if......then.

"Rhetoric can't raise the dead," but it is a powerful tool. For the past few weeks my thoughts have been turned toward a particular aspect of rhetoric and the power that it envelops: the "if-then" statement.

• If you want to lose weight then you need to diet and exercise.
• If we want to win this game then we must all work together.
• If they don't want to get lost then they should stop and ask for directions.

• If ye love me then keep my commandments.
• If ye were righteous and were willing to hearken to the truth, then ye would not murmur because of the truth and say: thou speakest hard things against us.
• If ye would keep his commandments, ye should prosper in the land.
• If ye have desires to serve God, then ye are called to the work.
• If ye are not one, then ye are not mine.
• If ye do this with a pure heart, in all faithfulness, then ye shall be blessed in your flocks, and in your herds, and in your fields, and in your houses, and in your families.
• If ye are faithful, then ye shall be laden with many sheaves, and crowned with honor, and glory, and immortality, and eternal life.
• If ye forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
• If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, then ye shall say unto this mountain: remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

If-then statements are the simplest form of a call-to-action; they serve as an invitation to be rewarded (or punished) depending on the behavior that we choose to commit.

There are close to 200 if-then statement found within the scriptures and at least a bajillion more found in the self-help section at your local bookstore.

If you want to change your life or current circumstances, then you must do something about it. 

Develop your own if-then statements and then commit yourself to do them. 

Here's to a simple formula that works.

Cheers.