H.'s Primary Talk from today

In Elder Bednar’s talk in the April General Conference in 2006, he spoke about coming closer to Jesus Christ. He said, “truly coming unto Him also requires consistent obedience and striving tobecome like Jesus in our thoughts, motives, communications, and actions.”
“One of the best ways to draw near unto Him and to both learn about and become more like the Lord Jesus Christ is to consistently study the holy scriptures—to daily ‘feast upon the words of Christ’ (2 Ne. 32:3).”

Elder Bednar gave 5 principles for making our scripture study better:
Principle 1: Pray for understanding, and invite the help of the Holy Ghost.
Principle 2: Work. –meaning actually read the scriptures.
Principle 3: Be consistent. –meaning, read often.
Principle 4: Ponder. –meaning to think about what you read a lot.
Principle 5: Write down impressions, thoughts, and feelings. –like in a study journal.

I know the scriptures are true and as we feast upon the words of Christ, we will become more like Him.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Sabbath

My friend Tara posted how hard it is to follow the command to Keep the Sabbath Holy. I responded at her blog, but the response was so long that I thought I'd post it here. :-)

We were home all day yesterday. We've been sick all week, as you may have known, and so I was trying to get some things accomplished that hadn't gotten done during the week claiming that I would better be able to serve God if our house was cleaned up, which is definitely a true statement.

Last night at scriptures, we read about a prophet that was on assignment from God so to speak. He was to tell the wicked King and his wicked priests to repent and was to retell them of the ten commandments.

We don't get through many verses each night as a family with three little kids, but, needless to say, I'm sure, we read about keeping the Sabbath holy. "v.16 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
v.17 Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;
v.18 But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;
v.19 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

And, I sat there reading my portion grimacing a little thinking about my washing machine, my dishwasher, my children who helped me, etc.

Enough of my transgressions.

You asked why it is so difficult? I always think about when Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites. Saul was told by Samuel the prophet, speaking on behalf of the Lord: "v.3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Saul didn't do that. He did what he thought better and sacrificed the best of all that to God, a seemingly good thing to do, right? Well, he was reprimanded and told by Samuel: v.16 "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

So, we may have no idea why God asks us to do something, but we can know that to obey is better than even sacrificing.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Okay, so our children are like little sponges. They remember virtually everything (well...not what I ask them to do, but everything they hear and see other than that). We were finishing up the Book of Omni tonight. Last time we read, H. said, "Zarahemna is the guy in the movie that we have that fought against Captain Moroni." So, tonight, I. said, "We have a movie about Zarahemni!" T. said, well, we're reading about Zarahemla, not Zarahemna." H. put interjected that they were the same...on and on...

Anyways... I just walked past H.'s room and T. was reading him the section from Alma where Zarahemna was told by Captain Moroni to put down his weapons and promise to not fight them anymore lest Captain Moroni and his army would kill them.

The funniest thing about this whole situation is that the movie is The Book of Mormon Seminary movie. I have seen it before. I have read the Book of Mormon multiple times. I don't remember the name of Zarahemna.

Man looketh on the outward appearance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related This is a Brit woman singing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Mis. While watching it, think of the scripture:

1 Sam. 16: 7
7 But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; ... for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.