Walking by Faith

           I had heard the reference to "doubting Thomas" several times during the course of my life but I had never really understood what that refers to because I had never read the New Testament before. This week I encountered the story as I read chapter 20 of John.

21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

24 ¶ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25 The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

26 ¶ And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

           Thomas believed because he saw and felt. We are asked to have faith, which the scriptures (Heb. 11:1; Alma 32:21) define as "to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true." Thomas was not exercising faith when he insisted on touching the Savior in order to believe that it was Him. The Lord asks us to walk by faith not by sight and it can be terrifying to do so. But when we take that leap of faith and move forward believing, even though we may feel as though we are stepping off the sure ground into the dark abyss, we will be more richly blessed for walking by faith than those who insist on walking by sight.

            If you've been reading my blog for the last few years you know that I have had to practice that unseeing faith multiple times. For those new to my blog, I'd like to share a condensed version of the blessings I saw unfold because of my willingness to follow Him even though I could not see where to place my feet.

            I had lived in South Florida for many years and had begun wanting to move somewhere to start anew. I applied for a job in Alabama and things seemed promising. Then I got invited to fly out there for an interview. My current job refused to give me time off and I didn’t know what to do. For the first time in many years, I prayed and asked God what to do. His answer was to go for the interview and trust Him. I closed my eyes and took that leap of faith... I quit my job and flew out for the interview. A week later I got the job. That move resulted in my returning to the Church, getting re-baptized and eventually coming out to BYU-I (where I met my sweet husband). All of those blessings would not have been possible had I not believed Him and acted on the prompting He gave me.

Love Others as Ourselves... or Better?

This summer I decided to study the New Testament for the first time in my life. It has definitely been quite a learning experience. Reading the stories that I heard about as a child but with the deeper understanding that age and experience brings has been fascinating.

This week my studies were focused more on Luke and James. While reading chapter 2 in James I came across a phrase that I have heard partially quoted many times:

8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

9 But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

It can come naturally to us to love those who have similar interests to us or are in a similar or higher station of life than us. While loving those whom we go to church with or to school or to work can have its own set of difficulties at times, I believe the real test of this commandment is to love the addict, the criminal, those who hate us, etc. just as we love ourselves.

I've been to General Conference a couple of times and it was surprising to see all the Saints in their finery walking right past the beggars just outside Temple Square, some seeming to not even see their struggling brethren. I do not know what choices or circumstances landed those men and women in situations where they feel compelled to beg for handouts to survive but I do know that Christ commands us to love all. What is one thing you think we can do to help develop the capacity to love "even the least of these" our brethren?

Sometimes we fall under that “least of these” category ourselves. Some of us may have a hard time loving ourselves which can be a great limit to our capacity of loving others. There was a dark period in my life where I was very unkind to myself and definitely struggled with a lot of self-loathing. During that period the last thing I would have wanted to do to another was to "love" them like I was loving myself. Many times, I would try so hard to be loving to others in an attempt to try to see myself as a better person than I felt I was. What I learned from that period of my life was that when you find it difficult to love yourself, focus more on learning to see yourself as Heavenly Father does: a loved child who, while imperfect, is still very much worthy of being loved. Once you have come to see yourself as worthy of love, it often becomes easier to then extend that love to others.