Daily Thoughts

In the Old Testament I read that if we reprove a wise man, it will make him yet wiser and he'll love us for it. A scorner will hate us for reproving him, but a wise man will learn from it. Which are we, wise or foolish, when someone reproves us? Do we become defensive and angry or do we try to learn from what they say and improve ourselves? Prov. 9: 8-9 "Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning."

In the Book of Mormon I read a familiar verse that tells us that when we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God. If we truly love the Lord and want to serve Him, we'll find ways to serve and love other people. Mosiah 2: 17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Some verses with a thought booklet can give us great comfort at this time when the world is in so much turmoil and so many are in need of jobs or sufficient to meet their needs. We need to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto us. The thought that went with this, written by LeVerta Massey from Ypsilanti, Michigan says: In the early 1980s I was a junior in college struggling to raise two young children. I was divorced, disabled, and without chid support. One day I read a devotional guide in which the scripture was Matthew 6:25-34. As I read it, hope began to blossom. From then on, every time I because discouraged and wanted to quit school, I recited the scripture aloud. "Take no thought!" I would cry in the middle of the night. It became my daily mantra. We needed food, clothing, and shelter--and God knew it. Early one Sunday morning in January 1984, I prayed for the money to buy boots for my children. We dressed and walked to church, and as we were leaving one of the brothers shook my hand and left enough money in it to buy both children boots. I wept all the way home as I remembered that God knew of our needs. Lord, in the name of Jesus, help us to remember that you are all-knowing. Help us not to worry, but to cast all our cares upon you. Matt. 6: 25-34 "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."