Faith is Becoming

Having faith in Christ leads to becoming like Him.

"And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek and lowly of heart." - Moroni 7: 43

Being "meek and lowly of heart" means that we are willing to recognize our flaws, or recognize where there is a gap between where we are and where Christ would have us be.

I want to follow Christ.  And, because Christ is the perfect example of living what He teaches, being like Him is the same thing as following His word.  If we want to become like Him, we must live His teachings and commandments.

Being like Christ leads to a better and more happy life.  One of the blessings promised when we work on the gap between ourselves and Christ is suggested in the scripture above: increased faith and hope.

There's my short thought for the day. Think about it. :)

Preparation

"And thus we see that the Lord did visit them in the fullness of his wrath, and their wickedness and abominations had prepared a way for their everlasting destruction." Ether 14:25

The use of the word "prepared" in this verse struck me as I read.  As mentioned in a previous post, the end of the Book of Mormon is filled with war.  Not only war, but war where there doesn't seem to be a "good side" or a "bad side" because everyone has drifted away from God and all things righteous.  It is all about revenge, murder, and power.

This specific record was written by the Prophet of the time, Ether.  He had before prophesied that if the people did not repent, destruction would come upon all of them.  The people continued to pull further and further from God until, at the end of the record, everyone is dead.  Just before this, Ether reminds us why he is including this part of the story, as full of carnage and evil as it is.  He reminds us that the choices the people made are what prepared their destruction. They prepared their own deaths.

When I read this, I thought: 

What am I preparing for?  

Every choice I make will be a step in one direction or another.  Reading that word, prepared, helped me form a goal to think about my choices and their consequences a little bit more.  

When I make the choice to run in the morning even when I'd rather fuse with my mattress, I'm preparing to have a healthier body and heart.  When I decide to read my scriptures even when I'm tired or busy, I am preparing to have the Spirit of the Lord with me as I go throughout my day.  When I study to come closer to Christ, I am preparing for the coming of Christ.

I make small choices every day that prepare me for something. We all do.

What are you preparing for?

Building Hope

It's cool what you learn when you go back and re-study your own notes.  I had missed something important even though I wrote most of it down - which I'm glad I did, because now I have all these spiritual gems to look over again.

Hope is connected to patience. This came up in my study of Christ-like attributes, which I've been discovering are all connected through Christ.  Here is the connection, found in Paul's letter to the Romans:

"...but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us." (Romans 5:3-5)

Hope is an expectation, or trust, that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us.  When we hope, we can have patience through confusion and pain as we go through hard things. In addition, when we remember to have patience with ourselves and with the Lord, our hope is built up as we rely on Him.  This is all made possible through the presence of His Spirit, which is "shed abroad in our hearts" as we remember and feel His love.

So, my friends, I want you to know something.  I want you to know that no matter how hard things are right now, no matter how long it's seems to take for things to get better, your patience will be rewarded - maybe not with a solution just yet, but with an abundant feeling of God's love for you.  He does love you, and He wants to show you just how much.  Talk with Him, and you will feel that love.

And if you need a listening ear, mine is open.

Christ Will Dash My Fears

"...and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them." Mormon 6:7

Footsteps n the Sand, a poem. 

The end of the Book of Mormon is filled with prominently one thing: war.  By the sixth chapter of Mormon, all but 24 of the entire Nephite people is slaughtered by the Lamanites.  The verse above quotes Mormon's comments on how the Nephites felt before the final battle.  They were very afraid.

Previously in the stories of the Book of Mormon, the Nephites often prevailed in war, because they were righteous and had the Lord on their side.  In these final chapters, however, Mormon tells us as readers that the people of Nephi were very wicked and refused to repent.

Mormon specifically says in the above verse that this fear "fills the breasts of the wicked.

Worldly and temporal things let fear dominate our hearts when we are far from the Lord.  It makes sense to me, then, that the opposite would be true: when we are close to the Lord, fear for things we know of in this life will not overwhelm us, for God brings us strength and peace.

When I am close to the Lord, I will not be overwhelmed by stress for school or work or the future or...dating...

He will support me and calm my troubled heart.

Attentive.

Maybe it's because of my new favorite movie.  Maybe it's because of the name of my blog.  Maybe it's because I have found that life can spin so fast it almost feels out of order as we all try to live our lives to the fullest in some way or another - most of the time missing the point as to what that really means.

But mostly, it's because I've been learning a lot more about genuinely appreciating everything and everyone around me.  Every day, every breath, every taste, every person I meet can be so magic - and I want to be enchanted by it all; to feel the tingle, the sparkle of light in every moment as it falls into any given day.

Is it impossible to do a little movie magic on life?  To mentally slow down the most precious parts, add some music, and make the glow of the people and things you see so perfect that it is near impossible to mistake their importance to your own personal plot?

I think not.

Ruins

something about times of old
the magic of a story told
enchantment, wonder, and romance
the seeming fool's errand of taking a chance

unsaid until the very phrase
the perfect coupling of clarity and haze
unknowing of what the future holds
so long as together it folds

the charm of a broken palace
of all it's past hearts housed
to enter in without malice
praise and awe upon it dowsed

if we know better now
than they knew in the stories
it is only because of how
in their ruins, we see the glories

marvel every broken piece
every cobbled floor
fingers tingle at each parchment's crease
every dent adore

Ruin, you see
makes enchantment.
The wonder and romance enhancement.

Beauty, to me
is when he or she
embraces and learns how to dance it.

but in order to be
something naturally
another must the ruin see
and know to chance it

something about the times of old
the magic of a story told
each crack, dent, pebble, and break
the reason for your wonder make.

Eye to Eye

I read something hopeful in my study today.

18 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. (3 Nephi 16:18)

The world is full of so much confusion and disagreement.  Everyone is constantly coming up with arguments and trying to prove their way right and other ways wrong.  It's hard to know what sides to take sometimes - and it's very confusing when you want your personal beliefs to coincide with everything else you think about, be it morality, modesty, equality, etc.

Besides making me think of this song, which is happy in and of itself, this scriptural promise is comforting.  First off, it is comforting in a sense of a future perspective, looking toward when the Lord will come again, rule, and the world will simply make more sense.

It's also hopeful in another way, though.  The chapter summary says this will happen "when the Lord brings again Zion," which could very well be referring to what happens when people are close the the Lord.  When we seek Him, He helps guide minds and hearts, and people tend to agree more. The Lord, through both His infinite wisdom and His astounding love for all of us, makes things match up.

Maybe love is the reason why

For the first time ever,

We're seeing it eye-to eye

Guided.

From the Thoughts of Life blog

Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Because of the hardness of the hearts of the people of the Nephites, except they repent I will take away my word from them, and I will withdraw my Spirit from them, and I will suffer them no longer, and I will turn the hearts of their brethren against them. - Helaman 13:8

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the Spirit works and what it does for us.  Whenever the Nephites win a battle in the Book of Mormon, the prophet who is writing acknowledges that it is because they had the Spirit of the Lord with them, which gave them strength.  I think this can be interpreted in various ways, one being that the Spirit can literally give us strength when we are fighting our battles, because the Lord fights alongside us.  Sometimes, the strength of the Lord even keeps enemies away instead of letting them attack in the first place.

Another way that rings true to me is this: when we have the Spirit, we are more in tune with God's will, and we are thus guided through our battles to an end that He wants for us.  The truth is, we do have battles to fight, and often our enemies are stronger than we are.  The Lord doesn't always take these battles away or fight them for us, usually because He needs us to gain something from them.  However, the Spirit gives us guidance, and because that is Heavenly guidance, it is another kind of strength - a strength in divine knowledge - that cannot be gained any other way.

I am so grateful for the guidance of His Spirit in my life. It really does help me through my battles.

Perfect Power

I made an exciting and enlightening connection in my study today. I'm currently reading My Redeemer Lives, a compilation of Easter talks. The talk I'm on is Elder Belnap's To Them Gave He Power to Become.  In this talk, Elder Belnap discusses the Atonement and the perfection of Christ.

In one section of the talk, he references Hebrews 4:14-16, which says that Christ is without sin.  When I thought about this, I realized that it feels right to me to think of it this way: Christ isn't endowed with some unique anti-sin power that we can't have - He has power over sin because of His closeness to His Father, and because of his determined resistance to temptation.  If we want Satan to be bound, we must do that same thing - come close to both Christ and our Father so we can gain the strength to resist temptation.

Christ really did set the example for us in all things.

Carry

To be the star most glowing
Wandering revealed
Progressing images of you showing
What with me was once concealed

We'll find if in this world we might -
Wondering if this was right...
If I was right.

Justifying.
My doubts
Along with my faults
My heart pining
Searching for a way to prove
That, to all of me, you can move

Desiring past experience varied
Fearing that it must
As with memory away carried
Carry with it trust

Spark.
For the light that you will have to earn.
And will my thoughts upon you mark
But fall on me to burn.