Where your heart is, 

there will your wallet be also.

Money is the placebo, and love is the cure

 We throw money at everything from education to poverty.  Expensive programs rehabilitate our drug addicts. Top dollar buys us counselors for those with marital problems, mental needs, and social disabilities.

   As long as we are spending, we figure we are doing something about the problem. It becomes a placebo. Whether the problem gets solved or not, spending money buys us comfort. Now, sometimes the money and the programs make a massive difference. But, other times, our spending reaps little result.

   I would to tell you a better solution. There is more success to be found in love than in money. If it is a change in behavior you seek, try love before money.
   You have heard the old adage, I don't care how much you know until I know how much you care.
   And, you have heard of those studies, of how babies receiving affection and love develop better than those who don't.
   It is said, Love is the most powerful force in the world. If we believe that, we should be trying it. If love really does bring about change, we should be looking for ways to instill it in our education programs, in our prisons, and in our programs for everything from homelessness to drug abuse.
   Love brings about change faster than a dollar spent.
   I do not say money cannot buy change. Surely, many of these programs reap great rewards. But, love is being ignored, and it is love that is the greater force. It might not be popular to say it, and certainly a person running for office, if he were to call for instilling love in education or such, would run the danger of being laughed of the stage. 
   We must get beyond that. We must get to a point where the answers that make a difference are neither ridiculed nor casually dismissed.
   Consider: Love has not been seriously instituted as a means of solving so many of our problems. If it is effective, if it is the most powerful force in the world, if we use it, we stand to reach heights and make progress that has never been achieved before.

Lord, be with me through the day

Please help me in every way

All my blessings are at thy hand

I need them all if I am to stand

If We Believe in Love, Why do We Ignore it?

   Give more money to education, perhaps, for that will show you are trying to help, trying to do something. But, I'm not so sure but what, when it comes to education, money is the placebo, while love is the cure.
   Pouring money into education will make us feel like we are doing something. And, it is true that money can help.
   But, laugh me away, if you will, that I should suggest love is the better answer. However much love the students feel, give them more. Amp up the love. I believe in the maxim, I don't care how much you know until I know how much you care. I hear of the reports on how love affects the development of children.
  In Nelson Rockefeller's words, "The most powerful force in the world is love." Others have probably said it slightly differently.
  If we believe these things, why do we not run to amp up the love? If we know -- if studies have shown -- love affects intelligence, why do we leave it behind when discussing what should be done to better our education system?
  Why all the talk on programs and tests and standards -- and no talk about the role of love? Those other things, too, might be helpful, but to leave out love is to leave out one of the most important elements of all.

Those Who Falsely Accuse Others of Racism Should be Corrected

   A week and a half ago, I wondered what could be done to, (1.) discourage people from honestly coming to the false opinion that others are racist, and, (2.) discourage people from calling others racist even though they know they aren't, and doing it just to stir up trouble.
   I suggested I was going to bed thinking about solutions, but doubting I would find one. Well, perhaps there are some things that could be done. If someone is falsely accused, that person should be stoutly defended. That might seem too simple an answer. But, it matters. If nothing is said to defend truth, falsehood wins. When I say, stoutly defended, though, I do not mean with anger. We should be understanding of others, even when they make false accusations. We should set them straight, but we should be gentle and meek in setting them straight. And, while this gentleness and meekness should be used on those making honest mistakes, perhaps a little more firmness is in order for those who know they are making false accusations.
   If a person attacks another as a racist, and gets away with the accusation, they will likely do it again. It is only in being rebuked that they learn not to make false accusations.
   I will go to bed thinking yet more on this.

Looking to the Book of Mormon for What to do in Syria

   If we were to look to the Book of Mormon for an answer as to what to do in Syria, could we find an answer?

   I think of Nephi and others fleeing from one part of the land to another to escape Laban and Lemuel. And, I think of Limhi and his people fleeing, and of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies . . .

   Fleeing.

   There are those who would force the Syrian refugees back to their home country, saying they should fight for their freedom instead of forcing themselves on others in foreign lands. 

   But, I see scriptural precedence -- in abundance -- for fleeing from the hands of the enemy. We have more than just the Book of Mormon on this. In the Bible, the Israelites fleed the Pharoah. (That the Lord had the people in the Book of Mormon do the same thing as He had the Israelites do in the Bible -- flee -- might should be considered evidence the Book of Mormon is true, for the same God gave the same directions.)
   And, I see precedence for doing what I suggested this past week: Being a protectorate of  a people. The Lord commanded Ammon to lead the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to safety, and so he led them to the land of Zarahemla, and the Nephites consulted and chose to give the Anti-Nephi-Lehies the land of Jershon.

   So, it appears that rather than mixing the Anti-Nephi-Lehies in with themselves, the Nephites, they set them in a land that became their own. And, since the Anti-Nephi-Lehies refused to fight for themselves -- having taken a covenant not to war -- the Nephites placed their own armies between the Lamanites and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.

   They became their protectorates. They sought to seal off the Anti-Nephi-Lehies from their enemies. That is the same thing I suggested we do for Syria, albeit, I suggested we leave the Syrian people in Syria as opposed to moving them to another place.

   In today's world, I fear there might not be another place large enough to place the Syrians as a whole. Would we move them to Siberia? I would consider it, if we could. Would we give them their own land in New Mexico? I'd consider it, if it could be done.

   Bottom line, though, is I don't think Siberia or New Mexico are open to giving up a goodly-sized area to the Syrians.

   So, make Syria the place where we protect them. Clear out Bashar al Assad, ISIS and all the other bad elements, and wrap a defense around the land.

   Like the Nephites wrapped a defense around Jershon for the Anti-Nephi-Lehies.

Might the Fear of Bombs Chase us Underground?

   One wonders if the world will someday fear bombs so much that people will run and hide.
   Under the rocks and in the clefts of the rocks.
   Will fear chase us to the caves, to the bomb shelters?
   If so, that, too, might be a fulfillment of prophecy.  "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord." (Isaiah 2:19)