Daily Thoughts

n the Old Testament it warns us not to have angry and furious friends because we can learn their ways. Often we become like the people we choose to spend our time with, so we need to select our friends and companions carefully. Prov. 22: 24-25 "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy soul."

In the Book of Mormon it talks about how tens of thousands of people were killed in battles and that they received their rewards according to their works. If they had been righteous, they reaped eternal happiness, but if they were wicked they suffered eternal misery--all according to who they had obeyed while in this life, a good spirit or a bad one. Alma 3: 26"And in one year were thousands and tens of thousands of souls sent to the eternal world, that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one."

Going right along with that Book of Mormon verse, some scriptures from a thought booklet also emphasize the importance of good works. It's not enough to just hear the Word of God, we need to also be doers of the Word. Otherwise, we're just deceiving ourselves and our religion is vain. We need to bridle our tongues, serve those in need, and keep ourselves unspotted from the world. James 1: 22, 25-27 "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."