My husband and I have been asked to team teach on the 29th of this month... on several topics creamed into one.... Obedience, reading the Book of Mormon and our adoption journey.
SO for the past two weeks I have been really focusing on preparing for this lesson. I have looked up many great talks given by leaders in the church, I have asked for input from special friends I really feel live by these principles and I have done a lot of scriptures reading and praying. I thought if I put all my thoughts down here, maybe it would help me better prepare? Hopefully to be able to give a half way .. .ok.... decent lesson?
so I started making a list of things we are required to obey....
1. the ten commandments
2. paying tithing/ fast offerings
3. living the word of wisdom
4.going to church
5. preparing and going on a mission
6. visit teaching/ home teaching
7.Family Home Evening
8. Going to the temple
9. reading our scriptures
10. Prayer... aka personal, couple and family prayers
11. Keeping and making covenants
12. being Christ like
13. serving others
14. being good parents
15. doing any calling asked of you with in the church
16. following the counsel of the prophets
17.obeying our parents
That was all I could come up with. I am going to ask everyone what they think of and see if we come up with the same things.
Looking at that list may seem overwhelming. Might seem like too much to ask of a person. But to me, I think obedience is the key to everything. It is right up there with the principles of hope and faith. Many who are not living according to the basic principles of church, who are not members or who are struggling to obey, might feel that its constricting or limiting their living, like a ball or chain around their neck. Restricting their Freedom... but the truth is... that is what Satan wants us to believe. Loosing your freedom happens when you do not live in obedience to the Lords will.
WHAT DRIVES US TO BE OBEDIENT?
1. we obey out of *fear* (one of Satan's tools)
as a child its getting in trouble if we do not obey, as an adult it can be trouble at work or some people are driven to do things out of fear of not making it into HEAVEN, and then there is fear of disappointing people.
2. We obey because we become owners of it.. we become responsible to obey. Its not that you are fearful if you don't... its just a HAVE to be done thing... like dishes, you have to do them to have something to eat on.... its not really something you want to do...its just something you have to do, so you do it.
3. You want to..... You love the person *Heavenly Father* and you really desire to make him happy. You desire to serve him. It is truly apart of your physical and spiritual being to do these things and find great joy and peace in doing so.
You could view these different attitudes of obedience as paths to the three different kingdoms. Personally, I can see myself in all three different attitudes, depending on the day and the task at hand. But I think its important to ask ourselves ... where are we with our attitude and where do we want to be. I know where I WANT to be.... but I am still working on it.
Obedience is an attitude. A choice.
Lets look at some of the people in the scriptures and their example of their attitudes. Where do they fit on our scale or number system up above?
When I think of obedience and people in the scriptures and in life, several come to mind....
Nephi, son of Lehi, was faithful and obedient to God. When given the difficult assignment to obtain the plates of brass from Laban, he did not murmur but declared, “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
Then there is the beautiful account from the Holy Bible of Abraham and Issac. How extremely difficult it must of been for Abraham to be obedient to God and be willing to take his son's life as an offering. He immediately turned and prepared right away with no hesitation. I can not imagine how heavy hearted he must of felt as he prepared the wood for fire. I get very emotional just thinking about it and I am thankful for his example. * I am also very thankful he did not have to go through with it!*
There are many obedient servants of the Lord in the scriptures we can pattern our lives after. But
lets not forget Joseph Smith, how he faced opposition at nearly every step of the way and yet he was always guided by the hand of the Lord and he was obedient to the end.
There are many examples in the scriptures... think of your favorite story and that persons example to you in obedience.
WHY WERE WE GIVEN SUCH AMAZING EXAMPLES TO FOLLOW? How do we liken these amazing acts of obedience to our lives? That is the question I am searching out... and YES I am sure it helped that most of these great examples in the scriptures had visitations from angels or heard the Lords voice... *I am sure those experiences might be more convincing to a person to obey, but then again Lamen and Lamuel struggled with obedience and they did see angels. * Just something to think about.
I think we are challenged in different ways than the people from scriptural times or even 60 years ago. WE have a constant noise happening in our lives. From the TV, to media players, cell phones, computers ... even our little children who bicker with each other or are constantly asking WHY... our schedules are crazy busy from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. From our jobs to our homes, church callings and friends. Finding time to meditate or do the simplest things like prayer and scripture study can seem impossible. Back in the day of Joseph Smith... I don't think he had an option for meditating.... it was a given.. plenty of quiet time to meditate and easier found places to do so.
I was given the privilege of testing this theory of living obediently out "By ACCIDENT" but it was needed to be able to completely testify of what I know to be true, for myself and to others. One night our family seemed, "TOO BUSY" to do the family scripture study and prayer. My husband and I were wiped. Our day felt long and exhausting and all we wanted was to have everyone go to bed and relax. So we hurried the children up to bed, which backfired... they were upset we didn't do scriptures or prayer. They wanted to but we told them... TOMORROW WE WILL.... They did not go down so easily either. They were up and down for the longest time... they struggled to go to sleep... and so on and so forth... we were frustrated..... our feelings went from tired to frustrated to angry in seconds. The spirit of the Lord was NOT with us for sure... and that feeling went on from that night to the next day. I realized the next day after our day started off on the wrong foot because of the previous evening. Our children woke up arguing with one another and in horrible moods... before school.. LOVE THOSE MORNINGS.. NOT!!!!! We say our morning prayer and went on our way.. still fighting in the back of the car... so I pulled over and we said another prayer.... things were a little better but it sure told me that not doing ONE NIGHT.. .JUST ONE NIGHT made a huge difference in my children, how they felt, treated each other and even my mood.
I was given the privilege of testing this theory of living obediently out "By ACCIDENT" but it was needed to be able to completely testify of what I know to be true, for myself and to others. One night our family seemed, "TOO BUSY" to do the family scripture study and prayer. My husband and I were wiped. Our day felt long and exhausting and all we wanted was to have everyone go to bed and relax. So we hurried the children up to bed, which backfired... they were upset we didn't do scriptures or prayer. They wanted to but we told them... TOMORROW WE WILL.... They did not go down so easily either. They were up and down for the longest time... they struggled to go to sleep... and so on and so forth... we were frustrated..... our feelings went from tired to frustrated to angry in seconds. The spirit of the Lord was NOT with us for sure... and that feeling went on from that night to the next day. I realized the next day after our day started off on the wrong foot because of the previous evening. Our children woke up arguing with one another and in horrible moods... before school.. LOVE THOSE MORNINGS.. NOT!!!!! We say our morning prayer and went on our way.. still fighting in the back of the car... so I pulled over and we said another prayer.... things were a little better but it sure told me that not doing ONE NIGHT.. .JUST ONE NIGHT made a huge difference in my children, how they felt, treated each other and even my mood.
People are not perfect and God doesn't expect us to be perfect he just expects us to try and to do our best.
I can't tell you how many times I have to tell my children day after day.... things like... if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.... THIS CAN TAKE YEARS till they GET IT... but we continue to try... daily...
I think Heavenly Father is the same way with our obedience list... IT CAN TAKE US A LIFETIME to get it, to do it and to live it. But as long as we are continually striving, that is what counts.
When we live by obedience we can hear the spirit of the Lord whisper to us... we can be directed and guided in our lives.. and no matter how odd of a request or crazy a prompting we may get, we need to be willing to just act upon it and do it.
I am sure Joshua didn't get how blowing his horn while marching around the wall seven times was going to make the walls come down but the Lord said to do it and he obeyed.. .and the walls CAME A TUMBLING DOWN! :)
We have always known that we were going to adopt a child, since Todd and I dated... but we started to feel the promptings of the Lord that it was time to adopt, three years ago.
So we had a family meeting.... we were about to start the adoption process. We discussed with our children how important it was to be obedient and even more so obedient than ever before... that we felt we needed to live as worthily as possible in order to receive the blessings through the journey we were about to venture. All the children agreed and we all promised to help each other stay on the straight and narrow. It wasn't easy at first. There were principles that we struggled to live by ... We hadn't done family home evening with exactness. We had tried but we didn't strive as we should of. We didn't do family prayer as much too. And our new goals were to go to the temple weekly. ALL THOSE THINGS BECAME APART OF OUR LIVES SO FAST! As each of us strived to support each other in these efforts. *WE WERE ALL ON BOARD WITH THIS* it was amazing to see blessings and to feel the spirit in our home. Three years ago, that family meeting made our life complete before we ever receive our children through adoption. We had been living with out blessings that we did need. Without the spirit so close and in our home. Doing those three simple things, made our marriage stronger, our children closer and our lives more joyful!
Through out our wait in our adoption journey *waiting to be chosen* we were blessed with feelings of... there was more than one child... and things seemed to open our minds and hearts to other possibilities... all that led us to adopting through the state foster care system instead of the agency we were with. Through living obediently, we were able to hear the Holy Ghost tell us things like, "Don't buy anything to prepare for the children." That one was hard... I wanted to prepare...set up and honestly we didn't have it financially. With not knowing as well what you would end up with... BOY/GIRL... infant.. toddler... child... I didn't feel ok about spending money we didn't have in the first place but worried how would we get what we needed for the child/children we receive. I would always feel a great peace after praying and giving it to my Heavenly Father... and when the children came.... I got on my knees and told Heavenly Father my concerns. We had already spent our monthly budget with food and had nothing extra for more food or things the children needed. The day after that prayer a friend, who was strongly prompted to help us, came with about $300.00 dollars worth of food. She told us she felt she needed to do this and had extra this month. I was very thankful and emotional for that answered prayer. We didn't have toys.. and I had mentioned that in my prayer.. and again... people that knew us from all over had things and brought them by without me even asking. Giving me toys and clothes that were much needed for the children. I had so much to be thankful for. Heavenly Father heard my prayers... answered them and the people who blessed us heard the promptings of the Holy Ghost.I am thankful for those people living in a way that they too could hear and act upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost! So thankful!
Living in obedience to the things we knew we should, blessed us as a family. Our children recognized the many blessings as well and today our testimony has only grown stronger because of it all.
We need to continue to live in obedience to the best of our abilities. I believe that times are getting harder, the world is getting more evil and corrupt. If we are living obediently to the best of our abilities we will be safe and protected. We will be able to hear the promptings of the holy ghost guiding us and our children in our daily lives. There is no better protection than that!
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