Don't refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly

Last night, our Relief Society had a great discussion about simplifying our lives. We were talking about technology and the great power it has to help us be organized, record our lives, find ideas, and reach out to others. As we spoke of positive and negative parts of technology, I was reminded of a warning our stake primary presidency had given us. They told us not to go to the internet for ideas for our sharing times before we went to the Lord. There are so many resources online with great ideas. It is easy to fall into the trap of not asking the Lord what the kids in our own ward need and instead finding a fun and exciting idea that may not meet the needs of those we teach.

This morning as I read in 2 Nephi 18 (which is also Isaiah 8,) I found that the Lord warned of the very same kind of thing for them, but on a physical level. I don't understand the history as well as I'd like, but I've been trying to learn about it. In chaper 17, we find that Israel (not Judah) whose king is Pekah and united with Rezin, king of Syria to come up against Judah, whose king is Ahaz (father of Hezakiah). Ahaz, threatened by this, turns to Tiglath-Pilezer, king of Assyria, and forms a treaty. Much of this is very confusing to me because of a few erroneous thoughts:

1. Assyria and Syria are not the same country

2. Israel is not the same as Judah. Israel is comprised of the 10 tribes, all but Judah and Benjamin. Israel is often referred to as Ephraim (see Bible Dictionary Israel, kingdom of) and for the past 200 years (since 925 BC) had been divided from Judah.

Remember that the head of Syria is Damascus (2 Nephi 17:8) that is destroyed just a few years later by Assyria (see http://moellerhaus.com/7-8.htm for interesting history and commentary.) Israel is also destroyed by Assyria shortly after this prophecy, thus scattering the 10 tribes.

Here is a list of all of the nations involved and their kings:

Judah: Ahaz

Syria: Rezin

Israel (the 10 tribes): Pekah (often referred to as Remaliah's son out of contempt- Isaiah couldn't even say his name he did such terrible things to Judah. See 2 Chronicles 28:5,6)

Assyria: Tiglath-Pilezer

It says in verses 6 and 7:

6Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of ^aShiloah that go softly, and rejoice in ^bRezin and Remaliah’s son;

7Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of ^aAssyria and all his glory; and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks.

The waters of Shiloah were from a spring outside of Jerusalem whose waters were later diverted into Hezakiah's tunnel and saved Jerusalem during a siege by providing water for Jerusalem.

Rather than trusting in the Lord to solve their problems, Ahaz made a treaty with Assyria. This brought them into subjugation to Assyria and soon caused the destruction of Damascus and Israel. But Judah was eventually saved by the waters of Shiloah.

I love the analogy of the waters of Shiloah that go softly as compared to the roaring, overflowing flood of the Assyrians who overflow all their banks. It reminds me of the warning from our primary stake presidency to seek the guidance of the spirit before we go to the internet for information. Today, we have the threat of spiritual destruction by an overflowing river of information that can drown out the promptings of the spirit. What happens to a small, softly flowing river when mixed with an overflowing river? It disappears. We need to remember to not refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softly and drown ourselves instead in the overflowing river of information from the world.

The language and attitude of Praising the Lord

I'm beginning to notice something marvelous about Nephi. I have already mentioned that he seems to play a game of praising the Lord to get him through hard times. But it goes much deeper than that. He never mentions the Lord without an adjective. "the great creator," (2 Nephi 9:3) "The Lord God," (2 Nephi 9:5,6) "the eternal God," (2 Nephi 9:8), "the Holy One of Israel," (2 Nephi 9:12). It's not just in 2 Nephi 9. It's all the time for Nephi, like a natural offshoot of the love and reverence he feels for his God. And if he doesn't use an adjective, he makes God personal by saying "our God." Seldom does he simply mention his name in passing without a special classifier.

Nephi can't write more than a few verses without breaking out in praise, often beginning with "O". Looking at 2 Nephi 9, we see it over and over. Here is a list:

O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! (vs. 8)

O how great the goodness of our God who prepareth a way for our escape . . . (vs. 10)

O how great the plan of our God! (vs. 13)

O the greatness and the justice of our God! (vs. 17)

O the greatness and the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! (vs. 19)

O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. (vs. 20)

Chapter 9 is likely a beautiful poem in the language in which it was written and follows a pattern of praising God and his plan, expressing sorrow for those who sin, and inviting us to repent. Maybe the way in which he refers to God is done so out of tradition. But I think it is also a mark that his constant praising of the Lord has become a part of his language.

My family went on a trip this past week and went church with my aunt. The sister who was teaching Relief Society was moving after being in the area for a long time. Her testimony of the Savior was palpable as she shared the many ways in which he had helped her through her trials. At the very end of the lesson, she gave us a pencil and asked us to write down what we would say to Christ if He were to be there in front of us. That exercise in faith was quite difficult. What would I say to Him if He were here? What would my attitude be toward him? Would I be so overcome with embarrassment that I hadn't gotten closer to him or that I had acted so often according to my own will and wisdom? After I had finished apologizing to Him, I think it would be natural to praise Him and his role in the plan that makes it okay that I am not perfect today.

This teacher then shared a story about a dream her sister had in which a large room was full of people where Christ sat at the head. In the room there were no words, only the air was thick with a feeling of compassion, sorrow, and love for Christ and his sacrifice. Then, she was led to another room where there were only two people. Christ sat on the same throne and there was a child in front of him. Yet the room was filled with the same palpable feeling of compassion, sorrow, and love. This time, the emotion was from Christ toward the child.

Nephi very likely knew that in a conversation with his Lord and Savior, the Holy one of Israel, mercy and compassion can change our apologetic repentance into praise. Personal experience probably led Nephi to write his psalm in 2 Nephi 4 that turns "O wretched man that I am" into "Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation."

Don't hang down your head

In 2nd Nephi 10, Jacob is talking to his people who seem discouraged to have been led out of the land of their inheritance, away from the rest of Israel and Jerusalem. It seems they felt the promises of the Lord didn't pertain to them on the far away isle of the sea to which they had been exiled. Jacob reminds them of the promises made to the covenant people, and reminds them in verse 20,

20And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our ^cpath, and we are upon an ^disle of the sea.

Rather than seeing the promised land as a blessing, they saw themselves as being cast off. God is so merciful and remembers us always. All too often, we see our blessings as being cast off because they are not the blessings we want or the blessings others have. We resist the changes in our lives and cling to old blessings we don't need for our growth anymore. Like the child with a pacifier or a favorite blankie, we can't give up something that has worn out its benefit to us. The Lord gradually weans us of useful but inaccurate attitudes and coping skills and swaps them for truth. The truth is sometimes hard and not nearly as comforting as our inaccurate pacifiers. But holding on to them keeps us from growing. Do not hang down your head for you are not cast off! You were LED to a better land- the Lord takes care of our paths and leads us to the blessings He wants us to have. Don't look back, but rather forward and consider your trials. How many of them are new territory the Lord is leading you to as a blessing he intends you to enjoy?

Personal Example in callings- 1 Corinthians 9

In a few weeks, I am in charge of talking to our primary teachers for five minutes about what import our example has on our teaching. We all know that "do as I say, not as I do," works miserably. I hear my own kids disciplining each other or dealing with frustration in the same way I do, and often, it makes me hang my head and wish I were better. Other times, I see them deal well with their problems and I feel proud of them and think, "Aren't they clever?"

This week, I was re-reading 1Nephi 20, and found the word declare used many times. I thought I'd follow the scriptures references for declare and came to some great verses in 1 Corinthians 9. Now, one worry our bishop has is that many people are coming to fulfill their callings, but skip sacrament all together (we have 9:00 church. After a full Saturday night, 9:00 is pretty difficult. I don't have full Saturday nights anymore. And I still have a hard time with 9:00, so I'm not trying to get on my high horse.) Here is the scripture I was led to in 1 Corinthians where Paul is speaking:

13Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar?

14Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.

What a great image- those beautiful old people (no offense intended to anyone who is "old"- if you were offended, you're probably old), shining with the joy of living the fullness of gospel, working at the altars of the temple. They have learned to sacrifice and faithfulness to God and family. I was thinking that to"live of the things of the temple" meant to do the things we covenant to in the temple. The next day, I went back to read it again, and found it had dual meaning. Paul meant that the priests of his day literally lived of the sacrifices of the temple, or ate the meat from the sacrifices. (I would like to go back in time and do a study of the cardiovascular systems of Levites versus other Israelite tribes.) It means a full internalization or consumption of the things of the temple. They which preach the gospel should live of the gospel- on a superficial and a profound level.

Then, I was led to this scripture in 2 Corinthians 3:2:

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men.

Since we see ourselves so seldom, I think we trick ourselves into thinking that everyone sees us as we see ourselves. But we are so merciful to ourselves, and think we see others clearly. We are epistles of our lives, known and read of all men whether we like it or not. And when we teach, there is nothing more telling than this epistle. Especially children. Bishop Burton has said in General Conference (Oct. 2001, but I think more recently as well because I remember it very clearly,)

. . . remember, young people can detect hypocrisy as easily as they can smell the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread.

It leaves us empty and hungry to say one thing and do another, (cognitive dissonance, for all of those psychologists out there.) And it leaves our children empty and confused when they hear one thing and see another.

Continuing on the theme of food as a deep, fulfilling sustenance coming from doing what is right, Paul continues to quote part of the law of Moses to help us understand:

9. For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen?

The Lord's character is revealed through the Law of Moses- if an animal is serving us, we are to allow it to eat freely as it does the work. Doth God take care for the oxen? No, Paul says, he just cares about teaching us. Though I'm sure the Lord does care for the oxen, an ox can't read; he wants to teach us that when we do his work, he will feed us. As we tread out the corn, we are to eat freely! We are taught the same thing by the way the Lord provided for the Levite priests of old. He taught the law of sacrifice while feeding his servants as well. The next verse, 1 Corinthians 9:10 says,

Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.

We can go about "smelling" the blessings of the gospel without eating them, or we can fully partake of the feast the Lord has prepared for us through our callings and full church activity. As teachers , we plow in hope, and those who thresh, or listen, should be partakers of our hope. As we feed them, we feed ourselves.

We lived after the manner of happiness- from a parenting perspective

(I chose this picture because it reminds me of when J. and I were married- after the wedding breakfast, we hiked up to this viewpoint of the temple and talked about goals. Today is our 9th anniversary, and I am so grateful for those covenants and the blessings that have come in my life because of them.)

I was talking to a friend last night about making decisions about what is best for our kids. She has in-laws who are mission presidents and said they had stated that from their perspective, the two most important things to teach your kids are

1. to be responsible
2. to work hard

That sounds pretty good to me, but I would also add the first and greatest commandment, to love God, and secondly, to love others.

Today, I was reading 2 Nephi 5, and Nephi explaining their lives, building in a new land, he says, "we lived after the manner of happiness."

If you assume our main goal is happiness for our children in this life and the next, you can study Nephi's method of living to arrive at "the manner of happiness." Following is a list from the chapter of the things they did:

1. Build a temple. (vs. 16) We should have as our ultimate goal to help our kids arrive at the temple ready to make and keep covenants.
2. Sow seed and reap again in abundance. (vs. 11) Nephi means gardening, but I think it could apply to all types of projects these days- keeping in mind that the seeds we sow must be worthwhile, meaning, we reap the rewards in abundance.
3. They listened to a prophet who kept them safe (vs. 6) and they believed in the warnings and revelations of God.
4. They separated themselves from wickedness (vs. 7).
5. They kept the commandments (vs. 10)
6. They had kids (vs. 13)
7. They prepared for the future and to protect their families from the dangers facing them (vs. 14)
8. They built buildings and learned trades- working with wood, iron, copper, brass, steel, gold, and silver. They were industrious and learned to "labor with their hands" and have jobs. (vs. 15, vs. 17) Nephi always amazes me- he was an incredible craftsman on top of all other things.
9. Soften their hearts toward the Lord (like the Lamanites didn't in verse 21).
10. Marry well (vs. 23, looking at the cursing as a spiritual cursing)
11. Keep records from which to learn (vs. 31-33)

So, working hard and being responsible work pretty well with Nephi's version of "the manner of happiness." This chapter reminds me of something Joseph and I were inspired to teach our family. We were in the temple for a special ward temple session and a member of the temple presidency was speaking to us. He said this phrase in his talk, and that's about all I remember: Come to become.
We talked about it and decided to make that the theme of everything we invite our children to participate in with our family. Come to prayer and scripture study to become an eternal family. If we are teaching something, we invite them, reminding them to come to become. Nephi didn't force anyone to join him as he left Laman and Lemuel, but he invited them.
My vision (which isn't yet complete) is to have in our living room a beautiful picture of the temple and underneath it the phrase, Come to become, inviting my children to look to the temple covenants as their goal that they may become the Children of Christ, and not just mine. And I hope to teach a little hard work and responsibility along the way.

2 Nephi 2:24

I am amazed at the clarity of this chapter on opposition, freedom to choose, the redemption from the fall, and happiness. A short verse I haven't noticed before popped out at me, verse 24. It says,

But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

Try to imagine knowing all things. Take some time to remember that you don't know everything, and then think of God as one who knows all things- past, present, and future, through the vast expanse of space. And remember that he has done all things HIS wisdom, not ours. Then, remember the next verse,

. . . Men are, that they might have joy.

Now remember how much God loves you and desires only your eternal joy. It's was nice to put my life in perspective remembering that short, basic verse.

The cure for all social ills

On March 15, we had ward conference. I know from ward council that our bishop was planning on addressing Strengthening the Family. The ward counsel has been discussing ways to fight the many evils confronting the youth in the ward and has decided to focus on starting with their families through three monthly meetings. During these meetings, it has been suggested that the bishopric address video gaming, pornography, obscene texting, chat rooms, and simply wasting time in idle pursuits. I went to our Ward Conference expecting to hear a talk about strengthened parenting and stronger rules, etc. Instead, the bishop said that he had been inspired to change his talk. He proceeded to address the age-old issue of gratitude. He admonished us to be happy with what we have and to find joy in our ordinary blessings- which are really extraordinary gifts from God. We went home and spoke about it with our kids and I was reminded all week to count my blessings.

Now, as it has been 3 weeks since that talk, I have had more time to think about the meaning of that message. Why would the Lord tell our bishop to teach about gratitude instead of the issues that we confront directly?

Because the root of all of these evils, these addictions, is an aching and yearning for more- an emptiness. Why do people play video games excessively? Why do people get addicted to pornography? Why do any of us get addicted to shopping or complaining or anything that wastes our time? Because we have a void. We are bored or lonely or aching somewhere inside. We are unfullfilled. And the Lord counseled our bishop to address being happy with what we have. Gratitude fulfills us and brings us to praise God! It makes us feel that our lives are worthwhile so that we wish to fill them with noble pursuits, goals and dreams. Even when things don't turn out as we would wish, we can sit down and see the things that have turned out.

My patriachal blessing ends with an admonition I have memorized and think about often. It says,

Take time to examine your life and recognize the positive benefits you have had. If you will do this, you will divert the negative feelings and experiences and develop a cheerful and positive personality that can appreciate the blessings of life and the association of the spirit.

Through gratitude we can divert the negative feelings. Think of all of these idle pursuits as diversions- they divert our minds. From what? From the voids and emptiness we feel. And that is why they are so addictive. When you spend your time on empty pursuits, it makes you feel more empty. Then, when you feel empty, you need even more to become fulfilled again. But when we take time to recognize the blessing we have received and to bring the Lord's love into our lives, it really does fulfill us and encourages us to do things that are meaningful. Diversions are wonderful and necessary, but take care that your diversions bring you back around to God- so that you can avoid negative feelings and experiences.

As I was sharing my thoughts with a friend, she opened my eyes to a quote President Monson quoted in October 2010's conference talk on Gratitude (http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/the-divine-gift-of-gratitude?lang=eng&query=gratitude). He says,

We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that “gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.”

President Joseph F. Smith, quoted in the same talk said,

The grateful man sees so much in the world to be thankful for, and with him the good outweighs the evil. Love overpowers jealousy, and light drives darkness out of his life.Pride destroys our gratitude and sets up selfishness in its place. How much happier we are in the presence of a grateful and loving soul, and how careful we should be to cultivate, through the medium of a prayerful life, a thankful attitude toward God and man!

So now, we come full circle- gratitude drives darkness out of our lives! I have no doubt at all that our bishop was inspired as he changed his talk from one that reaches only some in his audience to the root of the whole problem and one that reaches every member of the human race. How small is our vision, yet how much broader it can be if we will listen to the Lord, and prayerfully see our blessings.