Joy -- the Never Ending Kinda Stuff


Oh how much I love the scriptures. I love being able to read and find parts that speak to my specifically. And verses that really help me to know my Father more and to know what I can do to be better so that one day I really will be able to live with Him again. As I was reading in Jacob I was able to really feel my Father speak to me through a couple of specific verses and I wanted to kinda just jot down the thoughts and impressions that I had come to mind.

The first verse is in Jacob 4:3, and what is even more incredible about this whole process is that even the seemingly little verses or the insignificant ones speak volumes. And when I really seem to study and hunger after the scriptures it is those "insignificant" verses where I feel Heavenly Father speak to me directly. BUT that being said, back to the verse(: What I really loved about this verse is it talks plainly about the scriptures and those lives that were dedicated to the writing them. They talk about how happy they are to do it because they know how much it will bless our lives. They are willing to make all the sacrifices necessary for me and you to have access readily to our Father's counsel and help. Then they even go so far as to say they know that they will bring us joy! Oh how much I love these dear people in the Book of Mormon.

I was thinking about how they knew the Book of Mormon would bring us joy. How they knew and they were so willing to dedicate their lives to it. And it hit me like a ton of bricks. They are so willing to because they were able to feel of the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They knew what it brought them and they wanted us to have it. They knew that the Book of Mormon is full of the steps we need to take to become like our Heavenly Father -- in essence the steps that we need to take to have that complete and utter joy. and they wanted us to have the chance to make it home and have that perfect joy. The never ending kinda stuff. Then they also knew that we didn't have to wait for the eternities to have that joy. As we follow the counsel of the Lord, and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we can be happy TODAY! We can have a taste of what it will feel like in the eternizes. Isn't that the greatest thing you have ever heard?! The Book of Mormon really is incredible.

Then as I continued to read another verse really stood out to me. It was Jacob 4:5 and the part that I just loved was when they said why the kept the Law of Moses. They said "we keep the Law of Moses, it pointing our should to Him..." Wow, think about that! When we keep the commandments our souls point towards our Savior. I completely believe that that is one of the -- if not the entire -- reason that we keep the commandments. The entire reason that we have commandments. To help point us toward our Savior. To help us to become like him and our Father and to HELP US FIND JOY!

Seriously that's what all of this is all about. Is finding joy, and not just the temporary happiness the world may give, but the kind that never ceases the kind that will allow you to return home and your Savior will say to you "come unto me ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the kingdoms of my Father." (Enos 1:27) Do the little things. Keep the Commandments. Study the scriptures ESPECIALLY the Book of Mormon and see your life become more full of that eternal joy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"The Temple is the House of God"

Image
When a missionary hits their last 6 weeks on their mission they start something that is called "My Plan". They set goals for what they are going to do when they go home to continue to grow closer to their Savior Jesus Christ, and not lose the spirit and their testimony that the have worked so hard for over the last 18 - 24 months. One of the goals it has you set is your temple attendance. They don't tell you how often you have to go but they want you to set a goal that is reachable and will still help you draw upon the strength that comes when we go to the temple. I felt prompted to set a goal to go every week at least once. I can't begin to express the strength that I have felt as I have done so. I've been home now for a little over 6 months and I haven't missed a week. There has been times where I was out of town and there was no temple in sight so I attended 2 times to make up for the week that I wasn't physically able to get to the temple.  It get
Read more

Fathers: Perfect and Unperfect

I absolutely love that "ah ha" moment when you seem to find another piece of the puzzle that fits perfectly into the Gospel Plan. I love it even more when those pieces come in your darkest of days and you realize how incredibly perfect not only His plan is, but how incredibly perfect He  is. I had one of those moments today. I was reading in Alma 32 -- which is an incredible chapter as a whole -- but the last verse was my silver lining. Alma is pleading with the Lord to give him, the son's of Mosiah and his sons strength and in the last verse it reads, "And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayers of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith." For some reason the word provided  came with such strength to my mind and I began to think of the pri
Read more

Where to Turn

I have been thinking a lot about where we as humans turn when life gets hard. Some of us may turn inwards, some may turn to addictive substances, some may try sleep away the pain, (which may or may not be my escape more frequently than I'd like to admit) but most try to do all they can to escape the long traitorous trials in anyway possible and any way that will bring that relief, we desperately want, the quickest. I was reading this last Conference edition of the Ensign (May 2017) and I came across a talk that quickly became one of my favorites. It was given by Elder Weatherford T. Clayton entitled, Our Father's Glorious Plan . In this talk a scripture was quoted that I have thought interesting for quite some time now and I felt that it answers the question above, on where we should  turn in those hard moments. The scripture talks about what our Savior did when He was faced with the hardest trial that seemed as if it may never end. "And being in an agony he [Jesus] pray
Read more