Daily Thoughts

A verse in the Old Testament says that the Lord doesn't judge people by how tall or how good looking they are the way people often do each other. He doesn't care about the outward appearance of people. Instead, He looks upon their hearts. 1 Sam. 16: 7 "But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

In the Book of Mormon I read about how the Anti-Nephi-Lehies choose to bury their swords as a testimony to God that they will no longer shed the blood of other people and that they would rather suffer death themselves than stain their swords with blood anymore. Alma 24: 15-18 "Oh, how merciful is our God! And now behold, since it has been as much as we could do to get our stains taken away from us, and our swords are made bright, let us hide them away that they may be kept bright, as a testimony to our God at the last day, or at the day that we shall be brought to stand before him to be judged, that we have not stained our swords in the blood of our brethren since he imparted his word unto us and has made us clean thereby. And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shall go to our God and shall be saved. And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man's blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth. And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man's blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands."

A verse with a thought booklet warns us to keep ourselves from idols. At first glance we might think that's an easy thing to do. Afterall, we don't have any idols of pagan gods sitting in our living rooms that we kneel in front of and worship. Pretty easy to avoid doing that. But when we think of an idol as anything that we place greater importance on than the Lord, it takes on a different light. Do we care more about money and the things it can buy than we do for the Lord? Are our relationships with familiy and friends more important to us than our relationship with the Lord? Is our job more important? Our recreational activities? And keep in mind that we show our true hearts by our actions. Where do we place our priorities in how we spend our time and energies? What is really of greatest importance to us? Are we truly putting the Lord first in our lives? 1 Jn. 5: 21 "Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen."