Replacement Limbs (FDREL)

      Time for another entry for school. This one is for my New Testament class. And I have to say I am proud of myself. This time I am choosing not to procrastinate and I am doing this assignment before it is even due. Go me! Anyway, I have been reading in Matthew chapter 5 the past two days and let me tell you...there is SO much to learn in that chapter. Children this is why you always start your studies with prayer. It helps a lot.
       As I said I am not procrastinating, which makes it a lot easier to receive revelation and learn more, which is exactly what has happened. I am able to pay attention better and actually take the time to read between the lines. This is what I have found so far:

       #1.  Matt 5:29  This verse talks about plucking out your eye if it offends you or cutting off your arm if it does wrong. In the last line of this verse it talks about how it is better for a small part to perish than the whole person. This reminds me of the Book of Mormon story in 1 Nephi chapter 4, where Nephi is commanded to kill the wicked King Laban. The Lord tells Nephi who is struggling with himself that it is ok. It is better that this one person dies than a whole nation be lead away from their faith in Jesus Christ. This is the same principle in these verses in the bible. When you think about "plucking out our eyes" or "cutting off our arms" I am sure you think of pain and how awful that would be. At least I know I do. Then think about the struggle it would be to get on with life after that and try to adjust to a new way of living. Through the Savior Jesus Christ we are figuratively doing that every day as we repent. Think about how hard it is just to tell Heavenly Father, and some times our church leaders, that we did something wrong. We feel awful. But we are getting rid of our bad parts. Its supposed to be painful. If it wasn't repentance would be too easy. After we have disowned these negative parts we have to adjust to living better. We change. Then when we have truly changed we are able to get ourselves back. Only this time our replacement limbs are much better and stronger than they were before.

    #2. Matt 5:20 The Savior is teaching the Sermon on the Mount and tells the people that as they are more righteous than the scribes and pharisees they will be able to live with God. I was thinking about that and how the scribes and pharisees did everything for show. They lived exactly by what the law said but did not let that change them. They did it so that the people around them could see how "righteous" they were. As you can tell from the way the Savior spoke of them, that didn't do much for their salvation. So how can we be different from the scribes and pharisees? We need to live by the commandments of God for ourselves. As we keep these laws and try to be better through them we will change and desire to keep them even more each day. We will become more like the Savior. We will be more obedient and our love for our Heavenly Father will grow even stronger. We are supposed to do these things in the quite solitude of our closets. Not make a show of it so everyone will know how great we are. When we do things just between us and our Father in heaven He rewards up openly. We benefit more from doing things quietly than we do shouting it from the rooftops for everyone to see and hear. Lets not just go through the motions, but let the commandment change us and help us become more like Jesus Christ.
 
       #3.Matt 5:22-24  Ok this one was pretty intense. My mom and I have been talking a lot about forgiving others and moving past things that we can't control. As I read these verses there was something that really stood out to me. We will start with verse 22: "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger...." If you look down at the footnotes you will see that it says "Omit the words 'without a cause'". That changes things a little bit.I mean it makes sense in our world for it to be ok for us to be mad at someone if we have a good reason. But here the Savior is teaching us the higher law for loving people. We just need to make sure that we aren't mad at people period. Did life just become a little more difficult for you? Have some repenting to do? That is ok, I do too.Talk about a tricky commandment to keep. Love people always no matter how much they have hurt you. Time to start praying for more charity huh? haha.
      Ok on to verse 23 and 24. They say... "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." For those of you who are LDS, think about the Sacrament as your gift. You are showing Heavenly Father that you want to renew your baptismal covenants. Good, but first things first, you need to make sure you have righted any wrongs and taken care of any forgiving before you come take the Sacrament. It becomes more real when you think about it that way. It isn't just some burnt offering in the scriptures that the people way back then had to do, but now it applies to us. We are commanded to forgive 70 x 7. So when we go to take the Sacrament and we are asking for the atonement to apply to us we need to make sure that we are letting the atonement apply to others as well. When we don't forgive we are saying that others can't be forgiven because of what they have done. That is so far from the truth. And I am sure some of you are thinking "no that isn't what I am thinking when I hold a grudge..." Maybe not on the surface but that is what you are showing. We need everyone to feel of the Savior's love and forgiveness and it is kind of hard to do that when we stay mad at them or don't give them second chances.Give other the opportunity that the Savior would.

Well, that was a mouthful, but it grew as I typed. I am off my high horse now. I hope you don't all see this as preaching. This is my way of learning and as I write/type more I am able to understand better and see better what I need to change.

Skeeter

Marriage, The Home, and Children. (FAML)

     Well, I guess I will have multiple posts each week now as I have two classes that require blog posts. This should be fun.
This one is for my Marriage class. And for those of you who aren't members of the LDS church that are reading this, yes I am taking a class on marriage and yes it is a very mormon thing to do, but I love it and it is already helping me to be a better wife and mother.

This week we talked mostly about divorce but something else in the reading really peaked my interest. All of those who know me know that I love little kids and have loved them since I was a kid. So it will make a lot of sense to you all as to why this one stood out to me.
      When we do the will of the Father by keeping commandments and following His son, we are able to feel joy and His approval. The same goes when we are doing His work by bringing His other children down to earth. We are literally doing the work of the Father and we are working WITH Him to do so. How cool is that? I can’t wait for my opportunity to do so. I am grateful that He trusts us with that responsibility, whether it is in our own homes, through church callings, or even our work." 

"One thing that really stood out to me was the fact that almost half of American homes do not have children in the home. Growing up in California it was normal to see one child homes and plenty where it is just a husband and wife. Living in Utah and Idaho the past few years though, it has been fun to see so many households with a lot of children. Later on in the readings it talks about how many American’s don’t believe that marriage is to have children. In other countries in that same poll, almost half of the population that was surveyed still believed that marriage was to bring children into the world. It is sad to see how many people do not understand or know about the Plan of Salvation. As I was reading this week the spirit was able to confirm to me that the Plan of Salvation is important and that marriage is a way to multiply and replenish the earth and to rear children in a loving home. To me it makes so much sense. Why else would we need to be married? Yes, it is fun and it has plenty of perks, but at the same time all of the couples I know who have children said they didn’t realize how happy they could be until they had children.

Scripture Power

   You know scriptures have a lot more power when you actually read them and pay attention than when they are just hanging out on the coffee table or when you skim over them really quickly. This is something that I can always be better at. And this is why I am grateful for classes at school that force me to do so. I am taking a New Testament class this semester. This week we read about the Savior's baptism. As we were reading we were asked to pick out 3 principles that stood out to us. I love this because instead of mindlessly reading scriptures that I have read many times before I am digging deeper and deeper trying to learn more.
        This week the three principles were:
1)  Matt 4:1-11: As I am obedient to the commandments and Love Heavenly Father He will send me help and strength to continue on this journey.

 

This principle originally stuck out to me when the scripture talks about angels being sent to minister to "him". I thought of the Savior and how he was tempted after fasting for 40 days. He sets a great example of truly loving Heavenly Father and choosing to serve Him. After reading the footnote though there is a Joseph Smith translation that tells us that the angels were actually sent to John the Baptist. After being tempted the Savior learned that John had been put in jail for preaching and baptizing. Instead of thinking of Himself the Savior sent Angels to help John and strengthen him. John stuck up for the Savior and His teachings even when people were persecuting him. He loved the Lord and the gospel and because he continued to follow Him instead of giving into the crowds the Savior was able to reach out to him in love and give him help.

2) Luke 4:4: I need to be fed physically but I also need to be feasting on the word and being fed spiritually.

3) John 2:1-5 When I have a problem I need to first turn to Heavenly Father and the Savior. As I do so they will help me.

Yes these are all pretty basic but at the same time as I am reading these things my faith is strengthened as I see these examples and trust that the Savior is the same yesterday today and forever and will do the same for me.