Comfort and guidance

"O God, where are thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? . . .

"My son, peace be unto they soul; thine adversity and thine affictions shall be but a small moment;
And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."

These verses from D&C 121 are quite popular, but never fail to bring feelings of peace, comfort, and humility to me.

I also really like the next, less-quoted verses. "Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands. Thou art not yet as Job; they friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job."

Most of us, when eduring hardships, rely heavily on the strength and wisdom of our friends. Can you imagine if they were gone? And not only gone, but acting against you?

Later on in the section, Joseph Smith discuss the rights of the priesthood.

"Behold, many are called, but few are chosen. Any why are they not chosen?
"Because their hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not learn this one lesson --
"That the rights of the priesthood are inseperably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness.
"That they might be conferred upon us, it is true; but when we undertake to cover our sins, or to gratify our pride, our vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, behold, the heavens withdraw themselves; the Spirit of the Lords is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen (or in other words, Adios!) to the power and authority of that man."

Now obviously, this doesn't just pertain to men. I do think that Joseph Smith is referring to the men of the priesthood specifically here, but there are applications for all members of the church. All those who have been endowed have some rights of the priesthood.

I find it interesting that many are called, but only few are chosen because of their own choices. I think it might be easy for some to say that the Lord didn't "choose" them. But that is not the case. If the Lord calls you, it's up to you to decide whether you are "chosen" or not. (Elder Bednar taught that.)

A few verses later, Joseph gives the "do's" of the priesthood, as compared to his previous list of "don'ts." (Should there be two apostrophes in that?)

"No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;
"By kindness, and pure knowlege, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile--
"Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards and increase of love toward him who thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy."

I think this is not just a guide to priesthood government, but a guide for us as mothers and members of the church.

One note I have in my scriptures regarding the last verse is what reproving meant in the 1830's edition of Webster's. "Correcting quickly with clarity and truth." That sheds some light on the verse. I think this is obviously a guide to disciplining children. Correctly quickly (and quietly, if possible) with clarity, then afterward, making sure they know you still love them. You may not approve of all their choices, but you love them regardless.

One other thing that stood out to me when reading these verses today is the "pure knowledge" mentioned in v. 42. I think it was Elder Maxwell that mentioned that sometimes in the church, then men have a tendency to be the scholars, and the women offer the compassionate service. He said that while those things are good, they are not gender-specific roles. The women need to become better scholars, and the men need to work on their compassionate service!!

So that's what I thought of when I read "pure knowledge." My husband has a masterful memory, and has spent much more time studying the scriptures and doctrine of the church than I have. (Mostly because he prepared for and served a mission.) I ask him all kinds of doctrine-related questions frequently, and he always knows the answer. As soon as he explains it, it makes complete sense and reminds me that I've heard it before. But he is definately the Church "scholar" in our household. I need to be more like that.

So........what are your thoughts on D&D 121?

It's funny how I learn things when I blog about them.

I don't know why scripture study is always a problem for me. I was doing so well for a while......but I've struggled recently. I'll think about reading, then just think, "Boring. I don't want to do that right now." That's horrible!! I wish that scripture study wasn't such a hard thing for me, but it is. I have read some over the past few days, but nothing that really stuck out to me, so I didn't blog about it.

But I've just GOT to do it. I have to keep going even when I don't want to, or I'm never going to want to read.

Section 68 is longer than most as has some good stuff. It talks about the literal descendants of Aaron having a right to the priesthood and office of bishop. But if a literal descendant can't be find, a high priest may act as bishop. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but the tribe of Levi is the priestly tribe, right? Aren't they the sons of Aaron? But because their duty was to the temple, they weren't given any land -- they aren't one of the 12 tribes. So no one would ever through a patriarchal blessing find that they were of the tribe of Levi.


I didn't put all this together till just now. I've always been confused and thought that at any time, a guy could find out through his patriarchal blessing that he was of the tribe of Levi and then he would be an active bishop for the rest of his life. That was always so weird to me.........but I just realized that there isn't a tribe of Levi, so it's not really a problem. (I hope I put all those pieces together correctly!)

Another passage I like is vs. 25-28. It talks about our duties as parents. If we do not teach our children to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ, baptism and repentance, their sins will be on our heads.


When I first read this, I thought it meant that if we fail to teach our children correctly, all their sins would be upon our heads. Which is SO SCARY. But that's not what God is telling us. He says that if we fail to teach them these saving doctrines, fail to have them baptized, THEN the sin is on our heads. It's our responsibility to teach them as young children. We are to prepare them for baptism. Once they are baptized, they are accountable for their own sins. (Funny how this is all making sense now!) It's still our job to teach and guide them, but their sins will no longer be upon our heads.


We are to teach our children to pray and walk uprightly before the Lord. That about sums it up, I suppose.


--With both of these passages, I came in with preconceived notions about what they meant. But as I started to think and write about them, the Holy Ghost clarified things for me and taught me truth. I'm grateful for what I learned today.--

Devote thyself in service

It's possible to be called to things because of your family. I've never really thought of this before. In D&C 23:3, God tells Hyrum he is called to the work because of his family.

It seems there are a lot of callings in the Church that men are called to that require a lot of sacrifice on their wives' (and families') part. I'm not saying this is wrong. I'm just stating what I see to be fact. There's a reason that both husband and wife are called to talk to the stake president when a calling in elders' quorum or the bishopric is going to be extended. The women must be willing to support their husbands.

As a teenager, my stake split. I very distinctly remember the calling/sustaining of our new stake president because he was the father of one of my close friends. The general authority who spoke said some things that I thought were very interesting. He said that there were other men who God considered calling as stake president and in the presidency, but they weren't called because of their wives. He then went on to speak briefly of the qualities of the wives that allowed their husbands to be called to such time-consuming positions.

I told myself then and there that I wanted to be that kind of wife. I didn't want to be one who might unsuspectingly hold my husband back from doing what God asks of Him, and therefore of me.

Section 24 has a few nuggets that I really liked and coincidentally go right along with all this. V. 7 tells us to devote all our service to Zion, which covenant to do. There are many things that I do daily which seemingly have nothing to do with serving Zion, but I may just need to change my perspective. Instead of dragging my feet about cleaning my house, I should think, "Having a clean house invites the Spirit. It creates a better environment for me to teach my children the gospel." Instead of playing with my kids just because it's fun, I can also think, "This builds our relationship and will make it easier for them to talk to me in the future."

In v. 8 God tells Joseph (and us) to be patient in our afflictions, for we'll have many. But we should endure, and God will be there with us. In other variations of this scripture, we are told to endure, and God will exalt us on high. But I liked that this scripture says that God is there with us. Both are comforting promises for different reasons. It's just nice to remember that God is there for us.

What did you learn from these sections? I also read sections 21 and 22, but nothing in particular stood out to me. Did you read them and learn something new?