judge people who have been brought to him in iniquity. Can he just brashly condemn them for the mistakes they have made?

No. His whole soul is reflecting on his past. He was caught up in great iniquity and wickedness while he was a priest in the court of King Noah. If he had been judged at any moment before the appearance of Abinadi, condemnation of him would have been just.

But he knows of the great change in his whole soul that occurred after hearing the message of repentance through Christ's atonement announced to him by Abinadi. Are these people brought to him like he was? Would his condemnation of them be too soon, before their window of repentance had taken place?

There were others who heard the same message from Abinadi who did not repent. In fact, these other priests of Noah killed Abinadi, the bearer of the news of their salvation from the bonds of sin. Are these people brought to him like the other priests? Would they also reject and rebuff any message that would give freedom to their soul in the eternities?

How can Alma, as a man, determine who these people are?

Reflecting on this in prayer, his whole soul would likely spontaneously pour out his gratitude for the Lord's mercy in forgiving him. It would likely be heavy with sorrow for the cruel and unthinkable martyrdom of Abinadi. His mind and soul probably reviewed the series of events when he hid from King Noah's guards sent to kill him, the deep feelings of peace from forgiveness soothing the horrid regrets for his sins and iniquity, and the days it took to write all that Abinadi had said. He would remember the beautiful days spent teaching others by the waters of Mormon, and the beauty of the memory of their baptism. How beautiful were the waters of Mormon to them.

Baptism brings forgiveness of sins. Sins, just like those of others he is now asked to judge. How can he rob from someone else the wonderful delivery of forgiveness he has cherished for himself?

The thought of delivery may have led him back to the days in the city of Helam. In their beautiful city of Helam they built prosperity, righteousness and safety. That safety was then destroyed by the appearance of the army of the Lamanites who brought with them no less than other of the priests of King Noah. That safety was destroyed by the priest Amulon who was in good favor with the Lamanites and was allowed to stop Alma's people from praying - at least praying with their voice. But in their hearts they still prayed for deliverance. The deliverance of the Lord was sweet and welcome.

Alme had been delivered three times. The first was from sin through repentance and faith in Christ preached to him by Abinai. The second was the from death by the warning voice of the Lord to flee before King Noah's guards discovered his people at the waters of Mormon. The third was from bondage and slavery to the Lamanites through the Lord's deep sleep put on the Lamanites so Alma and his people could take their flocks and belongings and flee again to find a new home where they could be free.

They found their new home with the people of Mosiah. They found their new home united with their old now repentant friends who had also been the people of King Noah. They found their new home where they could freely pray and live in the peace of the commandments.

The peace of the commandments that some people had broken was now what Alma was being asked to judge. This judgement was what brought him to pray to God, and to pour out his whole soul.

I wonder what "the whole soul" of Alma sounded like in that prayer.