And Thus It Is

I would first like to say that I am going out of town tomorrow and most likely will not have internet access for a week.  I know you will all miss this blog desperately, so I wanted to prepare you for the lack of posts. :)

1 Nephi 22:31 says "...if  ye shall be obedient to the commandments, and endure to the end, ye shall be saved at the last day.  And thus it is.  Amen."

I love that phrase--"And thus it is."  I have never really noticed it before, but it hit me today as I read it.  Today, it suddenly was significant and that is what I love about reading the scriptures.

Today, it felt like Nephi saying:  'This is the truth.'  'This is the way it is.'  It doesn't matter if the person next to you believes it's true or not.  It doesn't matter what others say and do.  It is true.

It is true that Christ was born on this earth of a divine Father and mortal mother. He lived and taught eternal truths.  He gave us commandments.  He willingly submitted to the Father and atoned for your sins and mine.  He was crucified and laid down his life that he could take it up again as a resurrected being.  These things are true and nothing can ever change that.

No words, mocking looks, or opinions.  No judgements from others thinking you are old fashion for saying so, can ever have the slightest power to erase these truths.  And, some day, everyone will know it.

I'm thankful I know it now.  I hope I can have more courage to share it.

1 Nephi 18

Have any of you ever noticed that Laman and Lemuel didn't stay home?

I mean, I wonder sometimes why they didn't.  Maybe back then it was more required to do what your father said?  I don't know.  I realized one day while reading along in 1Nephi that if I didn't know any better, I'd have guessed that at some point Laman and Lemuel would just refuse to go on.  It makes me think sometimes, am I on the journey, but I'm so busy whining that I'm not learning what I should?

It makes me think of the parable of the Ten Virgins...How they are all members of Christ's church, but some are foolish and some are wise.  Laman and Lemuel did go on the journey, as I have agreed to embark on my journey of church membership, motherhood, etc. and so I hope that I can shoulder what is asked of me as Nephi takes on all that is asked of him.  I am in awe that he and his family built a ship when they have never done anything like that before.  They do it because they trust in the Lord.  Even Laman and Lemuel get their act together and help.

"And it came to pass that they did worship the Lord, and did go forth with me; and we did work timbers of curious workmanship.  And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship.

Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers after the manner which was learned by men, neither did I build the ship after the manner of men; but I built it after the manner which the Lord had shown unto me; wherefore, it was not after the manner of men."  1 Nephi 18:1-2  

Sometimes I look around my house and think, "What am I doing?  Are my actions in keeping with what I think is most important in life?"  Sometimes the answer is no.  I am more in keeping with what the world would say is important.  I think I need to build my ship not after the manner of men, but I need to pray and ask for help to build it how the Lord would have me do so.  That way, I'll know it will float.

Build a Ship

In 1 Nephi 17, Nephi is instruct by the Lord to build a ship.  His brothers, not surprisingly, make fun of him as he prepares to do so.  In answer to them, Nephi reminds them of the story of Moses. and then in 1 Nephi 17:51 he says:

"And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?"

I find it so interesting how Nephi and other Book of Mormon prophets hold as strongly to the scriptural example of Moses and the Lord's dealings with him as I do to their example.

It is now my turn to live my life here on earth and strive for that faith with which Nephi was blessed.  If the Lord has guided Nephi to build a ship and seen his family safely to the promised land, then I tell myself as Nephi told his brothers:  How is it that he cannot instruct me to raise my family in righteous even among all the wickedness that surrounds us?  Of course he can, I just need to listen.

Grace

I was reading in the Ensign today.  I guess I should have included that in my list of sources that I really like for studying the gospel, but the truth is, some months all I read is the visiting teaching message.  I tend to read some of the New Era and Friend too as I try to steer the kids toward articles that apply to them, but really I don't read as much of the church magazines as I'd like.

There is a wonderful article in the April 2012 issue by Elder Bednar called The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality.  It talks a lot about grace.  The concept of grace can be a hard one to fully comprehend and I need to study it more, but I smiled to myself when he said that whenever he reads the word "grace," in his mind he inserts "enabling and strengthening power."  I do something very similar except I use the Bible Dictionary definition (of sorts) and I substitute "divine help or strength."  It really helps me understand what the scripture is trying to say.  Elder Bednar goes on to make an awesome point about a story of Nephi.  He points out that when Nephi is bound by his brothers he does not pray just to get out of the situation, he says:

"O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound." 1 Nephi 7:17

Nephi was given the strength that he needed.  We can be given strength too.  I know we truly can.

1 Nephi 15:11

When I was in highschool, I made my first attempt at a scripture journal.  I had decided to study faith.  It seemed to me at the time that having more faith would assuage some of the anxiety I felt concerning pressures at school and worry for my future.  I had read that faith and doubt can't exist together, but I couldn't seem to will away my doubts that all would be well.  So, I figured, I needed more faith.  But how to get more faith?  That was the question.

I looked up scriptures on faith.  I studied Joseph Smith's Lectures on Faith.  I came to understand a little more about what faith is, but I stopped studying before I found the answer to my question because I figured I didn't have the materials I needed (like maybe a whole library of church books) nor did I have access to the people who would know something like that (maybe a General Authority, or at least a Stake President).  I knew I had grown from my studies, but in the end, I felt I had a bigger question than the one I had started with.  How does one go about studying the gospel?

Since then I have gained a strong testimony of simplicity in gospel study.  Heavenly Father really does tell us what we need to do.  Why do we try so often to complicate things?  The Holy Ghost is our best teacher, the scriptures our guide, and prayer our chance to converse one on one with our Father in Heaven.

Still, the thought often flits through my mind, "I wish I could ask the Bishop about that."  Then, I have to remind myself that I don't have to ask the Bishop, I have direct access to to Heaven through prayer.  I have learned so many things from having that conversation with myself.  I just have to give one example because I get excited every time I think about it.  Last year, I was studying the New Testament and loving it, until I got to the writings of Paul.  I seriously paused and flipped pages back and forth one morning thinking, what is he talking about?  Did I miss something?  It turns out that, yes, I had missed something.  Long ago, I had stopped using the Bible Dictionary feeling that it didn't really have anything good in there (this was probably about the same time I decided the answers must all be in books written by other people that I didn't own).  I kept reading, even though I was totally lost, and I kept a prayer in my heart that I might understand.  Soon after, I flipped to the Bible Dictionary and found an entry entitled the Pauline Epistles.  Laaaaa (imagine light beams shining on the page)...Clarity!  It turns out the writings of Paul were arranged, not in chronological order, but by length.  Just that information was incredibly helpful, but then the Bible Dictionary goes on to explain a ton of other things.  It became my guide to Paul's writings, and I learned a valuable lesson.  Our standard works contain a lot of help for us, if we simply learn to use them.

Some other invaluable sources for studying the gospel are General Conference talks and whatever book we are currently studying in Relief Society and Priesthood meeting.  Through all these things I finally learned the answer to my question about faith and many, many other answers as well.  I was reminded of all of this as I read 1 Nephi 15 because now I can see the answer to that old question in places where I never noticed it before.  Like in 1 Nephi 15:11:

"...If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you."

Do you see it in there?  The answer, tucked between two commas as if it could be left out of the sentence and it really wouldn't matter?  Obedience.  That's how you gain more faith.  By being obedient.

Peace and Joy

I used to think as I struggled to learn the gospel and keep Heavenly Father's commandments that my rewards and punishments awaited me in the time beyond this life.  That is true.  The scriptures do say that this life is the time that we need to prepare to meet God.  But I have come to see, as I read the scriptures and listen to the brothren speak at General Conference, that we can experience the peace and joy spoken of right here and now.  We can also experience pain and suffering for not choosing to follow our Father in Heaven's counsel.

The concept might seem obvious to you, but to me, a person who was labeled "worrywart" by the tender age of five, the concept that we can have peace in this life was somewhat unbelievable at first.  Now, I do see that holding in my mind the things which Heavenly Father tells us are most precious can bring me peace amidst the comings and goings of my most hectic days.  I am so grateful for this lesson from a real and loving Father.

1 Nephi 11

I love when Nephi explains Lehi's vision of the Tree of Life.  One of the reasons I love it is because it can capture the attention of children.  Many things in the scriptures are hard for kids to grasp, but most kids I teach pay close attention when I talk about the Tree of Life.  It has definitely caught Isaac's attention recently.  I think everyone who will read this blog knows that Isaac is my eight year old who has Down syndrome, and therefore has trouble sometimes following along during the Primary class I teach which includes him and five other cute kids.  But since we talked about the Tree of Life, he brings it up at most Family Home Evenings.  It is precious.

Thinking along these lines, I just want to say that yesterday all my kids paid attention during scripture reading AND contributed to the discussion!  It is especially amazing to me because we weren't studying any of the 'kid scriptures' like the Tree of Life, the stripling warriors, or Ammon defending the king's sheep.  We were studying 2 Nephi 15---an Isaiah chapter that compares Israel to a vineyard!  I was pretty much in awe and would like to accept no credit for this small miracle.  I don't think I was doing anything different than I do other days.  I honestly feel like it was a tender mercy from the Lord.  I really needed that.

I suppose I'm sharing this because I would like to bear my testimony that family scripture reading is worth all the effort even though some of the time it might not seem like it.  So many times the little ones are cuddled next to me, staring into space while Evan yawns through his turn at reading so that we can barely understand him.  Kimball is staring at the clock, nervous that I will go over time and make him late for school.  When Kimball was my only child, we studied from the Book of Mormon stories book that has all the pictures.  As he got older, we flipped through my scriptures and read 'kid scriptures' that captured his attention, but now we just read straight through and sometimes I feel bad the little ones don't get as much personalized attention.  So yesterday meant a lot to me.

We only got halfway through chapter 15 and ended with verse 20:

"Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil..."

A very important scripture for our day.  It was great to talk to the kids, to hear Kimball and Evan's contributions to the conversation and take Josie and Isaac's comments and relate them back to the topic at hand no matter how far out there they were, and really they weren't too far off.  It was fun because Josie talked about staying on Jesus' path and not Satan's.  Isaac brought up the "Nephites" and the "Tree of Life."  Actual things from the scriptures!  I could see that EVERYONE felt like a part of a real gospel discussion.  Yes, today I am very thankful for 'kid scriptures,' like 1 Nephi 11 that bring gospel discussion within everyone's reach.