Post #2

Tuesday 10Feb09 – Listening to E’ Bednar’s last conference talk, I realize that prayer has dual obligations: ask, and then do. Joseph Smith didn’t ask which church was true, but rather which church should he join. If I am not willing to do after I ask, I am lost. If I ask for strength to resist temptation, but am not willing to resist it, to exercise my agency by pleading for Help in order to resist or to do those things that will help lead my mind in the proper direction or fill it with righteous principles, what is the point in asking? By not doing, I bring trouble upon myself.

   Pres. Kimball ‘(paraphrase) Spiritual knowledge doesn’t come about merely by prayer. It requires persistence and patience.

   E’ Neuenschwander talked about crowds, and how the woman touched Jesus’ clothes in order to be healed. This brings to mind that there certainly are crowds of people, member and non-member alike, there to be with Jesus: to look at, possibly to mock or to entrap, to be with, but a few are there in order to be healed. They are the ones with the faith and the humility, that take full advantage of what the Lord offers: healing. Am I one of the ones of the ‘crowd’ searching for healing, but not looking with all the power I can?

   This life is short, deceptively so. I tend to think that my tomorrow will be much like my today is and has been. I like to put off what I can until tomorrow, because I am of a lazy bent. But, repentance isn’t one of the things that can or should be put off. Life is too short to put that off, or in putting off forgiving someone else. Indeed, repentance and forgiving others are pretty much the only requirements that we have in this life.

   Alma 51 – Amalickiah takes over many Nephite cities because of the dissensions of the king-men inside the Nephite nation. – Stupid dissenters. Why they gotta be that way? Supposedly they thought that they should get to be kings because of their ‘high’ and ‘noble’ birth. This shows to me what happens when people forget that it doesn’t matter who my forebears were, either kings or pioneers in the Church, it matters more what sort of a person I am now, and whether I am keeping the commandments, forgiving others and repenting.

   Jacob4.10 – ‘Wherefore, bretheren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from His hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that He counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all His works.’ The workbook says to write, in the form of a question, something that has been bothering me, and to put it to the Lord, and to write down my answer/His counsel. Here is my question: why am I so quick to forget the good things You have done for me, and why do I so easily give in to temptations and my appetites? The only answer I can feel is that I am not good at praying, and so I easily forget the Lord. By not praying, I am not reminded of the things He has done for me. I pray, but usually only in my times of need. Therefore, I am not consistent in my prayer. So, how can He therefore help keep me in remembrance of His goodness?

   Helpful/good thing – Thanks to the talent that God has given me, I can sing well. Not perfectly, but I can harmonize and sing parts.