A Stranger Unto Him.

Mosiah 5: 11-13

11 And I would that ye should remember also, that this is the name that I said I should give unto you that never should be blotted out, except it be through transgression; therefore, take heed that ye do not transgress, that the name be not blotted out of your hearts.

12 I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you.

13 For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?

     How do you write the Savior into your heart?  Time.  Time is crucial for all relationships.  If you don't spend time with a person, you are simply uncomfortable with them and most likely don't trust them either.  

     At my wedding, every relative came into town, including random cousins, uncles, aunts, and yes...even grandparents that I wasn't very familiar with. I remember my Grandpa, whom I saw maybe on two occasions in my life, came over to me and tried to kiss me, and I distinctly remember pulling away trying to avoid those random wrinkly lips.  It was, well awkward.

     The same goes for the Savior.  If we don't spend time with Him, how will we know and trust Him when revelation or a spiritual experience does press upon us.  There are those of us who maybe have only truly visited with Him through prayer, church attendance, daily scripture study... a handful of times, and when we need Him, His answers may not seem reliable.  You may not trust Him, because you don't know Him.  

  

I have Graven Thee Upon The Palms of My Hands.

Book of Mormon- 1 Nephi 21

14 But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

15 For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

16 Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

     I have a brother who has left the church.  He has not been active for probably a good 8 years, and prior to his short activity, he was quite inactive.  He told me that he does not want to be a part of a church where everyone acts without thinking.  We just do what a prophet tells us, and we are like robots, not thinking for ourselves.

      How untrue, that is.  The thing is, even though my brother is not sure if he believes in God, God still remembers him.  Someday my brother will see all those moments the Lord did not forsake him.  For now, I will pray for my brother to see the light for himself.  

And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did.

Nephi's words when the Lord commanded him to do something, " And it came to pass that the Lord commanded me, wherefore I did..."

     Here Nephi, had no idea for the reason the Lord asked him to do it, but out of his love for God, he just did, and now I am reading the words daily.  For those of you who don't know, the first record got lost after it was translated, and so Joseph Smith had to use these words prepared by Nephi, as the scriptures for the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Without Nephi's obedience to Heavenly Father, we would not have had scriptures to read!!!

      I want to try and be a better person as well.  More obedient. I think not knowing the reason for things can often be a reason to not do the things the Lord asks, but perhaps, and when I say perhaps, I mean obviously, it is not!

God is in the details.

Sometimes after my scripture study, I didn't quite get the spiritual experience I so desire, and so I will read or listen to a conference talk.  Tonight I decided to read Elder Rasband's talk entiteld "By Divine Design".
   

Tonight I was craving a peaceful spirit and right now in my scripture study, I am in Ether, in the chapters where everyone is murdering each other, so I decided to read Elder Rasband's talk from #ldsconf.

This quote really stood out to me, when he is talking about God's involvement in our lives:

"But allow Him to make more of you than you can make of yourself on your own. Treasure His involvement. Sometimes we consider changes in our plans as missteps on our journey. Think of them more as first steps to being “on the Lord’s errand.”

Okay, I am a BIG believer to the words "changes in our plans" because seriously, my life never goes the way I see it. And most the time I fight the change, but I love how Elder Rasband counsels to allow God to make more of us, than we can make of ourselves.

If my life went according to my plan, I wouldn't grow much. LIfe would be easy. But each time, my plans change, while it is hard, I become stronger for it, I gain new skills, I meet humility and a deeper love for others.

It is a compliment, that my Heavenly Father has "changed my plans" because He is seeing me for what I can be more so than I am seeing it myself. I love this. God is good.

Ether 13 The words of a Prophet

In this chapter, the people were given a Prophet to watch over them and to teach them how to be safe, what a blessing!!  Yet, they rejected him and chased him out of the land and in return they met wars, contention, bloodshed...much unhappiness. 

     It always amazes me how people become when they don't follow Christ.  Like seriously...they become murderers.  Isn't that so sad?  You get so much hate inside of you that you want to kill someone.  The very first person who strayed and followed Satan murdered his own brother (Cain and Able).  It's just weird and sad.

      I see this very much in the world in this very day.  Almost every. single. day. now there is a shooting on the news, most likely kids being killed in their schools.  It is so sad and I really do not understand this at all.  All I can say is that the trend in the scriptures, is that when people rebel, they become murderers.  It is just so so so sad.  

     On the other hand, people who follow the Savior and his Prophets get excited when faced with an opportunity to serve.  They have a Zion like peace about them that attracts people to them.  Their happiness is bright.

     This is the kind of person I want to be  I want to be like my Savior.  I want to follow the Prophet and I am so very thankful that the Lord still provides one today.    

The Lord Looketh on the Heart Moses chapters 6 and 7

What amazes me in these chapters, is that Enoch was so surprised someone actually found favor in him.  I imagine this was because of the way the people in the world act towards someone who is different, in his case, problems with his speech. 
     But the Lord saw past that.  The Lord knew that Enoch's heart was good, and in fact so good, that he chose Enoch to be a leader which led to a community of Zion like people who were so good that nothing could destroy them.  I just think that is so amazing.  What an amazing example that I want to follow. 

Unwearyingness

Helaman 10

4 Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done; for I have beheld how thou hast with unwearyingness declared the word, which I have given unto thee, unto this people. And thou hast not feared them, and hast not sought thine own life, but hast sought my will, and to keep my commandments.

5 And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.

Right before I sat down to read my scriptures, I started looking at my primary lesson feeling pretty annoyed that I once again was called into primary and that it definitely wasn't a calling from the Lord because why would He want me to do it when I had no desire or really patience with children and then I sit down to read these scriptures and feel humbled by Nephi's example of unwearyingness with his assignments.  

Part of the reason why is because I love the way the Lord favors Him and looks at Him as so special and gives Nephi any desire he has in the world knowing that their desires will match.  I love this and since I have read this passage I have been praying today that I can be more like Nephi even in my primary calling.  <3

Love, Becky joy