What Matters Most to You?

Last night we had an um...interesting experience. At 11:30 I was on my laptop, Allie playing in the room with me and Trey studying in our bedroom, when I started hearing a few dogs barking outside. We have neighbors with a dog, so I didn't think much of it. A minute later we heard the doorbell and right after some knocks on the door. I yelled to Trey, because I don't like to answer the door late at night without him there, and heard some urgent-sounding conversation from our neighbors. In one second Trey was telling me to get Allie's jacket and get out of the apartment. Our neighbors said there was a fire in the building and to get out NOW. They said NOW a few times, so I thought it must be a really serious fire and we are probably going to lose everything in our apartment. I grabbed Allie, her pants, and her coat, put on my shoes, grabbed my most prized possession (my camera) and looked outside. I could see flames coming up right outside of our stairwell...it looked like the side of our building was on fire. I yelled to Trey to hurry up because I didn't know how close the fire was to the stairwell and didn't know if we were going to be trapped. We ran out and went down the stairs, hearing the sirens of the fire truck not too far away. Then we saw the fire. It was only a car fire, but it was parked right next to the building and we wondered if it would explode. Luckily, just minutes after we got outside the fire truck got there and put it out.

This experience made me think about a lot of things. First, I was thinking we were going to lose everything we owned and we decided renter's insurance was a good idea. But, mostly, it made me realize that our earthly possessions really aren't important. I really wasn't that sad about the fact that we were going to lose everything, I was mostly thinking about my family's safety and that Allie was going to be warm. I also decided that I probably needed to have multiple copies of my family pictures in different places, and that I need to start digitizing my journals and scrapbooks. :)




Here are some scriptures for today that go along with my thought:

“Seek not for riches but for wisdom; and, behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich.” (D&C 11:7.)

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

“But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matt. 6:19–21.)

Ensign Article

Since we were camping the last 2 days, I brought the Ensign with me and was able to read the First Presidency Message, "That He May Write upon Our Hearts" by Henry B. Eyring.

I don't know what my deal is lately, but I almost cried when I read it. Probably because lately I have been worried that I don't know what I need to be teaching Allie as she is becoming older and more aware and understands more. I have been worried that I am not ready for more than just a baby (who's needs are mostly physical because they don't understand a lot) Reading this article helped me figure out the most important things I need to teach my kids. Here is what I decided:

1. How important prayer is (teach by example)
2. Jesus Christ's atonement
3. The Plan of Salvation (that we are children of our Heavenly Father)
4. We can be together forever as a family if we are obedient and live the gospel.

This article talks about a lot more, and gives good advice for parents with children who have strayed. I hope that my kids will love the gospel and live it. That is the most important thing to me. I don't care if they don't do well in school or don't have any great talents, I just care that they are righteous and caring people who treat others with respect and have a strong testimony.

The Suffering of the Righteous

Well, I am finally back to my everyday scripture study, after weeks of weird schedules on vacation and preparing for my lesson last week. Today I am reading Alma chapter 14...


I am a little worried. Yesterday there was a comment made during the lesson about how sometimes when you attend the temple your family may not be safe and it doesn't mean you are a bad person. Then, today the first thing that jumped out to me from my manual on chapter 14 was the section about how bad things happen to good people ("The Suffering of the Righteous.")


I really hope that the Lord isn't trying to prepare me for something...


Alma 14:8-11 Talks about how Alma and Amulek had the power to bring down punishment on the men who killed the believers of God, but didn't because he said that God permits the righteous to suffer for a purpose.


It says this in my manual:


"...if all sick were healed, if all the righteous were protected and the wicked destroyed, the whole program of the Father would be annulled and the basic principle of the gospel, free agency, would be ended. If pain, sorrow, and total punishment immediately followed the doing of evil, no soul would repeat a misdeed. If joy and peace and rewards were instantaneously given the doer of good, there could be no evil-all would do good and not because of the rightness of doing good. There would be no test of strength, no development of character, no growth of powers, no free agency, no Satanic controls...no suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or death...an absence of joy, success, resurrection, eternal life. and godhood.

Temporal and Spiritual Knowledge

Alma 12:10 "...he that will harden his heart, the same receiveth the lesser portion of the word; and he that will not harden his heart, to him it is given the greater portion of the word, until it is given unto him to know the mysteries of God until he know them in full."

I had cross referenced D&C 130:18-19

"Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come."

I have been wondering about this lately...with my limited amount of time to study, I am sometimes torn between reading to increase my temporal knowledge and reading the scriptures. I searched "knowledge" on lds.org for some answers. The first 24 articles about knowledge were spiritually related, here is what #25 said (New Era > February 1972 Q&A's):

“Is religious education more important than academic education?”

"...we cannot neglect our academic learning if we are to follow the counsel of the Lord...The academic knowledge we gain will benefit us in our temporal pursuits but the knowledge we gain of spiritual and eternal truths will prepare us to live happily in this life and throughout eternity in the kingdom of God. Our eventual goal is to gain all knowledge necessary to be like our Eternal Father. We can move in that direction only if we devote our energies and abilities to gaining knowledge of God and his laws and incorporating into our lives eternal truth wherever it is found."

So, from this I am feeling that I should use most the time I have gaining spiritual knowledge, but when I can I should also try to gain more temporal knowledge, especially that will benefit me and my family in this life.

Heritage Park

Today Cindy (my mom-in-law) took me and Allie to Heritage Park (This is the Place Memorial) and we walked through the Pioneer Village and such...It was really neat! You can really feel the spirit there and it really opens your eyes to the way people lived back then. We walked into most of the homes (which were mostly replicated) and talked to the people reinacting to learn more about the early settlers of Salt Lake Valley down to just past Nephi.

The best house we went into was the house of ancestors of Marjorie Hinkley's (Cindy knew this because she knows a lot about church and family history.) There was a cute old lady sitting inside that told us to come in and she would tell us more about the house. She was excited to tell us that her father was born inside the house and that her family had helped rebuild it after they transported the remains from a town outside of Nephi. So of course we asked her if she was related to Marjorie Hinckley and she is her sister! She goes up to the park just on Fridays to tell people about the house and because she loves being there. She was so sweet and told us some of the stories of the family that traveled to the Valley.

At the front of the park is where the big statue is there is a scripture from Isaiah that is also found in Nephi 12:2 "And it shall come to pass in the last days, when the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it..."

I always wondered if that was talking about the Salt Lake Temple, and I think that it is...this, in a way, confirmed it for me. When I read that and thought about the pioneers and all they went through to get to Utah and build the temple I just wondered what they would think if they saw Utah right now. Would they be excited and happy about how many people are here now and how the church has grown? Would they see all the wickedness here and wonder how it got so bad? I just wonder, and I hope that they can see all the good and growth that has come from the sacrifices they made. I have a real appreciation for the early members of the church, and I hope that I am living my life the way they hoped their future generation would.

Alma 8

Okay, so I am finally sitting down to write about what I'm reading... Chapter 8 is pretty cool - you should read it if you haven't in a while. :) It is basically introducing Alma and Amulek to talk about their experiences preaching the gospel together from chapters 9-14.

Verse 11 talks about the people rejecting Alma because of his "foolish traditions." I thought that was interesting, especially because we see people use that excuse a lot even now. "America isn't a Christian nation" stated by our current president illustrates the point that people see our Christian values as foolish traditions of our forefathers.

In verse 15 an angel is talking to Alma and says, "thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivest thy first message from Him." If we are keeping the commandments we DO have great cause to rejoice. Look at all of the examples of people that have endured great tribulations in the scriptures and in our LDS history. Where are they now? With our Heavenly Father...all of us should rejoice if we are keeping the commandments and working toward our goal of returning to our Father in Heaven.

In verse 18 Alma follows the angel's instructions and "speedily" returned to the city. Not casually, or even the same pace he left...speedily. When I go to general conference and get direction from the Lord's prophets I usually resolve to change little things in my life. We should come home from conference and speedily change those things we need to, as little as they are. Then Alma goes into the city another way...we should try sharing the gospel with different approaches.

Finally, the last 2 verses of the chapter (31-32) talks about the power of God, which will be illustrated in the next couple chapters...they will be good ones!

I have been in such a tired, annoyed, and frustrated mood today...I literally had no time to do anything until now...I was feeling like the last thing I wanted to do was read my scriptures. I opened them up and noticed my patriarchal blessing in the front of them. I decided I would read that today as my scripture study since I desperately need a nap and only have a minute...As soon as I started reading it a feeling of peace came over me and I knew that everything that has been frustrating today doesn't matter. Keeping an eternal perspective is the best way to not let the little things get to you. I love the gospel.