i'm hungry....... again.

& when I'm hungry, pretty much nothing is more important to me than food. 

{well I'm still capable of rational thought....... but barely} ;)

~~~translate this to the spiritual world~~~

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.


I wonder.... is anything  more important to me than righteousness? or am I not that hungry yet...


:) just a thought!

forgiveness

again with the inspirational new testament class......... but seriously.

today we talked about the Parable of the Unjust Servant and forgiving others. In connection with this, we read the story of Abigail and Nabal from 1 Samuel 25. Basically, Nabal offends David and refuses to help him even after David has been helpful to Nabal. So David takes his men and his swords and goes to punish Nabal. Abigail hears what is happening and runs out to meet David with gifts. She kneels down and puts her face in the dust at David's feet and says, "Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be...forgive the trespass of thine handmaid." She is literally taking Nabal's sins upon herself, and asking David to forgive her even though she did nothing wrong.

Then we talked about Abigail as a type of Christ. Through his infinite Atonement, Jesus Christ literally took upon Himself all the sins of the world. When I stand before God to be judged, Christ will say, "Father, she wasn't perfect. But I was perfect. I suffered and died for her, so that she wouldn't have to pay the price for her mistakes. For my sake, let her into the Kingdom of Heaven. For my sake, offer her forgiveness."


I believe that when Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, He took upon Himself their sins too. Everyone's sins - not just mine. When I withhold forgiveness for something someone did to offend me, I'm not really withholding it from them - I'm withholding it from Him. From my Savior. From Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for me. How could I ever do that? When I imagine my Savior saying to me, "For my sake, won't you forgive them?" there is nothing to think about. Of course I will. There's nothing to forgive, nothing I wouldn't do for Him. It's just automatic. I love Him.

a fourth-watch God

today in new testament we talked about how we have a fourth-watch God and we have an immediate God. meaning, sometimes God lets us struggle until the "fourth-watch," or last possible moment, before He comes to us. Why? Well we don't always know God's purposes {though we know they are wise}, but one reason I think comes from The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis: 

"It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be... He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand."

God has to let us struggle, because by struggling we grow. If He always rushed in and saved us the moment we needed help, we could never become who we need to become. So, in His infinite mercy and wisdom, sometimes he let's us be "tossed with the waves," so to speak, and comes to us in what seems the very last possible moment.

This has happened to me many times in my own life. Sometimes God makes me wait what feels like a very long time {though really it's usually only a few days.......} before I feel better about things. Most recently, I was upset and stressed about school and personal life, and it seemed to be dragging on forever. I made it to the Relief Society Broadcast however, and it was just exactly what I needed to hear, and I felt at peace with the situation and loved by God. So perfect.

Sometimes, though, our God is an immediate God. He knows when to step in and rescue us immediately {and it's not up to us to tell Him which situation is which.} :) These situations can also be incredibly faith-strengthening. Not even two hours after the Broadcast ended, I got a text that again put my mind at ease. The situation isn't perfectly resolved, but I'm confident that we're back on the right path.

These personal examples don't exactly go along with the principle Brother Smith was talking about, but I wanted to record them and be thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who answers prayers in His own perfect timing, who loves me enough to let me struggle and grow, and who will never abandon me or let me drown. :)

xox, happy monday :)

forget me not

1) I love general conference. 

2) Tonight was the Relief Society General Broadcast, and it was SO GOOD. Just exactly what I needed right now. :)) 

3) My favourite talk (though I really did love them all,) was by President Uchtdorf, about forget-me-nots.   It was just.... so, so amazing. :) He gave 5 things for us to "forget not," which I loved, but my favourite was the ending paragraphs. I hope they make a Mormon Message about it!! 

I have to wait four days for the full text to come out..... so sad..... but I did get a few lovely quotes from this LDS Church News article... and then I went back and watched it again at home :) And I wrote down the 5 things to forget not:

• forget not to be patient with yourself
• forget not that difference between good sacrifice and foolish sacrifice
• forget not to be happy now
• forget not the why of the gospel
• forget not that the lord loves you

Inspired!

I love my New Testament class. It's seriously like efy every Monday and Wednesday! :) And I love my professor, Brother Smith. :)

Today we talked about the temptations of Christ and how they break down into 3 main categories:
1. Stones into bread {flesh vs. spirit}
2. Jump off the temple so that God will catch you {vanity vs. humility}, and
3. Worship me [Satan] and I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. {aspiration vs consecration}

Anyways, the part of the lesson that really inspired me was when we talked about how a lot of us want to consecrate our lives to God but are finding it really difficult... because we haven't mastered the earlier temptations like flesh vs spirit {um hello, I love sleep and my snooze button.}

How can we give God something that isn't ours? 

"The first and best victory is to conquer self." ~Plato.

So I'm going to work on self-control. Choosing spirit over flesh, and humility over vanity. & then when I've learned to be in control of myself, I can give myself to God. :)

Goal! :)

the more I learn the more I love!

I'm just really happy and excited today :) BYU... I just feel the Spirit super strong all the time and it's awesome :) I love my classes and singing and praying a bunch all day :)))

& the more I study the Gospel the more I seriously love it. It  is so good. and I love BYU for teaching me :)

{my Book of Mormon as Sacred Literature class is fascinating. Archetypes in 1st Nephi! Woo!} :)

You know how you believe it, but then you learn something more about it and you're like, "Wow! This is even good-er than I thought! It goes even deeper and even better! Yay God!" and your testimony is strengthened? That kind of feeling. :) It's awesome! The Gospel is awesome and true!! Hooray! :)))

Temple Archetypes

I always come away from my Old Testament class being like "Woah I never knew that that's so cool my spiritual mind is blown!" :) It's awesome. Today we talked about temple archetypes and the Garden of Eden as a temple. I found it to be super interesting and profound. :)

Here are the 10 characteristics that all temples share; or, what makes a temple a temple.

The Garden of Eden meets each one. Ready? :)

1. Area made sacred by the presence of God
2. Represented the primordial hillock
3. Architectural embodiment of the cosmic mountain
4. Associated with the waters of life
5. Contains a Tree of Life
6. Sacred marriage
7. In it worshippers are clothed
8. Place of sacrifice
9. Destruction or loss is calamitous & fatal to community
10. God's word is revealed inside

:) It makes me super want to go to the temple. We're going this friday yay! :)

Clarification of a few points: 

remember.

"When you look in the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be 'remember.'"

oh by the way...

http://cecereadslewis.blogspot.com/

I blog here now,  for a class on C.S. Lewis. Check it out if you want my thoughts on and favourite quotes from his amazing works :) :)