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.

Are You Sleeping on Duty?

Some of you might not know but I am a military brat. My father was a career sailor, doing twenty-two years in the United States Navy. Having a parent deployed on a regular basis helped me to be more aware of the outside world as a child than I think is common for civilian children. One thing I have noticed as I have gotten older is that that military influence has definitely shaped how I see certain things in my life.

One example of this came during my scripture studies this week. I've been studying St Luke and something really stood out to me when I read Luke 22:45-46.

45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,

46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

In these verses, the Savior is kind of chastising the Apostles who fell asleep when they were supposed to be guarding as He prayed in the Garden. It really struck me that He found them "sleeping for sorrow". That phrase got the wheels turning in my brain. It made me realize that when we are allowing ourselves to be lulled, it saddens Heavenly Father.  He knows how vigorously and persistently the adversary attacks His children and it must make Him sad to see us dropping our guard.

I've long cherished the idea of my home as a castle, a fortified sanctuary from the world, but this week I've come to realize that I need to also view myself as a soldier living in enemy territory. I need to be doing the things that help keep me armored against the insidious attacks of the enemy. Armor that is neglected becomes rusty, ineffective and eventually incapable of stopping enemy assaults. The beautiful thing is that even if we have allowed our armor to degrade, the Lord has given us the tools to get it back to like-new status if we are but willing to use those tools to restore our damaged armor. Any blacksmith can tell you that fixing damaged armor is not easy but isn't the protection it gives worth the work? What are some things you do to help restore your armor when you discover that you have allowed it to get tarnished or rusty?

Choosing to be Christ-like Brings Blessings

Something has been on my mind a fair bit lately and I'd like to share my thoughts with you. I keep thinking about the so-called "culture war" that is unfolding in American society. It's difficult on many fronts and a tactic I have seen is those who claim to be Christian being attacked for standing for traditional marriage or chastity by those who are not fans of one, the other or either. And many of their opponents like to throw the scriptures about loving thy neighbor at them.  Then there are those who claim to be Christ-like but who openly endorse things that Christ would not have.

This summer I decided to read the New Testament for the first time. When I was studying the scriptures this week I came across the following scripture in Titus 1:16:

"They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate."

This made me realize that it is not nearly enough for us to claim to be Christian. Our behavior AND our words both must exhibit Christ-like behavior. We must show love, even to those we disagree with, but also make it clear that we support Christ-like behaviors and condemn those behaviors that the Lord has called abominable. When we are doing our best to strive to be obedient to all His commandments including "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and "stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in" then we are eligible for the blessings that are predicated upon our obedience. Our firm commitment to the Gospel may also serve as a beacon to help others who are seeking to find their way back to the Savior and Heavenly Father.

Another scripture that stood out to me was verse nine of the first chapter of Hebrews:

"Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." 

Two things stood out to me in this verse. One is that it directly addresses how blessed the Hebrews were because of their love for righteousness. But I also found it interesting that it also stressed that they hated iniquity. It is not enough for us merely to be doing the righteous things from day to day. We also need to make sure that we do not accept iniquity in our own lives. 

As I thought more about how I could live that “hatred for iniquity” I realized that it means not accepting things into my life that I know to be unrighteous. I realized that one place I could start was by becoming more discerning in the media entertainment I consume. Just because I am not the one committing a sin, it does not follow that it is okay for me to listen to or watch someone else doing so. 

This really touched a nerve as I thought about my future children. My husband and I are looking forward to welcoming children into our family (hopefully) in the months and years that lie ahead and I realized that I need to become the person now that I would like them to look up to later. Now is the time for action!