I have been lazy and busy and forgetful and... I didn't read scriptures for a few days. I cleaned all morning a couple time and then when nap time for Kaia came around I wanted to play and forgot about scriptures. Then when I remembered it was late and I was tired. Boo for me. Oh well, it's a new day and here I am :)
3 Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land.
He said so nonchalantly... This is a good way to look at it when you have to work with a bunch of guys who want to do bad things, or if you go to school with them, or have any position you have to be in. My personal situation would be, one of our neighbors is not that great of a human being. He's going through a rough couple of year and he's doing dumb things like bashing mailboxes and stuff like that. We suspect he's dealing pot as well. Maybe it's expedient for me to be by him now. It's also interesting to look at the last part where the Lord is merciful and hasn't swept these people off the face of the earth. We could apply that to ourselves as well. A lot of bad is in the world. Even the righteous go through tough times, yet we are here, the Lord is merciful.
4 And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith.
5 And now, behold, *two hundred years had passed away, and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the sabbath day holy unto the Lord. And they profaned not; neither did they blaspheme. And the laws of the land were exceedingly strict.
I wonder how strict. Some would say our laws are strict. They are getting more strict. Other countries have it far worse, but I worry about too much regulation anyway.
6 And they were scattered upon much of the face of the land, and the Lamanites also. And they were exceedingly more numerous than were they of the Nephites; and they loved murder and would drink the blood of beasts.
Gross.
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The goal of this is to read more scriptures, think about them more, and understand them better. I hope to post as near once a day as I can. Most of the time I use muscle testing to find the specific scriptures I need to read that day.
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2 comments:
I have been lazy and busy and forgetful myself
These passages remind me of something that keeps coming to mind a lot lately: life is supposed to be hard. From the moment in the ceremony where they tell the audience to imagine that we are Adam and Eve, we're supposed to continually think of ourselves in the situations that Adam and Eve find themselves. When God says: By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life. That applies to us.
It doesn't mean we can't have fun doing it, just means it's supposed to be hard.
Everything else seems like trying to avoid hard work. They don't want to do the hard work so their hearts grow cold and hard, and they are deaf to any reasoning...yet God is merciful. It starts early on. I remember as a kid trying to get out of chores. It would actually be easier to just get the chore done than come up with all the logic and excuses not to do it.
Kind of funny how that works.
For those who just do it, accept the hard work, these are those who are mentioned in verse 4.
And then verse 6 talks about those kinds of people who have not even learned about hard work. Though they are not totally bad people as we learn just a couple of generations later when Ammon and company go to teach among them. I like a phrase that is used to describe the King's reaction to Ammon cutting off the arms of so many. The king was troubled in his heart.
Hard of heart, hardened against hard work.
I don't like thinking that life is supposed to be hard. I agree that it's work, but I think we decide how hard it will be. I've gone through some hard things, but I know I could have made my load easier, I just didn't.
Another thought is that I have always heard that when the going gets tough, do service for people. Another aspect of work.
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