3 Nephi 18:15-17

18:15-17 - I'm super short on time tonight, it went by really fast which is nice but also not. The next part, apparently Jesus only says to his Disciples, as in the Nephite apostles, well looking back at it, Jesus had been addressing the Twelve since verse 10, so continuing speaking to His apostles, Jesus counsels them "ye must watch and pray always, lest ye be tempted by the devil, and ye be led away captive by him. And as I have prayed among you even so shall ye pray in my church, among my people who do repent and are baptized in my name. Behold I am the light; I have set an example for you." It seems to me that there is quite a bit of administrative instruction here, and the IM quotes Elder Neal A. Maxwell as teaching, "Each of us plays various roles in family, Church, community, business, education, and so forth. Though we have differing needs, we have in common the need to focus on all Christ's qualities, especially those which individually we most need to develop more fully... We can, of course, stop short and merely adopt a few techniques illustrated by the Savior. But unless we emulate Him as completely as we can, we will have deprived ourselves of the great model. moreover, our emulation is to be both style and substance. God's love underwrites his listening, for instance. Can we conceive of a God who is a nonlistener? Or who is lacking in power? Or who is unwilling to assert Himself on an issue of principle? As we become more like Him it will take place in both attributes and actions." It's interesting because while reading this, it didn't occur to me until the end that all those thing which he attributed to God is what we need to aspire to. We need to be listeners, we need to assert ourselves on issues of principle, and I was confused about the power part, but it makes sense in the priesthood context. As we've discussed, priesthood power is available to all through righteousness and the will of God, perhaps what Elder Maxwell is suggesting is that we pursue a life that enables us to access priesthood power when appropriate to do so. Interesting, I'm going to think about and look up attributes of the Savior and see if I can create some sort of chart or something to discuss tomorrow.