The Brother of Jared

Ether 2:19-25
19 And behold, O Lord, in them there is no light; whither shall we steer? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it is the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish.

 20 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top, and also in the bottom; and when thou shalt suffer for air thou shalt unstop the hole and receive air. And if it be so that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole, that ye may not perish in the flood.

 21 And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according as the Lord had commanded.

 22 And he cried again unto the Lord saying: O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and behold there is no light in them. Behold, O Lord, wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness?

 23 And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared: What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels? For behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire.

 24 For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.

 25 And behold, I prepare you against these things; for ye cannot cross this great deep save I prepare you against the waves of the sea, and the winds which have gone forth, and the floods which shall come. Therefore what will ye that I should prepare for you that ye may have light when ye are swallowed up in the depths of the sea?

As I was reading these verses, I couldn't help but compare them to our own lives. Sometimes we ask how will we steer? Or in other words how are we going to take control of our lives and guide it to where we want to go? And then the Lord may respond with don't worry I am sending storms and waves and winds to help you to get to where you need to be. But it's ok because I have prepared you for the storm so that it will not crush you but will deliver you to the place you are going. The Lord has a plan for us and that means that we don't need to have control of the steering wheel. It will be better for us in the long run if we hand that over to Him and let him lead and guide us to where He wants us to be. He as wonderful plans for each of us and He sees greater potential in us than we sometimes see in ourselves. He knows just what we need to help us along the path back to Him.

Sometimes life hands us storms so to speak. The difficult trials of our lives. But if we allow them and prepare ourselves for them and rely upon and trust the Lord, He will help us to become exactly what we were born to be. We may look back after the storm and suddenly realize that we have climbed a mountain and the view of where we were, to where we are now is wonderful! 

We each make choices along the way and those choices can determine the outcome. When the Lord gives us the assignment of finding a source of light, we have the choice to sit in darkness or get up, get to work and figure out where the light is going to come from. The trip will be so much more enjoyable if we set to work finding the joy and light in every situation. Sometimes that even means creating the source of the light for ourselves. One of my biggest sources of light is service. When I am struggling the Lord will provide opportunities for me to serve and then I have the choice to get out and do it! Service can bring light to any situation. 

I am so grateful for the hand of the Lord in my life and for the storms and trials that this life provides. I am grateful for the opportunities to learn and grow. I know that the Lord loves me and has a plan for me. I want to put my faith in Him so that He can mold me into the person he wants me to be.

Prayer

2 Nephi 32:8-9 "...and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
    But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that they performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

This is what I got out of my scripture study today. I need to include the Lord in all of my actions and decisions. I need to start asking the Lord for his input in even the smallest of decisions I need to make. I need to speak with him as a friend. To always ask for his help and to always desire to know what he would have me do. I hope that I can remember to seek his advice as a Father (for he is my Father in heaven) more frequently, in all that I do.

Happiness: A choice

For a while I was feeling quite depressed. I get that way sometimes. Some people can easily find happiness in all they do. Some people, like me, have to work for it every step of the way. I am a happy person most of the time because I make myself work for it.

Anyway, I had been feeling like my happiness had gotten away from me again. I am far from my family and I miss them a great deal. I am tired and feel like I can never get enough sleep. My kids are always demanding things from me and sometimes I just don't feel like filling that sippy cup up with milk just one more time.

I have found that when this happens to me there is only one solution. Find the spirit again. Somehow it had slipped away from me. I hadn't done anything monumentally wrong to loose it, I had just not put in the effort into keeping it. I was just going through the motions of life without any thought for what I was or was not doing. So I lost it. I was in tears almost every night. I was praying for answers. Finally one night while I was feeding Scott, I let everything out to the Lord. I prayed out loud. I don't know if it is just me or not but sometimes I feel that my outspoken prayers have more power than the ones I say in my head. Maybe it's because when I get to the point of saying them out loud, I am finally meaning everything I say. I asked for help to know what I could do to feel that connection with the Spirit again so that I could be happy.

The next day I was still going through the motions and one of the things that was on my checklist to do for the day was to go visiting teaching. Visiting teaching is not one of my favorite things to do and I'm very bad at actually doing it. But I have a great partner who always makes sure we see our visiting teachees. So I went. The woman we went to visit happened to mention that she had done a 40 day Book of Mormon feast where she read the Book of Mormon in 40 days. I knew that was my answer. I went home and started reading. The first day felt like I was reading my scriptures for forever. The second day felt shorter and I was really getting into what I was reading. From then on, I have felt so much better. I am happy again. I have also received answers to other questions and problems I have had through reading my scriptures. I love the Lord and I know that He loves me. He answers my prayers. I know that He is a loving Father in Heaven. And I know that above all, He wants me to be happy.

Service

I like our "new" ward quite a bit but since we have moved into it I have felt that it isn't as closely bonded as our old ward was. Maybe it had something to do with the old ward being a relatively young ward with a lot of students in it. But what I feel like made the biggest difference is that we were constantly receiving emails of opportunities to serve others in our ward. We would get emails when someone needed dinners, when someone needed rides, when someone needed prayers, if someone needed help cleaning/moving etc. And people would respond, boy would people respond. If you didn't get an email back to them within a couple of hours of receiving the email then everything would already have been taken care of.

Our ward was close. I loved knowing who people were and that there were always people I could help out even if it was just by saying a prayer for them. I knew that if I ever needed anything, I could ask and it would be taken care of. If the people within the ward are feeling like they don't know each other, I think one of the best things you can do is to give them the opportunity to serve. Let them loose themselves in serving others.

I have found especially for myself that when I am feeling depressed or tired the best thing to help is to go serve someone. I remember as a kid that we would take cookies out to people frequently. We often did this for our service family night. I always thought it was funny when my dad would ask, "so, who do you think needs cookies tonight?". My thought was always, "does anyone actually NEED cookies?". haha. Now I realize that it was not the cookies that they needed but everything that came with the cookies. The love that was shown, the thought that was put into it, the opportunity to show someone that we were thinking of them and loving them. That they weren't alone. That someone cared. So now my question to you is, "who do you know that needs cookies?".

25 Words or Less

In conference there was a talk about a man who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. After 2 years of not being able to let his family know that he was alive, his captors finally let him write them a letter but limited him to 25 words or less. This is what he wrote, "These things are important: temple marriage, mission, college. Press on, set goals, write history, take pictures twice a year."

If I had to write a note to my family in 25 words or less right now, this is what I would say:

Repent. Have faith. Be strong. Do good. Help others. Smile. Learn. Family. Do all that the Lord asks of you. Have gratitude for your blessings. 

Women

Recently there seems to be a big pull for women to have the exact same roles and responsibilities as men. It seems that this is even happening within the church which I find truly sad. Everywhere I see women fighting for "rights". Sometimes I think this is ok. I think women should be able to vote and such but I think that we have passed the line on many things. Mainly I feel this is true inside the church.

I keep hearing people talking about how women should be able to say more prayers in conference, or should be able to hold priesthood callings, or should be able to wear pants to church, etc. I even heard someone say that it wasn't fair that the young women had less money to spend than the young men (this is mainly because the young men have a budget from boy scouts that does not come from the ward funds).

Here is where I have the problem. If these people really believed or understood that this church is run by the Lord then they would stop worrying about all of these things. This church is run by the Lord through prophets and apostles and other leaders. The Lord even pays attention to the smallest details including the young women's and young men's budget. These guidelines were put into place by the Lord because they are what is right for us. I do not pretend to know what the Lord knows or has in mind for us and if He says that this is what is right and what is best for me, then I'm going to accept it and go with it. He knows better than me and I'd much rather take His word for it than do what I think to be right and realize later that the Lord does know what He is doing much better than I do.

In the Proclamation to the World, it talks about some of the differences between men and women. We were meant to have different responsibilities. That does not make either gender a lesser gender. It makes us different. The Lord requires both men and women in the gospel. Both are His children. He loves both the same.

I am grateful to be a woman. I am grateful that I can be a mother. I am grateful to have men in the church who hold the priesthood. I am grateful that my Heavenly Father has a plan for me and for us all. And I am grateful to be a member of this church where we have leaders who can receive direct revelation from the Lord.

Trials or Blessings

Someone posted this quote on their Facebook and it really stood out to me, "What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise." -Oscar Wilde. I don't know who Oscar Wilde is but I fully agree with him. I have had these experiences over and over again.

The first one that I really remember recognizing the Lord's hand in something like this was a time when I was suppose to be flying down to CA to visit my family. I ended up getting quite sick on the day that I was suppose to head down so I didn't end up making it. I was so very disappointed and was wishing that I could have gone. Then a few days later I started having problems with my pregnancy at the time and I was able to go in to my doctors and get the care that I needed. I was grateful for a Heavenly Father who knew what was best for me and made sure that I was where I was suppose to be. Since that time I have often looked for the blessing in whatever trial I have been going through and I have seen so many blessings in disguise.

In church on Sunday we were reading in D&C 122: 5-8. In this scripture the Prophet Joseph is receiving revelation while in Liberty Jail. It lists a bunch of trials that the Prophet had to endure. The one that stood out to me the most was in verse 6, "if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you?". It listed many other awful things that the prophet had to endure but at the end it says, "know thou, my son, that all these things shall give you experience, and shall be or thy good". Then it goes on to say, "The son of man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"

Wow! I have never had to endure such great trials as either Joseph or Christ but whatever trials I do go through, I know are for my good. I also love that it says they give us experience. I don't think I have ever gained faith without an experience (or many!) to go along with it. What a great blessing!  The next time you think you are going through a trial, try to stop and look at it and see if you can find the blessing. You might be surprised by what you find.