"Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise."
Alma 37:6
Sometimes I think that we want something dramatic to change our lives. Kind of like John Donne's Holy Sonnet 13, saying "batter my heart" ... we want God to come down and strike us with lightning, or burn away all the parts of use that aren't pure... change us inside and out entirely. Even with non (or less) spiritual things... the perfect software, or the perfect diet... We jump to something dramatic like a cleanse or a fast before we consider the daily, everyday things that we need to change. Or we jump to a new software program without improving the process. It is so tempting to look for that quick fix, the fast, easy, one-time-only thing that will come in and make it all better. Small and simple means aren't only the way that God works with us, but how we can change our own lives. It's so tempting to want the lightning bolt or the angel, but remember Laman and Lemuel who saw angels and still went astray. It isn't the dramatic things that usually change us permanently. It is the smaller, internal habits and actions that we take every day. We know most of the things we need to do. We need to pray. We need to read our scriptures. We need to attend church. We need to love other people and treat them well. The basics. It's the Sunday School answer for a reason... because it works. The little things change us dramatically if we do them consistently... and they can harm us dramatically if we fail to do so. Today, I need to remember this... and thought maybe we could all use a reminder. :)
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
2 Nephi 2:15
"And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter."
2 Nephi 2:15
Sometimes I wonder why things that are bad for you seem so great. Fried chicken, chocolate cake... wow. YUM. :) And things that are good for you are often foul. Ever try diet cheese? ...And it goes well beyond food. People get addicted for a reason... it feels good. So many things have this amazing, but very temporary and dangerous, payoff. And sometimes it seems so wrong that we have to eat the not-so-great stuff to be healthy, or that the good-tasting stuff is really bad, or the things that seem so tempting to our feelings or emotions in many other ways are what we need to avoid. ... But this verse explains why things have to be this way. It wouldn't be real choice if all the good stuff was golden and shiny and the bad stuff was ugly and moldy. We have to learn to see things on a deeper level, to really recognize good and evil, not just what tastes or feels good in a particular moment. And hey... remember nectarines. :) They taste good AND they are good for you! Yes. :) Today, let's keep looking for the things that are good all the way through, and avoid shallower decisions.
2 Nephi 2:15
Sometimes I wonder why things that are bad for you seem so great. Fried chicken, chocolate cake... wow. YUM. :) And things that are good for you are often foul. Ever try diet cheese? ...And it goes well beyond food. People get addicted for a reason... it feels good. So many things have this amazing, but very temporary and dangerous, payoff. And sometimes it seems so wrong that we have to eat the not-so-great stuff to be healthy, or that the good-tasting stuff is really bad, or the things that seem so tempting to our feelings or emotions in many other ways are what we need to avoid. ... But this verse explains why things have to be this way. It wouldn't be real choice if all the good stuff was golden and shiny and the bad stuff was ugly and moldy. We have to learn to see things on a deeper level, to really recognize good and evil, not just what tastes or feels good in a particular moment. And hey... remember nectarines. :) They taste good AND they are good for you! Yes. :) Today, let's keep looking for the things that are good all the way through, and avoid shallower decisions.
Friday, October 8, 2010
2 Nephi 1:25
"And I exceedingly fear and tremble because of you, lest he shall suffer again; for behold, ye have accused him that he sought power and authority over you; but I know that he hath not sought for power nor authority over you, but he hath sought the glory of God, and your own eternal welfare."
2 Nephi 1:25
This struck me today... I think because I at first was thinking... why even say it. Laman and Lemuel aren’t going to listen. And then I thought... but maybe they should have, but pride and a need to be in control stopped them. So many, many things happened in their lives that could have convinced them of God and his power, and his love for them and their families… but they wanted to be in charge, or to be the center of attention, or just not to let someone else tell them what to do… even if they were wrong. And then I stopped thinking about Laman and Lemuel and remembered that the Book of Mormon is written to us... to me. And, wow am I exactly like that sometimes. And maybe all of us are kind of like this sometimes. ...We’re so addicted to roles and authority sometimes that I think we tune out anyone that doesn’t have some sort of power over us... even if what they are saying is exactly right, and we know that we are wrong. We stop listening. We have things in our lives that are overwhelmingly, obviously from God, but we only listen to what we want to hear, and let those moments of clarity fade into the background while we focus relentlessly on ourselves, and our desires, and our perceived lacks. We blame our problems on whatever scapegoat we can find instead of accepting responsibility for our mistakes, or realizing that opposition is going to happen in everything to make us stronger, not because the universe is biased against us. And somehow we never realize that what we’re complaining about isn’t actually a problem... it is the blessing and opportunity and privilege that we have to actually be walking the path to the promised land rather than lying dead with our riches in the land God warned us to flee from. Today, let’s learn from Laman and Lemuel’s blindness, and try to see past our own.
2 Nephi 1:25
This struck me today... I think because I at first was thinking... why even say it. Laman and Lemuel aren’t going to listen. And then I thought... but maybe they should have, but pride and a need to be in control stopped them. So many, many things happened in their lives that could have convinced them of God and his power, and his love for them and their families… but they wanted to be in charge, or to be the center of attention, or just not to let someone else tell them what to do… even if they were wrong. And then I stopped thinking about Laman and Lemuel and remembered that the Book of Mormon is written to us... to me. And, wow am I exactly like that sometimes. And maybe all of us are kind of like this sometimes. ...We’re so addicted to roles and authority sometimes that I think we tune out anyone that doesn’t have some sort of power over us... even if what they are saying is exactly right, and we know that we are wrong. We stop listening. We have things in our lives that are overwhelmingly, obviously from God, but we only listen to what we want to hear, and let those moments of clarity fade into the background while we focus relentlessly on ourselves, and our desires, and our perceived lacks. We blame our problems on whatever scapegoat we can find instead of accepting responsibility for our mistakes, or realizing that opposition is going to happen in everything to make us stronger, not because the universe is biased against us. And somehow we never realize that what we’re complaining about isn’t actually a problem... it is the blessing and opportunity and privilege that we have to actually be walking the path to the promised land rather than lying dead with our riches in the land God warned us to flee from. Today, let’s learn from Laman and Lemuel’s blindness, and try to see past our own.
Friday, October 1, 2010
1 Nephi 17:21
"Behold, these many years we have suffered in the wilderness, which time we might have enjoyed our possessions and the land of our inheritance; yea, and we might have been happy."
1 Nephi 17:21
In this verse, Nephi's brethren think that he can't build a ship, and they regret leaving Jerusalem in the first place, thinking that it won't really be destroyed as their father predicted. They actually say in the previous verse "it would have been better that they had died . . . than to have suffered these afflictions." ... And I think what strikes me most about this verse is the "we might have been happy" part. I think a lot in life we look back on choices that we made and wonder what it would have been like, had we taken another path. What life would be like if this or that had happened... and as intellectually interesting as that kind of pondering can be, it has absolutely no relation to our real life and the real choices that we did make. We read in Mormon 9:14 "he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still." ... and sometimes it is good to review the past, to remember what God has done for us, and to try not to make the same mistakes. But it is our job and our quest to make our lives NOW whatever they can be... no matter what circumstances the Lord has given us. Instead of wondering what might have been, we need to choose happiness now. Find happiness... because it is there. It IS possible. We just have to find it... and God will help us. He wants us to be happy. He's cool like that.
1 Nephi 17:21
In this verse, Nephi's brethren think that he can't build a ship, and they regret leaving Jerusalem in the first place, thinking that it won't really be destroyed as their father predicted. They actually say in the previous verse "it would have been better that they had died . . . than to have suffered these afflictions." ... And I think what strikes me most about this verse is the "we might have been happy" part. I think a lot in life we look back on choices that we made and wonder what it would have been like, had we taken another path. What life would be like if this or that had happened... and as intellectually interesting as that kind of pondering can be, it has absolutely no relation to our real life and the real choices that we did make. We read in Mormon 9:14 "he that is happy shall be happy still; and he that is unhappy shall be unhappy still." ... and sometimes it is good to review the past, to remember what God has done for us, and to try not to make the same mistakes. But it is our job and our quest to make our lives NOW whatever they can be... no matter what circumstances the Lord has given us. Instead of wondering what might have been, we need to choose happiness now. Find happiness... because it is there. It IS possible. We just have to find it... and God will help us. He wants us to be happy. He's cool like that.