The scriptures warn us “Trifle not with sacred things” (D&C 6:12). This is a reminder that we should treat sacred or holy things with respect and reverence, not handling them carelessly, or treating them casually. To “trifle not” means to avoid treating lightly or disrespectfully those things that are of great spiritual significance. It includes physical objects and intangibles, such as covenants, ordinances, the word of the Lord, and sacred experiences.
In earlier times, trifling could be hazardous to one’s health and well-being. Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark of the Covenant and was struck dead for touching it (2 Samuel 6). Ananias and Sapphira lied about their donation and were also summarily dispatched. (Acts 5). King Belshazzar used sacred vessels pilfered from Jerusalem for his feast and lost his kingdom (Daniel 5). Korihor was struck dumb for blasphemy and eventually was trampled to death (Alma 30). Sherem met his demise for demanding a sign to prove the power of God (Jacob 7). And the creation and worship of the golden calf while Moses was on Mount Sinai resulted in plagues imposed on the Israelites (Exodus 32).
Times have changed and the consequences of trifling with sacred things are less obvious and immediate now. But the warning remains unchanged. Trifling is offensive to God and can lead to a loss of spiritual sensitivity. Following are five examples of trifling. There are many more, such as profaning the name of deity and treating temple covenants lightly. My choice and explanation of the five may seem somewhat unusual, but it reflects ideas that are currently on my mind and concern me. Some represent blatantly offensive actions, while others may occur relatively “unknowingly” and may be benign acts of omission.
Patriarchal Blessings. For the last four plus years I have had the opportunity to serve as a patriarch in a YSA stake. Part of the process is a get-acquainted meeting before I schedule and give the blessing. As part of that meeting. I provide a two-page FAQ handout that includes the guidance that has been provided about blessings from the Church Handbook and from church leaders. One topic focuses on the confidential nature of blessings. It states:
Each patriarchal blessing is sacred, confidential, and personal.… Church members should not compare blessings and should not share them, except with close family members. Patriarchal blessings should not be read in church meetings or other public gatherings. (General Handbook, Section 18:17)
Consistent with that guidance, I usually limit those in attendance at the blessing to parents, with a sibling sometimes included if there are special circumstances. The actual blessing meeting is brief to avoid peripheral social chit chat that would detract from the spirit of the event.
Unfortunately, that counsel for confidentiality is often disregarded. Members often compare their blessings and even use them for personal gain. I was at a fireside recently where the speaker quoted part of his blessing to justify his involvement in an entrepreneurial activity. He was probably well-meaning, but this use of his blessing was not appropriate.
But these breaches pale in comparison to more blatant disregard for confidentiality. An acquaintance introduced me to a website (which I will not dignify by providing more specific identification) that I found very disturbing. The originator invited church members to provide copies of their own or their ancestor’s patriarchal blessings. More than a thousand blessings had been submitted. He then did a content analysis on the blessings to see how frequently different ideas were mentioned. For example, he provided tables showing the frequency of lineage designations, what proportion of blessings proclaimed that the person would come forth in the First Resurrection, how frequently the blessing mentioned that the recipient had chosen their parents in pre-mortality, and how often the person was told he/she was valiant before birth. This content analysis was broken down by decades to indicate how blessings have changed over time.
The website contained a separate section that asked temple attenders to submit the new name they had received in the temple on a specific day. These data were used to compile a table showing the names used in temples each day. Despite the injunction in the temple against revealing the new name, there was no shortage of submissions.
I was troubled by the website and only returned to it once to refresh my memory for this article. I wasn’t surprised that there would be an individual who would undertake this effort, but I was disheartened that so many active members of the Church would participate by submitting such personal information. The widespread use of the internet has made it much easier and more common to trifle with sacred things.
Spiritual Experiences. In a seminar given to mission presidents and their wives, Elder Boyd K Packer counseled that we should be careful in sharing (trifling with?) our personal spiritual experiences:
I have learned that strong, impressive spiritual experiences do not come to us very frequently. And when they do, they are generally for our own edification, instruction, or correction…… I have come to believe also that it is not wise to continually talk of unusual spiritual experiences. They are to be guarded with care and shared only when the Spirit itself prompts you to use them for the blessing of others. We are, I believe, to keep these things and ponder them in our hearts, as Luke said Mary did of the supernal events that surrounded the birth of Jesus. (The Candle of the Lord, January, 1983)
Why should we be selective in sharing spiritual experiences? First, such experiences are often extremely personal and sharing them too often can make them more routine and less meaningful. Much as diluting juice concentrate with increasing amounts of water reduces its potency, so also repeated recounting of spiritual experiences can lessen their impact. Second, if the setting is not appropriate the experience might not be properly understood, or worse, subjected to scorn or analyzed in secular terms. A spiritual event shared confidentially in the temple will be received differently than the retelling in a gathering of casual acquaintances.
Third, the Lord doesn’t intend for every spiritual experience to be shared. In the same talk, Elder Packer recounted the practice of President Marion G Romney, ‘I do not tell all I know; I have never told my wife all I know, for I found out that if I talked too lightly of sacred things, thereafter the Lord would not trust me.’ Finally, the motivation for sharing must be considered. Is it to strengthen others or for personal recognition or praise?
Sacrament. The scriptures are clear regarding who should take the Sacrament. When instituting the ordinance among the righteous Nephites, the Savior taught in 3 Nephi 18:
- And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall not suffer
anyone to knowingly partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it;
In most cases, the “knowingly” requirement is not available to priesthood leaders, so it becomes the responsibility of the individual to make that assessment. But meeting the minimum standard of worthiness to take the Sacrament doesn’t assure efficacious participation in the ordinance. The roughly 10-15 minutes necessary to bless and pass the Sacrament each Sunday is intended to be a time for candid self-evaluation, repentance, and self-improvement. Paul wrote that during the Sacrament time, “let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup” (I Cor 11:28).
Sacrament time should be a sacred experience of contemplation that draws us closer to the Savior and draws on the power of the Atonement. If the time is spent looking around the congregation, planning menus, reviewing Saturday sports, or browsing the internet, the central and sacred purpose of the Sacrament Meeting has been trifled with. In an institute class years ago, I remember the instructor recalling a Sacrament experience where he spent the entire time looking at a very large woman and pondering how she could possibly walk on the five-inch spike heels she was wearing. He acknowledged that his quest for exaltation was not greatly aided by this experience. I learned a great lesson that day. I never look at women’s shoes in church. I’m a quick learner of unimportant things. My teacher may have hoped for more from me with his example.
Gaslighting. Gaslighting occurs in situations where someone is manipulated into questioning their own reality or feelings. The term comes from a 1938 play, Gas Light, where a husband manipulates his wife into believing she is losing her faculties by gradually dimming the gas lights in their home and then denying that there has been any change. In recent years, the term has re-emerged in common usage. How does gaslighting relate to trifling with sacred things?
In a church context, gaslighting can occur when a person’s beliefs or values are subtly undermined. It represents trifling of sacred things because those individual beliefs and values are sacred. For example, if someone shares a personal experience and another retorts that it didn’t happen or is a product of their vivid imagination, that can be gaslighting. Or a valid concern about church teachings may be summarily dismissed by telling someone they lack faith or aren’t righteous enough. A member who has had a difficult experience may be told that such things don’t happen in the Church or that they were at fault. Sometimes, those responses may be accurate, but we should use great care in trifling with the testimonies and self-worth of others.
Consider an extreme example. As a young bishop of a married student ward, I saw a tragic consequence of gaslighting. In the congregation was a young, returned missionary, her two children, and her husband. Initially, she was confident, energetic, and participated actively. But in a short period of time, she changed dramatically. Her wonderful qualities disappeared, and she became just a shadow of her former self.
In our private counseling, I learned that her husband was the cause. He criticized her appearance, ridiculed her testimony, questioned her intelligence, and second-guessed her parenting choices, all of which made her seriously question her personal worth. The lights were gradually dimmed in her home and in her psyche. I would like to report that I “saved” her, but the rest of the story is even more tragic. He ultimately took her life.
I am continually reminded of the statement by Harold B. Lee that “A testimony is fragile. It is as hard to hold as a moonbeam.” The ethereal nature of a moonbeam is even harder to perceive than the subtle dimming of a gaslight. When we damage the self-worth of others, we trifle with the well-being and progress of the sons and daughters of God. Certainly, that is among the most sacred of things. The practice of gaslighting may have been anticipated by D&C 121:41:
- No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by
persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness and by love unfeigned;
Scriptures. I have always had a reverence for the physical substance of my scriptures in addition to their spiritual content. They are not just another book to be thrown around. Moreover, I have become very familiar with them. In many cases (although less frequently as I get older), when a particular verse is being discussed, I can visualize where it is on the page and its context relative to other verses. I have heard the counsel they we should periodically get new scriptures, but I have put a lot of effort into marking my old ones and they are special to me.
The advent of virtual scriptures available on my iPAD and iPhone has changed things. The ability to always have scripture with me is a huge advantage and I usually go virtual during Sunday church. They are compact, resizable, searchable, and come with an almost unlimited amount of supplemental information. But there is a downside. I don’t feel quite the same when I use them. There is not the warm fuzzy that I used to experience with the hard copy. Moreover, the placement of verse in a particular location on the page doesn’t exist anymore and the reduced information that exists on the screen, particularly with iPhones, makes it more difficult to see verses in context. I’m not sure this rises to the level of trifling, but it does represent a different use of and feeling for the scriptures.
Conclusion. Only five examples of trifling have been considered here. There are so many more. As an exercise in the power of artificial intelligence, I asked LDSBOT, which is a church-related and faith-based AI tool developed by the B. H. Roberts Institute, to expand the list. It took several iterations of my request, but I finally got it to come up with 100 examples of trifling with sacred things. Evidently, it is a very common practice and difficult to avoid in our lives. At least the AI tool “thinks” so. But it lives in a metal box and not in the real world and I forced it to slice the trifles cake thinly to come up with the 100 examples. Still, it may be worth the time for each of us to consider which sacred things we trifle with.
Treating sacred things with reverence is of paramount importance. Not trifling is crucial to our relationship with God. Sacred things are gifts from God to aid our journey back to His presence. Honoring them demonstrates our love for Him. Treating them with proper reverence is essential for our spiritual growth because it invites the presence of the Spirit. Moreover, they are a source of spiritual protection by providing strength and guidance that helps us to withstand temptation and adversity. Finally, respecting sacred things not only builds our own faith, it also promotes unity in the family and the Church by upholding shared beliefs and strengthening bonds of fellowship.
Antonio ArreolaFebruary 3, 2025
Excelente publicación
Corey D.January 31, 2025
An excellent and timely article, well written. I was made aware about 6 months ago of a website that is dedicated to counsel and advice in regards to church policy's and practice's, particularly the wearing of the garment, the website is geared to younger members and couples so more than likely is run by younger members. Some of it is quite frankly, shocking. The law of chastity and tithing are a couple of others that some of the things I've heard or been told members have said about it just leaves me shaking my head. Nothing much is sacred anymore, the apostle Peter warned about the time when that kind of environment would exist. Excellent article.