"Will Ye Not Now Return Unto Me"

It is so easy to criticize others and questioning why they do the stupid things they do. When I see someone smoking I just think, “How can you possibly be doing that! You know how dangerous it is! You know it can give you cancer and lung disease and you know it can kill you!” And in my head I can’t fathom why somebody would still smoke. It makes no sense to do something when you know how deadly the consequences are. And then I read 3 Nephi 9:13, which says, “Will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins… that I may heal you?” I often have the same attitude as the smoker. I always know the consequences of my actions, even if I sometimes I ignore that label, because I am a fallen human being who sometimes gives in to things that sound good now, but potentially destroy what I really want. And Christ is pleading with us to stop and to go to Him. He gives us a warning and then gives us a way to be completely healed when we don’t listen to Him. And he doesn’t look at us judgmentally when we mess up, like we so often look at others. He is so patient with us. I’m sure that sometimes he just thinks, “Please stop doing this. I can’t bear to watch you do these things when you have so much potential. Please come to me and let me heal you.” His hand is always reaching out to us, and he is so willing to help us, if we will only reach up and let him.

"Could Not Be Frightened"

We live in a scary world. There is disease and war and murder-all kinds of things that we could reasonably be afraid of. Fortunately, we are not left alone through all of this. Because of our Savior we can have hope and we can feel peace. 3 Nephi 3:12 says of the Nephite leader, Lachoneus, that he “was a just man, and could not be frightened by the demands and the threatenings of a robber.” It would be a natural reaction to be terrified if you were threatened by robbers. It is amazing to me to know that the gospel can bring this level of peace to somebody. By knowing that there is a plan in life, a plan that extends much farther than this life, we don’t have to be afraid of wordly things. While there are a lot of bad things that can happen to us, lots of things that could “ruin” our lives, there is no man that can permanently destroy us. Men can make life really awful for us, but if we stay close to the Lord, do what we know we should, and try our best to become like Him, we have nothing to fear. Things will get hard, but things will get better. I love the quote “He never said it would be easy, he said it would be worth it.” This is the lesson we can learn from Lachoneus. We don’t need to fear what men can do to us because the Lord is over all things and we have the potential for celestial glory. 

"They Cannot Fall"

Helaman 5:12 has so many amazing things to learn from it, but there are two main things that stick out to me. The first is when it says, “when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds.” It doesn’t say he might do it, or there’s a possibility that he won’t send any temptations our way, it says when. Satan will go after everyone. Everyone will have trials and temptations, and as the scripture says, they will be mighty. And this seems to make life sound scary and hopeless.  But then this assurance of struggles is followed by an assurance of hope and victory. It says, “because of the rock upon which ye are built…a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.” I love that. They cannot fall. We might stumble and trip and falter, but we won’t fall down. Just how there is no doubt that Satan will send adversity our way, there is no doubt that if we will rely on our Savior that we will prevail. Christ didn’t say to us that he might be able to help us out or that he’ll see what he can do, but he might not be able to save us. He promised us that if we will make him our foundation, if we will follow him, he will not fail us. If our lives are centered on him and we try our hardest to become the person that God intended us to be, then the devil cannot prevail over us. With Christ we have the power to overcome all of the mighty winds and storms that we face. With Christ we cannot fall.

Exceedingly Rejoice

When I was watching the Superbowl yesterday, at the end of the game my sister wondered, since the two coaches are brothers, how long the losing brother would be upset with the other brother and not want to talk to him. I immediately thought about Captain Moroni. In Alma 59: 1 it says of Moroni, “he was exceedingly rejoiced because of the welfare, yea, the exceeding success which Helaman had had.” It is amazing to me that Moroni could be so righteous and so concerned with others that he would be happy when someone else got what he was wishing he had. It can be so hard to feel happy about other people’s achievements. But what if we could just love each other enough to feel happy when others are happy? To be happy when they achieve their goals and dreams? This world has so much focus on being the best and making sure you get what you want. And we tend to believe that anyone can achieve success if they work at it. But the moment they do, we feel upset and jealous of them. It would do us a lot of good if we would all try to be a little more like Moroni. What if when our brother won the Superbowl, instead of being bitter about it, we could be “exceedingly rejoiced” because of their success? Or if a coworker got the promotion we had been hoping for and instead of holding a grudge against them we sincerely congratulated them? We would all be so much happier if we would take this little lesson from Moroni and rejoice for others.