Mumford and Sons is one of my favorite bands. Their lyrics are amazing and so much deeper than they seem, you can try to take apart their songs and make them mean so many different things. My favorite song by them right now is called "I Will Wait". I am going to attempt to analyze it to figure out its meaning. The lyrics are:
And I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of darkness
Which we've known
Will blow away with this new sun
And I'll kneel down
Wait for now
And I'll kneel down
Know my ground
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
So break my step
And relent
You forgave and I won't forget
Know what we've seen
And him with less
Now in some way
Shake the excess
But I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
So I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
That tethered mind free from the lies
But I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground
Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Keep my heart slow
Cause I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
And I will wait, I will wait for you
Mumford and Son's were brought up in the church, therefore many of their songs have a lot of spiritual ties. This song, in my opinion, is very spiritual, and about Jesus Christ. We have been commanded to live this life, to endure the hardships and the trials, and to do what is right to be with him again one day, I feel that is what this song is exactly about. He has done wrong, made mistakes, and is going through hard trials, but at the end of the day, he comes home, kneels down and surrenders himself to Christ. He is talking about how he will do better in his life, he has been forgiven and wont forget and he will do his part in this life, and wait for Him. This song is truly amazing.
Friday, December 21, 2012
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
School Play
I am unsure what the play was called, but it was surely something.... Different. I do enjoy going to the school plays, no matter how bad they may be, but this one is by far the worst that I have seen. The language was not too difficult, but the fact that the actors were speaking so quickly, their words were blurring together and I could hardly understand a single word throughout the entire play. I do admit that there were a few funny parts here and there that made me laugh out loud, but the majority of the rest of the play, I was confused. The story line was clear, but I am not sure how that was supposed to represent the independence of women. The women seemed to be very naive and boy crazy, and not to mention they were portrayed a lot with sexual references, so the meaning of the play was a little lost to me.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Oedipus Rex and Genesis
Hopefully I am not driving everyone crazy with all of my Bible references, but I was doing my daily Scripture reading a few days ago and came across a part that reminded me a lot of Oedipus. It was in Genesis and more specifically, chapter 31. Just a little bit of background, there is Jacob who loved a girl named Rachel, he worked for 7 years in order to have her father hand her over to him to marry. After the seven years were up, the father said that Jacob cannot have Rachel, his other daughter, Leah, was older and it was not custom to give the younger daughter before the older. So he made him marry Leah instead and work seven more years if he wanted Rachel. So he did, and finally wedded Rachel. The story goes on and the make a large family and eventually, Rachel stole "teraphim" from Laban with which the possessor had the right to inherit their fathers property. Laban was wrath with anger and he came to Jacob accusing him of stealing them from him. Jacob, being completely unaware that Rachel had stolen them (they were like images or small objects that people would worship, it was very important back then), was so sure that he was innocent that he swore a severe punishment over the guilty person and asked Laban to search his tents. Laban searched the tents, found nothing and went on his way. But the punishment Jacob suggested still stands for the guilty party. This reminded me a lot of Oedipus being so sure that he was not the guilty person of murdering his father, that he swore and awful punishment of the person that did it. When it turned out all along that he had done it, unknowingly.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Looking Forward
Today I finally had my senior meeting with Mrs. Long. I probably had the longest meeting out of all the students, it lasted over two hours! Before today, I was entirely unsure of where I planned to go to college or how I was going to go about it, plan for it, or apply for anywhere. Now I know where I am going to go, how to get started with it, and how to get where I want to be. It made me so excited for what is going to come after high school instead of it intimidating me as it usually does. We also talked a lot about my personal life as well, she seemed to be very interested about how things where like at home for me. After talking to her about how I live and work, and my circumstances and so forth, she seemed to be very concerned about me. She was trying everything she could to make things work out better for me than they have been. Which has led to an entire schedule change in order to come to school in the morning, take the 2 classes I need, and then leave so I can work. Unfortunately, this means that starting next semester, I will have to go to a different English class. I don't want to change necessarily but I know it will help me tremendously. Things will be a lot easier on my and it wont be so hard to juggle my 40 hours of work a week along with school since I will be able to start working a little earlier in the day. It's a little bitter sweet.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Interpretation Goes A Long Way
As many already know, I am a very religious person. The religion that I am apart of is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, other known as Mormon. With Romney running for president (or WAS), Mormonism has really come to light recently and I have endured the most criticism, questions, and talked to many people about how they feel about the church. What everything boils down to is why people seem to separate us from other Christians, and ultimately, is all about interpretation. How? Well all Christians believe in Christ and base teachings off of the Bible. This we also do. The only thing being, the Bible can be a very controversial book and can be interpreted in many different ways, we just happen to interpret a few things differently, so in turn, we do things a little differently.
For starters, many Christians, not all, believe that the Bible is the only inspired book of Christ and is perfect, they greatly disagree that Mormons four books of scripture. We have the Holy Bible (king James Version), the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Book of Mormon. We have these different books as a means of clarification and deeper testimony, if you were unsure of something that you read in the Bible, you will find more information on it in the other books. Many Christians do not agree with this simply because Deuteronomy states “you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2). From this verse it refers to “this book” in which the Bible had not been fully created yet, so we interpret this to mean adding or taking away from his own book, his own words; the Book of Revelation. We have added separate books, written with different words of different people (just as the Bible does), giving us more of a perspective and a fuller understanding.
For instance members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe that it is Christ’s atonement by which we are saved, but we also believe that we must do good works throughout our lives; Nephi states “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Whereas critics to our doctrine say that with accepting Christ as our savior and through Christ’s grace, there is nothing more necessary to be saved. This idea of grace alone, I must add, is never stated in the bible. Although it does say “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9-9). Well does this not plainly say that only His grace is needed? Well here is the thing, we accept the Bible in its entirety regarding what it says of Grace, faith, and works, and not just a few selected passages which are often misinterpreted. We believe that this verse was to simply teach the importance of grace. Christians may pull out that verse as their reason for believing this, but leave out that James wrote: “For as the body without spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). This verse, and many like it, perfectly embody what the LDS Church believes on this matter. There is another instance of criticism in which Mormons believe that Heavenly Father has a physical body, whereas other Christians believe he is of spirit form. This belief is often claimed to be non-Christian by citing “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) as it is stated in the King James Version. However, this verse should simply read “God is spirit”, due to the fact that in the Greek language (the language in which this verse was translated from) there is no “a” or “an”. With it now reading “God is spirit”, it no longer means God is a spirit, rather stating that spirit is one of his many attributions. Mormons, nor do Christians interpret “God is light” (1 Jn. 4:5) to mean that God is only light, or “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8) to mean that God is only love. So why interpret "God is spirit" so literally?
Non-believers will often pick at small contradictions that they think they have found between the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. We cannot rule out an entire religion due to a few contradictions, especially when there are countless contradictions within the Bible itself. In john we read “I and my Father are one” (Joh. 10:30), then later in John we read “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I” (Joh. 14:28). So are they equal or not? In Isaiah it says “Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities” (Isa. 14:21). Then again, later, in Deuteronomy is says “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deu. 24:16). In one it clearly says to be punished for the fathers sins, whereas the second says the very opposite. And how are we to truly know the last words of Jesus Christ, when in Matthew it claims “and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”… Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Mat. 27:46,50). Then in Luke it claims “and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” (Luk. 23:46). Once again, in John, it claims “when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “it is finished:” and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (Joh. 19:30). So which of these is truly the last words of Jesus Christ? I have found multiple contradictions pertaining to rather or not god can be seen. “and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my backparts” (Exo. 33:23), “and the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend” (Exo. 33:11), “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30), all of which testify to us that God CAN be seen. “no man hath seen God at any time” (Joh. 1;18), “and he said, thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live” (Exo. 33:20), “Whom no man hath seen nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16), all of these testify to us that God CANNOT be seen. As you can see, by just these few examples, that the Bible is full of contradictions, so claiming that Mormon’s are not Christian because there are some contradictions in the Book of Mormon to the Bible, is just as valid as saying Christianity itself is not true because of the contradictions in their own Bible.
I could go on for days, but the bottom line, Mormon's are Christian, we believe in God, and just for the record, we do NOT believe in Polygamy.
For starters, many Christians, not all, believe that the Bible is the only inspired book of Christ and is perfect, they greatly disagree that Mormons four books of scripture. We have the Holy Bible (king James Version), the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, and the Book of Mormon. We have these different books as a means of clarification and deeper testimony, if you were unsure of something that you read in the Bible, you will find more information on it in the other books. Many Christians do not agree with this simply because Deuteronomy states “you shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything from it” (Deuteronomy 4:2). From this verse it refers to “this book” in which the Bible had not been fully created yet, so we interpret this to mean adding or taking away from his own book, his own words; the Book of Revelation. We have added separate books, written with different words of different people (just as the Bible does), giving us more of a perspective and a fuller understanding.
For instance members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believe that it is Christ’s atonement by which we are saved, but we also believe that we must do good works throughout our lives; Nephi states “it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25:23). Whereas critics to our doctrine say that with accepting Christ as our savior and through Christ’s grace, there is nothing more necessary to be saved. This idea of grace alone, I must add, is never stated in the bible. Although it does say “For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9-9). Well does this not plainly say that only His grace is needed? Well here is the thing, we accept the Bible in its entirety regarding what it says of Grace, faith, and works, and not just a few selected passages which are often misinterpreted. We believe that this verse was to simply teach the importance of grace. Christians may pull out that verse as their reason for believing this, but leave out that James wrote: “For as the body without spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:26). This verse, and many like it, perfectly embody what the LDS Church believes on this matter. There is another instance of criticism in which Mormons believe that Heavenly Father has a physical body, whereas other Christians believe he is of spirit form. This belief is often claimed to be non-Christian by citing “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) as it is stated in the King James Version. However, this verse should simply read “God is spirit”, due to the fact that in the Greek language (the language in which this verse was translated from) there is no “a” or “an”. With it now reading “God is spirit”, it no longer means God is a spirit, rather stating that spirit is one of his many attributions. Mormons, nor do Christians interpret “God is light” (1 Jn. 4:5) to mean that God is only light, or “God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8) to mean that God is only love. So why interpret "God is spirit" so literally?
Non-believers will often pick at small contradictions that they think they have found between the Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible. We cannot rule out an entire religion due to a few contradictions, especially when there are countless contradictions within the Bible itself. In john we read “I and my Father are one” (Joh. 10:30), then later in John we read “Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I” (Joh. 14:28). So are they equal or not? In Isaiah it says “Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities” (Isa. 14:21). Then again, later, in Deuteronomy is says “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (Deu. 24:16). In one it clearly says to be punished for the fathers sins, whereas the second says the very opposite. And how are we to truly know the last words of Jesus Christ, when in Matthew it claims “and about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is to say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”… Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Mat. 27:46,50). Then in Luke it claims “and when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” (Luk. 23:46). Once again, in John, it claims “when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “it is finished:” and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (Joh. 19:30). So which of these is truly the last words of Jesus Christ? I have found multiple contradictions pertaining to rather or not god can be seen. “and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my backparts” (Exo. 33:23), “and the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend” (Exo. 33:11), “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved” (Gen. 32:30), all of which testify to us that God CAN be seen. “no man hath seen God at any time” (Joh. 1;18), “and he said, thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live” (Exo. 33:20), “Whom no man hath seen nor can see” (1 Tim. 6:16), all of these testify to us that God CANNOT be seen. As you can see, by just these few examples, that the Bible is full of contradictions, so claiming that Mormon’s are not Christian because there are some contradictions in the Book of Mormon to the Bible, is just as valid as saying Christianity itself is not true because of the contradictions in their own Bible.
I could go on for days, but the bottom line, Mormon's are Christian, we believe in God, and just for the record, we do NOT believe in Polygamy.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Salem Play
Today during class we went to the school production of Salem. Our school plays have not always been very good, by a long shot, so I did not have any high hopes for this play to be any different. I am glad to say that I really enjoyed this play, it was very different from any of the other ones I have seen, It was a little odd (because of the puppets), it was also well acted out and made me laugh out loud a few times. The way plays are written, there is always the next line that picks up directly after someone else completes there's. That way it keeps continuously going and makes it a little fast paces. They actors in the play did a good job at doing this, they came in at just the right times and everything flowed together very well, the way it is supposed to. In a written play, there is always a small incerpt every so often describing the setting or just a recap of everything that is going on. You also say where this played into the show we watched. Any time the scene changed, it was announced to the audience. This play was certainly a comedy, it was light-hearted, funny/humorous, and had a lighter tone to it.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Writing Essays
I just want to say, this class is a lot harder that I thought it was going to be. It has challenged me more than I have been challenged in any of my classes in high school. I did not take AP English last year though, so maybe that contributes to my feeling of being less prepared. Being challenged is not a bad thing, it is making me go out of my way to actually work really hard for the grades that I get, and trust me, I'm working hard. I always considered English to be an easy class, the easy A, and that is what it has always been for me in the past. What I wanted to focus on though is writing. I don't recall ever having to write a well written paper/essay, in any correct format or set up, or have been taught about claims and how to properly write a theme. How did I ever get by? Well I sadly have never had to do any of that in previous classes, contributing to my challenges in this class. With all of the essays that we have been asked to write recently, I have gone from thinking I was a perfectly good writer, to a very scatter brained writer. I am fine with that, challenge accepted.
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