The traffic light system in Hungary reminds me of certain aspects in
life. We have previously posted on Facebook pictures that show a red
light, a green arrow light, both next to a red stop sign. Which one gives
the proper traffic signal?
Lehi, in his farewell talk to his son Jacob states, there must be opposition in
all things, if not, righteousness could not be brought to pass. Then Lehi
says that all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all
things. 2 Nephi 2. Life, like these traffic lights, give us oppositional
directions.
We are here on earth to learn wisdom. Not wisdom of the world, but of
God. The world puts up street lights with red lights, green arrows lights
and stop signs in almost every aspect of life. There is no instruction on
what to do when all three conflict with each other. In too many
situations there is not a clear “good v bad” option. That is one of the
major conflicts of life; what is correct by societal opinion, what is correct
by traditional opinion and then what is correct by God’s commandments.
At night after 9:00 pm (21:00 Hungarian time), the red lights become flashing
yellow lights on all four sides of the intersection. Only what they don’t
tell you is that one direction has the right of way and the “right side” is not
always the one with the right of way. How do you learn this rule per
street? Almost get into a couple of collisions until you learn to not
care about the blaring horns being honked when you slow down and enter the
intersection slowly!
Again, another aspect of the world. Flashing lights warning people, but
what is the warning light for? No one likes it when you want to slow down
to make sure the decision you are making is the proper decision. The
opioid drug problem is bad, but marijuana and alcohol is cool, but let’s not
allow smoking of tobacco! Which is good, which is bad? The world
has to rely on society to tell them, because if not, they might offend some
group when they continue to believe in a position that has not changed for
4,000 years.
The one traffic light that has me wishing it was used in the U.S. is the yellow
light prior to the red light turning green. The U.S. uses only the yellow
light to warn about stopping. Europe uses the yellow light to warn people that
the red light is about to change to green. The opposite street light has
a delayed system built in so that cars are out of the intersection before the
yellow light appears. The U.S. uses this system in all types of races,
“On your mark, get set, go!”
Won’t the world be better off if there was a caution light that would appear,
just before we started something good or bad? Stop and ask yourself, is
this the right course? Will my efforts be positive? However, we
have warning as to hurricanes and tornados, but how many people elect not to
heed the warnings and lose their lives? How many people ignore the
flashing signs about not entering in to a dip in the road during flooding and
lose their lives? So, does warning really help a society that doesn’t
want to face reality?
We have most the prophets in the Old & New Testament and in the Book of
Mormon giving us the yellow light of Christ’s second coming. These signs
are now being fulfilled. But are we missing the signals because we are
looking too much at our cell phones or what others would think of us attempt
follow God’s commandments?
I hope that we learn what Satan correctly told Eve about eating of the
forbidden fruit, “You will be like the Gods, knowing good from evil.” But
just like the world and the flashy yellow lights at night, they lie about who
has the right of way. Satan, lied to Eve when in the same statement about
knowing good from evil, he told her that she would not die from her
actions. Let’s be careful, the world with all of its signals give too
many false signals.
Opposition to all things was planned before we came to earth. It is there
to allow us to learn wisdom. When we mess up and make the wrong choice,
we have Christ’s atonement that negates our mess-ups. But in so doing, we
learn wisdom. We learn the difference between good and evil. What
Satan told Eve was a half-truth. What he didn’t realize was his choice to
tempt Adam and Eve lead to humanity coming to earth. He needed a flashing
yellow light before he tempted Eve, but like a lot of people, he ignored the
warning and messed up his attempt to stop God’s plan. In this case,
Satan’s cunning was no match for God’s knowledge of the past, the present and
the future. My point is that the same thing will happen at Christ’s
coming; Satan’s cunningness will fail. Let’s make sure we are heeding the
right signals and are on the same road as Christ.
All of my love,
Dad
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