"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
3 Nephi 13:30-33
So, yesterday when I woke up the first thing that happened was opening my eyes and something getting into my right eye. I am guessing that it was an eyelash, but it felt like an anvil. My eyes are super sensitive and it was horrible. I tried to get it out in a lot of ways, including prayer, but it wasn't God's will at that time, and even though it wasn't getting better, I had to finish up a post for work and get it up on our website... so, I went and did my best typing with one eye closed, or sometimes half open. I should have finished it the night before, and felt even worse about not doing that because now I was half-blind and in pain trying to finish it up.
I got the post up and went back to bed for a while, but couldn't sleep. Just having my eyes closed the whole time did help a little, but after an hour or so I got back up and finished up the workday, trying to keep up with my normal workload. About an hour before I got off work it seemed to be a lot better... maybe the eyelash finally worked its way out. I could touch my eyelid without feeling like I was pushing a rock into my eye, at least, and that helped a lot. My eye was still irritated though, so I didn't do much of what I usually do in the evenings... just a few truncated things, wrote the scripture of the day, and went to bed.
That experience made today amazingly wonderful because when I woke up, my eye didn't hurt anymore, and I was overwhelmingly grateful for that blessing that I normally take for granted... so happy just to be able to look at a computer screen without pain. :) It was a good lesson for me on perspective, and what really matters.
I think that these verses are also about perspective. We get caught up in the general worry of the world, our schedules disrupted, supplies unavailable, things looking gloomy, and we think, wow, life really stinks. But we're worrying about the wrong things. God wants us to be as prepared as we can be, and self-reliant, but when those things are taken out of our hands or when God has a specific calling or task for us, then those are things that we don't have to stress over. If we put God's will first, then God will handle the mundane worries, and provide a way for us to do as he asks, every time. And in focusing closely on God and his goodness we can also realize that despite the hardships we are facing, there is still good all around us.
Maybe this is an opportunity for us to exercise some faith and grow closer to God, because we need to trust him a little more, and look to him to provide things that we can't provide for ourselves. Reliance on God is one of the best lessons that we will ever learn. Today, let's try learning it by practicing a little bit, and talking to God about the needs that we can't meet, asking him to look into those for us while we seek first the more important things of his gospel.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
3 Nephi 13:30-33
So, yesterday when I woke up the first thing that happened was opening my eyes and something getting into my right eye. I am guessing that it was an eyelash, but it felt like an anvil. My eyes are super sensitive and it was horrible. I tried to get it out in a lot of ways, including prayer, but it wasn't God's will at that time, and even though it wasn't getting better, I had to finish up a post for work and get it up on our website... so, I went and did my best typing with one eye closed, or sometimes half open. I should have finished it the night before, and felt even worse about not doing that because now I was half-blind and in pain trying to finish it up.
I got the post up and went back to bed for a while, but couldn't sleep. Just having my eyes closed the whole time did help a little, but after an hour or so I got back up and finished up the workday, trying to keep up with my normal workload. About an hour before I got off work it seemed to be a lot better... maybe the eyelash finally worked its way out. I could touch my eyelid without feeling like I was pushing a rock into my eye, at least, and that helped a lot. My eye was still irritated though, so I didn't do much of what I usually do in the evenings... just a few truncated things, wrote the scripture of the day, and went to bed.
That experience made today amazingly wonderful because when I woke up, my eye didn't hurt anymore, and I was overwhelmingly grateful for that blessing that I normally take for granted... so happy just to be able to look at a computer screen without pain. :) It was a good lesson for me on perspective, and what really matters.
I think that these verses are also about perspective. We get caught up in the general worry of the world, our schedules disrupted, supplies unavailable, things looking gloomy, and we think, wow, life really stinks. But we're worrying about the wrong things. God wants us to be as prepared as we can be, and self-reliant, but when those things are taken out of our hands or when God has a specific calling or task for us, then those are things that we don't have to stress over. If we put God's will first, then God will handle the mundane worries, and provide a way for us to do as he asks, every time. And in focusing closely on God and his goodness we can also realize that despite the hardships we are facing, there is still good all around us.
Maybe this is an opportunity for us to exercise some faith and grow closer to God, because we need to trust him a little more, and look to him to provide things that we can't provide for ourselves. Reliance on God is one of the best lessons that we will ever learn. Today, let's try learning it by practicing a little bit, and talking to God about the needs that we can't meet, asking him to look into those for us while we seek first the more important things of his gospel.
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