Blogging Through the Book of Mormon

God is just the gift that keeps on giving. My kids had a hard time last night, drama drama drama all the time, mostly with the people taking care of them, they are good kids, they just need their mother, and as always I am over the top anxious for them. But today while I was driving into work, I was listening to the August 2013 Ensign, when the article " Grace for Mother Duck and Me " came on. The synopsis at the beginning says "just like the mother duck, I sometimes come up short. And that's when the Savior steps in." The story is about a woman who, while leaving her house, saw a mother duck walk over a gutter grate while crossing the street and 6 of her ducklings fell through the grate into the gutter. She says "I hopped into the car while muttering self-righteously, 'she doesn't deserve to be a mother.'" A little harsh for judgement on a duck, but she says that while she was gone for the next hour and a half "I made many of my recur...

I had another learning experience today, I was listening to the March 2010 Ensign and there was an article called " What Mothers Can Learn from the Savior ," by Amy M. Morgan. At first she quoted Elder M. Russell Ballard as teaching "quality (time) is a direct function of quantity (time)- and mothers, to nurture their children properly, must provide both." When I heard that it was a stab in the heart, I try so very hard to be there for my kids, but right now my work schedule only allows for me to be with them for not even 2 hours a day during the week, and that's not very much time, and I try to squeeze in as much quality time then, talking, reading the scriptures, playing games, etc. but the amount of time is limited. But then came the lesson, later in the article she says "the Savior taught that there are times when the most important thing we can do is to learn spiritually." This was what I needed to hear, as painful as it is for me to only have a c...

Today was especially hard for me but the Lord provided a mighty faith building experience for me. When I came to pick up my kids from school I found out that there had been an incident during the day with allegedly, my daughter spreading rumors about another girl, which is an absolute no go with me, and it's really unlike her. I was livid and was calling for public apology and missing recess for a week, the principal told me that was a little bit extreme, but let's find out everything that was going on. Long story short, it didn't happen like they said, my daughter was distraught to the point on tears that she would be accused of doing such a thing and that she never would do anything like that, which I believe, she's a very good girl. But it did give us a good opportunity to learn the lesson of keeping other people's information to ourselves, because really, it's no one else's business, including our own. But it did set us up for an overly emotional good by...

There’s not a lot in here tonight, there are only 7 verses in chapter 6 and of those, there are only a few references, so let’s go through and see what we can glean, see why Mormon included this chapter in the record. 6:1-2 – After the people accept the covenant to be willing to take upon them the name of Christ KB decides “that he should take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments.” In the Book of Mormon teaching manual, lesson 16 asks “King Benjamin saw that all his people (except those who were too young) had entered into the covenant to obey God’s commandments. Why was it important to record their names?” Now it doesn’t give an answer but I’m going to go out on my own here and say that a major reason is to make a deep permanent commitment. Its one thing to say “oh yeah, I’ll do that,” but it takes the agreement to a much deeper level when you have your name recorded for all to see and to be stored in the records of the church. It ...

There are a few thoughts that I had about the “change of heart” we talked about last night, namely my change of heart. I really loved that Elder Bednar described the change of heart as “imperceptible” because when I had my 2008 experience with my friend, I was disgusted at her dirty joke, but that’s only because I had given up my telling and listening of dirty jokes long before. As the people told KB, their “disposition to do evil” was gone, out of their hearts. As we’ve discussed before the Holy Ghost being the refining fire that melts back together the glass of our shattered hearts and burns off the impurities of sin, or the desire to do sin, also known as the natural man. As we begin to act upon the knowledge that we receive from the Holy Ghost, we don’t tell those dirty jokes, we don’t swear, we don’t drink alcohol, and we try to be kind to others and be honest and make good choices, that’s where the change of heart comes in, and it’s beautiful. 5:6-7 – There is a really interest...

5:1-5 - KB's sermon provided the opportunity for his people to examine themselves, their nature and decide if they want to step it up a bit. This concept of the "mighty change of heart" is very special to me because I've truly experienced this in my own life, and it's honestly been the miracle that keeps on giving, it's not done with me and I truly hope that it never is, but who I am now is a completely different person that I was and anyone who knew me before is shocked when we come in contact again. At my worst, I was hateful and bitter to every one and everything, anyone that was happy was an idiot and didn't know how great they had it, I swore a lot, drank a lot, was so rude to everyone, and I mean everyone, for no reason whatsoever, it was ridiculous, and so much more. Why did I act like that? Because I was wildly unhappy, why was I unhappy? Because I had lived in difficult in life and instead of growing closer to the Lord I believed the lies that sat...

I’m afraid that I’ve deeply discounted the worth of King Benjamin’s (KB) sermon in these chapters. I’ve read them many times and heard them taught many times but I have never really understood the depth and the scope of these teachings until now. I love this and I’m so grateful to be learning about these things in this manner. 4:21-23 – KB clearly illustrates some points here: 1. We are all dependent on God for our “lives and for all that (we) have and are.” If we are healthy, it is a gift from God, if we have food to eat, it’s a gift from God, it we are intelligent enough to understand his words, then it is a gift from God. I have many many gifts from God and I’m not very grateful for them, in the sense that deep down, yes I am grateful, but I don’t show my gratitude or tell Him thank you enough during the day. I felt a little bit off today, this morning, a little bit down, and then it occurred to me that I was wallowing, I was being an ingrate and so I started saying “thank you” fo...