Training Wheels

I was pondering this morning about why I didn't like a simple 50/50 trade off rule at the doorstep and had the following revelation: I don't like it b/c it's a lower law solution to a higher law problem - i.e.: the problem is that I'm not forthcoming enough and he's too overbearing. A simple 50/50 tradeoff wouldn't really help as the problem is in me not initiating the speaking - I can talk fine, I'm just not inserting myself enough. So merely trading off doors wouldn't help me grow. It would halt my progression as a person.
But then, as I thought, the image of a bike with training wheels came to mind - it dawned on me that the lower law is given to train us in the right action until we can take off the wheels and do it for the right reason. For example, for someone who smokes, living the word of wisdom helps them realize the importance of keeping the body healthy and how it helps them feel the spirit, but the higher law is to be as healthy as possible - to put into your body only what God wants you to. The lower law trains them how living the higher law feels, to inspire them to live the higher law for the right reason.

Next image: kid riding a bike with training wheels, riding too slowly. They slump to the side, and just trundle along. They're not learning how to ride a bike, they're just pedaling - just doing the action. Using training wheels properly, you increase your muscle ability so you can ride at speeds necessary to be able to ride a bike properly without the training wheels.

Next image: adult riding a bike with training wheels at normal biking speed, or even ahead of the pack - if they try to take a sharp turn, the wheels are cumbersome and block the full potential of the biker - in fact, they could cause them to crash on a turn that they would otherwise have been able to make without training wheels. This is why it is so important to learn the higher law - to change our motivation for things, and not merely change our actions.

Next image: kid who has strength and practise riding full speed having the wheels taken off, trying to ride, panicking, floundering, crashing.

So God will give us the law we're ready for - yes, we'll flounder and crash at times. Sometimes, our growth is so slow that we need a lower law, but if we lean on the lower law as a crutch it is actually damning our progression as people. Amen.

In other news, I learned some cool ideas about how we can share the gospel by word and deed, we can also invite people by word and deed - by outright inviting people to learn, and by inviting people to help you do service - because that is the gospel. :)

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!

And by the way - I'm staying in Lisburn another 6 weeks, bar any radical happenstances, so I'll be here until the end.

Cheerio! :D

– Elder William Kevin Black