Jonah

I was thinking I knew everything about the story of Jonah and the whale, but this time when I read it, I found a little nugget that had not occurred to me before.

Jonah 1:15-17

15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows.
17 ¶ Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

God is able to make lemonade out of lemons. Here was a situation where God was helping Jonah to learn something, and He also took the opportunity to make Himself known to the others on the boat. I had not remembered reading the part about how the experience Jonah had had affected for good the lives of others.

I know that God is able to use our weaknesses for His eternal purposes. I think he does it in the case of Joseph and his brothers, too. That is just the first one that comes to mind, but I know there would be many more examples in the scriptures.

Solving problems

In my scripture reading this morning (Mosiah 26), I have been reading about Alma and his work in setting up and maintaining branches of the church in Zarahemla. There were some things that stood out to me as I read. Now that the churches have been established, there are beginning to be some problems that are troubling to Alma. He is not sure what to do. This got my attention because I am in a new position at school and am starting to encounter some situations in which I am not sure what to do.

This is the process Alma uses to solve problems:
1. He delegates it to someone who he thinks might have a better idea what to do. He consults with others.
2. The problem is given back to him, so he prays.
3. He is given inspiration from God and writes it down so he won't forget it.
4. He moves forward with the information he is given.


The most interesting part of this to me was that it mentions a couple times that Alma was troubled. Life is not easy and we all come across problems that we don't know how to handle. Here is an example of what someone who is sincerely and diligently trying to be a disciple of Christ does.

Another study help

When I was at my sister Karen's house, she showed me a bible story book that she uses when she is preparing her Sunday school lessons. It is called Egermeier's Bible Story Book. It has even very obscure stories from the Old and New Testaments. She likes to read the story in that book and then it makes it easier to understand it in the scriptures.
It has had many different printings and so it has many different covers. Whichever cover you get, this would be a helpful scripture study aid. You could even read it as bedtime stories.

Defending our Father's Name

I just got the Jenny Phillips CD for Young Women that is called "Strong and Courageous". I especially love the song "Virtue". One of the other songs I was listening to had the words "defend our Father's name" and that made me think a little. If I heard someone say something about my dad or a family member, I would just not let it go. I would stick up for them and say something encouraging about them. It would be the same for my Father in Heaven. If someone made a disparaging comment about my Heavenly Father, I would feel a duty to defend Him or stick up for Him. I wouldn't just think "Oh, everyone is entitled to their own opinion." This is a family member!

Also, in thinking about names, I gave a talk at my nephew Brody's baptism last Saturday and that talk was about names. I talked about the great significance that we put on the names we give each other. We talk about bringing honor to our family name and not doing anything that would reflect badly on the name we share. (I got the idea of names at baptism from a talk my neighbor, Kathie MacKay, gave.)

Then I talked about the fact that when we get baptized, one of the promises we make is to take Jesus' name upon us. We try to bring honor to that name, we defend that name, and we try to make sure there is nothing in our conduct that would reflect badly on His name.

I will defend our Father's name. He doesn't really need us to stick up for Him, but it does something for us when we do, and we become more committed to sticking with Him.

Reactions....

I am reading in Mosiah right now. I usually read online at: http://scriptures.lds.org but someone was using my computer so I read using my "hard copy". I made a note in the column that I had not remembered that I thought was interesting. It said "Look at the contrast between the people's reaction to a call to repentance from King Benjamin and then from Abinadi." It is interesting to think about what the similarites and differences were.

The people of King Benjamin
Mosiah 5
1 And now, it came to pass that when king Benjamin had thus spoken to his people, he sent among them, desiring to know of his people if they believed the words which he had spoken unto them.
2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.
3 And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things.
4 And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy.
5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God.

The people of King Noah

Mosiah 11
29 Now the eyes of the people were blinded; therefore they hardened their hearts against the words of Abinadi, and they sought from that time forward to take him. And king Noah hardened his heart against the word of the Lord, and he did not repent of his evil doings.

Mosiah 12
9 And it came to pass that they were angry with him; and they took him and carried him bound before the king, and said unto the king: Behold, we have brought a man before thee who has prophesied evil concerning thy people, and saith that God will destroy them.