Struggling Against the Lord

As I read the story of the people of King Limhi this morning a simple thought popped into my head.  The people of King Limbo were in bondage to the Lamanites who taxed them heavily and for all intents and purposes generally made there everyday lives pretty miserable. This state of being came about over time as they ignored the commandments of the Lord and did not live according to His statutes. In verse 24 of Mosiah 7 we read where King Limhi is speaking to his people

Yeah, I say unto you, great are the reasons which we have to mourn; for behold how many of our brethren have been slain and their blood has been spilt in vain, all because of iniquity.

As King Limhi's people were in bondage they had a desire to reprice their burdens. Therefore they went to war with the Lamanites on more than one occasion. Each time they lost and lost many of their brethren. All because they were living the way that they should have been living. After they have been sufficiently humbled and begin to live according to the Lords commandments the Lord heard their cries and sent Ammon from Zarahemla to help them. He devised a plan to get the Lamanite guards drunk on a certain night and then at night all of the people were able to escape without the shedding of blood.

This here is a great example to me of the difference of trying to do things without the Lords help and then with his help. When they were living wickedly, they were not able to escape because they did not have the Lord with them, and they suffered great losses trying to fight the Lords will. When they listened to the Lord and followed his commandments, they were able to easily escape and not a single soul was lost. This is a great reminder of the importance of always staying close to the Lord and following his commandments.

Succor

I am reading in Mosiah 4:14-27. These verses discuss at length the need for each of us to help eachother. Verse 16 says " Ye...will succor those that stand in need of succor". Yesterday I was in Ward Council and we were discussing the needs of many of the members of the ward and what the ward or ward council could do to help. I had a thought that stood out to me. It became very clear to me that we were not individual people who were sent here to live individual lives moving in parallel with eachother. Our purpose is to connect with eachother to interact with eachother and to help eachother. It would be very simple for us to just live our lives in the path that we had desires to go, taking care of our own needs and giving very little thought for those around us but we would be missing a great opportunity to help and love those around us. It is as if the Lord has said help those in near you who need your assistance. Take of the blessings that I have given to you and give to those around you, in fact, I have not given you extra that you might hold on to it for yourself but that you might help those in need. Any blessing from the Lord is either to take care of a need you have or so that you might take care of a need another person may have. It is the Lords work and his glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man and the reason that he bless us is that we might help him in this work.

April General Conference Thoughts

The following was recorded in my Journal on April 1, 2012

The last two days have been General Conference. Once again I feel as if I have been pointed in a  certain couple areas to improve. The one that stands out the most came from President Monson's talk in Priesthood Session. He talked about what our duty is. The duty of the Priesthood. The things that stood out to me was the following scripture reference.

He referred to Doctrine and Covenants 107:99:

"Wherefore let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office to which he is appointed"

The word tat stood out to me was "learn". I am to learn my duty. Not be taught my duty.  must admit to a foolish mode of thinking, many times I complain, vocally and non-vocally, about what I perceive to be a lack of training in certain areas. Home Teaching has been at the fore-front of my mind lately. I feel like I wasn't blessed with incredible consistency when it came to my Senior Companion when I was a youth and therefore I have and excuse for why I am not good at it, but the verse clearly puts the onus on me to lean what my duty is. I am commanded to learn.

Verse 100 even adds to this line of thought.

"He that is slothful shill not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself  not approved shall not be worthy to stand. Even so. Amen"

Here not only is a command given for the law but a condemnation is affixed. Those (myself) who blame others for their own failings "are not worthy to stand." The Lord did not  leave in that little loop hole that I have been holding onto.

I feel like this is important. I would consider myself in every way a poor home teacher. I go sporadically and I am not always excited if I do go. The Lord seems to be telling me to be better.  The lesson last week in Elder's Quorum was on home teaching and many talks today talked about the effects of home teaching. It seems I know what i need to do I just need to get going and do it. I wonder sometimes why is it so difficult to go Home Teaching or to do anything that for one reason or another I am reluctant to do. I feel it is because I have a lack of desire for responsibility, I would prefer it if someone else made all of the decisions for me. I like the idea of a new calling or responsibility until it comes to time to act, then I have a hard time with it, and I yearn for something else more prestigious and with  less responsibility. I only write this down because I am tired of running from it. I want to be in Elder's Quorum Presidency not because of any desire to help others or strengthen the quorum. No, I like the way it would make me feel about myself. I think that there really could not be an more selfish reason for wanting to be in a position. The Lord knows my heart and sees the part that I afraid to look at. I am completely naked before him. He sees the good and the bad. He knows why I struggle with Home Teaching and callings. He wants me to better. Whats next? How do I learn my duty? I should first turn to the Lord and allow him to spiritually undress me. Allow me to turn my will to his, become his man. Sounds simple. In reality, this may be the hardest thing I will overcome.

Remember, Search, Diligently and Profit

In the beginning of the Book of Mosiah, we read an account of King Benjamin teaching his sons; Mosiah, Helorum and Helaman. These men had a great teacher and had great opportunities to learn from his very righteous example. In the account we read of King Benjamin teaching his sons of the blessing of the records that they have. He teaches that Father Lehi and his family was greatly blessed because they had the plates of brass to help them remember the Lord and teach then the law. He also reminded them how blessed they were because they had the words of Lehi and Nephi and all of the prophets. In verse 7 he makes a statement that is profound but I feel at time may be overlooked at times as we read through these verses.

Mosiah 1:7

And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby...

As I read this verse there are 4 words that stand out to me; remember, search, diligently and profit.

Remember: We should always remember all of our blessings. The time that we get into trouble are when we forget all of the many ways that the Lord has blessed us. The word remember is all through the Book of Mormon because the prophets new that as the people remember the Lord they stay close to Lord and as they forget to remember they fall away and wander and are lost.

Search: The counsel to search is basic to finding answers in the scriptures. I think that far to often I spend time reading the scriptures but do not really get anything out of it. While I am reading I am not looking for answers or insights how I can grow closer to the spirit. There is a significant difference between reading the scriptures to check off that box on the to do list and searching for answer to life's questions in the words of the prophets.

Diligently: This word is a describing word for the word search. King Benjamin wanted his sons to not only search the scriptures when they had questions but to do so at all times in their life. They were to be diligent in their efforts to draw close to the Lord. In order to do something diligently not only do we complete the task when everything is easy or when it is incredibly necessary or urgent, but also when it is not easy or necessary urgent. They were to make it a habit to take time regularly to search the words of the prophets. Diligence requires sustained effort over a long period of time. Diligence requires a singleness of heart. We cannot diligently do something half-heartedly. Diligence requires your whole effort.

Profit: The scriptures have been given for our prophet and learning. The scriptures offer blessings to all that are willing to receive them. The sole purpose of the scriptures are that a person may pick them up and gain from them. They only require time and effort and the reward is very profitable to the soul. 

This verse is given during a time of serious reflection by a great man of God as he considers what will be the most important thing that he can leave with his sons. Is it any wonder that these words are included in the things that list.This is the process that he more than likely followed as he came to know his savior. Later in the verse he references that this is one of the things that they need to do in order to prosper in the land. He knows that any blessing that he has received is because he has been obedient to the commandments of the God, and how can you be obedient to the commandments if you do not know what they are. As you learn about the commandments you will learn how to stay close to the savior. 

I am grateful for the opportunity to first remember how merciful that the Lord has been to me and my family throughout my whole life, and then also to remember the extent to which he has been merciful to all of his children. I am humbled to think of the many ways he has extended his hand to bring his children back to him. Then as I search through the words of the prophets both ancient and modern I can recognize his hand even still. As I diligently strive to make it a daily habit and really search for the word of God in the scriptures and what he would have me to learn each and every day I can clearly see how I and my family have profitted from his loving hand and the words which he has caused to be written.

Offer Your Whole Souls

Today I was reading in Omni 1:26 and Amaleki describes what is necessary for eternal life.

26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

I loved the action words, come unto Christ...partake of his salvation...offer your whole soul as an offering...continue in fasting and praying...endure to the end...

There is significant power in these words and phrases. These statements do not paint a picture of a half-hearted attempt at becoming a disciple of Christ, those who desire to be his servants must be willing to go all the way. It's all or nothing. We cannot "kind of" be disciples, we cannot "sort of" keep his commandments. We cannot be Christians on Sundays only and then spend the week doing what ever we want. The Lord requires whole souls. "Offer your whole soul as an offering". There is not much wiggle room in that statement. I think of many members and quite frankly myself many many time where I am not willing to give 100%. I look for loop holes or exceptions to certain commandments based on my circumstances. It is easy to justify almost anything, and wait for it to get easier to follow the Lord. Until then we will do "the best I can" considering my circumstances.  The truth is that the Lord requires our whole soles, all of the time. 

The other part about this commandment is that even though he requires our whole souls in order for us to be his, I am amazed at how quickly the Lord turns around and gives you back to yourself, more you than you were before. I am not sure how it is done, but by giving yourself to the Lord he makes you ... you.

I was reading tonight in chapter 13 of Alma and I was focusing on the office of high priest. It talks about some of the charachteristics of high priest. One of the things that is mentioned in Repentance.

Poor Spot of Land

Jacob 5 recounts the allegory of the Tame and Wild Olive Tree. In the allegory the Lord of the Vineyard takes some of the branches from the Tame Olive Tree and grafts them in to a tree in the nethermost parts of the Vineyard. When they went back the Lord noted that the tree had produced natural fruit. The servant of the vineyard questioned the Lord in verse 21, "How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard." In verse 22 the Lord answers "Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit." This stood out to me tonight. The Lord can take anything and turn it into what he needs it to be. There is obviously some time involved. He had to nourish the ground for a long time before he saw the results from his labors but he did see the results. I think this is also true in many ways in our own lives. I am amazed at what the Lord can do with some people. I have seen some of the most unlikely people rise up in his service and become extraordinary servants. Usually we only see the tree after it has been "nourished ... this long time." We don't see the condition of the ground before. I know in my life he has spent significant time nourishing me. Last week I was sustained as the Second Counselor in the Bishopric. I am sure more than a few people saw me get called and then said like the servant "him?" I know that the Lord can do all things. If I will only let him, he can take me, this poor plot of lands and turn me into a thriving vineyard.

Listen

I  had a good experience yesterday with my oldest son. On the way home from church him and his little brother were playing on the backseat of the van. As we pulled into our garage we heard a scream from the back seat emminating from our second son. Then he rather loudly accused the oldest of choking him. immediately I was pretty upset at my oldest oldest son. Why would he think it was ok to hurt his brother like that? When we got inside I sent him to his room and told him he was not allowed to come out until dinner. Being that it was after church and we hadn't eaten lunch yet I made him a sandwich and took it in to him.  In the few minutes between sending him to his room and going in to see him I was thinking about the best way to discuss what had happened with him. I wanted this to be a learning experience. At least this could be a teaching moment if nothing else. The thought came to me to ask him to tell me what happened and to hear what he had to say. At first he wasn't sure what to tell me. I could tell he was  telling me what he thought I wanted to hear. I got a lot of pretty standard answers like "be nice" and "don't choke my brother". I really had to work to get hom to open up to me. Eventually he could see that I wanted him to tell me what really happened so he told me that he was playing and was trying to tickle him on his neck. He thought it would be fun and we do it to him all the time. What really happened was his brother had overreacted and I hadn't taken the time to figure out what the real problem was. After I realized what was going on I let him leave the room and join the family for lunch. Imagine the amount of trust I would have destroyed in my son if I hadn't taken the time to understand the issue. I would have sent him to his room for no legitimate reason, and in essence told him, I don't care what the truth is I only care about what I think the truth us. I am glad I did listen, but then I also know that there are times when I don't take the proper time to understand what the problem is. I shudder to think of the unintended consequences of no listening to my boys, and flying off the handle. I am grateful for the inspiration to take the time to here what he. In reality it turned out to be a great experience.

Teach You All Things

"Behold I tell you that if you will enter in by the way, and receive the Holy Ghost, it will teach you all things what ye should do"

2 Nephi 32:5

What a wonderful verse. This verse comes after Jacob teaches the people the way to gain eternal life which includes faith, repentance, baptism (in the manner if Christ's baptism) and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and then enduring to the end. The way that is referred to is the path to eternal life. If I enter into this path and receive the Holy Ghost not only will he teach me the things of eternity, but He will teach me all truth.

Last week Sister Sherry Stott and I were having a conversation at church after Sunday school about this topic. She had heard of a young student and was very smart. He was studying to become an engineer. He did quite well especially since he was foreign student from mainland China. He shared an experience he had while taking a test. On the test a question was asked where one of the necessary pieces of information was the conversion between feet and inches. He said he drew a blank. He had no idea of what the conversion was. He struggled for a few minutes until he remembered that the night before he had seen a commercial for a foot long subway sandwich, which caused him to think of the half foot which was 6 inches. Then he was able to complete the question. I had a few similar experience when  I was taking the PE Exam.

The experience that stands out most prevalently was a question involving a pipe between a reservoir elevated on a hill and a reservoir in a lower valley. I had to determine the length of pipe between them knowing only a few key things. I really struggled to determine what relationships between the bits of information were relevant enough to help me solve the problem. I thought through it several times. I left and came back hoping a fresh mind would help me to get through it, but nothing. Then realizing that I was not able to complete it, I said a prayer and asked simply for a relationship that I could use to solve the problem. The thought came to me to pick an answer and work it backwards from the solution. So I picked C and worked it back to see if I would get close to the information given. First shot I picked the right answer. Then, after I had picked the right answer the relationship that I had been missing became very clear to me. The Lord knew the best way to teach me many things that day. Not only did I learn the answer to this particular problem, I also learned that he knows all things and can teach you all things.

Teach our Children

Today Callie and I were reading in " Preach My Gospel" and one of the "Consider This" questions was "What is my responsibility in helping others become converted?" Callie and I agreed that the people we were primarily responsible for were our children. We could teach them a lot of things that would help them to choose the right but I am sure that that is not the extent of our responsibility. My responsibility as a parent is to teach my children how to have a relationship with the Savior and the to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

A couple examples will illustrate this principle. First from the most recent General Conference. There was a talk given by Elder Larry Y. Wilson in the April 2012 General Conference entitled "Only Upon the Principle of Righteousness". He describes an experience he and his wife had with one of their daughters. She was a rather talented soccer player and was on a team that made it to the championships and some of the games would be played on Sundays. He his wife did not want their daughter to play on Sundays but felt that it would be best if they counseled with her and then allowed her to make her own decision. They were surprised to find that based on perceived pressure from coaches and teammates she would play in the games that were held on Sunday. While they were very disappointed and wanted to force her to make the correct choice, they stood by their decision to allow her to make her own decision. On the day of the game Elder Wilson's wife took their daughter to the game and stayed to pick her up. As their daughter came off the field and talked with her mom she said "Oh, Mom, that felt awful.  I never want to feel like that again. I'm never playing another game on the Sabbath day." This experience shows the power of allowing children to make choices and letting them learn from them. They could have forced her to do it the right way, but allowed her to make her own decision and she was able to see the difference in her own life of having the spirit and not having the spirit. She now has a conviction of the need to keep the Sabbath Day holy. More importantly is that she now had an experience for herself with the importance of a gospel principle, she probably also felt a desire to repent for not keeping the Sabbath day holy and was able to feel the peace in her life after she had done so. This gave her an invaluable experience with the Savior and the Holy Ghost that cannot be provided by a parent making the decisions for her.

I too had a similar experience. My first few years of college I would regularly study on Sunday. I knew it was not the best choice but I felt that I had no other option especially when time was limited due to work load or my own procrastination. After performing poorly in my first semester after transferring to the University of Arizona I decided to test the principle of keeping the Sabbath day holy. I would not study or do any school work on Sunday. I had 6 days to do all of my school work but on the Sabbath day I would not. It was a difficult semester with the heaviest load that I had taken up to that point, through the semester I struggled to keep up with the load but I never felt tempted to study on Sunday. As the end of the semester approached I was doing well, and considerably better than the previous semester. I was expecting to get mostly A's and B's but there was one class which was an upper division math course that I was struggling with that I thought I might end up with a C in and I had resigned myself to that fact. After finals I was blown away to find that I had not only done better than I was expecting but I had earned straight A's in all of my classes, including the difficult math class. I had tested the words of the prophets on the matter of Sabbath Day observance and as a result I received an priceless experience testifying of the blessings of Sabbath Observance. From that semester through the following I never again cracked a school book and was greatly blessed in my studies as a result.

Now these two experiences are simple, yet they illustrate an important principle of the gospel. No person can be saved in the Kingdom of God without their own testimony of Jesus Christ and without living the gospel principles based on their own knowledge of the plan of Salvation. As parents it is our primary role to teach the gospel to our children and provide opportunities for them to experience the love of the Savior on a first hand basis. Even if that means, as in the experience of Elder Wilson's daughter, that the way that they come to know the Savior is through the principle of Repentance. In every way we need to provide opportunities our children to come to know the Savior personally.

Preach My Gospel

Tonight Callie and I began to study Preach My Gospel together. I am excited for the opportunity, to study together. We haven't ever made it a practice to regularly study the scriptures together. Hopefully this can serve several purposes. Callie has said many times thay when it comes to scripturw knowledge she feels inadequate. I hope that the study of this will help build a foundation that ahe van feel comfortable with. Another blessing I hope to attain by doing this is hopefully as we study together as a couple we will learn how to feel the spirit together and then learn how to receive inspiratiom for our family together.

In the beginning...

I have been impressed by talks given by Elder Richard G. Scott with respect to his scripture study habits. As he reads he searches diligently for inspiration out of each verse that he reads. After receiving some insight he will record the inspiration in his journal. He makes it a habit to return back to his records and determine whetherer or not he has adequately recorded details of the insight the lord has given him. My desire is that this would be a place that I would be able to do that. I have made it a habit to read the scriptures with a notepad next to me to record inspiration, but I have had difficulty keeping track of my journal. I hope that this will be a place that I can keep some of my thoughts and inspirations sacred and refer back to them as I need to.