(May 29, 2015)
As a
divorced man (especially one who filed for the divorce), I must wrestle with
the unambiguous words of the Savior – “whosoever shall put away his wife,
saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery; and whoso
shall marry her who is divorced committeth adultery.”
I must
deal with that in light of a couple of likewise unambiguous truths. First, the Lord’s words are not to be trifled
with and deeper doctrine is so often nothing more than taking the Lord’s words
seriously and literally. Second, I was
unambiguously told (repeatedly) by the Spirit that I was to divorce my
(ex-)wife.
I
struggled for a long time to come up with a rational and logical reason why my
situation was an exception, but nothing I came to was truly accurate. There was a great deal of post-facto logic
that was stretching what was reasonable.
I was justifying a position, rather than searching for the truth.
Finally
I had to come to terms with the simple reality that the Lord through the Spirit
told me something different, and I had the obligation to follow that. Just as Nephi had been told to kill Laban, I
had been told to divorce. Just as Nephi’s
instruction did not modify the commandment not to kill, my instruction did not
modify the general commandment not to divorce.
There
is certainly a principle which explains why what I did was acceptable in my
case and would not be acceptable in a different case, but I doubt I will truly
understand that principle in mortality.
The more important principle, however, is when the Lord tells you to do something,
you follow those instructions and trust the Lord to make it right. And He has, and I have been blessed as I have
followed Him.
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