Hello my
dear family & friends,
Speaking of
studying the scriptures I will share with you something that I learned in my
scripture study. I was studying in 1 Nephi 18, when the Lord commands Nephi to
build the ship. I think it’s beautiful that the Savior provided Nephi with the
inspiration, the tools, and the resources needed to build this ship. Something
that he had never done nor seen done before. Nephi knew that God would provide
a way for a commandment to be fulfilled as of them all. But it was an important
step to getting him and his family to the "promised land". You see, when
they used their agency correctly through obedience and willingness to do the
Lord’s will, the Liahona worked. Likewise, the Holy Ghost works in the same way
in our lives. When they were obedient the "wind" pushed them towards
the Promised Land. However, when they rebelled against the will of the Lord, the
wind pushed them back, away from their goal. The Liahona stopped working and
thus, they fell backwards in their physical progression. Laman and Lemuel had
to repent and Nephi and others had to forgive, before things started to work
out for good.
The wind, in
this story, was very intriguing to me. Wind is so often seen as opposition,
something that pushes and causes force and resistance. But there is good
and bad wind. In this case, the wind worked according to their obedience and
rebellion or obedience and willingness. I think the wind does not control us, instead we control the wind. Perhaps, could it be that this wind, is both
helping us as well as not helping us, whatever our trials may be? In my
opinion, the lesson here may be to "use" our trials, struggles
discouragements and set-backs correctly, so that they could bring us closer to
God. Eventually, the great opportunity may be to leverage and use hard times to
bring us closer to our Heavenly Father. We do this by strict obedience, willingness
and worthy hearts opened to receive the inspirations of the Holy Ghost. As we
do so, we can get closer to our "promised lands" in our lives and
life eternal.
The Book of
Mormon came before anything else did. This should tell us something of how
important the Book of Mormon is to our Heavenly Father. I know that there is
power in this precious Book of Mormon when we read, ponder, pray and ultimately
apply the words in it can bring changes and blessings to our lives. It is the
only book that can help us draw closer to our Heavenly Father, and testifies of
the Son, even our Savior, Jesus Christ. Of this I know that God loves each and every
one of His children as we are part of His great plan, even the Plan of
Salvation.
HAVE A
FABULOUS WEEK
Sincerely,
Hermana Arce
Hermana Arce