Tragedy

Sometimes tragedies make us reflect more on what the plan of salvation is all about. Unfortunately tragedies can come at all times of the year and this Christmas I had a dear friend that experienced a tragedy (and by her experiencing it, I too felt the pain of it.) As I sat in the Chapel listening to a speaker talk about tragedy and God's plan and I felt comfort about this tragedy. I don't think that God wants bad things to happen, but he sometimes he allows them to happen. He knows more about our inner strength than we could ever imagine. We don't always understand His plan and His plan isn't always pretty and fluffy. We don't always get our way and sometimes things are difficult to shape us into something miraculous. It is not up to me to judge His wisdom. We aren't responsible for understanding the entire plan, but we are responsible for having faith that He does love us, His Son has provided us a way to have a happiness, and one day (maybe not in this life), if we trust Him ,we will be able to understand His wisdom in all things. For this understanding I am grateful.

Praise to the Man

I know it is Christmas time and a post about Christ is more befitting of the season, but I had to most my testimony about Joseph Smith and why I praise (not worship) him. I was reading the Sunday School lesson about Josheph Smith today and there is a quote from President Benson that really touched me: “The First Vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith is bedrock theology to the Church. The adversary knows this and has attacked Joseph Smith’s credibility from the day he announced the visitation of the Father and the Son. … You should always bear testimony to the truth of the First Vision. Joseph Smith did see the Father and the Son. They conversed with him as he said they did. It is the most glorious event since the resurrection of our Lord. Any leader who, without reservation, cannot declare his testimony that God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith can never be a true leader, a true shepherd. If we do not accept this truth, … if we have not received a witness about this great revelation, we cannot inspire faith in those whom we lead.”

I was thinking about this as a primary leader and just as a member of these Church. If I can't say within my heart that I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son, then all the other truth's in the church are nice principles. Without a true testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon is just a neat book with some good lessons. BUT I do have a testimony of Joseph Smith. I have felt the Spirit burn within me and witness that Joseph Smith did go to the Sacred Grove, he did pray for instruction on which church to join and he did receive an answer from God. I know all of these things in my heart and in my head. I have felt it when I pray and I have understood it when I read and ponder. It is because of this knowledge that I know that I belong to the restored Church of Jesus Christ on this earth today. I praise Joseph Smith for his courage and faith. I praise him for his strength and persistence to share what he knew despite persecution. It it because of his strength that I was raised in a family and taught from a young age about his visitation from God and Jesus Christ. I cannot express my feelings of gratitude for the lessons I was taught as a child and for the testimony that I gained as a teenager (and continue to gain daily.) I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and deserves to be praised.

Watch this video.

The baby Jesus

I am preparing my primary lesson today and we are trying to get the kids in the spirit of Christmas. We are doing a nativity scene and I was thinking about Christmas and why it is such an important Holiday. I also read a great article about families and Christmas. The article talks about how much we love the Christmas season because it means spending time with our families and that, because of Christ, we can live eternally with them.

We celebrate the birth of Christ because it heralded the beginning of Christ descending from his throne on high to become a humble mortal. This was the first step of showing the Christ truly knows and can empathize what it is to be mortal. Sometimes it is hard for me to picture Christ as a baby that had to be fed, cradled, cleaned, and taken care of in everyway. It seems conterintuitive to think about my Savior, who is powerful and almighty, as a helpless infant. But that is part of the miracle. He came to earth to be able to save and succor his people. He humbled himself to be a baby that could not survive without a mother and father . He humbled himself to be baptized, even though he had no sin. He humbled himself to be tempted by Satan, but over came it. He humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples. He humbled himself to be treated as a criminal. He humbled himself to be mocked, spit upon, disrobed, beaten and killed on the cross. He humbled himself to feel the pains of sins, sorrows and pains in Gethsemane, despite the fact that He was perfect and did not deserve the suffering that he felt. He humbled himself in all these ways, so that I, an unperfect person, could live with my family again for eternity. I am thankful for the Christmas season and my testimony of the Savior and the miracle of His birth and His life that ultimately was all for me and you.