Christlike Part 1: If Ye Have Faith Ye Can Do All Things

In 1842, as part of a document later to be known as the "Wentworth Letter", Joseph Smith summarized the basic beliefs of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Of all the aspects of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and the lives that members of the Church lead, Joseph did his best to summarize these things into thirteen short, concise statements so that people who are not members of our Church could gain a pretty basic understanding of who we are in a relatively easy and convenient manner.

In the fourth one of these statements--known as the Articles of Faith--we read, "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost."

As the prophet taught there and as is taught throughout scripture, faith is the first and most fundamental aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the foundation upon which our belief is built. As the ancient Apostle, Paul, wrote, "For we walk by faith, not by sight". Faith must come first for without faith we will not receive a witness of the truth. But for the purposes of this blog post, I want to turn to a different aspect of faith; that of a spur or motivation to what we are capable of accomplishing.

One By One

There are a number of things that I personally love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Okay, that is an understatement. There are thousands of things that I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ and I come to find more and more with each day!

I love the fact that it is all about knowing for ourselves; this is not a gospel where we go to church and just believe whatever we are taught. No, we are encouraged to listen to what is taught, to study them for ourselves, and to ask God if they are true! I love that!

Friction

As I grew up, my love and hunger for learning how the world works increased. I started taking more and more math and science classes. That is one thing I love. I love numbers and using them to describe the world around me! This strong love and appreciation for math always put me in the higher math classes and eventually put me in the higher science classes as well. I distinctly remember sitting in a number of chemistry and physics and calculus classes eating up everything that I was taught.

Being on a mission has been hard for me because, among other things, it has taken me away from the classroom, away from that comfortable and familiar atmosphere, and away from learning how the world works. That was a challenge for me to come to grips with at the start of my mission because I just wanted to learn! I craved it! I soon learned that, although I was no longer in a college setting, I was still learning and in a classroom of sorts: the Lord's classroom!

The Blessing to Hope

Difficult circumstances can prove to either be the foundation for our testimony or the beginning of our downfall. There are many great stories of people finding courage in even the most difficult of situations. In the Book of Mormon we find a number of  groups of people who are personal and living testaments that such courage and even happiness and joy can be found in even the most dire of circumstances. Two such circumstances come to mind--the wilderness and prison.

Rebecca's Baptism

I just realized that it has been a long time since I last made a post about someone I taught who got baptized! Well thankfully that is changing right now!

Back in July I met a girl on our Mormon.org system named Rebecca. She seemed really interested in learning more about our beliefs so I worked on helping her get involved with missionaries in her local area. Unfortunately, because of scheduling, she wasn't able to meet with them for a while and eventually we kind contact for a time. A few months later I felt like I should send her a message on Facebook and see how she had been doing. Much to my surprise she had been meeting with missionaries in her local area and going to church and even had a date to be baptized!

Will You Let Go?

I recently watched a great Mormon message. In this video, a man hears rumors of great wealth to be found in the California gold rush. After planning everything out, he sells everything that he owns to go to California and seek his own fortune, one which he hears will be far greater than what he presently had. Once he gets there, he soon realizes that it is nothing like he had imagined and that the wealth isn't coming as quickly as he had hoped. But after the help of an experienced prospector, he is eventually able to begin to build and gain that wealth.

I have watched this video a number of times but as I watched it this time, something new struck me. This man had heard rumors of great wealth and was willing to give up everything to seek them. He hadn't gone out ahead of time to scope it out. He didn't hold on to his stuff and take a quick little trip to see if it was true. Rather, he decided that it was something that he wanted, he knew that he would need to give up everything that he owned in order to obtain that, and that is just what he did.

Behind Thee

Well it is that time of the year again when everyone is obsessed with setting new goals and improving themselves. As you may recall from a previous post, I am not generally a huge fan of the concept of the cyclical pattern of setting new goals once a year that you break two weeks later, give up on completely, and wait until the next year to try again.

Of course, that is how I had always seen it before my mission but with the help of someone last year my view was able to shift and I was able to set goals for myself that actually mattered, that meant something to me, and which have become so ingrained within me that I haven't had to look at them in over eight months. Because I set goals that were so meaningful to me, I didn't have to look at a little piece of paper or a note card to remember what they were. They meant so much that after thinking of them numerous times a day, day in and day out, they became a part of me.

At the beginning of each new year, we all have the opportunity to start again. It is a fresh start, a new beginning of sorts. We are like a new flower awaiting to blossom. And the great thing is that we have the ability to choose how our life will blossom over the coming year. We can do this by the goals that we set. They will set the pace and the focus for our entire year if we set them well!

And now it is yet again another new year.