Four years had passed since Samuel had
prophesied that Christ would be born and that the sun would go down yet it
would stay light as day. This happened
as prophesied, yet there were still unbelievers. I find this incredible! How could you possibly witness such a
phenomenon and not put the pieces together?
Another thing that happened some time after this
amazing event was that both the Nephites and the Lamanites had dissenters who
left to become Gadianton robbers. I’ve
always paralleled these pesky people as gangs in our day. What caused them to defect? They saw the same things as the believers. Of
course, we know Satan tells lies, and if we subject ourselves to listening to those
lies, we will be deceived. This is
exactly what happened. And this is what
is happening in our day.
We have some very smart people in our midst
today who are beginning to believe lies.
Some believe life is supposed to be easy; that they came here to have a
happy life without struggling. I’m not
certain where that belief could possibly come from. Some believe that their relationships are
supposed to be perfect without putting in the time and effort. Again, that seems ridiculous to me. We need to invest in those things that are of
an eternal nature, i.e. our families!
We just finished with a most inspiring Stake
Conference. The theme was to Stay on the
Covenant Path. It’s not a difficult
idea. We keep those covenants we have
made; we prepare to make and keep those covenants we have not yet made. It begins with the 4th Article of
Faith, i.e. faith, repentance, baptism by immersion, and receiving the Holy
Ghost. Then we renew that covenant of
baptism weekly as we worthily partake of the sacrament. So far, that’s not a hard path. In doing these things, we REMEMBER our covenants
and we strive to keep them. We will make
mistakes. The Lord knew this and he gave
us a Savior who has paid for our mistakes so that we can repent and continue
moving forward on this path.
We have tools to help us stay strong. One is service to our fellow men. We are beckoned to do Family History so we
can do temple work for those who did not have that blessing in life. So many of our young people are embracing
this tool. They have turned their hearts
to their Fathers and seek names to take to the temple and baptize so that their
parents who have made covenants in the temple can then finish the temple
covenants.
These are all tools to keep us anxiously engaged
in a righteous cause. I truthfully
wonder what I would do with my life if I did not have the gospel in it. Would I even feel compelled to get up in the
morning? My scriptures call me first
thing in the morning. I’m on the lookout
daily for people I can help along the way.
I’m always feeling the need to attend the temple. That’s one thing I came away feeling I need
to increase. I use to attend
weekly. It’s been harder since Clyde has
retired and we’re busier with the Clinic, but this is only an excuse.
Yes, staying on the covenant path may be a
challenge, but we have so much to help us.
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