Social Media

This morning I was running an errand and was listening to talk radio (surprise!  surprise!  LOL).  Anyway - there is a local talk show called the Haloran Hilton Show which discusses local and national stories but takes phone calls and input from locals, as you would suppose.  Today the story they were talking about was the abysmal economy and lack of jobs coupled with a new trend from employers to do background checks on potential employees using a company that investigates and scours the internet of ALL social media on a candidate - including the honors and great things along with anything you have said, done, or joined that may be negative.  The background check is very thorough and goes back for seven years.  The obvious places you would think of - facebook, my space, twitter, etc. come to mind - but flicker, photo sharing sites, clubs, blogs, interaction with individuals via the internet in emails, texts, etc. all come to bear.

The host of the program had asked what the listening audience thought...especially considering privacy rights and that so many of the younger generation seem to have so little thought about putting EVERYTHING out there with so little regard for personal privacy and understanding how easily some very innocent things can be twisted into something so bad, or we just grow up...or, on the flip side...had Anthony Weiner had a background check would his wife have married him and would his constituents voted him into office.

As I listened to the interaction my thoughts reflected over and over again on an old movie our family had watched many years ago called, Defending Your Life.  It had Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks in it and it always felt to me kind of like how I thought the judgement may be.  There was a judge and a prosecutor, using "video tape" of their lives, to determine their worthiness of future happiness and placement in the next life.  As the video replayed in certain areas they would have to explain why they made the decision or did what they did. 

I don't really remember much specifically about the movie - just the premise - but always felt like it was a pretty good representation of the plan of salvation and knowing that the Lord is omniscient.  Through the years I have often thought about the movie, especially as I pondered scriptures such as Alma 12:14-15,
       "For our words will condemn us, yea, all our works will condemn us; we shall not be found spotless; and our thoughts will also condmen us; and in this awful state we shall not dare to look up to our God; and we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence.
       "But this cannot be; we must come forth and stand before him in his glory, and in his power, and in his might, majesty, and dominion , and acknowledge to our everlasting shame that all his judgments are just; that he is just in all his works, and that he is merciful unto the children of men, and that he has all power to save every man that believeth on his name and bringeth forth fruit meet for repentance."

As the radio program ensued a caller stated the obvious - that if you don't do, say, or think anything that you wouldn't want God to witness - then you have nothing to fear...

But then I realized that there was so much more than not fearing and not wanting damnation to motivate me... there is the desire to become like my Father in Heaven and Savior...and the Lord himself told us how in D&C 88 -
        "Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you....
        "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.
        "Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will.
        "Remember the great and last promise which I have made unto you; cast away your idle thoughts and your excess of laughter far from you....
        "And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
        "Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
        "That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.
        "Therefore, cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings....
        "See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous; learn to impart one to another as the gospel requires.
        "Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated.
        "And above all things; clothe yourselves with the bond of charity, as with a mantle, which is the bond of perfectness and peace.
        "Pray always, that ye may not faint, until I come. Behold. and lo, I will come quickly, and receive you unto myself. Amen."

I love this quote from Bruce R. McConkie, "It is one thing to know about God and another to KNOW Him.  We know about Him when we learn the He is a personal being in whose image man is created; when we learn the Son is in the express image of His Father's person, when we learn that both the Father and the Son possess certain (specific) attributes and powers.  But we KNOW them in the sense of gaining eternal life when we enjoy and experience the same things They do.  To KNOW God is to think as He thinks, to feel as He feels, to have the power He possesses, to comprehend the truths He understands, and to do what He does.  Those who KNOW God BECOME like Him and have His kind of life, which is eternal life."

Our lives really are a running recording of our thoughts, deeds, and desires...and it is from this record that we will be judged...with the blanks brought about by our sincere repentance.  Obviously, as we repent, school our feelings and desires, and do the Lord's will there will be fewer and fewer gaps in the tape until such a time that we will be able to show the entire movie to the Nephis', Moses', Abrahams', and Josephs' of our posterity...and our daughters too.