Daily Thoughts

In the Book of Mormon we read a continuation of Abinidi's attempts to preach to King Noah and his false priests. They told Abinidi that they believed salvation came through the law of Moses.  Abinidi acknowledged that they needed to keep the commandments, and mentioned some of the commandments that the Lord had given through Moses, but pointed out that the priests had not obeyed these commandments.  Mosiah 12:30-37 "Know ye not that I speak the truth? Yea, ye know that I speak the truth; and you ought to tremble before God.  And it shall come to pass that ye shall be smitten for your iniquities, for ye have said that ye teach the law of Moses. And what know ye concerning the law of Moses? Doth salvation come by the law of Moses? What say ye?  And they answered and said that salvation did come by the law of Moses. But now Abinadi said unto them: I know if ye keep the commandments of God ye shall be saved; yea, if ye keep the commandments which the Lord delivered unto Moses in the mount of Sinai, saying:  I am the Lord thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other God before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or things which are in the earth beneath. Now Abinadi said unto them, Have ye done all this? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not. And have ye taught this people that they should do all these things? I say unto you, Nay, ye have not."

In the Old Testament we read that the Lord is our hope and we can trust in Him. Psalms 71:5 "For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth."

In some scriptures with a thought booklet, Sanballat sent a letter to Nehemiah accusing him of rebellion and saying he was building a wall so he could be king, and that he was sending prophets to preach of him at Jerusalem.  Nehemiah responded by saying that no such things as he said had been done and that he was inventing them out of his own mind.  Sometimes we, too, are guilty of jumping to conclusions without having gathered all the facts.  For example, maybe we send an email to a friend who does not respond.  Do we assume they're angry at us for some reason?  Perhaps they're on vacation without access to a computer.  But day after day we allow our negative thoughts to build up, angry at them for ignoring us.  When we don't have all the facts, the mind is often quick to fill in the blanks, and not always accurately.  It is best to wait patiently until we know what's really going on before proceeding to say or do anything that could result in damaging consequences.  And it's best to give people the benefit of the doubt until we find out otherwise. Several years ago I went on a trip to the UK for three weeks. Before I left I arranged for a lady in my ward to substitute for me in teaching my primary class, and also told the primary president about my plans.  When I returned from my vacation I called the lady I'd asked to teach my class, thanked her for teaching,  and told her I'd come over to pick up my lesson manual. She told me that I could come get my manual, but she had not taught my class.  She said that the week after I left there had been a special conference in which the ward boundaries had been changed and my ward had been split three ways.  She was now assigned to a different ward so she hadn't bothered to teach my class. I had to make additional calls to find out that I was still in the same ward and still a primary teacher, but the former primary president who knew about my vacation had been assigned to a different ward and the new primary president was somebody from another ward that I did not know. Apparently when I didn't show up to teach my class she had assumed I was an irresponsible flake and had gone to the bishop and asked him to release me.  However, the bishop was the same bishop I'd had all along and he knew me.  He told the new primary president that I was a very dependable person and that if I hadn't shown up, I must have a good reason.  He refused to release me from my calling. I'll always be grateful to that bishop for giving me the benefit of the doubt, even though he didn't have all the facts.  We need to do the same for others.  Nehemiah 6:6-8 "Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.  And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah: and now shall it be reported to the king according to these words. Come now therefore, and let us take counsel together.  Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart."