Can't Judge a Book by Its Length

The book of Enos in the Book of Mormon is a short book, but it contains some great stuff. I have to admit, in the past I would glace over this book reading it real quick because it was short and I didn't consider it important because of its length. The phase, "You can't judge a book by its cover," may not necessarily fit here, but modifying it a bit may: You can't judge a book by its length. Having said that, I am going to concentrate on the first four verses.

Enos starts out telling us that he father was a "just man" that taught him their language along with the nurture and admonition of the Lord. This tells me that he loved his father. He wanted EVERYONE to know that his father was a "just man" and why. This gives me something in common with Enos. I love my dad as well. He taught me the gospel and made sure that I got an education when I was a kid (teaching me his language).

Enos goes on to let us know that he struggled with sin and sought out to "(receive) a remission for (his) sins." (Enos 1:2) He did this while he was out hunting for food. Alone in the wilderness, he though of his father's teachings of the gospel. Verse 4 says: "And my soul hungered; and I knelt down before my maker, and cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens."

I like the use of the word "hungered" in this verse. I relates a physical feeling to a spiritual need. We all know what it is like to feel hungry physically. By eating, we fulfill a need. By praying to our Heavenly Father, Enos was fulfilling more than just the want to pray and wasn't doing so because he was told to pray. He was fulfilling a need to pray. He felt such a great need to pray that he prayed all day and all night. 

The result of this great faith was a great reward. Verse 5 says, "And there came a voice unto me saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt e blessed." He got to HEAR the Lord! How amazing is that?

If we have faith and pray with everything we have in us, we can receive a reward as well. The September 2006 Friend has an article titled "The Enos Experiment." This tells the story of a little girl who learned about Enos in primary. She went home with the desire to really pray to Heavenly father and tell Him all of her thoughts and feeling. That night she knelt down and prayed. She gave thanks, asked for forgiveness, and really talked to Heavenly Father about her feelings until she had "shared everything that was in (her) heart." When she was done she "felt a calm warmth fill (her) soul and knew Heavenly Father had listened."

I hope to have this kind of faith. I have learned that I need to make my prayers more sincere. I have a list of things that I feel I need to pray for and want to pray for, but these scriptures and this talk got me thinking about my own prayers. I do have faith in prayer. I have had a few times where I have reached out to Heavenly Father an poured out my heart. I hope to remember these experiences and pray with everything I have in me more often. I love this gospel. I love that we always have the opportunity to improve ourselves and grow closer to our Lord and Savior though honest and sincere prayer!

My Dad

My dad has always given a great example of work in my life. When I was a teenager, my dad was a single father. He was depressed a lot, but he didn't give up. He continued to do housework; laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc. For leisure, he learned to cross stitch and made beautiful cross stitches of all of the temples he had been to at that time which made our home more beautiful. He went to work early in the morning so he could be home for us kids not long after we got home form school. He taught us that if we want something, we have to work for it. My brother, sister and I all had jobs at 16 and used the money for things that he didn't see as necessities. He loved us, and we knew that. As an adult, I went through some of the same struggles my dad did. I asked him what he did to stay positive. (I didn't see the depression.) He told me that he just kept busy taking care of us kids and the house. It has been and continues to be such a wonderful blessing to have him as my father!

My dad and Noel
September 2008

Love This Quote

If you are poor, work. … If you are happy, work. Idleness gives room for doubts and fears. If disappointments come, keep right on working. If sorrow overwhelms you, … work. … When faith falters and reason fails, just work. When dreams are shattered and hope seems dead, work. Work as if your life were in peril. It really is. No matter what ails you, work. Work faithfully. … Work is the greatest remedy available for both mental and physical afflictions. (The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life, New York: Forbes Inc., 1968, p. 427.)

Mommy Win

Last week my boys had Court of Honor for Boy Scouts. As they were getting ready, Eric told Sean to tuck in his shirt. Sean didn't understand why and expressed his want to be comfortable. Eric in a bit of a disgusted tone said, "It's a sign of respect." I was so proud of my 13 year-old for teaching his brother this important lesson about respecting the Boy Scout uniform. 

I am happy to announce that my sweet Sean received his Tenderfoot rank! It was such a wonderful surprise!

Knocked My Socks Off

As I was doing my scripture study this week, I came across a verse that totally wowed me! I was so overcome by the power of this one verse I knew I needed to share it. I was going to go to the gathering for my class the next night, and I was hoping that I would get the chance to share it there, but my group was discussing a different chapter. That means that I get to write about it on my blog.
The verse that just blew my mind (picture the commercial where the tops of people's head blow and purple smoke poofs out) was 2 Nephi 31: 20. It reads, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the father: Ye shall have eternal life." I found this verse so amazing that I highlighted it in pink and went back and outlined it in blue. (I'm not going to miss this one when I need it.) The next task was to break it down to discover why it was so amazing.
To start off I wanted to make sure I understood what "steadfastness" meant. Luckily, I didn't have to go far. In the footnotes, there are suggested words to look for in the topical guide: commitment, dedication, perseverance, steadfastness (of course), and walking with God. I had a better understand just from that list alone, but I wanted to get more information on walking with God. I did a search on lds.org rather than the topical guide so that I could access more than scripture. I could access conference talks. I found a talk by Aileen H. Clyde titled, "Confirmed in Faith." In this talk she speaks about our relationship with God. She talks about how Christ knew God and followed His commandments and was given strength as he did so. As we follow our Savior's example, we can walk with God as He did. John 15:10 says, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love..." Isn't this a great promise from our Heavenly Father? When we do our part of keeping the commandments, He will do his part by showering us with His love.
When I go to "perfect brightness of hope" I though of the second verse of "We Thank The, O God, For a Prophet." It says:

When dark clouds of trouble hang o'er us

And threaten our peace to destroy,

There is hope smiling brightly before us,

And we know that deliv'rance is nigh.

We doubt not the Lord nor his goodness.

We've proved him in days that are past.

The wicked who fight against Zion

Will surely be smitten at last.

I love the line, "There is HOPE shining BRIGHTLY before us." I understand that this brightness may be in the next life sometimes, but not always. For example, sometimes I struggle with the loss of my mom and brother even though it has been 19 years since they passed. I miss them. It is hard that I can't share my kids with them, but the hope that shines bright is that we are an eternal family thanks to the covenants my parents made in the temple. I will see them again. In this life however, I do have some amazing kids that have some of the traits they had. My daughter has my mom's spunk and spontaneity, my oldest son has her kindness and willingness to help, my middle kid has her sense of humor. I get to tell stories of how great they were in this life so that my kids and my husband can get to know them now and not have to wait to learn about them. I also get to pass down some of the traditions that my mom had with us.
Next, I felt I needed to explore, "endure to the end." Endure is such a daunting word. It sounds very difficult to me. Lucky for me, my instructor did a video about this, and I actually took notes. (I'm growing as a student...) He pointed out that this is not just doing. It requires action. One great way is to actually "feast on the words of Christ" as it says many times in the scriptures. He pointed out that this means to really delve into the scriptures as we study them. We should be marking them and thinking about what we are reading. This is some thing I haven't done much of in the past. I have my ex-husband's scriptures that I bought for him when we were first married. There were no markings in them when he decided to leave the Church and leave all of his church books behind when he moved out. I was trying to keep them nice, but when I started this class, I couldn't help myself. I found myself looking for colored pencil to highlight, write definitions of words I didn't understand in the margins, and write topics such as "missionary work" or "Atonement" in the margins as well. My instructor also pointed out 2 Nephi 32:8-9 where it talks about praying. In these verses we are instructed to pray always. We are told that if we feel we shouldn't pray that is the "evil spirit" telling us that it is not okay to pray. My instructor went on to give us a list moer that will help us to endure to the end: have faith in Jesus, serve God and others (I would say through others as well), choose the right, seek and find Christ, and let the Holy Ghost in.
The last phrase I wanted to explore was, "Ye shall have eternal life." That is a wonderful promise for us! I followed the footnote for eternal life. It lead me to the topical guide on a search for "objectives." I felt lead to Mosiah 4:27 which says, "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order: for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore all things much be done in order." Eternal life is our PRIZE for enduring the pains and woes in this life by staying close to our Lord by learning of Him, following the commandments as Christ did, and remembering to pray continually.
I love my Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for personal growth through inspiration and revelation. I am thankful for the Book of Mormon and the opportunity that I have to truly FEAST on the word or God at this time in my life. I pray that my kids and husband will see the changes that it is making in my life and want to follow my example. In the name of MY Lord and Savoir, Jesus Christ. Amen

Comparing Myself to Others

I find myself comparing what I believe are other people's strengths to my own weaknesses. For example, this week in the gathering for my classes were talking about a study skill for studying the scriptures that we learned last week and put into practice for this week as we studied the Book of Mormon. The terrifying skill was...lists. I have a hard time going through the scriptures and picking out the lists. To add to this daunting task, we were studying 2 Nephi 17 to 27 (mostly Isaiah chapters). My brain was hurting. I read chapter 18 twice and listened to it as I read it one more time. I still didn't fully grasp it, but knew I would have to move on for now to get through the rest of the reading assignment. As the class started, I expected to not be the only one who had this difficulty. Instead I found that I was in the minority. When the lead student (the class member leading the discussion) asked how it went for everyone, there were many comments on how it was so easy to find the lists that they found they were forgetting to think of the significance of the lists. I raised my had and gave my opinion that I thought this skill was the hardest one we have learned so far and that my brain hurt just from trying to understand what Isaiah and Nephi were trying to teach us. I got a few shocked looks. I felt really small. When I told my husband about this experience, he simply said that I was smart and I needed to stop comparing myself to others because it was bringing me down. He was not wrong. I do this a lot.
I am smart. I have A's in both of my classes this semester. I have an associates degree in business. I use words that I have to explain not only to my kids, but also to competent adults sometimes. (I blame my daddy for this one. he he) I am able to solve hard math problems most of the time. I know how to research things if I want or need to know more about a subject. I have several hymns and other songs memorized.
I don't know why I don't see myself as an intelligent person. I wish I could see myself the way Chad does. I guess I will just have to pray about it.