Skip to main content

Humble & Hopeful

By


I suppose I have probably been thinking about the chaos in our world a little too much lately. It is hard to ignore when I go to school every day and am reminded of the jeopardy my job is in. Many days I have to remind some of my kids to wash their hands or brush their teeth because it is obvious that they have not been bathed in days. We turned on the news in class yesterday to watch some snippets about a massive 8.9 earthquake in Japan and the resulting tsunamis; natural disasters that seem to become more and more familiar to us.

While all of these things swirl in and out of our information-driven society, I had a thought the other day that gave me comfort. The Book of Mormon is example after example of societies that chose to ignore the counsel of the prophets. These societies all faced destruction, captivity or some other major events that caused them to repent or be destroyed. This cycle that we read about took place every few decades or every hundred years. In some very wicked cases, it occurred more frequently. In each example, whether it be the Nephites, Lamanites, the people of King Noah, the Gadianton Robbers or whoever else, the righteous always found some way to rejoice and to keep going despite their circumstances, and the wicked almost always got what they deserved. In many situations, the righteous suffered greatly and paid the ultimate sacrifice on occasion. But after every catastrophe, after every great challenge or trial, the people left over always managed to put things back together and continue on with life. Unfortunately, we are just witnessing one of the downward spirals in our world right now. I just have to remember that no matter how wicked the world becomes or how many disasters come to our country, our family or my personal life, I will always be protected or learn something that will make me more like God so long as I remain humble and hopeful.

This world is designed to distract us from our destiny. There are voices calling out to us from every direction to ignore our responsibilities and divine purposes. There are distractions everywhere we look. It will only become more difficult to avoid such, but...that is what we signed up for!

"A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. ... You find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down."

-C.S. Lewis

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for visiting :)

Popular posts from this blog

Confessions of an Unlikely Teacher

By
Most of the choices I have had to make in my life have been between right and wrong, or a selection of one option among many.  I haven't often been required to make choices of elimination where I have two great things, but must sacrifice one in order to keep the other.   When I made the decision to apply to BYU, it was an easy choice.  I could choose any university I wanted, but that was the only one I had interest in.  I had always wanted to go there.  My best friends all wanted to go there.  I applied early.  I was accepted.  It was great.  I was anxious of course to know whether I would get in or not, but I never had to act on my back-up plans.   My choice to go on a mission was a little more tricky, but still obvious.  I had wanted to serve a mission from the time I was 15, and although other opportunities presented themselves along the way, like school and boys, when the time came, there wasn't much to think about. ...
6 comments
Read more

Bearing Burdens

By
Insurance is really lame.  I mean, it's awesome when you face a crisis, but most of the time it just really, really sucks.  Especially if you are self-employed.  We were notified that our premium would be going up (yet again) in January, and that our benefits would, of course, be going down.  On a random, yet inspired stroke of circumstance, a friend recommended a program to us that replaces an insurance plan and allows people to help cover healthcare costs together.  The mission of this group is to support Christ's teaching to "...bear...one another's burdens..." in a literal sense.  I liked that idea.   Mosiah taught the same principle to the people in the Americas nearly 200 years before Paul taught it to the Galatians .  " And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people...
1 comment
Read more

Steadfast & Immovable

By
Sister Beck is coming on Saturday to speak to our stake at the BYU-I center, so I thought I would start getting ready by reading some of the most recent Relief Society messages. I read a talk by Sister Silvia H. Allred called Steadfast & Immovable . I particularly appreciated these two quotes: "I know that each of us has a vital and essential role as a daughter of God. He has bestowed upon His daughters divine attributes for the purpose of forwarding His work. God has entrusted women with the sacred work of bearing and rearing children. No other work is more important. It is a holy calling. The noblest office for a woman is the sacred work of building eternal families , ideally in partnership with her husband." "We demonstrate our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Savior when we place our faith in Him, repent of our sins, and receive the saving ordinances required to enter God’s presence. These saving ordinances are symbols of the covenants we make. The coven...
Post a Comment
Read more