How Are We Spending Our Priceless Liberty? (Installment 1)

As I sit here in front of the computer screen trying to gather my thoughts, I just looked up to see my sweet wife walking toward the front door with a handful of sharp, jagged, and broken wooden sticks that, up until a short time ago, formed the legs to one of our good dining room chairs. It seems that no matter how often we tell the kids not to climb on the table, wrestle or play ball in the house, we'd be more successful winning the Utah State Lottery than actual getting them to settle down. (Yes, I know there is not a lottery in Utah. . . that's part of the point).

One of the side effects of having a house full of boys is that, unless you can get comfortable sitting on a pile of beautifully lathed kindling, you might have to stand up to eat until a new chair can be ordered. So, unless we happen to be attacked by vampires before the garbage man comes in the morning, the remnants of the chair aren't good for very much.

It’s a funny thing with kids. While they are content to do practically everything imaginable with our furniture, including climb on it, building forts with it, using it as a trampoline, a wrestling mat, and a tackling dummy, if you dare touch anything in their bedroom, like a bed or a banana chair, without their express permission and supervision, they freak out.

I know this phenomenon is not unique to the Parke household or our wild little guys, but it is a curious occurrence. As people, we tend to assign value to things in odd ways. While we hold some things as sacred and inviolable, other things we use and abuse with no apparent rationale. I think some of it has to do with a timeless principle that was eloquently captured by Thomas Paine when he stated, "what we obtain to cheap, we esteem to lightly." This is one of the truths that, while not convenient or something we want to admit to, rings very true in our day.

(NOTE: I'm not referring to the Al Gore style inconvenient truth that is inconvenient because it’s an unproven "truth" derived from partial evidence, supposition, assumptions, and contrived data, seasoned with a healthy portion of personal agenda.)

Unless we can understand the price that has been paid for any article, it is difficult for us to fully appreciate and value that article. This is true when it comes to getting kids to appreciate the comforts and conveniences they take completely for granted in this day and age, or for the rest of us when we contemplate those goods that we've acquired with little or no investment on our part.

Isn't it interesting that there are many of the older generation who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930's and the Great War of the 1940's, who were required to save, sacrifice, and toil for everything they had, who have, over time, amassed abundant savings while never earning more than a meager income, and still live unpretentious and simple lives; while at the same time young athletes who have had great wealth sprung upon them, or lottery winners who happen on large fortunes by chance, live lives of excess and are soon bankrupt and destitute?

We must learn to understand the cost that accompanies the blessings we enjoy in life. Otherwise we cannot be fully appreciative of these blessings, or fully responsible in how we use them.

Thomas Paine continued his famous quote by stating, "Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods."

We should not be so foolish as to believe that the great blessings we have received came at no cost, just because we are not the ones who paid the price. Just as our kids didn't earn the money that paid for the dining set they enjoy every time they sit down to eat a meal, there was a cost that was borne by others for many of the blessings we benefit from on a regular basis. All things of value come with a cost. It is the cost required that actually assigns the value to all things. When it comes to those things most worth possessing, those things given to us by a loving Heavenly Father who knows what we need and what will be of the greatest benefit to us, it is Heaven that places the proper price on those goods.

And so it is with the incomparable gift of liberty. Returning to the words of Thomas Paine, he concluded his insightful declaration with these words. “. . . it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.”

It is very difficult for many of us in this day to fully comprehend the high price that was paid for our freedoms. The Prophet Joseph Smith one time declared, in describing the heavenly article of freedom in our land, that “Sacred is the memory of that blood which bought for us our liberty.” (HC 3:9 emphasis added)

But those who spilt their blood lived so long ago. Their day was far removed from our day. It is difficult for many to even remember their sacrifice, let alone relate to it. Nevertheless, our apathy does not diminish the price they willingly paid.

What about those who have sacrificed since that time? One of the great tools of the adversary in keeping people from standing up in defense of liberty is the misguided belief that the cost of freedom has been paid in full. What an insult this idea is to those who have left their offering at the altar of freedom in more recent years. What a danger this idea represents when there are evil men in our day intent on destroying the liberty we've enjoyed for so long.

On Tuesday I will post the second installment of this entry, which will include stories of those who have made payments toward the price heaven has placed on our liberty. Please check back in a few days and read what comes next. I’m certain you’ll find it worthwhile. Not because of what I write, but because of the power of the sacrifices that will be described. Then, we'll consider not just the price that has paid for the liberty we enjoy, but how we are spending what we've been given.

In the meantime, please take a few minutes and check out the new blog found at http://properrole.blogspot.com/

Now I'm off to stand at the dining room table to have a bite to eat.

Thanks,
Richard