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.

Nephi the Hero

In the reading assignment this week for my Book of Mormon class, we read about Nephi's prophecy's of our day.  It was so amazing to read about how he interpreted the things that he knew would happen.  I enjoyed his thoughts on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  How amazing it is to me that he was able to know of those things and testify that they are true.

Nephi has always been a Book of Mormon hero to me.  He has so many qualities that I want to have in my life.  I enjoy reading about him.  He had patience in adversity.  He had unwavering faith in the Lord.  He always listened to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  He was able to teach the gospel without fear.  He was able to lead his family even in the midst of murmurings and contention.  I am grateful to know that he saw our day and called us a "delightsome people."

2 Nephi 30: 5-6

 5 And the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they  shall be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge  of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers.

 6 And then shall they rejoice; for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them   from the hand of God; and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their  eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and a delightsome people.

This weeks readings was very uplifting for me. I am so grateful for the perspective it gave me this week.