Avodah

A little over a week ago I wrote about how it's hard for me to feel like prayer is really working. {http://bewhyyou.blogspot.com/2011/02/prayer-works.html}

Well today in class I learned that the Hebrew word for work is the same as the Hebrew word for worship. The word avodah is translated both ways. How cool is that? :)

work stories by julia, III

by Julia Green, one of my all-time favorite people. I love her work stories :) :)

~work~
my first customer of the day began discussing my cold with me. apparently he used to be a nurse. he told me to drink booze. not a lot {alot}, just enough to clear my sinuses? i didn't quite understand & i stopped listening because we don't really have booze in our house. then he suggested hot water with honey & lemon. much more reasonable.

i continued to try not to sniff loudly & snottily in frony of customers. unsuccessful.

i was instructed not to take in next day orders after the clothes were picked up. i was not aware of the fact that the clothes had already been picked up. i took in multiple next day orders. i then had to drive said orders to the monroe store so that they would get done. so lame.

i bought myself apple juice & orange juice after work because they contain vitamin c... & because i love juice.

i believe this is the end.

the end.

trust

Let's start with a personal weakness of mine: I sometimes find it hard to picture God concretely, like as a real person. I know a lot about Him, but it's hard to know Him, especially when I can't see Him. Luckily, I believe He gave us relationships with other people to teach us about Him. So when I'm having trouble imagining God, I think about the people I know personally who sort of embody certain characteristics of Him.

Today, I'm thinking about trust. Trusting God to do what is best for me, and for the people I love. So I’m thinking about the people I know I can really trust. What is it about them that makes them trustworthy? Six main characteristics came to mind:

1. I know them. This might seem like an obvious one, but think about it. I have a basic trust in humanity just because I like to believe that most people are good, but I would never give a stranger the keys to my car. I know all the people I trust very well, and the more I know them them more I know I can trust them.

2. They are consistent. They don't change on me. If they say they'll be there, then they are. They've never not been there for me when I needed them. 

3. They are honest.

4. They are wise and/or knowledgeable. When we were younger, my dad would make up these silly rules for us. Like, don't jump on the banister. He said that he knew it would break because he had done it himself when he was younger. But we ignored the rule. What did Dad know? Turns out... he was right. The banister broke, and we got in trouble. Or what about when Mom said, I think you should do this, or not do that? What does she know. It's not like she was ever a teenager herself. Oh wait. Mom was right too. Maybe I should trust the people who know a little bit more than me about life. :)

5. They have power. You know that trust-fall game, where you fall backwards and trust the person behind you to catch you? I would never play that with a little kid as the catcher. I would crush them. They just don't have the power or ability to catch me. I like to play it with people who are strong enough to support me and hold me up :)

6. They love me. I am absolutely confident in the love that these people have for me, and that above all else allows me to trust them completely.

So then, if God is perfect in every way, I can safely assume that He is perfectly consistent, honest, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving.  And I can assume that the more I know Him, the better I will be able to trust Him. So, let's learn more about Him and how He is trustworthy :)

prayer works

The trickiest thing with prayer for me is feeling like I'm actually doing something. I live pretty far away from most of the people that I love, so sometimes it's hard for me when they're going through something hard and need my help, and all I can do is pray. This quote from the LDS Bible Dictionary helps me feel better: 

Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

Sometimes I feel like I'm just saying words and that they're not really doing anything, and it's frustrating when I wish I could do more. I like this quote because it lets me know that if I'm putting forth a sincere effort - really working and not just casually praying - then it counts as work and it counts as doing something. Prayer is actually the "appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." It's not just a little thing, as long as I don't treat it like a little thing. 


EDIT: the Hebrew word avodah is translated as both worship and work. :) 

God loves us, and he hears our prayers. Promise. :)

"What a blessing and a joy for each of us to know that our Father lives and that he loves us, that he forgives us when we repent, that he is ever willing to help and give love to his beloved children." ~Spencer W. Kimball

Have a wonderful weekend :) 

a collection of quotes and verses on the subject of love

Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." {Matthew 22:37-40}

"God the Eternal Father did not give that first great commandment because He needs us to love Him. His power and glory are not diminished should we disregard, deny, or even defile His name. His influence and dominion extend through time and space independent of our acceptance, approval, or admiration.

No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God!

For what we love determines what we seek.

What we seek determines what we think and do.

What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become."
dieter f. uchtdorf

"God the Father watches over us, fills our hearts with breathtaking joy, brightens our darkest hours with blessed peace, distills upon our minds precious truths, shepherds us through times of distress, rejoices when we rejoice, and answers our righteous petitions. He offers to His children the promise of a glorious and infinite existence and has provided a way for us to progress in knowledge and glory until we receive a fulness of joy. He has promised us all that He has. If all that is not enough reason to love our Heavenly Father, perhaps we can learn from the words of the Apostle John, who said, “We love him, because He first loved us."{1 John 4:19}"
dieter f. uchtdorf

Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments," {John 14:15} and, "A new commandment I give unto, that you love one another, as I have loved you." {John 13:34}

"I admit that this means loving people who have nothing loveable about them. But then, has oneself anything loveable about it? You love it simply because it is yourself... We have then to go on and apply the rule to all the other selves. Perhaps it makes it easier if we remember that that is how He loves us. Not for any nice, attractive qualities we think we have, but just because we are the things called selves."
c.s. lewis

"Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you. Though we are incomplete, God loves us completely. Though we are imperfect, He loves us perfectly. Though we may feel lost and without compass, God’s love encompasses us completely. He loves us because He is filled with an infinite measure of holy, pure, and indescribable love. We are important to God not because of our résumé but because we are His children. He loves every one of us, even those who are flawed, rejected, awkward, sorrowful, or broken. God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked."
dieter f. uchtdorf

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. {1 John 4:11}

Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endures forever. Charity suffers long, and is kind, and envies not, and is not puffed up, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, and rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Wherefore, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love. {Moroni 7:45,47-48}

"Love is the motivating principle by which the Lord leads us along the way towards becoming like Him, our perfect example. Our way of life, hour by hour, must be filled with the love of God and love for others... It is love of God that will lead us to keep His commandments. And love of others is at the heart of our capacity to obey Him."
henry b. eyring

"Joys come from putting the welfare of others above our own. That is what love is."
henry b. eyring

:)

did you think to pray?

One of my favorite quotes about prayer comes from the LDS Bible Dictionary, which says, 

“Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them.” {read more here.}

 I really like that prayer isn’t about changing God’s mind – He is perfect, why would I change Him? It’s about bringing my will in line with His. It’s about changing myself; communicating with God, my Father in Heaven, and trying to become more like Him.

Okay but I'm just gonna take a leap of faith here and assume I'm not the only one who ever forgets to pray. One thing I just realized is that it is only because of Jesus Christ that God hears our prayers and is merciful to us {I'm kinda slow, I know.} Therefore, prayer is a way of taking advantage of the Atonement. Yikes! I would never take the Savior’s sacrifice for granted or not use it in my life. I value it way, way, way too much. I could never disrespect my Savior or His Atonement. So now that I know that prayer is only possible because of the Atonement... I hope I never forget it again.

God loves you, I promise! Happy Thursday :)