The Atonement of Christ

 

Jesus Christ is my brother. He came to this life as part of our eternal plan. He was the greatest example of how a life should be lived. He was unselfish, helped others, and taught others. As part of the Plan, he gave his life so that we can all have a chance to be forgiven of our sins and make it back to our Heavenly Father.

 

 

 

 

I am not a perfect person. I have made many mistakes that have left a pit in my stomach for days. In many occasions I have had to get on my knees and talk to my Heavenly Father and ask for His forgiveness. As part of the human process, we have our agency to choose and act for ourselves. When we need that forgiveness we can reach out to our Father and through the repentance process we can be forgiven. Jesus Christ is my Savior and through Him I can be more perfected. 

What is a great leader?

            In Institute this week we had a great discussion about the qualities that Nephi had to make him a great leader. Now Nephi was the son of the prophet Lehi. In the first book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon, Lehi and his family we commanded to flee Jerusalem into the wilderness. Whenever Lehi would tell his family what they should do his oldest sons Laman and Lemuel would always complain even to the point where they even wanted to take their own father's life. Nephi is the complete opposite. He has a "Can Do" Attitude. If he wanted to know what was going on he would pray and get answers. In our discussion we talked about some of these qualities that Nephi had to make him spectacular. He was obedient, humble, faithful, patient, long suffering, proactive, didn't complain. He was an ordinary man doing extra-ordinary things. I look up to him a lot and try to imply his positive attitude in my life. 

(Nephi praying to Heavenly Father after his bow broke)

            

            We also discussed how can asking your parents for counsel help your relationship with them and the Lord? Naturally wisdom comes with age. I shared with the group how my parents treat all of their kids. We were raised with a "Bible and a Belt". My parents taught us a lot and now that we are married I am sure they have a lot of commentary and tips of what we can do to help our lives. But they sit and wait for us to come to them for advice. They will not smother you with suggestions unless you ask for it. It is just like Heavenly Father sits and waits for us to come to Him and ask him for help. Just like my parents, He wants see us succeed but will give us advice if we come to Him and ask him for it.

            

           (my dad with my daughter)

          The third point was, Why is it dangerous to ignore or become past feeling to the Holy Ghost? When we offend the Holy Ghost through anger, pornography, transgressions, selfishness, and other situations, he will leave us and we will become numb to his promptings. At this point we can become "past-feeling" which is a dangerous place to be in. We cannot feel the Holy Ghost's promptings and comfort in which we so desperately need every day.  As long as we are clean, we can become teachable through the Holy Ghost. This is similar to a fire. Once we are blessed with the Gift of the Holy Ghost after our baptism it is a small glowing fire within us. If we keep feeding that fire we will always be able to feel that warmth and comfort within is. Once we transgress it is the same as sprinkling water or dirt onto that fire. Soon the fire will get suffocated and eventually die if it is not fed. We need to stay clear of anything that will put out our spiritual fire and continually feed it. 

Pathway; Learn, Do, Become

Wow! It has been several years that I have posted on this blog. A lot has happened in these short years. I have been challenged to post my thoughts of what I have learned about my lesson I have learned this week. Before I start I want to explain a little bit about what and why; Pathway.

Pathway is a online college course for latter-day-saints who are needing an extra boost on their re-start for college partnered by BYU-Idaho. (At least that's why me and Sam are doing it). We both are striving to get our teaching degrees right now. Doing it together is one of the best ways to motivate each other to get this done together. This semester we are taking a religion institute class and a General Studies class. 

This week we were able to apply Learn, Do, and Become principle. 

Learn: In 1 Nephi 1:1, Nephi talks how he has been born of goodly parents and taught by the teachings of God. Taking this course is very important to me because I have shifted my focus on my learning of God. I have never had a college experience like this before. It has been hard to develop the habit of making my everyday life and thoughts centered in Christ but this is the perfect way to develop this principle. 

Do:1 Nephi 2:1 To do is to put out effort, to commit, to give freely and to obey. In this scripture it says how blessed Lehi is, which is Nephi's father, because he obeyed Gods command. I need to follow his example of the Do every day and live a Christ centered life.

Become: 1 Nephi 2:16  This scripture talks about how Nephi was obedient unto the Lord and did what he commanded of him. To become is to begin to be or come to be something. If we place our focus onto the attributes of Christ we will slowly become like him. 

I love this model. As long as we can learn and do we will become whatever we put our focus on. The most important thing I can place my focus on is to become more like our Redeemer and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the best example of a person that we should be like.  I challenge anyone who reads this blog post to apply this Learn, Do and Become principle into your life in anything that you want to become like!