January 1st 2017
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Make it a habit to read as soon as you see this post. It will only take a few minutes! Each day AFTER you read please make a comment saying you have read or what you have learned. Please invite your friends to join us! It will be fun to see how many of us can finish the Book Of Mormon in 2017.
Daily Reading Question:
What are some blessings of recognizing the "goodness and mercy" of the Lord during difficult times?
Daily Talk
Grateful in any Circumstance
Daily Talk
Grateful in any Circumstance
A few things:
ReplyDelete1-I love that you have a direct link to the scriptures because it makes this SO easy: Click, read, click back & comment! I'll probably just keep the blog open on my phone & just refresh everyday. All so convenient!
2-I like how the question(s) will relate to our lives now. I believe that's the whole purpose: to liken the scripture story to what our current circumstances & how we can learn to draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
3-In response to the question: There are many blessings that come by recognizing the goodness & mercy of
Pt 2:
ReplyDeleteOf The Lord in difficult times, but I think the greatest blessing is that it gives a soft heart in order to receive more revelation and guidance in our life. When we are going through hard times we need that inspired guidance more than ever, but if we only focus on how unfair, etc. our situation is than our heart is hardened & we cannot receive the personal revelation we
Pt 3--having technical difficulties! :)
ReplyDeleteSo desperately need. As we turn to the goodness and mercy of The Lord, our hearts are softened and open, only then can we begin to find out what the Lord's will for us is. I speak from experience, feeling both ways & you can still feel sadness & frustration in both states, but sadness with direction is much better than sadness with feeling lost.
I'm excited for this great blog!
I am so EXCITED to start the new year by rereading this beautiful book from the beginning! I have a couple of thoughts, so bear with me! In the first few verses Nephi is stating that he has this "great knowledge of God." He shows us through his records (Journal) of his great knowledge of God. As we keep a detailed journal of our daily lives, we can go back and read how God really is in the details of our lives. We can learn and grow from our experiences, trials, and our everyday life situations. This was a powerful aha moment. God is so Good! We are the drifters, but as we come back to Him, He will receive us with open hands every time! Remember the small things; Daily Prayer, Scripture Study, Christ and His Atonement. As we remember these small things we will see goodness and the Hand of God in our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Melissa for putting this together!
I love how in v15 it says this about Lehi: "his soul did rejoice, and his whole heart was filled". If we think about what was going on in Lehi's life, this statement is pretty amazing. His whole life, his home, his city, his friends, everything he grew up knowing, was about to be destroyed. People were persecuting him, making fun of him; and yet through all this turmoil, he was at peace because he had his heart and soul set on the things of our Father.
ReplyDeleteAmazing example for us when hard times come. That we can experience this same peace, even to the point of rejoicing if we rely on the Lord.
Thank you Melissa for doing this! I know that this is a life-changing book - especially if we read it this way! I love reading the question first and then pondering it while I read the verses. I must have read these verses dozens of times, yet I got more out of it this time than ever before. Love this way of reading! This is going to be so fun to hear from everyone!
As I pondered the question you posted for today's reading...V.1 lett out at me right away in that I feel God's goodness and mercy because I have the fullness of Gospel in my life that gives me so much direction. I am fortunate that it's been part of my life since I was born. V.3...also mercy that I have a strong testimony that this gospel is true and it is me strengths as others are falling away and as the world's moral decay pushes down on us. I had a childhood friend post on his Facebook last night that he was leaving the church and then proceeded to list paragraph after paragraph of all the things he was displeased with. My heart aches for him and it made me want to strengthen my resolve and become even stronger in those areas he was questioning. God is available to us anytime we need him. "He will lead you where you cannot lead yourself "
ReplyDeleteThis question reminded me of the talk, Grateful in Any Circumstances by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. I loved that talk and have posted a link to his talk. He said, "It is easy to be grateful for things when life seems to be going our way. But what then of those times when what we wish for seems to be far out of reach? Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be." I love how even when these terrible things were going on Lehi was able to rejoice and praise God. What a good lesson for us today. Things will not always go the way we want but we have the choice to choose how we will react.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of repeating with the other comments so I apologize. Two blessings I noticed is receiving revelation and following the gudience of the spirit.
ReplyDeleteLehi was preparing himself by praying unto the Lord to have direction for himself and everyone else. Another way he was prepared to receive direction is by focusing on God and what he was being taught. He was not being distracted by anything or anyone.
From him pondering upon the things which he was being taught, he was being filled with the spirit. Pondering precives revelation!
Satan know the importance of having the spirit and receiving revelation, so he is doing all that he can to distract us. It makes me think, what can I do or not to each day so I'm not distracted by the world?
In Preach my Gospel, section 4 "how do I recoginze and understand the spirit?" It says this:
"The Spirit is always available to guide and direct you. However, the Spirit speaks quietly, through your feelings as well as your mind. One great challenge for you and those you work with is to recognize the quiet, subtle promptings of the Holy Ghost. President Boyd K. Packer taught: “The voice of the Spirit is described in the scripture as being neither ‘loud’ nor ‘harsh.’ It is ‘not a voice of thunder, neither … voice of a great tumultuous noise.’ But rather, ‘a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper,’ and it can ‘pierce even to the very soul’ and ‘cause [the heart] to burn.’
The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all."
It's such a blessing to have one member of the Godhead to help guide us day by day as long as we are preparing ourselves, along with not being distracted so we can act on promptings we receive!
My first thought to the question is that recognizing Gods goodness during our trials is the only way to have peace and happiness. Lehi was open to and worthy to receive revelation from God. When we are open and worthy we are also blessed with guidance and peace and are able to see Gods hand in our own lives. For me I am constantly going back to the fact that i know God loves me and that God is good...so if i know this and i know God is the same "yesterday, today and forever) then that doesn't change just because i am going through a trial. Knowing this and thinking about this often allows me to find peace and happiness even right in the middle of my trial.
ReplyDeleteOh and ha ha, i set up this account when mel and i were thinking of doing pre school... so discovery preschool is really me, jana😀
ReplyDeleteRecognizing the good while in the middle of trials helps me endure to the end and also to remember to...enjoy to the end which is just as important too! The Lord has blessed me with so many tender mercies and I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon that helps me recognize these blessings. Thank you for doing this challenge, I'm so excited!
ReplyDeleteAlso just a thought...My earthly "goodly" parents have always taught me to look for the good in everything which emulates how our "goodly" heavenly parents want us to be :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for encouraging me to join in. The promises of studying the Book of Mormon motivate me to read and be better in my studies. I loved the question posted for our pondering during this section of reading. If we can focus on the blessings our perspective and focus changes from ourselves to our Savior. Our eyes are opened and we have greater understanding. When Brigham had his surgery we recognized that as we focused on the "power, goodness, and mercy" of the Savior our "whole" hearts were filled with faith and love. There no longer was any room for doubt and fear.
ReplyDeleteI'm obviously a little behind on this, but I'm going to try and catch up. When we are in a difficult time, it might be the hardest time to recognize goodness and mercy in our lives. But I think when going through hard times, we can either complain about the situation or look at how the hard time could actually be a blessing and an opportunity to grow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing this again in 2016. I am really looking forward to it. I super enjoyed having a conference talk to go along with the allotted scriptures. We have all had difficulties that don't go away when we pray for relief. The blessing that we are always entitled to is the peace and confidence the spirit can provide that enables us to endure. None of our scripture heroes lived easy lives but we can all try a little harder to model their faith and dispositions of gratitude.
ReplyDeleteWe had a young man report his mission in our ward last week. Elder Corbridge, of the Seventy, visited their mission and shared this quote. "Questions(and I will add trials) don't cause doubts. They invite us to learn".
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing this again Melissa! It helped me so much, more than you will ever know!! My goal is to read and study on my own as well as with my family! We just finished reading day one together, so we are doing good so far, yay!! :) anyways, I love President Uchtdorf's talk, gratitude in any circumstance. Sometimes it's hard to find things to be grateful for in the midst of trials but that's the time when it's most important to help us to keep going. One of my favorite movies is Pollyanna, she is a good example to me of finding the silver lining in every circumstance by playing the "glad" game. Lehi is a good example to me as well. In verse 5 he prays for his people even though they are persecuting him. My goal is to be more like Lehi and Pollyanna! :)
ReplyDeleteRead it
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you doing this for all of us it has helped me feel successful in reading my scriptures and I feel the spirit every time I hear the talks thank you
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ReplyDeleteStarting a bit late, but better late than never!
ReplyDeleteBegan again using your blog to keep me focused on daily scripture reading. Today I am reminded of my own record keeping or lack thereof. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love what you put together. The talks you have help give a bigger understanding for the scriptures. I'm terrible about posting a comment, but I will work on it. Wanted to let you know your efforts are not wasted. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteToday in church a gentleman spoke about being kind and ways that the lord (and others) may show kindness. Listening to this made me realize that kindness is portrayed in a variety of ways , not necessarily how we (or the world) assumes they should. When someone criticizes, for example, they may be being kind because they're trying to help towards your personal growth. Remembering this during difficult times can be helpful.
ReplyDeleteKeep posting comments!!! I'd really love to hear from you. Nicole, happy reading this year. I'm excited to discover together. Emily. I like that insight. It so much easier to take criticisms if we understand it is done in love. Also might the criticism be a plea help and kindness. When we truly trust He loves us, we can anticipate then end, just like a good movie.
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