Jet Mariano

Tag: repentance

  • Marked in Time – Sep 12, 2025 – “Meek and Lowly” (Elder Neal A. Maxwell)

    Manila woke to a sky of soft fire, and the spires answered. The world often mistakes meekness for weakness, but heaven doesn’t. Meekness is how we hear the ‘still, small voice’ in a loud century, how we keep working without being seen, how we forgive when no one claps. In that quiet courage, the Lord gives what He promised—rest for the soul and light for the road.

    Excerpt

    Meekness isn’t weakness—it’s the enabling power to wear Christ’s yoke, learn of Him, and endure well. It quiets pride, softens intellect, and turns stumbling blocks into stepping stones.

    Intro

    Today I revisited Elder Neal A. Maxwell’s 1986 devotional, “Meek and Lowly.” The world treats meekness as quaint; heaven calls it essential: “For none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart” (Moroni 7:44). Jesus invites, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly” (Matthew 11:29). Meekness is the key that makes discipleship possible—steady work, quiet strength, and “thanksgiving daily” even in stern seasons.

    Straight line

    Wear His yoke, learn of Him. Meekness is how disciples are taught by the Yoke-Master—an education for mortality and eternity.

    Do good—and don’t weary. Maxwell stacks the stretch: do good and don’t faint; endure and endure well; forgive and forgive “seventy times seven.”

    Drop the heavy baggage. Meekness sheds fatiguing insincerity, hunger for praise, and the “strength-sapping quest for recognition.”

    Meekness deepens discipleship. God gives challenges to keep us humble (Ether 12:27). Meekness steadies us when misrepresented or misunderstood.

    One missing virtue matters. Like the rich young ruler, other strengths can’t compensate for missing meekness—it alters decisions and destiny.

    A friend of true education. “Humbleness of mind” opens us to things we “never had supposed” (Moses 1:10); without it we’re “ever learning” yet missing truth (2 Tim. 3:7).

    Pride is in all our sins. Meekness breaks those polished chains—resentment, offense-hunting, murmuring, and small, myopic views of reality.

    Ears to hear. The meek listen long enough to recognize the Shepherd’s voice and turn “rocks of offense” into stepping stones.

    Grace flows to the meek. “His grace is sufficient” (Ether 12:26). Without meekness there is no sustained faith, hope, or charity (Moroni 7:43–44).

    Line upon line. Meekness partners with patience—time to absorb, repent, and be made strong in weak places (Ether 12:27; 2 Nephi 28:30).

    Final reflection

    Meekness is not passivity; it’s power under covenant. It lets Christ carry the kingdom while we do our duty, turns offense into learning, and keeps us rejoicing when no one’s clapping. If I would know the Lord better, I must wear His yoke longer.

    Pocket I’m keeping

    • Wear His yoke → learn of Him
    • Do good and don’t weary
    • Shed praise-hunger; drop old grievances
    • Listen longer; recognize His voice
    • Ask “rightly,” wait “line upon line”
    • Let grace make weak things strong

    What I hear now

    “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

    Link to the talk

    BYU Devotional — “Meek and Lowly” (Neal A. Maxwell, Oct 21, 1986)

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time Sep 9, 2025 – Repent of Our Selfishness

    Waning gibbous, waiting: I timed the moon to rest behind the Angel Moroni atop the Oquirrh Mountain Temple—quiet light on a higher call.

    Excerpt
    Selfishness is not just a flaw—it’s self-destruction in slow motion. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that meekness is the real cure, for it doesn’t just mask selfishness but dissolves it.

    Intro
    Joseph Smith urged that selfishness be “not only buried, but annihilated.” Elder Maxwell builds on that: selfishness shrinks the soul, corrodes society, and detonates commandments. Like Copernicus reminding the world it wasn’t the center of the universe, we too must learn—we are not the center. Meekness and unselfish discipleship are the only antidotes.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Selfishness = self-destruction in slow motion. It narrows life until others no longer matter.
    • Appetite and ego can never fill emptiness; zero multiplied by anything is still zero.
    • Selfishness masks itself as swagger but is as provincial as goldfish in a bowl.
    • Joseph Smith: selfish feelings must be annihilated, not moderated.
    • Common forms: puffing credit, resenting others’ success, withholding kindness, rudeness, and abuse.
    • Cultural consequence: when selfishness spreads, societies decline—without mercy, without love, past feeling.
    • Selfishness detonates the Ten Commandments: it fuels envy, adultery, dishonesty, even murder.
    • Cain’s “I am free” after slaying Abel = ultimate selfish blindness.
    • Today: people strain at gnats (small issues) while swallowing camels (grave sins like abortion).
    • Followers share accountability with leaders in cultural decline; excuses won’t save.
    • True freedom comes from unselfishness—serving, forgiving, and lifting others.
    • Christ Himself is the supreme contrast: He did not look out for “number one.”

    Final reflection
    Selfishness corrodes both heart and culture. The cure is meekness—choosing to notice, to yield, to bless. When I dissolve selfish wants, space opens for Christlike love. The world says “look out for number one”; Jesus says, “lose yourself and you’ll find life.”

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Before big actions: quietly ask, “Whose needs am I meeting?”
    • Practice daily meekness: count to 10 before speaking, let the Spirit filter words.
    • Replace envy with gratitude; bless the success of others.
    • Sow unselfishness in family life—ordinary duties cultivate extraordinary love.
    • Remember: selfishness shrinks, meekness expands.

    What I hear now
    Unselfishness frees me under a “freer sky,” as Chesterton said. Meekness is not weakness—it’s strength without selfishness. When I choose it, selfishness dissolves and discipleship deepens.

    Link to the talk
    “Repent of [Our] Selfishness” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts” (Neal A. Maxwell)

    Waxing gibbous moon peeking through stormy blue over the Jordan River Utah Temple, Friday night (9/5/25), framed by leaves and looking East South East of the sky.

    lle’s “preconditioning,” included the Power of Now reference, and linked the YouTube clip you gave me:

    Excerpt
    Desire steers destiny. Elder Neal A. Maxwell teaches that God judges “according to the desire of [our] hearts”—and helps us train those desires toward Him.

    Intro
    Maxwell reframes agency at its core: desires are the drivers. Genes, circumstances, and environments matter, but—as he reminds us—“there remains an inner zone in which we are sovereign, unless we abdicate.” In that sacred space lies our real agency.

    Eckhart Tolle explains the other side of the equation in what he calls preconditioning:

    “Mental and emotional filters: our minds are filled with ingrained narratives, beliefs, and emotional patterns that act like lenses through which we view the world.”

    (The Power of Now; also shared in his YouTube talk on preconditioning)

    Those filters shape perception, just as culture, family patterns, and past wounds bend behavior. Yet, as Maxwell insists, they cannot erase that sovereign inner zone. What we persistently desire is who we become—and what we receive.

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Desire is more than preference; it’s a real longing that directs agency and outcomes.
    • God mercifully considers our desires, works, and degrees of difficulty—yet won’t force us.
    • Satan desires our misery; wrong desires make us our own victims.
    • Lukewarmness flattens the soul; righteous desires must be relentless, daily.
    • Education of desire = learn truth and learn to love it; small acts create spiritual momentum.
    • “Do you,” President Brigham Young asked, “think that people will obey the truth because it is true, unless they love it? No, they will not” (Journal of Discourses, 7:55).
    • Some desires must dissolve (envy, self-pity); weak righteous desires can grow strong.
    • Parents teach and model, but each soul must choose; God’s arm is stretched out still.
    • In process of time, holy desires produce holy works.
    • Preconditioning may set the stage—but the sovereign inner zone decides the play.

    Final reflection
    My outcomes track my appetites. When I aim my wants at ease or applause, I drift. When I aim them at Jesus, momentum returns. Desire is today’s steering wheel. Elder Maxwell’s reminder of the inner zone keeps me accountable: I can’t blame culture, genes, or preconditioning. They explain, but they don’t excuse. Tolle helps me name the filters that fog my lens, but Maxwell reminds me that God still waits on what I choose to desire.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Pray, then plan by desire: “More holiness give me” → schedule one aligned act.
    • Replace envy with intercession: bless the person I’d be tempted to compare with.
    • Feed the flame daily—scripture, sacrament, service—before screens.
    • Name one mis-aimed desire and starve it for a week.
    • Measure progress by direction and devotion, not dopamine.

    What I hear now
    If I train my want-to, God will shape my able-to. Even a spark—“I desire to believe”—is enough for Him to begin multiplying light.

    Link to the talk
    “According to the Desire of [Our] Hearts” — Elder Neal A. Maxwell

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • Marked in Time — “Preparing to Stand on Holy Ground”

    Reflections before reverence — a quiet stream “washes the edge” as the Saratoga Springs Utah Temple rises in the pool, a reminder to lay down our “shoes” and step onto holy ground.

    Excerpt
    Moses removed his shoes; I can remove my impurities. How I’m preparing my heart to meet God—at the temple and at home.

    Intro
    “Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).
    Elder Ulisses Soares: “Taking off our worldly shoes is the beginning of stepping onto holy ground and being transformed in higher and holier ways.” — “Reverence for Sacred Things,” Apr 2025

    Straight line (what he’s saying)
    • Holy spaces (temples, homes, dedicated places) call for removing impurity before we approach.
    • The Lord’s pattern repeats: printing office “holy, undefiled”; temple “mine holy house”; Missouri temple where the pure in heart shall see God—holiness is both place and people.
    • Small, intentional acts (like forgiving in the parking lot) are today’s “shoe removal.”
    • We don’t make ourselves holy; we offer our will. Christ’s Atonement does the sanctifying.
    • Holiness is practical: reverence, clean hands/heart, focus, and meekness that lets the Spirit teach.

    Final reflection
    I arrive at holy ground with dust on my soul—hurry, annoyance, stray pride. God isn’t asking for theatrics; He’s asking for shoes—the little impurities I can actually take off.

    Pocket I’m keeping
    • Pause before entry (temple or prayer): breathe, confess, forgive, then go in.
    • Language fast: no sarcasm or sharp words on holy days.
    • Clean gatekeeping: music, media, and thoughts that fit the space I’m entering.
    • Offer the will: “Lord, here are my shoes today—take hurry, take resentment.”
    • Home altar: make my living room reverent before I ask for revelation.

    What I hear now
    Saratoga Springs Temple at sunset, the waxing gibbous rising—before the doors or the camera, I’ll take off the day’s dust. Then let Him make the moment holy.

    Link to the talk
    Exodus 3:5 • Elder Ulisses Soares, “Reverence for Sacred Things” (Apr 2025) • Doctrine and Covenants 94:12; 95:16; 96:2; 97:15–16 • Moroni 10:32–33 (“Yea, come unto Christ… be perfected in him… sanctified in Christ… become holy, without spot.”)

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

  • There’s No One Now but You

    When all else faded, only You remained

    (Inspired by the journey of loss, growth, and grace)

    I felt so strong, so sure, so free,
    Believed the path belonged to me.
    No need for hands to guide or stay—
    I didn’t know I’d break this way.

    I chased the stars, ignored the signs,
    Built my dreams on shallow lines.
    But life, with quiet storms in view,
    Took all I had—and tested too.

    It seized the hope I once embraced,
    And left me wandering, soul displaced.
    I thought the shape of life was mine,
    Each step designed by grand design.

    I didn’t need You—so I claimed,
    Dismissed the whispers of Your name.
    But all along, in silence deep,
    You held the vows I failed to keep.

    And now the curtain’s torn in two,
    I see the world in clearer hue.
    No crowd remains to lean into—
    There’s no one now…
    but You.

    © 2012–2025 Jet Mariano. All rights reserved.
    For usage terms, please see the Legal Disclaimer.

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