God the Father of Chill-out

If our Heavenly Father is a man of perfected flesh and bone, he must also be a man of perfected common sense.

In light of this, though, I will point out that the exactness expected in the gospel, particularly when it comes to priesthood ordinances, should never be neglected. In the case of the sacrament, it's required. Everything should be done with that same attitude of exactness, seeking to be as faultless as can be attained.

However, come on. Since Heavenly Father is omnipotent and can make sense of things we aren't even capable of considering, he's obviously also got to have, and use, common sense.

Let's say someone is giving a blessing on the road for someone who just got their leg run over and there's a bone sticking out, but the person who dripped the oil forgot to mention the name of the afflicted during the anointing. This situation is nowhere near the calm safety of a chapel, where the Priests have plenty of time to read the prayers off a card, and are given the chance to say the prayer over if they make a mistake. I trust that Heavenly Father, being an intelligent Man, wouldn't suddenly withhold helping that person who's suffering on the road, just because He's being stingy about it.

For those who would disagree, I would ask you to consider your stance: are you coming from a position of unconditional faith in a Heavenly Father who is an intelligent God, or are you coming from a position of control, only ever wanting to be right in your supposed authority?

It's common for the people who are prone to believe in invisible forces to have a personality thirsty for control, possibly from a childhood where they felt they had none. So, these same people put their entire faith and trust in things that they can't prove to be right only if they staunchly believe that they also can't be proven wrong. This is where the line is drawn between faith and superstition.

Superstition suggests that you can control your fate if you put your trust in exactness. Religious zealots who are supposedly faithful use superstition, whether they know it or not, to gain and maintain that control.

Faith is not superstition. Faith is what compels an agent of free will to act on that agency. Exactness in the form of superstition is an enemy to faith, in that it robs the agent of the freedom to act, spending that freedom to put an offer on control.

Heavenly Father is not a controlling Being. He is the author of our agency. The freedom of will is what makes us human, and He is the Creator who gave us this gift. Being the creatures we are, however, means we'll make bad decisions. Some of those bad decisions aren't conscious, like the panicked anointer who forgets a simple step of protocol during a blessing for healing. If you were in Heavenly Father's place, and you essentially said, "Nope. You'll get no help from me, here, because you didn't follow the rules," you'd be an unloving god. Your real message would translate to, "It's your fault this person will suffer without any hope for help from me. And, it's okay, because I'm in charge, and I get to make these decisions so I can keep being in control." Just as the executioner of the man Jesus Christ washed his hands of what would happen next, your attitude is that you are faultless simply because you feel like it, as long as you're in control.

Take heart if you make a mistake, is what I'm saying. If you're really concerned about a minor mistake you've made using the priesthood, don't ask the petty self-obsessed nitpickers who tiptoe up to their skinny pedestals before they answer. Ask the actual Man who is in charge.