Thursday, April 9, 2015

We learn line upon line, the Lord will bless us when we serve him, not judging others

One of the greatest principles I enjoyed learning was about how we learn line upon line. Luke 2:52. Almost everything that has been occurring in my life through the gospel has been strengthening my testimony. Sometimes we want great miraculous events to occur when the true miracles and testimony builders come in the smaller day to day activities. Something I am really grateful for are all the preparations I was able to make in my life to have the testimony I had today. Something great about the Gospel is that we are literally always able to learn more. When we are in primary we were taught through simple means such as prayer, and songs, and that faith was able to be built throughout our lives. This principle was something that I had thought of before but really stood out to me in this class, because it also applied to this video clip of the church about revelation and how sometimes we don’t receive answers right away but it can come as a sun rising slowly and gradually as we receive answers. This was really key to me because during this semester I was struggling to decide what I should switch my major to, and the more I thought about it the more worried I was when I wasn't receiving an answer. I continued to try to pray and receive the answer but it didn't seem like anything was happening. Then my friend Kyrk explained to me that sometimes revelation doesn't come as the light switch, or the rising sun, but it can come as you are in a fog and you need to take a step forward into the darkness. As I was pondering on this I decided on a major just because it was something I felt good about and thought I would enjoy, I then told my dad my decision and he said that it was absolutely fine and that I could do anything I wanted to do. This was a really interesting experience for me because it made me realize that like unto my earthy father sometimes our Heavenly Father really does just want us to be able to choose.
Another of my favorite principles to learn about in the class was that when we sacrifice for the Lord he will always bless us above and beyond anything we sacrificed. ( Matthew 19:29- everyone that has forsake houses or brethren, or sisters...for my name sake shall receive an hundred fold.)  One of my favorite examples from the scriptures about this topic is Job. Because he was greatly blessed of the Lord but later as the adversary was tempting him he lost all his possessions, health and family. Instead of mourning and crying against our Father in Heaven he continued faithful trusting in the Lord. He then was blessed in an increasingly large amount because he chose to trust the Lord in all things. He said that as the Lord giveth he can also take away. That can be applied to us in our lives when we feel like we are sacrificing things for the Lord or His gospel. As an example the Lord has given us everything we have and are blessed with, and to demonstrate our love for Him he requires 10% in return. We need to realize that first of all the 10% was already from the Lord, and that when we trust Him He will bless us so much more then we could possibly give in return. This includes when we leave home to serve missions, the Lord will continuously bless us.

The last principle I thought was important to focus on was that we should'nt Judge others. As it states in John 7:24- Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement. Something that is really important to know is that first of all we are imperfect and therefore don’t have the right to make any judgments. Only Heavenly father and Jesus Christ are perfect and therefore they can make the righteous judgments. Sometimes someone may act a certain way that may seem wrong to us, but there may be a reason behind what they are doing. For an example, sometimes there are young kids who can act a little violent, but instead of judging them we should show an added measure of compassion and realize that maybe they are acting the way they are because of a rough family life. I do think it is useful to teach our children to recognize when people are doing certain things that aren’t in accordance with the commandments and to decide to be careful and maybe not associate with dangerous crowds. This can be an example of righteous judgement where you hate the sin not the sinner. You can recognize that the person is making wrong choices but still treat them with love.

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