I See... the Dam(n) Truth

(WARNING: there is a select term in this blogpost which sounds like a cussword, but it's really not because I'm not using it that way.)

Several years ago I took some nieces and nephews on a dam trip. We toured the Hoover dam complex and learned about the history of it's construction. It was a great dam story. At the end of the day, we had forged some precious dam memories.

Since that dam experience I have relished recounting several engaging stories of that dam visit voicing the word “dam” in carefully constructed contexts, allowing me to sound like I'm cussing without actually cussing. My wife thinks it is infantile; a sister-in-law giggles wildly; and everyone else who knows me is somewhat intrigued witnessing a good Mormon boy using such coarse language so recklessly.

Nevertheless, I have struggled for almost eight years now to find a legitimate, inspiring reason to include my dam story in an approved doctrinal context worthy of a MTE dam blogpost. Impossible, you say? I think not. Read on, for the Mormon Third Eye specializes in the impossible. I learned the truth about damnation, the damn truth, in Seminary.

In our study of the Doctrine and Covenants, we ran across several seemingly harsh promises of damnation for those who do not accept the saving ordinances of the gospel: “And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned (D&C 68:9).” In terms of our potential for eternal progression in the highest order of the Celestial Kingdom, “damnation” or “to be damned” means to have our progression stopped-we loose the opportunity for eternal increase. Just like a dam stops the progress of flowing water, our failure to accept the saving ordinances of the gospel stops our progress in this life and the next, and we become “damned.”

The damn truth is that many of us dam the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ and potential for unlimited happiness behind huge concrete walls of pride, disobedience, anger, and all varieties of addiction, and in the course of our own personal dam construction damn our own souls now and in the next life- eternal damnation.

I think this is the best dam blogpost I've ever written. Regular MTE readers, what do you think?