Scripture Musings

I have found myself thinking about the scriptures a lot more and I always think that I want to write it down. I never do, though, because it takes so much more time than to write about my children. But since I am hoping to have my blog for my children to read when they are grown-- if they have time-- I am going to start my scripture musing blogs. I will have time most Saturdays and Sundays. This week I have spent a lot of time thinking about Isaiah 58, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk from the Oct 2008 titled, "Come to Zion".

In Isaiah 58:2-10
1 Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.

2 Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.

3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.

4 Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high.

5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord?

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward.

9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

I read this a few nights ago and I have been thinking about this topic a lot. That is giving to the poor and the needy. Last summer I read in D&C 56:16 I read:

Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!

That is when I realized how important it is to give to the poor, and how much Heavenly Father expects us to do. The Nephites after Christ came had no poor among them. The City of Enoch had no poor among them. These places had Zion. The people were Holy, they did not contend, and there were no poor among them. Then the Savior came and dwelt among them. I have known for some time, that as a church we are expected even now to build Zion. For most of my life I just thought that some day the righteous saints would be called to go to Independence, MO and build a city called Zion and then Christ would come again. But after I had a family, I realized that we needed to build Zion in our home and in our hearts if we expected to have the City of Zion again. So for the last 8 or 9 years John and I have been working on not criticizing and contending. That takes a lot of effort. But we are trying. On the other hand, for years John and I have been fairly poor, and yet not at all poor. We have always had everything that we need-- food, clothes, a house-- and a whole lot more-- computers, tv's, lots of icecream and chocolate. Occasionally, John and I have looked at our blessings and have increased our fast offerings. But it has been very recently, that I have realized that we need to do more if we want Zion to come. And I do want Zion to come. With all of the wickedness in the world, I feel the desire to do all I can to bring Zion to the Earth again for the safety of my children and my grandchildren. What better gift could I give my children than to work with my whole heart and soul for the coming of Zion?

Now to Elder Christofferson's talk. He says:

Zion is Zion because of the character, attributes, and faithfulness of her citizens. Remember, "the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them" (Moses 7:18). If we would establish Zion in our homes, branches, wards, and stakes, we must rise to this standard. It will be necessary (1) to become unified in one heart and one mind; (2) to become, individually and collectively, a holy people; and (3) to care for the poor and needy with such effectiveness that we eliminate poverty among us. We cannot wait until Zion comes for these things to happen—Zion will come only as they happen.

I felt like I knew how to become unified and to become holy. They seem to go hand in hand. We become unified by not contending and we become Holy by keeping the commandments and our covenants and by having our hearts changed through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. But I have been stuck on how to take care of the poor and needy with such effectiveness that there are no longer any poor among us. So I have been thinking about this a lot over the last couple of months and here are a few of my thoughts.
1.We cannot be compelled to take care of the poor. We have to have a change of heart and a desire to serve the needs of others.
2.We have to realize that all of what we have comes from Heavenly Father. If we are more capable in our jobs and make more money than others it is because we have been blessed with the talents to do so. If we are more organized or get along with people better and therefore make more money, it is because we have been blessed with those talents and abilities. If we have chosen to recieve an education that helps get a better job than some one else, we still do not deserve to have more. In our case, we have just been blessed, regardless of our poor choices, and inability.
3.Elder Christofferson told a story about a man who saw a family that needed a table and he brought them this funny looking one. The person he brought the table to later learned that he actually had cut his table in half, and made new legs. Then he gave the better half away. Thinking about this I've realized that we should give our best. It is tempting to give away the yucky canned peas and lima beans when the school has the food drive, but it is better and we will be better people if we give our very best and even the things we want and need for ourselves.

I think there is probably a lot more to learn and our family has a long way to go until I think we will be doing enough to help the poor and needy. But I want to build Zion in my home, family, ward, and stake. I want to have the safety and protection of Zion for my people, and I am learning through the scriptures what my family needs to do to receive the blessings of Zion. I pray that we will be able to do all that is required without murmuring.

Red Light

A few days ago while stopped at a red light for some time I heard Adam yelling form the back of the car, "TURN GREEN YOU STUPID RED LIGHT!" Do 4 year-olds have road rage?

A Little Worry

Ruth is 10 1/2 and has started to get her hips, and a small belly. She came to me worried some time ago. She was worried that she is going to grow up fat. I told her that she just needed to form good habits now and then she will be okay and that she would never have to worry about getting fat. Of course, being my daughter, hips are inevitable. I explained that she should eat her vegetables and exercise most days. Since then, Ruth has been exercising almost daily and eating her vegetables at every meal. I am proud of her for making an effort to be in shape and to eat right. I am also rather impressed with her determination to follow my counsel. I think that it will help how she feels about herself in the near future. I remember feeling like I was the ugliest person in the world. It is nice that my daughters still think they are beautiful princesses still. I am sure that is going to change soon.

When 6 Kids is Too Many Kids

I went to the store with Ruth and Kate last night just after I had put the younger kids to bed. We only needed one thing, but I thought it would be fun to look at the Christmas stuff. We walked over to the Christmas section and while Ruth and Kate were admiring all of the delicate, shiny ornaments, a red shiny bag of peanut m&m's caught my eye. Those m&m's called me over and before I had the will to resist, the m&m's were in my car driving home with me. I put Ruth and Kate to bed, and then went to my bed with my lovely book and my shiney red bag of peanut m&m's. After some time John came in, laid down next to me and said,"Are those peanut m&m's you are not sharing?" So I shared, and when John finished working we put on a netflix animae disc, "Black Cat." It is a "not for young children" Japanese cartoon series that we enjoy. Each episode is about a half hour. We watched one episode and we wanted to watch another, but we decided to be responsible and go to bed because at that point it was midnight. Well, we went to bed and about 20 minutes later the cat was jumping on us, my bedside table, and in the bathroom sink. We knew that cat must need water, so I got up, got the cat, took him out to the garage, got his water bowl, brought the bowl inside and filled it up, then I brought the water back out to the garage, came in, and locked the door. I went right back to bed, but I could not sleep because of those mean old m&m's (John had the same problem.). I think I did fall alseep around 1:30am. At 3am, the baby started crying, and one of the older kids went into the bathroom and did not sound happy. John went downstairs to take care of Anya, and I went to the bathroom. It was Adam in the bahroom trying to peel off soaking wet pajamas. I helped Adam out of his pajamas, onto the toilet and then into the bathtub. I then went into his room and stripped down his bed, washed off the plastic cover, put on a clean sheet and pillow case and then I put on the only two blankets we had left unused upstairs. At this point John had come back from settling Anya down and was bathing Adam. I got Adam some clean pajamas, and then I helped John dry Adam off and get him into his pajamas. Adam was shivering pretty hard, so John went downstairs and got him the big quilt fromoff the TV couch. We finally had Adam settled back down and warm so we went to bed. By this time the m&m's were no longer bothering me so I went right to sleep, only to be woken up by Rachel crying at 4am. I took care of Rachel, and went back to sleep. Then at 5am Johnny came into our bedroom. I was actually dreaming that my kids had the stomach flu, and so when I heard Johnny, I thought he was there to tell me that he was sick. I yelled, "get to bathroom, quick." Johnny then jumped up on me. That scared me, so I jumped out of bed and ran out of my bedroom screaming. (I don't normally do that.) Well, that woke John up and he asked what was wrong. Johnny said, "I only had a nightmare." I asked him if he felt sick and he said no. So we sent Johnny to the bathroom and to say his prayers. Then John decided to put on the audio scriptures stories to help Johnny get back to sleep in his own bed. The batteries were dead in the cd player so he fumbled in the dark for a charged battery near the battery recharger. He found a charged one on the third try, got the stories started, tucked Johnny back into bed and then came back to bed. At 6:56am, I heard Ruth and Kate's alarm clock and knew that it was time to get up and get the kids ready for school. I think that I was more tired when I woke up, then when I went to bed, and I thought, "we should have been irresponsible and watched the rest of the black cat disc like we wanted to. I don't think I would have felt less tired right now."

My Singer

Rachel sings a lot, She sings when she is holding a doll. She sings when she is looking at a book. She sings when we are driving in the car, and she sings when she is just walking around. Our whole family just loves it. I have seem Ruth and Kate just watch Rachel sing. Johnny will tell everyone in the car to be quiet so we can hear Rachel singing. (I will have to put an audio of it on here at some point.) Well, yesterday Rachel came to me and said that she wanted to watch the barbie movie. I asked her which one. She said she wanted the one with the girl who sings like Rae-rae.

A Tragedy

Johnny likes his hair long, like in the top picture. The other day I was giving him a hair cut and he would not stop wiggling, rubbing his eyes, and turning his head from side to side. I told him to hold still and put his head up several times. He would just say, "I can't," or "I am," or "I am trying". But he kept on moving a lot. First, I messed up the back of his hair. So I had to cut the front shorter to match the too short back. While I was doing that, he looked down and Bammo, the front was a tremendous mess. I was terribly frustrated, grabbed the clippers and buzzed off the rest. I am not sure I could have salvaged a bit more hair. Looking back, I think I could have left more length on the top, but I was so frustrated with Johnny that I did not stop to think about the nicest way I could fix the problem. I feel bad for my poor, poor little boy. His beautiful hair is all gone and he hates it. I mostly agree, I like his long hair. The only redeeming thing about the buzz is that you can now see Johnny's beautiful dark chocolate eyes a whole lot better. I suspect his hair will all be back by summer. Johnny is hoping it will be back by Christmas, and we are both relieved that he will not have to have a hair cut for at least four months.

Warts and being Fired

A year and a half ago Ruth and Adam got warts on their stinky, sweaty feet (Ruth has read this and says that her feet are beautiful, soft, rosy feet). Well, John took care of Ruth's wart and I took care of Adam's. With some blood and pain I got rid of Adam's wart within a month. John and Ruth have been very gently trying to get rid of Ruth's wart for one and a half years, in which time she has gotten a second wart near the first wart. About a week ago, I told Ruth she was fired from the job of wart removal and that I am officially hired. Tonight, I was working on Ruth's wart some when John came in to claim it as his job. I told John that I already fired Ruth, and that I have now officially fired him. John asked what can he fire me from? I suggested the laundry, but he did not agree. Then John went to take care of Kate, who was about to stick a q-tip deep inside her ear. This whole time, Adam had been sitting by watching me pick off pieces of Ruth's wart. Adam stayed by us after I had finished picking her warts and put on the wart medicine and was holding Ruth's foot for the medicine to dry. Adam called to me. He looked up at me with his big innocent brown eyes, and in a voice frocked with concern, Adam asked, "Your not going to turn me into fire, are you, Mommy?"