The Lord Will Give

This week, my boyfriend showed me his very favorite passage of scripture: 2 Nephi 4:16-35. The entirety of the section is great, but I was most inspired by verse 35.

"Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask, not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen."

I love this passage because it is so joyful and filled with the Spirit and testimony. Nephi is glorifying God, and he gives a great truth as he does so. The Lord will gladly pour out blessings upon us if we just ask in righteousness. They may not be exactly what we think we need, but they will be what we need nevertheless. If we cry unto the Lord as Nephi does, we too can feel His love and desire for us to be happy. We can better be open to His blessings, and He will be our rock, our safe place; the thing that keeps us going, especially when everything feels like it's going wrong.

He Denieth None

During my reading this week, I came across several verses in 2 Nephi 26 that I really enjoyed because they talk so much about the nature of God and His love for us. I particularly like verse 24:

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."

This verse speaks to me because it is so all-encompassing. The Lord loves all his children, every single one. It doesn't matter who they are or what their background is, or what they've done, He loves them. He loves me. He wants all of us to come unto Him and keep His commandments so we can be happy and safe. I know many people who often feel super lost and alone, like there's no way that God could ever love someone like them. I have a friend who deals with homosexuality and he's had to deal with so much internal turmoil because of that and his faith. For people like my friend, and any others dealing with trials and anxiety of their own, I feel like this principle is so important, that "he inviteth all to come unto him and partake of his goodness;"(33) He wants to help us at every stage of our lives, no matter how many mistakes we have made. He is our Father and He loves us perfectly and absolutely.

My Kindness Shall Not Depart From Thee

I was having a bit of a rough time this week with stress of getting everything done, and was not feeling very well at all. Me, being my overly dramatic and stressed self, I cried and whined a lot to my boyfriend, and in order to help me feel better, he read Romans 8:15-18 to me.

 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
 18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

I love these verses because they remind me of all the blessings in store for me, and they help me keep things in perspective. Certainly, life is full of stress and sorrow, and sometimes all you can do is cry, but the magnitude of our joy and happiness in the eternities completely overshadows and eclipses any negativity we will ever feel combined. If you take a minute and think of just flexibility, love, and trust, we can remember all that the Lord has in store for us and be happy.

When She Saw

In class, we talked about Eve and the Fall, and how the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was sweet to the taste and the Tree of Life was bitter, at least when Adam and Eve were in the Garden. This was really cool to me and I loved that insight. However, when I was reading the same chapter with my love last night, something else caught my eye. 

In Moses 4:12, we read: "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it became pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make her wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and also gave unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

I noticed that while Satan tempted Eve with half-truths and lies about the Tree, she only partook when she "saw that the tree was good for food." This indicates to me that it was less about Satan's words about the Tree and more about Eve deciding that it was time for her and Adam to leave the Garden. I think that Eve was much more aware of the situation and its consequences than we are led to believe, and that makes me happy because it affirms the necessity and power of agency and intelligence.

Called to Serve

Over the weekend, some friends and I decided to take a trip to Las Vegas. It so happened that Elder Bednar was speaking in stake conference there where we were staying and we got the amazing opportunity to hear him. He said at one point that missionaries are called to serve, not called to go to a place. The focus of a mission is to serve the Lord, and missionaries are assigned to labor in a location. However, everybody seems to forget that a little and gets hyped about going to a new place instead.

In D&C 43:6, we read:

 "And ye shall go forth in the power of my Spirit, preaching my gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with the sound of a trump, declaring my word like unto angels of God."

This verse and the words of Elder Bednar confirm to me the nature of missionary work, that its whole purpose is to spread the word of God. People ask me where I want to go on my mission, but really, where I labor doesn't matter. What matters is the work and blessing the lives of the children of God.

Get Thee Hence

When we went over Moses 1 in class early this week, I felt that Moses' experience with Satan is extremely important to learning to combat temptation in our daily lives. Moses tries from verse 16-20 to banish Satan, but he is unable to do so. Satan remains despite Moses' best efforts to get him to leave. However, in verse 21, Moses is finally able to banish Satan, but only by invoking the power of the Lord:

"...and Moses received strength, and called upon God, saying: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan."

This means a lot to me because it goes to show how much we need to rely on the Lord for assistance with the things that plague us. We can try and do our best, but often it is not enough to conquer whatever we are trying to overcome. We need the Lord to aid us, and He is more than willing to do so if only we will ask him. If we remain faithful and do not fear to call upon Him, He will help us become far greater than we could ever be on our own.

What Child is This?

In the BYU Choirs' concert, Celebrations of Christmas, Women's Chorus sang a familiar Christmas song: What Child is This? The third verse in particular is very poignant. It goes as follows:

So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh

Come peasant, king, to own Him

The King of Kings salvation brings

Let loving hearts enthrone Him

For me, to "bring him incense, gold, and myrrh" is less about bringing Christ gifts, and more about showing our love for him by serving Him, and the way we do that is by serving others. When we love each other and share His light, we "enthrone him" and place Him at our head as our guide and leader. Everyone has the opportunity to gain salvation through Him, and when we share that beautiful, joyous message, we truly are giving Him the greatest gift we possibly can. 

Christmas is the season of giving, and as Christ gave us the ultimate gift of the atonement, it is only natural that we celebrate that gift by giving what we can to others with Christlike love and kindness.

2 Nephi 26:30

...wherefore, the Lord God hath given a commandment

that all men should have charity, which charity is love.

And except they should have charity they were nothing.