Brother of Jared Ether 1-15

I think I always say this but the last of the Book of Mormon is my favorite.  I love reading the stories of the faith that the Jaredites had.

As I was reading this week, several thoughts occurred to me.  The first was when the languages of the people were being all mixed up at the tower of Babel.  The faith that the Jaredites and the Brother of Jared had to ask the Lord not to confound their language so that they could communicate with one another as brothers and sisters in the gospel is awesome.  I would have been so scared watching the chaos around me and so because they had faith that the Lord would do what they asked, he did just that.

My next thought came to me as I was reading about the faith of the Brother of Jared as he went to talk to the Lord. Both times as he talked to the Lord about this great journey his people were about to embark upon, not once did he ask how long it was going to take them to get to their new land.  I thought about that and how I would have felt.  The first thing I would have said as one of the Jaredites would have been, "Sure I will go on this journey, but how long is it going to take? I want to know how long I'm going to have to be cooped up in a ship floating in the water."  They must have had great faith as a people to be able to go on this journey, not knowing when they would get to this beautiful promised land.

Lastly, as I imagined what it must have been like to be the Brother of Jared and going to the Lord with what must have seemed like an outlandish idea to make rocks glow.  He knew that all things are possible through faith.  What an incredible testimony of that in the scriptures.

Christ in the Americas 3 Nephi 12-17

I love love love this part in the Book of Mormon.  It is one of my favorite parts of all of the scriptures.  I want to tell you a few reasons why:

#1  I feel like I could have been there!

When I read this part in the scriptures, it is easy for me to put myself in the shoes of the Nephites.  I can feel how they must have felt seeing their resurrected Lord after having had the signs given to them that he had been crucified.

#2  I wish I WAS there!

I always thought as a child that if Jesus came to my day, he would have come to Primary first. He would have come to see the children.  At the time I thought that, I was one. Now that I am an adult, I think about what it must have been like to hear his counsel.  I would have listened to every word.  I would have taken in all that I could and tried to do every thing that he said.  Why is it so much harder now?  Because I didn't hear it from his mouth?  I don't know. But I still wish I was there.

#3  His teachings are a blueprint for our lives!

There are only a few places in the scriptures where you can find a summary of all of the things that our Savior wants us to do.  This is one of those places.  I am so grateful for the reminders this week as I read. It has helped me to be a better wife and mother as his thoughts are more in my thoughts every day.

Samuel the Lamanite and Pride leads to Wickedness

In our scripture reading this week there were two things that stuck out to me.

The first thing is Samuel.  I was amazed at the amount of faith and courage that he had.  Enough courage to stand up for what he knew was right.  He was willing to stand in front of all of those people and preach the gospel to them despite them throwing stones and arrows at him.  The faith that he had as those arrows were coming towards him must have been incredible. The thought that came to me was:

Where would I be in all of this?  Would I be one of the believers that stood by and listened as Samuel tried to share the gospel? Or would I be one of the ones throwing arrows?

The hope in my heart is that I would be one of the believers.  However, would I cave in to the pressure from those around me that were throwing the stones? I would hope that I would be surrounded by people that would believe and have strong enough testimonies to hear through the crowds of non-believers.

The second thing that occurred to me was how quickly the people went from being wicked to righteous and back again.  At first I thought that it was completely ridiculous that they flip flopped so much.  Then I realized that it all stemmed from pride.  Pride has a way of wiggling into even the most righteous hearts and planting seeds of jealousy, hate, entitlement, and many other feelings.  When you feel more important than someone else, you start to have feelings in your heart that rather quickly turn you away from the Lord and his will.

So how can I prevent that from happening in my own life? I can be humble.  I have had my fair share of humbling experiences that have taught me more about myself than I ever thought that I needed.  But without being humble and teachable, I cannot hear what the Lord's will for me is.  I need to heed his words and learn to turn my will over to Him.  When I do that, the pride cannot lay hold in my heart. I just hope I can do that as I strive to be more like my Savior each day.

Captain Moroni

As I was reading my scripture assignment this week, I had several thoughts.

The first thing that I thought about was the way that I choose to react to those around me.  Pahoran did not let the actions of others affect the way he felt.  How often do we say "but she made me so angry!" or "I am so offended by that!"?  We cannot allow the actions of others MAKE us ANYTHING! We choose how to react to the situations that are put in front of us.

I was so angry at my husband last week for losing his job. I cannot even tell you how many jobs he has been through in the last few years.  It is so frustrating trying to hold it all together when he can't.  But then I realized through my reading and the words of Elder Bednar, I cannot change what happens to me.  I can only change how I react to what happens to me.  That concept has never been easy for me.  I admit that sometimes I can be a little bit dramatic and so I tend to overreact to things at first.  I start blaming other people for the way I feel about certain situations and get angry at them for something that I cannot control.

I need to remember the words of Pahoran "It mattereth not!"

The second thing that I thought about this week is how going to war for your beliefs relates to me.  I am not one of those people that would go out guns blazing to fight for what I believe in.  As a matter of fact, I find my beliefs and opinions to be quite personal and often unshared.  Maybe that is the wrong way to go about things but my relationship with my Heavenly Father is really close to my heart.  I don't feel like anyone can truly understand that relationship but me and him.  So how can i explain and fight for that belief when it is so individualized and personal to me?

Having said that, I feel like I need to teach my children how to defend their beliefs.  We live in a world where my children are constantly being bombarded by people and media who want to distort the truth and their beliefs.  How do I teach them to fight like Captain Moroni? I'm not entirely sure but I know that I can keep trying.  I need to be more able to share my thoughts about the gospel with them in a way that gives them knowledge and power to choose their beliefs over the ways of men.  It is a scary place, this world that we live in.  I can only hope that I can find a way to help them discern truth in it all.

Alma 30-35

This week in our reading for my Book of Mormon class, we read about quite a few things.

First we learned about Korihor. It was interesting to me that he was not only trying to convince Alma, but in a way I think he was also trying to convince himself that what he was saying is true.  This becomes more apparent when he admits after being struck dumb that he knew all along that there was a God.  How many times do we do that in our own lives?  How many times do we try and convince ourselves that even though we aren’t following all of the commandments, that it is ok because we are following some of them?  How many times do we rationalize our sins?

The next thing that was pointed out by my instructor was the companionship of Amulek and Zeezrom. If you remember, a few chapters ago, we saw that Zeezrom was on the opposite side of Amulek and basically was the one that facilitated the death of Amulek’s family.  And chapters later we read that they are now companions serving in Melek.  Several thoughts came to mind.  First, the idea that Amulek had to completely forgive Zeezrom for his actions.  Not just forgive in his heart and then never see him again.  They worked side by side every day teaching people the gospel.  Second, I can only imagine what an amazing experience it is to share the gospel and have those spiritual experiences as a companionship.  I never served a mission so I don’t have that experience, but I can imagine from spiritual experiences that I have had, that the people you share them with have a special bond with you over that moment.  They must have become not only companions but friends in their efforts.  What an example that was to me.

The final thing I wanted to touch on was prayer.  I have a strong testimony of prayer.  I know that it works.  I was saddened to think what it must have been like to think that you couldn’t just pray anywhere.  I am so grateful to know that I can pray to my Heavenly Father anytime, anywhere and He can hear me.

Alma's Repentance Process

This week we focused on the repentance process of Alma the Younger.  I have been very fortunate not to have to go through a difficult repentance process.  But I can only imagine what it must have been like.  I am sure that it was a process of much sorrow and then great joy in the end.

I couldn't help but think about Alma the Elder.  As a parent, it must have been difficult to watch your son not only be an unbeliever, but to intentionally preach against what you know is true.  I also would have been praying every day for my son to come back and realize the error of his ways.  How much joy he must have felt when his son finally came back to the gospel.

I hope that I never have to experience that with my children.  But I also hope that if I do, I will be able to have the same amount of faith as Alma the Elder.

Putting Off the Natural Man

In the third chapter of Mosiah, in verse 19 it says:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever,unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child,submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

I loved this verse this week.  I was thinking about how the Lord's plan is so amazing.  He gave us the Holy Ghost to help us to stay away from the things of the natural man.  He knew that we couldn't do it alone.  Satan is so powerful and cunning.  He has a way of manipulating things in such a way that if we are not listening to the Spirit, we could easily be lead astray.

I was reading the traits that were in this scripture and thinking about how many of those I could say with confidence that I felt like I had mastered.  It turns out that I have not mastered one!  I am working on patience but the others also have quite a long way to go.  I know I am not perfect but this week I am going to ponderize this scripture. By doing that, hopefully I can have these things in the forefront of my thoughts.