An Interesting thing happened the other week at work. We were having a discussion about Roseanne Barr (Don’t Ask!)… For more info we checked out Wikipedia to see who was right in the discussion, and in the first few paragraphs I read that she was Jewish and grew up in Salt Lake City and was raised Mormon. I made a mental note and read more another day. On returning at a later time, I read …“When Barr was three years old, she got Bell’s palsy on the left side of her face. Barr said, “[so] my mother called in a rabbi to pray for me, but nothing happened. Then my mother got a Mormon preacher, he prayed, and I was miraculously cured”. Years later Barr learned that Bell’s palsy was usually temporary and that the Mormon preacher came “exactly at the right time”.”
When I read this I thought of the story of the man working on his roof. The man started 
to slide. He was going to fall off the roof unless he could stop sliding down… As he started to gain momentum, he started to panic and let out a plea for help from Heavenly Father. Just as he did this, his pants caught on a nail that was sticking out of the roof. The man then let the Lord know he didn’t need any help anymore and that he had sorted it out. It’s this kind of attitude that puts us at risk. “Casual Obedience and lukewarm commitment weaken faith.” (Kevin W. Pearson)
While we are quick to judge both of these individuals as ungrateful and unaware of where their blessings are coming from, how many of us are aware of our blessings? Many of us live good lives, most of us are healthy, have good jobs, have the time for leisure, for vacations. Are we aware of where our blessings come from?
Todd Christofferson shares, “The Children of Israel coming out of Egypt lived for 40 years on something called manna. They couldn’t have lived from hunting. Their lifestyle was such that they couldn’t be planting. So, they really didn’t have an alternative. God really was providing their daily sustenance. I think at least one of His purposes was to teach them to remember Him, to think of Him, to look to Him, to have Faith in Him. That He was the source of their life.” After the Israelites left Egypt, it took 40 years and an entire generation to turn over before they were allowed into the Land of Promise. Why was that? Roseanne Barr had a quote that I feel helps explain this and why she wasn’t grateful for her blessings. Barr has stated, “Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning I was a Jew; Sunday afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, and Wednesday afternoon we were Mormons”. Is that the kind of Latter-day Saints we are? Or the kind of Latter-day Saints we want our kids to be?
How do we avoid becoming Sunday Mormons? Elder Donald L. Hallstrom recently shared several points on how to avoid this in a recent devotional, much of which I have used in this post. Elder Hallstrom used the building of the Philadelphia Temple as an example of how to stand tall. He said, “This extraordinary edifice will be 82 feet tall at its roofline and rise 195 feet to the top of the angel Moroni. As you can see, it will be Magnificent! However, as imposing and stately as this structure will be, it will still be subject to destructive winds and invasive groundwater. These harsh conditions, if left unchecked, could significantly damage and even destroy this noble edifice. Knowing these forces would relentlessly attack the temple, the engineers designed and the contractors excavated a hole 32 feet deep under the entire footprint of the structure. The hole was dug into native Pennsylvania granite to provide an immovable foundation upon which to build. The concrete footings and foundations were then tied to the granite bedrock and rock anchors to resist even torrential wind and powerful groundwater. The anchors were drilled 50 to 75 feet into the granite and tensioned at 250,000 pounds per square inch. The anchors are spaced 15 feet apart in both directions.
I give such detailed information to teach this point: Unlike building a structure (which by any definition is temporary), in building everlasting (and hopefully, eternal) lives, we sometimes pay woefully little attention to the engineering and construction of our 
foundations. Consequently, we are left highly exposed and are easily buffeted by dangerous forces” We need the build our lives on a sure foundation. “Remember that casualness in spiritual matters never was happiness. Make the church and the restored gospel you whole life, not just a part of your outward or social life.”(Jörg Klebingat)
I love strong language. When we pay little attention to our foundation, we risk being exposed and beaten down by dangerous forces. The Israelites endured 40 years in the wilderness until the generation with weak foundations had passed. Roseanne Barr’s parents never provided a sound foundation, only encouraging church attendance and Primary or Mutual attendance. If we recognize our blessings, and want to show our Heavenly Father we are grateful, we need to do more than show up to our meetings. Helaman 5:12 states, ‘And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation, that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.’
Elder Hallstrom continues, “This is not new doctrine. In one form or another, all of us understand it. We have been taught by parents, in Primary, in our Classes and Quorums, in seminary, in institute, by full-time missionaries, by friends, by local church leaders, by the scriptures, and by living prophets and apostles. Then, why is it so difficult for many of us to live it? Well, simply stated, it needs to get from our minds to our hearts, and to our souls. It needs to be more than what we sometimes think or even what we sometime feel, it must become who we are. Our connection with God, our Father, and his eternal plan, and with Jesus Christ, His Son, and our Rock, needs to be so firmly established that it truly becomes the cornerstone of our foundation. Our identity then becomes first that of an eternal being, a son of God, and of a grateful receiver of the Blessings of Jesus Christ’s Atonement.”
Today is the time to prepare to meet our God. There should be no higher priority. It is worth any price. If you are working on building a sure foundation, I thank you. If it’s not a priority, I urge you to make it a priority. You are an important part of this work and we need you. Be grateful to God for your blessings, serve others, and build a sure foundation. Don’t be a Sunday Mormon and don’t be a Roseanne Barr.
~Todd Bruce
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