Walking on Water

I decided that I wanted to study the New Testament and focus more on the Savior and His life.  A story that I have heard many times struck me and has made me think about how soon I turn to my Savior to help me.  The story is found in Matthew 14: 24- 33.  The story goes that the apostles were out on a ship at night and the wind and the waves were terrible.  The apostles were scared and then they looked out and saw something walking on the water.  Naturally, they were more scared at this point.  They thought it was an evil spirit or a ghost.  Jesus called out to them not to be afraid and that it was Him.  Peter says to Jesus that if it truly is Him he should bid Peter to walk out to Him on the water.  Jesus tells Peter that he can get out of the boat and walk to Him.  I cannot imagine the faith that Peter shows by stepping out of the boat and into the water truly believing that he can walk on the water.  I am pretty sure that my faith would not have been that strong.
But, Peter is in the water, or should I say on the water at this point.  He is doing it! He is walking on the water!  Then he notices the wind and how HUGE the waves are.  He looses sight of the Savior and focuses on the water for a split second and he begins to sink. The part that stood out to me was the next verse:  30, But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.  And the very next words are And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, ...  How often in our life do we lose sight of our Savior and rather than immediately cry out for His help we wait until we're nearly "drowning"? I know that our Savior is always there for us and that He will immediately stretch forth His hand to help us.  Jesus loves us and is waiting for us to turn to him.  We don't need to wait until we can barely breath to turn to him and to cry out for help.  He loves you and wants to help!

Ice Cream Sandwich Uno

Monday is our preparation day, meaning that we can take care of everything that needs to be done for the week.  We get to grocery shop, do laundry, clean our apartments, wash our car, along with many other things.  My companion and I were writing letters outside in the sunshiney weather when the Elders in our district called to see if we wanted to play a game.  The game was called Ice Cream Sandwich Uno.  They explained over the phone that the way you played was whoever lost the round had to eat an ice cream sandwich.  I thought, how bad can this be?  Eating ice cream because I lost a game?  Well when we went to start playing the game and the specifics of the rules were told the game was much different than I had previously understood.  You not only had to eat an ice cream sandwich when you lost, you had to eat it before the next hand was dealt or you had to eat another one.  So we embarked on the epic game that taught me a valuable lesson.  We started and at first I didn't lose, so it was funny to watch the Elders try and shove the ice cream sandwiches in their face and get done before the cards for the next round were dealt.  Then the game took a tragic turn of events.  I lost a round and had to try to shove an ice cream sandwich in my mouth.  It was a lot harder than I had anticipated.  Thankfully the Elders took pity on me and said since I had the entire sandwich shoved (literally) in my mouth by the time the cards were done being dealt that I didn't have to eat another one.  Then it happened again.  I couldn't believe that I lost again!  I frantically grabbed the ice cream sandwich and ripped the wrapper off and began putting as much of the sandwich in my mouth as I could at one time, but the problem is that when I got my mouth full I could hardly even chew or swallow there was so much ice cream in my mouth. 

Then the game went from bad to worse when for the third time I had to eat an ice cream sandwich as fast as I could.  I begged not to have to eat the sandwich, but no one would take pity on me.  My companion even said to me, "Find someone to pay the price of justice for you, or you have to eat it yourself!"  So since no one volunteered to pay the price of my cards I had left I was forced to once again shove a big ice cream sandwich in my face.  You may be wondering why this story is applicable to a gospel setting.  Well I'm going to tell you.  Sometimes life is hard and we end up losing that "round of uno" and we have to shove an ice cream sandwich in our face.  Repentance is a gift that we each may have.  Just as my companion said to me that I needed to find someone to "pay the price of justice" we each have someone that has already paid the price of justice for each of our sins, or our "lost rounds of uno". 

The catch is that we have to ask him to help us.  He is always willing, but he can't "eat our sandwiches" or take care of our sins for us unless we allow him to.  Our Savior, Jesus Christ, loves you more than you know.  He wants you to be able to return to live with him and our Heavenly Father, so for that reason (his immense amount of love) he has taken care of justice for us.  Our Heavenly Father has to be just, but because of the sacrifice of our Savior we are allowed mercy now.  We have this gift, but we must accept this gift!  Accept the Savior and his atonement in your life today!

Sunday Will Come



Why do we celebrate Easter?  We celebrate the coming of Sunday!  Christ was resurrected!  He defeated the grave!  He lives! We can each take comfort in this statement!  Our Savior overcame the grave, but he also overcame so much more than this!  Because our Savior went through that dark Friday, we can each experience that bright Sunday!  We can each be resurrected and return again to live with our Heavenly Father.  We will each have those Fridays in our own lives.  Those days where nothing seems to go right, where the world is falling in around us and where we may feel forsaken, but this is not the end.  We must stay faithful and continue on the path of righteousness, and Sunday will come!  I testify that this is true, that when we endure those hard times the Savior will save us.  He is waiting for each of us to allow Sunday to come.  We must invite him in to save us from that Friday!  I know this is true, because I have had those Fridays and I have seen the Sundays come! 

Think about all the Savior has done for you this week and all year.  He loves you.  He wants you to be happy.  He is there for you always.  He is with you on the Fridays and is bringing you the Sundays. 

Happy Easter!  The Lord is risen! 

Spilt Water

I had an experience the other week at church that has really had me thinking the last little while.  We were at church in Ronan, MT and it was time for the sacrament to be passed.  The bread came and the water came, but something happened when the water came... I picked up the cup and then immediately dropped it.  Water of course went spilling all over me.  I felt foolish at first and thought that only a two year old would do something like that, but as I've thought about this embarrassing experience it has had much greater meaning than simply doing something and feeling dumb.  What does the water represent?  It represents our Savior's blood he freely spilt for us.  Exactly the point that has hit me:  He gave his blood for me and I can either use the Atonement and make his suffering worth it, or I can ignore his gift to me and simply spill the water cup.  I know that what I did was an innocent mistake and I thankfully took another water glass, and was able to partake of the sacrament.  I know that our Savior was willing and ready to perform the act of the Atonement for each one of us.  He loves us that much!  He wanted to make it possible for each of us to return to live with our Heavenly Father.  None of us has ever done anything too bad to use the Atonement and be forgiven of our mistakes!  Through the Atonement we can be completely forgiven of our sins and be pure and clean!  It is never too late!  Our Savior is there waiting for us with open arms, he is waiting to welcome us back to the fold!  The choice is ours-  We can spill the water cup or we can partake and be cleansed!  I, for one, would much rather partake of the Atonement and allow him to cleanse me.

Building on a Sturdy Foundation

A sand castle looks nice, but what happens when the water comes?
Does a sand castle withstand?  We all know what happens when the waves come- all of our hard work is demolished and our sand castle is gone!  It doesn't hold up when the storm comes.  How do we make sure that our lives are much stronger than the sand castle?  We build on something much much stronger!  There's a primary song that the kids learn that goes: The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock, And the rains came tumbling down.  The rains came down, and the floods came up, the rains came down, and the floods came up, the rains came down, and the floods came up, And the house on the rock stood still.  The foolish man built his house upon the sand, the foolish man built his house upon the sand, the foolish man built his house upon the sand, And the rains came tumbling down.  The rains came down, and the floods came up, the rains came down, and the floods came up, the rains came down, and the floods came up, And the house on the sand washed away.  I have always liked this song, but now it has so much more than just words to it.  It is telling us how we should build our life.  It's telling us that the things of the world are the sand that we can build upon.  The things of the world may appear to make us happy, but when the "storms" of life come are we truly happy?  Do these things support and sustain us?  Are our friends always there for us?

Thankfully we know that there is something better that we can build upon.  What would this be you may ask,  well here you go!  The answer to all life's questions can be found in the scriptures:  3 Nephi 11:39 says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them."  This scripture is found in the part of the Book of Mormon where Christ has come to the Nephites.  He has come as a resurrected being and is teaching them.  He is bringing them the Gospel in it's fulness.  He is telling them how to "build" their lives.  He tells them that the things he has taught them are the "rock" that they should build on.  If we build our lives on the "rock" that the Savior has shown us, then when the "storms" of life come our hard work, like the sand castle, will not be washed away.  Our lives will stay intact.  The rock will withstand our "storms", or trials.  The Savior, who is the rock we build upon, will support us and sustain us.  I know that he helps us to weather the storms if we will let him be there with us.  He will not leave us.  He will bear some of the burden that we cannot bear on our own!  I know that when we build our life on the things of the Savior, his doctrines, we will withstand the "storms" of life.  We will be happy and the Savior will be there for us through these "storms"!

Where are We Being Led?

I have been thinking a lot about the decisions that we make each day.  We have so many opportunities to choose right and so many times we can choose wrong.  We have a gift called agency, which is the ability to choose.  The Book of Mormon teaches us this in 2 Nephi 2:27 "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man.  And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."  On Saturday this verse meant something different to me than it ever had before.  It told me exactly how I can know if a choice is correct or not!  It taught me that as I am thinking about a choice I can think if it brings me closer to the Savior, the great Mediator of all men, or if it takes me further away from him.  I have loved this picture since I first saw it, but as I thought of it Saturday I thought of it differently too.  It was a perfect image of agency to me that day.  Our Savior is there waiting for us at all times beckoning us to come unto him.  The devil, however, is not going to be there for us when we make choices that take us farther from our Savior. Why would we ever want to make choices then  that take us further away from our Savior and lead us to no one?  I don't believe that any of us want to be further from our Savior, but the fact is that we all make mistakes and choose things that do take us away.  The best news is that we can turn around and head back towards our Savior.  He is waiting for us and desires to put his arm around us.  Just as this child is with Him so too can we be with Him as we strive to make choices, big and little, each day that will lead us to Him.  He wants us to come unto Him!  Don't let Satan trick us and lead us away to somewhere that no one will be waiting for us.  Our Savior WILL be there for us!  He loves us!