December 24, 2010

Being Christmas Eve, I thought to read a scripture about the birth of Christ. I read 1 Nephi 11:14-23 which is what Nephi sees in vision about the virgin Mary and her birth to the Son of the Eternal Father. It is meaningful that just before seeing His birth, Nephi is asked by the angel if he knows the condescension of God. He says, "I only know God loves His children." And that is so true. God does love His children so much that He gave His Son to die for us. The birth, life, Atonement, death, and resurrection of the Savior all combine into the most wondrous gift I've ever been given. I am grateful for it.

November 30, 2010

Tonight I read Moroni 8:14-30. It is part of a letter Mormon wrote to his son Moroni and in these verses he is talking about little children and how they do not need repentance because they are already redeemed. In verse 22 it says that "all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law." I thought that was a really interesting quote and I wonder who that includes. But it makes sense to me... why would God condemn one to whom He had not give His law? He is "not a partial God." I love these verses for the way they speak of God's "perfect love" and also of Christ's Atonement. I am very grateful for his Atonement and the blessings that have come to my life as a result of my faith in this wondrous gift.

November 10, 2010

I am using Preach My Gospel for my study tonight. I'm doing the personal study on page 2 which is studying the tree of life in 1 Nephi 8 & 11. After Lehi ate the fruit of the tree, his first desire was for his family to eat of it also. With the fruit of the tree being the love of God, this is my same hope and desire for my family as well. I really want them to partake of this fruit because it is "desirable above all other fruit." To partake of the fruit, people had to "press forward" to get on the path that led to the tree and once they were on that path, they had to hold to the rod of iron to avoid losing their way. For me to receive all the blessings of the Atonement, I need to be humble and repent with a sincere heart. I need to come unto Christ and press forward with a steadfast faith in Him. Commitments and covenants help to partake of these blessings because when I am committed to keeping my covenants, I am obedient and repentant, striving to be worthy of the Spirit and humble. They offer me a direction to go, whereas, without them, I can imagine it would be easy to become distracted from the importance of daily obedience and faith.