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The Reason

Dear Reader,

Today was an awesome experience! I had the opportunity to attend the temple with my roommate and my best friend, just a week before she heads on a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We had the opportunity to be part of small group while we were there and it was a great stress-relief from everything going on this week.

While at the temple today, a question popped into my head that I feel should be answered here on the blog. However, it was just the question that popped into my head, so my response to it may or may not make much sense. We will go over it together and hopefully we will be able to understand each other.


What is the difference between fear, love and duty?


Let me explain this question. People do a lot of different things in life and above are listed three of the main reasons why they do them. I'll give an example: why do people get baptized after the manner that Jesus Christ got baptized? These are not the only reasons that people get baptized, but fear, love and duty are three of the principle reasons.

First: fear. There are many prophecies about what will happen to those who don't accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are scriptures about being cast out, gnashing of teeth and burning, just to name a few. Some people are baptized because they do not want to experience those things described in those scriptures. They fear the consequences.

Second: love. Christ talks about service to God and fellow-man. He talks about loving him and showing that love through following his teachings. Sometimes we do things for other people solely because we love that person. Some people follow Christ simply because they love him.

Third: duty. Another common reason for doing something is the sense of duty. For example, a person may feel that getting baptized is a good thing to do, but don't want to do it. This type of people shows duty by doing what they don't want to do because they know that good will come from it.

Baptism is not the only action where these motivations apply. The question, more clearly stated: does it matter what our motivation for doing something is? I'll let you think on that for awhile.

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