Common Sense Obedience for Mormons

COMMON SENSE OBEDIENCE
168 Modern Proverbs
By Scott Pugsley

BASICS

• With God's help, every good thing is possible.

• Heavenly Father is real and wants you to be happy.

• Jesus is your Savior and the one who helps Heavenly Father help you.
 
• The birth, resurrection, and atonement of the Savior are the most important things that ever happened.

• Spirit is real.

• The gift of the Holy Ghost helps you know the truth and identify evil.

• The Holy Ghost also helps us know the truth and do what is right.

• The plan of salvation is for all people everywhere, at all times.

• You only receive the blessings that you are willing and worthy to receive.

• Your family members are the most important people in your life; other people are also important.

• If you want to get to the Celestial Kingdom you must work to develop a celestial personality and attitude.

• Power in the priesthood comes from righteousness and spiritual strength.

• The Gospel is true; people are fallible.

• We must be the force for good that is in opposition to the evil that is so rampant in this world.

• You should always give the Church and its leaders the benefit of the doubt when issues arise.

• You are responsible to protect yourself and your family from bad influences.

• You are responsible for your own happiness; release everyone else with a vote of thanks.

• The safest thing to do is to follow the Prophet; he will never tell you to do something that is wrong.

• When you don’t know what to do you can pray to Heavenly Father, listen for an answer, and try to do what you think Jesus would do.

• You don’t have to be perfect; only Jesus was perfect.

• The Lord wants you to be as happy as he is.

• Don’t be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

• Life is short, eternity is forever.

• When you are helping another you are helping the Lord.

• How and why you do things are as important as what you do.

• You need to stand up and speak up for what is right.

• There are an unlimited number of ways that you can do good and work righteousness.

• Love your enemies until they are no longer your enemies.

• The Lord will answer the righteous prayers of the saints who pray for what they ought to pray for.

• Act righteously, react mercifully.

• People sometimes do things you won’t like or that are wrong; you can love the people but not like the things they do.

• Never let another person’s actions undermine your testimony.

ACTIVITY IN THE CHURCH

• Happiness and salvation are found in the Church.

• In this life, the Church is not on trial, you are.

• There is strength in uniting with the Saints.

• Service to others is a privilege, not a chore.

• The Lord delights to bless those of his children who will use the bounty of his earth to bless others of his children who may be less fortunate.

• There is nothing embarrassing, degrading, or inappropriate about the Church, its leaders, or its teachings.

• The best way to improve your own situation is to forget about yourself and do all you can to serve others.

• Death is not a tragedy for those who are righteous; it is usually sad.

• We are expected to search out ways to help others.

• The united, fervent prayers of many righteous people avail much.

• If you make yourself available, Heavenly Father will use you to answer someone’s prayer.

• How you look reflects who you are trying to be.

• The Lord’s plan is the best possible plan, even if you don’t understand all of it.

• You need to work to become comfortable with the Church and its doctrines and people.

• The Church has stood the test of time; the questions detractors raise do not prove anything about the Church.

• Everyone has weaknesses; people with weaknesses can do the work of the Lord.

• The scriptures aren’t just good stories, they tell you how to live.

• Church members sometimes do things that are unkind or not right, but you can still believe in the truth of the Gospel and love the Church members.

• Nothing that is worth having can be gained by leaving the church.

• Church members sometimes make mistakes and do dumb things; the Gospel is still true.

• You need to be active in the Church for your whole life; if you ever slip, come back, and the sooner the better.

• Never be afraid to come to Church; you are always welcome.

CHALLENGES

• Bad things often happen to good Mormons.

• Difficult things happen to all people even though Heavenly Father loves all people; this is part of the plan, not a defect in the plan.

• You will be happy if you keep the commandments even when it is hard or if bad things happen.

• Jesus, the sinless one, suffered the most.

• Heavenly Father doesn’t stop bad things from happening; he helps us be strong when bad things happen.

• However hard things get, it is always possible to do the right thing.

• There is no downside risk to keeping the commandments.

• Keeping the commandments is sometimes hard, but it is worth it.

• Don’t give up; don’t give in.

• Just as the beauties of life testify there is a God, so the evil things of life testify there is a devil who, pursuant to the Plan of Happiness, is allowed to provide opposition to all good things.

OBEDIENCE, REPENTANCE AND FORGIVENESS

• Obedience is fully rewarded in the hereafter; unrepented sins will be punished in the hereafter.

• God's judgment will mete out mercy, salvation, peace, and happiness to the righteous.

• The sooner you repent, the better because you never know how soon will be too late.

• Obedience leads to happiness; disobedience leads to unhappiness.

• Stay away from places where there is sin; avoid even the appearance of sin.

• Never experiment with sin; one try can ruin your life.

• If you keep trying to do your best, that is good enough.

• If you make a mistake, correct it and then try not to make it again.

• Jesus will forgive you if you repent, no matter what you have done.

• The reward for righteousness is all that the Father has, which is everything.

• It is the devil who wants you to be miserable like he is.

• You have not failed as long as you have not given up.

• It is important for both adults and children to make moral decisions in advance.

• Run, don’t walk, away from temptation and evil.

• Don’t judge other people but do judge for yourself between good and evil.

• You are most tempted by the things you need to be most careful to resist.

• Entertainment value is not a substitute for moral value.

• Anything that you would not feel good about doing if the Lord himself were present is probably something that you should consider as a subject for repentance.

• If you go down the wrong path you will reach the wrong destination.

• The things that we most need to learn to resist and avoid are precisely the things by which we are most tempted.

• The devil concentrates his efforts in trying to undermine the things that are most important to our salvation.

• Let Heavenly Father do any needed punishing; your job is to forgive.

• Don’t break yourself on the commandments.

KNOWING THINGS

• Inspiration is usually a quiet, peaceful thing.

• Knowing the Gospel is true is more important than any secular thing you can learn.

• You don’t have to know everything to have a testimony.

• Skepticism is not a reasonable substitute for faith.

• There is no safety in doubt; there is no peace in rebellion.

• You shouldn’t allow what you don’t know to interfere with what you do know and believe.

• Never make an important decision on the basis of something you don’t understand.

• Never make an important decision when you are upset.

• Just because you don’t have a quick answer to a skeptical question doesn’t mean the question contains any truth.

• Partial truths are not truths.

• Heavenly Father wants you to believe everything that is true.

• You can know that the gospel is true without knowing about everything else.

• Some things will only become clear after this life; you need to have faith in the meantime.

• The Holy Ghost helps you know what is true, but you need to work hard to learn as much as you can on your own.

• You can have faith and know things that haven’t been proven by the standards of the world.

• You can choose to believe things even though other people don’t believe those things.

• You can know Gospel truths; until you do, choose to believe.

• You should respect that other people may disagree with you, and they should respect that you may not agree with them.

• You should respect and be nice to everyone since we are all Heavenly Father’s children.

• Loving sinners is not the same as tolerating sin; you absolutely cannot afford to have an open mind about sin.

AGENCY AND CHOICES

• Agency has to do with your choices, not your circumstances.

• You can choose to always be active in the church; you don’t need to decide again every day.

• Every choice to obey the commandments leads to greater freedom to choose.

• We all chose to come live the kind of life that this has turned out to be.

• The decision to keep the commandments is an act of free agency.

• Good and evil are opposites, not variations of the same thing.

• As we learn to distinguish good from evil, we need to decide to choose the good and reject the evil.

• Do what is right; don’t do what is wrong.

• The Lord wants you to succeed but will not force you to succeed.

• The road to heaven is paved with good choices and service to others.

• If you want a particular blessing, find out the law on which it is predicated.

• However hard things get, it is always possible for you to do the right thing.

• Being active in the Church does not diminish free agency.

• Nothing that is forbidden will lead to happiness.

• Evil exists and is real, and you should not pretend otherwise.

• Bad things are often tempting; that is what a temptation is.

• Bad things are often entertaining and attractive, but they are still bad and must be avoided.

• People who do bad things are often popular and friendly, but you must resist and reject their example.

• There is nothing impolite about getting away from something that is not right.

• You can be polite about your obedience, but you need to be very firm.

• If you keep the commandments you will be free from the results of sin; if you break the commandments you will be burdened by the results of sin.

• There is no freedom or happiness in disobedience.

• Be careful what you say; everything you say adds to or detracts from your spiritual progress.

• Be careful what you do; you are responsible for everything you do.

• Heavenly Father gives you the blessings you need, not always the blessings you want.

• You need to set a good example and ignore other people’s bad examples.

• Pay attention to your first impressions.

• If something doesn’t feel right, stop.

• Always put off until tomorrow what you shouldn’t do today.

• You achieve perfection in the world to come by making incremental improvements over a long time, starting in this life.

• Avoid seeing or doing anything you wouldn’t want your child to see or do.

• Develop yourself while you can.

• In the life to come you will still be yourself and not someone else.

• Any progress you make will count in the hereafter; every good thing you learn in this life will rise with you and be to your advantage in the resurrection.

• The more celestial attributes you can learn in this life, the easier it will be for you to find, enter, and feel comfortable in the celestial kingdom once you depart this life.

BEING GOOD.

• The most important time to give service may be after your offer to help is declined.

• Accept thanks gracefully.

• Humbly take credit for the good things you do.

• How good we are is more important than how many we are.

• Rejoice in the good fortune of others.

• Follow good examples.

• Support good causes.

• The world secretly admires the righteous.

• Time expands to accommodate the good works needing to be done.

• A gentle touch may help most of all.

• Never hit anyone.

• Allow other people to provide you with service you need; accept help when you need help.

• If you make a mistake, correct it.

• Look for the best; overlook the worst.

• Don’t ever joke about sacred things.

• Don’t ever make fun of anyone.

• Be nice to yourself.

• Be nice to everyone, especially your family members.

• Respect other religions and the good things they teach. 

SCIENCE.

• Science is important and has its place, but it has nothing to say about the truths of the Gospel.

• Nothing comes from nothing.

• Whatever its age, the earth is one of God's glorious creations.

• In history and science, just because something is possible doesn't mean it happened.

• Science requires as much faith as religion, but it is usually carefully disguised.

• Modern science asks that we believe what even scientists can’t understand; religion asks that we believe what no scientist can prove.