Satan makes us disbelieve

I've been noticing this in my own life and in the scriptures recently, that Satan will do whatever he can to make us doubt things we have previously witnessed and things that have strengthened us before. In Helaman 16 and 3 Nephi 1, it's says stuff like this: 

*"The people began to harden their hearts..and began to depend upon their own strength and upon their own wisdom, saying, some things they may have guessed right, among so many; but behold, we know that all these great abs marvelous works cannot come to pass..it is not reasonable that xyz, that Christ shall come..wicked tradition..which has been handed down unto us by our fathers, to cause us that we should believe in some great and marvelous thing..for we cannot witness with our own eyes that they are true..and they will work some great mystery which will keep us down to be see rants u to them and grey keep us in ignorance.." "Satan did stir them up"

Satan will do anything he can to destroy truth. He will try to get us to reason in our heads; he will give us ideas as to why things supposedly don't make sense. He will tell us lots of lies and make us feel stupid for believing something old or outdated by the world's standards. He still does this today. A lot. 

Warnings that precede downfalls

Helaman 7 is really instructive about the sin cycle, or at least the steps that most often lead to a sinful, sad state. Here were a few things that stood out to me:

1. They wouldn't hearken. So they not only disobeyed, but they also weren't actively doing good things (v. 18)

2. They wouldn't repent (v. 17)

3. They forgot what God had done for them. How He had helped them and delivered them (v. 20)

4. They wanted gain and the praise of men (v. 21)

Man it's so imperative to remember. Remember what we once believed and loved and knew. 

In No Time, We Can Fall

I am loving the beginning of Helaman and what I am learning. In no time, the Nephites went from righteous to wicked because they started to boast in their own strength and rely on themselves. Hel. 4:13 says that. And then because of their iniquity, they became so weak, like verse 24 says. I looked up the footnote for verse 26, and it led to lots of scriptures about how a people fell in not many years. 

Alma 46:8 "Thus we see how quick the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one."

Nobody is immune from weakness, sin, regression. We must always be diligent in keeping our faith and desire to be good strong.  

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One--yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity. Hel. 12:2

Blessings

I had a really nice time at the temple this morning. I did initiatories and felt the spirit a lot, and felt close to heavenly father and grateful for the temple. I also felt a lot of love from the temple workers. I admired them a lot because that they had everything memorized and we're very reverent toward the ordinance. That makes such a big difference to me.

I also feel very blessed because I played this morning pretty sincerely that I would be able to have more charity and love her my in-laws. And even though that is something I've been working on, I'm not sure how much I've prayed for it necessarily. And then I was just blessed with kind of a burst of charity towards them. I have the desire to talk to Moira and tell her that I loved her and appreciated her. And so I called her and was able to tell her that. It made a difference to me because I was able to show appreciation, and also strengthen our relationship. And for some reason by doing that, I feel like I understand her more and I understand that I can't hold her up to a certain expectation or certain way to be or to express love. She has certain abilities and experiences that enable her to do or to not do certain things. And I must allow her to express love in the way that she wants to and can do. And remember the him, that there are things I don't know about that she is experiencing and has experience.

What will I teach my children?

The stripling warriors' mothers taught them that if they had faith, God would deliver them. Since my children won't be fighting a physical army like they were, what will I teach them? They are fighting a battle still, even though its different. A battle against evil, against pornography, temptation, distraction, pride. God will deliver them from those things in the way of giving them strength to conquer their weaknesses, get strength from Grace, repent. 

Being Faithful, Ammonite examples of alternatives

Sometimes we have to find alternatives.  Like when we plan something to happen, and then it happens differently than we expect. In Alma 56, The fathers of the 2000 warriors were feeling bad because they couldn't fight and take up weapons of war. They had promised God that they wouldn't. But they were still able to help the cause. They found alternatives. In verse 27 it says that the fathers brought many provisions to the warriors. I love that. Sometimes things just don't go according to plan. The fathers wanted to always protect and support their families, but because of repentance and promises that they need, they couldn't. In order to be faithful to God, they had to find alternatives to meet the same end. They were still able to help protect their families by providing support.

Right now we may have to do that this summer. I was planning on teaching an online class, but it may not make. Which means that in order to still be able to survive financially, we will have to make other plans, and trust that God will help us do so.

Moroni strengthened weak cities

I really like how in the late 40s and early 50s of Alma Moroni goes around strengthening cities that were once weak and that everyone else (especially his enemies) thought would always remain weak.

It's a good lesson about ourselves.