Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,

I can’t remember all the stupid things I have blurted out that hurt people’s feelings. None of them were done in meanness or with the intent of hurting people. They were a reflection of my ignorance and inexperience. I remember once when my three year old son mistook his friend’s mother as an older child. Unfortunately the words he used were the “big girl” I thought she would take it as a compliment, but instead she took it to mean that she was fat. I forgave myself for my blunder and hoped that she did as well. It would help probably if I carefully thought about things before I said them, but even then I would not comprehend that big girl translated into fat girl.  

The old saying do unto others as you have would have them do unto you has backfired on me so many times. A neighbor had been in the hospital with surgery and so I thought if this were me what would I want someone to do for me. Needless to say what I would want turned out to be the last thing she wanted.  She didn’t leave the church over it, but used the experience as an example of what not to do in one of her lessons much to my embarrassment. She didn’t call my name, but she certainly got even with me. I’m able to laugh about it now.

Sometimes we ask ourselves, what would Christ do?  The only way we can know the answer is to study about him, learn about him, listen to the Holy Spirit, pray, experience, and give thanks.  

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust, for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not the publicans the same?”  (Matthew 5:44-46)

This does not mean that we need to cast pearls before swine or that we should put ourselves or our children in danger. I have made that mistake before as well, but slowly I have learned that if I stay close to our Lord he will give promptings through the Spirit what I should do. I am learning that I know very little, but the Lord knows all things. If I take the time to ask him, it only takes a second when you are on speaking terms with God to say, should I do this?  And he will send a prompt is seconds if he recognizes your voice.  In so doing you draw nearer to the Lord and become more Christ-like.

... it would have been wrong to sugar coat the answer, but it bothered me.

I suppose I should save this post for valentine’s day, but it’s been on my mind a lot recently and may develop into several post.

“This is my commandment, ‘That ye love one another as I have loved you.’” (John 15:12)

And how is it exactly that Christ loves? He loves us unconditionally.

I’ve been thinking of stupid things I have said or thought about other people. At the age of eighteen I moved to far away city to seek my fortune. The first thing I did after finding a job and a place to live was to find a Baptist Church to attend. It wasn’t long after that I was asked to teach the 16-17 year-old in Sunday School. I took the assignment hesitantly. Those kids were almost as old as I was. Even scarier I had not been raised to attend church. I didn’t know anything about doctrine or such, but the officials of the church knew that I had a firm testimony of Jesus Christ and they convinced me to take the class.  

One day I found myself inviting a young person to come to church. She wouldn’t come she said,  and I ask why.  “Do you believe in dancing?” she asked.

 Baptist do not believe in dancing, that was one thing I knew for sure. I remembered being a student at Southern Illinois University and attending a required event that turned out to be a ballet performance. I was horrified to see the scantily dressed men and women interacting on stage. I don’t remember my answer, but the result was that the young woman left the church.  

I had been honest and sincere and it would have been wrong to sugar coat the answer, but it bothered me. Eventually I too left the Baptist Church and became a Latter Day Saint. Though it is hard for me, they do believe in dancing. In fact I have grandchildren who excel in dancing. It is their life. But the issue is not about dancing. It is about love. Christ like love. Christ loved us enough to give his life for us.  “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,”  He said. (John 15:13)  But the Baptist are good, honest, righteous people and they also believe that.

The reason I became a Latter Day Saint is because they go beyond what I could achieve in the Baptist church.  I could learn so much more, come closer to Christ, and be more like him. And yet, with all of that I see people fall. I see people leave the true church.  How can that be?

To be continued…

The knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, toungue and People

“The time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread throughout every nation, kindred, tongue and people. And behold when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent.” (Mosiah 3:20-21)   

I don’t know where we are in this process but with social media and electronic devices we must be close to the promise of the scripture above. There is hearing, and then there is our decision about what to do with his Name. We can use it as a curse, or we can reverence it in repentance and faith. If we choose to repent, and we all need repentance daily the gate is there for us to enter in. The gate of course is baptism and the path we take after that is still of our own choosing with daily repentance and course corrections, moment to moment. Repentance is such a scary word except for the Savior Jesus Christ who has already atoned for our sins. The path may be hard but it would be impossible without our Lord God Omnipotent who has prepared a way for us.

Prayer is Love

I was talking with a lady yesterday about My Favorite Scriptures and I quoted, “It is by the prayers of the righteous ye are spared.” (Alma 10:23)

“Does that mean that we are wicked?”  She asked.

I was stunned. “I never thought of it that way,” I finally answered and I hadn’t. It is true that Nephi is talking fire and brimstones in that passage but, I find great comfort in that scripture. Prayers are love. When someone prays for you it is because they love you. That is what that scripture means to me. Where would I be now if I hadn’t had the prayers of my Grandmother, and others?

Are we wicked? Well yes I guess we all are, but it’s more a matter of degrees I think. Anything that takes me away from the Holy Spirit is cause for prayers, and that happens every day. I need to pray and I need the prayers of others. I need your love, I need your caring and I need to pray for you because you also need love and caring. I can feel the effect of having someone pray for me. It feels like love and hope and you need that as much as I do.

Was it because the scripture says the “prayers of the righteous” that she felt that way? It does sound like Nephi’s making a division there, but again I suppose it is a matter of degree. While my grandmother was certainly a righteous woman and did many charitable things she was not perfect and neither am I. We have to be righteous to some degree or we cannot pray for others because I don’t think God is going to heed a prayer that says, “Cause misfortune and shame to come upon my neighbor.”  

Who are the righteous anyway?  That too is all of us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and call upon his name.

the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father

“And the angel spake unto me saying: These last records, which thou hast see among the Gentiles shall establish the truth of the first (the Bible) which are of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, (The New Testament, which Nephi knew nothing about because Christ had not yet been born.) And shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them: (during the dark ages) and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues and people that the Lamb of God is the Son of the Eternal Father, and the Savior of the world, and that all men must come unto him, or they cannot be saved.” (1 Nephi 13:40)   Between 600 and 592 B.C.

I have added the words in parentheses for my clarification.