Daily Thoughts

In the Book of Mormon we read that the Lord commended Lehi for his faithfulness in preaching to the people, and told him that the people sought to take away his life. So the Lord commanded Lehi to take his family and flee into the wilderness. Lehi was obedient and did what the Lord told him to do, leaving his home and precious possessions behind and only taking with him his family, tents, and provisions. Would we be this obedient?  Would we be willing to forsake all our worldly wealth to go live in a tent in the wilderness if the Lord told us to do it? That is something to think about.  1 Nephi 2: 1-4 "For behold, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto my father, yea, even in a dream, and said unto him: Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee, behold, they seek to take away thy life. And it came to pass that the Lord commanded my father, even in a dream, that he should take his family and depart into the wilderness.  And it came to pass that he was obedient unto the word of the Lord, wherefore he did as the Lord commanded him. And it came to pass that he departed into the wilderness. And he left his house, and the land of his inheritance, and his gold, and his silver, and his precious things, and took nothing with him, save it were his family, and provisions, and tents, and departed into the wilderness."

In the Old Testament we read that in the sweat of our face we will eat bread until we return to the ground.  In other words, we are to work for what we eat.  It is not good to be idle or expect others to provide for us if we're not willing to do what we can for ourselves. Being able to work is a blessing.  Genesis 3:19 "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

A verse with a thought booklet reminds us that this is the day the Lord has made and we are to rejoice and be glad in it.  Not all days may seem good.  Some days it might seem like everything is going wrong.  But EACH day comes from God and if we look for the good we can find reason to be thankful for it and rejoice.  I once knew a lady whose answering machine message was of her reading this verse, in her enthusiastic voice.  So if she wasn't home, you'd get to hear this scripture read to you.  It always reminded me to try to look for the good in each day.  This lady was in a wheelchair and had numerous health problems.  If she could find a reason to rejoice, what excuse did I have not to? Rather than just make the best of bad situations, we can take positive action to make every day a good day. God's joy is available in every circumstance, but we need to pursue it.  In difficult times, count your blessings and ask God to help you find joy.  Psalms 118:24 "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."