Mormon Musings

Naive optimism and pervasive pessimism are both to be avoided.  It's not an easy balance to maintain, to be asked to work away in the Nenevahs of our lives without being so conscious of the coming cataclysm that we fail to be serious citizens in our communities and nations. Neal A. Maxwell (Deposition of a Disciple, p. 98) There are...those who refuse to follow the Brethren because these individuals have over-identified with a single doctrine, principle, or practice; sadly, they exclude all other counsel, which leads to a dangerous spiritual imbalance.  The difficulty with such individuals is that they have a strange sense of justification about that which they are doing.  In their intensity they lack, of course, the spiritual symmetry that comes from pursuing, in a balanced way, all the commandments of God  Neal A. Maxwell (All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience, p. 111)

...there must be balan ce. The inordinate reading of t he living scriptures that crowd ed out one's family, one's nei ghbors, and Christian service w ould be an error. One could bec ome monastic though scholastic. Christian service to mankind c ould crowd out the living scrip tures and become so consuming t hat one could forget his dutie s to family and to God, being a  do-gooder almost as an escape  from the family framework. Neal A. Maxwell, Things As They Really Are , p. 106 The blend of studying, servin g, and praying is a powerful bl end. Some try serving without t he studying of the gospel and  lose their moorings, even thoug h some good is being done. Some  individuals study to the excl usion of service, which could h eighten guilt or desensitize. S tudy is not a substitute for se rvice, nor is serving a substi tute for praying. Each law to b e obeyed has its own requiremen ts.  Neal A. Maxwell Deposition of a Disciple ,  p.34