"O be wise; what can I say more?" (Jacob 6:12)

Someone had the great idea to post something they are grateful for until Thanksgiving. I am going to a variation on this. I will post a scripture I am thankful/grateful for everyday until Thanksgiving.

Day #1:
My first scripture is: "O be wise; what can I say more" (Jacob 6:12).

I have always loved this short verse. I am grateful for the simple yet powerful truth it teaches. I have always tried to teach our children to "make good choices", and I feel like this verse says it perfectly. 

I am grateful for the scriptures and the power they bring into my life. #Ilovetoreadthescriptures

"...the God of All Comfort..." (2 Corinthians 1:3)

Christ is the light of the world.
I choose to focus on the light

I realize that there is so much suffering, hurt, sorrow, misery, injustice, and pain in the world from which I am sheltered. I cannot imagine what some people must endure from their own choices, other people's choices, and just part of living in a physical world. It's too easy to get sucked into the "dark" if I focus on all the bad things that happen every day in the world. Therefore I choose to focus on the "light", even the Light of Christ. It is defined as: "Divine energy, power, or influence that proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things" (Light). I love that light is divine energy and power. I can feel this power as I make good choices and focus on the love that God has for all of His children.
  
I also choose to focus on hope. There is always hope! Hope is defined as: "The confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness" (Hope). This hope- even a "perfect brightness of hope" (2 Nephi 31:20) which brings peace, joy, and relief, can only come from One True Source, even Jesus Christ. He is "the God of peace" (Romans 15:33).

I can imagine a "God of peace" (Romans 16:20). Even the "Prince of Peace"(Isaiah 9:6). I can imagine and feel hope because- He lives (D&C 76:22)!

God offers us peace and comfort. And not just the absence of war or contention. But true peace that calms the "troubled heart" (see John 14:1).

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

A Heavenly Father is there to comfort us. A Savior. Our Savior is there to comfort us in our darkest hours. In our painful hours. In the hours of joy and sorrow, He is there to comfort us and to rejoice with us.

I have found that where there is pain there is also joy, because we cannot have one without the other, neither light without darkness (see 2 Nephi 2:11). As I endure physical pain, I am appreciative of this statement by Orson F. Whitney:

No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience, is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father" (Joy in the Journey)

The truth is, Jesus Christ is the source of hope and "the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3). Even in our darkest hours, which indeed we may come to find that they are our finest hours, will be filled with light (see The Great Plan of the Eternal God). He is the divine light that fills our hearts with joy, even in the midst of suffering. This I testify.

I love to see the light He offers me. In it I find comfort and joy.

"The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14)

I have a new scripture that I get to add to my list of favorites. It is: "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14). What more could one want than to have the Lord fight their battles? We all have battles to be fought, or perhaps we are in the middle of one. If God fights our battles, what is it we are suppose to do?

(my scripture study journal)

The Lord answers that question in the same verse: "Hold your peace", like it is a precious gift that I must never let go of or drop. When I first read this scripture, the image of a woman holding a basket full of peace immediately came to mind. I love this image, holding it like it is precious and has room to grow.

And then the image changed.

In my mind's eye is a woman holding "Peace", as if Peace were a child. The woman cares for her, nourishes her, encouraging her to grow big and strong. The hope is that Peace will grow so big that she becomes, well, me. Can I really grow into "Peace"?

I believe that President Ezra Taft Benson has given us a way to have and hold our peace so that it grows and becomes who we are. He said: "The price of peace is righteousness. Men and nations may loudly proclaim, 'Peace, peace,' but there shall be no peace until individuals nurture in their souls those principles of personal purity, integrity, and character which foster the development of peace. Peace cannot be imposed. It must come from the lives and hearts of men (and women). There is no other way" (The Path to Peace).

This phrase. "Hold your peace" is repeated in D&C 11:22. The Lord is telling us to: "Hold your peace" by the "study of my word". My daily experience is that I do feel His peace, which "passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7) as I study His words in the scriptures and the words of His prophets and apostles. Over time, as I have studied to "learn of [Him], and listen to [His] words" (D&C 19:23) I have changed as His words become a part of me. Scripture study has become a way for me to hold my peace. And that peace feels...beautiful!

I am learning that as I trust the Lord to fight my battles, I can hold my peace. The peace of truth and living it. The peace of integrity, and living it. The peace of making and keeping covenants and living them. In all these, I "Hold [my] Peace". This I testify.

"The Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace" (Exodus 14:14)

"...and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God" (Alma 37:37)

Today, I sit pondering about water. What a gift and blessing water is for us. And it comes right to our house and we can drink it! This is taken for granted, forgetting the process and how many people made it possible for me to have this water run to our home. Just a little perspective on a few of those people. There are the people who originally found the source of the water, and the people who piped the water, and the people who filtered the water, and the people who made the filter. And the people who piped the water to my house (that's a lot of pipe!), and the people who built my house who put in the pipe. And the people who made the faucet and the people who put in the faucet. And to not leave out the people who made all that pipe or even the people who originally invented pipe and therefore made it possible for us to have running water, that I can drink straight from the tap.

There are two quick points from this thought. The first quick point is water and all that it goes through so that we might be able to drink, right from the tap. It's like we are drinking it from the original source. Spiritually speaking, Christ is the original source. When I am really thirsty, I can just go turn on the tap and the water comes out. And Christ is the same way! He said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37). Let any man, woman or child, come and drink! He has laid the "pipe", He has made the faucet for us to receive the "living water" (see John 4:10). Christ is real. He has the power to do all things, and strengthen us. But first, we must turn on the faucet and drink the water.

The second point: gratitude. As I have pondered all that I have been given, and all that goes into making it possible for me to receive it, I am humbled by all that I have been given! It makes so much sense why we are given this counsel: "...and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God" (Alma 37:37). And another way of saying it: "...always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive" (Alma 7: 23).  Just receiving water alone is a miracle. But I think the miracle is complete when we receive it with a grateful heart.

Drinking clean water, even the Living Water, strengthens me, and blesses my life in ways I have taken for granted. I am coming to find that gratitude is really a way of living. It is a way of being aware of what I have and giving thanks for all things, even being able to drink straight from the tap. When I live in gratitude and give thanks in all things, I am changed, I am happier and I have greater peace. This I testify.

(This short video put things into perspective for me - enjoy! And remember, you are LOVED!)

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" (Romans 15:4)

I "...do not desire to murmur" (Alma 58:35), but I also want to be really honest with myself and with you. I usually post, or perhaps, begin a post with how some days are hard and then I give some spiritual insight that I had received during the day or during my scripture study. Well, some days, to be 100% honest, no matter what I try to do (like: I meet a couple of friends for lunch, I exercise, I read and study my scriptures, I help my son with his class assignments, I do a ton of laundry and I watch a happy movie will folding the clothes, and more than likely, I have had more than one "coke" already) I just can't get that dark feeling and the hopelessness to go away. So, what should I do?

Okay, here's honesty. I do exactly what I always do, which is, I turn to the scriptures. Here is why:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)

I search the scriptures because they were written, all those years ago, for my learning!  And I might have hope through patience and comfort... But on some days, patience and comfort don't quite cut it for me, or perhaps the reality is, I don't have patience or comfort. So I read some more...

"And it came to pass..." (see Old Testament 336 times; New testament 60 times; Book of Mormon 1,070 times; D&C 4 times; Pearl of Great Price 53 times). Sometimes, I just have to say, Really?! REALLY?! Is it that simple? Perhaps. But the beauty is, it really does eventually pass. Sometimes quicker and sometimes not so.

On those not so quick to pass days I may read, "Nevertheless" (that is another great word found frequently in the scriptures) "I know in whom I have trusted" (2 Nephi 4:19). And there are times that even though I know this, that I can trust God, I am still stuck in what feels like a dark abyss.

So, what do I do then? Honestly, I just keep trying. And on those really tough days, I might say, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7).  I love thinking that "I have kept the faith", even if I have done nothing else, keeping the faith is a lot of work.

I will end where I began, with being totally honest. On those tough days that just never seem to end, if I have done all I can and have "finished my course", I do what Pres. Monson once suggested: "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on" (Joy in the Journey). And I call it good, because if I have "endured it well" (on those dark days, "well" is saying a lot) then I may or may not have another "coke", and rest up for the next "good fight".

I'll read the scriptures some more the next day...they were written, after all, "for our learning".