Daily Thoughts

In the D&C we read that animals of all kinds have spirits which are in the likeness of their bodies and will dwell in heaven and paradise with men in happiness.  Sometimes people wonder whether or not their pets will be able to join them in the afterlife.  I've always felt that they would, but this scripture gives us the answer that such is the case.  To me heaven would not be heaven if I couldn't have my cats there.  D&C 77:2 "Q. What are we to understand by the four beasts, spoken of in the same verse? A. They are figurative expressions, used by the Revelator, John, in describing heaven, the paradise of God, the happiness of man, and of beasts, and of creeping things, and of the fowls of the air; that which is spiritual being in the likeness of that which is temporal; and that which is temporal in the likeness of that which is spiritual; the spirit of man in the likeness of his person, as also the spirit of the beast, and every other creature which God has created.

In the Old Testament we read Jeremiah's prayer, reciting the sorrowful state of Zion due to her iniquities.  Lamentations 5:1-22 "Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.  We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.  Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.  Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim. Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us."

In some scriptures with a thought booklet we read David's plea that the Lord restore unto him the joy of salvation and grant him a willing spirit to sustain him.  Then he could teach sinners the ways of the Lord so they could be converted.  Before we can go out and preach the gospel to others, we need to have joy in our own salvation.  Our own hearts need to be right before we can help others find the joy of the gospel.  Psalms 51:12-13 "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee."
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