Become As Little Children

In Matthew 18:3-4 and D&C 78:13-14 it talks about becoming as little children. As I pondered this, the words to "I am a Child of God" came to mind.

I am a Child of God

and He has sent me here.

Has given me an earthly home

with parents kind and dear.

Lead me, guide me,

walk beside me,

help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do,

to live with Him someday.

These words are so simple, yet they explain everything we know about the Plan of Salvation. In D&C 78:18 it says that "I will lead you along." When we become trusting in our Heavenly Father to lead us along, as little children are, we become humble enough to accept His guidance. Children are not afraid to ask Heavenly Father for things like puppy, or a little sister, or to help them not have bad dreams. When we can trust in Him in that simplistic way, He will guide our paths and keep us on track to return back to Him.

In Mosiah 3:19 it gives the traits of becoming like a child:

For the natural man is an enemy to God,

and has been from the fall of Adam,

and will be, forever and ever,

unless he yields to the enticings

of the Holy Spirit,

and putteth off the natural man

and becometh a saint through 

the Atonement of Christ, the Lord,

and becometh as a child,

submissive, meek, humble, patient,

full of love, 

willing to submit to all things

which the Lord seeth fit to inflict on him,

even as a child doth submit to his father.

 

Christ Walks On Water

In Matthew 14 we read about how Christ walks on the sea towards his apostles. Christ bids the apostles to get aboard the ship and then He leaves to pray. The sea becomes rough and the apostles are tossed aboard the ship. They see Christ walking towards them, but they do not know it is Him. They think it is a spirit and they are afraid. Christ "straightway" tells them that it is Him and to not be afraid. Peter calls out and says "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water." He has faith that is the Savior and faith that he can walk on the water to Him if it is indeed Christ. Christ bids him to come so he comes out of the boat to go towards Him. When he sees the wind and the waves Peter's faith falters and he becomes afraid and begins to sink. He calls out to Christ to save him and Christ immediately" reaches for him and saves him.
In Doctrine and Covenants 88:67 it says, "And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things." When Peter took his steps upon the water he allowed himself to be filled with light. He focused upon the Savior. It was only when he allowed himself to look at the waves and feel strong winds that he became afraid and began to sink. As we travel through the seas of our lives we can keep our focus upon returning to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We do this by doing the small and simple things that keep our paths aligned with His. We attend our church meetings, fulfill our callings, have family prayers and scriptures, hold family home evenings, personal prayers, attend the temple, and keep our homes filled with the light of Christ.





Doctrine and Covenants
Old and New Testament

Parables

This week is on parables. My definition of a parable is a story used to teach a gospel truth. Some of the parables I studied this week included: the parable of the tares (Matthew 13:24-30); parables of the mustard seed and the leaven (Matthew 13:47-50); parables of the treasure and the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46); parable of the gospel net (Matthew 13:47-50). These parables are comparable to gospel principles.

-What describes the future growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?
The parable of the mustard seed.
-Why does the Church send out so many missionaries?
The parables of the leaven and the gospel net.
-How do you explain the remarkable growth of the Church, considering that it is fairly new compared to most world religions and started small in the American frontier?
The parable of the mustard seed.
-Why are some members of the Church willing to sacrifice so much worldly wealth and recognition in order to maintain membership in the Church?
The parable of the pearl of great price.
-Why do some Church member choose to leave the Church?
The parables of the tares and the gospel net.

In the parable of the gospel net the net refers to the Church. To be gathered into the net is to join the Church. When it talks about gathering the good vessels and casting the bad away, the good are those who are active Church members and keep the commandments. The bad are those who fall away and do not.

Here is a bible video from lds.org that is the parable of the wheat and the tares:
http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/jesus-declares-the-parable-of-the-wheat-and-the-tares?lang=eng

The Beatitudes

This week is on the Beatitudes. These are the opening verses from The Sermon on the Mount given by Christ. They are found in Matthew 5:3-16. This link has a video and also the verses: http://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/sermon-on-the-mount-the-beatitudes?lang=eng

Each of the verses begin with the "Blessed are..." What does "blessed" mean? From the institute manual, "The Life and Teachings of Jesus and his Apostles" blessedness is defined as being higher than happiness. "...blessedness is an inward fountain of joy in the soul itself, which no outward circumstances can seriously affect." By following the Beatitudes we can obtain this level of happiness.

I chose three attributes to touch on.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit. "To be poor in spirit is to feel yourselves as the spiritually needy, ever dependent on the Lord..." (Institute Manual) We need a lot to get through life. Food, clothing, air, health, shelter. The Lord blesses us with each of these and more every day. We need his help to continue moving forward in our endeavors. This need will never leave, never go away. As we put our lives in His hands, he will bless our lives for good.

2. Blessed are the merciful. There is a quote from "The Hobbit" that this one made me think of. Gandalf is speaking to Bilbo. He says to him, "True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one." It's learning when to hold your tongue. It's learning to refrain and be merciful, be loving instead of cruel or unkind. "Blessed are all you who are merciful for you shall obtain mercy!" (Institute Manual)

3. Blessed are the meek. "Meekness is not synonymous with weakness. The meek man is the strong, the mighty, the man of self-mastery." (Institute Manual) Being meek is being humble, not easy to anger. Christ was the perfect example of meekness. As we become meek, we will master ourselves and find happiness.

Christ's Early Disciples

This week I read in Matthew and John. For thousands of years, people who believed in the Lord had offered up sacrifices in the similitude of the future sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In these chapters He is referred to as "The Lamb of God". To those with "ears to hear," John was proclaiming that Jesus Christ would be the final offering made on their behalf. For Andrew, Simon, and Phillip, they heard Christ speak and then continued following Him. They invited other to "come and see". Nathaniel also heard Him and invited others. Christ appeared to Peter, James, and John while they were fishing and invited them to follow Him. They straightway left their nets and followed Him.
Reading in the Book of Mormon, we see many accounts of missionary work. I am not the best at sharing my testimony and inviting others to "come and see." I doubt myself and my strength. I have begun trying to invite my neighbors who are inactive to come to activities, but mostly I just try to be their friend. It is hard to ask for missionary experiences when you aren't sure how to share the Gospel. I know that as I grow stronger in my own testimony, that those experiences will come.
 

Christ

I'm going to be doing something a little different on my blog these next few months. I am currently enrolled at BYU-Idaho as an online student and this semester I am taking New Testament. Every week I will be posting something that I have learned from that week. I hope those of you that read this enjoy it and feel free to ask any questions!
This week I'll be talking about Christ, his premortal and mortal life, and the different names we know his by. I obtained most of this information from John 1 and 17 and the New Testament Institute manual.

Premortal Life:
-Christ lived with our Heavenly Father before he came to earth.
-Christ is life eternal because he was with God during his premortal life and into his mortal life.
-All things were made by Christ.
-Christ was given God's power, the priesthood and he used this power to create the earth and everything on it.
-Because Christ was chosen he was given God's light.

Mortal Life:
-Christ fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah that John the Baptist would prepare the way for the Lord and from 1 Nephi that he would behold and bear record that he had baptized the Lamb of God.
-He lived in this world and the world did not recognize who he was.
-He was mortal and had a body.
-He has power over all flesh.
-Christ gave those who believed in him the priesthood.

Names of Jesus Christ:

-Christ: The Anointed. The first born of the Father in the spirit and the only begotten of the Father in the flesh. Christ is a sacred title. It is of Greek derivation and Messiah in Hebrew.
Messiah- Another translation of The Anointed. In the New Testament the deliverer is called Christ. Messiah is used an a title of office denoting a king or deliverer.
Jehovah- The Self-Existent One or The Eternal. Jehovah  is the covenant or proper name of the God of Israel.
Immanuel- God with us. This title comes from Isaiah as a sign of God's deliverance. It also appears in latter day revelation in 2 Nephi and D&C (Doctrine and Covenants).
The Word- Christ was God's executive so to say. He put God's word into effect. In Moses 1:32 it says that the Father declared that Christ is the "word of my power."

I hope that you maybe learned something new. In studying the different names of Christ, I did and  I know that he is my Savior and Redeemer.


References: The Scriptures and The Life and Teachings of Jesus and His Apostles (New Testament Institute Manual)

Forever

Well, I haven't posted in FOREVER. Like, literally, almost a year. I've just been busy! We had a pretty boring year. We didn't move! Kurt did, however, change jobs. He now works for Farmers Insurance, so if you need a quote...get with me :) We didn't have another baby either! Our kids are growing like weeds though. Lexi is now 2 and Aidan is 1. Time is just flying by. I started school in September online through BYU-Idaho. I'm pursuing a bachelors degree in marriage and family studies which isn't the more useful of degrees but it will at least be one. And that is pretty much it with my family! Birthday pictures below!

Kiddos

 So my posts will pretty much always be about my kids now. There is just so much going on with them. I don't know how I stay sane! Lexi is now 13 months old. She was around 18 pounds and 19 inches long at her 12 month baby check. She is such a little girl. I was originally going to take pictures every month until 2 years old but I completely missed 13 months for her so we're bagging it. She has 5, almost 6, teeth. She doesn't do super well with teething. Christmas was a bit more fun with her this year. She still didn't understand what was going on except that we just got to make a big mess.

 These are some pictures I tried to take of her in her Christmas dress. We soon gave up and decided to get some good ones done by my neighbor, Becky. I'll post some of those too.

 She just loved taking ornaments off the tree! Happy face.

These are some we tried to do for her birthday...but not on her birthday. Quite a bit later. Once again, we failed. We tried to bribe her with cheese cubes but she just really wanted the cheese cubes.

 My two Santa babies.

 Birthday girl!

This is such a super cute picture of Lexi. I love it.

Well onto Aidan. He is two months old now! Can't believe it. We haven't had his 2 month appointment yet so I can't post statistics. He seems huge though. I've already pulled out 3 month clothes. He has begun smiling and I love it. His eyes are getting more and more blue everyday and his cute little eyelashes are growing in. He is such a good baby! The past two nights he has slept over six hours straight.

I'm just going to post of lot of pictures now :)

 1 month old picture :)

Family Christmas picture

 3 year anniversary

 Christmas morning :) Yay

2 month picture :) I'm behind! Posting months 1 and 2 in the same post. At least I got the pictures taken right??

1 year older and wiser too :)

1 year! I cannot believe it has been one year since Alexis joined our family. She is such a joy. Such a good baby. She sleeps through the night. Takes two naps a day, usually without complaint. She doesn't like to eat breakfast beyond some puffs. She loves cheese and ice cream. She's been walking for over a month and climbs stairs like a pro. She's just began coming down the stairs-backwards. She finally cut another tooth on the top. She is such a sweetie pie. We celebrated her birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Marsh, Uncle Sam, Jake, Ben, and Russ, Aunt Michelle, Great Grandma Jan, and cousin Alec on the 24th. Not everyone could make it on her birthday (the 26th) so we celebrated a little early. She received a lot of fun presents and had fun with everyone.

New smile

Fluffy Zelda from Grandma and Grandpa Piper

First Thanksgivings for both my babies!

Yum Yum

Birthday Time!

Brave :)

Notice her cute little pigtails...you can kind of see them.

Cupcake

1 Year old!

Aidan is now a month old. Crazy how time flies. He is doing well. He was a little small so we've had to supplement. That is going a little too well and he doesn't want to nurse now. He sleeps a lot still. Eats about every two hours-nights included. On top of that, I caught a cold and cough. Sleeping has been in little supply. Aidan is already changing and growing. He's already so much a part of our lives. Kurt is doing well at his job. He also has a calling in young men's now with the teachers quorum. We are all doing very well and enjoying life! It is so much fun having two kids and we love them so much.

First thanksgiving :)