Hold Firm to the Iron Rod

Every time I teach I end up learning so much. I learned something new yesterday as I was teaching. I found it so mind blowing I had to share.

As I was teaching Sunday school an interesting discussion arose. I was talking about the vision of the Spirit World Jedediah M. Grant received a few days before his death. He saw his wife and other loved ones. He described the buildings as more beautiful than how he imagined Solomon’s temple. He described an atmosphere of “perfect harmony.” I posed the question to the class, “What do you suppose he meant by perfect harmony?’ The consensus was that there could be no contention in a place of perfect harmony. I then queried, “Who is the arbiter of all contention?” The adversary, was the answer.

Therefore if contention is present then it is not coming from within you. There is an evil influence in all contention. It just makes sense to me that if in the place where the adversary cannot dwell there is no contention, then he must be the cause of all contention here on earth. To this a couple of people got a little up in arms and said, “Well you can’t just roll over and play dead. You have to fight back when attacked.” It took me a minute to come up with an answer, but my answer, right or wrong, was that holding to the iron rod is different than being contentious. Contention involves ego, pride, and probably a bit of revenge. Holding to the iron rod means knowing what you believe and value. For those of us who are LDS our values are shaped by our beliefs. When you hold to the iron rod you can stand firm in a way that eliminates any room for argument. When I was hit upside the head with this realization I just had to smile.