Bridled passions aid oneness with the Lord
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Passions properly bridled will facilitate oneness with the Lord, Elder Bruce C. Hafen of the Seventy said March 2 during a BYU-Idaho devotional assembly.
"Alma taught his son … to 'bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love' (Alma 38:12)," he said. "… God does not want us to extinguish the passionate yearnings of our hearts. He wants us to fulfill them, but He wants to teach us how to find their full expression. That is exactly why He gave us the bridle of the gospel — so we can be filled with the fire of our God-given passions without being destroyed by that fire."
Elder Hafen, who served as president of Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) from 1978-85, went on to explain how the Lord's commandments can be a bridle helping lead Latter-day Saints to true fulfillment and satisfaction.
"Do you think God gave us the commandments because He doesn't want us to experience the deepest satisfactions of which the human soul is capable" he asked. "Is the gospel a wall built around joy and fulfillment to keep us out? The prophet Jacob said, 'Do not … labor for that which cannot satisfy' (2 Ne. 9:51). Remember that.
"The problem is not that the world's way is too satisfying. The problem is that the world's way isn't satisfying enough. It cannot satisfy. It doesn't have the power. It is a tragically cheap imitation of the real thing. The real thing is full of authentic, bridled, eternally committed love and passion."
Elder Hafen's wife, Sister Marie K. Hafen, also spoke at the devotional assembly.
"A bridle is anything that trains the natural man out of us and conditions us in the discipline of Godliness," she said.
Sister Hafen shared some of the bridles she uses "to stay tender to God's touch": prayer ("asking more specifically because I know from experience I will get more specific answers"), scripture study ("especially the Book of Mormon"), fasting and attending the temple ("where heaven meets earth").
The devotional assembly ended with Elder Hafen expressing his vision of the eternal destination he hopes to achieve vis-?vis passions bridled after the manner set forth by the Lord.
"Someday, Marie and I will be ready to go home, home with a capital H," he said. "I can already picture it. When we both get there, we will approach some sacred, eternal front door together. The light on the front porch will be on and inside there will be a fire in the fireplace.
"We will cross that threshold together, entering the presence of Him whose Atonement made our eternal sealing possible. And we will kneel together at His feet to thank Him for giving us the bridle that makes it possible for us to be filled with love — everlastingly. And we will stay there with Him, with our family, and with our eternal friends, and our fire will go no more out."
